Double Secret balsamic Chuck Eye steaks

[scooter]

Tonights dinner is red neck sous vide Chuck Eye steaks seasoned with whiskey balsamic glaze, DSSR and a Simply Marvelous Cherry rub accent.
To go on the finished steaks I made a blue cheese compound butter and some MAK smoked steakhouse mushrooms.
To go along with the steak we made MAK smoked twice baked potatoes and Brussels sprouts and Haricots Verts sauteed in bacon drippings with shallots and bacon.

First get the taters going in the MAK. The players for the MAK smoked steakhouse mushrooms are crimini mushrooms, onion, garlic (not in pic), butter, red wine, jalapeno seasoned salt and Desert Gold.


Get the steaks out


Season with whiskey balsamic, double secret steak rub, and a touch of Simply Marvelous Cherry rub.


The cooker getting the nod for the steaks is a BPS Engineered Drum Smoker of course with BBQrs Delight 100% Oak pellets!!


Oh yeah, that thin blue smoke is kissing the steaks right now!


On the MAK smoking for an hour and several stirrings later, the mushrooms are done!


Steaks are done and resting with the blue cheese butter melting on top!







TJ's Apple Blossom, Happy Birthday Big Poppa!

 

[hank858SD]

Scooter as always terrific looking cook !

Nice touch with al of the KoS paraphernalia. Almost looks like a tribute to the KoS event with the charity and all

 

[scooter]

Thanks Hank, I was schmoozin da contest judge!

 

[TentHunter]

Scooter, I love the cook, especially the blue cheese compound butter (would like more info on that please). That veggie medley looks incredible too.

Where does the "red neck sous vide" come in (did I miss something)?

 

[TrickyDick]

OMG that looks incredible! What happened with the mushrooms? Did I miss that? (Got it, on top of the butter!)

I need to go eat soon, getting too hungry looking at all this great looking food! The tater looks fantastic as well!

nice job!

TD

 

[scooter]

blue cheese compound butter (would like more info on that please).

Very simple. As compound butter is anything mixed with butter, all that's needed is to soften a cube of butter and mix in some creamy blue cheese. I like Castello Rosenborg. Mix well and place into some wax paper and roll it into a log then twist the ends tight. Put it back in the fridge to firm up. When needed, take a knife and slice off a portion and place on top of a hot steak to melt! Oooh la la!

Where does the "red neck sous vide" come in (did I miss something)?

Red neck sous vide is a term (I think coined by BP but I heard it from meathead first who probably heard it from BP) to describe low and slow smoking meat. Sous vide, as you know, is simply slow cooking meat usually done in a plastic bag in an immersion cooker at low temps until the inside meat is uniformly done. Well, in our smokers, we can achieve that uniformity of doneness by low and slow smoking to get the internal temp up slowly then the sear at the end. To me there's just something inherently wrong about cooking meat in plastic bags immersed in water. With red neck sous vide the meat is immersed in smoke and the smoke is an added ingredient.

Thanks TD! The tater get plenty of attention! lol

 

[NorCal Smoker]

Great looking meal Scooter!

 

[MattBPS]

Excellent cook Scooter! Awesome plated pics!

 

[RickB]

Those look really good. Was thinking about looking for this cut. How would you compare these to ribeye?

Nice cook my friend!

 

[scooter]

How would you compare these to ribeye?

I posted a thread about Chuck Eyes here: http://www.pelletsmoking.com/pellet-smoking-com-lounge-9/if-you-like-ribeyes-youll-like-7035/

Basically, ribeyes and chuck eyes are the same muscle. Chuck eye is the meat on the edge of the chuck primal that continues on into the rib primal. Basically, the difference in pricing is much like the pricing between a Tbone and a porterhouse. The butcher cuts Tbones until the tenderloin is a certain size (as specified by usda) then the next steak cut is porterhouse and the price goes up. Well, those last few Tbones were pretty close to being a porterhouse but the price per pound is less. Same muscle, lower price. Similar thing happens with the chuck eye. The rib primal fetches higher prices than the chuck primal. The same muscles traverse both primals but fetch very different price points.

Cons: There are only a few chuck eye steaks in the chuck that are usable before it turns into, well, a chuck steak. It gets more gristly (is that a word?), has more gristle and tendons, the farther into the chuck they cut. It makes some chuck eyes (the ones cut farther into the chuck) difficult to eat but the meat is as tender and flavorful as a ribeye because it's the same muscle until they end and more heavily used muscles take over and that means tougher to chew.
Pros: the chuck eye has a larger top meat muscle than the ribeye does and retails around here for $5 - $6.50/lb as opposed to a ribeye that prices out from $8 - $17/lb. Chuck eye's are also called a "poor mans ribeye" or as meatman said "butcher's steak".

 

[TentHunter]

Scooter, thanks for the Blue Cheese Compound butter info! I will be trying it soon.

 

[wolverines]

Those steaks look awesome! So you smoked them in the drum and then seared them? What did you sear them on? What temp did you pull so you could sear so they wouldn't be overcooked as they look like a perfect medium rare? Also, if you have a MAK, why didn't you smoke on it and then sear on it as well? Just wondering. They look great!

Thanks

 

[scooter]

So you smoked them in the drum and then seared them? What did you sear them on? What temp did you pull so you could sear so they wouldn't be overcooked

I seared them on the drum. After smoking the chuck eyes (all beef steaks, and tritips also) to an IT of 140 I pull it and place it on a platter uncovered. Then I fully open the bottom vents of the drum and raise the coal basket to the top position. Around 10 minutes later, those coals are raging hot and ready for searing. Resting the steak uncovered after slow smoking (250F-275F) results in a push of 1 or 2 degrees tops and often it'll drop back down around 140IT when it's sear time. I have modified my coal basket so I can get a special sized grate right down on top of the coals for a more effective, very quick, very hot sear (see images below). It's all done on the drum. The sear is so quick (1 minute) I don't get a much of a push if any so my final IT remains around 141-142'ish. Right where I wanted it for med rare for steaks. Tritips I like up around 140-145ish (on the medium side of med/rare which makes them a little more tender) and rib roasts I like between 145-150IT which is in the medium. I also prefer my steaks and tritips with a full on maillard reaction across the entire surface of the meat. You know how important grill marks are on a steak and why is that? Because those brown grill marks (stripes of maillard reaction) have great flavor to them. They're not just there because they look pretty. Well, if the stripes of maillard taste good, then as far as I'm concerned, the entire surface of the steak should have the maillard reaction applied to it. It's just a personal preference.
The result is I cook the internal meat first (low and slow) then rest the meat. Then I cook the external meat differently (hot and fast) then rest the meat for 10 mins for a steak, 20 mins for small roasts like tritips and 60 mins for large roasts like rib roasts. If you look at my cut sliced meats on the cutting board, you will never see any pooling of meat jus ever. Proper resting keeps the jus in the meat where it belongs.

if you have a MAK, why didn't you smoke on it and then sear on it as well? Just wondering. They look great!hanks

I love my MAK for low and slow loooonnnngggg cooks and cooks where I go 325 and above. For shorter cooks (under 3 hours) requiring searing, I feel charcoal, and more to the point, a BPS EDS charcoal drum, provides the best combination of semi direct and direct cooking styles and smoke flavor application in one package simply by raising and lowering the charcoal basket and lowering the cooking grate down inside the coal basket. I've used my MAK for searing and it does a good job of it, but, for my personal preferences, nothing sears better and faster than good ol' charcoal.
Also, some on this forum, and on other forums, know me as someone who doesn't like to get their MAK grease pan dirty/greasy. I keep mine foiled ALL THE TIME which makes searing impossible unless I remove the grease pan and there's NO way I'm removing the grease pan on my MAK.