I’ve stated on this forum before about separating the point and flat. Best way to control IT on both parts without drying the flat out. I didn’t see the Meat Church video so asking how long the rest time was. Thanks!
Smoking Meat Questions and Discussion
- Thread starter Statefan515ISU
- Start date
There are a number of reasons. People that own cattle tend to be older and as they retire the land is bought for recreational purposes, e.g. deer hunting, or torn up and crop farmed if possible. down south it has paid more to lease to timber companies than to keep cattle. During Covid, the big packers were making over a thousand dollars a head and and the rest of the supply chain not making much with inefficient producers not making any. Many people weren't making enough to stay in the business so they left. In a way, it may be a way for the big packers to cause vertical integration to happen more quickly than it did in other protein animals. Walmart has its own packing plant and anyone that sells to it has to buy bulls from certain sources. It also takes a long time for a calf to be processed from when a cow is bred so expansion takes longer than in other species. Shutting down the border due to screw worms also decreased the cattle supply. That is my view of what has been happening.
As long as you keep it above 140, it's perfectly safe. When I'm doing longer rests, I leave the probe in so I can monitor the temp and be sure to serve it before it cools off too much.
I've never rested anything for that long, but that's just because I don't have a warmer, or even a Yeti cooler that is better insulated than my cheap Igloo cooler. If you've got the equipment to do it safely, it's definitely better when rested for that long. Collagen breaks down into gelatin around 160 degrees IT, and holding the meat in a warmer or well insulated cooler keeps it above that threshold for much longer during the rest than it would be if you rested on the counter, so you get more time for collagen to break down without overcooking the meat.
Beef has been at historic prices for quite awhile, long before screwworn.
US cattle herd is the smallest its been in 75 years. Domestic demand has remained high even with recent prices: people seem willing to pay up for steak and ground beef. Up until 5 years ago we sent zero beef to China: they are now a significant buyer of US beef.
Did some wings last night. got a frozen 4lb package of them at Walmart around 3 yesterday afternoon. Defrosted for about 12 minutes so they were still pretty solid yet just wanted to get the outside soft enough for SP. Smoker wasn't cooperating as it took a couple tries to get it feed pellets. Started them at 150 for 30 minutes added some rub, flipped them and added rub. Let them go at 190 for an hour then flipped them again and went to 250 temp for an hour. Then went to 350 for about 15 minutes. Crispy on the outside and IT temp of 170-180 which was perfect as they were not dried out at all. Sorry no pics as we had a heavy shower of rain come over. Great smoky flavor, my son ate like 15 of them!!
Been getting back feed smoke in the hopper and the auger is really grinding, so I guess it is time again to pull the auger out and clean it off again. Will also replace the temp sensor as it's been 3-4 years since I replaced it and since I have the hopper off, it's the best time to do it. Will replace the gasket as this the usual culprit for the air feed back into the auger tube.
All this humity seems to have cause pellets in the hopper to take on some moisture also.
Been getting back feed smoke in the hopper and the auger is really grinding, so I guess it is time again to pull the auger out and clean it off again. Will also replace the temp sensor as it's been 3-4 years since I replaced it and since I have the hopper off, it's the best time to do it. Will replace the gasket as this the usual culprit for the air feed back into the auger tube.
All this humity seems to have cause pellets in the hopper to take on some moisture also.
I felt like this before I did my first brisket myself, scared to mess it up, and after that I was sorry I waited so long. Your own brisket will likely be as good to 3X better than any brisket you've had at your favorite BBQ place, I think because you're only trying to do one. As you learn your preferences and your smoker tendencies, you'll get better. The most important thing is to never rush the cook.
The one time I felt like I missed the mark was what I alluded to earlier -- I had a packer brisket with a pretty thick fat cap and I didn't trim it nearly enough. I was thinking, I don't want to give away all these wonderful juices. Big mistake. Overall it was still okay, but my smoke ring/smoke flavor was not that great and it was an awful mess to slice. NEVER AGAIN. Trim baby, trim!
I made the same mistake with my first packer. I didn't trim nearly aggressively enough, and the fat seam in between the flat and point didn't render properly. It still tasted pretty good, and for a first attempt it was actually pretty solid. But from then on I'll always focus on trimming it until it's as close to perfect as possible, then save the trimmings for rendering into tallow or grinding for burgers.
Multiple yr drought and low prices caused a contraction of the beef herd, even now after a historic runup the herd is in neutral with no heifers being retained for herd growth yet. Bred cows and hfrs are over $3000/hd. the last I checked.
Also New World Screwworm has caused pauses in cattle from Mexico to be finished in the U.S., then throw in tariffs with Canada, Mexico and Brazil all 3 cattle trading partners with the U>S. and here you go. But out of all this lack of herd growth is the most surprising to me personally. Can't blame a producer for taking a profit and paying down debt though.
Thanks for the Walmart info didn't remember/know that. Any idea where that plant is located?
Georgia, the last I knew. It limits the places you can sell with that scenario.
It is a fact that the national cow numbers are at the lowest number since those figures were first compiled in the ‘50’s. Add in demand of a much larger population along with higher per capita consumption and it is obvious why beef prices are high. We raise cattle and also buy cattle that are fed in custom feed yards. Fed cattle are being fed to higher weights taking advantage of cheap corn and record fat cattle prices. So increase in carcass weights offset a decrease in cow numbers. I keep expecting a break or as the analysts say “correction” in price but it hasn’t happened so far for two reasons. Americans are in love with hamburger and have elevated steak to the top of the food chain. Until the economy tanks evidently the high price of beef hasn’t caused the public to shift to bland chicken or tasteless pork. Which is another reason beef remains at the center of the plate.
Anyone else ever have to pull the auger out of their smoker due to it screeching and sounds like it't going to break apart when it feeds pellets? Looking at mine it quite a bit of creosote on it. Used wire brush, sandpaper, and brake cleaner to try and clean if off. Probably need a wire brush on the end of a drill. Just a pain in the butt!
I’ve had that happen many times with an old Pit Boss grill that I had several years ago. It’s caused from the burner pot burning back into the tube when you shut it off. If I shut it down in a hurry at a high temp it would happen, if I turned it down to 150 and let it get down to temp before shutting it off it would do fine. I remember a few times I thought I would never get the auger out of the tube it was stuck so bad. My current grill (GMG) has a fan to pressurize the pellet hopper and feed tube so that it won’t do this.
I wonder if that was fixed at some point. If I turn off my Pit Boss with the button it goes into a cool down mode where it lets it burn out with the fan running for a few minutes before completely shutting down.
I'm sure it probably has. This was quite awhile ago and it was a pretty bare bones model. Well before the PID controllers and wifi we have now. But I still have had a burn back into the tube on rare occasions. Usually from something that happened out of the ordinary.
Even $3000 for bred females lately is probably on the lower end too if you are talking about just your run of the mill crossbred females. The registered purebred sector in the past few years has gotten really pricey if someone is wanting to buy females right now. My parents and I sold off the last of our registered herd late last year and we got more than $3000 a head for ours and those were cows that ranged anywhere from just had their first calf and would be 3 years old this year to the oldest being a 12 year old cow. Most were right in their prime production years (4-8 years old) and the same place also bought all of our 2024 born heifers with them too. They run a few hundred head of mostly commercial cattle but were restarting their purebred herd with these and didn't even flinch at the asking prices as they knew what the going rate was at the time.
The thing we always had to deal with in recent years was selling yearling bulls and these old guys had no clue what the market was for a good purebred bull these days. They'd try to lowball you with an offer for about what you'd get if you just took him to the sale barn and pounded him out for slaughter which we'd just say if you want to pay sale barn prices for a bull then go to the sale barn and buy one and let us know how that turns out. Even for what good bulls are going for these days you'll make your money back and then some in the first year alone on his calves with what beef prices these days are. Definitely need some capital right now if you are going to start from nothing right now and even expanding what you have could be pricy too.
I believe it. Have even had guys think they could get a good 4 year old bull that we had too many daughters out of for what we could pound him out at the sale barn for. Would tell them we'd rather send him to the sale barn than take an offer like that. Hard to tell if some of these old timers are just that out of touch with the market or just don't realize when you are buying private treaty you are going to pay more for a better-quality animal because those guys ain't sending their best ones to the sale barns. If you want to pay bargain bin prices on breeding livestock expecting to get high quality and top dollar out of their offspring you probably are going to be disappointed with the results you get.
Not meaning to take away from the smoking meats topic here. Just got a bit sidetracked with this topic as why beef prices are so high and found a few people like me that understand both the production side and consumer side of that issue that drive the price points.
