Did you put baking soda on the bell peppers too?
Yes, I did. You know, I have watched chinese restaurants cook up a mess of stuff and there was one place that I would tell them no msg.. I remember them using some dish full of a very fine powdery substance and they would just literally put a smidgen in... I asked on time, thinking it was MSG. I recall now they said it was "soda." The amount of juice that came out of those onions (as you can see nearly right away) was amazing.... and the result of the liquid, kinda pasty result, is reminescent of the gravy you find in chinese cooking.
Funny, its all coming back to me... when I tried to do, say, chicken and peppers in curry sauce, corn starch did not produce the same results as this soda.
I wish I had some of that meat... I would have sliced off two peices, done one with BS and the other with none and cooked them on the flat griddle and see the results.
Another thing came to me... remember when I said I doubted anything regarding the Malliard reaction was happening becaused the ph if BS is rather neutral on the scale... on the basic side? Well what I did not consider was, what is the PH of Meat? Then of Meat cooking?
In other words, if heat gets the meat to releasing some of its protiens... what is the ph of that result? And does the BS amply that when heat is applied? If the role of BS is truely due to the shift of a ph balance.... instead of some other factor none of us realize (as both myself and Vinny thought) then someone need to get the ph info on meat and meat changes in ph as it cooks without BS (for a baseline) and a treated meat sample. Of course, to some, it may not matter.
I will say one thing.. I wish I had used less BS.... I think I used too much, the onions broke down and of course, if any of you have seen or heard me talk about my onion prep for onion soup, that I do not touch the onions or stir them until they collapse and simply cook into their ultimate browned form, became too soupy. They made a gravy quicker though but lacked the depth of flavor from natural reduction.
I am saying this because, well, I have seen some barks on this forum that are puffy, like someone used oatmeal, and looked great until slicing time then they sort of sloughed off to reveal the meat underneath. Since BS sort of made this residue on the onions quickly, I am concerned it would do the same in a bark. One of the reasons my process produces a great bark (for those that do not violate the rule of not foiling because they violate the rule of house temp and cook higher) is because my rub is clean. By this I mean that when my briskets go on, they have a thin coating of Lawreys, then a bit thicker of the Glitter (which has a very low 2 to 20 something ratio of sugar to whatever else) buit what is left on the brisket is what I call a "clean rub." Remember when I sued to use Montreal in the Atomic Dawg Sprinkle? Well I gave that up too for George Clinton, Larry Graham and the Chubby Checker/Larry Grahm combo. Montreal had those chunks fo good stuff but I found those chunks soaked up too much liquid and never quite returned back to their dehydrated form and got in the way of a good bark. Foiling or panning throws all this out of whack. And typically, people foil because they are protecting the meat from something... and typically, everytime I see foiling in High heat... its because someone is doing the majority of the cook above 270. So my process is optimized at 270 and no foil with the proper rub application for a reason. Thus does not produce a spongy, wipe off bark.... or, a bark made up of a spongy bark that has harden to break off on chunks of rub crust.
I seem to see both of these a lot. And I would bet a bitchin beef rub is either adapted to my side of things or ground up a bit finer so the granuals can soak up the juice then return to dehydrated state for the bark.
The Chubby Checker in my rub acts a bit like salt but probably has a more aggressive affect on the malliard reaction due to its Ph. The Goerge Clinton, I have observed, sort of disappears into the meat over time. Fine George Clinton tends to wash off. Coarse George bonds to the brisket (if you don't screw with it or mop it) and is like a time capsule release. I know this because I have literally watched the crystals get smaller until they are gone and only the Larry Graham is left... which becomes so bonded the crust is like 40 grit sand paper. I also notice this is thrown way off base when the briskets are too close to one another, possubly due to too much moisture in proximity to each chunk of meat - mutually exclusive of course.
