Tag: American
Ground Brisket Burger
Ground Brisket Burger
Like I’ve said in the last 2 brisket related posts: follow the cheeba. It will have the answers. And the cheeba has lead me to this burger creation. That fatty brisket end that I trimmed off a whole brisket got turned into ground beef. Highly fatty and delicious ground beef. 70% lean. The burger was topped with a couple slices of smoked brisket, horseradish white cheddar, pickled red onions, creamy horseradish ketchup, on a toasted brioche bun. Always listen to the cheeba.
Equipment
- meat grinder
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground brisket
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 slices smoked beef brisket
- 2 brioche buns
- horseradish white cheddar
- pickled red onions
Creamy Horseradish Ketchup
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tsp prepared horseradish
Instructions
- Remember the fatty triangle end from the whole brisket we trimmed off and saved? If you froze it down, take it out of the freezer and allow it to partially thaw overnight.
- Grind the brisket through twice on a medium grinding plate.
- Take 1lb of the ground brisket and season with salt and pepper. Form into 2 patties. Because of the high fat content, they will shrink.
- Sear 2 slices of smoked brisket in a sauté pan for 2 minutes a side on medium high heat. Remove from the pan.
- Toast the buns in the render brisket fat. Remove from the pan.
- Add the patties to the pan.
- Cook for 5 minutes on the first side. Flip. Top with the sliced brisket and the horseradish white cheddar. Partially cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes.
- While the burger is cooking, mix together the ketchup, mayonnaise, and prepared horseradish.
Smoked Beef Jerky
Smoked Beef Jerky
Who doesn’t like beef jerky. Vegans. Let me start this over. Who loves beef jerky and is sick of paying $20-$30/lb for it? Me, god dammit! Most of the time, the jerky isn’t even that good. Well, I never pass up a good sale. When eye of round is on sale for $3.99/lb, I hop on that shit. This is the one thing that this mostly shitty cut is great for, and that is beef jerky. The other options you can use are top round and sirloin tip. The most important thing with beef jerky is to use a super lean cheap cut. And that is definitely eye of round. A cut like chuck is too tough and fatty. A good rule of thought is that if the cut you choose is good for rare sliced roast beef, then it’s good for jerky.Most people don’t have a deli slicer. If you do, throw the beef in the freezer for a couple hours to firm up. Then slice on your slicer somewhere between 1/8”-1/4” thick. You can also use a sharp fillet or carving knife. The beef has to be semi-frozen for this to work. If not, it will be like slicing meat jello. If these aren’t options for you, the person to talk to is your butcher. But let’s converse before you go any farther. And for my next rant, let’s talk about etiquette at a meat counter when it comes to slicing raw meat like this. Ask your butcher if they even have a deli slicer. Not everyone does. Ask them if they are able to thinly slice beef for jerky. Everyone will tell you to call ahead and place an order. Why? The butchers will also have to semi-freeze the beef in order to slice it that thin; whether by hand or slicer. So if you’re expecting beef properly sliced on the spot, it’s not gonna happen. Learn this. Place an order in the morning, pick it up in the afternoon. If every customer understood this, we butchers would be a lot less angry. End of rant.The marinade for the jerky is pretty straight forward. Most marinades for beef jerky are soy sauce based, some type of juice like pineapple(natural tenderizer), and black pepper. There’s countless other seasonings you can add to flavor the beef. I think at least 24 hour of marinating works best in penetrating the meat. When ready to smoke, place the beef on the wire racks of your smoker, making sure to minimally overlap.Smoking jerky is a slow process. Since we are drying out the beef through smoking, we will not use the water pan in the smoker. No extra moisture. I like to preheat my smoker to 250 degrees, let the wood chips smoke for 10 minutes, place the racks in the smoker, then drop the heat to 200 degrees. I maintain the temp between 180-200 degrees for about 5 hours. The jerky is ready when it can bend in half, but doesn’t crack.The jerky will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a month. Since we are using minimal preservatives in making the jerky, it doesn’t have a year shelf life like most of the jerky you find prepackaged. If you have a vacuum sealer, vacuum seal bags of beef jerky and keep them in the freezer until ready for consumption. If I may go on one more rant about jerky, it’s that jerky in a food dehydrator or in the oven is lame. Using liquid smoke is lame. Real jerky, in my opinion, having made thousands and thousands of lbs of it, is smoked. No comparison. You are fooling yourself. Smoke it. Smoke. It. End of snobby elitist jerky rant.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
Ingredients
- 3 lbs eye of round roast fat completely trimmed; sliced between 1/8”-1/4” thick
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 3/4 tsp pink curing salts
Wood Chips
- 1/2 applewood
- 1/2 cherrywood
Instructions
- Mix together the marinade ingredients.
- If you have a deli slicer, throw the beef in the freezer for 2 hours to firm it up. Slice between 1/8”-1/4” thick. You can also use a sharp fillet or carving knife. Or ask you butcher. But we’ll talk about that etiquette later.
- Marinate the beef in a gallon sized storage bag for 24 hours.
- When ready to smoke, place the beef in a single layer on each rack, making sure to minimally overlap.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Let the wood chips light on fire and smoke for 10 minutes. Place the racks in the smoker. Turn the temp down to 200 degrees. Maintain the temp between 180-200 degrees. The jerky is ready when it is dry and bends in half, but doesn’t crack. This process will take up to 5 hours.
Turkey Breakfast Sausage
Turkey Breakfast Sausage
If any of my former employees knew that I made a recipe for turkey breakfast sausage, I would never hear the end of it. Why? Because I used to be the biggest hater on the planet of anything using ground poultry. Major shit talking. I hated the texture. I hated grinding it. I hated people using it as a substitute for pork and beef. But, like everything in life, things change. While pork is always king in my book, this turkey breakfast sausage is pretty damn good all considering. It is the same seasoning I use for a pork breakfast sausage. There a couple key components to making turkey sausage right. The first is to always use ground turkey thigh. If you use turkey breast, your sausage will be dry and shitty. You are already using poultry instead of meat. It’s lean enough. Keep your miserable ground turkey breast out of sausage. The other factor is making good turkey sausage is to use freshly ground turkey thigh and not pre-packed turkey in a tube. The stuff in the tubes is full of sodium and other preservatives. If you buy your ground turkey freshly ground, the quality of your sausage will be drastically better.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey thigh
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground sage
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil for sautéing
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients together.
- Form into small patties. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before cooking.
- Heat up the vegetable oil on a griddle over medium high heat. Add the patties to the griddle.
- Cook for 4-5 minutes a side.
