Time for some truth....about me

[mamba]

No, but I will try that.  I live in Oklahoma and generally just place the cooler on the hot cement (when it's 95-100 degrees outside) by the pool with the lid off for a few hours and let it get all toasty before using it.  I have tried putting hot water in it, but not boiling.  If by doing this I can get another 10  degrees more often than not, I will give it a try and see how it goes.

[bsolomon]

I tend to see the results that mamba sees - about 3-5 degrees of temp rise during the resting phase in FTC.  

Oldman, if you feel you need to get another 10 degrees of temperature rise after removing it from the BS, and you are going through all the gymnastics of turning your cooler into a low-grade heating appliance, then why not just leave it in the BS a little longer, and then drop it into a standard cooler?  [:0]  In terms of applying heat to a cut of meat, the BS has this fancy-dancy high-technology device called a "heater" which seems to do a pretty good job [:D][:D][:D] Plus, I suspect there would be a lot less danger than trying to handle all of that boiling water...

All tongue-in-cheek of course.  On the serious side, why do you feel you achieve superior results with the passive oven approach rather than the standard FTC?  Does the presence of the boiling water/steam result in a jucier final product?  I would think that once you wrap the product in foil, you would fail to get any additional benefits regardless of how the heat is applied from outside.

[Oldman]

If you go get an immersible water heater becareful. There is a large recall on a couple of models that are not wired correctly.

Olds

[Oldman]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">On the serious side, why do you feel you achieve superior results with the passive oven approach rather than the standard FTC? Does the presence of the boiling water/steam result in a jucier final product? I would think that once you wrap the product in foil, you would fail to get any additional benefits regardless of how the heat is applied from outside.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

First, unless I'm adding a juice to the meat I never use foil. [:I] Next, it was not until I joined this site had I ever heard of FTC. Yet for years I've used a passive oven to finish off many items. Is is superior? I will not say it is superior. It allows me to do things that just cannot be done FTC.  

For example: If it is prime rib and Au jus the passive oven allows me to bring them together. You cannot foil-towel Au jus. Then there is what we call Beef Steak Chili that is semi cooked one item at a time in a wok. When each item added it must be mixed. There are dozens of recipes I do where the passive oven is used and the foil-towel just would not work.

Why not turn down the bradley and leave it in there? That is a fair question. A passive oven is a item of diminishing returns in available calories of energy. Where as the bradley (heat reduced) is a substained item of calories of energy. A good example of this is leaving a piece of meat just to long in a food warmer. Long enough and it is ruined.

Now grant you, we as food smokers are not going to allow an over cooking by holding an item to long in a smoker. On the other hand a passive oven is a more gentle means to finish off an item. Plus it would be hard to over cook with it.

Every year we have many folks over for Christmas dinner. My kitchen is the kitchen from hell. It is so small that if you get 3 people in it there is no room to turn around. On that day I use several passive ovens in order to time the items of my meal to come out at the same time.

All of this came about by the Mother of necessity. Until a few years back we did not even have an oven here. Just a small counter top item. (Don't ask why--you really don't want to know.)

Try this the next time you are going to do some green peppers, onions mushrooms and garlic for a side dish to your steak. Flash fry them in a wok, using peanut oil. Cook each item seperately till it just starts to color. The exception is you will want to cook your mushrooms 50% of done. I do each item seperately because all of them cook at different speed to get to the coloring stage. As each one is done it goes into the passive oven. Add your salt and pepper. Mix all items in a hot passive oven. In an hour they should be ready. Serve on the side of a steak; mix the jucies from the box with a little clarified butter and pour a little over your steak.

I can say this with hat in hand, you can travel the world over and never find a better tasting  Au jus then what comes out of my passive oven.  

Like I said FTC does some great things, but until I joined this site I had never heard of it.

BTW I have several sizes of that oven. The smallest will hold about a 6 pack of can sodas

Olds

[JJC]

Hi Olds,

I like either Oak or Hickory for brisket, and I've had great luck with Italian dressing for the brisket, especially if you give it 20 minutes in that Reveo you now have [;)] -- no need for an overnight soak if you do the Reveo

John
Newton MA

[Oldman]

I like using Italian dressing with other Italian spices on chicken. Then on to the grill... [:D] I just don't see Italian dressing working on a brisket..[;)]

As far as the brisket goes I'm ageing it longer than normal. The meat looked good and dark, but the fat was still to white looking for me. So I going to do it this up coming weekend.

Oh I picked up a strip steak (loin) about 14 inches that the butcher had wet aged. It was a Choice #1 grade. Man you should see the marbling in it! I cut the puppy up into steaks and all I can say is you should taste it~~ WoW!!!! Next one I do I will take a picture of it... you just will not believe your eyes.

Olds