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.

Many spices will work--including those you've used. The trick is to flavor the oil first, before you add the garlic. To do this bring the oil up to ~180F, no higher, then add the spice(s). Allow to gently cook for 15-20 min (crushing the spices immediately before adding to the oil is helpful). Strain the spices out then add the garlic. Let the garlic sweat several minutes before you increase the heat to finish it.

I am not a fan of drying peppers to bone dry for grinding but you can. I dry slowly on screens, lightly covered, just out of the sun, but a dehydrator is fine. My preference is to take them to the somewhat stiff leather stage, then toast briefly in a dry pan (whenever I am ready to grind), till slightly toasted but not crisp; further drying occurs after toasting just dumped on a plate on the counter to cool. Ditch the seeds before grinding.

It is not used with beef (nor lamb) because brining causes the meat to discolor, turning gray. For roasts that will be cooked completely through this isn't an issue but since they generally aren't it is.

Well, then using the info you've provided (times, temps, when it was touched, fridged) I don't see anything that supports the assertion that it needs to be thrown out. If you're going to finish cooking it do so. Rest the pork post cook then pull it while it's hot. Either keep it hot after pulling (all parts >130) or cool it quickly for reheating at another time. DO NOT pack warm pork in a container and fridge it. Pull the pork and place shallowly in pans and allow to cool (chilling the pans first will speed cooling) then, when cool-ish, place the pans (uncovered if nothing is above them; loosely covered if something is) in the fridge till cold. Then cover tightly. You can combine the pans' contents if you'd like, placing all in one pan or into a Zip-loc or whatever, after all is cold.

Realist here. 'All day' didn't occur. One isn't going to see Staph outgrowth during cooking. The meat would have to have been handled as temps dropped. Staph aureus is destroyed by pasteurization (which had occured already), so post-cook contamination is a necessary step. It wasn't handled till the morning when it was then fridged (I don't like the 'covered' issue, as noted) and could have been contaminated at that point, but I do not see suitable conditions for toxigenesis unless the meat was fridged warm and covered. (If it was it should be pitched.)

The FDA/USDA (and, by extension, ServSafe) are tasked with informing the public, providing protocols, certifying food service employees, etc. Ask anyone in any of those agencies for the science-based data they have to support the '4-hour rule' and you'll likely be met with blank stares--because there isn't any. Pathogenic and toxigenic bacteria do not wear watches nor do the food items on which they grow. How long food can remain safe can vary widely and is utterly dependent on the nature of the food, its pH, what the temps achieved during cooking were, how long it took for the temps to fall and the time, especially, that the item was between 70 and 105, and several other factors. (My conncern with the above stems from the recent post stating the meat was covered when fridged. Unless cool first, that shouldn't happen.) ServSafe and the consumer material from the FDA/USDA use fairly dumbed down info for training and for consumers because it is succinct: neat and tidy. All, e.g., will say to reheat properly cooked and properly cooled/chilled items to 165--but this is not supported by science. Even their 'danger zone' of 40-140 isn't correct (it's 40-130). 'When in doubt...' is fine--but ignorant. That's okay if one isn't working with sufficient information. It's out there though. Just don't expect it from ServSafe.

The issue here--or, rather, the potential issue here--would be Staph. aureus. S. aureus isn't a concern on raw meat because it is a very poor competitor with the spoilage bacteria that are present and growth is minimal. It can become a problem after cooking if the meat is handled (many people carry S. aureus on their skin) or from an errant cough or sneeze. Other than cross contamination (touching raw chicken, say, then the cooked pork, or putting the cooked pork on an unclean cutting board), S. aureus can cause problems if the meat is handled then not cooled relatively quickly. It does produce heat stable toxins. Outgrowth and toxin production takes many hours (many more than 4). I am not seeing a concern here.

Yes, you can put it in the oven to finish it--whole. It is a myth that internal temp causes or means 'done' when it comes to barbecue. A specific internal might correlate with tender but it also might not. If you wrap the pork in foil the finishing will be quicker but you'll lose some bark texture. If you don't, more time will be needed. In either case, the pork is done when the bone is loose (if it is bone-in), a probe enters effortlessly into the meat, and the meat begins to fall apart when you handle it. This can happen (especially if there is a secondary plateau) in the 180s. (I have many butts never reach 190 that are fall-apart tender.)

It usually kills you. If you mean in your vegs or fruits, you don't. You have to assume it's there.

This is incorrect. C. botulinum requires anaerobic conditions for spore outgrowth and toxin formation. Also note that many varieties of tomatoes are low in acid. Unless the tomatoes are sufficiently acidified pre-canning they cannot be assumed to be acidic enough to prevent C. bot outgrowth.