mgaretz ... This is a comment on your comment on your post at 15.2
Most ovens fluctuate 20° in temperature. The number on your dial is a mean average. If you set it to bake at 180° it will fluctuate between 170° and 190°. I learned that in my bread baking journey. That's why I bake the majority of my bread on my BGE. In a 35 minute bread cook my temperature won't fluctuate more than about 5°.
I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It's really a philosophical discussion and, of course, there's no good answer. Let's face it. The most basic kind of cooking is: hunt the animal, kill the animal, build a fire, cook the animal. Since almost none of us are doing that we're all kind of "breaking the rules" if you want to get right down to it. So, some of us are cooking on stick burners which is about as close to an open wood fire as you can get, but use digital thermometers so we can pull the brisket off at exactly 203. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm always kind of bothered by having probe cables coming out of my Weber, running down to the transmitter and watching the exact temperatures from the comfort of my living room. That's already cheating to me. Will I stop doing it? Are you kidding? I want that piece of meat to be perfect!
The closest I get to bare bones cooking is doing bread in my wood oven. Always a little scary because, at some point, you have to give up control and just go for it. But I have to admit, even with this kind of primal cooking I still stick a thermocouple in there to make sure that my 3 days of work and 12 kilos of bread aren't going to go up in smoke.
Am I ever going to do SV in my kitchen? I doubt it. But I'm thinking it's not too far a stretch from the thermometers I already rely on a little too much.
I agree with the poster about no being really on topic of bbq specifically, but...... I was originally was attracted to the scientific nature of this site. It made it unique for bbq material on the internet. I am a scientist. I enjoy experimenting, testing, figuring out what is going on. I just bought an ANOVA sous vide immersion circulator to help satisfy that need. I no longer have my own laboratory - its now my kitchen and backyard. Postings on this site encouraged me to invest in his piece of equipment. I will most certainly combine it with bbq and grilling. So do believe the topic may be in line with the original intent of Meathead when creating his website.
Meathead was a Chef and Professor of the craft long before he became a BBQ expert. He has encouraged us all to buy cooking gear like thermometer's, digital scales, cast iron cookware etc, etc, etc. Plus he recently wrote an article about trends in the BBQ arena and where we're heading in the near future. He included the SV circulator in that article and how some of us are blending SV cooking with BBQ and grilling.
The Pit has added a SV channel to discuss SV cooking. My instinct tells me Meathead has probably bought an SV circulator too.😎
I think the one cut of meat that is superior in quality if you SV it first before searing it on your grill... Is a Tri-Tip roast.
Other cuts of meat like beef tenderloin are nicely done SV style before searing it on your grill and if you're serving a big gathering it is much, much easier if you SV it hours before your guests arrive. Then all you have to do is take it out of the SV bag and sear it 5 minutes before you want to serve it.
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