Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 06:25 PM
My friend gave me his old pellet smoker and I finally got around to testing it out. I wanted to compare doing it 100% on the smoker vs sous vide then finished on the smoker. I trimmed a full packer brisket and then cut it length wise. I sous vide the first half and then I did the second on the smoker.
BLUF1: I am almost certain I messed up with the smoker and it universally ran too hot. Everything about how they both came out fits this possibility. It is possible it is just observation bias but I do not think so. I think I messed up.
I followed the Sous Vide Smoked Brisket Recipe [Serious Eats] to make a simple rub of just kosher salt and pepper. It was 3 oz of peppercorns and 3.5 oz of kosher salt. I cut them both on Saturday. The priced weight was 15.74 lbs though I didn't confirm it. I trimmed off 2 lbs 13.125 oz. I did not weigh any liquid or the bag.
On Saturday, the day before, I coated the brisket (6 lbs 8.75 oz) and vacuum sealed it. Since I have been kind of unhappy with the sealer, I did two seals (each a double) on both sides of the bag. I also made it super large to give myself lots of room.
I sous vide cooked it at 155°F for about 25.75 hrs.
I then put it on the smoker (see note about the smoker below) at 175° around 3:00pm on Sunday and then moved set it to 215°F at 4:00. I took it off around 5:30 pm. I wrapped it and let it sit in the cooler for an hour
It was pretty cooked at this point. You can see it in the photos above.
I followed Smoked Brisket [Traeger]
This was a struggle. On Sunday morning, I started the smoker around 7:15 (after going nuts trying to understand the setup. It just could not get to temp. I set it at 225°F and it couldn't climb above ~170°F. Fast forward, it was probably on the direct heat mode meaning it was actually much hotter but wasn't reading properly.
Anyway, while this was heating up, I coated the other half. This was a mistake according to the guide. I should have done it the night before when I did the sous vide one. Oops. Still, it got to sit for about 1.5 hours while I waited for the grill.
I finally gave up and decided to start it on the smoker and I could always do the post-wrap in the oven since thats less about smoke. Putting a towel over the smoker about an hour later which also helped a bit.
The meat temp climbed and climbed fast:
I wrapped it at 11:15 and put it back in until 1:00pm where it then was left to rest in the cooler until 6:30pm
As you can see THIS MUST HAVE BEEN TOO HOT.
Again, it could be observation bias but I think it was too hot.
The sous vide one was way overcooked on the outside. Beyond bark. You can see it in the photos. I needed to use a serrated knife and it still didn't cut well.
The regular cut well, had a nice smoke ring, but was dry.
In the guide book, it turns out it that it says something about the holes of the tray and a direct flame. I think I have them open. Not only that but cleaning it was insanely hard! Then my friend told me to wrap that in foil to cover the holes and make cleanup easier! I think everything ran way too hot and with some amount of direct flames.
First of all, I will wrap the tray in foil to make clean up easier and avoid issues with direct flames!
I am interested in comparing sous vide again but honestly, for the sake of simplicity, I may just do the smoked one whole. I will also be trying other meats first so hopefully I will have all of the kinks worked out.
Bottom Line Up Front ↩
Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 11:03 PM
Meredith's Notes:
3/4 c white wine vinegar
3/4 c water
1.5 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
Fresh dill
Wiggle beans
Monday, January 16, 2023, 07:09 PM
We made Chicken Curry Naan [Real Simple] but with turkey. We actually had to split making it since we didn't have enough curry paste.
It was fine. Nothing amazing. Kind of one-dimensional and tasted more like curry paste than anything else.
I did like how they have you brown the meat. break it up a bit, let it sit, then break it up fully.
We didn't have enough naan so one was on tortilla which worked just fine.
Friday, January 13, 2023, 09:18 AM
I was in the mood for real bagels but didn't want to go out so I made Easy Bagels [Skinny Taste]. I did 225g of greek yogurt and upped flour to 6 oz. Did 15 min at 400°F in the Breville Air Fryer.
Thursday, January 12, 2023, 08:49 AM
Coffee Cake Baked Oatmeal [Eating Bird Food]
Meredith's Notes: Added 3 scoops collagen protein, and did a combo of almond/cow milk. Brown sugar instead of coconut sugar. Almond meal in the topping instead of oat flour.
We liked this a lot!
Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 06:51 PM
Southwestern Egg Rolls [Liz Moody]
We liked them a lot. The extra filling was a nice and easy leftover too!
Meredith's Notes: Added eggs and did quesadilla-style since we only have street taco tortillas. Went heavy on the spinach.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023, 07:03 PM
This was Spaghetti Squash Taco Bake [Eating Bird Food] but with soy chorizo instead of meat. Meredith used about half of the taco seasoning because the chorizo is so flavored.
Emily cooked the squash while she was here. We don't know if the squash was a tad too cooked or it really didn't work with chorizo but it, overall, was not as good as usual.
Sunday, January 08, 2023, 12:31 PM
Brine:
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup distilled vinegar
2 cups water
Salt
Sugar
Nigella seeds
Mustard seeds
Dried minced garlic
Sliced scallions
Forgot recipe source
Too much brine. Use half next time
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