Sous Vide Pulled Pork

Yep.  There's a recipe in the new SV book I received for Christmas.  I will be really curious to try it and see how it compares.

Legume said:

What is the benefit if it is already such a bulletproof cook?

I think the point for me would just to be to try something different for the sake of it.  The results could be better, they could be worse.  Worth finding out either way.  

JohnInCarolina said:

Legume said:

What is the benefit if it is already such a bulletproof cook?

I think the point for me would just to be to try something different for the sake of it.  The results could be better, they could be worse.  Worth finding out either way.  

I get the experiment/just playing around part.  I guess my question should've been, what do you think might be improved by doing this, what's your hypothesis?!  'I dunno' is a fine answer to that, I just didn't know if there was something in mind.  Play on.

Carolina Q said:

NDG said:

Texture . . but according to article . . 

• Cooking sous vide takes all of the guesswork out of traditionally attention-intensive barbecue.
• Combining sous vide cooking with actual smoke from the grill makes for pulled pork that is moist and tender yet still smoky, with a great bark.

Keep in mind that Kenji has no clue about the egg. And doesn't seem interested in learning. Guesswork? Attention-intensive? Plus I wouldn't be surprised if he or Serious Eats or both gets some kickback from Anova.  

I'm pretty sure they have a deal with Anova. It's the preferred SV gizmo for their SV cooks and I think he helped developed the recipes on their app. 

I'm doing this very thing right now...  I'm doing it this way because I just got my sous vide, and I hate waking up at night to tend to the egg.  I don't have a temp controller for the egg, and it always drifts one way or the other on me.  This way I only have to run the egg for about three hours.  I won't be stuck at home all day babysitting the egg.

I'll know later tonight how it turns out...

Legume said:

What is the benefit if it is already such a bulletproof cook?

None. And I don't mean that to disparage the game that sv has here it elsewhere in last couple of years. 

There's some things it's amazing for. For these low and slow cooks- it takes longer in most cases, extra prep and materials, and to me, strays from the spirit, the fun and the history and challenge of cooking with live fire in some cases. One could argue the egg is an advanced or expensive tool as well, yes. 

BBQ it isn't in the true sense. 

Probably so.. But it could be rendered fat that would have otherwise gone to the drip pan.

NDG said:

Yea that's it . . plus it is super easy to do the SV part - then can sit in fridge for days before egg smoke to make bark.  

re:  Why Sous Vide it?

Bingo.   Flexibility. 

Sous vide + Egg gives me lots more schedule flexibility in how I get to the same delicious end result than Egg alone.

I had a definite learning curve with how to season proteins cooked sous vide.  My first steak was the most beautiful but most bland steak I've ever eaten.  The lesson is with sous vide I need to season a steak twice.  Once before putting it in the water bath.  Again before going on the egg.

Now that the Japanese tapeworm has been discovered in Alaskan salmon
I'm definitely going to sous vide my salmon if it's not sushi-grade salmon.  Not sure what sous vide temp is needed, or if Sous Vide Dash app takes this into account.
This article says 
>> Fish is also safe to eat after it is cooked to an internal temperature of 145°F for 15 seconds. 

It would be so cool if we all lived in the same neighborhood. Even Nola ;-).

I'd be knockin' on your door.   "The county pulled pork sandwich inspector needs a midnight sample please. "

 Great work @NDG

I'm pleased with how my combo(sous vide+egg) butt turned out.  Weight was about 7.5 lbs, cooked in the sous vide bath at 165 for about 19 hours.  2 hours on the egg at 300 degrees dome, cooked indirect with platesetter, hickory and cherry wood chunks for smoke.  Used Mickey's coffee rub.  Things I noticed...

1) The bark is different.  Its alot smoother, and I think its slightly more tougher.  Other butts that I have done completely on the egg has the bark looking kind of like tree bark, where this one looked kinda like concrete.  Maybe the water pressing the smooth bag against the meat while cooking did this?  After its been shredded, it would be difficult to notice this.

2) There was smoke flavor, but not quite as much as if it had been smoking in the egg for 20 hours.

3)  The butt was not falling apart when I removed it from the egg.  Normally, after 20 hours in the egg getting the butt off in one piece is doable but requires care.  Kinda like picking up firm jello.  The sous vide butt was a little firmer than this.

4)  The butt was not as hot when it was done.  I did not check it with the thermapen, but it not 200 degrees.  Felt like I could handle it sooner and pull it quicker.

5)  It pulled easily, but not as effortlessly as egged but.  This could be due to the fact I did not let it rest, I pulled it right after taking it off the egg.  I was hungry and excited...

So, I think doing it this way gives a slightly different result, but it is still a very good result.  Very tender and moist, despite all the juices that were in the bag after the sous vide bath.  Just a little lighter on the smoke flavor.

I don't have a temp controller for my egg, so I will probably use this technique again instead of cooking my butts overnight on the egg.  Funny how I when I first got my egg I was all about the overnight low and slow cooks, but after awhile getting woken up in the middle of the night by temp alarms got old.  I'll probably try a combo cook for a brisket as well, using a variation of the Travis recipe.  

Yeah @NDG, I saw your pics and mine looked about the same.  I assume you used that stockpot for your cooking vessel?  Did you have to add water at all during the cook?