One of the things I enjoy about my Anova is experimenting with meat. There are tons of guides online for what certain temperatures and cook times will do to meat. One of the most exciting meats that I’ve cooked sous vide was beef short ribs – 141 degrees for 72 hours – talk about transformation.

As you know, this past Sunday was a brew day for the company picnic. I invited a handful of people, and while no one except Neal and my wife showed up for it, I wanted to be prepared for the possibility of extra guests. Pork Picnics were on sale for 99 cents a pound at Save-a-lot, so I scooped up two small ones to smoke and sous vide for the brew day.

I usually have very little time to plan for my smoked meat, but luckily I was a couple days ahead of schedule for this meal, so I was actually able to brine the picnics 16 hours prior to smoking them.

I use ziplock bags instead of a barrel or pot to brine, because you don’t need to make as much brine that way. There are tons of recipes for brines, but I always kind of just guess – Salt, water, beer, vinegar, sugar, brown sugar, spices..  whatever..

Brining helps keep moisture in your meat, so you end up with a more succulent finished product. It’s kind of a ‘must’ when you’re doing some kind of ‘pulled’ item or poultry..  but with any hobby – it’s optional.

As always, I took advantage of the extra potential real estate on my smoker so I put some chicken legs together with a quick rub:

Gotta get that oregano in there – super critical.

Everything went on around 10am the next day – cherry, apple, oak –

Love the pepper – traditional Texas style.

After about 5 hours, the smoke had penetrated about as much as it was going to –

 And it was time to vacuum pack the picnics!

for a $50 vacuum packer – the Foodsaver Clam-style is awesome. However, when you vacuum pack something that’s juicy, you want to roll a paper towel up and stick it in the vacuum section, in case some juice gets in there.

I decided to go with a waterbath of 138 overnight.

I thought this would work – but when I woke up in the morning and did a ‘pinch’ test, it didn’t feel like it was as tender as I wanted. My guest(s) was(were) showing up in a couple hours, and I wanted to bust one of these picnics open for lunch, so I cranked the heat up to 155 degrees.

I let it go for about 4 hours before I decided that it was time to bust it open – It wasn’t crazy tender, but with my bear claws, it pulled apart pretty easily. It was good, but not what I like in a pulled pork – I like when it can be broken up with a couple smacks with a wooden spoon and it’s juicy like none other, this wasn’t quite there.

The good thing was that I had a whole other picnic in the bath still. I decided to turn it down to 145 degrees, and leave it in there. I left it in for an entire 30 additional hours. Let’s see – what would you think it would be – dry looking like the above?

I took it out – I always let the meat rest for a minimum of 15 minutes before I mess around with it – and sure enough – it was amazing.

Everything was broken down and the texture was exactly what I wish I had 30+ hours prior.

Pardon my non-manicured , dirty thumbnail in that shot-  not exactly delicious, but that bite was!

Now – here is the side by side comparison of the two – 5 hours in the smoker, 12 hours at 138 then 4 hours at 155 on the left, then the same cut of meat with 30 more hours at 145 on the right:

Which one would you eat?

BUT…  Which one would you turn into the best tacos you could?

Ultra tasty – !

Get a sous vide!  cheers!