- Aug 27, 2008
- 5,170
- 409
Hey everyone!
Today seemed to be the perfect day for some comfort food. It's been cold and raining off and on for a few days, and I woke this morning to a wet, heavy snowfall.
I decided to put together a somewhat unique dinner for my family (and friends here as well). I pulled several cuts of meat from the freezer lastnight to start thawing in the fridge, as I'll be off work for the next several days due to the weather...the thought being, why not spend my free time doing something I really enjoy? So, let this be the first of what will hopefully be four days of outdoor cooking bliss!!!
When I was checking out the freezer, my eyes met up with 3 bone-less chuck steaks, 3.2lbs, which appear to be the cross-rib cut (the packages seldom state what is what when they cut-up chucks), I immediately began thinking smoke & dutch oven. Read on, for the rest of this story...
I made this marinade awhile back, and since then have refined the prep method a bit for an even better intensity of flavors:
CHERRY MARINADE FOR BEEF
(for up to 6-7lbs of beef steak)
6 Tbls wood-aged sherry cooking wine (1.5% salt content was used)
3 Tbls white vinegar (5% acidity content was used)
1 cup cold water
3 Tbls dried fresh ground tart cherries
1 Tbsl fresh ground red bell pepper
2 tsp fresh ground black peppercorn
2 tsp fresh ground garlic
2 tsp fresh ground onion
2 tsp coarse ground thyme
1 tsp coarse ground oregano
2 Tbls brown sugar
2 tsp salt
Mix all dry ingredients except brown sugar with water while heating on stovetop in a small saucepan.
Heat until slow simmer is reached and remove from heat.
Stir in brown sugar, then sherry and vinegar. Chill well and pour over steaks in ziploc bag.
Close bag and gently tumble bag to coat all meat surfaces, repeating tumble every 30-45 minutes while refrigerated for 3-4 hours before cooking.
Smoke with hickory/cherry.
Just removed from the heat without the brown sugar, sherry and vinegar added:
Now it's all togetehr and cooling down...the color has deepened, while the acidity of the sherry and vinegar seems to have brightened up the spice colors a bit:
Chuckies into a bag and off for a nap in the fridge:
Just into the gourmet for a slow ride with hickory and cherry smoke @ 175-180* target temps for 2 hours...I want alot of smoke flavoring without completely cooking the steaks before they get sliced up (medium would be fine)...while the strips finish cooking in the DO, the flavors of the smoke will mellow and meld into the rest of the dish's ingredients. I went for 3 hours marinating before tossing them into the gourmet:
The remaining cherry marinade...I'll put this with the beef strips when they hit the dutch oven...into the fridge until then...yep, one of my DO's is patiently waiting:
1-hr, 40-min into the smoke...red juices have formed small puddles on the surface...close to med/rare temps right about now, just to the eyeball...temps won't be crutial, though getting through the danger zone should be considered...if they pass through it in the smoker, then cool and are reheated in the dutch oven, as in this case, we don't want to dilly dally...I'll show how I proceed to reach that point safely after slicing:
2 hours and I'm pullin' 'em to rest:
I'll rob some of the hot charcoal from the gourmet's fire when I pull the steaks to rest for a few minutes before trimming and slicing. I'll want a fairly hot oven with bottom heat only to drop the beef strips into...I want to hear it sizzle a bit, so a preheat for a few minutes ahead of time will get the oven ready for the first step of dutch oven cooking.
Resting on the board...:
...while I get some fire under the oven...not too much with a dry oven, though...don't wanna wreck the oven...she's still young...we'll build it up more when some beef and liquids go in:
Trimming off the excess fat and some of the muscle membrane from the chuck, then, slicing across the grain into approx. 1/4" thick strips:
************************************OK, here's your first warning...grab the paper towels and cover the key board before continuing*****************************************
*************************************************Are you ready? Are you SURE you're ready??? Alright, then, you may proceed...***********************************************
Medium/rare to medium throughout...if I'd just been smokin' steaks today? Ah, this dish will be worth waiting for though:
Into the dry, hot DO:
Added the previously reclaimed & refigerated marinade:
Added 1 qt hot water...between the hot DO and the added hot water (approx 160*)...meat temps should have hit well above 140* again very quickly:
I let that heat through well for about 5 minutes while building up the briq fire some more, and added 1.5 quarts warm water and topped with 4 cups parboiled rice and stirred in to let cook through for 1 hour before checking...don't forget to stoke the fire:
1 hr, gently stirred once to lify the bottoms up...rice is aldente':
I was firing the oven more by sight (look of the bulk of the coals) and touch (heat on the lid and sides) than anything, as I was using partially burned coals from the gourmet instead of counting out fresh briqs. Worked out great! Temp control of the oven isn't super critical with this dish either, once you have the meat reheated. You can cook it as low or as hot as you like (within reason. of course). Oh, and bottom fire only, in case I forgot to mention that.
1.5 hrs...gently lift the bottoms agin, and there we are...the rice has expanded to within 3/4" of the rim of the oven and is cooked to a plump, moist & tender kernal with a light chew and no clumping...with no free-water remaining in the oven...Hmm, I don't get rice cooked to perfection every time, but this was dead-on center of the bulls-eye. I planned for a 6 pm dinner tonight, and it's 6...let's eat!!!!!!
Served with steamed broccoli:
The added flavors of the seasoned marinade and smoked beef are very subtle in the rice. Simple, yet very pleasantly delicious with a nice balance of flavors, IMHO. The beef strips had a nice chew, with most of the toughness already removed before slicing it all up. Very much worht the effort to take a somewhat tougher cut like this and spend a few minutes of mid-cook prep to put the final stage all together.
I could have easily cooked the second stage on the stovetop or in the oven, sure, but when you have camp-style cast iron dutch ovens to further the development of your outdoor cooking skills with, why mess around?!?!?! LOL!!!
Enjoy, everyone!
Eric
Today seemed to be the perfect day for some comfort food. It's been cold and raining off and on for a few days, and I woke this morning to a wet, heavy snowfall.
I decided to put together a somewhat unique dinner for my family (and friends here as well). I pulled several cuts of meat from the freezer lastnight to start thawing in the fridge, as I'll be off work for the next several days due to the weather...the thought being, why not spend my free time doing something I really enjoy? So, let this be the first of what will hopefully be four days of outdoor cooking bliss!!!
When I was checking out the freezer, my eyes met up with 3 bone-less chuck steaks, 3.2lbs, which appear to be the cross-rib cut (the packages seldom state what is what when they cut-up chucks), I immediately began thinking smoke & dutch oven. Read on, for the rest of this story...
I made this marinade awhile back, and since then have refined the prep method a bit for an even better intensity of flavors:
CHERRY MARINADE FOR BEEF
(for up to 6-7lbs of beef steak)
6 Tbls wood-aged sherry cooking wine (1.5% salt content was used)
3 Tbls white vinegar (5% acidity content was used)
1 cup cold water
3 Tbls dried fresh ground tart cherries
1 Tbsl fresh ground red bell pepper
2 tsp fresh ground black peppercorn
2 tsp fresh ground garlic
2 tsp fresh ground onion
2 tsp coarse ground thyme
1 tsp coarse ground oregano
2 Tbls brown sugar
2 tsp salt
Mix all dry ingredients except brown sugar with water while heating on stovetop in a small saucepan.
Heat until slow simmer is reached and remove from heat.
Stir in brown sugar, then sherry and vinegar. Chill well and pour over steaks in ziploc bag.
Close bag and gently tumble bag to coat all meat surfaces, repeating tumble every 30-45 minutes while refrigerated for 3-4 hours before cooking.
Smoke with hickory/cherry.
Just removed from the heat without the brown sugar, sherry and vinegar added:
Now it's all togetehr and cooling down...the color has deepened, while the acidity of the sherry and vinegar seems to have brightened up the spice colors a bit:
Chuckies into a bag and off for a nap in the fridge:
Just into the gourmet for a slow ride with hickory and cherry smoke @ 175-180* target temps for 2 hours...I want alot of smoke flavoring without completely cooking the steaks before they get sliced up (medium would be fine)...while the strips finish cooking in the DO, the flavors of the smoke will mellow and meld into the rest of the dish's ingredients. I went for 3 hours marinating before tossing them into the gourmet:
The remaining cherry marinade...I'll put this with the beef strips when they hit the dutch oven...into the fridge until then...yep, one of my DO's is patiently waiting:
1-hr, 40-min into the smoke...red juices have formed small puddles on the surface...close to med/rare temps right about now, just to the eyeball...temps won't be crutial, though getting through the danger zone should be considered...if they pass through it in the smoker, then cool and are reheated in the dutch oven, as in this case, we don't want to dilly dally...I'll show how I proceed to reach that point safely after slicing:
2 hours and I'm pullin' 'em to rest:
I'll rob some of the hot charcoal from the gourmet's fire when I pull the steaks to rest for a few minutes before trimming and slicing. I'll want a fairly hot oven with bottom heat only to drop the beef strips into...I want to hear it sizzle a bit, so a preheat for a few minutes ahead of time will get the oven ready for the first step of dutch oven cooking.
Resting on the board...:
...while I get some fire under the oven...not too much with a dry oven, though...don't wanna wreck the oven...she's still young...we'll build it up more when some beef and liquids go in:
Trimming off the excess fat and some of the muscle membrane from the chuck, then, slicing across the grain into approx. 1/4" thick strips:
************************************OK, here's your first warning...grab the paper towels and cover the key board before continuing*****************************************
*************************************************Are you ready? Are you SURE you're ready??? Alright, then, you may proceed...***********************************************
Medium/rare to medium throughout...if I'd just been smokin' steaks today? Ah, this dish will be worth waiting for though:
Into the dry, hot DO:
Added the previously reclaimed & refigerated marinade:
Added 1 qt hot water...between the hot DO and the added hot water (approx 160*)...meat temps should have hit well above 140* again very quickly:
I let that heat through well for about 5 minutes while building up the briq fire some more, and added 1.5 quarts warm water and topped with 4 cups parboiled rice and stirred in to let cook through for 1 hour before checking...don't forget to stoke the fire:
1 hr, gently stirred once to lify the bottoms up...rice is aldente':
I was firing the oven more by sight (look of the bulk of the coals) and touch (heat on the lid and sides) than anything, as I was using partially burned coals from the gourmet instead of counting out fresh briqs. Worked out great! Temp control of the oven isn't super critical with this dish either, once you have the meat reheated. You can cook it as low or as hot as you like (within reason. of course). Oh, and bottom fire only, in case I forgot to mention that.
1.5 hrs...gently lift the bottoms agin, and there we are...the rice has expanded to within 3/4" of the rim of the oven and is cooked to a plump, moist & tender kernal with a light chew and no clumping...with no free-water remaining in the oven...Hmm, I don't get rice cooked to perfection every time, but this was dead-on center of the bulls-eye. I planned for a 6 pm dinner tonight, and it's 6...let's eat!!!!!!
Served with steamed broccoli:
The added flavors of the seasoned marinade and smoked beef are very subtle in the rice. Simple, yet very pleasantly delicious with a nice balance of flavors, IMHO. The beef strips had a nice chew, with most of the toughness already removed before slicing it all up. Very much worht the effort to take a somewhat tougher cut like this and spend a few minutes of mid-cook prep to put the final stage all together.
I could have easily cooked the second stage on the stovetop or in the oven, sure, but when you have camp-style cast iron dutch ovens to further the development of your outdoor cooking skills with, why mess around?!?!?! LOL!!!
Enjoy, everyone!
Eric
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