Sous vide and smoke clod

[billy brown]

Beginning to second guess my game plan for this weekend and hoping for some advice if it's not already too late. Dropped a 6.5 lb chunk of beef clod in a 150 water bath yesterday at 3 pm and was planning to leave it there until tomorrow afternoon then rub and finish on the WSM for some smoke and bark. This is just my second attempt at something like this, an earlier chuckie turned out just ok. Searched forums for more direction on this but times and temp are all over the map. So now I am basically questioning everything that I'm doing. My goal is for some type of brisket like result. Any advice which might save me from myself in this situation is greatly appreciated.

 

[daveomak]

Smoke doesn't take well to cooked meats... Collagen has broken down ... meat has broken down.... I don't think you can make good bark out of cooked meat....
Once you have bark, it softens when sous-vide..
From my experience with canning smoked fish.... Severely reduce the amount of smoke time when canning... Somehow, canning magnifies the smoke... The same "may" happen if you sous-vide previously smoked meats... Sooooo, that's something to think about and see if the same is true....

 

[SmokinAl]

Yea what Dave said has been my experience too.
If I'm going to SV something & smoke it too, I always smoke it first, then SV it.
For example, I make pastrami from scratch & when the brisket is cured I smoke it to an IT of 150, then vac pack it with pastrami spices & let it go at 155 degrees for 24 hours in the SV. Then cool it down overnight & slice it on the slicer. It turns out awesome!!!
Al

 

[billy brown]

Thanks for the feedback, Dave and Al, what you are saying makes sense. Looks like this one will be a lesson learned and a sacrifice to the barbecue gods. Funny thing is, I've had pretty good success smoking clods over the years but for some reason wanted to bring the sous vide element into it. What's that they say about if it ain't broke? Oh well, still going to fire up the WSM and throw that sucker on then hope for the best.

 

[billy brown]

Well, quite a day up here in southern Ontario, hot as heck but big fun all day with friends and neighbours dropping around and having a few ginger ales. We rescued that beef clod from a 150 degree 2 day sous vide swim and prepared it for an unknown fate.

Some EVOO then a basic beef rub, no sugar.

Onto the WSM for a couple of hours with apple and oak.

After a couple of hours I wrapped it in butcher paper, not sure if this step was really necessary.

And the finished product...

The final verdict... very tender, quite tasty but just lacked that something special. As I had been warned the beef did not take on the smoke very well, there was just a hint of it, not really what I had been looking for. And while not overly dry it was definitely not a juicy as I'd hoped, lower sous vide temp and/or less time in the bath might help that. So if I do this again I will smoke first and sous vide later. My friends still liked it.... maybe the ginger ales had something to do with that. Thanks to Dave and Al for the advice for my next effort.

 

[daveomak]

Well, there are no mistakes, only valuable learning experiences....
I have been S-V a lot of chicken breasts lately.. I buy the 10# bags.... I have found if I cut the breasts into strips about 1X1", season and vac pack, cook at 137 for 4 hours, they come out awesome...
Maybe try the clod in thick steaks... 1 1/2 to 2" thick... season and smoke for an hour or so...
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Beef
Baldwin shows ~5 hours at 131F for med rare, bag and cool the meat on ice, then sear on very high heat to get a nice sear might do what you are looking for... experimenting is fun and can be delicious...