My "mystery meat" is a vacio, an Argentinian cut that is typically cooked over open flame. The YouTube channel Mad Scientist BBQ special-ordered one of these recently from Porter Road, an online meat retailer, and he cooked it like a brisket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crrnql_lpww

And as part of that, Porter Road is selling them, at least temporarily: https://porterroad.com/collections/mad- ... ucts/vacio.

So I said "what the hell" and ordered one a few weeks ago. This is a 15.6-pound roast that includes some inside skirt steak, flank steak, and bavette steak. In the YouTube video it came out incredibly juicy, so I figured that mine would come out kinda shitty, in usual fashion. But heck no, it was VERY tender, and VERY juicy.

I cooked it in the Recteq at 250F. Because the cut is kind of uneven in shape, the meat temp varied all over the place; the thin outer areas were 20-30 degrees higher than the thick center. Here it is at roughly 160, right before I wrapped it in butcher paper with a little tallow added:



I cooked it wrapped until the internal temp was about 200 everywhere, which meant that it was well above 200 in some areas. The whole thing felt tender when I picked it up. I then vacuum-sealed the whole thing (butcher paper wrap and all):



That was Friday at 4:30 p.m. It then went into the sous vide at 145F until Saturday at 6:30 p.m., so about 26 hours:



The final product, unwrapped:







SO tender, SO juicy. Impressive. As you can see, there's plenty of fat in there, and some fairly thick membranes too that separate the individual steaks.

This was fun. This was educational. This was tasty. I'm glad I did it.

Would I do it again, at $16/lb after shipping? No, I think I'll practice on brisket at $4/lb.

Oh man, those membranes are crazy! Incredible cut and looks like you nailed it! But wow, $16 per lb is steep!

Its the $125 flat fee shipping that kills it.... gotta go big if you do!
Without the shipping fee, the prices are 'kinda' reasonable for butchered meats.

Shipping was $39. I think it got cheaper once I got past a certain total? In addition to the vacio, I bought two beef bellies (4.5 pounds each). My order came to:

Vacio - $215
Beef belly (2) - $45 each, $90 total
Subtotal - $305
Shipping - $39
Total - $344

Wow --- it says right on the Vacio page "$125 flat rate shipping '+' " --- the plus being zone charges ..... that alone would stop most people right there. Getting $39 shipping is actually pretty reasonable for 25# of meat and dry ice.

Did you make pop bottle bombs with the dry ice? No better way to scare the neighbors

It came packed with big foam rectangles of insulation around the outside of the box, and a bunch of freezer "ice packs." The foam dissolves in water, so I put each of the big pieces into my sink, and it all went down the drain. The ice packs were full of liquid, and the instructions said to cut them open, dispose of the liquid in the trash, and recycle the plastic bag. I just threw the whole thing into the trash.

No dry ice to play with....

In related news, I have seen some stellar YouTube reviews on the Smokin' Pecan pellets:



"They produce way more smoke than regular pellets." "My brisket tasted like I cooked it on my offset smoker." Etc.

So I bought some, and I've been saving them for a special occasion. The vacio (see post above) was that special occasion. And . . . no, I didn't notice any more of a smoke flavor than usual, and I didn't see any more smoke coming from the smoker.

Maybe it's me, but I couldn't tell a difference.

Got up early this morning to put some jerky on before we have to leave for multiple kiddos birthday parties (joy of parenting). It took considerably less time than expected as the high winds this morning apparently caused my smoke tube to turn into a fire tube. Grill was at 225 before I noticed the issue and removed the flaming log from inside.

Lost a few pieces to the excess heat from the burning smoke tube but most came out pretty good!

Eye of round pre-sliced from US chefstore for $3.79lb and the sauces/seasonings came out to about $25 total for 5lbs pre-smoke in the marinade. Smoked weight was just over 2lbs of finished jerky. I left a little under 1lbs in the fridge for the wife to nibble on and vac sealed and frozen the rest in 6oz portions. Good start to Sunday!

Mike, by "Lost a few pieces to the excess heat" I assume you mean, "I unfortunately had to eat a few pieces because they looked slightly darker than the rest."

Looks good!

Reverse seared steak toningt....
I'll just leave a pic --- one of the best steaks I've had in a long time!



On the gasser with a smoke tube.... temp'd to ~110 in ~ hour.... turned off the burners and let it suck up smoke for ~an hour..... turned on grill and brought it to ~125 IT..... pulled and rested while I cooked other stuff.... fired up grill to sear for what I 'thought' would be good enough (it could have gone longer, but I'm not complaining).... rested nicely.....

A PERFECT rare/medium rare.... I was happy. Its not everyday that you have a steak that is big enough or thick enough to do a 'proper' reverse sear on.... but today WAS that day!

A roaf hitting the kettle...... FINALLY.
Looking forward to this!

Dang, that's a nice little extra grate you've got there, JMB.

1.5 hours in -- temping ~100 - cheese melting nicely - started with a chunk of bourbon oak stave and then have been feeding it lots of apple.... I started with it semi frozen - should have been more frozen.... I've been spinning it 180 every 15-20 minutes. I usually wait until it hits ~130 before I glaze it, but I think I'm gonna do it sooner so that the glaze sets REALLY well --- something that I fail at most of the time.....



Pulled it at ~3 hours..... letting it rest. I STILL made waaaay too much glaze... let it go longer than I should have..... but in the end ..... its gonna be FANTASTIC!