How do I tell if my Steak is done?

NEVER CUT THE MEAT TO LOOK.

There are two basic methods to test for how done your meat is while you are cooking it – use a meat thermometer, or press on the meat with your finger tips. The problem with the meat thermometer approach is that when you poke a hole into the meat with a thermometer, it can let juices escape, juices that you would rather have stay in the meat. For this reason, most experienced cooks rely on a “finger test” method, especially on steaks (whole roasts are better tested with a thermometer).The Interent taught me how to test for the doneness of meat using this method and these days half the time I don’t even bother with a thermometer. Now the point of this story is not to embarrass anyone but to encourage you into trying this approach. This really isn’t rocket science.

This is one of those things that gets easier with practice. The next time you cook a steak, even if you are still planning to rely on a meat thermometer, press on the meat here and there while it cooks, and compare the feeling of the meat with the following finger test. With practice, you will become more confident.

The Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat Recipe

METHOD

Open the palm of your hand. Relax the hand. Take the index finger of your other hand and push on the fleshy area between the thumb and the base of the palm. Make sure your hand is relaxed. This is what raw meat feels like. (Check this out the next time you have a raw steak to cook.)

Now gently press the tip of your pinky and your thumb together. Again feel the fleshy area below the thumb. It should feel quite firm. This is what well done meat feels like when you press on it. (Check this out the next time you overcook a piece of meat.)

Press the tip of your ring finger and your thumb together. The flesh beneath the thumb should give a little more. This is what meat cooked to a medium doneness feels like.

Gently press the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb. This is medium rare.

Press the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb. The fleshy area below the thumb should give quite a bit. This is what meat cooked to rare feels like. Open up your palm again and compare raw to rare.

Pork Picnic or Boston Butt?

When considering to make pulled pork the question always is should I use the Picnic or The Boston Butt cut of the pig.  I have used both with wonderful results.  So the question is where are these two cuts of meat from?  Well this image shows them quite well.

The front leg of the pig shows the Boston Shoulder and the Picnic Shoulder.  What I find is that either one will give you a great smoked pulled pork.  However, there are a few things to be aware of depending on where you purchase your meats.  If you have a local butcher, well then you can tell them what you would like done.  I purchase my meats at a local retail change where they will still modify cuts for you.  However I don’t always have time to do this.

From a personal perspective, after having used both, I like the Boston Butt for a couple of reasons.  When I make Pulled Pork, I like a nice fine shredding of the meat so that the consistences is a little more even.  To obtain this I shred by hand with two forks.  This means I can get a nice fine consistency to the end product.  This is typically the case if I smoke it long or short with higher temperatures. The Picnic cut does still give a great flavor but I found that the shredding lends to a longer stringier type of shred.  Typically I will go with the Boston Cut but if the Picnic is on sale, well economics comes into play for personal cooking.

Smoked chuck roast

So tonight I decided to try something new. I took a 3 pound chuck roast marinated it and put it on the smoker for a good five hours. Being that it’s 3 1/2 pounds rule of fun as 1.5 hours reach pound of meat, So this means I was in the for a four to five hour range for this particular cut.

Now for the marinade recipe if you look at an earlier post I mentioned that I had a great steak marinade. I used the same marinate the chuck roast however rather than marinade and rather than leave it in the refrigerator, I left it on the counter so that it was going to the smoker quicker.

In the smoker I lined up a pile of charcoal and started some on the chimney. I added it to the far right hand side of the fireboxwith the damper the firebox close completely. This would allow me to dump the lit charcoal in the far end and then let it burn across.

Here a is my video of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV7nhscgYEA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Bad Brads BBQ – New Baltimore, MI

Well tonight I visited Bad Brads of New Baltimore. I’ve heard great things and wanted to give it a try. So I drove out to New Baltimore. Given that I do my our BBQing I know a thing or two.

One of my joys is try new places and see what they consider as good food. I truly enjoy speaking with Pit-masters at the places I visit.

On tonights visit I wanted to try as many different things as possible on one visit. So, I opted for the two meat combo and added a quarter rack of ribs.

Presentation and portion sizes were impressive. This might be good.

For the sides I asked what were the top sellers. I was informed that the “Pit Beans” and “Collard Greens” we’re the ones. This was followed by the “Sweet Potato Mash”. I chose the Pit Beans and the BBQ Chili.

As for the meats I went with the BBQ standards of Sliced Brisket and Pulled Pork.

These were very nice and tender. Next was the ribs.

So what is the verdict? Let’s start with the ribs. A good rib should have an evident texture, flavor, and consistency. With good BBQ Ribs the rub must enhance the flavor of the meat. The ribs were a perfect temperature, the meat fell off the bone nicely, and there was an evident smoke ring. However this smoke ring was thin. This did affect the flavor. There wasn’t much smoke taste to the meat.

Next lets discuss the rub. The rub was evenly applied to the ribs. As I stated earlier, the rub must enhance the meat. I found that the rub had little flavor and did not enhance the taste. The ribs needed a sauce to have any significant flavor. Overall the ribs were good, but I would not call the memorable.

Next lets discuss the brisket. This cut of meat is one that can be very flavorful when prepared correctly. With this choice, just as with the ribs, the meat was cooked to perfection. Very nice and tender but also lacking a significant smoke flavor. Here too I found that bark formed from the rub was even and tender. The smoke ring was more obvious than the ribs but again overall the brisket needed sauce.

That takes me to the pulled pork. This is one of my particular specialties. The portion was very generous. The meat was nice and tender and clearly cocked for several hours. I did find a few outer parts to taste. Here I was looking for rub flavoring, smoke taste and the telltale pink of infused smoke. All of these elements were missing again requiring sauces. This too was not the expectation based upon what I have heard.

That brings me to the sides. I’ll start with the chili.

The presentation was excellent. As you can see cheddar cheese, green onions and guacamole over the chili. The flavors blended very nicely. I found the heat if the chili just right but I fear it might be a little much for my wife. I also noted no beans of any type and very limited meat in it.

Next was the Pit Beans. This was my favorite part of the meal.

Again a nice presentation. Lots of meat, a variety of beans and finally that deep smoke flavor I had been searching for. These beans had it.  There was plentiful meat however, rather than burnt pork ends this chili was made with rib tips.  How can I be sure, well I found bits of the rib cartilage in the larger pieces of meat.  This was a detraction for me.

All in all it was a decent meal and I did go in with high expectations. Needless to say my expectations were not met and I was not “Wowed” like I was hoping to be.  To be honest, I will give them one more try in the future.

Fantastic Steak Marinade

Steak Marinade

When grilling steaks they can be wonderful to shoe leather in terms of tenderness. My lovely wife Anita used to douse her steaks in BBQ sauce. My boys loved the steaks as did I. After taking the family to a couple of Steak Houses in Walt Disney World, I wanted to recreate those flavors.

That’s when I learned about marinades. So I researched marinades and found one that has worked. Here is what I do. I usually do three steaks at a time with this mix. These can be round steaks, porterhouse, T-bones, rib-eyes or even a chuck roast.

In a 1 gallon plastic Zip-Lock style bag, add 1/4 cup of Worshirecester Sauce, 1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive oil and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder. Shake the bag to mix well.

As for the meat, this gets seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning. Place the meat into the bag with the marinade, place this in the fridge where I usually leave it in for four hours. Be sure to take them out to raise to room temperature and then on the grill for 7-8 minutes per side on the grill turning only once. Be sure the grill is hot so that you can get the nice crossed grill marks.

With this process now in full production mode, Anita no longer uses any sauce on her steaks. Oh she also used to prefer well done. Now she loves medium rare.

Roasted Chicken

Tonight I decided to roast some boneless chicken breasts. I used my cherry wood but had the heat higher than I do for smoking.

Here is the recipe.

2 twigs of fresh rosemary finely chopped
4 twigs of fresh thyme finely chopped
2 lemons juiced
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
6 boneless chicken breast halves pounded flat

Mix all ingredients in a Zip-lock bag until mixed well. Add the chicken yo the bag letting all chicken pieces cost with the marinade. Let sit in the fridge 2-3 hours.

Roast for about 10 minutes per side over cherry wood at about 350 degrees. Turn and rotate around the grill to ensure even cooking

Goalie Pads – Reebok L9 Larceny

Danny’s growth and usage has started a break down of his Bauer Vapor X55 pads.  One strap has been cut, another is splitting and his catcher has had a few things let go.  Needless to say almost 2 years out of them has been good considering his in them at least three times a week.  So off we went to Perani’s as a necessary evil.  He was able to choose pads and a color he wanted as a result he went with the Reebok Larceny L9 pads, blocker and Catcher.   Here they are!