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ok so nearly 8 hours in the oven steaming and it's been stuck in the stall at about 170F for at least 4 hours... glad the oven will cook to a certain temperature and turn off - need to drive tomorrow morning and think I might be up till sunrise if I had to babysit it!

Interesting stuff this and seems to make sense, how do you know when equilibrium has been reached though?

I seemed to find such differing amounts in the various recipes on the net for this - Chef Fowke's recipe earlier in this thread called for THREE POUNDS of salt for a 7lb brisket which seemed like a mountain to me (what's that, like nearly 43%?). Does the amount in the dry cure matter as much as how long the meat is in there for? Not sure. Guess we'll find out soon... internal temp is upto about 180F right now, still feels very tight when I fork it so guess I'll need to wait a bit longer yet. Will report back later

Happily smoking away in the snow (useful stuff, snow. piled some on the lid when it was getting a bit hot ): So, after four hours in the Weber (really can't do any more as its dark and about -7!) I've pulled it out: And brought it inside to finish cooking in the oven, its encased in a foil tomb, on a rack over some water, oven set to 250F to bring the internal temperature upto 185-190F over the next few hours.

Temp finally gets down to below 250F and the meat goes in, I'm using oak chips, possibly mixed with some maple later (for no other reason than that's what I had in the cupboard!): We probably have about four hours of daylight left so I think I'll pull it out after that and finish it in the oven with steam.

In the end I went with a 12lb brisket from a local Kosher butchers - seems the only way I can get one with enough fat on round here is to get from a kosher butcher. I followed this recipe for the dry cure: 3/4 lb kosher salt 1/2 lb ground peppercorn 1/8 lb white sugar 1/8 lb coriander seed (rough grind) 3 TBL ground clove 3 TBL ground bay leaf 2 TBL instacure (pink salt) and left it weighted in the fridge for 11 days, turning every day. After the curing (yesterday) I took it out of the fridge, rinsed thoroughly then soaked for 3 hours in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes. I then ground up 1/3lb Peppercorns and 1/6lb corrainder seed and rubbed this well into the entire surface of the meat and stuck if back in the fridge overnight, weighted again. Here's how it looks this morning, ready to be cooked: As you can see, today is a perfect day for lighting up the Weber... Just waiting the BBQ to cool down now and the meat can go in...

There is no wrong... only likes and dislikes. No, I'm sorry, that's just wrong! :biggrin: quite like my milk steamed like a cappucino in a hot chocolate.

Peeling shallots. Can't stand it. Also, anything using a food processor - any joy at the efficiency of it is swallowed up by the mess of cleaning the damn thing afterwards.

Looks really good. Cheeks have become my new favourite cut of meat this year, beef or pork have never been anything short of spectacular when I've cooked them.

Just resurrecting this amazing topic having spent a whole evening drooling over it. I really want to make some pastrami but want to avoid the problems I've had with salt beef using brisket (ending up tasty but too dry). Does anyone have any tips what I should ask for in the UK to get what you guys call "plate" or "navel plate"? Looking at the diagrams on wiki, "brisket" in the UK seems to go further towards the back of the animal than it does in the US, i.e. it seems to encompass what you call the plate. How can I describe it so that I get the right level of fat to make a good pastrami?

Link to the full sized SVS at just £349 in John Lewis: http://www.johnlewis.com/231061708/Product.aspx have to say I'm quite interested in one of these...

Hmmmm, maybe that's it then, perhaps there was too much charcoal in there, I'll give it another go with some tighter packed smaller lumps only halfway up the chimney. Cheers guys... I'll be back!

Hi crout, 1. The usual webber one. 2. Absolutely 3. Yup 4. Definitely, used solid lumpwood, sold as 'restaurant grade' so nice big pieces, probably used slightly more than the recipe to make sure it was properly hot, probably full to the top though with these big chunks that's not as much as it would be with briquettes/smaller lumpwood. 5. Well.... Sort of. It made noise and I could see spitting when I bent down to it, but when it came out after 1 1/2 mins it was still pretty pale brown, certainly got more appetising after it's time on the top but was definitely not charred. I think maybe I'll try it for longer periods of time with thicker steaks to see if that gets it nearer where it's meant to be. Hard to to fault the medium rare done-ness but not as mouth wateringly charred as I'd like it.

here are the videos of him doing tuna loin on top of the chimney: Part 1, Part 2.

Ok, so I tried this today. Used dry aged ribeyes instead of porterhouse but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter. Certainly made a nicely cooked steak, perfectly done but lacked real char on the outside and suffered a bit for this, not sure why this happened really, the lump wood I used doesn't normally have any problems getting up to temp and certainly seemed hot enough today but the meat was only light brown when I finished the first stage of cooking (the part underneath the chimney), is this normal or were my coals not hot enough?

I am so trying this, sounds like the ideal way to mess around with some nice steaks this weekend

thanks for the reply harters, always find it weird how much this debate polarises people. My main reason for having the preference is that I have NEVER eaten steak in this country that comes close to the USDA Prime stuff I've had in N America. Not in a restaurant, not from a butcher, not anywhere. The butchers I tend to use for beef at the moment are Pimlotts in cheadle hulme, their meat is very very good - certainly the best beef I've managed to source so far, even slightly better than what I used to get from Axons when we lived in Didsbury - but it has nothing like the marbling that Prime rated cuts have in the US, I mean not even close. I'll keep searching, might give the Chorlton butchers a try as I've not been to them before.

I'm having a bit of a steak phase at the moment, got a weber BBQ this summer and have finally got to grips with getting the temp right, got some upgraded cast iron grills and have been making some really good steaks (and wings, and pork and lamb... but thats another thread). But.... (there's always a but isn't there!) as good as the beef I get from my usual butcher is, it's not a patch on what I've had in the US/Canada - the flavour and texture of grain fed is, for me, so far ahead of what we tend to get here. Does anyone have any links to suppliers of really good grain fed beef in the UK? I live in Cheshire/Manchester so don't mind a bit of a drive round this area, failing that internet/mail order would be ok too.

Made the best pancakes I have ever made this morning: Mix the following into a batter: 115g plain flour 3 egg yolks 2 heaped tsp baking soda 170ml buttermilk (plus a splash of water if it looks too dry) Whisk the 3 remaining egg whites to stiff peaks then fold these in to the batter gently. Fry over a medium heat in a little oil or butter and serve with smoked bacon and maple syrup :) perfection. The whisked egg whites and baking soda really add a superb lightness to them though they HAVE to be eaten immediately, never had a problem with that mind!

I've made it and found it pretty easy though also very longwinded, the results were good but I'm not sure quite justified the amount of time it takes. The meat ends up very very soft and some of our diners found that detracted somewhat from the 'steakiness' of it. I think a bit of chew is no bad thing in a steak. It's such a large piece of meat that I'm not convinced you need to go to such lengths - have had much more enjoyable and considerably quicker results from taking a rib of beef, charring it as quickly as possible on a gas grill then finishing it in a low oven (120C seems to work fine) until the core temp comes upto 52C then resting well. I love the taste of charred meat and with such a thick cut it's perfectly possible to do this while leaving a large amount of perfectly cooked flesh beneath.

Went through quite a lot of different types of flour trying to get the no knead recipe right, the very high gluten content in the Canadian stuff from waitrose seems to give a lovely crisp crust with a nice chewiness - you get REALLY dramatic in-oven bubbles too, looks and tastes very good for the tiny amount of effort needed. Thiss flour seems to take a lot more water too - 750ml per 1000g is a lot wetter dough than most of the no knead recipes I tried first.

No need - you can do it easier and better yourself! One of my favourite finds on eGullet has been the no-knead bread recipe. Never quite managed to get a whole loaf that was how I wanted it but for pizzas, garlic breads or little dinner rolls it's perfect. You'll find the thread somewhere on here but in short all you need to do is mix the following ingredients using a big spoon then leave it for between two and five hours somewhere warm. You can use it straight away or get an even better flavour by keeping it in the fridge for a while (successfully upto about three weeks for me). It works with all sorts of different flours but this particular combination gives great results: 1000g Waitrose extra strong Canadian bread flour 750ml hot water from the tap 25g salt 12g dried active yeast Just mix till the flour is all incorporated into the water then cover partially with a plate and leave somewhere warm until it's risen to fill the bowl and gone shinier and smoother, to be honest I was amazed that it gets to this consistency without any kneading at all, but it really does. When you're ready to make a pizza just cover your hand in flour, grab a good handful and pop it in the middle of an oiled and floured sheet of foil, dump loads more flour on top then roll it out as thin as possible. Top how you like then cook on a well preheated pizza stone in a really hot oven -perfect pizza at home with little or no effort EDIT: just been back through this thread and have seem that this sort of recipe has already been suggested using different American flours, if you've got a waitrose near you then give it a go using the above quantities it really is foolproof.

As you have pointed out the paper claims are pretty much worthless unfortunately so it's going to be difficult to be sure about the noise level without hearing the hoods in action.

Does seem a bit strange doesn't it, any way, I've decided that I'll do a little experiment. I've got some completely sealable containers so I've pulled the meat and put it in those, in one of them I've added back in a little of the cooking liquid but the rest I've left as they are (i.e. dry-ish). I'll see which seems best in the morning. At least this way I've got a nice easy job of de-fatting the liquid tomorrow and can decide what to do with the second overnight storage before finally serving/eating this great looking food on saturday Thankfully our weather forecast at the moment looks more like autumn/winter than summer

Exactly what I'd always thought but these two comments made me wonder: