This post contains the link to the inspiration for our beans that is at MyLatinaKitchen.com and the cooks that led to our recipe for charro beans. First made these on Dec. 11, 2016 based on the recipe linked below. Simple but creates a nice broth where adding the fresh veggies shortly before serving makes it a great dish. See the process below used on Sep 2, 2017 during Hurricane Harvey for what worked great. The recipe we make now that evolved here is Mary’s Charro Beans at this site.
Continue reading12/11/2016, Sunday
The loin was about 12″ long. Sliced it into 3/4″ steaks and put them into the little Brinner pail with the following brine about 4 PM, Saturday the day before the cook.
Pork Brine [these ingredients were what was on hand and not a special concoction]
1/2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
1/8 C Mustard
1/2 C Pickling Salt
1T Cloves heaping whole
4 bay leaves
1/2 Gal Water
The Pork Brine recipe I started with was from Chef JJ but did not have some of the ingredients. Here it is.
2-12oz.Cans Apple Juice Concentrate
1C Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4C Molasses
1/4C Mustard
1/2C Kosher Salt
2T Pickling Spice (optional)
1T Sage, rubbed
1 Gal Water
Made schmaltz yesterday from fat off a tray of thighs so had about 1/2 C. Ground 2T of cajun seasoning in the coffee grinder so it would not clog the injection needle. Melted the schmaltz and stirred in the ground seasonings about 8 AM Sunday so it has time to meld before injecting.
Injected three and salt and peppered two for lunch to include Kelley and the girls. Grilled on the gas grill that did not have time with the old burners to get hot enough to add sear marks. But that helped do them gently to IT of 140. They were good, moist and tender but not enough spice to make them great. They were a tad salty as I did not wash them off when pulled from the brine vat. Brining and injecting even lead to Mary saying they were good. They had brined for about 18 hours.
From AmazingRibs.com
Make burnt ends
Normally the fact that the two ends [of a roast] are overcooked is no problem because there are usually two folks who want their meat well done. But if everybody wants theirs medium-rare, here’s what you do: Make burnt ends. Take the end cuts off with all their lovely dark brown crust, dunk them in some gravy, and put them back on the grill just like the two ribeye steaks they are. Put them on cut side down, and sear them, but don’t burn them. Then bring them inside and cut them into amazing tasty crunchy cubes, dunk them in the gravy again, and share with everyone. This means you need to order more meat than usual.
Copied from post at SMF by Gary Hibbert
Burnt Ends
For a long time now I’ve been reading posts on burnt ends but they all used the brisket point as a meat source. Since both Miss Linda and I hate fat and make a point of always trimming it off any meat on our plates, I had absolutely no desire to cook up something like a brisket point and cube it up into bite size chunks of fatty meat.
Lately, however, there have been more and more posts about using different cuts of meats for burnt ends.
As it turned out, I had a piece of uncooked meat (already rubbed and sitting in the fridge) left over after my stuffed loin smoke. Coincidence? I think not.
I fired up the MES and filled the AMNPS with pecan. As soon as the MES was sitting at 235* and the pecan smoking nicely, the meat went into the smoker.
After about 1 ¾ hours the IT was sitting at 140 to 145* (depending on thickness) so, after cranking the MES to maximum temp and refilling the AMNPS with hickory pellets, I pulled it and headed into the kitchen. I cut the meat into chunks (couldn’t really call them cubes) and tossed them with more rub, making sure all sides were coated. I chose Honey/Garlic BBQ sauce, as that is Miss Linda’s favorite, giving each piece a good coating. At this point in the proceedings, I felt obligated to perform a quality test. The meat was unbelievably tender, except for the thinner pieces. Then it was back out to the smoker.
Since tenderness was no longer an issue and I didn’t really expect much canalization, I decided to just leave the meat in the smoker long enough to really set up the BBQ sauce. As it turned out, supper wasn’t ready for another 2 hours, so that’s how long the chunks stayed in the MES. I brought them in when it was time to plate the meat, along with the rice and corn.
11/19/2016, Saturday
Trimmed loose pieces off to smoke for seasoning and rubbed all with Stubb’s hot pork rub three hours before the cook. First cool day of fall with Ambient temp at 165 and low humidity due to cold front late yesterday.
1:30 PM – Heated the MES up to 240 (set at 260) and put in the meat bones up on third grate from the top with Trafalger hickory pellets in the Amazn tray. Chefworks air probe is clipped on the grate between meat and glass door on left side.
2:00 – MES back up to 245 and rising. Air probe is at 205. Good stream of TBS.
2:15 – MES has coasted up to 274 and air probe is at 223.
3:00 – MES is 265 and air probe is 226.
4:30 – Smoke has burned out (1.5 rows) so pulled, wrapped and put into convection bake oven set at 350. Before wrapping flipped it over to meat side up, noted meat is dry, poured and painted in Senate BBQ sauce.
6:30 – Bend test failed as it fell apart. Very tasty and very moist. The sauce had cooked in and was very light; i.e. only a slight BBQ sauce flavor.
Conclusion: Need to set MES to reach proper temp on cooking grate. Two hours at 350 wrapped was too much. Three hours smoke at 225 grate temp plus an hour in the convection oven at 350 would have been about right.
11/12/2016 – This butt turned out great. Even to the last pieces of the part not vac packed and later cut up and nuked for lunch 6 days later. Continue reading
First time but heat was to high early and overcooked as oven was miss-calibrated by 27 degrees. But, this has a lot of potential to be a family favorite.
11/3/16, 8 PM – 5.2 lb whole pork loin cut in half planning to use half in this cook and half smoked-see separate post. Brined in: 1 gal water; 1/2C Morton Canning & Pickling Salt, 1C ACV, 1/2C turbinado sugar, 2T yellow mustard. See Next Time item 4 below.
Cook to be based on Steve Raichelen’s background and recipe. Converted his paste based on fresh herbs to dried herbs using the 3 fresh to 1 dried ratio and arrived at this.
4 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
1.5 T dried sage (recipe called for 1/4 cup packed fresh sage leaves)
1.5 T dried rosemary leaves (recipe called for 1/4 cup packed fresh rosemary leaves)
2 teaspoons coarse salt (kosher or sea)
1 1/2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Microplaned maybe 1T lemon zest (recipe called for 2 strips (each 1/2 by 2 inches orange but we did not have an orange)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or 3 more as needed
Blended in blender 6 hours before the cook. Butterflied 2.5 lb. pork loin and rubbed on paste. Rolled up and tied then rubbed remainder of paste on outside. Then wrapped in bacon.
Preheated convection oven on roast to 375 and inserted loin in SS roasting pan. 30-45 minutes later the fat and drippings was burning and lots of smoke. Added water.
15 minutes later added Chefworks air probe hanging on pan handle and after stabilized found the oven is 395. Reduced setting to 350 and the smoking drippings was much less.
Left to get Piper and Olivia from school and forgot to check it when returned. When remembered the IT was 175. Pulled and let sit out uncovered to cool for maybe 15 minutes then wrapped in foil. Outside was crispy and the kids loved the crunchy bacon. The inside was overcooked but surprisingly not too dried out. Paste flavor was not as rich as expected no doubt at least partially due to high heat early and over cooking.
Next day checked oven calibration and found once we entered a -27 degrees adjustment it stayed at 375 plus or minus a few degrees.
Next Time
- Set oven a little low to warm then let oven coast up like for the MES. At least let it settle down.
- Could add more CBP or red pepper flakes. Maybe even a little more fennel and ground rosemary.
- Add chopped red potatoes and carrots to pan in the last 45 minutes to roast in the juices. Some baby portabella mushrooms would also be good.
- Try brining like Adam Perry Land with crab boil here.
Only an ok cook but a lot of good ideas embedded to try next time.
11/3/16, 8 PM – 5.2 lb whole pork loin. Brined in: 1 gal water; 1/2C Morton Canning & Pickling Salt, 1C ACV, 1/2C turbinado sugar, 2T yellow mustard.
NEXT TIME – Try Steve Raichelin’s brine recipe here.
11/4/2016 – 5 pm – removed loin from the brine and into a zip lock with air pressed out and back into refer for tomorrow afternoons smoke.
11/5/2016, 3:00 pm – Remove brined ~2.5 lb. loin from zip lock bag, slathered with yellow mustard and sprinkled with dried rosemary, then sprinkled on Magic Swamp Dust w/o MSG, and then CBP.
3:15 – Put on third rack from the top of MES (preheated to 235) on a 1/4 sheet pan with wire grate with ChefWorks probe in place after whipping it with Everclear. Put air probe on 2nd grate. Smoke was from ChefMaster blend pellets.
4:15 – MES is set at 235 but reading 227 and heating. Air probe says 210 and IT is 96.
As the chip loader is pulled out to the half size section to allow plenty of air in so the pellets burn, and there is no moisture accumulation on the glass perhaps there is enough air flow to remove heat and let it drop a lot so the temp swing is wider and it fell lower. But, loin is not a wet meat so that would also contribute to the drier smoke chamber.
5:30 – MES has been set at 235 and reading 232 and heating. Air probe says 218 and IT is 126.
6:15 – Moved it to the oven set at 350. IT per Chefworks was 133.
7:00 – IT is 155. Pulled and left wrapped to rest and come up to 160.
At 7:20 tired of waiting and cut it. It was done through. Crust is a bit dry but the inside red meat is nice. The white side is chewy but not tough and dry.
Next Time – Should have added a broth to the foil when it went into the oven. The smoke flavor seemed not distinctive. Should have wrapped in bacon.
Try brining like Adam Perry Land with crab boil here.
The meat turned out like ham and had a good flavor. Need to cure in spices and smoke cooler and longer. Continue reading
This first cook of beef ribs resulted in great seasoned, smoked beef. Reheated not so much but a lot of good notes and thoughts here. Continue reading
Pull skin back before marinating to get to meat then season and pull skin back over
When pieces are done and hot paint on BBQ sauce.
Reverse sear pieces to crisp skin
With Chicken Breast slit open one end and insert cold butter. Wrap in bacon and smoke then grill to crisp bacon.
The air-dry overnight in the fridge will help the skin to crisp. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder per quarter that will help the skin crisp. Don’t sauce until the last 30-45 minutes of your cook. DirtSailor