Hi everyone, this is my first post here !
(I really got rambling down below, the sous vide/smoker grill part is under #3 ! )
1. I have a Traeger Junior Elite 20. It is small but sufficient for most of my needs. One thing I've noticed is that when it is cool and windy the temp tends to be a bit low. I think it is because the junior model uses a lighter gauge steel and it doesn't keep the heat in as well. I have made some awesome food on it. My favorite is probably tri tip. I used to live in Santa Maria, where they cook on red oak wood exclusively. After I had lived there a short while, I asked someone if they used gas or charcoal to grill. (This was during an ad campaign on TV that had a debate about that, in the late 90's I guess). The guy seemed somewhat offended, and answered, "No, I cook on red oak". I think the Traeger gets close to that. OK I am not selling or advertising for Traegers here. I also have managed to cook some very nice pork butt, which we ate as "carnitas". So good !
2. When the meat shortage started, I ran up to the Costco Business Center in San Diego a few times and bought some big cryopaks of "sub-primal" cuts. Basically this is a ~20lb bag that looks like a giant blob of meat. In terms of tri tip, there might be five or six in there. For skirt/flank/flap meat, It is three or four pieces. For other cuts, trimming and cutting into usable pieces can be done. I looked on youtube for advice, and it was very confusing. The butchers are referring to the front, back, sides, and flipping the meat over and around. It looks mostly like a big blob to me and it was a challenge to figure out which side was up. Ultimately, I bought a butcher knife and two semi-stiff boning knives from a local restaurant supply knife shop, and a roll sharp to keep them keen. There were several packages and as a novice, it took me an hour or two two cut up each 20lb pack. I had a couple of "inside round cap off", a couple of packs of "flap meat", a "chuck roll", two or three pork butts, a hunk of ribeye with the bone in. That's about as much as I remember. The ribeye I just cut into sections with about three bones each. The pork butts I cut in two or three pieces each. The inside round (also called "top round") was a real challenge. One butcher showed cutting off a couple of London broil off the end going with the grain, and another liked to cut them off against the grain. Then the rest they just cut into roasts. This is a very lean piece and was tricky to cook. We have tried the crock pot with middling success and I am still scratching my head over it. The London broils came out a bit tough after a smoke on the Traeger with and without marinading, and I am rethinking that, maybe a quick sear would be better. As I mentioned the pork butt cooked up awesome on the Traeger, yum yum !
The cut that looked the most complicated was the chuck roll, so I procrastinated and saved that for last. Meanwhile, it was wet-aging in my fridge for 3 weeks. It turned out that cutting it up was pretty quick and easy, although I didn't do it quite properly. There's a fancy schmancy newer way to utilize the chuck roll and I separated it into too many parts. But I cooked a couple of small roasts on the Traeger and it was incredible. Apart from the crockpot for the top round, we have mostly been making Mexican "Torta" style sandwiches, tacos, and burritos with the meat. BTW I should mention that for most of these sub-primal cuts, I have trimmed off about 5lb of the original 20lbs. More for the pork For the beef, I have gone over the trimmings and reclaimed a pound or two of little pieces suitable for carne asada. I even rendered down the beef fat into sort of tallow (though I understand that technically tallow is from the intra-abdominal/kidney fat). Not sure what I am going to do with it all though! The whole enterprise was a learning experience and kept me a little occupied for some of the coronavirus down-time.
3. I also have a sous vide cooker, but I don't think it gives as good a flavor as the smoker grill. Today I will cook a few pieces of flap meat. Because it is so thin, and tapers to extra thin on one end, I'm trying to figure out how to get a good smoke flavor, and a good sear, without over-cooking it. I have it in the sous vide now, set for 105F. After a few hours, I will season it, then set the Traeger on smoke (which is around 180F) for 30 minutes, then take it off and crank the Traeger all the way up to 450F. Then I will put it back on to sear for a few minutes. I'm wondering if the 30 minutes at 180F will cook it too much ? I want it to come out to 130 on the inside. I am also thinking about putting the meat into a cold water bath after the smoking and before the searing. I could also sear with my propane torch . . . Any thoughts?
I just thought of another possible technique, which would be to sous vide it a bit higher, say 120, then cool the meat down, then smoke, then sear. Just not sure what temp and time will work best.
PS I ordered some of those aluminum grillgrates today. Looking forward to trying those out in the future.
(I really got rambling down below, the sous vide/smoker grill part is under #3 ! )
1. I have a Traeger Junior Elite 20. It is small but sufficient for most of my needs. One thing I've noticed is that when it is cool and windy the temp tends to be a bit low. I think it is because the junior model uses a lighter gauge steel and it doesn't keep the heat in as well. I have made some awesome food on it. My favorite is probably tri tip. I used to live in Santa Maria, where they cook on red oak wood exclusively. After I had lived there a short while, I asked someone if they used gas or charcoal to grill. (This was during an ad campaign on TV that had a debate about that, in the late 90's I guess). The guy seemed somewhat offended, and answered, "No, I cook on red oak". I think the Traeger gets close to that. OK I am not selling or advertising for Traegers here. I also have managed to cook some very nice pork butt, which we ate as "carnitas". So good !
2. When the meat shortage started, I ran up to the Costco Business Center in San Diego a few times and bought some big cryopaks of "sub-primal" cuts. Basically this is a ~20lb bag that looks like a giant blob of meat. In terms of tri tip, there might be five or six in there. For skirt/flank/flap meat, It is three or four pieces. For other cuts, trimming and cutting into usable pieces can be done. I looked on youtube for advice, and it was very confusing. The butchers are referring to the front, back, sides, and flipping the meat over and around. It looks mostly like a big blob to me and it was a challenge to figure out which side was up. Ultimately, I bought a butcher knife and two semi-stiff boning knives from a local restaurant supply knife shop, and a roll sharp to keep them keen. There were several packages and as a novice, it took me an hour or two two cut up each 20lb pack. I had a couple of "inside round cap off", a couple of packs of "flap meat", a "chuck roll", two or three pork butts, a hunk of ribeye with the bone in. That's about as much as I remember. The ribeye I just cut into sections with about three bones each. The pork butts I cut in two or three pieces each. The inside round (also called "top round") was a real challenge. One butcher showed cutting off a couple of London broil off the end going with the grain, and another liked to cut them off against the grain. Then the rest they just cut into roasts. This is a very lean piece and was tricky to cook. We have tried the crock pot with middling success and I am still scratching my head over it. The London broils came out a bit tough after a smoke on the Traeger with and without marinading, and I am rethinking that, maybe a quick sear would be better. As I mentioned the pork butt cooked up awesome on the Traeger, yum yum !
The cut that looked the most complicated was the chuck roll, so I procrastinated and saved that for last. Meanwhile, it was wet-aging in my fridge for 3 weeks. It turned out that cutting it up was pretty quick and easy, although I didn't do it quite properly. There's a fancy schmancy newer way to utilize the chuck roll and I separated it into too many parts. But I cooked a couple of small roasts on the Traeger and it was incredible. Apart from the crockpot for the top round, we have mostly been making Mexican "Torta" style sandwiches, tacos, and burritos with the meat. BTW I should mention that for most of these sub-primal cuts, I have trimmed off about 5lb of the original 20lbs. More for the pork For the beef, I have gone over the trimmings and reclaimed a pound or two of little pieces suitable for carne asada. I even rendered down the beef fat into sort of tallow (though I understand that technically tallow is from the intra-abdominal/kidney fat). Not sure what I am going to do with it all though! The whole enterprise was a learning experience and kept me a little occupied for some of the coronavirus down-time.3. I also have a sous vide cooker, but I don't think it gives as good a flavor as the smoker grill. Today I will cook a few pieces of flap meat. Because it is so thin, and tapers to extra thin on one end, I'm trying to figure out how to get a good smoke flavor, and a good sear, without over-cooking it. I have it in the sous vide now, set for 105F. After a few hours, I will season it, then set the Traeger on smoke (which is around 180F) for 30 minutes, then take it off and crank the Traeger all the way up to 450F. Then I will put it back on to sear for a few minutes. I'm wondering if the 30 minutes at 180F will cook it too much ? I want it to come out to 130 on the inside. I am also thinking about putting the meat into a cold water bath after the smoking and before the searing. I could also sear with my propane torch . . . Any thoughts?
I just thought of another possible technique, which would be to sous vide it a bit higher, say 120, then cool the meat down, then smoke, then sear. Just not sure what temp and time will work best.
PS I ordered some of those aluminum grillgrates today. Looking forward to trying those out in the future.
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