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Old 08-22-2015, 01:12 PM   #1
BigO
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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I get so frustrated with cooking shows anymor

Even the ones on PBS are starting to irritate me. First of all, there's the schtick. The worst is on Food Network, with Cooking Channel in a very close second and PBS is dragging up the rear. I'm going to ignore FoodTV and Cooking Channel, because they are part of the Scripps Broadcasting family and since Bob Tuschmann took over, they have been more about personality than food. I get that. Money first, cooking maybe.

But, PBS (beyond America's Test Kitchen and its spin-offs) is getting just as bad. I know a thing about smoking meat and I've come to the conclusion that Stephen Raichlen is a friggin' idiot. His new show The Smoked Meat Project misses on just about every cylinder. Today's show featured sriracha smoked beef jerky--which intrigued me both because I like beef jerky and sriracha sauce. First he adds a half a cup of sesame oil to his--maybe--cup and a half of marinade. Nobody is going to taste anything but the sesame oil...which is so potent you add maybe a quarter teaspoon to an entire wok's full of stir-fry. Than he marinates the strips of top round (you want as little fat in your jerky as can be managed because the fat goes rancid quickly and can be deadly with botulinium in a cold smoking environment). At the very least you should be using sirloin tip--which has very little marbling--and trim every last little piece of fat you can find on it off. Normally fat adds flavor to meat, but in a cold smoking environment it is potentially deadly and has no shelf life to speak of AND THAT"S WHY YOU WERE MAKING THE MEAT INTO JERKY IN THE FIRST PLACE...TO PRESERVE IT WITH SMOKE AND SALT! Then he places it on a cookie sheet and marinates it only on one side for four hours. You're wasting your time making jerky if you marinate it that way. Put it in a zipper bag and let it marinate in the fridge for at least two days, massaging it and moving the meat around in the marinating bag every time you open the fridge for a couple of days.

He does understand that an electric smoker will produce the low and slow temps you need for jerky, but it makes a lot more sense economically (and doesn't risk any real flavor loss) to dehydrate it indoors in a dehydrator or even in the oven. Plus it is safer.

I certainly don't have the bubbly personality to be on a mainstream cooking show, but I know damn sure better than that. And it's just the beginning.
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