Re: Confessions of an HEB meat man
nailsh...@aol.com
> This was just too good not to make into a separate thread.
>
> Everybody here pretty much smokes [brisket] the same way, give or
> take a few minor variations. If you do anything drastically out of
> the norm, you're probably too afraid to mention it here.
*SNIP*
> When is it done?
>
> Just reach in there and cut a little slice off the end with your
> pocket knife. You're looking for a smoke ring when you slice into
> the brisket. Four hours into the cooking and beyond, the ring really
> starts to develop.
>
> http://www.heb.com/mealtime/CT-brisketSecrets.jsp
>
> It's no wonder these guys don't post here.
Wow... that's just nasty. Mop? Sop? Vinegar? CUTTING the end of
the brisket off while cooking?
He's a Texan and he uses a stainless steel pit to cook a brisket and
calls it traditional?
I hope all that remains a secret. From everyone, forever. What a
load of crap.
Simple rub. Good fire. Cold beer for the operator. Patience. Those
are the keys to a good brisket.
What a joke. I hope someone pulls his Texas state citizenship card.
Robert
Brick
On 17-Nov-2009, Sqwertz <swe...@cluemail.compost> wrote:
> This was just too good not to make into a separate thread.
>
> Everybody here pretty much smokes [brisket] the same way, give or
> take a few minor variations. If you do anything drastically out of
> the norm, you're probably too afraid to mention it here.
>
> This next guy takes the cake, though. This just goes to show you
> how many inbred, backwoods rural Texas ways there are to smoke a
> brisket:
>
> "This is the tale of how one Central Texas barbecue specialist turns
> a 10-pound brisket into a delicacy. After much pleading one hot
> afternoon next to a giant barbecue pit called the Grill Mobile,
> Tommy Williamson, a 20-year H-E-B meat man, gave in and revealed
> this story to H-E-B's Culinary Manager."
>
> ....
>
> "The first thing you'll need for true smoking with indirect heat is
> a good stainless-steel smoker grill..."
>
> [Other than a version of the GOSM, I have never seen a
> non-commercial, stainless steel smoker]
>
> "If you were going to cook, say, 15 or 20 briskets for a big church
> crowd or something, a long-bed pickup truck full of wood would be
> about the right amount. For cooking one brisket, you'll need about
> 15 to 20 pieces of split wood. Add a whole piece, one at a time, in
> between turning the brisket to keep a constant heat.
>
> "Once the flames die down, while the embers are hot and there's
> still a little flame, but not so hot they blacken the meat, sear in
> the juices 20 minutes per side. Put the brisket close to the firebox
> or directly over the coals -- the lean side first, then the fat
> side."
>
> "I also like to put an inch or two of water in the bottom of the
> barrel under the grill grate to hold heat, keep the heat even and
> keep the meat moist. So it's helpful if the smoker or pit has a
> drain in the bottom to let the water out,"
>
> "Oh, yeah. Before you close the lid and really get cooking, be sure
> you completely shower the brisket with sop. I mean, get it good and
> wet until it's drippy.
>
> [washing off any rub]
>
> "What's sop? Oh, well, that's a sauce, sometimes beer and vinegar.
> But I like to mix a can of beer, a can of water, half a jar of onion
> juice and a can of vinegar for mine."
>
> [Half a jar of onion juice??? You sure don't buy that at HEB]
>
> When is it done?
>
> Just reach in there and cut a little slice off the end with your
> pocket knife. You're looking for a smoke ring when you slice into
> the brisket. Four hours into the cooking and beyond, the ring really
> starts to develop.
>
> http://www.heb.com/mealtime/CT-brisketSecrets.jsp
>
> It's no wonder these guys don't post here.
>
> -sw
If that's what the great guru's at H.E.B. prescribe for smoking a
brisket, it is evident that I don't know squat about smoking
brisket. The really disgusting part is that I don't want or need to
know anymore about smoking brisket then I already know and
that includes most of what H.E.B seems to recommend. That
said, I don't cook with raw wood anymore because it's too much
bother. I can do it and it'll take about a dozen or so 16" splits to
get the job done in my offset. But whether I cook with wood or
lump or hardwood charcoal, I'll cook around 270F until it's done.
That'll be anywhere from about 8 to 12 hours in my pit. After
about 4 hours, I'll turn it 180 degrees to even out the cooking
somewhat. That's it. I don't fondle it, baste it, spritz it or mop
it. Brisket stands on it's own if you don't do every fool thing
under the sun to F$%k it up. Some briskets are okay at 185F
internal. Just about all briskets are good at 195F internal. I've
let a few go to 205F internal and they were very good eating
too.
About smoke ring. It's cutesy. It doesn't make my 'Q' taste
better. In fact, too much ring turns me off with the strong
smoke taste. I'm using less and less smoke these days and
liking it more.
--
Brick (Youth is wasted on young people)
Janet Wilder
I don't know who this "expert" is but he surely is not the chef at HEB.
They sell a pre-smoked, cryovac packaged brisket that, except for being
a tad salty for my taste, is quite excellent. We particularly like the
hickory smoked one. It is almost as good as some of the better Q places
in Texas and much better than a lot of the so-called Q in many places.
--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.
Janet Wilder
> I don't know who this "expert" is but he surely is not the chef at HEB.
> They sell a pre-smoked, cryovac packaged brisket that, except for being
> a tad salty for my taste, is quite excellent. We particularly like the
> hickory smoked one. It is almost as good as some of the better Q places
> in Texas and much better than a lot of the so-called Q in many places.
>
One more thing. Their packaged pre-smoked brisket is *dry* not a hint of
sauce or sop.
Pete C.
Good grief. It's a good thing I didn't read crap like that when I
searched here for info after moving to TX and deciding on my first try
at 'Q. My long ago "improvised newbie 'q story" would have had a pretty
bad ending if I used that "advice".
Rapscallion
aux3....@snet.net says...
>
I'm from Texas and I am offended. Forget the rest of that garbage, GREEN
WOOD???? There's no better way I know of to make your brisket taste like
dirt. I swear, I thought this was a parody piece.
-Raps
nailsh...@aol.com
> I don't know who this "expert" is but he surely is not the chef at HEB.
> They sell a pre-smoked, cryovac packaged brisket that, except for being
> a tad salty for my taste, is quite excellent. We particularly like the
> hickory smoked one. It is almost as good as some of the better Q places
> in Texas and much better than a lot of the so-called Q in many places.
Janet: I applaud your bravery. When eating at LOML's mother's house,
she loves to fix those presmoked briskets. I was not happy the first
time, but then I thought, how bad could it be?
Well, I am here to say it was actually very good. I don't know who
they subcontract their smoking to, but they do a fine job. Gently
heated, it is good stuff right out of the oven. Actually not priced
too bad, either when you think about how much weight you lose after
properly smoking a brisket.
I wouldn't have posted that though, as I didn't want the teeth
gnashing.
Robert
Stormmee
--
Have a wonderful day
"Sqwertz" <swe...@cluemail.compost> wrote in message
news:y5967h8401yd$.prn@sqwertz.com...
Janet Wilder
It doesn't take much courage to tell the truth. <g>
I've been playing on Usenet since before many of y'all have even had a
computer (1995) I've been in many flame wars and learned early on that
it's all about the "sticks and stones" our mothers warned us about when
we were 4.
BTW, we usually get one of the smaller packages of the pre-sliced. The
other good thing is that there is almost always some kind of "combo
loco" deal with them. You wind up getting a bunch of free stuff that's
worth quite a bit of cash, too.
Janet Wilder
>
> Oh, HEB briskets suck, Suck, SUCK. Do not buy them!
Oh yes! And avoid the $18 worth of free stuff when you buy one, too.
Nunya Bidnits
If they do, don't be sending him to Missouri! We'll say Show Me, and then
we'll have to kill him when he does.
MartyB in KC
Nunya Bidnits
clippage
Do ya think this brain surgeon might be able to cut his fuel down to half a
longbed pickup of wood if he left out the water pan?
A longbed pickup?
He should just measure his fuel needs in whole trees.
MartyB in KC
Rapscallion
says...
>
> http://www.greenmesquite.net/history_mesquite.html
>
> -sw
>
Someone else pointed that out to me. You aren't supposed to even use
green wood in the fireplace, let alone meat. Who knows? Maybe creosote
tastes good.
-Raps
Rapscallion
kellie...@yahoo.com says...
> I've been playing on Usenet since before many of y'all have even had a
> computer (1995) I've been in many flame wars and learned early on that
> it's all about the "sticks and stones" our mothers warned us about when
> we were 4.
>
Gotcha beat, I've got posts available on Google Groups from '93. I've
actually been online long before the "web", dating back to '92. I used
to call long distance to connect through CRLs servers via a terminal to
access a shell account. Command line all the way (Solaris baby). Later,
when access came to my town, I negotiated a shell account with them. I
used to access the web either via emulation (Slirp), or lynx. I knew
right then that the WWW would be the downfall of the internet. Then came
the "Eternal September", and AOL single handedly let loose an army of
morons. If you weren't there, you've no idea what it was like, but it
was a true wild west and I controlled a part of it. My old nick was well
protected by an army of bots from here to Alaska. Oh well, so much for
my memories.
Rapscallion
nunyab...@eternal-september.invalid says...
Brick
On 18-Nov-2009, "Nunya Bidnits" <nunyab...@eternal-september.invalid>
wrote:
They used quite a bit of wood to cook the whole hog at the Milan, GA
HTH last August, but not that much. BobInGa cooks in a true open
pit and preburns all of the wood down to coals before adding it to
the cooking pit. I'd guess they used about 40 cu ft of splits to get the
job done, but that's just a guess from my casual observation. TFM�
could probably provide a better estimate. They did not use the
equivalent of a longbed pickup load.
Brick said that.
Brick
You're a young fella. I was on Compuserve in 1980 (73577,605). Yes
that's a comma. It was before addressing was defined and the period
became the standard. 'puter was a Heathkit Z80. Compuserve had their
own broswer at first. I later migrated to Netscape. This was all way before
windows made the scene.
Now, let's see who can pee the furthest. (You win!)
Janet Wilder
Won't be me. It's kind of hard for girls to pee up the wall. <vbg>
Janet Wilder
> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:12:53 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:
>
>> Sqwertz wrote:
>>
>>> Oh, HEB briskets suck, Suck, SUCK. Do not buy them!
>> Oh yes! And avoid the $18 worth of free stuff when you buy one, too.
>
> discounted brisket. Most of the extras I don't usually care for
> (cases of soda, cheap ice cream, waffles, whatever... stuff I never
> buy or use).
>
> -sw
I get the stuff and take it directly to the local shelter or just give
it away to people in the store who have a lot of kids and look poor.
Sometimes they have good stuff like bagged salad greens. A few weeks ago
I had to buy some corn chips for a party and got free bean dip. It was
pretty good on carrot sticks.
At one time in my life I was in pretty dire financial straights and I
learned what it is like to go to bed hungry so giving to the food pantry
and the homeless shelter are pretty big priorities with me. Every time I
check out, I buy one of those little coupons for the food bank. I'm just
a sentimental old broad.
Nick Cramer
> Brick wrote:
> > [ . . . ]
> > Now, let's see who can pee the furthest. (You win!)
> Won't be me. It's kind of hard for girls to pee up the wall. <vbg>
We had that contest when I was in highschool. Gal went last and won! Turned
her back to the wall, bent over, straight-legged, grabbed her ankles and
let go. Hit the wall six feet up! Where the Hell did she learn that?
--
Nick, KI6VAV. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their
families: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ Thank a Veteran!
Support Our Troops: http://anymarine.com/ You are not forgotten.
Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~ USMC 1365061
Janet Wilder
> Janet Wilder <kellie...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Brick wrote:
>>> [ . . . ]
>>> Now, let's see who can pee the furthest. (You win!)
>
>> Won't be me. It's kind of hard for girls to pee up the wall. <vbg>
>
> We had that contest when I was in highschool. Gal went last and won! Turned
> her back to the wall, bent over, straight-legged, grabbed her ankles and
> let go. Hit the wall six feet up! Where the Hell did she learn that?
>
She probably had brothers who taught her.
I might try that one day. I do Yoga so bending over like that is not a
problem. With my luck, however, well, I don't even want to go there.
Stormmee
takes over for the animal shelter is the food stuff, Lee
--
Have a wonderful day
"Janet Wilder" <kellie...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:0076ff6c$0$8071$c3e...@news.astraweb.com...
Rapscallion
hrbr...@NOSPAMverizon.net says...
>
>
> You're a young fella. I was on Compuserve in 1980 (73577,605). Yes
> that's a comma. It was before addressing was defined and the period
> became the standard. 'puter was a Heathkit Z80. Compuserve had their
> own broswer at first. I later migrated to Netscape. This was all way before
> windows made the scene.
>
> Now, let's see who can pee the furthest. (You win!)
>
>
I am prostrate before your prostate.
I had a spell on Compuserve too (were they really in existance in
1980??), but their access to the internet was well behind that of AOL,
and much, much later than what was available elsewhere. CRL was offering
SLIP and PPP access before either cserve or aohell made mention of an
internet.
Still, I am impressed by your Heathkit, not to mention your powers of
soldering.
However, I am confused by your mention of Netscape predating windoze. If
you are speaking in relation to browsers, yeah. But the first browser
was Mosaic, and there was a suite of utils called something like
chameleon which had it's own dialer, telnet, browser, archie, etc. All
worked just fine on my WFW (windoze for workgroups) setup, and all
predated Netscape.
Have you ever experienced the joy of sending some obnoxious twit VT100
codes which makes all the characters on his screen dance around madly?
How about the cool satisfaction of locking up microsoft's web server due
to buffer overrun problems in NT 351?
But to speak honestly, what I most miss is how small the internet was. I
knew where to get my blonde jokes. I could finger a machine in Germany
to see if my friend was logged in. I could invite him into a talk
session and later hit efnet to trade files. When I couldn't get my
symbios scsi card to work with linux, I could write a developer at
symbios and get a reply, as well as a little free code.
But, those days are gone.
It's time to start thinking about brining that turkey. Gotta get up
early to do the rub, injection and getting the smoker up to temp. I
might oughtta get a few turkey franks too, just in case.
I'll be using hickory and pecan, no green wood for me.
Brick
On 23-Nov-2009, Rapscallion <1...@1.com> wrote:
> hrbr...@NOSPAMverizon.net says...
> >
>
> >
> > You're a young fella. I was on Compuserve in 1980 (73577,605). Yes
> > that's a comma. It was before addressing was defined and the period
> > became the standard. 'puter was a Heathkit Z80. Compuserve had their
> > own broswer at first. I later migrated to Netscape. This was all way
> > before
> > windows made the scene.
> >
> > Now, let's see who can pee the furthest. (You win!)
> >
> >
>
> I am prostrate before your prostate.
>
> I had a spell on Compuserve too (were they really in existance in
> 1980??), but their access to the internet was well behind that of AOL,
> and much, much later than what was available elsewhere. CRL was offering
> SLIP and PPP access before either cserve or aohell made mention of an
> internet.
. . .
> But to speak honestly, what I most miss is how small the internet was. I
> knew where to get my blonde jokes. I could finger a machine in Germany
> to see if my friend was logged in. I could invite him into a talk
> session and later hit efnet to trade files. When I couldn't get my
> symbios scsi card to work with linux, I could write a developer at
> symbios and get a reply, as well as a little free code.
>
> But, those days are gone.
>
> It's time to start thinking about brining that turkey. Gotta get up
> early to do the rub, injection and getting the smoker up to temp. I
> might oughtta get a few turkey franks too, just in case.
>
> I'll be using hickory and pecan, no green wood for me.
You sir have caught me out and badly too I must add. I did nave one
of the earliest Compuserve accounts, but not nearly that early. (Google
doesn't usually lie). I did build the early Heathkit H-89 with a whomping
64K of ram and a single hard sector floppy drive with a whomping 100k
capacity. Most of our communications was to/from dial-up bulletin
boards. There were several popular communcations programs, but alas
I can't remember the names of a single one. I vaguely remember there
being a program du jour. They changed almost weekly. Bulletin boards
were run with a single line usually on a machine with no more then a
20 meg hard drive. Despite, the early netscape being a commercial
program, I never had a problem getting it for free.
ob grilled some pork butt pieces to go along with pasta and pesto
for lunch. Nothing to write home about except maybe the spinach
basil pesto. First time I ever attemped pesto. Not much to it if you
have a blender or food processor.
nailsh...@aol.com
.
>
> ob grilled some pork butt pieces to go along with pasta and pesto
> for lunch. Nothing to write home about except maybe the spinach
> basil pesto. First time I ever attemped pesto. Not much to it if you
> have a blender or food processor.
Brick - try making the pesto with different kinds of nuts. I can't
afford the traditionally called for pine nuts (pignoli) and instead
use walnuts and cashews. I tried almonds, but I never could get them
ground down fine enough. Although the almond pesto made a tasty crust
on some salmon.
I grow a lot of sweet basil specifically for my pesto sauces, and love
them on smoked or grilled chicken.
I am not a traditionalist. Sometimes I put in Parmesan cheese.
Sometimes sun dried tomatoes. Sometimes both! Like I said, excellent
on a chicken or a heavy bodied fish.
Robert
Brick
Pesto is definitely a do-over Robert. Neither am I a traditionalist. It
happened that I had some pine nuts in the freezer. Like youself, I'm
not standing in line to buy pine nuts. They're just too expensive to
use everyday. Almonds and peanuts are cheap. And in fact I have
nothing bad to say about peanuts. I don't have my own herb patch,
thus I'm at the mercy of market prices for fresh herbs. I had several
chunks of cheese backed up. Seems that Nick got me into a cheese
kick awhile back. I had never used the grater attachment that came
with my food processor so I fed it a half pount of Parmesan to see
how it worked. Voila! Instant half pound of grated cheese. I used
a half cup or so and put the rest in the freezer.
Never had a green pasta sauce before. Had some misgivings how
the DW would take it. Her initial visual reaction was to bypass it
completely. After I encouraged her to have a taste, she scarfed
it up. I used some pretty tasty olive oil and got the salt content
just about right for a change. I had some leftover spaghetti and
pesto
For lunch today, I'm going to spread some of that spinach pesto
on a tortilla, top it with spaghetti and cheese and toast it in the
toaster oven. We'll see how that goes over. Viva non-traditional.
Nunya Bidnits
>
> Brick - try making the pesto with different kinds of nuts. I can't
> afford the traditionally called for pine nuts (pignoli) and instead
> use walnuts and cashews. I tried almonds, but I never could get them
> ground down fine enough. Although the almond pesto made a tasty crust
> on some salmon.
Try toasting the almond pieces first, and start processing with them alone
in the processor before adding other ingredients.
>
> I grow a lot of sweet basil specifically for my pesto sauces, and love
> them on smoked or grilled chicken.
>
> I am not a traditionalist. Sometimes I put in Parmesan cheese.
> Sometimes sun dried tomatoes. Sometimes both! Like I said, excellent
> on a chicken or a heavy bodied fish.
>
> Robert
I don't think Parmesan or Romano counts as non-traditional in pesto, and
I've seen a number of recipes that call for walnuts (bleccchhh). I watch the
stores in different departments for pine nuts. Sometimes you can find a
better deal on them in the packaged nuts and dried fruits, for example.
Here's something definitely non-traditional, a cilantro pesto. It goes great
on certain kinds of grilled fish, like halibut for example. I don't
recommend it for more delicately flavored fish however.
Cilantro pesto
1 1/2 c. packed cilantro leaves
1/2 c packed parsley
1/2 c grated parmesan or romano, or any other firm semi-dry cheese
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c pine nuts (about 1 oz.)
Process all ingredients except oil in a food processor, then gradually add
the oil while processing.
I've modified this with sunflower nutmeat, or cashews instead of the pine
nuts, omitting the salt when using cashews. Another variation is subbing
peanuts and sesame flavored oil.
MartyB in KC
nailsh...@aol.com
september.invalid> wrote:
> Try toasting the almond pieces first, and start processing with them alone
> in the processor before adding other ingredients.
Thanks for the tip. You know how sometimes you get one of those
mental blocks? I have toasted pine nuts to make pesto, but never
thought about doing that to other nuts.... Duh.
Next time I have a long smoke, I am going to put some cashews (good
and fatty - they should pull in some good smoke!) on the pit and smoke
a handfull to make a smokey pesto for some salmon I just got from a
client.
> I don't think Parmesan or Romano counts as non-traditional in pesto, and
> I've seen a number of recipes that call for walnuts (bleccchhh).
While the pesto is made with EVOO, it seems like it is oilier or
heavier with walnuts. Not sure why, but I don't care for it myself.
I do put a handful in if I have them, but never just walnuts.
> Here's something definitely non-traditional, a cilantro pesto. It goes great
> on certain kinds of grilled fish, like halibut for example. I don't
> recommend it for more delicately flavored fish however.
>
> Cilantro pesto
> 1 1/2 c. packed cilantro leaves
> 1/2 c packed parsley
> 1/2 c grated parmesan or romano, or any other firm semi-dry cheese
> 1/2 c vegetable oil
> 1/4 tsp salt
> 3 cloves garlic
> 1/4 c pine nuts (about 1 oz.)
That looks like a great recipe for fish or chicken breasts!
But why the vegetable oil over a good olive oil? No fresh cracked
black pepper?
Robert
Nunya Bidnits
Actually I don't find the olive oil works very well with the cilantro, the
flavors seem to clash.
As far as any other seasonings, if I do anything consistently, it's put
black pepper into almost everything. For some reason it's just not in the
recipe as written down.
Another variant is just a tiny bit of lime or lemon juice, depending on the
fish and flavor desired. If I've used a spicy seasoning or coating on the
fish I'll add a bit of lime juice for sure.
I've never tried this one on chicken but now that you mention it, it's worth
a shot! Maybe marinated in chiliancho lime, grilled, and then served with
the pesto... hmmm!
MartyB