I'll just put it right out there: I have never been overly impressed with brisket. It's okay, and there's one joint in town where I like it all right, but even at its best it plays second or maybe even third fiddle to pork. Keep in mind, I'm talking specifically about the more traditional barbecue and not grilling. I love burgers and steaks. That's how I generally go about inhaling beef. Brisket though? Meh. Beef ribs? Again, I've had some good ones but generally spent the meal wondering, "Why did I get these instead of pork ribs?"
And it's not the sweet sauces that make pork for me either. I generally get my pork ribs without sauce and the sauces I prefer on my pulled pork are the vinegar types (e.g. the Lexington Dip). The holy barbecue trinity for me is pulled pork, creamy coleslaw, and a vinegar sauce all mixed together. It is the yardstick of barbecue joints for me.
With that said, when I was first checking out Adrenaline Barbecue's site, I noticed a curious guide for "pulled beef." In the video there is implication that perhaps it is even better than brisket! Anyway, why not give beef another shot? I've made one mediocre brisket that was really my first low'n slow cook and it was mediocre because I made a ton of mistakes and ran out of patience.
I get most of my beef 1/4 cow at a time so a lot of my cooks are dictated by what's in the freezer rather than whatever I feel like picking up from the butcher or the store. In this case I have a bunch of "shoulder roasts." Are they chuck? I have no idea. Also, by beef is grass fed, so it generally has a bit of a different flavor profile and the fat tends to be trickier to work with. I'm just making a point that I'm in no way working with some fine prime chuck roast.
This particular cook was nothing new or magical to me. It's my typical sous-vide-que. However, I'll give a quick breakdown below since I don't want to be redundant:
First off, Texas Mop Sauce is amazing. I followed the recipe to the letter with the exception of the green pepper because I forgot to get one. Still an excellent sauce. I even made fresh beef broth from my steak bones and included the purge from these roasts. That sauce will probably vanish as quickly as my Lexington Dip.
Now, the beef. Good lord man. While one of the two roasts came out a little dry—it lacked enough fat and was a little smaller—the other one was unbelievable. The fat was buttery creamy and the meat was tender and just plain delicious. I have never, in my life, had beef like that. The best part is that any dryness in the other roast was easily made up for with the mop sauce. My kids even really liked the end result, which is saying something!
If this is even close to what Texas-style barbecue is all about, I take everything I ever said back. Seriously! Looks like the brisket from my cow is a point (it was a flat last time) so I'm gonna give it another whirl pretty soon. (That might be how I break in a thermostat when I get one.)
If you've never cooked chuck/shoulder roasts in this style, I strongly recommend it. I don't think I am going to be eating the remaining shoulder roasts in my freezer any other way.
A note about the pictures: There's no smoke ring so far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure it's because the beef was cooked to 165ºF ahead of time. If I wanted a smoke ring I could have cooked the beef at something more like 131-140ºF for much longer in the first step, but I made the decision to cook this Saturday afternoon. I'm gonna mess with a 72-hour cook on short ribs sometime soon I think.
Anyway, another excellent meal. Thanks everyone who's helped me out!
And it's not the sweet sauces that make pork for me either. I generally get my pork ribs without sauce and the sauces I prefer on my pulled pork are the vinegar types (e.g. the Lexington Dip). The holy barbecue trinity for me is pulled pork, creamy coleslaw, and a vinegar sauce all mixed together. It is the yardstick of barbecue joints for me.
With that said, when I was first checking out Adrenaline Barbecue's site, I noticed a curious guide for "pulled beef." In the video there is implication that perhaps it is even better than brisket! Anyway, why not give beef another shot? I've made one mediocre brisket that was really my first low'n slow cook and it was mediocre because I made a ton of mistakes and ran out of patience.
I get most of my beef 1/4 cow at a time so a lot of my cooks are dictated by what's in the freezer rather than whatever I feel like picking up from the butcher or the store. In this case I have a bunch of "shoulder roasts." Are they chuck? I have no idea. Also, by beef is grass fed, so it generally has a bit of a different flavor profile and the fat tends to be trickier to work with. I'm just making a point that I'm in no way working with some fine prime chuck roast.
This particular cook was nothing new or magical to me. It's my typical sous-vide-que. However, I'll give a quick breakdown below since I don't want to be redundant:
- Sous-vide the beef at 165ºF for around 14 hours.
- Chill the beef in the bags.
- Remove the beef from the bags once cold and salt. (Ideally this is done the day before the slow cook, but today it was done like 2 hours in advance.)
- When ready, fire up the grill in a two-zone configuration and aim for 225ºF.
- Paint the beef (which is usually dry on the surface at this point) with a bit of avocado oil, and give it a healthy coat of Big Bad Beef Rub.*
- Cook until the internal temperature reaches 180º or so. (This is not all that exact. Bringing it back up took 5-6 hours. When I do low'n slow cooks after sous-vide that are more "traditional" barbecue I tend to aim for 10-15ºF higher that whatever I did in sous-vide.)
- Remove, chop (as per Dave's recommendation), and dip in Texas Mop Sauce.
First off, Texas Mop Sauce is amazing. I followed the recipe to the letter with the exception of the green pepper because I forgot to get one. Still an excellent sauce. I even made fresh beef broth from my steak bones and included the purge from these roasts. That sauce will probably vanish as quickly as my Lexington Dip.
Now, the beef. Good lord man. While one of the two roasts came out a little dry—it lacked enough fat and was a little smaller—the other one was unbelievable. The fat was buttery creamy and the meat was tender and just plain delicious. I have never, in my life, had beef like that. The best part is that any dryness in the other roast was easily made up for with the mop sauce. My kids even really liked the end result, which is saying something!
If this is even close to what Texas-style barbecue is all about, I take everything I ever said back. Seriously! Looks like the brisket from my cow is a point (it was a flat last time) so I'm gonna give it another whirl pretty soon. (That might be how I break in a thermostat when I get one.)
If you've never cooked chuck/shoulder roasts in this style, I strongly recommend it. I don't think I am going to be eating the remaining shoulder roasts in my freezer any other way.
A note about the pictures: There's no smoke ring so far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure it's because the beef was cooked to 165ºF ahead of time. If I wanted a smoke ring I could have cooked the beef at something more like 131-140ºF for much longer in the first step, but I made the decision to cook this Saturday afternoon. I'm gonna mess with a 72-hour cook on short ribs sometime soon I think.
Anyway, another excellent meal. Thanks everyone who's helped me out!
Attached Files
Comment