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Je fais la cuisine sous vide

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
sous vide cooking is freakin' awesome. While I have a fair amount of reverence for old school spend-all-day-tending-your-smoker barbeque, I value my time even more. I've been having some fun trying new things sous vide. my third try with baby backs turned out the best ribs I've ever put on the table. rub, cold smoke, sous vide 14 hours at 158*, chill, lightly season again, sauce them, on a hot grill for a while to caramelize sauce and heat them up. perfect texture and moisture this time.

While in Costco last week stocking up on meats, a package of prime 2" thick gorgeous ribeyes caught my eye. I cannot remember the last time I bought beef like this, but those steaks were calling out to me. seasoned, sous vide, and seared in black iron rivaled the finest chop house steaks I've eaten. the precision and simplicity of cooking this way is astonishing.

I also picked up a very nice brisket flat. I'm giving this a go sous vide. 30 hours in 155* bath, then I'll chill it off completely and put it in smoker for a few hours to add smoke, some bark, and heat it up to proper temp for eating. fingers crossed.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
only managed 28 hours in sous vide. into an ice bath, then into the fridge for an hour and half while I got the grill ready. I was gonna put this in my Bradley for three hours and put oak and mesquite smoke on it, but decided to go old school and finish this flat on my kettle grill with charcoal, pignut hickory and white oak from my wood pile. I dried off the flat and lightly seasoned with my brisket rub before putting on the grill. I seasoned it with only sea salt and fresh coarsely cracked pepper for the sous vide cooking.

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charcoal is only lit on the one end and will burn across the whole pile, slowing down the burn and keeping the temp down, and burning the staggered hickory and oak chunks as it goes. I'll keep this as close to 250* as I can for three hours.

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so far, so good. that oak and hickory burning smells good. I best make myself a cocktail asap lest I anger the smoking gods for violating a cardinal rule of smoking meat.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
and sous vide does it again.

no surprise now that the texture and amount of moisture in the meat was fantastic. I'll lower the temp in water bath next time and cook a little longer to try to achieve a more medium/medium rare doneness. the doneness this time was in line with traditional "low and slow" brisket, but I think a little less done will be better. the flavor and amount of smoke was as good as I've done with a brisket. the bark was as close to perfect as I could ever hope to get and the temperature stayed within 5-10 degrees of 250 for the three hours I planned. nearly all my fuel was gone at the three hour mark. my charcoal/wood arrangement was dead nutz on. much less time and effort babysitting smoker this way. I be eating good at lunchtime all week this week. :D
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I made this old 34 qt cooler into a vessel for doing long sous vide cooks, anything big like whole racks of ribs or briskets, or a whole bunch of anything. cooler is nice because it is insulated, so the heating element doesn't have to work so hard, plus the lid is tight so the water doesn't escape in the form of steam, which is nice for the really long cooks like the one I'm doing now, which will hopefully be a medium rare smoked brisket instead of well done, which is the traditional low and slow outcome.

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this is a 7.5lb brisket flat that has been cooking at 130* since Thursday night.
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seasoned with salt, pepper and granulated garlic and smoked it for a little over three hours in the Bradley with equal parts of oak and mesquite smoke. applied smoke at about 225* until the internal temp of the brisket was almost 130*, which is the temp of the water bath it has been in ever since. based on what I've read, to achieve a medium rare finished brisket and still have the collagen broken down properly, this has to cook like this for a minimum of about 52 hours, and as much as 72. I'm going to wind up at about 60 hours or so when I take it out tomorrow morning to cool it back down to 36 degrees in the fridge before I finish it on the grill with indirect heat from charcoal, oak, and hickory like I did the last one. the big difference this time is that I'll cook/smoke at about 250-275* until the internal temp is back up to 130* or a few degrees more. should be like smoked prime rib, theoretically.:)
 

Chass

Active Member
2,172
52
The Hills
That's awesome. Something I have been wanting to get now that I got a new grill to compliment it with. What a lot of people dont realise is that this tech has been around for a long time in restaurants. That's how they can have hundreds of steaks, racks of ribs, and any number of meats ready to go as soon as you walk through the door. Just cut the bag open, throw it on the grill for the final sear and plate it. Great idea with the cooler too.
 
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Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
I made this old 34 qt cooler into a vessel for doing long sous vide cooks, anything big like whole racks of ribs or briskets, or a whole bunch of anything. cooler is nice because it is insulated, so the heating element doesn't have to work so hard, plus the lid is tight so the water doesn't escape in the form of steam, which is nice for the really long cooks like the one I'm doing now, which will hopefully be a medium rare smoked brisket instead of well done, which is the traditional low and slow outcome.

View attachment 82297
this is a 7.5lb brisket flat that has been cooking at 130* since Thursday night.
View attachment 82298

seasoned with salt, pepper and granulated garlic and smoked it for a little over three hours in the Bradley with equal parts of oak and mesquite smoke. applied smoke at about 225* until the internal temp of the brisket was almost 130*, which is the temp of the water bath it has been in ever since. based on what I've read, to achieve a medium rare finished brisket and still have the collagen broken down properly, this has to cook like this for a minimum of about 52 hours, and as much as 72. I'm going to wind up at about 60 hours or so when I take it out tomorrow morning to cool it back down to 36 degrees in the fridge before I finish it on the grill with indirect heat from charcoal, oak, and hickory like I did the last one. the big difference this time is that I'll cook/smoke at about 250-275* until the internal temp is back up to 130* or a few degrees more. should be like smoked prime rib, theoretically.:)

Kixk ass sea bass. Let us know how that baby turns out.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
60 hours en sous vide patted dry seasoned lightly with my brisket rub and onto the PK with a pile of lump charcoal, oak and hickory chunks.

IMG_2213.JPG


last time I did a brisket I was bitching about how hard it is to control the temp/air flow with the Weber kettle, so being the intuitive, devoted and loving spouse that she is, Nancy surprised me with this PK cast aluminum charcoal grill. 4 pairs vent holes two on the top, two on the bottom. makes indirect cooking set up very easy. heavy cast aluminum base and lid make this a better "oven" than any Weber ever could hope to be. will never rust. the last charcoal grill I'll ever need...
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I'm trying to come down from a mild case of something on the order of Stendhal Sydrome, so bear with me. you know how really good Prime Rib just melts in your mouth? yes, medium rare brisket is like that. I must admit that I would not want this any less done. I think medium would suit my taste more than medium rare for brisket, but still, it's gonna be hard to make this appreciably better. seasoning perfect, done to medium rare as planned, bark adequate (barely), a little bit too much smoke, though. lump charcoal must produce "better" smoke than plain old Kingsford briquettes because I did not use any more actual wood for smoke than before. the difficulty is getting this hot enough for long enough to produce a good bark without getting the internal temp up too high. for my first try, this went exceedingly well. sous vide kicks ass, period. this was fabulous. note the absence of a pool of liquid on the cutting board in the second pic. it's still in the brisket.
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and a plethora of grilled pepper poppers to make it a meal. feels like summer now. :cool:
 

Big H

Senior Member
4,105
151
Medina
I made this old 34 qt cooler into a vessel for doing long sous vide cooks, anything big like whole racks of ribs or briskets, or a whole bunch of anything. cooler is nice because it is insulated, so the heating element doesn't have to work so hard, plus the lid is tight so the water doesn't escape in the form of steam, which is nice for the really long cooks like the one I'm doing now, which will hopefully be a medium rare smoked brisket instead of well done, which is the traditional low and slow outcome.

View attachment 82297
this is a 7.5lb brisket flat that has been cooking at 130* since Thursday night.
View attachment 82298

seasoned with salt, pepper and granulated garlic and smoked it for a little over three hours in the Bradley with equal parts of oak and mesquite smoke. applied smoke at about 225* until the internal temp of the brisket was almost 130*, which is the temp of the water bath it has been in ever since. based on what I've read, to achieve a medium rare finished brisket and still have the collagen broken down properly, this has to cook like this for a minimum of about 52 hours, and as much as 72. I'm going to wind up at about 60 hours or so when I take it out tomorrow morning to cool it back down to 36 degrees in the fridge before I finish it on the grill with indirect heat from charcoal, oak, and hickory like I did the last one. the big difference this time is that I'll cook/smoke at about 250-275* until the internal temp is back up to 130* or a few degrees more. should be like smoked prime rib, theoretically.:)

Great idea, I use a smaller cooler when I am using my sous vide. I didn't cut the lid though, but I will have one set up soon after seeing this...
 

tpierce

Junior Member
That is I think, the most delicious looking brisket I have have ever seen. I do a lot of smoking on a Weber bullet, and love everything I've done, but that brisket! I have to try it. My wife will think I've gone crazy when I cook that thing that long in a cooler.
 
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