Washington Post food writer Tim Carman - no slouch when it comes to food IMHO - comments on a Kenji experiment in which he prepared a beef brisket via sous vide. DISCLOSURE - we have done a chunk of flat in a crockpot with pretty good results so we're not as skeptical as some of the 40+ commenters are. I put this in the category of "yet another technique to try when I crave brisket but it is 20 degrees outside, and there's too much snow to drive to Texas Jack's ".
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Snob? Neither.
To me, the writer is a bit closed minded. There are some good points in the comments section.
Some folks can't barbecue, but that shouldn't keep them from enjoying good food. If Lopez-Alt has a good technique that comes close in taste to the methods we prefer to use, GREAT!
Most of us enjoy the time and work of our cooks. Not everybody has that time or ability and they want the food we cook. COOL!
Whatever floats your boat. No rules, right? -
Right on, richinlbrg .
I've never used Liquid Smoke, though. Serious Eats describes it as
Liquid smoke really is made from smoke. Chips or sawdust from hardwoods such as hickory or mesquite are burned at high temperatures, and particles of the smoke are collected in condensers. The resulting liquid is concentrated down for a stronger flavor.
Cook's Illustrated says that Liquid Smoke is fine to use as long as you buy the kind without additives such as vinegar, molasses, and salt. They say it should only have 2 ingredients, smoke and water.
So I guess I could give Kenji's method a try, but would hate to miss out on all the fun of smoking on my PBC or WSCGC. I'm lucky to have the equipment and the code allowances that allow me to smoke food over charcoal and wood.
KathrynComment
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Guest, Guest, Guest, Thanks for the Liquid Smoke Tutorial, Kathryn like You I have never used it! I might change my Mind what little I have left!
From a Backyard Cremator in Fargo ND, Dan -
I have been using this stuff for a few years sans complaints https://www.amazon.com/CedarHouse-Ul...ag=amazi0a8-20
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Liquid smoke is a distilled product. So if you hate the idea, put down that Bourbon.Comment
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Well, THAT was a low blow, Meathead! LOL
I think I'll try getting the better liquid smoke and learn how to use it correctly, first.
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Once again SV causes another fight. SV is the new battle in the BBQ world... Even in the Pit here it can get heated! I honestly think it could be a bigger fight than politics and religion combined in here from some of the stuff I have read lol.
Remember the good old days when the battles were between Charcoal and Gas... then the stick burners came in and shut them both up... (except for KBQ... those guys don't count) lol...
Then the battle with the boiling rib terrorist was waged and is now being won. Always funny to see AR Pit Masters and Followers troll the online videos and articles that have someone talking about boiling ribs.
Or when we finally progressed to the war of Beer Can Chicken when Meathead launched an attack on that school of thought.
Don't forget the war of whether or not things like BBQ Guru should be allowed as well...
Our fights to hold on to some sort of heritage and tradition in BBQ are always advancing as technology advances.
I have not yet jumped on the idea of calling SV done stuff BBQ however I do see the merits of SV cooking indoors especially since I live in an area where it can dip into the negatives in winter but I still want an awesome steak... etc.... That being said I am anxious to see what comes of Meathead's trip to Washington to do some SV to Grill development. However, I still know very little about it and haven't studied it too much.
I agree there are different ways to cook things and that Kenji doesn't call what he is doing BBQ (disclosure: I own the food lab book and like a lot of his work)... I'm also not a fan of when people do a pork roast or ribs in the crock pot, toss some BBQ sauce in there and call it BBQ... just not the same... I've read Meathead's article on "real or traditional bbq" and know there is not a definitive answer so to speak but SV seems to be the newest in a long line of debates.Comment
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People always lose sight of the goal. The food either tastes good or it doesn't. How you got there is interesting, but in the end the goal is good food, not perfect process.Comment
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To me it sounds like drinking a Diet Coke. Artificial ingredients are added to make it taste like the real thing but in the end it falls short, even if by just a hair. My guess is that sous vide brisket would be the same, might be close but I'll always choose the original.Comment
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Believe it or not, some of the best smoked food I have on the street where I live (and I haven't even started smoking yet!). The couple down the street, the main reason I go to their picnics is for some of her smoked whatever (though I'm not crass enough to just follow my nose when she fires up her smoker). And the other way is a great german restaurant. You would not expect them to be fantastic smokers, but their chef Edith (from Germany) makes a melt in your mouth brisket (I want her to teach me how she does it). And the smoked trout, fresh out of the smoker, incredible. Those two ladies are part of why I'm here.
I too am a fan of Kenji (read his book from the library). He's my go-to for sous vide info. I don't agree with the use of liquid smoke (never tasted right to me) but I do concur that cooking meat that way has its advantages. But it's a TOOL to go with all the other TOOLs we use to make yummy food.Comment
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I actually made the ChefSteps Brisket last year, which is a bit more involved that JKLA's method.
It came out great.
This is the rub, pre-blend. I think BBBR is probably better, but this has a lot of smokiness in it to make up for the fact that this is smokerless.
These are my brisket pieces, glazed and then rubbed, ready for the oven.
direct from the oven. Steam blurred the picture.
Side view. I probably could have let this go longer, but it was smelling really good and it was the culmination of a somewhat frustrating week of a cooking vacation (the ChefSteps Ribs did not come out that well, but I think it was my fault to some extent, and the insanity of turning onions and garlic to coal as an ingredient of the rub... Meathead diplomatically said that he prefers a sweeter rub on ribs), so I was looking for a success.
Different level of probe tender, but had all the jiggle/wobble/of any brisket I've ever had.
If I just posted this pic, you'd never know, would you? You'd see a well defined, deep smoke ring, a beautiful glisten to the meat, a reasonable bark, and you'd never know it never saw wood smoke, save for the liquid smoke. Smoke ring gotten with curing salt in the brine.
To be honest, I've had better brisket. Not moister, but better smoke, better bark. Now that I'm a lot further along with the gasser, and have the community here for how to butcher the brisket without butchering it, I think I could find the perfect synergy to make the perfect Sous-B-Cue brisket. But this was a great first run.
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Now, based on my signature, you can probably tell that I'm a bit more serious about sous than smoking. City boy, apartment, condo patio, and so on. But, here's how I see it. BBQ folks like to talk about low n slow, maybe 18 hours at 225*. If I go lower, say 155* and slower, say 36-48H, while it's not stick burning, it's plenty low and plenty slow. I've always loved 'Cue. School in Austin, grad school in St. Louis, some months working across the street from Jack Stack in KC, and more, but sous spoke to something in me, the precision and the results. And sous brought me back to 'cue. At the end of the day, we're all low and we're all slow.Comment
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I Think that you can have the best of both worlds! I have not tried it yet but great pit masters like Jerod Broussard have S/V Brisket for 24 to 36 hours and then finish it on the smoker for the bark and smoke flavor. I think it may make a lowly Select grade Brisket (IE: Cheap meat) Juicy and Tender all you need is time, Granted a lot of time but it does seem to be worth it cause guys keep doing it.Comment
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I'd be surprised if you could sous vide a Select and smoke it and still have a moist product. Kinda hard to make something that it is not.
I do want to try wet-aging a Select for 40 days and then try it and see because I've never been able to wet-age one that long.
And the two Choice I did were out the park awesome.Comment
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So what do you mean by Wet aging? is that just leaving it in the cryo Bag it came in for 40 days or do you take it out and put in some sort of brine? ( I know some like to leave the meat in the cryo bag for a few days even weeks before they cook it suppose to break down connective tissue) -
Interesting idea. But you could warm age it for similar results in a much shorter time with the sous-er.
With the select, if I were worried about moisture retention, I would use a lower temp and a longer time. Lower temp expels less juice.
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