Funky Old Cow

[tekobo]

27 minutes ago, MacKenzie said:

Skip the seafood kebabs. 

Sabotage!  Some people actually LIKE seafood, Mac.  

[MacKenzie]

Sabotage!  Some people actually LIKE seafood, Mac.  

You're teasing me, right. ROFL

[Basher]

That lump of meat looks superb.

Tekabo I'd season this with your favourite spices, leave it in the fridge for at least 10 hours then slow cook it straight from the fridge with the KK temp around 90C- 100C until the meat comes 5C short of the internal temp you like, then crank up the heat and reverse sear. For me, final meat temp is around 50C. For my wife it's closer to 60C.

If you like blue, and judging by your last sous vide cook, maybe your preferred final temp is about 45C. Not many people can handle blue. 50- 55C is our preferred compromise?

It looks like there is enough marbling in this chunk to handle a long slow cook.

The longer time in the KK will allow an even colour and texture distribution through a big chunk of meat and a smokey crust............ mmm, I can smell it!

Good luck with the cook.

I'm going to have to order my KK this week. This website is driving me crazy.

[tekobo]

Thanks @Basher.  I'm slowly getting more comfortable with the idea of the cook. I agree, I will have to go up to 50-55C to meet general taste.  The weight will be important.  I am not certain that I have enough meat for a good feed for all so I may have to do more than my current plans for tapas and seafood skewers.  Searing in the KK will be interesting because that will be a big hunk of meat to manoeuvre.  Will practice on Friday when I have it out of the freezer.  

[tony b]

Can't wait to see the pics of the final results!

[Tyrus]

19 hours ago, tekobo said:

Sabotage!  Some people actually LIKE seafood, Mac.  

How true. Interested in what kind of appetizers you may have in the works. Will you light your guests on fire with spice or take the subtle approach. And the beef, it looks like a winner. If your interested look this one up on Utube,,Smoked Salmon Spread in Cucumber Cup. I did that for my daughters wedding shower as an hors d'oeuvers. Changed it around by  cooking the salmon the day before in a traditional way of salt, brown sugar, pepper and dry dill. Made the mix as stated and added cold diced cooked scallops and shrimp. Made 3 dishes and all disappeared. Cold appetizer My wife didn't like my first idea of placing the salmon on a plate surrounded by crackers. Gotta admit this was better.

[tekobo]

So, I am feeling more confident about things.  I have a running order and a plan for the beef.  In love with Spanish restaurant Sabor and am indexing their cookbook for Eat Your Books.  All the sides for this meal come from that book.  So, here goes:

The Husband in charge of drinks.  He has proposed Aperol Spritz.  And mojitos for people like me who don't like bitter.

To go with drinks we will have banderilas - basically short sticks with stuff on them to eat in one mouthful with your drink.  Olives, peppers, ham, stuff like that.  Will also be trying an on bread tapa with lardo and salted anchovies.  Will trial run tonight to see how that tastes.

Sides for BBQ will be a roast/grilled cauliflower dish with dried spanish chillies and nice Marcona almonds, a tomato, avocado and fennel salad and a green salad.  Green salad will have my non-Spanish favourite dressing of the moment - black garlic vinny courtesy of the Le Pigeon recipe book. 

Will have skewers with monkfish, prawn and tuna and a bit of courgette on.  Planning to let guests grill them themselves on the konro.  Hoping that works out OK.  

Now for the beef.  I weighed it on bathroom scales this morning. It comes to 8.5kg.  Not massive and includes bone.  Going to try something in the KK that I have done in the IDK before but never outdoors.  Will sear the raw meat in the 21 and then move it to the 23 to cook at 60C.  Holding the KK at 60C may be a fantasy but that is the level at which it is supposed to cook for about 6 hours to reach internal temp of about 50-55C.  Then it needs an hour to rest.  I think I will smoke for the first hour or so but not longer because I don't want to over power the meat.  What do you think?  Any additional advice before I embark on this mad task tomorrow will be gratefully received.  

And I am sure I will panic about quantity of food and add something in when The Husband isn't looking.  Maybe sliced smoked goose breast will make a nice tapa.  

[Tyrus]

May the cooking gods be with you

[MacKenzie]

I have every confidence that you will pull it off beautifully. 

[Braai-Q]

17 hours ago, tekobo said:

So, I am feeling more confident about things.  I have a running order and a plan for the beef.  In love with Spanish restaurant Sabor and am indexing their cookbook for Eat Your Books.  All the sides for this meal come from that book.  So, here goes:

The Husband in charge of drinks.  He has proposed Aperol Spritz.  And mojitos for people like me who don't like bitter.

To go with drinks we will have banderilas - basically short sticks with stuff on them to eat in one mouthful with your drink.  Olives, peppers, ham, stuff like that.  Will also be trying an on bread tapa with lardo and salted anchovies.  Will trial run tonight to see how that tastes.

Sides for BBQ will be a roast/grilled cauliflower dish with dried spanish chillies and nice Marcona almonds, a tomato, avocado and fennel salad and a green salad.  Green salad will have my non-Spanish favourite dressing of the moment - black garlic vinny courtesy of the Le Pigeon recipe book. 

Will have skewers with monkfish, prawn and tuna and a bit of courgette on.  Planning to let guests grill them themselves on the konro.  Hoping that works out OK.  

Now for the beef.  I weighed it on bathroom scales this morning. It comes to 8.5kg.  Not massive and includes bone.  Going to try something in the KK that I have done in the IDK before but never outdoors.  Will sear the raw meat in the 21 and then move it to the 23 to cook at 60C.  Holding the KK at 60C may be a fantasy but that is the level at which it is supposed to cook for about 6 hours to reach internal temp of about 50-55C.  Then it needs an hour to rest.  I think I will smoke for the first hour or so but not longer because I don't want to over power the meat.  What do you think?  Any additional advice before I embark on this mad task tomorrow will be gratefully received.  

And I am sure I will panic about quantity of food and add something in when The Husband isn't looking.  Maybe sliced smoked goose breast will make a nice tapa.  

Can I invoice you for a new keyboard after I ruined mine by drooling all over it? 😮

My lunch really does have an inadequacy complex now.

[Basher]

Good luck Tekabo.

If it is not too late, read this article about smoke flavours attraction to cold, wet surfaces more than warm dry surfaces.

https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/grill-and-smoker-setup-and-firing/what-you-need-know-about-wood-smoke-and

There are plenty of variables at play before ending with your desired result of 50- 55C internal meat temp. Not sure that oven temp of 60C for 6 hours will get 8.5kg of a round lump of meat to this internal temp. Depends on starting temp of the meat- room temp or fridge temp? I think you may need an oven temp of 80- 100C? 

Either way, it sound like a fun night in front of you.

[Tyrus]

Well !! Are you still cleaning up? Hiding from the neighbors. Praytell how was the Beef?

[tekobo]

The party was just great.  The weather was fantastic and we were sat outdoors until almost midnight.  Quick run down.

Banderillas - one set topped with anchovies and other with cubes of prosciutto.  Amazing pockets of flavour to go with welcome drinks.  

Lardo on thin slices of French bread and topped with sweet anchovies.  Not really anchovies, a nice sweet Swedish cured fish that I don't know the name of.  Super delicious.  

We had a big pile of seafood skewers.  I just put them by the side of the konro and folk turned up to grill their own.  Everyone enjoyed that and it took the pressure off me.  

Deconstructed potato salad.  Looks much nicer in the making than when mixed up.  Other sides were available but I didn't get around to taking photos

The beef.  Took about 7 hours to get to temp.  Here is the KK shot.  I browned it in the other KK.  Made big fire with the dripping fat. Won't do it that way again. 

Beef in the kitchen

And starting to slice. 

A

Every bit of beef got eaten up, bar two slices and some people had room for dessert!  

 

 

[MacKenzie]

Sounds like a roaring success. 

[tony b]

 

[Tyrus]

That beef looked super, dark like cherry on the outside and pink as it should be on the slice. Nice knife too. Good idea with the Konro and the guests have a task to enjoy. The fish...could it have been a sweet pickled herring? Like the high tech probe, sticking out on the high end. Try as you might next time that'll be hard to beat

[El Pescador]

[tekobo]

Thank you all.  

Am super happy, given I was so worried about doing that piece of beef justice.  It was a legendary feast. Given I use these posts to remind me of how I cooked what I cooked, here are a few notes:

• Heston Blumenthal gives the option to brown before or after cooking.  He claims the Maillard reaction "multiplies" during the cook if you brown first but you are less likely to overcook the flesh if you sear after the meat has rested and cooled a bit.  I liked the idea of the long Maillard reaction and didn't want to be attempting to brown the meat with the guests all around so I went for browning first.  
• The joint was browned in the 21.  Too big to manoeuvre with tongs.  Figure out whether there are gloves you could use or just use a torch to brown.
• The requirement was to cook at 60C for 4-6 hours.  I targetted 100C on the assumption that the temperature close to the meat would be lower than the dome thermometer.  Lit half a basket fresh coals in one spot with vents wide open.  Throttled back once I had got to about 70C and let the KK heat up to 100C.  
• Two hours after lighting the fire I placed the meat in the KK, towards the back away from the coals.  Mistake not to have checked the internal temperature before then.  In spite of having defrosted over 1.5 days and been left out for two hours before the cook, the temperature in the centre was -2C.  Eeek.  The MEATER was a great help.  I steadied the temperature at about 80C and monitored the rate at which the IT was rising.  All good. That is until about four hours in, the MEATER stopped working.  By then I had confidence in the KK holding temperature so I just tested the meat occasionally with my ordinary, old fashioned stick thermometer.
• I used the hot cold smoker but the meat was only lightly smoked in the end.  Good because The Husband was orignally against the idea of any smoke.  Thanks @Basher for the reference, will experiment with smokiness on future cooks.  
• Great joy at the end of the 7.5 hour cook to draw the thermometer through the meat and see it hold steady at 51C throughout. 
• The meat rested for one hour before cutting but there was still a lot of leakage at the point of carving.  It was very moist to eat in any case.

Still super happy and won't be so scared next time.  

Edited July 15, 2019 by tekobo

[Bruce Pearson]

Looks and sounds like a great gathering with lots of great food and drink that meat looks delish

[Basher]

Good summary thanks Tekabo. What spices did you add?

When you took the meat off to rest at 51C, did the temp climb much?