Snakejaw's Wild Game Cookbook

[Snakejaw_Joe]

Hey all, I decided to make a recipe thread dedicated to my love of cooking with wild game. 

 

Hopefully it inspires some of you to go out there and relive a critical part of the American West - hunting for survival.

 

Not too long ago I decided I wanted to exercise my freedom to boycott the corporate slaughterhouse model. Back when families ran farms, it was honorable to support your neighbor's cattle farm. With your patronage, they could send their kids to school, and they would grow up to benefit your community later on. Maybe they would in turn come support your local pharmacy, or your woodshop, with the money you gave them. Societal investment. But nowadays the family farms have mostly been bought out by the big cats, and those guys couldn't care less how their cattle is treated. They're not going to support your business in exchange. And not to mention the steroids and antibiotics and lord knows what else is going on with that meat.

 

I wasn't about to go vegetarian though, I love eating meat too much, and so does my family. So I decided I would approach my natural carnivorous diet the way god intended - if I can catch it ethically, I deserve to eat it.

 

It's not always so easy though; its a roll of the dice when you're hunting wild animals how that meat is going to taste. A rabbit will always be delicious, but a bad boar is sometimes so bad you won't even want to quarter it.

 

Coming from first generation sicilian immigrants, my family's motto has always been "everything tastes good, if you know how to cook it". And it is so true. Nothing was ever wasted in my nonna's house. Tripe, Liatina, Livers, everything was cooked to perfection and enjoyed. I would be hesitant to eat any of those things here though unless I was in a big city (Los Angeles has the best tripe and tongue tacos) because as a culture we've kind of lost touch with how to enjoy them.

 

My wife is a prime example. She has the palette of a 5 year old - mac and cheese, chicken fingers, and hotdogs (don't worry, I'm working on it ). So the real test for me is whether or not she will eat the game I catch.

 

All of the recipes I post here will be run a couple of times to be perfected to my own tastes, and have all passed the approval of my picky wife.

 

(disclaimer: Unless otherwise indicated, most of these recipes were taken from other sources, modified and tweaked to my liking. The pictures are all mine, but the recipes are not completely my own.)

 

[Snakejaw_Joe]

Wild Boar Bulgogi Bao (2 parts)

 

 

This bulgogi sauce is a perfect compliment to the stronger flavors of wild boar. Its savory, its sweet, and you taste all the good parts of the boar. Its like classic barbeque tacos - with a twist. What's more, wild hog backstraps are extremely lean and sometimes tough. The asian pear contains an enzyme that breaks down the fibers of the boar, making it very tender.

 

Part I: The Bulgogi

 

Ingredients:
1lb wild boar/hog backstrap (finely sliced)
1/3 cup soy sauce

1 Tbspn+ brown sugar (can sub light brown sugar instead)

2 large cloves garlic

2 tsp green onion (sliced) (the thicker, pale green stems) (can sub leeks)

1/2 of an asian pear**

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 of a white onion (halved and sliced)

2 tablespoons green onion (the dark green part)

** Asian pears are easy to find at your local asian market. It has been mentioned that you can substitute fresh kiwi, or fresh pineapple for the pear as they also contain enzymes that break down meat. They are different enzymes though and may not work the same, pineapple is supposed to be a stronger enzyme so I'd guess you'd have to use less of it. I have never tried it. If you do, post back and let us know how it goes!

 

Procedure:
1. MARINADE: Chop garlic and green onion white, and microplane an asian pear into mixing bowl to start your marinade. Finish the marinade by adding soy sauce, sugar, black pepper and a pinch of the toasted sesame seeds to mixing bowl.
2. Thinly slice your pork and mix well with marinade. Let sit for 12-24 hours in the fridge.
TIP: I always pop my backstrap in the freezer for 30 minutes to stiffen up, then use an extremely sharp knife to cut my thin slices.

 

3. Heat vegetable oil in frying pan. Slice the white onion and add to pan with the bulgogi including marinade at the same time. Cook until well done.

 

 

PART II: The Bao

Ingredients:
⅓ cup water (warm)
½ cup milk
1 tbsp active dry yeast
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 ½ cups bleached or all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

 

Procedure:

1. Warm the milk in microwave to about 110F. Combine with warm water, active dry yeast, sugar and oil. Whisk to let yeast and sugar to dissolve then let it sit until the yeast activates, about 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a stand mixer (can also use hands if mixed well)
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients mixture. Start on a low speed to slowly incorporate all the ingredients together then on medium speed until it becomes a dough shape. Keep kneading for 3 to 4 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be elastic and really soft but should not stick to your fingers or on the mixing bowl.
4. Take the dough out form the hook and form as a ball. Place back to the mixing bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it becomes triple in size, about 2 hours. Let it sit longer if needed.
5. Place the raised dough on a working surface. Roll out the dough 1/4-inch thick. DO NOT SPRINKLE FLOUR ON SURFACE (if you have to, use as little as possible)

 

 

Cut the dough 3 1/2-inch circle with a ring mold or glass (I used a wine glass). This recipe will make 14 to 16 baos.

 

6. Lightly brush or spray oil on one surface of the baos and fold in half, into a half moon. Gently press each bao with a roller and place on a parchment paper or coffee filter lined steamer. Cover with a lid and let it rest for additional 30 minutes. (NOTE: dampen the coffee filter or parchment paper to help prevent the bao from sticking. You can also wipe a bit of vegetable oil on the parchment paper.)
7. Meanwhile, bring water to boil on a wok or steamer pot. Carefully place the steamer with the baos on top of boiling water wok/pot. Make sure the water is not touching the baos. Cover and steam for 8 to 12 minutes. When they are done cooking, crack the lid for a slow air circulation for about 2 to 3 minutes.

 

Fill the finished bao with your wild boar bulgogi. Garnish with crushed toasted sesame seeds and green onion.

 

Enjoy!

[Snakejaw_Joe]

Javali Iberico (Boar in Port Sauce)

 

 

 

Gather round folks, we may not be able to travel this year due to, well you know why, and I'm personally as sick of it as I'm sure y'all are too. But I'd like to at least make things exciting for those of us stuck at home, so today I'm bringing Portugal to your tables.

 

I tried this a few different ways the past few weeks and this is my final process. This is intended to be a backstrap recipe, but the first two attempts the sear and the sauce wasn't too great so the pictures you see here for the final process are from back leg pieces. The sauce has been dialed in now so I guess that means I gotta make a trip out to central FL again soon to harvest more straps.

 

Do you need a sous-vide for this recipe? Yes and no. Yes, if you want to have it sliced, pink and tender/juicy. No if you want to slow cook it and have it pull apart with your fork like carnitas.

 

The sous vide is important with questionable wild meats (hog and bear) that may have brucellosis, trichinosis, E.coli etc. Because it holds the meat at the right temperature to do a prolonged pasteurization, and water is a great conductor. It is very difficult to do this in a pan or grill, so in traditional cooking it is typically recommended to cook meats to 165, where it is 'flash pasteurized' and thus safe to eat. The downside to this method is as the meat heats up it loses a lot of moisture and fats that would otherwise be contained with a longer, lower temperature cook. The extended low temp combined with the containment of the liquid in the bag makes for a tender, juicy, safe to eat cut of meat.

 

You can decide for yourself. If you don't have a sous vide but still want to taste the flavorful sauce, go ahead and substitute the sous-vide-and-sear step and just toss the backstrap in a slow cooker with the sauce to cook down. I provided instructions for both methods below. You can also slow cook it in your smoker if you have your temps nailed down, so keep that as an option as well.

 

But I have both a sous-vide and a side by side smoker, and I found cooking this way brings a more complex dish. After all, I did spend 5 hours trudging through swamps and 2 work nights processing to get the meat. Why get lazy now?

 

 

INGREDIENTS

 

 

- 1 wild boar backstrap (or in this case, chunks of boar hams) (about 1.5lb)
- 1/2 of a white onion, sliced

- 4 cloves garlic, rough chopped

- 1 tsp red chili flakes, or 1 chopped red chili pepper (If spicy food don't treat you right, reckon you can omit this)

- 1-2 bay leaves

- a few bunches of fresh thyme (can sub 1/4 tsp dried thyme)
- 1 teaspoon fresh parsley (minced)

- 1/2 teaspoon oregano

- 1/2 of a green apple, minced
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1/2 of a bell pepper, sliced

- 1 russet potato, sliced in medallions

- 1-2 cups of port wine (plus some to marinate)
- 2 Tablespoon of honey

- 1 cup wild boar bone broth (you better have put those spare bones and leftover joints into a bone broth...otherwise git your ass outta my kitchen! We use EVERYTHING round here!)

 

STEP 1 

In a small bag, cover the strap with the port wine until the strap is submerged. Add some thyme and rough crushed garlic. Close the bag and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 24 hours (48 is optimal). This is a traditional european way to tame the game of wild boar. In Tuscan wild boar ragu, the meat is ALWAYS marinated in wine 24-48hrs before cooking. (The wine is always discarded afterwards.)

 

 

*(if opting to not sous-vide, skip to step 5)

 

STEP 2

After marinating, drain the port wine from the bag. Pat the strap dry, and salt/pepper the strap. Vacuum seal the strap and cook sous-vide for 2.5 hours at 145F. Brucellosis bacterias have been shown to die within 10-15 minutes at 140 degrees, so this will get us there without sacrificing tenderness. 

 

 

 

STEP 3

After 2.5 hours, remove the bag and dunk in a bowl of ice water (still sealed) for rapid cool down.

 

STEP 4

After cooling in the ice water bath, place sealed bag in the freezer while you prepare your sauce. This is important because the meat is already cooked, we want to smoke and sear the strap for flavor and texture only - and having it start cold will give us the wiggle room to do that.

 

STEP 5

add some EV olive oil to your stockpot and heat on medium heat. Add your garlic, onion, thyme, and oregano and stir until fragrant (1-2 minutes) 

 

 

STEP 6

Add your carrots and bell pepper, and stir for 3-5 minutes (until just starting to get tender)

 

 

STEP 7

Add the port wine, the stock, the honey, the apple slices, the chili pepper, and the bay leaf, and bring to a simmer. 

 

(if using sous-vide, skip to step 9)

 

STEP 8

THIS IS FOR A BRAISED STYLE PULL-APART TEXTURE: remove the backstrap from the marinade, salt, and sear with butter on ultra-high heat for 30 seconds each side (to get a browned crust) then add to the simmering stock pot. Cook the strap on low-medium heat for 3-4 hours, adding water periodically when the sauce gets too low. SKIP TO STEP 12 TO COOK POTATOES, THEN STEP 14 TO PLATE.

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 9

Simmer the sauce on low heat until thick, a good check of this is to drag your cooking spatula across the bottom of the pan and check for a clean break (as per image to the right). If it's too liquidy, the sauce will flow too quickly. Turn off heat and salt to taste (my bone broth was already salted so I didn't have to add any more).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 10

Add charcoal to your side by side smoker and start the fire. Once coals are hot, add chunked wood (my favorite is 50/50 hickory and applewood), and manipulate vents so temps on the far side are around 150F.

 

STEP 11

Toss your now cold straps into the smoker and smoke for 1 hour. You can see on the thermometer on  the grill table my temps are hovering around 150F.

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 12

Meanwhile, slice your potatoes into medallions, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper them generously, and place in your oven at 375. Cook until tender (for 1/4" thick medallions, roughly 20 minutes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 13

After 1 hour, add more charcoal to the smoker to raise temps, and hard-sear the straps on the grate above your charcoal fire in the small side of your smoker to get a good crust. (roughly 15-30 seconds per side or less, depending). A propane torch is also a great way to get a quick non-penetrating sear on meats, and if you're a tool guy like me, you can blast it for a few seconds with your roofing torch/glorified flamethrower on high for no reason other than because it's badass and awesome. Either way, let it rest after searing for 10 minutes before slicing.

 

 

 

 

                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 14

Strain the sauce through a strainer to separate vegetables. Using a ladle, make a large puddle of sauce at the bottom of a plate. Line the plate with potato medallions, then spoon sauce on the center of the plate and add the sliced strap. Garnish with fresh parsley. Plate the separated veggies at the bottom of the plate. Or just plop it all together, its your meal!

 

 

 

 

It's a lot of work, but it's cheaper than a plane ticket to Portugal, and boy howdy sure is a tasty way to eat wild game. I got extra points with the missus, I'm planning to cash in all my points with her soon on a Master Caster so a few more dishes like this and I'll be shootin unlimited lead 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

THIS needs to become a 'sticky 

OLG 

[Snakejaw_Joe]

6 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

THIS needs to become a 'sticky 

OLG 

 

The fact that you think so is enough for me, Lumpy Gritz Thanks for stopping by

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Don't stop now, keep post'n. 

OLG  

[Ramblin Gambler]

If you take requests, I need to learn how to cook backstrap.  My wife does some good things with it that are beyond my ability, but she doesn't like to fool with it often enough.  I got backstrap stacking up in my freezer. 

[Snakejaw_Joe]

On 9/28/2020 at 11:43 AM, Ramblin Gambler said:

If you take requests, I need to learn how to cook backstrap.  My wife does some good things with it that are beyond my ability, but she doesn't like to fool with it often enough.  I got backstrap stacking up in my freezer. 

 

The last recipe, though I ended up making it with ham hocks, I built for backstraps. Sous-vide, chill, smoke, and sear will get you the best texture you will ever get out of a backstrap. Otherwise it can get pretty tough. If you don't want to mess with sous-vide, do a very hot pan sear then pop in the oven at 325 til cooked in the center. Or slow smoke in a side by side, or cook it to a shredded texture in a crock pot. I would avoid throwing it directly on a grill cuz it won't give enough time for the lignins to break down properly and will be way too rough.

 

As far as sauce/spices, what kind of game you got? Elk, deer, hog? I'll get you a good recipe.

[Ramblin Gambler]

9 hours ago, Snakejaw_Joe said:

As far as sauce/spices, what kind of game you got? Elk, deer, hog? I'll get you a good recipe.

 

pretty much just whitetail.  Sometimes when I'm lucky axis.  thanks, I will look closer at that recipe and see if I can pull it off. 

 

[Snakejaw_Joe]

22 hours ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

 

pretty much just whitetail.  Sometimes when I'm lucky axis.  thanks, I will look closer at that recipe and see if I can pull it off. 

 

 

You got it. I have some leftover whitetail steaks from last year's tags, perfect excuse to pull em out. I'll take the week to come up with something special but easy. Check back in next Sunday.

 

A note on venison - it is much safer to eat than wild hog, so the cooking temps will be considerably lower. If you want to sous vide, 130F for 2 hours followed by an oak smoke and ultra high temp sear would be the best treatment. Or, classic route, ripping hot sear on the stovetop in butter followed by the oven at 350 for 7-10 minutes or til internal temp hits 130F (rare) to 140F (med rare).

 

You know what, let's do a side by side showdown of the sous vide vs traditional pan/oven method. That should be a fun experiment. Stay tuned.

 

 

[Snakejaw_Joe]

SUNRISE SHOWDOWN: Sous-Vide vs Pan Seared Steaks

 

 

As promised to @Ramblin Gambler, last night I pitted two of the most popular restaurant steak preparations, one against the other, to find out which was king.

 

I decided to try out a new sauce recipe, a blackberry gin glaze, hoping to get something special, but as always the first time you try something it was not very good. The lemon was too overpowering and the beef stock clashed with the juniper berries in a very unpleasant way. I'll have to make some adjustments over the next few weeks and then I'll post that recipe separately from this showdown.

 

Since this is a wild game thread, I opted to use sliced venison backstrap from last years tags. It was a larger whitetail buck so the flavor was not the greatest, but it was still the perfect subject for this experiment.

 

I put links down at the end for all the equipment you need to sous vide, if you decide you want to explore that route.

 

To really see the difference between a thicker steak and a thinner steak, I cut two steaks thick and two steaks thin, as evenly as possible. I numbered them according to preparation:

 

 

 

1A: Sous-vide Thick

1B: Sous-vide Thin

2A: Pan Sear Thick

2B: Pan Sear Thin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I got started with the sous vide. Pat dry, salted and peppered, then vacuum sealed the two steaks with a sprig of rosemary. I preheated the water to 129F then tossed them in and let them cook for 90 minutes.

 

Then I cracked open a warsteiner and spent time with the wife and dogs for an hour. The real benefit to sous vide  cooks while you relax.

 

 

 

 

Once 30 minutes was left on the sous vide, I pat 2A and 2B dry (IMPORTANT TO DRY), salted and peppered them and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill up. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350F.

 

Then I tossed a piece of butter into a pan with equal parts olive oil. THIS IS IMPORTANT. The butter helps give the crust a deep brown color and that rich caramelized flavor, and the olive oil raises the smokepoint and prevents the butter from browning/burning too quickly. Heat it up on high for a minute or so (it will depend on how hot your burner gets) then toss in your steaks.

 

 

 

 

Cook one side until well browned, then flip, and baste the top of the steak with that hot butter oil with a spoon to keep it browning.

 

Once the other side is LIGHTLY browned (not as brown as we got the other side), transfer it into a baking pan, and into the oven. If you're cooking with an oven safe skillet you can just pop it in directly.

 

 

This is a general rule of thumb for cook time:

 

Per inch of steak thickness:

rare: 3-3.5 minutes

medium rare: 3.5-4.5 minutes

well: 4.5 -5.5 minutes

 

But as always, use a thermometer to be sure. Every oven is different. I'm using an old gas oven that has to be from 1940, so it's not exactly bleeding edge accurate. Ah, the joys of historic homes... I pulled them out and let them rest.

 

 

Meanwhile I iced the sous vide bag to bring the temps down again, cut open the sous vide bag, drained out the juices, pat them dry (again, important to dry), and blasted them with my wife's butane creme brulee torch. I typically like to cold smoke and then hot sear my sous vide steaks, but in the interest of keeping the integrity of the experiment, I kept it simple with the torch. Someday I'll post a grilling showdown.

 

 

Let it rest and cut them all open. Here are the results:

 

 

 

VISUAL:

Sous-vide: Edge to edge cooked rare to perfection. You will notice the red color is even across the entire slice. There is no gray around the edges. Just a seared crust, and rare meat.

Pan Seared: This one ended up cooking to medium rare, again, hard to control a gas oven from 80 years ago. But you will notice the pink center, surrounded by gray meat along the edges. This is typical of traditionally cooked steaks. It cooks outside in at higher temps, so to get the center exactly where you want it, it has to overcook the edges.

 

TEXTURE:

Sous-vide: This cut was extremely tender... but above all, JUICY. You can see the amount of moisture the sous vide piece retained, compared to how grainy the pan seared steak looks. When you bite into it, its like a 'pop' of steak.

Pan Seared: This one was your typical steak texture. Grainy edges and juicy center. To be honest, it tasted familiar and comfortable, which is pleasant in its own right. With wild game though, you really want to retain as much juice and tenderness as you can.

 

TASTE:

Sous-vide: This is probably the only category that sous vide didn't come out on top. This is entirely due to the fact that my steak was from a large old buck. Since sous vide retains all the moisture in the steak, it ends up amplifying the flavor. This is why I cold smoke and sear on the grill after doing sous vide - the smoke and sear adds heavy wood flavors which help mask/compliment the gameyness.

Pan Sear: While grainy and more tough, this one tasted much more mellow. Again, I believe that's because through the cooking process it released all those juices into the pan instead of retaining them inside the steak.

 

CONCLUSION:

There is nothing like the texture and control of a sous-vide cook. If this was a grass fed NY Strip from a grocery store, it would have been a 10/10 slam dunk done this way. But since my steak was gamey, the concentrated flavor was a bit too much, and it really needed that cold smoke and grill sear step to tame it down some.

 

If you have never been offended by gamey meats, you wouldn't even care, and you would be blown away by the process.

 

So I would say - if you like to grill, do the sous-vide and follow with a cold smoke and sear step, and you willl never taste a better steak. If you are short on time and are cooking for picky people (like my wife), try the pan sear. While not perfect, it is definitely acceptable, and the flavor will be more familiar and tamed down some.

 

My sous-vide equipment:

Sous vide: https://www.amazon.com/ChefSteps-Joule-Watts-White-Stainless/dp/B01M8MMLBI/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=joule&qid=1602427704&sr=8-6

Container: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075QHYTTH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Vac Sealer: https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-V4440-Automatic-Detection-Certified/dp/B00DI342B4/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=vacuum+sealer&qid=1602427887&sr=8-11

Rack: https://www.amazon.com/EVERIE-Weighted-Improved-Vertical-Stainless/dp/B07P98WRC5/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=sous+vide+rack&qid=1602427943&s=home-garden&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyQ0YwUEhHTFNPQkM5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDAyNzg3UUdEMjZBU1RJRUNQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAzMDUxNDczMFRDM0pMVllMWUxLJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

Good budget entry-level sous vide and sealer (I bought this for my father in law after cooking him a steak with sous vide, he became obsessed):

Sous vide: https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-SSV800-Accu-Circulator/dp/B07898VZN9/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=sous+vide&qid=1602427986&sr=8-3

Sealer: https://www.amazon.com/Machine-Vaccume-Protect-Dehydration-Freezer/dp/B087JM5KQW/ref=sr_1_12_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=vacuum+sealer&qid=1602427785&sr=8-12-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFUU0RZOUkzRlhXTjYmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4NzU4NTQyT0pYU0VNTThZQ1pDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxMzQzMDZPV1M1WVROVkg5RkQmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

 

Hope this gave y'all a better understanding of the sous vide process and how it works/where it shines and where it has limitations.
 

New recipes coming in a few weeks... stay tuned.

 

- Snakejaw

 

 

 

 

[Ramblin Gambler]

Thanks Snakejaw.  I have 3 questions.  I don't have sous vide equipment so they're mostly about the pan searing portion. 

 

5 hours ago, Snakejaw_Joe said:

Then I tossed a piece of butter into a pan with equal parts olive oil.

 

What about bacon grease instead of butter? 

 

5 hours ago, Snakejaw_Joe said:

Cook one side until well browned, then flip, and baste the top of the steak with that hot butter oil with a spoon to keep it browning.

 

Once the other side is LIGHTLY browned (not as brown as we got the other side), transfer it into a baking pan, and into the oven. If you're cooking with an oven safe skillet you can just pop it in directly.

 

How long are we talking here for the browning?  Does this take just a few seconds?  30 seconds? 

 

5 hours ago, Snakejaw_Joe said:

and blasted them with my wife's butane creme brulee torch.

 

I have tried to cook a bite of meat with a butane cigar torch before and it had a bad butane taste.  Is there something special about the brulee torch that prevents this?

[Snakejaw_Joe]

55 minutes ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

Thanks Snakejaw.  I have 3 questions.  I don't have sous vide equipment so they're mostly about the pan searing portion. 

 

 

What about bacon grease instead of butter? 

 

 

How long are we talking here for the browning?  Does this take just a few seconds?  30 seconds? 

 

 

I have tried to cook a bite of meat with a butane cigar torch before and it had a bad butane taste.  Is there something special about the brulee torch that prevents this?

 

Bacon grease works great,  but still cut it with olive oil. Animal based fats have much lower smoke points and need to be tempered down a bit.

 

If you have a standard heat gas stove (maybe 15,000 BTU) it comes out to about 30 seconds for one side and 15 for the second. You don't want to cook the second side as much because thats the side that is going in the oven and will continue to cook. If your stove is more powerful, it could be done in as little as 10 seconds and 5 seconds. My mother in law has one of those 8 burner professional Viking brand stoves and after 10 seconds its perfectly browned. You want the first side to look deeply browned but not black/burned. 

 

The taste is dependent on the grade of butane you are using. Butane itself is odorless and flavorless, what you are likely tasting are impurities or even mercaptans used as safety measures. You can buy 99.9% pure butane in cans online if you need to sear after a sous vide cook, but honestly, nothing beats a ripping hot sear on the grill or pan. I'm a professional chemist so I have access to pharmaceutical grade butane - that's the only reason I use it when I'm lazy or want to taste the meat without any smoke.

 

Also, don't worry about the butane sear UNLESS you're using the sous vide method. With a proper pan sear in some animal fat and olive oil, it will be browned perfectly.