Question about smoking beef for stew
 

Hey all, I am sorry to bug you all, but of all the websites out there, I figured this would hold the answer for me as you are all just so knowledgeable about smoking.

So, basically, the idea is to make a traditional stew recipe (first time for me, have made chili) using a smoked chuck roast.

Difficulty for this is that looking at recipe ideas, it appears that for traditional stew recipes you cube up the meat, flour and salt it, then fry it up in oil until browned on all sides.

I am also hearing stew is quite forgiving, meaning I could possibly just cube up the smoked meat and add it without frying.

I wanted to gauge your ideas for how I should tackle this in order to attain the best results as possible.

I am planning on a VERY simple rub, no mustard most likely (didn't have a good experience with mustard and mesquite brisket) and using hickory to smoke. As I am using hickory, and not mesquite, I MAY use mustard depending on the comments.

Also thinking about possibly brining the beef as I had a good result of doing that for my pulled pork smokes.

Again, I greatly appreciate the time taken by anybody to address and I greatly appreciate it.

If anyone wants a view into my chili recipe, lemme know and I'll include here. It involves toasted cumin and fresh ground chili pepper as well as three types of meat (lamb, beef, pork).

I have smoked beef for my Goulash. It works pretty well.

I cube it and then cold smoke it for about an hour and a half. Then I brown it over the coals hot and fast leaving it raw in the center. Then drop it into the kotlik over the fire with the other ingredients.

No need to brine, I say just smoke it hot or cold.

Ok, here is some chili pr0n

Chili powder recipe:

CHILI POWDER!!!

IMPORTANT!!!

3 Ancho Chiles stemmed, seeded, chopped
3 Cascabel Chiles stemmed, seeded, chopped
3 Arbol Pappers stemmed, seeded, chopped
cut off end with scissors and dump seeds. Use scissors to cut them directly into the pan. A few seeds are ok
2 tbsp whole cumin. Roast over med-high heat until the become fragrant or until cumin blows up.

In grinder add
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp dried oregano
Add rest of roasted chiles (cooled) and cumin to grinder and grind.

CAREFUL OF DUST. Allow a few minutes to settle and add to empty bottle. Will keep for 6 months.

Cold smoke. Hrmmm.

I am like a private in the smoking army. I think you just pulled something out of the Sargent's handbook. Need to go to the googles.

Thank you VERY much for the info, sir :D

Hrmm, difficulty looms.

Here is a pic of my "smoker"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15993460@N00/5774323342/ img link since image insertion isn't working

Sorry for the multiple posts. Look like image linking isn't working cause I am failing at it.

No way to link, in anyway, a photo of my smoker. It's a ceramic clay pottery smoker made from a terra cotta pot, a hot plate, a cast iron pie pan, and a terra cotta bowl.

That being said, it's a one chamber smoke, no side hot box I could use. It would take some VERY inventive engineering on my part to setup a cold smoke, unfortunately.

Well, you can still do what Cap suggests... When you are getting smoke into the meat, just get it on as low a temperature as you can and smoke it until your internal temp is still pretty low... maybe only 100 F. Reason is that meat takes on the smoke only up to a point. Once the meat reaches a hogher internal temp than say 125F, it seals and the smoke tends not to get in any more. So, smoke it up to 100F, then take it of and brown it, and then add it to the stew. You will still probably get your smokey flavour.

Cheers!

Bill

Excellent. My smoker can tend to go low in temperature, so that sounds totally doable! I am figuring I can possibly maneuver a 120 degree smoke, possibly, and just smoke until its internal reaches 100. Thanks so much, Bill.

CAPPOZZOLI
I have smoked beef for my Goulash. It works pretty well.

I cube it and then cold smoke it for about an hour and a half. Then I brown it over the coals hot and fast leaving it raw in the center. Then drop it into the kotlik over the fire with the other ingredients.

No need to brine, I say just smoke it hot or cold.

cold smoking meat without curing it first is a very very bad ideal, a brine ( water and salt )will not protect you from botulism you have to use cure #1 in what i refer to as a wet cure or a dry cure not a brine or sweet pickle, do a Google on botulism its easy to avoid.. if your not careful it can be deadly

^^^^

Don't forget that it's just getting smoked to get a flavour... then sealed and cooked in a stew to final temps well over 165F... so no chance of a problem there...

Sure, if you are just gonna do the first part and then leave it... you need a cure of some kind, but then you're not talking about a stew.

Cheers!

Bill

Wow. Good info right there! Will definitely research so I don't smoke myself and my guests instead of the meat.

This is a very interesting diversion. I find it interesting because many ancient cultures did not have ready access to salt and used smoke exclusively as a cure to preserve meat. This is done even now in Arctic regions. A few years back, I was inside a smoking tent made of reindeer skin that was filled with strips of reindeer meat. At the center was a small smoky fire. It was warm inside, but not so warm that I was uncomfortable. It was explained that the smoke alone was used as a preservative.

SmokinAussie ^^^^

Don't forget that it's just getting smoked to get a flavour... then sealed and cooked in a stew to final temps well over 165F... so no chance of a problem there...

Sure, if you are just gonna do the first part and then leave it... you need a cure of some kind, but then you're not talking about a stew.


bill
if botulism does start in the cold smoking stage,because its not cured,just cooking to 165deg, WILL NOT KILL IT, Google botulism and be safe, cook at a low BBQ temp, if you only want flavor

Botulism web site excerpt:

Prevention of botulism is based on good food preparation (particularly preservation) practices and hygiene. Botulism may be prevented by inactivation of the bacterial spores in heat-sterilized, canned products or by inhibiting growth in all other products. Commercial heat pasteurization (vacuum packed pasteurized products, hot smoked products) may not be sufficient to kill all spores and therefore safety of these products must be based on preventing growth and toxin production. Refrigeration temperatures combined with salt content and/or acidic conditions will prevent the growth or formation of toxin. If exposure to the toxin via an aerosol is suspected, in order to prevent additional exposure to the patient and health care providers, the clothing of the patient must be removed and stored in plastic bags until it can be washed with soap and water. The patient must shower thoroughly.
Food and water samples associated with suspect cases must be obtained immediately, stored in proper sealed containers, and sent to reference laboratories in order to help prevent further cases.








So, what I am going to be doing is cold smoking beef for a period of 8-12 or so hours at a temperature of app 100-150 degrees F. After this, I plan on refrigerating the meat for a period of 12-24 hours, then cooking it again in stew for hours on a simmer.


Does this sound bad?