Chapter 8 Beef

8.0.1 Brisket Style Tritip

This is a great place to start in your barbecue adventure. Unlike a brisket, it is a small piece of meat, more suitable for 1-2 people (although it will yield up multuple servings. Furthermore, the cook time is reasonable (6-7 hours), and leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for days.

Ingredients:

2-3 pound Tri-tip roast
Your favorite beef barbecue rub (I use Penzey’s Barbecue 3000
3-4 Oak or Hickory Wood Chunks
Peach paper (available at Lowes)

  1. Soak the wood chunks in water for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Load the barbecue with charcoal and add two Fire Starter Sticks. Ignite.
  3. As soon as the flame dies down, add the soaked wood chips and stir them into the coals as best you can.
  4. Place your ConvEGGtor, and aluminum drip pan, and grill in place.
  5. Immediately hook up your Billows device with a long probe in channel 1 and your grill monitoring probe (attached to the grill).
  6. Using the Thermoworks app, set the fan temperature to 250o F. Close the upper vent on the Egg nearly completely
  7. Apply a binder to the tri-tip. Mustard is the standard here, however I use olive oil.
  8. Apply rub liberally to all sides
  9. Insert a long probe into the heart of the roast and place on grill. Close the lid and let the cooking commence.

  Left: Beginning the barbecue Right: Tritip wrapped in butcher paper for final cook.

At this point, sit back, have a beer or a glass of wine, and keep an eye on time and temperature. When the internal temperature reaches 150o F. or when 2 hours have past (whichever comes first), proceed as follows:

  1. Remove the roast from the Egg, keeping lid-open time to a minimum.
  2. Wrap the roast in two layers of orange butcher paper.
  3. Return the roast to the Egg, and with the app, increase the grill temperature to 275o F.
  4. When the roast has reached 200o F. (about 3-4 hours), remove it and let it stand wrapped for 20 minutes or so.
  5. Slice and enjoy!

 

Cooked and sliced.

8.0.2 Brisket Burnt Ends

Occasionally our local store sells brisket point by itself, making this a relatively easy (although lengthy) preparation

Ingredients

Brisket point
Barbecue rub (your choice)
Barbecue sauce (ditto)

  1. Coat the brisket point liberally with rub. Refrigerate at least an hour or up to overnight.
  2. Prepare your smoker for indirect cooking at 225o F. using either oak or hickory wood chunks.
  3. Insert a leave-in thermometer into the point and place it in the smoker for indirect cooking.
  4. When the meat reaches a temperature of 195o F. (probably in 8-10 hours), remove the point to a platter.
  5. Cut the meat into one inch cubes.
  6. Dust the cubes with more rub and coat with barbecue sauce.
  7. Spread the cubes in a single layer on an aluminum pan and return to the smoker.
  8. Smoke for an additional hour, until the sauce is sticky. The meat can then be used as a sandwich filling; alternatively stick each piece with a tooth pick and serve alone.

8.0.3 Roast beef for sandwiches

This is one that showed up in my inbox from Thermoworks. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m betting it will work well barbecued on the grill. Note that the original recipe calls for a preliminary sear; I’m betting that smoking without the convEGGtor will get the job done.

Ingredients

1 eye round roast, 2-3 lb
kosher salt
black pepper

  1. The night before you cook, salt the roast generously and place in the refrigerator covered.
  2. Prepare your grill for low temperature smoking at 200o. You may or may not want to add wood chunks (oak or hickory).
  3. Rinse off excess salt, dry, and apply pepper.
  4. Barbecue at 200o F until internal temperature reaches 110-115o F. (lower for more rare meat, higher for more tender).
  5. Use your instant read thermometer to check for doneness.
  6. Heat about t tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and brown the meat in it briefly.
  7. For ease of slicing, put roast in the refrigerator overnight, and then in the freezer for 20 minutes.

8.0.3.1 An Instant Pot Version

This an interesting take on how to get similar results (albeit without any smoke flavor) in an IP. I tried it once, and it actually turned out to be pretty good. In the future, however, I’m going to try cooking to an internal temperature of 110 and then wrap in foil for 20 minutes before refrigerating

8.0.4 Beef Fajitas

This recipe was originally one designed for the Instant Pot, but it is really easy to prepare it on a grill. It can also be prepared on the stove top, substituting a heavy frying pan for the grill basket.

Ingredients

~3/4 lb beef, sliced into strips for stir fry (flank steak works well)
2 tbsp fajita seasoning*
1 bell pepper
1 onion
Splash of red wine
1 lime, cut into wedges
Flour tortillas

  1. Coat the beef with a tablespoon of fajita seasoning and the splash of red wine. Marinate for 30 min to an hour.
  2. Slice the vegetables and add the remaining seasoning.
  3. Place the meat in a grill basket and cook over a medium hot (450o F.) grill until browned, about 3-5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
  4. Add the vegetables to the basket and cook for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are cooked through.
  5. Add the meat to the mixture and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
  6. In your kitchen, briefly warm the tortillas eitheron a frying pan over medium heat or by toasting briefly (1-2 minutes) in a toaster oven. Place in a basket and cover with a kitchen towel.
  7. Serve the tortillas, filling and lime wedges for people to put together for guests to serve themselves. If desired, add your favorite hot sauce and/or sour cream (not my favorite).

*There are plenty good choices of fajita seasonings out there. If you choose to make your own, here is the recipe that I use.

2 tbsp chili powder
4 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp smoked paprika
4 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt

Mix everything together and store in an air tight container. Paprika, cayenne, and salt amounts can be adjusted to taste.

If you are an instant pot user, you can find the original recipe here.

8.0.5 Grilled Korean Short Ribs

This needs some advance planning for marinating, but it results in a tasty and straightforward meal it - only requires about five minutes on the grill.

Ingredients

1 medium onion cut into 1-inch pieces
1 Asian pear cut into 1-inch pieces (substitute a standard pear if not available)
5 garlic cloves
1-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 C soy sauce
1/2 C water
1/4 C packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
3 pounds flanken-style beef short ribs, cut about 1/4–1/2-inch thick

  1. Combine the onion, pear, garlic cloves, and fresh ginger in a food processor and process to a coarse paste.
  2. Add thse soy sauce, water, sugar, mirin and pepper and continue to process until everything is combined.
  3. In a bowl, combine the paste with sesame seeds, sesame oil and scallions.
  4. Place the meat in a shallow pan and cover with the marinade. Let it marinade at least one hour or overnight.
  5. Prepare your grill for cooking at 450o F.
  6. Grill, turning regularly, until the internal temperatures of the ribs reaches 170o F.
  7. Serve with white rice.

8.0.6 Beef Bourguignon

I’ve made this for years on the stove top, based on the recipe in The Joy of Cooking. Amy and Jacky’s version (see link) is somewhat similar. What follows is a hybridization of the two.

Ingredients

1 slice bacon*
1 onion, sliced
1-2 lbs. stew beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 cup red wine
1 tsp tomato paste
1/4 + 1/4 cup water
1 tbsp flour

  1. Set your IP on sauté and press start
  2. While it is coming to temperature, fry the bacon until most of the fat is rendered. Remove the bacon, let it cool, and then crumble it.
  3. Season the beef with salt and pepper, and sauté in the bacon fat until browned.
  4. Remove the meat, and sauté the onions for ~5 minutes.
  5. Add the wine and 1/4 cup of water to the pot and deglaze carefully,
  6. Add the salt, thyme, bay leaf, bacon, and tomato paste to the pot and mix thoroughly.
  7. Add the beef and seal the pot.
  8. Pressure cook on high for 30 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of natural release.
  9. Mix the flour and remaining 1/4 cup of water thoroughly.
  10. Set the pot on sauté and bring mixture to a simmer.
  11. Stir in the flour and water and continue to simmer until the sauce has thickened.
  12. Serve over rice or fettucine

*If you don’t wish to use bacon, use a couple of table spoons of olive oil for the sautéing.

NOTE: This is a pretty stripped down version of the recipe; many others include carrots and mushrooms. If you wish to do so, you should follow Amy and Jacky’s method and pressure cook the meat and vegetables separately, combining at the end.

8.0.7 Pepper Steak

There are two good recipes for this one (a stir fry) from [The New York Times(https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024320-pepper-steak){target=“_blank”} and one for the IP from Jeffrey Eisner. I’m going to try the Times version first, perhaps adding the sesame oil and/or Hoisin sauce called for in the Eisner version.

8.0.8 Thai Pepper and Onion Stir Fry

This is a take on another one of my takeout favorites. In the original recipe the protein is pork; I typically order it would beef, but in addition to those two meats, I’m sure tofu or chicken would work as well.

Ingredients

1 lb beef, cut into strips
1/2 each green and red pepper
1 onion, coarsly chopped
Juice of two limes
4 tbsp Thai hot chili sauce, divided
3 tbsp. soy sauce, divided
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, mixed
1 inch piece ginger, grated
(optional) 1 tbsp cornstarch combined with 2 tbsp water

  1. Combine 2 tbsp chili sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, fish sauce, juice of one lime, garlic and ginger (if lazy substitute 2 tbsp garlic-ginger paste).
  2. Combine the meat with the marinade and let stand from 30 minutes to overnight.
  3. Heat sesame oil in a wok to a temperature of about 375o F. Add the beef mixture and stir fry for 5-6 minutes.
  4. Add the peppers and onions and cook until softened (another 5 or so minutes).
  5. Add the remaining chili paste and soy sauce and stir.
  6. If you wish to thicken the sauce, add the cornstarch (or arrowroot) suspension and continue to cook until thickened.
  7. Remove from heat and (optional) squeeze on the juice from the remaining lime.

8.0.8.1 Notes

The first time I made this, the results were promising but not perfect. No thickening was necessarly - I just let it simmer for about 15 minutes. And next time I’ll omit the lime juice at the end. It made the dish way too acid.

8.0.9 Birria tacos

One day over morning coffee, I coincidentally ran across two recipes, one for the smoker and one using an Instant Pot®. Both are similar, in that they involve cooking a tough cut of beef (chuck or similar) to oblivion (so it can be shredded) in a rich consomme, and then soaking corn tortillas in that consomme before frying on a griddle. If these work, it would mean these could be prepared year round. Note that the spicing of the IP recipe is more bold - it probably could be used with the smoker cooking method. A fun spring weekend project.

8.0.10 Beef Barbacoa

This is somewhat similar to Birria - worth trying at some point.

8.0.11 Orange Beef

This looks too good to be true. I have to try it!