The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

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InvincibleCakeEater
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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by InvincibleCakeEater »

My local spot randomly had top sirloin Wagyu from a farm out of Texas. I don't think I've ever bought top sirloin, but for 8.99 l/b it was a no brainer, looked better than the usual strips I get there. Gorgeously fatty marbling. I just don't know what the hell to do with it. Think I'm just going to trim it into a couple 8 oz filet style steaks and grill. Sitting on the counter coming to temp right now.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

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AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Regarding the butchers and where to buy meat....
The politics of food, we can go on and on for days. I'm fairly political, shocker I know, but I'll leave that alone just to talk quality.

Better BBQ will come from better meat and buying the best stuff you have access to and can afford is more clutch than David Ortiz. I was drinking beer and bs-ing with Aaron Franklin up here once after we did a media thing together. He told me a story about how he almost closed up shop for a short time years ago when his beef guy had an emergency and had to close temporarily, leaving him without a supply of the best brisket. He used some inferior industrial meat for a couple weeks until he could find a new guy because he didn't feel like he could close since people come to him from all over the US and he didn't want them to show up and find a closed sign on the door. So he stayed open, bought meh meat, and started using a mop on his brisket, something he never does and was ashamed to be doing. He was embarrassed at the quality of meat he was serving, was up all night looking for stopgap purveyors until his normal guy got going again. He started meeting a delivery driver a few hours away from Austin, because the driver couldn't go into Austin without running late for everyone else on his route, so he could have good brisket again. What I mean to convey with this story isn't that one should be extreme, like Aaron driving six hours round-trip to get brisket, but rather that quality matters in meat.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

InvincibleCakeEater wrote:My local spot randomly had top sirloin Wagyu from a farm out of Texas. I don't think I've ever bought top sirloin, but for 8.99 l/b it was a no brainer, looked better than the usual strips I get there. Gorgeously fatty marbling. I just don't know what the hell to do with it. Think I'm just going to trim it into a couple 8 oz filet style steaks and grill. Sitting on the counter coming to temp right now.
....and?

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by InvincibleCakeEater »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
InvincibleCakeEater wrote:My local spot randomly had top sirloin Wagyu from a farm out of Texas. I don't think I've ever bought top sirloin, but for 8.99 l/b it was a no brainer, looked better than the usual strips I get there. Gorgeously fatty marbling. I just don't know what the hell to do with it. Think I'm just going to trim it into a couple 8 oz filet style steaks and grill. Sitting on the counter coming to temp right now.
....and?
Pretty damn good. They had 2 more so I grabbed them this morning. Think they’ll be perfect to sous vide. From a place called heartbrand beef.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by 33anda3rd »

Sous vide is great for sirloin.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

33anda3rd wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Regarding the butchers and where to buy meat....
The politics of food, we can go on and on for days. I'm fairly political, shocker I know, but I'll leave that alone just to talk quality.

Better BBQ will come from better meat and buying the best stuff you have access to and can afford is more clutch than David Ortiz. I was drinking beer and bs-ing with Aaron Franklin up here once after we did a media thing together. He told me a story about how he almost closed up shop for a short time years ago when his beef guy had an emergency and had to close temporarily, leaving him without a supply of the best brisket. He used some inferior industrial meat for a couple weeks until he could find a new guy because he didn't feel like he could close since people come to him from all over the US and he didn't want them to show up and find a closed sign on the door. So he stayed open, bought meh meat, and started using a mop on his brisket, something he never does and was ashamed to be doing. He was embarrassed at the quality of meat he was serving, was up all night looking for stopgap purveyors until his normal guy got going again. He started meeting a delivery driver a few hours away from Austin, because the driver couldn't go into Austin without running late for everyone else on his route, so he could have good brisket again. What I mean to convey with this story isn't that one should be extreme, like Aaron driving six hours round-trip to get brisket, but rather that quality matters in meat.
That's pretty cool you got to hang out with Aaron Franklin! I watched a couple of his videos on how to make a brisket and how to make a smoker without knowing he had a famous restaurant. Saw him on a TV show and was like WHOA! Seems like a cool guy.

Regardless, interesting to hear how concerned he was with the source of his meat. Makes sense, but brings up a question of....how do those logistics work out? If he's going through, what, 1000 briskets per week, where does the rest of the 500 cows go? I guess it probably wouldn't be difficult to find restaurants that need steaks and hamburgers...though that's still a lot of other parts to unload.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

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AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:If he's going through, what, 1000 briskets per week, where does the rest of the 500 cows go? I guess it probably wouldn't be difficult to find restaurants that need steaks and hamburgers...though that's still a lot of other parts to unload.
Fairly frequent concern, but when you're talking about those cows that are humanely raised and respected by the chefs who cook them there's very little waste. Franklin takes the brisket, maybe some beef ribs. There will be beef heart on a menu somewhere. Tongue might go to a Mexican place in Austin for tacos lenguas. The bones end up in stock, at least the bones that are not marrow bones that end up on a marrow dish. Part of that movement includes a respect for the animal that means not wasting any of it.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by Freed Roger »

Cheating by doing Pot Roast in slow cooker ,finishing it off for a short bit on the grill.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by Fat Strat »

Ribs yesterday. Kept it simple but they came out great. 3-2-1 approach this time around because I wanted extra tender. Perfect. Too tender for competition (not that I would ever compete) but man are they tasty.

Needed a little rib redemption because my last rib smoke went terribly. They looked awesome in the package - a huge slap, but they never got tender. Did a 3-1-2 cook and they were tough. Covered and cooked for another hour.., still tough. Covered even longer... still tough. In the end, I had covered them and cooked at a low, low temp for so long that they should have fallen apart and they were still embarrassingly tough. Can only chalk it up to bad meat, as I have used that kind of technique - a 3-2-1 or modified - and never had any problems until that pack.

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Re: The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

Post by Fat_Bulldog »

Fat Strat wrote:Ribs yesterday. Kept it simple but they came out great. 3-2-1 approach this time around because I wanted extra tender. Perfect. Too tender for competition (not that I would ever compete) but man are they tasty.

Needed a little rib redemption because my last rib smoke went terribly. They looked awesome in the package - a huge slap, but they never got tender. Did a 3-1-2 cook and they were tough. Covered and cooked for another hour.., still tough. Covered even longer... still tough. In the end, I had covered them and cooked at a low, low temp for so long that they should have fallen apart and they were still embarrassingly tough. Can only chalk it up to bad meat, as I have used that kind of technique - a 3-2-1 or modified - and never had any problems until that pack.
I had a dud rib smoke last week as well. The exact issue you had.

I look forward to my rib redemption on the 4th!

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