Overproof Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I thought Id have a crack at doing a low n slow cook on the unforgiving beef topside. The Mrs bought me a new weber cooker for xmas so this cook was my first 'low n slow' cook on it. Meat: 1.5 kg beef topside. Preparation: Topside is known as a pretty lean cut of meat which can dry out if cooked too high and too fast so I read up a little on brining meat. I highly recommend doing this as it soften things up and helps retain the moisture, I think it helped the smoke penetrate the meat also. I adopted my own little mixture with following pantry items... A few cups of red wine vinegar (could use red wine), Honey, 3 parts salt and 1 part of sugar. handful of peppercorns, bay leaf & oregano. Coverer the whole beast and let it sit overnight. Next day I pulled it out, patted dry and let it get to room temp about 1hr before it went down. Rubbed the whole cut with mild American mustard and a dash of olive oil then I mixed up the following rub and applied right before the cook. Pretty sure this is similar to a texas brisket rub. 3 tbsp of cracked pepper (aka shitloads), 1 tbsp of sugar, 1-2 tbsp of sea salt, 1 tbsp Onion powder , 3 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp Chili powder, 2 tsp mustard powder. Cooking Time: Started at 11am and took it off at around 3:30pm Cooking Method: Offset using 'the snake' method with 2 rows of beads wide and 3 high with a row of charcoal through the middle. I used some SAMBA wood chip mix (apple, cherry and mesquite) and placed these a the start and middle point of the coals. Added a tray of boiling water above the snake to keep some moisture throughout the cook. Compared to my ghetto $30 kettle cooker, the weber kept 90-100C with minimal vent adjustments. Very happy with it. The red look of the meat is from the red wine in the brine and the smoke : ) Cigar: Arturo Fuente Anejo Reserva #55. Really well constructed cigar with a beautiful dark wrapper. Very well balance. It didn't give me too much of a change up until the end of the 2nd third and just into the beginning of the final 3rd, some great sweetness pulled through and left me wanting more a little too late. Drink: Carlsberg x 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafrey23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Looks amazing. I'm going to have to give this a try once this hemisphere starts to warm up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superconductor71 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Looks amazing. I'm going to have to give this a try once this hemisphere starts to warm up again. Dont let that stop you! While I know that Chi-land tends to be a bit more harsh in the winter than Philly, we've had a little snow this winter and i've been out grilling in 8" of the stuff. Dont let a little cold and snow stop a good piece of meat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafrey23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Dont let that stop you! While I know that Chi-land tends to be a bit more harsh in the winter than Philly, we've had a little snow this winter and i've been out grilling in 8" of the stuff. Dont let a little cold and snow stop a good piece of meat Good point. It just gets to be a little tough to regulate temperature when it's this cold. Maybe I'll give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superconductor71 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Good point. It just gets to be a little tough to regulate temperature when it's this cold. Maybe I'll give it a shot. True, you wont get perfection in temp regulation, but sure as hell beats indoor broiling. You can still get some good results. I've had some damn good steaks while grilling in 10 degree weather! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyfall Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Yum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superconductor71 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Incidentally, 10" of snow here today and i'm outside in the thick of it tonight grilling up NY Strips. Tough to get completely up to temp as quickly as I normally do, but man, put out some nice steaks. Tasty..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtemusGordon Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 looks awesome, nice work! Reminds me i have to get my smoker out soon and start using it again! I do the mustard rub on all sorts of meat and it works great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overproof Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Good stuff! How did the meat turn out btw? I've mostly done topside at higher temps, with a brine for moisture. Given that low and slow is normally for breaking down collagen, which topside lacks, I've never seen the point. But if it worked for you I might give it a try. Sent from my Xperia Z1 It turned out amazingly tender. I freaked out when I sliced into it as it was really red however this was from the red wine vinegar I thought the same thing regarding cooking it so low but I approached it like it was some pork shoulder and it seemed to work. I've never brined topside and cooked it high though. Next up I'm going to have a crack at beef brisket.... I did a 8hr cook of pork shoulder Australia Day, this time I 'crutched' it with foil and put some apple juice in with it...Really helped getting the final melt of the fats. Slow cooking + beer +cigars = Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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