Hi All, I am a new member but a longtime reader. I have seen sous vide demonstrated many times but this thread actually convinced me that I should try it! I've been using a Sous Vide Magic in combination with a consumer rice cooker for about 2 months now. It has been tough finding the right temperature for whichever protein I've decided to cook. I find that my tastes tend to be closer to rare than other members here. Since I am from Montreal, and if you ask me Montreal has the best smoked meat, I have been searching for the best technique to smoke a whole brisket and not have it come out dry or too harsh in its smokiness. I don't have the luxury of a commercial sized smoke house so I have had to make due with my Centro brand electric smoker and I find that the temperature control is too finicky and the resultant smoke too harsh. What I did last week was dry cured a couple of small briskets from the flat side in a rub containing kosher salt, black pepper, coriander seeds, celery seeds, paprika, and a few bay leaves. I left this in the fridge in a zip lock bag flipping it every day. After three days I rinsed and dried the meat and then re-spiced it. I then put it in the smoker with mesquite chips and set the temperature to 155F. It took about 15 minutes for the smoke to begin forming and at that point I let the meat smoke for exactly 15 minutes. When I removed the meat the wood chips were not yet completely black and smoldering. I feel that this is critical. I let the meat rest and then put it in the freezer for about 1 hour to solidfy any blood and juice. I vacuum sealed each brisket seperately using my Food Saver 2460 and then cooked them sous-vide for 2 days at 135F. At the end of 2 days the meat had lost quite a bit of juice and the bags were pretty loose. The flavor and texture though were unlike any other smoked meat I ever had. It was not at all like something you would find at Schwartz' or some other fine smoked meat restaurant but it was still great. As I said, the texture was soft but not crumbly. The meat was moist throughout and the smoke flavor was not at all harsh. It was subtle and sublime. Though 15 minutes in a smoker is not enough to develop a smoke ring, bathing in it's own juice which obviously was filled with smoke flavor allowed the essence of smoke to permeate throughout but not be over-powering. The only thing I forgot, and I am kicking myself now, was to add some garlic to the pouch. I am also thinking of adding some sort of citrus... not a lot but just a bit to counteract some of the carcinogens in smoke. Thanks for reading and I'd appreciate any comments!
