Football happened, so you know we had to go big. The more and more 'Big Game' parties I attend, the more I realize that grab and go bite-sized snacks are becoming king of these events. Anything you can grab and drop on a plate and go back to a seat with and not worry about spilling, or anything you can just hammer into your mouth while standing just keeps gaining momentum every year. Now if only the game and commercials could go back to the days before drug testing the players, then we'd be talking.

Even though that statement I just made is something I believe in, what did I do? I made roast beef sandwiches, and you know I pulled out the sous vide and made something fancy. People get nervous around a little red meat, but not this guy - I love rare roast beef on a sandwich, so that's what we went for.

For this batch of roast beef, I wanted something with some good marbling, so I went with Chuck Eye. For those that don't know, this piece of meat is commonly referred to as the 'poor man's ribeye'.  It is essentially the same cut of meat as a ribeye, but farther down the rib to where the muscle starts to join up with the chuck portion of the cow. There is great marbling, but there aren't the distinct steak and cap that you get with the ribeye - there are weird shapes and extra sinew, and the flavor isn't quite the same. Still a great piece of meat for a decent price for what we're doing here today!

For this, I went with the standard 1:1 salt to coarse ground pepper rub:

This is a standard central Texas beef rub that I am absolutely in love with - it reminds me of my family and the first time I tried Texas brisket, so I'm sorry it's not fancy, but it's what I gotta do.

Don't those steaks look great though? You can see just how hard they are trying to be ribeyes !

Then, as usual, these things went on the smoker for about 2.5 hours at 200 degrees to get some cold-ish smoke into them, they were still raw as heck, but the sous vide will take care of that.

Into individual baggies they went!

Then they swam for 20 hours at 132 degrees.

Again, the people who are nervous about red meat and 'shouldn't we be taking that up to 165-170 at the very least? Not with sous vide. Consider getting into a hot tub that's 120 degrees. First off, I think hot tubs max out at like 108 or something like that..  but regardless - It won't kill you right away, but after about a half hour, you will be insanely uncomfortable, and want to come out! After about an hour? You might be dead! Same thing with sous vide, all bacteria dies at about the 1 hour mark if the water temp is 130 - so at 20 hours at 132? we are very very sterile here folks. Look stuff up online - there is talk about making edible cookie dough with raw eggs that have been pasteurized via the sous vide technique. Know your facts!

I actually did a couple other pieces of meat while I was doing the chuck eyes. I did a roast beef with my buddy Chris's black garlic rub that he gave me for Christmas. This stuff is gooood!

 

For those of you that are unaware, Black Garlic is a really tasty treat if you can get your hands on it. Believe it or not, you can eat it right out of the clove:

How does it get black? You cook a whole clove super low and slow so that it just turns black and gooey. It's almost like a fruit snack that tastes like a mixture of caramelized onions and balsamic reduction. I've heard it takes as long as 2 to 3 weeks to make! What's great about black garlic aside from the completely unique flavor, is that it maintains all the health benefits of raw garlic without destroying your breath, and actually gains a benefit or two in the process. Roasted garlic, while delicious - loses most of the health benefits. Of course, when you cook the black garlic, I'm sure some of the value is lost, but it's cool shit - give it a try.

While the Chuck eyes were bathing, I decided to make some bacon wrapped pepper jack stuffed mini-fatties for me Keto buds to nibble on:

Those were ok, but I've made better.  So how was the beef!?  PERFECT!

You can see the meat was at the perfect level of starting to break down, without being too sloppy - flavor was spot on texas smoke. Loved it.

Chris's Black Garlic rubbed beef was damn good too!

With some Monkey Shoulder - great stuff!

here's another piece I did with a more basic rub

And you know I blasted it with the horseradish cream sauce!

So good!

So I know it wasn't a bite sized snack, and it definitely wasn't a quick and easy food to make for the game, but heck - it was some darn good eating, and I am very happy with the results on the Chuck Eye. The sirloin roast pieces could have used about 18-24 more hours to break down a little more, but the flavor of a rare roast beef is absolutely terrific.

Again, sorry about the pink light, but my baby blood orange plant needs to photosynthesize in these winter months!

Cheers everyone!