More adventures in lunchmeat

[DaveD]

Cooked up another of these Wild Fork boneless turkey breast roasts in the Pit Boss Copperhead 5 to slice up for lunchmeat. I forgot to dry brine the night before, so it got just a few hours of salt first thing in the morning before it went in the smoker about 9am in order to be ready for lunch.

Dusted it with some Simon & Garfunkel rub before going in. Ran the PB at 300-325/150-160 and pulled the breast out after it reached an IT of 160/71.





I used my lovely bride's electric carving knife to see if I could get the slices any thinner than I can with my long slicing knife. Answer: Nope.




Turkey sammiches on toast.




The turkey was very flavorful, however we could definitely notice the difference from the much shorter dry brine. Not quite as tender, noticeably less juicy. Lesson learned, don't miss the full dry brine step.

[J-Melt]

Thanks for this! I think I need to try doing this someday.

[Draznnl]

Did you try chilling it overnight before you sliced it? I find those turkey breast roasts much easier to slice when cooled.

[DaveD]

No, I did not, and we also thought of that after this cook. Agree that cold meat is usually easier to slice thin for sure, and that'll likely be the next tweak to this approach that I try.

[captainlee]

Best way to make lunchmeat, we slice them down too and freeze. So much better tasting and so much less expensive than buying sliced at the store.

[DaveD]

Yep, vac-sealed up the slices in portions suitable for two sammiches each. Now we have turkey, pork loin, and rare roast beef ready to go

[Oak Smoke]

You will lose a lot less moisture waiting to slice until it’s cool. It always bothers me to slice a piece of meat and watch the steam rising up carrying away all that moisture I tried so hard to keep in. It makes a huge difference in both ease of slicing and moisture retention in pastrami also.

[randy.56]

Oh ya, looks good. Inspired by you guys. Last week We did a cook with a butter ball. Injected it with low sodium chicken broth. Then a good rub. yum. Cooked on pellet smoker set at 275 until IT of 120 then wrapped in foil till 155. Let it rest 20 min.

[DaveD]

I have not tried wrapping, that's something I could definitely check out. That looks great!

[DTro]

Looks delish. How many lunches does that give?
Ha-Would like to see the pinky position with that 'lectric slicer.

[Finster]

Nice. I’ve smoked a few of those, and they make great sandwiches.

[DaveD]

I just vac-sealed up the remaining sliced turkey after it sat in the fridge overnight covered in saran. DTro this will be two lunches' worth, so a total of three meals from the cut.

Even sliced and chilled, there was still so much juice that I had to get creative to get a seal made. Fortunately my new Nesco vac sealer has a "gentle" setting, and one of the two portions worked fine that way. But on the other, even a gentle mode with the double seal didn't do it, the liquid made it out of the bag with some pooling in the little vac tray. After the second such result, I put the poorly-sealed bag into a second one and sealed that, and that finally did the trick. Sheesh! So yeah Oak Smoke, I won't make this mistake again, and will instead slice what we eat on the day and chill the remainder as a piece and slice the next day.

[WI Bubba]

Sounds like you are in the market for a chamber vac sealer. Let us know what your budget is, and we'll find you something twice as expensive, and call you foolish for not spending "a little more".

[DaveD]

WI Bubba I know the Pit would have my back! But I only just got the Nesco and I'm very very happy with it. Don't think I need a chamber sealer, this kind of juice-a-palooza doesn't happen that often...

[DavidNorcross]

You had me turkey sandwich!

[jfmorris]

I bought one of those electric carving knives before Thanksgiving maybe 8-10 years ago, and keep forgetting I have it, as I do fine when carving the traditional turkey using a boning or fillet knife. Good to know it won't slice thinner. I may put it in the next charity donation we make, rather than keep it in its original box in the pantry another 8-10 years.

I need to try this for making my own lunch meat. So far I've done pastrami, and pork-strami, but have not tried boneless turkey or pork loin or beef of some sort for sandwich meat. I've got a deli slicer, so no excuses other than laziness...

[DaveD]

Sorely wish I had room for one. Maybe it'll work out when we move next year

[jfmorris]

DaveD I only have room because I converted the 4th bedroom to a laundy room and lined the walls with cabinets and shelves.

[Andrrr]

Looks great! Seeing as you forgot to brine I assume you buy either the antibiotic free or organic version? The regular one says it's brined already.

[DaveD]

Yep, quite right, I went for the ABF on these particular thighs. I definitely try to avoid pre-brined chicken.

[RichieB]

Went to a local grocery chain store Big Y. They carry Boars Head products. I got their cajun turkey breast and pepper jack cheese. I had it for lunch. Man is it good. I've gotten the smoked version too. Also a hit. I know you their products aren't available everywhere. But if you can find it, I recommend checking them out.

[Andrrr]

I’d agree that boar’s head makes probably the best lunch meat I can get my hands on but it’s just so dang expensive that I rarely buy it. I’m now on to making my own.

[DaveD]

We'd been Boar's Head fans for years, but when they had that huge contamination issue, showing their entire plant was basically a pigsty, we said No More. That is in fact the motivation for this set of "Adventures in Lunchmeat" threads, that we were giving up BH...

[RichieB]

I'm still breathing.

[DaveD]

Dredging this one back up, with a new iteration. Same cut, the Wild Fork "New York" pork loin, and an opportunity to change just one part of the process to check its effect.

Did everything the same up until the final step: dry brine, sous vide at 137/58 for 5-6 hours, then pat dry, wrap tightly in Saran, and refrigerate overnight. But this time, instead of bringing them up to temp low and slow on the SnS kettle, I just seared them on my gasser with GrillGrates, flat side up, cranked to max - IR gun read about 625/330.

Cleft in twain, much easier size to vac seal and allows different seasonings. As before, SPG on one half and Jenni In A Bottle on the other.

After SV, SPG on left, JIAB on right:


Tried to get a full minute on each surface. Had to get a little creative with the handling...




Sliced up some of each for today's lunch sammiches, and will slice up and store the rest shortly. JIAB piece:

SPG piece:

Order up



This was even better than the first time, just so good. Searing the meat right out of the fridge kept most of the interior cool, which made slicing a lot easier. And the cut just didn't have time to lose any juices, so very juicy and tender. Outstanding flavor from the sear crust to go with.

I used the gasser instead of the kettle because I have the latter set up for a pork butt cook and need to light it first thing in the morning, so I didn't want to have to futz with it. But next time I'll do the sear over coals, that can only be another level up.

Here's the WF page for this cut, currently selling for $2.28/lb. The three that I've gotten have all come in right around 4lb/1.8kg.

https://wildforkfoods.com/products/boneless-pork-new-york-roast/