Cooking/Food thread

[tRidiot]

Even fresh briskets are insane now.
Back when the wife and I were on the BBQ circuit, they were .99 per pound.
Now it's like $3.50 or more.

Eh, depends on where you go. I got a Prime brisket at Costco a couple weeks ago for $1.98 a pound, I think? I can check later, it's sitting in my fridge doing the "wet aging" thing. Prolly end up letting it set either 30 days for Thanksgiving or 60 days and doing it at Christmas.

 

[okie362]

What recipe are you boys using for your pastrami?

Check your PM. Hope that helps.

 

[tRidiot]

Pastrami can be tough. I mean difficult. lol

I've done it twice now, with varying results. Neither was perfect, so of course, I have to try again!

The first was a very small prepackaged corned beef that I essentially soaked to desalinate a bit, then threw on the smoker, but I obviously did NOT cook it long enough, as it was very, VERY tough. I'm sure it was probably a crappy Select, though, not even Choice. Just grabbed one at WalMart without thinking or researching or anything. Let's face it, those prepackaged corned beef are really made to be boiled until they're probably falling apart, so they don't worry too much about us "meat junkies" who are trying to achieve culinary actin and myosin Nirvana.

The second I did from either a Prime or Choice (can't remember which) brisket I bought and cured myself. The curing worked out very well, but... when I went to desalinate it, I left it overnight and changed the water twice, I think. It was a bit thin on one end, and the water pulled out too much of the salt... it ended up being fairly bland and tasted a lot better when you added salt to the cut meat. lol Go figure. Although, right off the smoker it was moist, succulent and delicious. I want to try it again, but man, it's a helluva process, and you've gotta really dedicate some time and space to it in your fridge.

Overall, it is a process that takes some experimentation. Some people may follow a particular process and get it bang-up right the first time. That wasn't me, unfortunately, but then, as lucky as I've been achieving some amazing BBQ results with minimal effort, I think I'm still way ahead overall in the game.

BTW, I ordered a new firepot for my Traeger pellet smoker yesterday, which I had been putting off for months. My smoker has been essentially unusable all summer due to ill-advisedly replacing my original firepot with an aftermarket one while I was changing out the igniter that had gone bad. <sigh> It said it was for "all Traeger grills" and I took that to heart, and screwed up my smoker. Unfortunately, I threw the old one out and couldn't go back - since then, I've been having constant flame-outs, at a minimum of once an hour and sometimes continually. Once this began, I started looking at replacements, but I know buying things from Traeger direct is usually an expensive process, so I kept putting it off. I think I had seen Traeger selling firepots at one point on Amazon and they were like $60 or $70, so I didn't want to throw that into my smoker and have it still be bad and be out even more money trying to fix this thing, vs just buying a new one.

So yesterday, I decided to look again, couldn't find Traeger actual firepots on Amazon, went to their website, again couldn't find them, so I bit the bullet and called them. <sigh> Man, do I hate talking on the phone. So, after one of their Customer Service Reps irritated me into "registering" my 20+ year-old second-hand pellet smoker, then she asks me for the serial number on my grill. I'm like, "Come on, lady, the thing is ancient and it's NOT under warranty, I don't know the serial number." So she asks me if I am somewhere I can go and look on the grill, I tell her no - since I'm in my recliner and the grill is out on the porch. So she says she needs the serial to figure out which model of firepot I need. I immediately tell her it is a BBQ124, and she says she will see if that will be sufficient for her to find the firepot I need. Puts me on hold for about 3-4 minutes, then comes back and says she found my firepot and it will be $20 plus $10 for shipping and $1 for something or other. I dunno. Either way, now I have the proper (supposedly) firepot on the way for $31, less than half of what I was worrying about - I shoulda done this months ago so I wouldn't have missed out on a summer of awesome smoked meats! Oh well, live and learn.

Bad thing is, now I am "registered" with Traeger, which means I KNOW without a doubt I am going to start getting crap from them in my mailbox. Can't stand that schite. Junk mail is my damn pet peeve. At least I didn't have to give them my email address, and the phone number I gave them is essentially my dead phone we don't use, the household line, we don't even have a working handset hooked up to that one anymore. lol

So there's my epic novel for the day... sorry. Maybe the meat-obsession carried me away. lol

 

[dennishoddy]

We have a smoke setting on our newer traeger and it just doesn't smoke. I get zero smoke flavor for the most part.
It will put out a pretty good cloud of smoke for the first 5 minutes of firing it up, but after that, its just convection heat.
I like it, and use it almost daily even for breakfast. Bacon is awesome cooked on it.
If I want a little more smoke, it has to go into the electric cookshack.

 

[Shadowrider]

Eh, depends on where you go. I got a Prime brisket at Costco a couple weeks ago for $1.98 a pound, I think? I can check later, it's sitting in my fridge doing the "wet aging" thing. Prolly end up letting it set either 30 days for Thanksgiving or 60 days and doing it at Christmas.

$1.98 is still 2 times the price he was paying. I just saw a bunch of cryovac'd full packer briskets for that last night and they weren't even graded, they did have the USDA stamp but no grading. In OKC they are running $3.50 at the low end unless on sale and that's for select. I've found that on my Big Green Egg grading doesn't really seem to matter as to tenderness or flavor but other setups and I think the experience of the cook probably does. Brisket used to be a cheap cut because it's so difficult to cook to tender unless you braise it. The whole BBQ trend has permanently changed that pricing model it seems. It seems to be creeping into other cuts as well. I buy family packs of chuck roasts to substitute for brisket and it's going up too. Heck I bought a pork belly and it was $3.50 per lb. The whole center cut pork loin I also bought was cheaper per pound than pork belly! We live in strange times...

 

[dennishoddy]

$1.98 is still 2 times the price he was paying. I just saw a bunch of cryovac'd full packer briskets for that last night and they weren't even graded, they did have the USDA stamp but no grading. In OKC they are running $3.50 at the low end unless on sale and that's for select. I've found that on my Big Green Egg grading doesn't really seem to matter as to tenderness or flavor but other setups and I think the experience of the cook probably does. Brisket used to be a cheap cut because it's so difficult to cook to tender unless you braise it. The whole BBQ trend has permanently changed that pricing model it seems. It seems to be creeping into other cuts as well. I buy family packs of chuck roasts to substitute for brisket and it's going up too. Heck I bought a pork belly and it was $3.50 per lb. The whole center cut pork loin I also bought was cheaper per pound than pork belly! We live in strange times...

Yep, fresh pork bellies are more expensive than cured bacon. Unless your smoking them or braising them, just buy bacon or cured cheeks and slice your own.

 

[Shadowrider]

Yep, fresh pork bellies are more expensive than cured bacon. Unless your smoking them or braising them, just buy bacon or cured cheeks and slice your own.

If you can even find fresh belly it's not quite that expensive yet, but it sure is headed that way. Not sure it'll be worth it as I found a source for some thick cut bacon from a plant here in Oklahoma and it's $4.95 per lb. and it fried up nice this morning. So I'm not sure yet if it's worth the hassle of doing my own. I'll do a few batches to try it out and hopefully I can beat the price, but what I like about the idea of doing my own is that I know what chemicals are used in the cure. It's not a hard process just takes some time. I'm gonna be smoking it. I just wish I could find pink curing salt in town, as it is I'll be ordering it online.

 

[tRidiot]

If you can even find fresh belly it's not quite that expensive yet, but it sure is headed that way. Not sure it'll be worth it as I found a source for some thick cut bacon from a plant here in Oklahoma and it's $4.95 per lb. and it fried up nice this morning. So I'm not sure yet if it's worth the hassle of doing my own. I'll do a few batches to try it out and hopefully I can beat the price, but what I like about the idea of doing my own is that I know what chemicals are used in the cure. It's not a hard process just takes some time. I'm gonna be smoking it. I just wish I could find pink curing salt in town, as it is I'll be ordering it online.

Amazon Prime has been a lifesaver for me with spices and such. Got a bag of hickory-smoked salt the other day. Can't wait to try it out.

I made some sous vide pork chops and "country style" boneless ribs tonight, then finished them in the cast iron (when my stupid grill ran out of propane, ugh!) with a little bacon grease and a par of butter for searing - it was frigging incredible!

 

[dennishoddy]

If you can even find fresh belly it's not quite that expensive yet, but it sure is headed that way. Not sure it'll be worth it as I found a source for some thick cut bacon from a plant here in Oklahoma and it's $4.95 per lb. and it fried up nice this morning. So I'm not sure yet if it's worth the hassle of doing my own. I'll do a few batches to try it out and hopefully I can beat the price, but what I like about the idea of doing my own is that I know what chemicals are used in the cure. It's not a hard process just takes some time. I'm gonna be smoking it. I just wish I could find pink curing salt in town, as it is I'll be ordering it online.

Mortons has curing salt in every store I've ever been in. Its all pink for identification.

 

[dennishoddy]

Amazon Prime has been a lifesaver for me with spices and such. Got a bag of hickory-smoked salt the other day. Can't wait to try it out.

I made some sous vide pork chops and "country style" boneless ribs tonight, then finished them in the cast iron (when my stupid grill ran out of propane, ugh!) with a little bacon grease and a par of butter for searing - it was frigging incredible!

Have you looked at https://www.bing.com/search?q=walto...s=n&sk=&cvid=45cbbfa401744b91d16419266018bc22
They have a store front in Wichita Ks. Good prices on spices, cures, and sausage making. Hi temp cheese is really reasonable.
I haven't made it into the store yet, but their meatgistics forum gets personal answers from the experts, and offers some good suggestions.