Pork Butt and my "ham injection"... Pork butt is my new go-to ham... seriously good....

[Fueling Around]

Not sure what you meant about "in food"? The circulators are somewhat powerful and the impeller is at the bottom, so they keep the water circulating and the bath at a very constant temp even when using zipper bags instead of submerging a vacuum sealed bag. I have a second circulator that can handle a 15 gallon water bath.
...

Sorry, I have an industrial background
Never have sous vide food.
The only "under vacuum" I did was deposit plating on parts. Many metal cleaning or conditioning or plating or passivating processes require a circulating heated bath. Parts are suspended in the bath and do not contact the tank. That's how I made the comment about side contact of the sous vide bath with a zip bag affecting dwell time and final temperature.

 

[thirdeye]

Sorry, I have an industrial background
Never have sous vide food.
The only "under vacuum" I did was deposit plating on parts. That's how I made the comment about side contact of the sous vide bath with a zip bag affecting dwell time and final temperature.

Gotcha.

So to answer your question... even though the zipper end of the bag is clipped to the edge of the container, it won't hang vertically. The weights pretty much hold the bottom end of the bag where you want. I would say the bag is laying at a 30° or 40° angle, so there are a few inches for water to circulate between the bag and the near wall of the container. The weights are silicone covered stainless steel, so they pick-up heat as well. They really come in handy when SV-ing something like a center cut pork chop because I place the bone against the weight which prevents a sharp spot puncturing the bag.

 

[zwiller]

I did another run and waited a week to "gas off" before SVing and had much better results. chopsaw seems to think freezing is a factor and testing this out. I have seen a few others that talk of this where the logic is that the freezing or cold drives smoke deeper. Pops Fassett also talked of freezing helps by tenderizing a bit rupturing cells. We'll see. I have these 3 hunks in the freezer now from 1/10 and might pull one out. This got 24hrs beech smoke at 100F over 3 days then taken to 145F IT. Anyone think SVing after using smoker to cook is of any benefit?

 

[thirdeye]

I did another run and waited a week to "gas off" before SVing and had much better results

So you did several days of cold/cool smoke, then rested a week before SV-ing? Or am I reading this wrong?

 

[zwiller]

So you did several days of cold/cool smoke, then rested a week before SV-ing?

Correct. Those nasty off flavors were gone but otherwise not impressive.

 

[thirdeye]

Correct. Those nasty off flavors were gone but otherwise not impressive.

Added to my "ham notes".

My plans changed with the weather and I abandoned the SV experiment. I rested my (12 hour cold smoked) loin hams for 16 hours, and I'm slowly bring them up to finish temp. Once today's blizzard stopped, I was able to get some dry cured fish in my smoker.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I smoked a loin and immediately SV'd it and ended up nasty. Really foul oversmoke flavor. I think daveomak daveomak had similar with pressure cooked smoked stuff. I love SV but I tread lightly with smoked fare.

My theory is that the plastic bag is the culprit. I too tried SV with smoked ribs and the smoke flavor was more like straight liquid smoke. I was no fan. Smoking after SV is an option but not as flavorful or colorful. All that said,

I am using SV to finish my smoked sausages and am very pleased with the bite through of the natural casings. I am in SV naked no bag. I got here by seeing how the Polish often poach their sausage after smoking, even loins sometimes too. Also I’m now steam finishing my pastrami and am very satisfied. With all these water based finishing methods being so successful exposed directly to the water/moisture, the only exception for me has been SV smoked meat in a bag, it seems to me that the meat trapped in the bag is the problem with the smoke. I think the smoke is mixing with moisture and becomes liquid smoke. Then that smoke it trapped with the meat. Where in poaching or steaming, or SV with no bag, the lost smoke floats away from the meat not giving an off taste.

I’ll admit my sausages have lost some smoke flavor, but not all. The gain in casing softness is an acceptable trade off for me for now. These are just my observation.

 

[thirdeye]

I got my loin hams done yesterday, good thing too as it was -14°F this morning. I tried some Smokehouse brand apple pellets in my Big Chief, and so far I'm liking the flavor. $6 for a 5lb bag. The color is not as dark as I get when cherry is in the mix, but the flavor is good.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I got my loin hams done yesterday, good thing too as it was -14°F this morning. I tried some Smokehouse brand apple pellets in my Big Chief, and so far I'm liking the flavor. $6 for a 5lb bag. The color is not as dark as I get when cherry is in the mix, but the flavor is good.
View attachment 528372

Those look absolutely delicious!
I used to smoke with just about 100% of the time apple wood. I switched to pecan as a standard and am much more pleased with color and flavor. I use a little cherry in the mix to really pull that red color from time to time.

 

[thirdeye]

Those look absolutely delicious!
I used to smoke with just about 100% of the time apple wood. I switched to pecan as a standard and am much more pleased with color and flavor. I use a little cherry in the mix to really pull that red color from time to time.

My favorite pellets are still the Pitmaster Blend from A-Maze-N, but now they are $7 for 2lbs.

 

[daveomak]

Can you still get 20# bags..

 

[thirdeye]

Can you still get 20# bags..

Not to my knowledge.

 

[lathrop]

View attachment 524658

This is a WINNER !!!!

Yep, I used my go-to ham injection... I do not think this butt was ever frozen... Makes a BIG difference when injection curing.. The difference is definitely noticeable... In picnics also....
typical 10% injection... 14 days in the refer being cured... Light cold water rinse... In the smoker at 100F for about 45 minutes to dry the outside and form a pellicle.. Then a full tray of my 3 dust mix... Twice... each tray smoked for 6 hours... exhaust CLOSED to about 5% open.. Then upped the heat to 145F.. When the internal temp was about 128F, I lowered the heat to 135F... The IT stalled at about 132F so I upped the heat to ~140F.... The internal temp came up to 133-134F.... I held it there for about 4 hours.... (I'm following poultry pasteurizing times + an hour or more, just to insure salmonella death.. I'm too old to get sick) Then pulled it and sliced into it to see how it turned out... Looked pretty good.... The flavor was better than any picnic I've done... I attribute that to all the fat in a butt... Fat is definitely flavor... Moist and tender.... almost fall apart tender...

The reason I tried this butt... I bought a small hunk of ham at the store... I think it was a chunk from a leg... About 5#'s... It was dry and tough... I can make better ham drunk and with my eyes closed...
All they had in the cooler was a butt.... So, now you know...


View attachment 524659

View attachment 524660

View attachment 524661

View attachment 524662

View attachment 524658

This is a WINNER !!!!

Yep, I used my go-to ham injection... I do not think this butt was ever frozen... Makes a BIG difference when injection curing.. The difference is definitely noticeable... In picnics also....
typical 10% injection... 14 days in the refer being cured... Light cold water rinse... In the smoker at 100F for about 45 minutes to dry the outside and form a pellicle.. Then a full tray of my 3 dust mix... Twice... each tray smoked for 6 hours... exhaust CLOSED to about 5% open.. Then upped the heat to 145F.. When the internal temp was about 128F, I lowered the heat to 135F... The IT stalled at about 132F so I upped the heat to ~140F.... The internal temp came up to 133-134F.... I held it there for about 4 hours.... (I'm following poultry pasteurizing times + an hour or more, just to insure salmonella death.. I'm too old to get sick) Then pulled it and sliced into it to see how it turned out... Looked pretty good.... The flavor was better than any picnic I've done... I attribute that to all the fat in a butt... Fat is definitely flavor... Moist and tender.... almost fall apart tender...

The reason I tried this butt... I bought a small hunk of ham at the store... I think it was a chunk from a leg... About 5#'s... It was dry and tough... I can make better ham drunk and with my eyes closed...
All they had in the cooler was a butt.... So, now you know...


View attachment 524659

View attachment 524660

View attachment 524661

View attachment 524662

 

[lathrop]

View attachment 524658

This is a WINNER !!!!

Yep, I used my go-to ham injection... I do not think this butt was ever frozen... Makes a BIG difference when injection curing.. The difference is definitely noticeable... In picnics also....
typical 10% injection... 14 days in the refer being cured... Light cold water rinse... In the smoker at 100F for about 45 minutes to dry the outside and form a pellicle.. Then a full tray of my 3 dust mix... Twice... each tray smoked for 6 hours... exhaust CLOSED to about 5% open.. Then upped the heat to 145F.. When the internal temp was about 128F, I lowered the heat to 135F... The IT stalled at about 132F so I upped the heat to ~140F.... The internal temp came up to 133-134F.... I held it there for about 4 hours.... (I'm following poultry pasteurizing times + an hour or more, just to insure salmonella death.. I'm too old to get sick) Then pulled it and sliced into it to see how it turned out... Looked pretty good.... The flavor was better than any picnic I've done... I attribute that to all the fat in a butt... Fat is definitely flavor... Moist and tender.... almost fall apart tender...

The reason I tried this butt... I bought a small hunk of ham at the store... I think it was a chunk from a leg... About 5#'s... It was dry and tough... I can make better ham drunk and with my eyes closed...
All they had in the cooler was a butt.... So, now you know...


View attachment 524659

View attachment 524660

View attachment 524661

View attachment 524662

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Got a butt going today. Can't find Kitchen Basics Unsalted Vegetable Stock around here and have had bad luck in past using something else for this so ended up ordering a 12 pack of 8 ouncers. I probaly only going to use for this. Would the best thing to do is put them in the freezer?

 

[SmokinAl]

Got a butt going today. Can't find Kitchen Basics Unsalted Vegetable Stock around here and have had bad luck in past using something else for this so ended up ordering a 12 pack of 8 ouncers. I probaly only going to use for this. Would the best thing to do is put them in the freezer?

Yep, it freezes really well. However we freeze it in vac bags. Pour it into some Tupperware dishes or any dish & freeze it. Try to find a dish about the size of the vac bag. After frozen, slide into a bag & vac, then into the freezer until needed.
Al

 

[chopsaw]

I've also used the larger cube silicone ice trays . The ones that makes 4 cubes . Freeze then pop out of the tray and wrap in plastic . Then into the reusable vac bags from Inkbird .
When I figure my injection , I weigh the cubes frozen , then use how ever many I need . Leave the rest frozen .

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Dave, do you happen to remember how long this took to smoke. I was wanting to take down on the river for friends and trying to figure if I have time to do it.

 

[daveomak]

Then a full tray of my 3 dust mix... Twice... each tray smoked for 6 hours...

From #1 post...