What did everyone cook today?

[Tex_77]

erich52 I liked the maple better than the original

[Jonathon]

[calldoctoday]

zbigjeff That looks good. I have always wanted to do those as more of a mexican/asian sort of meal, along with some for bacon. However, finding pork bellies is just about impossible around here & when you do they are beyond expensive.

[calldoctoday]

Jonathon um um!

[Chef]

Tex_77 Tell me more about those breakfast strips please.

[Chef]

Jonathon I’m assuming that’s brisket?

[calldoctoday]

I thought it was a very rare steak, so much much for my observations.

[Chef]

calldoctoday I bet you’re right. I wasn’t thinking. Brisket that rare would need a chainsaw to cut it

[Tex_77]

calldoctoday Jonathon I thought it was well done steak.

[Tex_77]

Chef They are new from Jimmy Dean.

[YooperDog]

Tex_77 were those sausage strips cased and then sliced or processed in a pan and then sliced? Look good.

[Tex_77]

YooperDog I don’t know, you’ll have to call Jimmy Dean and ask him.

[YooperDog]

Tex_77 I think he is on the wrong side of the grass now, but his songs live on. LOL

[Chef]

Tex_77 So really, you didn’t make them?

[Tex_77]

Chef I did not. It’s a new product from Jimmy Dean. I know Jonathon is trying to figure out how to make them.

[zbigjeff]

calldoctoday The only way I obtained one was going to a local farm to table butcher in the stix and that was only about 20 mins away. Thank god I knew them through soccer and bowling. They threw me one with the loin attached that they were breaking down that day. It wasn’t cheap at $4.99/lb. But, I knew it was fresh. Some close friends wanted the burnt ends and it worked out well because I used half for the burnt ends. Going to create an old fashioned Italian porchetta for labor day festivities this week with the other half and put it away till then. The reaction to the burnt ends was over the top. Whew! My butt was on the line. Its the same group I abuse when making sausage.

[YooperDog]

Tex_77 it looked similar to the way my venison bacon turns out. I put the mix in a pan to set up, smoke it and then slice it up. That was my curiosity in the previous message, never saw your reply to Chef until later. Were the sausage strips fresh or cured? I bet the venison bacon process would work if they are a cured variety.

[TexLaw]

YooperDog said in What did everyone cook today?:

Anyone have a good recipe to try or techniques to make sure I don’t dry them out?

How do you go about cooking them? What’s your temperature? Do you wrap? What determines when you take them off the pit?

Butts can take a little more heat than briskets or ribs because they have less surface area, but just a little. You don’t want your grate temperature to stay over 250F if you aren’t wrapping them. I usually don’t wrap pork butts, because I like to have that hard bark to mix in with the softer inside pork (nice texture), but I will wrap them if I don’t have the time to cook them unwrapped. I’ll wrap them like I wrap a brisket (somewhere around 160-165F internal).

You need to make sure you’ve cooked it until it’s done. An underdone pork butt can feel like it’s dry. If you are pulling, you want the internal temp to be at least 200F, but the best test is that you can pull the bone out cleanly.

You also need to rest them before you pull them. If you pull them while they are “right off the pit” hot, they can dry out quickly. I know some folks that do that, but those same folks mix in a sauce at the same time they are pulling. Adding that sauce effectively cools the meat so that it doesn’t dry out (and adds moisture back).

[Jonathon]

Tex_77 Chef calldoctoday It was actually just a Strip Steak that I reverse seared. THe lighting made the outside look a bit more charred that it actually was. I pulled it when the IT was 127 and then let it dwell about 5° or so. It had been in my fridge in a vacuum-sealed bag for about 5 days and I really believe it was more tender because of that. I am going to make Austin (Well Walton’s) buy some Strip Steaks, then vac seal them and eat them every 2 days up to 15 days and see if the “wet again” in a vac bag is actually making them more tender.

[calldoctoday]

Jonathon Did you use any marinate or something (normally would never marinate a strip)? They looked a little more on the rare side & the temp you pulled it from the initial heat on was very similar to mine (I use 130), really no difference & I get more of a medium rare. I do the initial heat in the smoker though, slowly & then sear directly over the flames or on a VERY hot iron griddle. I am wondering if your vac. seal for five days, perhaps with a little marinate allowed the more REDDER look, like a corned beef does sort of. I can bet they were Very Tender & Very Tasty.