ChiefsPlanet - View Single Post - Food and Drink What's for dinner? Here's mine... (Part 2)

**Buehler445** · 03-31-2015, 10:06 AM

OK, so this is kind of an southern engineered up mess of making supper.

So here's the story. I bought a cold smoke attachment for my rig, because the wife dictated that I would smoke her cheese. It came in a few weeks ago and I've been too busy. So I decided yesterday was the day. I bought the cheese. I'm sitting here thinking it is dumb to use this giant ass smoker for 2 blocks of cheese. I've got some tenderized round steaks that need used up. So I took a shot in the dark and decided to cold smoke them, and sear the **** out of them on the grill, and hopefully it would retain some of the juice. It made sense in my head. The main thing is that if it was terrible, oh well, it was tenderized rounds and I needed to get rid of them anyway.

Anyway, here's what happened.

Here is the cheese and round steak in the smoker. I didn't season them before I stuck them in there.

As a side note, I hope I don't kill myself by having raw meat in the same cooker as cheese. I'm pretty sure they have to touch the same surfaces (I made sure they didn't), but if I die, that's probably why.

Here is my smoker setup. I was trying to explain it to Lewdog and did a poor job. Anyway, the tabletop next to the smoker is really useful. And the chip storage below is neither here nor there, but it is nice to keep all the shit contained in a neat package. It fits really nice next to my wall mounted air compressor in the garage. Really space efficient.

I didn't get a picture on the grill, but this is what they looked like off the grill. I put a little seasoning on. I wish I'd have measured and written it down, because it was pretty damn good, although I should have put more on. Anyway, it consisted of:

chili powder
cumin
onion powder
kosher salt
A few flakes of crushed red pepper

I grilled them as damn hot as I could get the grill. I ended up over cooking 2 of the 4, but it went pretty well. I should have trusted my instincts and taken them off, rather then being scared of undercooking them.

I then chopped them against the grain.

Here is the finished product:

So I'm looking at this thing, and thinking to myself that I just GRILLED a tenderized round steak with some dumbass rub that my dumbass just threw together. This is going to suck. Bad.

It didn't. It was REALLY good. Not world class, it's still damn round steak, but it was faaaaar better than I anticipated. There was some nice smoke flavor, along with my ghetto seasoning. It ended up being better than when we use chicken and fajita seasoning. Maybe I should have cold smoked some chicken breasts and compared the two, but I didn't get it done.

The one thing that I was disappointed in that I couldn't achieve the seal in the juices with the sear, I imagine it had to with the tenderized part. It wasn't dry or tough, but it wasn't nice and juicy like you'd like.

Overall, though, it was really good for using junk meat. If I'm going to run the cold smoker again, I'll do this again. Maybe I'll throw on some burgers or steaks and see how the tastes transfer through the grill.

The cheese turned out really good.

Here is the salsa I used. I love it.

03-31-2015, 10:06 AM	#4384
Buehler445 Supporter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Scott City KS Casino cash: $-1345266	OK, so this is kind of an southern engineered up mess of making supper. So here's the story. I bought a cold smoke attachment for my rig, because the wife dictated that I would smoke her cheese. It came in a few weeks ago and I've been too busy. So I decided yesterday was the day. I bought the cheese. I'm sitting here thinking it is dumb to use this giant ass smoker for 2 blocks of cheese. I've got some tenderized round steaks that need used up. So I took a shot in the dark and decided to cold smoke them, and sear the **** out of them on the grill, and hopefully it would retain some of the juice. It made sense in my head. The main thing is that if it was terrible, oh well, it was tenderized rounds and I needed to get rid of them anyway. Anyway, here's what happened. Here is the cheese and round steak in the smoker. I didn't season them before I stuck them in there. As a side note, I hope I don't kill myself by having raw meat in the same cooker as cheese. I'm pretty sure they have to touch the same surfaces (I made sure they didn't), but if I die, that's probably why. Here is my smoker setup. I was trying to explain it to Lewdog and did a poor job. Anyway, the tabletop next to the smoker is really useful. And the chip storage below is neither here nor there, but it is nice to keep all the shit contained in a neat package. It fits really nice next to my wall mounted air compressor in the garage. Really space efficient. I didn't get a picture on the grill, but this is what they looked like off the grill. I put a little seasoning on. I wish I'd have measured and written it down, because it was pretty damn good, although I should have put more on. Anyway, it consisted of: chili powder cumin onion powder kosher salt A few flakes of crushed red pepper I grilled them as damn hot as I could get the grill. I ended up over cooking 2 of the 4, but it went pretty well. I should have trusted my instincts and taken them off, rather then being scared of undercooking them. I then chopped them against the grain. Here is the finished product: So I'm looking at this thing, and thinking to myself that I just GRILLED a tenderized round steak with some dumbass rub that my dumbass just threw together. This is going to suck. Bad. It didn't. It was REALLY good. Not world class, it's still damn round steak, but it was faaaaar better than I anticipated. There was some nice smoke flavor, along with my ghetto seasoning. It ended up being better than when we use chicken and fajita seasoning. Maybe I should have cold smoked some chicken breasts and compared the two, but I didn't get it done. The one thing that I was disappointed in that I couldn't achieve the seal in the juices with the sear, I imagine it had to with the tenderized part. It wasn't dry or tough, but it wasn't nice and juicy like you'd like. Overall, though, it was really good for using junk meat. If I'm going to run the cold smoker again, I'll do this again. Maybe I'll throw on some burgers or steaks and see how the tastes transfer through the grill. The cheese turned out really good. Here is the salsa I used. I love it.
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