Sous Vide + Smoked Brisket: A Journey

As they say, don't bury the lede. Well here it is!

I wanted to document a fun experience I had this weekend to cook a beef brisket point via a new method I read about on Serious Eats. Many thanks to Kenji Lopez-Alt for the procedures and inspiration!

First I acquired a meduim-sized point-cut of beef brisket. Well actually I acquired an entire brisket and separated the point muscle, but that's another story for another day. I failed to weigh it after the butchery, but I suspect after trimming off the hard fat I had about 4-5 pounds of point. I made a rub of salt, pepper, and a little bit of pink curing salt and applied it in copious amounts to all surfaces of the meat.

Then it went into a vacuum bag:

and into a hot water bath at 155 degrees.

After covering the top of the pot with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation, I let it sit for 30 hours. For good measure, I flipped it once, halfway through cooking.

The next step was to place put it in an ice water bath for 30 minutes to chill the internal temperature back down to 40 degrees. The meat is cooked at this point, but I want it to spend enough time in the smoker to get some nice flavor, and if I smoked it still hot from the water bath it would dry out long before the smoke had time to penetrate. (Sorry, no pic of the ice water bath, I was distracted...)

While the brisket in the bag was chilling, I set up my smoker and got it to 220 degrees. This is a little lower than I would normally smoke a brisket, but I didn't want it to heat up too quickly (as the meat is already cooked). Once the meat was thoroughly chilled, I stuck a probe thermometer in the thickest part and put it in the smoker:

Here it is after smoking for about 30 minutes!

Once the brisket reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees, I pulled it out of the smoker and let it rest on the cutting board for a few minutes before slicing pencil-thin.

I served it with a side of pasta salad to a happy family:

In all, it was an amazing experience. I can't wait to try combine smoking and sous vide for other barbecued applications!

Sausage and Broccoli Stew

I had no dinner plan but I did have some pantry staples and some Italian sausage. The hearty soups at Olive Garden inspired me to make this, and it turned out to be remarkably tasty!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil (any grade/quality will do, no need to splurge on EVOO)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lbs Italian sausage, casings removed (hot or sweet or a combo of both, as you like it)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
• 1 carton chicken broth (32 oz)
• 8 oz finely chopped broccoli
• 12 oz soup pasta (ditalini, small shells or elbows, rotini, whatever you have/like)
• 4 oz grated parmesan or pecorino (the good stuff, not from a can)

Directions

Heat oil in a large heavy dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat until the oil just starts to shimmer. Add onion, celery, and carrots with a heavy pinch of kosher salt and the pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the carrots are just al dente. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and add the sausage. Cook, stirring constantly and breaking/mixing up the sausage with the veggies, until the sausage does not look raw. Add the dried herbs, tomato paste, and garlic. Cook for one more minute and add diced tomatoes (with their juice) and the broth. Increase to high and bring to a simmer. Add broccoli and pasta and let it come back to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently until the pasta is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes (it will thicken as the pasta cooks, so make sure to stir the bottom of the pot to prevent burns). Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls, topping with parmesan at the table.

Pasta Marinara with Bacon and Broccoli

I love Broccoli and Bacon together. It's a perfect combination. I had both in my fridge last night, and I'd normally turn it into a salad, but I wanted something heartier. Then I thought, "Pasta!" With the addition of a few pantry staples, I made something that was pretty much a perfect pasta sauce.

Ingredients

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon
• 6 cups broccoli chopped into small florets
• I like to include the stems, sliced very thin, with the florets
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced fine (more if you like it)
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 can (14 oz) plain tomato sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons minced fresh basil (or a 1/2 teaspoon dried basil)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red chili flake
• kosher salt
• Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• 1 box rotini pasta
• I like veggie rotini, but you can use regular, too.

Directions

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon to a plate with paper towels and drain off fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan and reserving 2 more tablespoons for later. Now would be a good time to start heating a large pot of water to boil the pasta.

Cook the onions in the 2 tablespoons bacon fat left the pan with a large pinch of kosher salt over medium-high heat. When they have started to brown around the edges add the remaining reserved bacon fat, broccoli, pepper, chili flake, and another heavy pinch of kosher salt. Toss together all the ingredients in the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the broccoli starts to soften (but still slightly crunchy). Add the vinegar, canned tomatoes, and tomato sauce. If you are not using a non-stick skillet, there will probably be some fond on the bottom of the pan you want to scrape up so it incorporates into the sauce. Add the oregano and basil. Simmer in the skillet, uncovered, until the broccoli is cooked.

While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta in the boiling water, adding a 2 tablespoons of kosher salt to the water first. Cook the pasta until it is almost al-dente, but is still just a little underdone. Prior to draining the pasta, reserve a couple of cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta into a colander, then pour directly into the skillet with the sauce (if your skillet is not large enough, you can put both the pasta and the sauce back into the pasta pot). Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce, adding back some of the reserved cooking water (probably around 1/4 to 1/2 cup) to loosen things up if it's too thick. Serve immediately, either as a main dish, or with sliced grilled chicken breasts. Top with (lots of) Parmesan cheese when serving.

Note on 4/7: I recently read this article on Serious Eats, it's totally helpful for properly cooking/saucing your pasta: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/the-right-way-to-sauce-pasta.html