Carryover Experiment

[Attjack]

This is a pretty interesting set of carryover temperature experiments by Malcolm Reed and Mark Williams.

[lostclusters]

The foil acted as a heat sink. They should have wrapped the foiled one in a towel as well. I would have never thought a steak would rise 5 degrees.

[RonB]

Veeery interesting...

[Troutman]

Very interesting, one reason why I’ve started to pull steaks at about 125* IT. With carry I’m hitting 129-130* which is where we like it. Good confirmation although I would have bet the wrapped as well.

[JimLinebarger]

I was just about to post this also. Glad I read the rules of posting which lead me to your post.

Steak
The foil pack - theoretically the internal temp of the foil pack would not raise any higher than the surface temp of the meat. There would be radiant heat inside the foil but as lostclusters stated the foil would also act as a heat sink. Would there be a difference if the foil was tight around the meat instead of domed? Would it transfer heat faster to the foil and then to the air if it was wrapped tight?

Meat left on board - I thought it would have dropped in temp a lot faster and not really raised in temp much. Was surprised it raised 15 deg above target temp. There was more fluid loss on this one also, maybe because of the higher internal temp reached? Since there was a breeze the meat wouldn't have much of a thermal barrier around it and should have cooled off much faster. As they said maybe the meat was denser or the fat content was different. I thought they would have used to cuts that were next to each other.

Pork butt - did they just debunk the use of cooler/cambro? Or was the cooler not really insulated enough. They did say that it was cool inside the cooler before they put the meat in it. Should they have put a towel on top of the butt so that it wouldn't have to heat the inside of the cooler? Would that have made a difference?

[Attjack]

Well the cooler certainly kept the meat warm for hours right? The meat probably had to warm the cooler first dropping the meat temp. More experiments should be done. As for the steak I wonder if butcher paper would be better than foil?

[shify]

The cooler/cambro isn't used to increase the final temp via carryover cooking. Its to keep it warm and keep rendering the fat/connective tissue which it did in the video and one of them even made a comment as such

This experiment was just taking observations of the true impact of carryover cooking on the final meat temp, not looking for the best way to get a a pre-defined result.

[Attjack]

Yeah but many would expect the cooler to boost the carryover effect not hinder it. The cooker still presumably kept the meat nice and warm over time as desired.

[Jerod Broussard]

Not enough insulation in the cooler. Too much open air space. You pack that thing and it will hold longer.

[Attjack]

Pretty sure Meathead recommends that in the book. Never got it together myself. But if I drop a hunk of meat at 210 into a tight fitting cooler I know it'll hold and do its thing over the next couple of hours.

[Troutman]

I don't know, I've completely ditched the cooler/cambro. Stuck a packer in my oven at 140*, shut the oven off after inserting, left it for the requisite 2 hours and it came out better than ever. Since then that's all I do, wrap in two towels and let her go.

[Jerod Broussard]

PappyBBQ If I am not packing the Cambro and only have one pan of hotness, I preheat with boiling water to make it lasts long enough.

[Onez]

Aside from the experiment's counter intuitive results, it should be said Killer Hogs The A.P. Rub is simply outstanding on steaks and other cuts of beef...and on chicken with skin, too! Love that stuff!

[Troutman]

Malcom Reed is my go to guy, but if you look at the ingredients in AP it's predominantly salt and MSG. Nothing wrong with that but nothing special about it either.

[Onez]

Yep. I’m aware. I do a light coating with it.