What's cooking today? 🔥 Pics are necessary!

[RayClem]

Another 5lb turkey breast on the smoker—just a little Thanksgiving dress rehearsal!

It looks great! What time is dinner?

 

[Torstenlaw]

Been a while. Tore my achilles, but catching up now. Burnt Ends

 

[Hogan]

Montreal Smoked Meat
First attempt. Started with a 8 kg (17.6#) packer from Costco. Trimmed it down to 6.5 kg (14.2#) setting aside ~1 kg for other things. Then cut the meat into 3 pieces: the point and 2 flats.
Dry-cured for 12 days, then a 6 hr smoke, overnight rest, then steam in the oven for 3 hr.
Turned out very well - tasty, a bit chewy (you can see the higher-than-anticipated fat content in the point slices) and a bit dry. All things to work on for the next attempt, though with 11 meals tucked away in the icebox, “next” means maybe Fall `25.
Many thanks to RustyJake for his mentoring.

 

[RayClem]

Montreal Smoked Meat
First attempt. Started with a 8 kg (17.6#) packer from Costco. Trimmed it down to 6.5 kg (14.2#) setting aside ~1 kg for other things. Then cut the meat into 3 pieces: the point and 2 flats.
Dry-cured for 12 days, then a 6 hr smoke, overnight rest, then steam in the oven for 3 hr.
Turned out very well - tasty, a bit chewy (you can see the higher-than-anticipated fat content in the point slices) and a bit dry. All things to work on for the next attempt, though with 11 meals tucked away in the icebox, “next” means maybe Fall `25.
Many thanks to RustyJake for his mentoring.

What was the final internal temp of the brisket. I do not know much about Montreal smoked meat, but brisket is normally cooked to slightly above 200F to render the connective tissue and fat. It does not look like you got anywhere near that temperature. That is the reason the meat was chewy. Hopefully, @RustyJake will respond.

 

[RustyJake]

How was the flavor and salinity this time? What did you decide on for the final rub?
Finished temps should be around the 200-205° mark. I use 190 as my starting point, and check for probe tenderness continuously until it is achieved. Key is to keep it in the steam bath for the entire time, trapping the steam seems to help with the moisture retention. As soon as I hit butter tender with the probe, I will remove it from the oven, but let it rest in the steam bath (covered and sealed), until it gets down to about 170-180.
I think you'll find your point cuts will be quite moist when you reheat in the SousVide later. The flat I tend to not trim as heavy as I would in a brisket. That helps a lot with the moisture when reheating in the SousVide.
Typically in the restaurants they are kept whole until slicing for a sandwich and they are kept in a steam/moisture environment continually.

Edit to add:
You said smoked for 6 hours, did you just go by time? That process is done by temperature for me, I am looking for 170°F
Your steaming was 3 hours, as mentioned above, I use the probe tender temperature of about 200-205°. But start checking at 190, some meat will be tender before the 200 is hit. But it will be close

 

[Hogan]

What was the final internal temp of the brisket. I do not know much about Montreal smoked meat, but brisket is normally cooked to slightly above 200F to render the connective tissue and fat. It does not look like you got anywhere near that temperature. That is the reason the meat was chewy. Hopefully, @RustyJake will respond.

The recipes for MSM call for a smoke up to the stall, then steam to 200. The stall on this smoke came around the 165 mark, which seemed a bit low, but the temps on all the probes just hung there for the better part of an hour. (The pic was taken prior to pulling for the wrap.)

 

[Hogan]

How was the flavor and salinity this time? What did you decide on for the final rub?
. . . As soon as I hit butter tender with the probe, I will remove it from the oven, but let it rest in the steam bath (covered and sealed), until it gets down to about 170-180.
. . . Typically in the restaurants they are kept whole until slicing for a sandwich and they are kept in a steam/moisture environment continually.

Flavour is good, though there seems to be something missing but I can’t put my finger on it yet. Salinity was fine: it was there but not overly so. Final rub was pepper, coriander, celery seed, dill seed and a dash of paprika.
As mentioned to RayChem, the stall seemed to come early in the smoke; about 6 hrs in, temps sitting at 165. Then wrapped in foil, overnight in fridge, steamed next day for 3 hrs to temps of 200. (Good seal on the steambath.) I then rewrapped in foil and put them in the carboy for 4 hrs. Not letting them sit in the steam after cooking may have attributed to the dryness.
The flat is tender, only the point is chewy, and that coulee partly due to my slicing at the wrong angle.
Schwartz' Deli won’t have to worry, but this will work fine for us over the winter.

 

[CMTiger]

Thanksgiving with the wife’s family. I was in charge of turkey again. Also did a MC chocolate pecan cobbler and a mac and cheese that’s not pictured here.

 

[Rusty94582]

Looks great. Later this week I'll be doing a pulled ham. I'll have pics!

 

[RayClem]

The weather here in Chicagoland looks questionable this week, so I decided to cook the Thanksgiving turkey a few days early.

I brined the turkey overnight, but did not inject it as it was a Butterball turkey. I did brush the skin with 1/2 stick butter towards the end of the cook.

I smoked the turkey using Pit Boss Pecan blend pellets. It is the first time I have used them. It smelled nice while cooking. The 13# turkey took about 4 1/2 hours. I smoked at 230F for 3 hours and then bumped the temperature to 325F to finish.

The turkey looks so good that we decided to slice some of the turkey tonight for turkey sandwiches. When eaten plain, the turkey was a little salty. I will have to remember that next time and use less salt in the brine. After it is combined with other foods, it should be fine. The turkey was juicy.