Norm Matthews

It has been a long time since I have made mustard and I had to look this one up in my old handwritten cookbook, but this one was pretty good, if I recall correctly. 1/4 C. dry mustard 1/4 C. white wine vinegar 1/3 C. dry white wine 1 Tbsp. Honey. Stir together and allow to stand 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the top of a double boiler. Beat in 1/2 tsp. salt and 3 egg yolks. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly until slightly thick (5 minutes) Pour into 8oz jar, cool, refrigerate until ready to serve.

I always use a probe thermometer when roasting a rib-eye in the oven. I usually check it with boiled water to check for accuracy first. They can get quite a bit off sometimes. It is such a prime piece of meat, I want it to be just right and I keep an eye on it with the probe. It seems to me that 2.5 # is going to be big enough to use a probe. Going in the side is the way I've seen pros do it. The center is the best place to put it, IMHO. You can brown it in the skillet, insert the probe and finish it in the oven. If not that, then you can check it with an instant read thermometer. Sometimes, with practice, you can tell how done a steak is by feel. The flabbier it feels, the rarer it is. Hope this is helpful.

I don't know anything about sous vide but adding smoke isn't the only reason for smoking. You want a crust on it too and both smoke and crust takes more than an hour. Two hours is the least amount of time things are usually smoked. After that, I don't see any reason why you can'f finish it in the sous vide. PS Tri tip is traditionally grilled rather than smoked, as in a Santa Maria tritip.

OK. It's clear to me now. Thanks.

Radtek, yes I know. Prime isn't easy to come by and the one or two times I got meat from Walmart (steak, not brisket) it was poor quality and stringy tough. But I will take your advice and check out Walmart and another couple of stores to see if I can get some good brisket. I suspect that Hen House is going through a phase of downsizing or cost cutting in the meat dept. Some of the workers behind the counter seem to not be as aware of cuts or terminology as they were 6 months ago. Once they had to call someone out from the back to cut some meat to my order. (and he got it wrong anyway) PS It was easier to get really nice beef before I moved back home to Kansas City 3 years ago. I lived near a cattle ranch and they sold direct to the public. The meat wasn't graded but you could tell it was better than grocery store stuff by a good margin.

He said (paraphrasing) that there was a fire at the place where he got his brisket and supply was cut off for a short time and that he had to get less than prime briskets. While he was using lesser grades of brisket, a writer visited and he got his only ever bad review. He discussed grading as prime being USDA judged "defined as being from young,(nine to 30 months in age) well-fed beef with abundant marbling." This kind of was discouraging to me, for him to admit in effect that his methods were not as effective with less than top quality meat.

It's the internal marble fat and the collagen along with slow cooking are wrapping at the right time that keeps the brisket tender and moist, but I'd like to have a fat cap anyway. I am not finding a good brisket to try out yet. The butcher at Hen House said they would have some brisket with the point in the next day but when I went in, a different guy brought out a 'whole' brisket and it was just the whole flat and most of the fat had been trimmed off. He said they didn't have any with the point. Franklin says he uses prime grade brisket and that will be even harder to source around here, IMO.

OK, thanks. I wondered because the smoke looked white like steam, rather than blue smoke, and appeared to be falling rather than rising. Is that standard for pellets? Were the chips or pellets wet?

Dcarch, what is the source of the smoke?

It had been my experience that a brisket flat that is tough has been cooked at too high a temperature and for too short a time.

This picture turned out really badly but I smoked some pastrami and pork butt. Along with it we had an Asian bean sprout salad, green beans and mashed potatoes. I was going to have cabbage too but it was taking too long to cook so i skipped it.

I went to Hen House market to get a whole brisket today but the butcher told me he wouldn't have any until tomorrow. I looked at other stores yesterday and no one had anything for sale except flats. I got a small pork butt instead and defrosted a corned beef and seasoned it for pastrami and am smoking the two of them. I expect to have them ready for dinner in 30 or 40 minutes. They both have shrunk quite a bit. I have figured out that Franklin smokes his meats with the firebox door open and uses just enough fuel to maintain temperature while I tend to build a longer lasting fire and regulate the temperature with the damper.

Radtek ad Shel-B As was the case with Oklahoma Joe smokers, New Brauflels smokers are also now owned by Char Broil

Even in the long ago, Ernie Kovaks, when asked why TV was called a 'medium', said because it is neither rare nor well done.

I have made beer can chicken a few times on my Weber. I found that those devises made to hold the chicken, make it sit up too high for the lid to close.

The book just came. The mailman was three hours late and he was a new guy. I was standing by the mailbox and he handed me three envelopes and said " that's it" I told him that a book was supposed to come today , so he went in the back of the truck for a couple of minutes and found it.

City BBQ = Grilling: Direct and high heat, quick cooking for steaks, hamburger, tri-tip, London broil, hot dogs, etc. Southern BBQ = low indirect heat, long cooking and smoke is almost always involved. Meat that is tough when cooked too high and fast: ribs, pork shoulder, brisket, etc. Other meats can be smoked too. Cold smoking imparts flavor without actually cooking the meat. Salmon and cheese are a couple of cold smoked items.

In Texas, beef is king and brisket is most popular, but you can get ribs, sausage, pork, chicken, mutton, rattlesnake and armadillo. In West Texas cabrito ( young goat) is popular. In South Texas there is a dish where the head of a cow is wrapped in burlap and cheesecloth and BBQ-ed. Mexican seasoning is an influence in Texas cooking in general. Kansas City was a meat packing center for beef from Texas and hogs from Missouri. It's central location made it a place where BBQ influences came from all over. Beef, sausage, chicken and pork are common in restaurants here.

A whole pig with an apple in its mouth brings to mind Hawaiian luau cooking where the pig is buried in the ground with hot rocks and wrapped in banana leaves (or burlap and chicken wire). It is also done in Cuba and a tradition BBQ in Eastern North Carolina. Most other places in the US do pork shoulder (butt) and/ or ribs. I had a friend here in Kansas who used to do a whole hog in a 50 gallon drum cut in half and hinged for roasting. He did it over coals as a roast rather than with indirect heat as is done with smoking (true BBQ). I think that is what adey73 saw. That is probably done as a roast as my friend did. It is over direct heat at a moderate (325 to 350 degrees) Length of time is determined by the size of the pig. My friend rotated the pig at least once during the cook. I remember helping him a few times with that.

Nature Sweet cherry tomatoes are better than your average store bought tomato, IMHO.

Radtek, it is a 20-inch. They didn't have a 16-inch model on the floor. The price was a littlr shy of $2000.

I've seen those grill grates sold separately. http://www.sportys.com/preferredliving/grill-grates-includes-grate-tool-spatula.html I wanted to get some a couple years ago but didn't for some reason. They are supposed to be really good replacements for your grill. re that Yoder... wow. Just WOW.

I noticed they gave Guy a show right after they fired Emeril. I figured they wanted a flamboyant personality to replace him. Tie that together with programmers who think the model for daytime food TV is Let's Make a Deal and they have no one to blame but themselves.

His thermometer was specific for brisket. I guess the place most people put it is a "general estimate for anything" place. edit. I have used the kind of thermometer with the wire that goes inside and the gauge sits outside for a second thermometer once in a while but they aren't always trustworthy. They are OK for back up and most smokers I know use a thermopen on the meat itself.

It's useful to put one at either end so you know the high and low range.