Resting in cooler

[Desk Jockey]

I saw a Joe Ronan post about cooking elk on a pellet grill, reverse searing it and then resting it in foil in a cooler.

I am interested in trying something similar. Two questions:

1) Rest before reverse sear or sear before rest?
2) why rest in a rooom temperature cooler? If it is in foil is that enough. It seems like the cooler isn't going to contain much heat unless it was preheated like and oven or something.

 

[archer wapiti]

I've never tried the reverse sear, I seared first. One of the best elk roasts I ever cooked was one that I grilled for a crowd. It was done way too early, so I wrapped it in foil and threw it in a cooler for probably 2.5 hours. The beginning temperature of that cooler is moot (unless you take it out of a freezer), the roast will warm it right up.
I once did a thanksgiving turkey similarly. I grilled it at my house then threw it in a cooler to transport. It came out nice and moist an hour and a half later.

 

[clip]

For me the meat has seen the last of the heat when it goes in the cooler, normally its FTC which is foil, towel, cooler I wrap in foil to seal it up tight then wrap it in an old beach towel and put it in the cooler, where it might be confusing is the cooler size, I use a smaller cooler if the cut of meat is smaller so its basically a tight fit.
It can take a little practice but taking the meat off the heat before it hits target temperature and let it continue to cook in the cooler and set the juice. Worse case being if someone thinks its to rare give theirs a few minutes back on the grill, you can fix under cooked but you can't fix over cooked easily.

 

[Tsnider]

i did it the other night and it was awesome! i flipped mine 30 minutes in, probably not necessary. then i seared it, and then put it in the yeti 35 (28 quart) cooler.

it was fantastic!

 

[ChrisS]

I've tried the food lab's method for cooking steaks using a cooler. It's pretty slick. Basically, perfect medium rare is ~125F which is about the same temperature as hot tap water. Throw the steak in a ziplock, add some aromatics, remove air and seal the bag. Throw it in a small cooler filled with hot tap water and let it sit for about an hour. Take it out, sear quickly on either side in a scorching hot cast iron pan.

 

[Kevin Dill]

Ah yes...the faux cambro. I use this method quite a bit to finish off meat and hold it for the table. A few weeks ago I did a large brisket on the smoker for about 8-9 hours. When the meat hit 202F internal I pulled it and wrapped it in heavy-duty aluminum, then placed it in my faux cambro. My cambro is an Igloo Cube which has folded (old) blankets and towels in it. I place the meat in there and wrap or cover it with blankets and towels to add insulation. Usually I leave an electronic meat probe in the meat and watch the temperature as time passes. It's typical to see about 3-4 degrees of drop per hour in a well-insulated cambro. Holding the meat a while lets it completely finish cooking and allows some of the juices to be absorbed back into the meat instead of just running out onto a plate. A juicy steak, roast or brisket is what all of us want, but seeing that juice on a dish is such a waste.

 

[clip]

I've tried the food lab's method for cooking steaks using a cooler. It's pretty slick. Basically, perfect medium rare is ~125F which is about the same temperature as hot tap water. Throw the steak in a ziplock, add some aromatics, remove air and seal the bag. Throw it in a small cooler filled with hot tap water and let it sit for about an hour. Take it out, sear quickly on either side in a scorching hot cast iron pan.

Game meat is made for Sous Vide cooking and a unit is less than $150 it makes getting everyones meat to their liking very easy.
I use the same method as yours for cooking corn on the cob(cooler corn) when we have a crowd

 

[Desk Jockey]

I've tried the food lab's method for cooking steaks using a cooler. It's pretty slick. Basically, perfect medium rare is ~125F which is about the same temperature as hot tap water. Throw the steak in a ziplock, add some aromatics, remove air and seal the bag. Throw it in a small cooler filled with hot tap water and let it sit for about an hour. Take it out, sear quickly on either side in a scorching hot cast iron pan.

This is interesting. Gonna give it a try. Thanks.