1. SAUCE JUNE 2015 | 25
SLOW-COOKING
TIPS AND TRICKS
TO PERFECT MEAT
• Inject beef brisket and beef short ribs with
either low salt beef stock or a dark ale.
• Inject pork shoulders with as much apple
juice or apple cider as they can hold.
• Use a quality rub like Mad Hunky on beef
briskets, pork and lamb shoulders and ribs.
• With sous vide, follow recipes to start
with as it requires a change in mind set.
Understand the food safety involved and
always use quality produce if you want
good results.
• Know your cuts of meat to start with
and don’t cut corners with quality. Low
and slow cooking is forgiving but not all
briskets are made the same.
• Reduce flare-ups that char and burn the
meat by using aluminium cooking rails.
• Test if your meat is cooked by sliding
a metal skewer into it. If there’s resistance
then the meat needs to be cooked
some more.
• Practice, practice, practice – get to know
your equipment and how cuts respond
to it.
(2) REAP THE BENEFITS
Slow-cooking really brings out the flavour of the food and it
enables you to use a variety of cost-effective meat cuts to create
delicious meals. It also encourages using the whole animal,
which reduces wastage. Depending on what technique you use,
it can also be very energy-efficient.
- Sous Vide: Enhances the marinating processes and protects
against freezer burn. It also gives chefs the opportunity to
professionally package and seal food to be cooked slowly and
gently. The process uses Polyscience immersion circulators
that have the ability to agitate the water to remove cold
spots and maintain a 0.1°C level of accuracy. “Sous vide
cooking has as many uses as a gas stove without the energy
consumption,” says Prentice.
- Yoder Offset Smokers: Burns charcoal and/or wood and uses
natural airflow to smoke the meats. However, the fire needs to
be manually maintained about every hour or so throughout the
cooking process.
- Yoder Pellet Cookers: Versatile and easy to use, this
machine is fully automatic and the fire can be left for 8-10
hours with no maintenance at all.
HAPPY CUSTOMERS DIGGING IN AT
BLUEBONNET BARBECUE
THE WINGS AT MEATMOTHER