pre-boiled meat before smoking....

[firemandan]

what is your stand in preboiling meat in the marinade before grilling or smoking the meat?be it poultry,pork or beef...here in the Philippines, we sometimes cook the meat in the mixture of soy sauce, vinegar,salt,pepper, bay leaf, and garlic before we grill them...it taste good when grilled...

by the way...we use dried coconut husk or dried coconut shell when we smoke,it produces good smoke and a smooth flavor on meat...

[Richtee]

As a general rule... pre-boiling meat makes soup. And there stays a good percentage of your flavor. Then you throw it out.

Now- par-boiling is a bit different... noted below.

Sooo...there are times meat is boiled/simmered of course. There is a Hungarian bacon that is boiled. Braising is a form of boiling, however you typically retain the liquid with the dish, or reduce it as a gravy/demiglase.

Meats are sometimes par-boiled for health/fat reduction reasons.

Also, sounds like you are boiling/simmering with spice/flavors with the intent of infusing the meat. OK...that is a pretty accepted thing.

But...to boil a hunk of meat in basically water for the purpose of pre-cooking it... BAH!

There's a few pro/ex-pro chefs here, perhaps they will elucidate :{)

[lcruzen]

A couple of examples I can give of an acceptable meat braise/boil is a corned beef boiled dinner or a smoked picnic ham. Both of which the stock would be used to cook the rest of the dinner in.

[mballi]

Now my take on par/pre boiling meat is similar to the rich I don't like it. It takes all the flavor out of the meat. Now to me it has no place in any stage of the smoking process. I have been to some bbq places that par boil their meat and then they put it on the smoker and try to shove some sort of smokey flavor into the meat. Well it don't work for this guy.

[bbally]

Since some have already mentioned the flavor loss aspect I will leave that as covered.

My problem with preboil is the changes in the density and mobility of the protein strands. They are dead once you take them above 140 F. They have given up the wonderful things we can do to manipulate flavors down along the fibers and hence your lack of depth on the flavor profile of all things pre boiled. To me pre-boil and par boil are the same. They both screw the meat up.

There is one exception to this that I have found over the years, but it is not a smoked dish. If you are cooking Philipine Adobo.... when you allow a boiled meat to rest in the marinade over night and cool out, the vinegar or acidic marinades such as Adobo do a nice job of following the protein string into the meat. Great Adobo is always cooked a day before then let overnight cooling in the marinade and brought up to the final dish the second day. It is magic.

[gooose53]

I thought it was pretty well known that Rich boils his ribs before smoking.....

[SmokinLee]

Nah, he calls it poaching

[curious aardvark]

I thought it was pretty well known that Rich boils his ribs before smoking.....

he been taking lessons from bubba ?

I do a lot of marinating. Hell i pretty much never cook any meat that hasn't been marinated.

But boil in the marinade - I call that stew.

So yes to marinading (preferably overnight) probably no to cooking in the marinade and then smoking or 'Drying the cooked meat out' as would be the actual result.

we sometimes cook the meat in the mixture of soy sauce, vinegar,salt,pepper, bay leaf, and garlic before we grill them...it taste good when grilled...

Leave it in that mix overnight, then grill it and I guarentee it'll not only taste better but the texture will be better as well :-)

Sounds like you're looking for a quick marinade.
A much better option is to leave the meat in the marinade, in a sealed box and shake the living crap out of it. I generally get anyone who walks past the box to shake it as well.
The shaking not only works the marinade into the meat, but physically tenderises it as well.

[Richtee]

I thought it was pretty well known that Rich boils his ribs before smoking.....

No no NO! .... That's Bubba!

[Capt Dan]

saw the title of this thread and thought I had been kidnapped to SMF.

Lee, I thought he pronounced it" boaching".

[DDave]

My problem with preboil is the changes in the density and mobility of the protein strands. They are dead once you take them above 140 F. They have given up the wonderful things we can do to manipulate flavors down along the fibers and hence your lack of depth on the flavor profile of all things pre boiled.

That's good info, Bob.

I have experienced in the past hunks of pretty much flavorless meat (not my cooking mind you ) that was parboiled and wondered what the heck happened.

Dave

[Mark R]

That's good info, Bob.

I have experienced in the past hunks of pretty much flavorless meat (not my cooking mind you ) that was parboiled and wondered what the heck happened.

Dave

I believe that sums up - "boiled the shit out of it". (Shit meaning, all the good stuff)

[Gunslinger]

An even more efficient method is too marinate under vacuum.

[DDave]

An even more efficient method is too marinate under vacuum.

So how would marinating (SP?) compare to injecting? Other than not being as potentially messy. Would one method be better than the other in certain situations such as using larger spices/leaves etc? Advantages/disadvantages of each?

Dave

[Gunslinger]

So how would marinating (SP?) compare to injecting? Other than not being as potentially messy. Would one method be better than the other in certain situations such as using larger spices/leaves etc? Advantages/disadvantages of each?

Dave

Guess you missed this one Dave. http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1666 It does answer your question though. Dang, that was easy, give me something a little more challenging.