Michael Lamari – Townsville QLD
Oyster blades, when done right are one of the most beautifully tender pieces of meat around. I remember my Nanna would always get oyster blades ground down into mince to make her pasta sauce with. It was always amazing, but hey every grandmother knows how to cook!
This oyster blade is from Jack’s Creek, which is a wagyu cut of meat. You don’t need wagyu i just chose this cut as it what my local butcher had and Jack’s Creek beef never fails! Remember this cook is all about time and patience, it needs to break down the massive collagen inside the meat, but I’ll explain how you will know its ready.
Ingredients
The Rub
For this cook I used lanes bbq rubs, blackening and magic dust. The blackening gives a nice savoury flavour thanks to the herbs and spices and the magic dust gives a nice sweet back end taste.
The Stock
- 2 cups of salt reduced beef stock
- 4 knobs of butter
- 2-3tbsp of honey and some rosemary and salt.
Meat Preparation
- You will want to pre-prep the meat: I personally take all the fat cap off the top, you will not need it for any flavour for my cooking process. Also remove any silver skin.
- Cover meat with your favourite bbq rub, this choice is totally up to you as everyone has their own tastes.
- Leave meat to sit out for 10-15 minutes for the rub to sweat, I’m not going to get all scientific, but this helps with your smoke ring process if you want that appearance.
Cooking
- Turn on Z Grill and follow standard start up procedures, once that is done, turn grill temp to 121oC and shut the lid.
- Once the grill is steady at temp, place on the grill for 4 hours, spritzing the meat every 45 minutes to an hour with water
- Now comes the phase to where this meat will become amazingly tender and adds moisture back in! Pour the stock into a deep pan.
- Place meat in a deep pan with the stock and let it cook until it probes like warm butter. By doing this it means the collagen has fully broken down making the meat melt in your mouth tender.
- Make sure the meat has reached an internal temperature of 55oC for rare, higher for more well done.
- Once you hit that target, let the meat rest for 30 minutes before slicing, an optional extra is to make a gravy out of the juices, so grab your favourite gravy mix and use the amount of juices as you would water to thicken it up.