Snake River Farms Sampler Pack – Product Review

The people from Snake River Farms sent me a sample of their American Kobe Steak Flight for review. After cooking their product Sous Vide style using my new Anova Precision Cooker here is my review and process to cook the steaks:

• Packaging Appearance: The product arrived in a heavy wall insulated cooler with dry ice.  This is great when shipping frozen product because they stay rock solid even if there is a problem with your delivery.  The steaks were individually vacuumed sealed in SNF branded plastic, and THOSE were inside a sleek black gift box with additional packaging material.  Even after thawing the product in the fridge for two days, there were no leakers and the plastic held up perfect.  They also supply a beautiful catalog with other items they sell, all of which looks very appetizing, a SRF hat, and some Espresso Brava salt.
• Product Appearance: The steaks themselves looks beautiful in their sealed package.  Each has a nice dark, almost burgundy color, meaning very little oxygen got into the package during processing.  I received ribeye, sirloin, and filet portions which all looked fantastic, but each had exceptional marbling. I even went as far as weighting each steak to insure they were at least the stated amount, and they were all on point. The ONLY thing I can negatively comment about is some of the similar items were cut in different thicknesses, but we all know each primal cut is unique, and can’t really take off any points for that.
• Cooking Process: I thawed the steaks in my fridge for two days, then I removed each from their package, and seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, and just a touch of granulated garlic.  I let them dry-brine in my fridge loosely covered in plastic wrap for about 5 hours.  I then re-vacuum sealed these steaks two to a bag.  I decided to sous vide the steaks, so I set up my Anova Precision Cooker to 134°F to give a nice medium/medium rare interior.  The steaks went into the bag, and into the water bath for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  The steaks were removed, patted dry, and I added just a little extra salt to each.  In a cast iron pan, I heated up a shallow pool of avocado oil until smoking, which is around 520°F.  I seared each steak for about 45 seconds on each side, and then they were ready to try.
• Eating Experience: I pride myself on giving real reviews of products.  I am not paid or endorsed by any companies that send me product during the time of my review, but I can tell you honesty that these were the best steaks I have ever eaten.  I also had some family members try, and they will agree.  Each steak, regardless of cut, had perfectly rendered marbled fat throughout the steak, and a beautiful buttery texture.  Each was extra juicy, and the dry-brine enhanced the natural beef notes without overpowering it. The sous vide process gave me an even medium/medium-rare finish thorough the entire center of the meat, which is a bonus of sous vide cooking.  They developed a perfect sear from the cast iron and avocado oil, without any burnt or off notes.  I cannot think of anything bad to possibly say about my eating experience.
• Value: Even with the holiday special, the price is a little higher than some other competitors on the market, but due to the quality of the meat, this is still a good value.  This is a special gift box so it will never be as affordable as if you bough a good volume of individual steaks, or a primal cut and trimmed it yourself, but you are getting some of the highest graded meat in the U.S.  You also get the bonus of the product being handled and shipped in the best way possible, and even get a sweet SRF hat included in the box.
• Overall: This gift pack is a little on the pricy side, but as I said before, everything else about these products are just about perfect.  The only other comment I could complain about would be a little uneven thickness between the steaks in the package, but knowing meat, that is just going to happen.  The flavor, appearance, texture, and overall experience was outstanding, so I give the American Kobe Steak Flight a 4.75 out of 5.

NERDSTEAK is more than happy to review any food, beverage, restaurant, CPG or equipment items you have to offer.  Feel free to contact Mike directly at chefman316@aol.com to arrange for shipping of samples, or to schedule a review. You can also follow Chef Mike on:

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Sous Vide Curd Burger Weekend!

This weekend, my pal Chef Haberer was able to make some sous vide cheese curd stuffed burgers, and for the first time around, they were fantastic.

He used 100% ground beef short rib, then blended in cheese curds into the mix.  He lightly seasoned them, then sous vide for about 2 hours at 134°F.  After the pouch, he seared them in a cast iron pan on an induction burner reaching about 520°F with a shallow pool of avocado oil.

The photo makes the insides LOOK very rare, but due to this process, it was actually a perfect medium/medium rare all the way throughout.  That is the beauty of sous vide.

 

NERDSTEAK is looking to review YOUR product!

The people at NERDSTEAK want to review YOUR product!

If you have a food related item that you would like an unbiased review of, please contact us!

• Contact us and give a little detail about your product. We will provide a shipping address and timing of the review.
• We will only provide an unbiased review of your item along with unedited photos.
• We will contact you AFTER our results have been posted to provide you with any links, photos, or information you may need.
• We will not return any unused or unopened items.
• We will not review an item if it has been opened, broken, or tampered with in any way prior to our review.
• We will complete a review with in-depth detail ranging from packaging appearance & functionality, product appearance, eating or use experience, value based on pricing, and overall review with a 1 thru 5 score.
• You are allowed to use the review for any promotional opportunities.  If you need any specific focus on the evaluation, please let us know ahead of time.
• We like everything from food, gadgets, equipment, clothing, ingredients…basically anything that can relate to food.
• Examples of our reviews can be found in our previous posts.

Food Related Careers Other Than A Restaurant Chef

NERDSTEAK

Many people possess a passion for food but don’t necessarily want to spend their nights, weekends, and holidays tucked away in the kitchen for their career choice.  There are a variety of options available for a foodie, not including positions at a traditional restaurant:

• Catering/Food Truck – In some cases the hours can be better, you are more in control of the volume of work, and can plan ahead as opposed to a flurry of tickets and orders coming at you in a hot, sweaty kitchen.
• Personal Chef – Famous people, rich people, and some large corporations like to have their own person on staff to cook what they want, when they want.
• Corporate Chef – Large restaurant chains, food manufacturers, and retail outlets like to have someone at the helm to develop recipes, products, and presentations for the general public or to potential customers.
• Research and Development Chef – 

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BBQ Competition Checklist

As you may know, I am part of the Axe-Men BBQ competition BBQ team that participates in KCBS events in the Midwest. Here is a little checklist of things you may need if you don’t have a monster trailer with multiple sponsors who will throw free stuff at you. I have removed some of our top secret items, but this should give you a good start if you are looking to get into some KCBS events…

Meat				Camp Equipment
?	?			10×10 Canopy	1
?	?			10×10 Canopy with 3x Walls	1
?	?			Folding Chairs	4
?	?			Tent to sleep in	1
Rubs/Sauce/Presentation				Pop up Tables	4
?	?			Cinder Blocks	4
?	?			Tarps	2
?	?			Fire Pit	1
?	?			Wood for fire pit	5 bundles
?	?			Wood starters	2
?	?			Buckets for water/hold down tents	8
?	?			Small water hose w/ nossel	1
?	?			?	?
?	?			Bungie Cords	24
?	?			Fire Extiguisher	1
?	?			Ash bucket and shovel	1
Ketchup	1 jar			Duct Tape	1
Mustard	1 jar			Electrical Tape	1
Apple Juice	1/2 Gallon			Tool Box, Full	1
Salt	1 jar			Portable work light	1
Fresh Curly Parsley	6 Bunches			Flashlights	2
Additional Food/Drink				Extension Cords	3
Ice	Lots of it			Generator (If we have one)	1
Salt and Pepper	1 jar each			Cart or dolly	1
Water/gatoraid/beer/monster	A bunch			Rachet Straps for trailer	6
Snacks/Dinner/Breakfast	A bunch			Small broom and dust pan	1
Smokers/Grills/Fuel				Toilet Paper	1
?	?			Batteries for flashlights	3 sets
?	?			Battieries for Thermometers	3 sets
?	?			Large clock or timer set at competition	1
Propane Burner	1			Larger binder clips or table clips	4
Propane Tank, Full	1			Paper Towel Dispenser	1
?	?			Bulk rope	30ft
?	?			?	?
?	?			Bug Spray	1
?	?			Sun Tan Lotion	1
?	?			Ponchos	6
Stick Lighters	4			Sanitation/Disposables
Tools/Utensils/Pans/Storage				Paper Towels, Roll	2
Cambro Camcarriers	2			Shop Towels	1
Coolers	4			Parchment Paper	1 box
Kinfe Roll	1 Full			Bus Tubs	3
Cutting Boards	2			Sponge/Scrub Brush	2
Cutting Board skid	2			Dish Soap	1
Electric Knives	2			Sanatiser Spray	1
Injectors	2			Lysol Wipes, Tub	2
Grill Scraper	1			Sanatiser Bucket	1
Tongs	2			Aprins (Maybe)	2
Seasoning Shakers	3			Hand Sanitiser	1
Sauce Brush	2			Bleach, Small	1
Large Spatchula	2			Garbage Bags	1 roll
Grill Glove	2 pair			To-Go containers	2 dozen
Plastic Tray Inserts	6			Ziplock Bags XL	12
?	?			Ziplock Bags L	24
?	?			Solo Cups	12
Large Water Pot w/ lid	1			Aluminum Foil, Roll	1
Thermometer Probe	3			Plastic Wrap, Roll	1
Thermopen	1			Disposable Gloves, box	2
Thermocouple	1			First Aid Kit	1
Large cups/bowls for sauce/brine	4			Disposable Plates	24
Toothpicks	1 box			Disposable Silverwear	24 sets
Half sheet pans	3			Personal
Full aluminum pans	12			Pillows
Half aluminum pans	12			Blankets
Full sheet pan	1			Toiletries
Other				?	?
Directions
Sign In Documents
KCBS Info
Sponsor Info
Pens/Note Pads

Birthday!!!!

Axe-Men BBQ Is Looking for Supporters and Sponsors This Season…

The Axe-Men BBQ team out of West Dundee, Illinois is looking for supporters and sponsors for this years BBQ season. We are a new team that competed in our first KCBS event in October of 2014, and still ended up with a 9th place call for ribs, and 10th place call for chicken, even with minimal equipment.  Our team is planning to compete in at least 6 events next season, and our goal is to participate in high profile events like the American Royal Barbeque Competition in Kansas City, as well as the Jack Daniel’s Championship in Lynchburg. Many of the regional events we participate in will be in the Midwest. We are fully invested in competing on the KCBS circuit and making Axe-Men BBQ a grand-champion team.  We also would eventually like to sell our sauces, rubs, and marinades to the general public.

As you might be aware, these BBQ competitions take a lot of time, effort, and money to complete. We are interested in everything from grills, smokers, trailers, campers, and meat…down to cleaning supplies, tables, chairs, coolers, wood, charcoal, beverages, knives, utensils, promotion materials, entry fees, and cash donations. In return, we want to go above and beyond to help promote any sponsors who help us along the way. We would add your company/personal name and/or logo to banners, clothing, or any other allowable items.  We can hand out sell sheets, contact info, or samples of anything you wish to visitors of the events. We would add you to our email list so you can keep track of our competitions, as well as visit us at any time to sample some of our award winning BBQ. Also, we would be more than happy to have a representative from your company on site to discuss your products with the public or other teams. If you have any other requests on what you would like from us in return for sponsorship, we are more than happy to discuss. The team also has a large network on social media including personal pages, blogs, and professional contacts.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need any additional information. Below are a few links to see how exciting some of the events and opportunities we will be participating in.

Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS)

American Royal World Series of Barbecue

Jack Daniel’s World Championship

Red, White, & BBQ in Westmont, IL

Wabash RibberFest in Mt. Carmel, IL

Thank you very much for your time, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Axe-Men BBQ

Steve Quirk

Mike Haracz

Axe-Men BBQ has successful debut!

My team, Axe-Men BBQ, just competed in our first KCBS BBQ competition at the Lamb’s Farm Barn Burner event this past weekend. At first we were a little skeptical about how well we would do, since we were competing against former champions and were one of three first-time groups. There was 44 teams competing in this event, and many were doing full BBQ competition tours. All the other teams had huge trailers, larger smokers, and banners with multiple sponsors.  We didn’t have any of that…

It was chilly, windy, and rainy.  We didn’t have walls on our pop-up tent, we didn’t have a fire pit, and we didn’t know you could trim and prep the meats ahead of time (which would have saved us a lot of work during the event). Most of our competitors who would walk by knew we were first-timers just by looking at us, however, I would bet we were having the most fun out of any team. Everyone was nice, but a lot of friendly poking at the noobs was had.

Unlike some of the competitors, we made all of our injections, rubs, and sauces from scratch. We did not have very much area to cook numerous portions of meat, so we had to make sure the limited amount of product we were preparing turned out the way we wanted it to.  We only used a smaller Pit Boss pellet smoker and a 22-1/2 inch Weber grill. This also meant it needed to be constantly monitored, so there was a definite lack of sleep.

We are proud to have received a 9th place call on our ribs and 10th place call on our chicken, along with being 26th place overall. We could not be happier and are looking forward to doing 6 to 10 competitions next season.  We will also being upping our game as far as equipment, sources for meats, and getting a sweet banner with sponsors (if we can!)

 

Spicy Peruvian Lima Bean Succotash – Recipe

Spicy Peruvian Lima Bean Succotash – http://www.nerdsteak.com

Here is a tasty recipe using Peruvian Lima Beans. They are quite a large bean that ends up having a very creamy consistency when cooks, so be gentle when mixing.  I soaked them overnight, then boiled them for about 1-1/2 hours for this recipe.  Watch them close when boiling because they can go from cooked to a mushy mess in a few minutes.

Spicy Peruvian Lima Bean Succotash

5 slices thick-cut bacon, diced
1 small sweet onion, diced
2 tablespoons Aleppo chile flake
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1-1/2 cups cooked Peruvian Lima Beans
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1-1/2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/4 cup picked cilantro leaves
1/4 cup roughlly chopped arugula

Fry bacon on medium heat in a large skillet until crispy, then remove to drain on a paper towel, leaving excess rendered fat in the pan.
Add onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add garlic, chile flake, salt and pepper and sauté just until aromatic, about 1 minute.
Add cooked Peruvian Lima Beans, tomatoes and corn to pan, and cook just until tomatoes are tender, about 4 minutes.
Finish by adding sherry vinegar, then turn off heat, fold in cilantro and arugula and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes about 6 servings

Traina Foods® Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup – Product Review

Traina Foods – Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup

The people at Traina Foods (http://trainafoods.com) were nice enough to send me a sample of their sun dried tomato ketchup to review. After trying the product, this is what I thought:

• Packaging Apparence – The product arrived in a sturdy squeeze bottle with an overwrap label, as well as a foil/paper seal under the cap.  The overwrap on my bottles were actually a little off-centered. The Traina logo and the sun dried tomato ketchup fonts were a little fuzzy, but the black script and the tomato image looked very clear. My small concerns are that the full overwrap does not allow you to see the product on the inside, and a repeated use of a squeeze bottle with an overwrap label will eventually wrinkle and shift even more.
• Product Appearance – As expected, this ketchup is not as smooth as the leading brands, however it held together very nice when squeezed into a bowl.  There are visible pieces of tomato, but not big enough to be a chewy nuisance. It has a rich, dark red color, and just enough thickness to adhere to foods just like its traditional counterpart. When using it as a condiment for french fries however, you will need to give it a little more scoop action to get it on the fry.
  

  Traina Foods – Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup

• Eating Experience – This stuff tastes fantastic! I am a ketchup fan, but this definitely brings it to the next level. It has the deep, natural sun dried tomato flavor you would expect, with just the right amount of natural sweetness. It has a great acidity level, along with just a touch of onion and other spices.  I had the pleasure of trying this with homemade french fries, and on a prime beef patty melt. Again, it has just the right amount of sodium which was not overpowering, but complimented everything I ate it with.  Even after it sat in a bowl for a while, I did not see any signs of separation.
• Value – You get what you pay for. A 16oz bottle runs about $4.99 which is much higher compared to the leading ketchup brands, however this was made to be an upscale alternative. The Traina Foods website states it takes about 4 pounds of tomatoes to make one bottle of their ketchup, and sun dried tomatoes themselves already cost more that your average tomato.
• Overall – I personally think the packaging could use an upgrade, maybe either a printed on package label, or sticker label, but the flavor from the ketchup is outstanding. It has a much greater depth of flavor compared to the high sweet/salty/acid standard brands, a nice texture you would expect from a sun dried tomato product, and even though it is at a higher price point compared to the leading standard brands, it is well worth it! I give Traina Foods® Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup a 4.5 out of 5.

NERDSTEAK is more than happy to review any food, beverage, restaurant, CPG or equipment items you have to offer.  Feel free to contact Mike directly at chefman316@aol.com to arrange for shipping of samples, or to schedule a review. You can also follow Chef Mike on:

LinkedIn – Twitter – Facebook – Pinterest