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The General Cooking Thread

Discussion in 'Cooking' started by Blue Dog, Oct 20, 2009.

  1. Revengeofthenerds

    Revengeofthenerds
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    If I can offer a few bits of advice that might help your with your issues of dryness and the stall, they're both very easy to fix (in my experience).

    For dryness, that's why I like getting a packer's cut and trimming it myself. You're going to be able to render a lot of that fat off rather than dry out the meat, which happens when you trim it too lean. That being said, smoke has a tougher time penetrating fat. As a general rule, I shoot for about a quarter inch of fat cap where possible, erring on the side of more over the flat and very trim over the point (a brisket is two muscles -- the "flat" and the "point" with the flat being very lean and the point being much more fatty). I also spritz it about once an hour, or roughly every time I add wood. My spritz is easy: folgers instant coffee crystals in a dollar store spray bottle. For pork, I do 50/50 instant coffee and apple cider vinegar. Also, your bark looks a bit light. I'd go heavier on the rub -- ideally, you want it coming off looking like a meteor. As a general rule, you want a good bit of salt in the rub, which helps with moisture retention (see: dry brining, which you can also do to the brisket before applying the rub).

    For the stall, I don't wrap. I just turn up the heat, which means simply adding more oak and lump charcoal for me, about 100 degrees until it passes, which is roughly 30-45 minutes or so. Of course the time it takes all depends on your wood, outside temp and wind, humidity, dew point, the individual cut of meat you're smoking and how lucky you are that day.

    I keep butcher paper on hand if I absolutely have to wrap, but that's rarely been the case. You wouldn't find me dead using foil to wrap. The stall is a natural part of cooking, and just something that's going to happen and you have to plan for when trimming the meat and figuring out timing of the smoke. I figure it's better just to not fuck with it other than cranking up the heat, and let it get past the stall naturally, than worrying and trying to mess with wrapping and other shit. I smoke a typical 14-15 lbs brisket (untrimmed weight) at 225 for 10 hours. At this point I don't even start poking it with an instant read thermometer until about hour 7 or 8.
     
  2. Blue Dog

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    Swordfish steaks, fresh out the gulf. I drank a bottle of sonoma cutrer chard in the process. It was like sipping on a glass of butter. Served with mango salsa and roasted asparagus.

    5948227A-7C63-4587-B588-15B10AE19AAF.jpeg
     
    #1842 Blue Dog, Jun 6, 2020
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2020
  3. bewildered

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    Man, I'm glad I bought 45lbs of bread flour. 1 arrived slashed so really 40lbs. Took nearly the whole sack to make a good sourdough starter. Then I made a couple sourdough loaves. They taste AMAZING. Perfect tangy sour taste, crisp and chewy texture. I've made cheater sourdough starts in the past but they do not compare to the real thing. This is the first legit real one I've made and have been keeping it alive for the last couple weeks. It's about to get put in the fridge so I don't have to feed it as much.

    Here's the way to make a starter from scratch. I used whole spelt wheat flour and then switched to bread flour. Pretty much all starter recipes I've seen use this method, including the part where you keep throwing away part of it to keep the volume down.
    This was the food blog I used to walk me through making sourdough loaves. It's wordy as hell which put me off at first but if you have time to just read while drinking coffee in the morning or something, do it. The actual prep and cooking methods are really simple but the loaves require a long rest at the front end to double in size. The folding of the loaf is a new technique for me but really helps make the loaves turn out perfect.

    First loaf I forgot to score until I uncovered the pot in the oven but it didn't effect anything other than the look of it too much. We've eaten panini style turkey/spinach/onion/aged white cheddar & provolone sandwiches, and for breakfast sandwiches with grilled ham, duck eggs and cheese. BTW, grilled ham is just like bacon but faster, less greasy, and cheaper. It's my new favorite breakfast meat.

    Next step, learn how to make super beautiful artisan looking loaves with decorative scoring.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Nothingdoing

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    Thanks for your advice Nerds, I gave it another shot over the weekend and this time it came out so much better.

    I've still got alot of tweaking to make, as pulled a bit too soon and all the fat hadn't broken down, but what I got was really flavoursome and tender.

    This time I dry brined it overnight, then smoked for 10 hours with a blend of Hickory and Maple wood. I also spritzed it regularly with a 50/50 mix of espresso and apple cider.

    20200612_192256_copy_980x2016.jpg 20200612_192012_copy_980x2016.jpg
     
  5. Revengeofthenerds

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    now that looks really good!! You've got a nice thick, consistent smoke ring which means you both trimmed it well and smoked it properly. Everything else is just tweaking, and that's the fun part -- more excuse to eat brisket, and you also see significant improvements in it each time.

    I forgot to mention temp in the first post, I aim for 203-205 internal temp for both brisket and ribs, just find it works best for me. Unless there are guests waiting and I have to pull it off NOW (which means I fucked something up anyway), I never pull it off below 195. Some people don't wanna go that high on meat, because it keeps cooking as it rests and the internal temp will still go up, thus, in theory, drying it out, but between how I trim it, how I spritz it, and what temp and how long I smoke it, I've never had an issue with dryness at that point.

    I'm doing pulled pork for Father's Day and I guess with the staffing issues in processing plants backing things up they're having to send through larger pigs, because the smallest pork shoulder I found was 16 lbs and one I got which looked the best was at 20 lbs. Normally I go around 12-14 lbs untrimmed. 20 lbs is a damn brisket. So I'm gonna cook it like one. This time I'm gonna make a more sugar-based rub and spritz it with straight apple cider, I'll let y'all know how that goes.
     
  6. Revengeofthenerds

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    gonna make the dry rub for the pulled pork either tonight or tomorrow. Idea is to trim it roughly 36 hours before I smoke it, and let it sit in the dry rub in the fridge for about that long. Once the pork shoulder is pulled apart, I'm going to put more of the dry rub over it as just a seasoning then, since bark is such a small percentage of the overall meat when doing pork shoulder. Going for more of a sweet and savory thing. Not sure of the proportions yet but for the ingredients I'm thinking:

    - pure cane sugar
    - brown sugar
    - sea salt
    - sesame seeds
    - chili powder
    - garlic powder
    - cumin
    - ginger powder
    - either ground dried rosemary, thyme, or italian seasoning blend... some type of aromatic. I'm gonna just put it in my spice grinder or mortar and pestle it
    - not sure about black pepper yet. The Texan in me wants to base every dry rub off the standard dalmatian rub.
     
  7. Revengeofthenerds

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    94EBA649-32B3-43A7-B8D8-06E2DD393F51.jpeg

    Quick pickle red onions. Easy as hell, takes about 15 minutes including prep, ready to eat in 30 minutes and keeps for a while in the fridge.

    1 cup water
    Half cup Apple cider vinegar
    1 table spoon sugar
    1.5 teaspoons salt

    there’s your base. Dissolve it in a pan, when it gets simmering pour it over thinly sliced onions, let it cool then put in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

    I added a few cloves of garlic and some fresh herbs. You can or not. Doesn’t matter, I’m not eating what you make.
     
  8. jdoogie

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    I make a jar of these about every two weeks, if they last that long. I also throw in a tsp of red pepper flakes to give them a bit of spiciness to them. Also, a Tbsp of toasted whole coriander seed makes a WORLD of difference.
     
  9. Revengeofthenerds

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    yeah I was gonna do red pepper flakes but I’m cooking for people who think onions are “spicy” so couldn’t mess with that. Need to get some more coriander seeds though thanks for reminding me
     
  10. Nettdata

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    Huh... never heard of them... I'll have to give it a try.
     
  11. bewildered

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    My mom makes a version of this but it's called cucumber salad with more cucumbers than red onions in the ratio. Super tasty summer salad.
     
  12. bewildered

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    It's noon 45 on a Tuesday and I'm making chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and pecans for about the 5th time in a row. I use a good recipe and they are super tasty but I am desiring some variety.

    Does anyone have a favorite cookie recipe that includes nuts they'd like to share?
     
  13. Blue Dog

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    My wife made chocoflan, and I topped my slice with a shot of coffee/rum liqueur:
    18464569-8908-47E2-8D3E-2213DAA64A70.jpeg
    B4F7283A-8DBD-4741-A3AB-7A808F2BF9FB.jpeg
     
  14. bewildered

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    I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time using this, baked it in a nilla wafer/cinnamon graham cracker crust.

    Gotta love that kitchenaid stand mixer. It turned out perfect, but I've never made meringue before so mine wasn't that pretty on the pie. This was a good recipe to burn up some duck eggs. The only thing I sorted messed up was refrigerating it too fast. I should have cooled to room temp and then chilled. The pie ended up with little sugar moisture beads on the top of the meringue.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Nettdata

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    Had some surf and turf tonight.

    Shrimp sautéed with fresh from the garden swiss chard, some lobster tails smothered with butter infused with basil and garlic and chives from the garden, and a killer strip loin hunk done in the sous vide.

    It didn’t suck.

    767E2E5F-FCF1-498A-B6DE-472A9B7DF984.jpeg
     
  16. bewildered

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    Tried again, looks a little better,

    Did you know that you can pipe meringue? I suck at piping but might need to expand my skillset...

    [​IMG]
     
  17. bewildered

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    Red thai curry with a few of the garden veggies thrown in.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]




    And just one more pic of the pie. I am way too excited over these damned pies.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. bewildered

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  19. bewildered

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    I made lentil curry based loosely on this recipe and recommend you give it a go:
    https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/lentil-curry/

    It is some GOOD shit. I seasoned mine a bit differently based on what I had and what I like. Probably tripled the amount of lentils, carrot and fresh ginger but only doubled the liquids so mine was a bit thicker at the end, added 2 chicken breasts to the recipe too. I seasoned heavily with fresh ginger, fresh garlic, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, paprika, cumin, dash of cinnamon, dried arbol chiles.
    My main takeaways from this recipe was: use fire roasted tomatoes. The carrots, onion, and fire roasted tomatoes make such a great base. And the addition of lemon juice drizzled on top at the end really pops. I didn't have fresh lemons and just drizzled bottled lemon juice and it was still great.
     
  20. sisterkathlouise

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    That looks super tasty and also like you could add whatever veggies or proteins you happen to have around. Yum.

    I've been making a lot of Indian food lately, too, and I've had a fair amount of success with the MDH brand spice blends. The Hyderabadi Biryani masala? SO good, even if I keep adding too many vegetables and making my biryani a little too wet. Kitchen King is a good all purpose blend. Very good good on popcorn, too. But maybe my favorite is the chunky chat masala (unfortunate name, I know) but if you put it in some yogurt with cucumber or boondi you've got a real tasty raita. My saag paneer also leveled up recently when I started tossing the paneer cubes with turmeric, salt, hot chili powder and a little coconut oil, then toasting them before putting it in with the saag. You just have to be careful not to eat them all in between.