What small cut of beef can I use to experiment with different woods?


 
B

Brian Ferdman

Banned
After having been tied to hickory for a long time, I recently ordered some bags of oak, cherry, apple, maple, and of course, more hickory.

I'd like to do some taste tests with these woods, and I think the best way to accomplish that is to be able to taste their results side by side. I'm thinking that if I took a day to smoke several small cuts of beef over different woods, I might be able to accomplish this goal. Small cuts of beef that would cook *relatively* quickly would make this easier.

Any idea what cut (and size of the cut) of beef would be ideal for this experiment? Also, is there a generic, non-obtrusive rub that you would recommend to use on these?
 
I would go with either pork chops, or "country" ribs. There are no small cuts of beef that benefit greatly from smoking. Most are steaks. YOu could also try fatties, or link sausages.
 
I might consider using ground beef. make a few logs or patties. They wont take long and should pick up the smoke nicely.

Or you might want to try this:

This may sound a bit unusual, and probably not what you are after, but I was playing in the kitchen and discovered what I thought was an interesting method for determining flavors in smoke.

Early in the morning, I made a big batch of rice in my rice cooker, and had the rice sitting out to cool and dry so that I could make fried rice to go with some chinese bbq ribs later in the day. My intention was to smoke the ribs in the wsm using the same spices that were in the rub as the smoke source. I've had good luck burning cinnamon sticks and allspice berries but star anise was new to me.

Anything new like this, I like to burn and smell first to see if it smells good, figuring if it doesn't smell good it probably wont taste good. I made a small foil packet of star anise that I put on my stove to heat up. It smelled nice, but I wondered what it would taste like, that's when I thought about the rice. I put a small bit of rice on a fork and waved it around in the small stream of smoke to pick up some of the flavors.

you got to love how the camera sensor detects the electric range (I wish I could see this color)
IMG_2262.jpg


The rice was fairly neutral so the smoke flavors were really obvious. I discovered that star anise smoke tastes almost exactly like the spice itself and is actually a very effective way of infusing an anise flavor into the rice. I realized how overpowering it was and it wasn't exactly what I was after. I decided to scale way back in the amount I planned to put in the foil packets for my later smoke. Along with a tiny bit of apple wood, I ended up using two packets of 15g allspice, 5g of cinnamon, 5g of star anise (10g total and it still might have been too much!!!). Luckily I only spent 3 bucks on the big bag of pods, it looks like its going to take me decades to use it up, burning through it 5g a time.

Like I said at the start its probably not what your after, but its quick and easy to do and you might learn something valuable about your smoke flavor preferences.
 
I might try using country ribs (as described above) or chicken parts.

They're much quicker to smoke and will allow for you to better "taste" the smoke (beef is a stronger flavor than pork or chicken and you won't get as much smoke flavor).
 
Brian,

For beef, I'd recommend a top sirloin. I've sampled some 'smoked tops' before that were quite good. It will cook fast and it won't break the bank. Since this is more of a sampling experiment, I would use only salt and pepper for seasoning so that you can really taste the affect of the smoke on the meat.

Paul
 
Hey Brian-

I second the ground beef idea. Make a couple mildly seasoned meat loaves and they'll soak up the smoke like crazy.

If you are specifically looking to experiment with smoke flavors on an actual cut beef, you might look into some tri-tips. I find 1.5-1.75 pound roasts about for a little over $4/lb, and I cook them on the WSM in about 45 minutes (did one just last night!). I know availability and price varies WIDELY around the country on these babies, but they're absolutely awesome and may be an option for a short beef cook that still soaks up some smoke.
 
Hi Brian,

I really think the ground beef idea is a good one for a relatively inexpensive test of different wood smoke.

I, too, used hickory almost exclusively when I first got started many years ago. Then, I seemed to go on a mesquite jag for a while. Now, I only use hickory for pork. It just seems to be mated to pork in my mind and in my tastes. I will use other woods with the hickory though. For example, with spareribs, I like a chunk of hickory and a chunk or two of sugar maple.

For beef, and I smoke more beef than pork, I now use a chunk or two of mesquite and a chunk or two of white oak.

For most poultry, I use some sugar maple and cherry and/or apple.

Let us know how your experiment turns out!

###
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
you got to love how the camera sensor detects the electric range (I wish I could see this color)
IMG_2262.jpg

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You are truely insane JB
icon_biggrin.gif
, you know that right, lol. I am going to try taking a picture of my range now. But BS aside, that is a great idea for seeing how spices will smell/taste before putting them on the coals. Have you ever experimented with rubs? I suppose they would have to be sugar free....sorry dont mean to hijack.

I think ground beef would work well also, as a cheap quick solution. Make a small "meatloaf" minus the veggies and fixins, (1lb) for each type of wood. Salt/pepper/garlic are probably the only spices you would need, leave the sauce off, if you get bored with the meatloaf you can always dip it later. Only use a small chunk of wood, so you dont oversmoke and can still make out the differences in taste between them.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">You are truely insane JB Big Grin, you know that right, lol. I am going to try taking a picture of my range now. But BS aside, that is a great idea for seeing how spices will smell/taste before putting them on the coals. Have you ever experimented with rubs? I suppose they would have to be sugar free....sorry dont mean to hijack. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on my insanity. I tried to play it off a bit, because it does make sense to do a test burn, and I did happen to have cooked rice on hand, but I knew it was all just madness when I tried to get my wife to try the crazy anise flavored rice. I wasn't even going to post it, until I saw this thread.

Then again, it is grounded in a techniques both traditional and old (so maybe I'm crazy...like a fox). Chinese smoke on stoves in a wok (with tea). And modern techniques, like sous vide often involve "marinating" meat with smoke, sometimes employing this strange device
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Larry Wolfe:
I'd recommend buying a big chuck roast and cutting it into 2-3 lb pieces. They're cheap and delicious smoked. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm with Larry on this one.
 
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