Jack,

I usually do a little lower like 140-145, but I totally disagree with "149 murders a chicken breast."

(Converted to normal AMERICAN temps)

It murders it for an hour plus at sous vide, 149 off a grill in 5 minutes is excellent.

I did a few breasts for an hour at 150F this weekend and they were fine, 145 is preferable thpugh

I just bought a couple butterflied legs o' lamb for $2.99/pound, with June 19th sell-by dates. Odds that they're actually hedgehog or something? Am I going to die if I eat them?

Doing my first homemade bacon tomorrow. Planning on keeping the skin on during the smoke and taking off after (I haven't started curing yet) because seems way easier taking the skin of after as opposed to raw and before skinning.
Anyone have any strong opinions against this plan of action?

Its super easy to remove when raw, you just need a sharp knife, and you slice, lift, pull, repeat until its off.

I'm not sure whats worse, making a sphere out of water, or thinking its a good idea to deep fry it! How this didn't end tragically is mindblowing!

With skin and bone?

I sous vide my chicken in bulk at 132 with my steaks then leave them overnight then toss them in fridge. I grill/broil on hottest I could until I get a grill mark or crispy skin. The fat/juice from bone/skin is also great to make a sauce with the or just poured back on the chicken itself

I wish that fryer exploded and caught fire to that guy's beard.

No, no skin and no bone. I can only easily get breasts like that, or I'd have to buy a whole chicken. Does this make a big difference temp wise?

Where'd you find pork belly with the skin on? I'm finding it hard to find pork belly at many stores but when I do, it never has the skin on. Are you sure you're not confusing the fat layer with the tough skin?

If you really do have skin, save it, dehydrate it and make your own chicherones

It's the skin for sure. Only comes with skin out here (Bangkok). Grossed me out at first but did the Gordon Ramsey pork belly braise last week but used khao soi instead of his braising liquid, just used his technique. Did homemade bao buns and sort of recreated the soup in the bun with crispy noodles and such.
Anyways, the pork skin was super crispy and I'm not creeped out by it anymore.
Only reason I want to take it off for the bacon is I want the smoke to penetrate.

For the pre-WSOP/bugstud's bday party I did a 36 hour 155 degree bath on a bunch of pork belly, then cut into chunks and deep fried them till super crispy and they were extremely popular.

If you really want the smoke to penetrate you need to cold smoke and several times.

Hot smoking with skin on works fine too. Then you can save the skin to chuck into/on top of a pot of beans later and it will taste amazing.

Couldn't imagine why. That sounds just awful!
Probably had some nasty dipping sauce to go with it also.
Guacamole sounds like a good option to me.

Vegetable oil? Dipping sauce?

I didn't come prepared for various sauces but did some in lime juice and salt and I really enjoyed those and made a dijon/vinegar sauce and that was pretty popular too.

Guacamole might be awesome as well.

Made these pretzel baozi; came out pretty well. Might make them again and play around with a more pulled pork type filling.

Made some smoked pork butt;


The fire was a smoking wood (almond) mishap. Was pretty good, the bottom side had an inch or so of somewhat dryish meat but the rub was pretty good (simple bell pepper powder/cayenne/coriander/chili/sugar/salt dry rub). The dryish part was probably due to some direct heat but whatever it was pretty damn good.

I also made some coleslaw (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...cole-slaw.html with less sugar) and it was the first time ever I actually liked coleslaw.

Pretty much any supermarket in a major city that caters to an international clientele is going to have it. Try to find a SE Asian or latin grocer or market in your area.

Yak how did you like the texture/juiciness of the pork?

most USA#1 smoked butt is cooked way longer so that slicing like that is not possible.

It was pretty good overall, the top was definitely softer than the bottom. Juiciness was reasonable, again, the bottom inch or so a bit dryer/tougher. I think I should have flipped it and minimized direct heat. It had been on the BBQ for about 4 hours, temperature +-250f degrees. I wasn't super excited with the result, it was very reasonable but I'm sure I can improve it a bit. I think I should have pulled it a bit earlier but I somehow underestimated the time it would take to reach the right internal temp, here is how it was after I cut it (you can see the topside being more moist then the bottom one);


Ill try again soon. This was one I did a few weeks ago which ended up a tad better (juicier/more tenderness), I pulled it at a lower internal temp and flipped it more often, was on there for about 4 hours as well, no rub;

Yak, that cut of pig really benefits from a much longer cook, like 10-12 hours or more.

Even though I kind of agree I think some are underestimating the shorter cook. I appreciate falling apart tenderness from time to time as well but its not always what you're looking for imo and basically this is pretty close to it. I couldn't cut my piece of meat with a regular cutlery knife because it would just tear which has to count for something right ? My next one will be more in that range fwiw since I'm going for the whole pulled pork thing next time, I have no idea how to regulate heat for that long though but Ill be back here before that time has come . We ate half yesterday and we're eating the other half today with a 'vitello tonato' type dressing.

Yak, it's not that hard to regulate temps in a good kettle grill for longer cooks. But you should have a thermometer to keep track both of the meat's internal temp and the temp of the grill (Maverick makes good ones). And you should google "snake method" for smoking in a kettle. The pork should be on one side, over a pan of water. The snake line (with wood chunks every so often) should be on the other side. Try to open the kettle as little as possible to retain moisture and smoke. Control the heat with the vents on the top and bottom.

You can also consider wrapping the meat in tin foil after 4-6 hours, as there's not much smoke penetration happening beyond that point and the foil helps the meat retain moisture and come to your target temp a little more quickly. If you're going for fall-apart meat, you want to hold it between 185-195 (my preference) for at least an hour, preferably more, which gives the collagen time to melt. Collagen will start melting at 165 or so, so that's why people suggest slowly bringing it from 165 up to your target end temperature and then holding it there for awhile. All temps USA#1.

Finally, once the smoke has had time to penetrate there's also no downside to foil wrapping and finishing in your oven, where the temps are much easier to control.