Cooking Methods

[Ron Pratt]

barry593 wrote:

quote :

Hi Ron,
……By liability I meant I don’t want people trying to hold this web site, Umai or anyone else liable for any ideas they may read at this website/forum.

The liability thing…I am probably going overboard with it, I just don’t want anyone getting hurt…You are the moderator here, what do you think?

Barry

Barry,
The legalese was already addressed in the Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when you registered here. Furthermore note the fine print at the bottom of the page.I hope that puts your mind to ease.
Ron

[Scott Mark]

RRP wrote:

quote :

barry593 wrote:

quote :

Hi Ron,
……By liability I meant I don’t want people trying to hold this web site, Umai or anyone else liable for any ideas they may read at this website/forum.

The liability thing…I am probably going overboard with it, I just don’t want anyone getting hurt…You are the moderator here, what do you think?

Barry

Barry,
The legalese was already addressed in the Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when you registered here. Furthermore note the fine print at the bottom of the page.I hope that puts your mind to ease.
Ron

The Terms and Conditions will have some weight, because folk “agree” to it. The fine print at the bottom of the page is meaningless. You can claim that you aren’t liable, and hope that scares off lawsuits, but a first-year law student will walk right through such a disclaimer.

On the other hand – meat’s pretty darned safe now. Surface bacteria is a problem, but the aging process kills the bacteria (and MANY of us trim off the surface, anyway!). Intramuscular bacteria is pretty low, to the point where almost any beef that has been handled properly could be eaten “carpaccio” (raw). We aren’t aging chicken (where salmonella is a real concern) and listeria is more associated with ground beef products – again, surface bacteria.

Trichinosis is almost as extinct as polio. And, apparently, I’m the only one dry-aging pork at the moment.

This is not food-advice, but as a practical matter the odds are pretty slim that you’re going to do something dangerous to the interior of your sub-primal. You’re going to trim the exterior of your sub-primal, and the sniff test will give you guidance on the safety of any particular piece of meat.

My own scare-story: I got a rolled sirloin tip from a reputable source in a vac-bag. I dropped it (in the original bag) into the sous-vide at (I think) 128 degrees F for two days. It seemed to be doing fine, then the whole thing swelled like a balloon. That’s not supposed to happen below about 150F.

We cut it open and pitched it based on initial smell of the bag gasses, but I was so tempted to try it. It was a beautiful color. Turns out that 131F is the magic number for long-term sous-vide. Kinda scary, and makes me want to go to 132.3F just for some safety margin.

It was a rolled roast, with string netting around it. Probably the netting had a lot of cultured bacteria on it, but that’s speculation based on the practices I’ve seen.

So, for sous vide, that’s one justification for the sear-chill-vacpac- sousvide method.

[Scott Mark]

barry593 wrote:

quote :

BTW…as you well know from your BGE experiences smoked meats are really good and they can be cold smoked such as steaks, pork and poltry or smoked in an indoor smoker before hot tubbing. A lot of people have never had smoked meat and I’m sure you would agree they are worth a try. I would never even eat a non smoked pork rib anymore, but you bet I’m gonna try one hot tubbed after cold smoking! IMHO even aged beef can be improved by smoking as long as it’s a Very light smoking. Anyhoo…….

Barry

I agree entirely, and … ’tis the season for cold-smoking!

I’ve got — doesn’t matter. A cooker. I put in an electric “5th burner” and put a cast iron skillet filled with sawdust on it. Meat goes on the racks, hot plate gets turned up enough to smoke the sawdust and keep the meat from being too cold to accept the smoke.

Refill sawdust according to preference.

Friday I’ll be picking up duck breast. Some I will cold-smoke, some I will not. Then I’ll be salting it overnight and making duck breast “prosciutto”. And then I’ll be able to tell you what we think of the cold-smoke treatment. But the results will be a few weeks out. That’s one of the maddening things about this – results take a very long time.

Grr.

By the way, I’m bummed about duck breast prices. I was paying $4.95 / lb at my last house. Here it is $12.49 / lb. Either way, I highly recommend duck “prosciutto”. It’s wonderful, and easy.

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