Putting things on top of other things

I love it when people stack things up, and nobody does it better than the people in China.



Even the locals were taking pictures of this it was so incredible.







and an unrelated bonus picture of this truck stacked with cardboard.

Aryeh Cooks: Smoked Chuck

This weekend I decided to smoke some chuck.


I started with about 4.5 pounds (two kilograms) of chuck rubbed with a mixture of fresh course ground black pepper and kosher salt.


Then into the Sous Vide bath at 155 degrees Fahrenheit for 36 hours.


After 36 hours I pulled the meat out, patted it dry, and then gave it another rub of fresh course ground black pepper and kosher salt.


Onto a 300 degree Fahrenheit indirect heat grill.  I have a pan of water under the meat to act as thermal ballast and to try and prevent additional moisture loss (the meat lost half its weight from beginning to end, but now I have a pot full of meat drippings).  On the other side of the grill above the flames I have an aluminum foil boat loaded with apple wood chips.  I added some chips ever 30 minutes for a 3 hour smoke.


Off the heat with a bit of smoke penetration to form a bit of a bark.


Sliced across the grain.


On some homemade baguette with lettuce and tomato.  It is as delicious as it looks and the backyard smelled amazing for the 3 hours I was smoking it.

Do not innovate unnecessarily

For fans of The Tick animated series, who also work in labs, I felt the need to recreate a rather hilarious sign in the background in a scene from The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil:

My re-creation can be found in printable form here.