klkruger

There are a couple ways to speed browning. One, as noted, is to salt upfront. Only a little is needed. Salt will allow moisture from the onions to exude sooner and more quickly so that it will evaporate sooner, necessary for browning. Another is to add a pinch of baking soda. Raising the pH a bit will also speed browning as Maillard reactions come quicker in a less acidic environment, the reason lye washes are used on pretzels.

Smoke particulates continue to stick to meat surfaces as long as they are present. One can easily experience this: Leave something too long in smoke and it tastes 'oversmoked', i.e., too strong with, often, sharp or bitter notes. The only thing that is limited is the formation of the smoke ring, the chemical reaction that causes the meat to form a red ring from the surface inward. This stops as the meat's temp rises but has nothing to do with smoke adherence or smoke flavor.

Dry means overcooked. (A lot of liquid in the bag confirms this, imo.) 24 hours seems excessive to me. I have not done BBs sous vide though.

I'm frequently in Vegas. The costs you note are the same I pay there. They vary depending on the venue, as do yours, in the same range.

If it's not infant formula or some dairy products 'use-by' dates don't necessarily mean much. They are guesses at best and can be (and often are) changed by the meat department.

I use them--1 or 2. They add binding for loose stuffings and some richness.

Here's what I do: For a 19-20-lb skin-on fresh ham. 8 T Cure #1 23 oz Kosher salt 1.5 c organic sugar (regular white is fine)* 1.5 c brown sugar (light)* 5 cloves garlic, crushed 2 T whole black peppercorns, slightly crushed 1 T whole white peppercorns, slightly crushed 2 T Aleppo pepper 5 bay leaves 12 whole allspice 2 T whole coriander 2 sprigs fresh thyme 1 sprig fresh sage 1 whole guajillo chilies, washed, dried and toasted Put 5 qts cold water into a 10-qt pot and place in the fridge to chill. Put the above ingredients in a pot along with 2.5 quarts cold water and bring just to a boil, stirring frequently so that the curing salt, salt and sugars completely dissolve. Reduce the temp, cover, and simmer gently 15-20 min. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool uncovered for a bit then add to the cold water in the fridge, stir well, and allow to chill thoroughly, to 37-39 degrees. [Note: How much you make here will depend on the size container you have for your ham for curing. Take the ham--in its packaging or not--and place it in the container, cover completely with water, then remove the ham and measure the water. You will need 4 cups of the brine as an injection so account for that. If you need to make more then scale the ingredients up accordingly. The recipe above calls for 7.5 quarts of water total. You shouldn't need to scale up much but if you do you can likely just scale up by 50% from the get-go.] Meanwhile, remove the skin and most of the surface fat from the fresh ham. Place the ham in a dishpan or roasting pan. Measure out 4 cups of brine, strain it, returning any spices/solids to the brine pot, then grab your injector. Start injecting by focusing first on the area near the bone at each end of the ham then inject to and around the bone covering all sides of the ham. Inject most of your cure at the bone and the rest as you remove the injector from the meat. Use all 4 cups. Place your ham in whatever container you will use for curing and cover completely with the brine. Weight the ham to keep it totally submerged. Cure at 37-40 degrees for 10 days. Remove the ham from the brine and rinse well, removing any stuck on spices. Soak the ham for 3 hours in cold water, in the fridge, changing the water twice. Trim off a little piece of meat and fry it in neutral oil. Taste for salt. Soak again if you want it less salty. Smoke the ham using your smokewood of choice at ~240 to either 152-155 or so or, if glazing to finish, smoke to 140-145 first then glaze, applying thinly but evenly every 15 min, till the ham reaches 152-155. * You can sub other sweeteners if you wish. In most cases it is better to reduce some of both the white and brown sugars, replacing with your sweetener of choice.

I often find it better to do so (chill the items) for items like this--gives the egg time to dry some. I simply cover very loosely. (If needing to hold for a while then, after the cakes have had time to dry/firm up in the cold of the fridge, transfer to a cake cooling rack placed on a flat pan, cover again, and return to the fridge. This disallows moisture buildup between the plate and the cakes.)

If the idea is to use a straight brine--i.e., a salt- or salt-and-sugar only brine--then there is no point to brining. If the idea is to use a flavored brine then you can still do so. Use ~1/3 cup Morton kosher/gallon. (Adjust if using a different salt and adjust based on liquid volume.)

The issue would likely be C. perfringens. 125 is too low a holding temp. You'll have kill at the top of the danger zone (130, not 140 as commonly assumed) but the hold time is significant--112 min at 130--but this drops as temps are raised, of course: 35 min at 135, 11 at 140, 4 at 145, and so forth. This is to achieve a 6.5D (10^6.5) kill.

Like killing pathogenic bacteria, it is time at a particular temp one needs to be sure of a kill step. For trichanae: F---------C-------Time 130 ... 54.5 ... 30 min 132 ... 55.6 ... 15 min 134 ... 56.7 ... 6 min 136 ... 57.8 ... 3 min 138 ... 58.9 ... 2 min 140 ... 60 ..... 1 min 142 .... 61.1 .. 1 min 144 ... 62.2 ... Instant You need to hold at 137 for 2.3 min to achieve kill. Hardly an issue if roasting or grilling as the bump in temp during the rest covers this and then some.

Sauté. Food does not need to be kept moving almost constantly to be considered sauté. The fat needs to be of a relatively small quantity, the pan needs to be shallow and wide, the food needs to be able to fit the pan in one layer (though this element is often stretched a bit), and the heat needs to be relatively high. How long the food sits before you make it 'jump' (sauté) depends on the food and the level of browning, if any, you desire.

Sear to finish. Easier and shorter (since surface cooking has occurred), and searing at the end means the meat has a slower temp rise at the beginning. This helps with tenderness. Enjoy your rib roast. Was thinking of doing a brisket today but just haven't gotten it together.

Probably 3.5 hours or so smoke time (much depends on the actual temp and what the meat temp is when it goes in) to about 15˚ lower than your target. Then either do a finishing sear direct or stick in a 500˚ oven to sear.

Possibly. Fridging a pot that large is never a good idea. The center of the pot--especially--takes too long to cool. Either the contents should have been transferred to several small containers and cooled before fridging or the entire pot should have been placed in the sink and surrounded by ice water, stirred frequently, ice replaced as needed, till quite chilled, before fridging. Spoilage bacteria rarely cause illness. Pathogens and toxigens do--but they neither have nor create off flavors or odors.