I was looking for something new to smoke and found some great-looking Korean-style short ribs at Sam’s — thin, cross-cut slices across the bone rather than the thicker traditional cut. The marbling caught my eye, so I decided to give them a try. Cost was just under $10/lb, with the whole package running about $31…
Category: Beef
beef
Reverse Seared Tomahawk Steak — Dry Brined, Smoked, Seared Over Coals
I’d seen tomahawk steaks around several times but never felt the urge to buy one until this past weekend. I was looking for something to post that I hadn’t done before, and this was a good-looking piece of meat for only $32. I did a little research on how to prepare it and decided on…
Oven Cooked Prime Rib — No Rest Required, Slice and Serve
I decided to cook a prime rib for Easter this year. Publix tends to discount beef around this time of year, and I was able to snag a nice standing rib roast for $6.99/lb. I’ve cooked prime rib in the oven before, and I’ve also smoked one. My daughter gifted me a book a few…
Sous Vide Picanha — A Highly Recommended Cut, Finally Tried
Early in my sous vide journey, I watched a lot of content from a YouTube channel called Sous Vide Everything. I learned a lot from it early on and refined what worked best for me using this method. Some cuts turn out incredible sous vide; others, in my opinion, aren’t worth the extra effort. The…
Smoking American Wagyu Beef Ribs — A Gift Certificate Well Spent
I’d always wanted to try smoking beef ribs. I imagine they’re easy to find anywhere in Texas, but here in Middle Tennessee, they’re hard to come by. My daughter gifted me a certificate for Snake River Farms, and I finally pulled the trigger and ordered from them. The ribs arrived professionally packaged, sealed, and shipped…
Celebratory Brisket — Hot and Fast, After the Rebuild
It had been a long time since I’d smoked a brisket, since the last one ended up costing well north of $100K in repairs and replacement. This hot and fast brisket was my way of celebrating — the rebuild after the fire was finally finished. If you haven’t read the full story of how that…
Another Midnight Brisket — Testing the 22″ WSM
My local Kroger must have bought too much brisket, because they were closing them out — I ended up picking up 2 full packer choice grade briskets at $1.99/lb. One went in the freezer; this one I prepared with my standard overnight process. I normally run my 18″ WSM for brisket, but decided to try…
Sous Vide Brisket, Then Smoked — Does It Beat the Real Thing?
As a fan of trying every cooking method I can, I decided to sous vide a brisket before finishing it on the smoker. I’d seen plenty of people online talk about how great this turns out. This flat came from the same 12.5 lb full packer as my Burnt Ends Project post — the point…
Beef Burnt Ends from a Raw Brisket Point — Separated Before Smoking
This weekend I picked up a full packer brisket for $1.99/lb, right at $25 for a 12.5 lb brisket from my local Kroger. Since my sous vide container wasn’t big enough to hold a full packer, I trimmed it and separated the point from the flat before smoking — the point went toward these burnt…
72-Hour Sous Vide Beef Short Ribs, Finished on the Smoker
I’m a big fan of beef ribs, but they’re hard to find in Middle Tennessee — when I do see them, they usually don’t have much meat on them. I found some decent-looking short ribs at my local Publix and decided to give them a try. Doing a little research, I found three schools of…
Smoke-Free Sous Vide Chuck Roast — 48 Hours, Edge-to-Edge Medium Rare
It was a washout of a weekend, so instead of smoking something, I did a long sous vide cook instead. I picked up a large, thick chuck roast, over 5 pounds. I gave it a light sear before bagging it, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, vacuum sealed it, and set the Anova…
Overnight Smoked Brisket — My Low-and-Slow Midnight Method
This is my go-to process for brisket — the standard, no-frills overnight smoke I come back to more than any other method. Although the calendar said fall, the temps still felt like summer. Brisket prices had finally come back to earth, though, and I picked one up for just under $26 from my local GFS,…
Best Ribeye Ever — Sous Vide, Smoked, and Seared
Decided to mix things up a bit with my new sous vide. I picked up a couple of thick ribeyes on closeout — nothing special, about a $15 purchase. After doing some research, I decided to cook them 2.5 hours in the water at 129°F. Normally that would be followed by removing them and searing…
Eye Round – The French Connection: Sous Vide, Smoked, and Sliced for Sandwiches
I’m still playing around with my sous vide and picked up an eye round on closeout to try something new. The “French Connection” in the title isn’t a crime movie reference — sous vide itself is a French technique, literally translating to “under vacuum,” and this cook leans into that fully: French method, applied to…
Smoke-Free Sous Vide Strip Steak — First Run With a New Anova
I finally got around to trying my new toy — I’d purchased the Anova Sous Vide, Bluetooth edition. I’d done a little research on the method, which is labeled precision cooking: you season the product you want to cook, seal it, and set the target temperature you want it served at. I used my vacuum…
Smoked Chuck Roast — A Poor Man’s Brisket
I picked up a prime chuck roast from Kroger the other day and decided to smoke it. I was in a time crunch, since the weather had predicted storms coming in late in the afternoon. I lit about 40 coals in the chimney starter and topped it off with some fresh coals leftover from the…
Beef Burnt Ends — What Went Wrong the First Time (And How I Fixed It)
Decided to try to cook burnt ends for the first time. The normal process would be to cook a full brisket and then separate the point and use it for burnt ends. In this situation I used a fresh brisket and cut the point and some of the flat out and smoked it. I determined…
Smoked NY Strip Roast — A Whole Roast, Not Individual Steaks
My Kroger had a deal on whole/half NY strips this week — a bargain at $4.99/lb. I picked up a 7-lb slab and cut 6 individual steaks off it, vacuum packed and froze those for later. I took the remaining portion, about 3.5 lbs, and kept it as one whole roast rather than slicing it…
Smoked Tri-Tip — Bringing the West Coast Cut to Middle Tennessee
Some of the smoking sites I follow are always posting about cooking tri-tip, but it’s a cut I’d never actually seen in stores here in Tennessee. It’s popular on the West Coast, sometimes called the Santa Maria cut, and it’s similar to London broil, though a different cut entirely. Much to my surprise, I found…
Smoked Chili
It was time to make smoked chili for a church event. I decided to smoke the jalapenos and the ground chuck. I wanted a strong smoke flavor so I used mesquite. I had a 4 1/2 pound package of beef and I used a cast iron pan that would barely fit on the Weber. I…
Smoked Prime Rib — Simple Rub, Straight Smoke
My local Kroger had rib roasts on sale for $5.99/lb — a nice enough price point that I decided to try smoking one. I picked up a roast just under 5 pounds. Seasoning and Smoking I kept the seasoning simple — just pepper, garlic, and salt, no heavy rub. The smoker ran at about…
Reverse Seared Strip Steaks — Mesquite Smoke, Hard Sear
I picked up some nice-looking steaks at Sam’s and decided to do a reverse sear. To pull this off properly, you need good thick pieces of beef — you cook or smoke them low and slow to a specific internal temp, let them rest, then finish with a short, hard sear on a hot grill….
I’m a Joker…I’m a Midnight Smoker: My First Brisket
Brisket used to scare me — the cost of the product and the amount of time needed to cook one felt like a real risk/reward proposition. And yes, my name really is Steve Miller, so the title was inevitable. I’ve since conquered that fear, helped along by the price coming down and by getting a…
Presto changeo Corned Beef becomes Pastrami
If you want to make pastrami the easy way, mark your calendar for the week after St. Patrick’s Day. That’s when grocery stores are drowning in leftover corned beef and desperate to clear it out — I’ve grabbed packaged corned beef on closeout for a fraction of the regular price, which makes this one of…