Recipes Archives

Chef Sam’s Award-Winning Rainbow Vegan Chili

Winston’s Chef Samantha Brown loves a good challenge. She is passionate about food and serving people. When she came across a contest sponsored by Campbell’s Foodservice, it was right in her wheelhouse. The contest, Campbell’s Can Do Recipe Contest for Healthcare, challenged entrants to develop new recipes using one of a select variety of Campbell’s Condensed Soup as a key ingredient. Because the contest was specifically aimed at healthcare, ingredients, and nutrition were major factors.

Chef Sam not only entered the contest…SHE WON! Sam’s first-place entry means she’s earned a sweet $2,000 prize, and the opportunity for an additional $500 if Campbell’s online followers agree that her recipe is indeed the best of the top three entries.

One might assume that Chef Sam prepared this award-winning dish on a stovetop. But because she is always looking for ways to demonstrate the versatility of our CVap® ovens, she did it all in a CVap Cook and Hold Oven.

Winning the Campbell’s Soup contest has inspired me to keep following my intuition and harnessing my experiences in creating meaningful connections through food,” said Chef Sam. “This Rainbow Vegan Chili is a cold-weather comfort food with a twist that uses plant-based beef, a mélange of veggies, and Campbell’s Classic Tomato Soup to tie it all together. Can you believe I created this recipe in a CVap oven?

CVap® Advantages

There are advantages to preparing this chili in a CVap oven. It can be cooked and held in the oven, which allows a much longer serving time. Likewise, you can hold a large quantity without worrying about scorching the pan bottom or reducing too much. The last bowl you serve will be as fresh and hot as the first.

Want to try this recipe? Chef Samantha cooked it all at 200°F Vapor/350°F Air in a CVap oven. But if you don’t have a CVap oven handy, a stovetop will do.

Rainbow Vegan Chili Recipe

Ingredients

Plant-Based Beef 48 oz (4-12oz packs)
Sweet Onions 4 large (1 ½ quart) – Cleaned and diced.
Sweet Peppers 6 large (1 ½ quart) – Cleaned and diced
(red, yellow, and orange)
Carrots 1 ½ pounds
Whole Garlic Cloves 3 cups (Cleaned, peeled, and minced)
Chili Powder 4 Tablespoons
Coriander 1 Tablespoon

Cumin 1 Tablespoon
Smoked Paprika 1 Tablespoon
Chipotle Peppers 4 Tablespoons – Pureed
Kidney Beans 62 oz (4 – 15.5 oz cans) – Drained
Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes 58 oz (4-14.5 oz cans) – Liquid Drained
Petite Dice Tomatoes 58 oz (4-14.5 oz cans)
Campbell’s Tomato Soup 70 oz
Water 128 oz

The Process

Brown the plant-based beef.
Add onion and peppers to the pan and allow to sweat until onions are translucent and the peppers have softened.
Add minced garlic and carrots to the pan and toss until fragrant.
Add chili powder, coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, and pureed chipotle peppers to the pan, and mix thoroughly. Allow to sauté for a few more minutes.
Add drained beans, all the diced tomatoes, tomato soup, and water, mix thoroughly and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
Simmer for about an hour.

As you can tell from the ingredient quantities, this recipe is intended to feed a bunch of people. You’ll get about five dozen eight-ounce servings. And while it’s dang tasty, it’s amazingly healthy, with just 128 calories per serving.

Want more chili ideas? Check out Sam’s recipe for Beer Chili!

Essential Commercial Kitchen Equipment Needed for Chicken Recipes

Chicken is a ubiquitous protein. The average American consumes over 100 pounds annually. In an increasingly health-conscious world, chicken is considered healthier than most red meat. If you’re a foodservice operator (or planning to be), you should consider expanding chicken options on your menu. Chicken is nutrient-dense, relatively inexpensive (at the moment), and can be prepared in many ways.

The equipment you’ll need to prepare the chicken depends on what kind of chicken you plan to serve. Operators should consider three categories of equipment when expanding their chicken offerings: fryers, ovens, and holding cabinets.

Fryers

When we think chicken, most of us probably think first of fried chicken. It’s a large share of the fast food market. In an industry survey, eight of the top 50 restaurants in the United States are fried chicken concepts.

If you anticipate offering fried chicken, you’ll obviously need a fryer. Pressure fryers are a great option. There are multiple advantages to using pressure fryers. They cook faster and more consistently than open fryers. Cooking oil lasts much longer. And customers often prefer the taste and texture of chicken prepared in a pressure fryer, according to some fast food operators.

Pressure frying is ideal for breaded bone-in chicken, wings, filets, or tenders with traditional breading. Winston’s Collectramatic® pressure fryers check off all the boxes. They are highly efficient, available in 4-head and 6-head capacities, and have minimal moving parts. They are true workhorses with decades-long lifespans.

Any Winston pressure fryer can also be used as an open fryer by simply removing the lid. An open fryer may be your best option if you primarily serve more delicate or super crispy foods, such as fish, seafood, double-breaded chicken, fries, onion rings, etc. Your specific menu will determine the best choice. Of course, the Winston team will be happy to advise you on your decision.

Commercial fryers are available with either gas or electric power. Your local energy infrastructure will determine which is a better option for you. However, Winston’s Collectramatic Fryer line is only available as electric.

Whatever type of fryer you choose, you’ll need to filter your cooking oil periodically. Some fryers have the filter integrated into the fryer itself. Winston offers a stand-alone shortening filter. The advantage of this is that a single filter can be used to service multiple fryers. The Winston filter is easy to move and has a low profile to make it easy to store out of the way when not in use.

Cook and Hold Ovens

Of course, fried chicken isn’t the only chicken consumers crave. Chicken lends itself to various preparation methods, such as sous vide, roasted, poached, baked, grilled, and more. It can be the main entrée or the base of a delicious stock – the possibilities are almost endless. Fortunately, so are the applications you can accomplish in a CVap oven!

CVap ovens use controlled vapor heat and dry air heat to create the ideal cooking environment for almost any type of food. CVap can replace most of the cooking equipment in your operation. Importantly, CVap ovens allow you to scale up your production. Capacities of up to 14 shelves allow for high production in a small footprint. Imagine trying to match that production scale with immersion circulators, woks, or kettles.

Do you serve barbecue? You can add the Winston Smoker Box accessory to your CVap oven to convert it into a traditional smoker. Bear in mind that once you add a smoker to a CVap oven it will no longer be a ventless oven and will either need to be under a hood or rolled to a safe outdoor spot.

Staging chicken is another great application in CVap. Simply put, staging is cooking food to a temperature just below the serving temperature and holding it there. When an order comes in, the food can be pulled from the oven, finished on a grill or skillet, and served to the customer in a fraction of the time it would take to cook from raw. This is an effective process no matter what your center plate protein is, but it’s particularly powerful in a chicken program.

Holding in CVap

CVap technology was initially developed for holding cabinets. Of course, the technology has evolved as an incredibly precise cooking technology. Hot holding continues to be a critical process in most kitchens.

CVap ovens can do double duty as holding cabinets. This prevents food from overcooking and frees staff from constantly monitoring the oven. It also makes it possible to cook overnight, removing the need for staff altogether. Holding serves a double function. It maintains product quality over time, improving service and reducing waste. It also improves efficiency by keeping the high-quality product at hand and accessible.

CVap Holding Cabinets offer the same incredible precision as CVap ovens. CVap cabinets are also a perfect partner for fryers. For example, fried chicken can be held in the cabinets for extended periods, making it possible to build up inventory for rush periods. CVap cabinets offer a superior hold by keeping chicken crisp without making it soggy or drying out, especially when compared to chicken in lower-tech holding appliances, such as heat lamps or dry, hot boxes.

Holding isn’t limited to fried chicken. CVap cabinets are also great for holding more succulent dishes. They can simultaneously hold sides, such as mashed potatoes or mac & cheese, with the same precise hot hold.

Poultry in a Post-Pandemic World

According to poultry industry reports, consumers have fundamentally changed their habits, compared to the pre-COVID-19 world. Consumers are spending more now, to regain opportunities they missed during the pandemic. Experts recommend that chicken brands should position themselves as a splurge, rather than highlight chicken as the value protein, to attract these consumers.

The report went on to say that brand loyalty took a hit during the pandemic. This may provide an opportunity for other chicken concepts to charm customers away from the more established operations. Perhaps there’s never been a better time to expand your chicken offerings. Contact us to discuss how Winston can help your operation take advantage of the changes in chicken.

Want to Know More?

We’ve done a fair bit of research into chicken. Here are a few of our chicken blogs to get you pondering poultry.

Chicken Chicken Noodle Soup chicken wings Collectramatic CVap Fryer frying chicken holding holding cabinet holding chicken

Easy Soup Recipes to Warm Your Menu This Winter

It’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Most humans are hard-wired to crave comfort foods in freezing weather. Of all the comfort foods, soups seem to be the best at warming our innards. Many folks think of soup as something that’s prepared on a stovetop. But CVap® ovens are also great for making soup. You can scale the process up to crank out gallons of soup to keep your sales hopping all day. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making soup from scratch or retherming pouches of premade soup – CVap’s got you covered.

Here are a few great easy soup recipes you can whip up in a CVap oven.

Kickin’ Chicken Noodle Soup

What soup is more comforting than chicken noodle soup on a frosty winter day? It’s one of those flavors that instantly takes you back to being a kid. It’s particularly good when you’re battling a cold. That’s not a superstition. Evidence has shown that chicken noodle soup can reduce cold symptoms. It’s chock-full of electrolytes, which help you stay hydrated.

Our chicken noodle soup take utilizes CVap ovens and our Collectramatic® Fryers. The result was a soup that combined many flavors and textures. It’s sure to warm the coldest heart. Check out the recipe here.

Vietnamese Pho Soup

This flavorful broth recipe has some good bones – literally. It calls for over eight pounds of beef, pork, and poultry bones, roasted in a CVap oven. This recipe is one you’ll need to plan, as it calls for simmering for at least 12 hours.

Pho (pronounced fah) is a Vietnamese staple. There are countless variations of this easy soup recipe. Our recipe is rich in different flavors and textures. You may want to consider offering this as part of a Tết celebration, Vietnam’s observance of the Lunar New Year.

Lobster and Fresh Corn Chowder

Here’s a tasty chowder that’s a little decadent. The chowder recipe includes lobster, scallops, veggies, and a brunoise of new potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots. The advantage to preparing this chowder in a CVap oven is that you can stage all the key ingredients in the CVap while the lobster shells enjoy a day-long simmer to create a stock. At serving time, the scallops just need a quick sear to finish. Then the impressive final dish is assembled – with a base of veggies, topped by lobster meat, a couple of scallops, and a generous ladle of the lobster stock. It’s a soup that’s as impressive to look at as it is to eat. It’s a perfect soup on a frigid day to make diners daydream of warm days near the ocean.

Beer Chili is Awesome

Chili is great any time of year. But it really hits the spot in the wintertime. You can spice it up with as much extra heat as you want to bring some warmth to a cold day.

A customer challenged us to see if it was possible to prepare beer chili using just a cook and hold oven. As this recipe shows, it’s not only possible but also awesome. So, bring on the beans! Bring on the meat! Chilly weather is chili weather!

Gumbo Ya Ya!

By the time mid-winter gets here, we’re sick of it. Good thing Mardi Gras comes around to add some color and fun to the never-ending greyness of late February. And we’ve got the perfect dish to inject a little Cajun flavor into your menu.

This spectacular gumbo has it all: veggies, sausage, chicken, and crawdads. Like many great soups, you’ll want to let it cook overnight to coax every bit of flavor. A little roux, a little rice, and you got yourself some great gumbo.

Chicken Stock – CVap Style

Behind every great easy soup recipe is an outstanding stock. In this post, Chef Sam walks us through how to use your CVap oven to create gallons of chicken stock. It’s the perfect base for multitudes of soups. The important thing about this stock is that it can easily be frozen to use at another time. And it makes the most of the chicken, with virtually nothing going to waste.

Retherming Soup in CVap

So far, we’ve elaborated on some great scratch recipes you can make in a CVap. But many excellent pre-prepared canned or bagged soups are available from your favorite foodservice distributor. Use a CVap oven to retherm your premade soups, and you can really scale up production. Our largest ovens can hold up to 28 hotel pans, allowing you to cook gallons of soup at once. CVap technology ensures that no matter what soup you’re retherming, it will never scorch or overcook. And CVap oven’s automatic hold cycle keeps soup hot and fresh throughout your meal service.

From Soup to Nuts

These are just a few ideas for souping up your menu. Need more ideas or suggestions for adapting an existing recipe to CVap? Just fill out our contact form. Our culinary experts will be happy to help! There’s no need to limit questions to soup. We can help with just about anything!

Chicken Noodle Soup chili Cook & Hold cook and hold CVap holding cabinet Oven pho retherm School Nutrition soup tomato soup

Holiday Recipes: CVap® Oven Recipes to Snazz Up Your Holiday Restaurant Menu

The holidays can be a make-or-break time for restaurants. Take advantage of your CVap oven to expand your menu. Your guests are ready to celebrate. These recipes will send ’em home feeling festive and full. It may just help you keep things in the black.

Hanukkah

This year Hanukkah begins on December 18 and ends on December 26. Two perennial Hanukkah favorites are brisket and roasted chicken. We have some great recipes for both.

Retherming Brisket in CVap

Brisket is growing in popularity. In the last decade, it has grown in popularity by 23 percent. Brisket is a relatively tough cut of meat. It must be cooked low and slow to break down its connective tissue. But if you don’t have the time or patience for a traditional cook, CVap can help you save time and effort. By cooking ahead of time and refrigerating, you can serve fresh brisket in a fraction of the time it takes to cook from raw. There are also quality commercial products, such as Hormel’s sliced brisket. These will save tons of time compared to cooking from scratch. Whether thermalizing your brisket or serving a prepacked product, CVap will help satisfy your guests. Read more here: Retherming Brisket in a CVap Oven.

Beautiful Beef Brisket: Smoky, Juicy, and Tasty!

Do you have the time to cook a traditional brisket? We’ve got you covered. This blog describes how to smoke an incredible brisket: Beautiful Beef Brisket: Smoky, Juicy, and Tasty!

CVap Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables a la Thomas Keller

Are your guests more inclined to prefer chicken over beef? This roasted chicken and root veggie recipe is as hearty as it is easy. Shared with us by our late friend Chef Jim Waley, it’s an adaptation of a recipe by Chef Thomas Keller. Learn how to prepare it here: CVap Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables a la Thomas Keller

Corned Beef in CVap

Some customers will prefer their brisket as corned beef. We tackled that project too. This scratch recipe tested different cook settings to determine the best method for both sliced and shredded corned beef. Please read it here: Corned Beef in CVap.

Christmas

Turkey

Turkey is the center of many Christmas celebrations (not to mention Thanksgiving). Over the years, we’ve tested many turkey recipes in CVap ovens. They all produced excellent results. Rather than giving a synopsis of each recipe, we’ll list them here:

What the Turducken!

Want to give your Christmas celebrants a treat that they’ll never forget? Serve them turducken. Although the word starts with “turd,” it’s a culinary treat that few are willing to invest the time and effort in preparing. Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken, all layered with dressing. It’s a nutritionist’s nightmare but a diner’s fantasy. If you’re up to the challenge, learn how here: What the Turducken!

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a relatively new holiday, dating from the mid-1960s. It celebrates African-American culture. The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning “first fruits.” It’s based on the harvest traditions of parts of West and Southeast Africa. It occurs from December 26 to January 1 each year.

Kwanzaa food traditions are varied as the African diaspora. Popular dishes for this holiday are influenced by the cuisines of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the American Deep South.

CVap Gumbo Ya Ya!

A fantastic and easy dish to serve your Kwanzaa guests is gumbo. It’s inspired by the cuisine of Louisiana and is packed with robust Cajun flavor. It features chicken, sausage, and crawdads. Please read up on it here: CVap Gumbo Ya Ya!

Shuckin’, Crackin’, and Peelin’ – Let’s Dish Shellfish!

Treat your guests to the flavors of the Gulf Coast with this wide-ranging assortment of shellfish. There’s something here to please every seafood fan. Check out the recipe here: Shuckin’, Crackin’, and Peelin’ – Let’s Dish Shellfish!

New Year's Day

Staging Lobster Tails for Catering

Want to really impress the folks celebrating New Year’s Eve in your restaurant? Nothing is more impressive than lobster tails. It’s hands-down the best part of this celebrated crustacean (and not nearly as challenging to eat as tackling an entire lobster). This recipe takes them from frozen to fantastic in about an hour. Read how here: Staging Lobster Tails for Catering.

The Day After

Yeah, we know, everybody starts a diet on New Year’s Day. But after a night of celebration, some folks are still going to want to start the new year with a great breakfast.

CVap Quiche with Fresh Kale

This quiche is easy and pretty nutritious. Hey, if it’s got kale, it can’t be all bad! Your guests will love it, even if they can’t pronounce it. Whip it up with this recipe: CVap Quiche with Fresh Kale.

Hassle-Free Sous Vide Style Egg Bite

Are you offering a breakfast buffet for your new year’s patrons? These egg bites are easy to make and hold great in CVap. They are as simple as they are delicious. Read how: Hassle-Free Sous Vide Style Egg Bite.

Chicken & Waffles – Damn, It’s Good

So maybe your guests aren’t starting a diet on New Year’s Day. They can go all-out with the classic chicken and waffles. It’s sweet. It’s savory. And damn, it’s good. Read about it here: Chicken & Waffles – Damn, It’s Good.

Cook & Hold cook and hold CVap holding cabinet holiday recipes Oven overnight

Staging Lobster Tails for Catering

So you’re hosting a big catered event and want to impress your guests? There is nothing more impressive than lobster…if it’s done right.
We set out to show that CVap® ovens can stage lobster tails for catering right.

Staging Lobster Tails Process

Ingredients

4-5 oz Lobster Tails
Melted Butter
Paprika

Allow the tails to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, per label instructions. Lobster (and all shellfish, for that matter) is unforgiving regarding safe handling. Make sure to only thaw in the refrigerator, and cook promptly once it has thawed.

Preheat the CVap oven.

The product we chose was Greenhead frozen lobster tails.

Settings

Cooking

Cook Time: 1 hour
Cook Vapor: 136°F
Cook Air: Sous Vide

Holding

Hold Time: 2 hours
Hold Vapor: 136°F
Hold Air: Sous Vide

Prepare the tails by “boxing” them. This simply means to make an incision with scissors along the top spine of the shell. Crack the shell to carefully pull the lobster meat almost all the way out – BUT NOT COMPLETELY. Leave the end tail meat in the shell and lay the meatier portion on top, see image.

Douse raw tails with plenty of melted butter. Evenly sprinkle with a touch of paprika for color.

Staging Lobster Tails Results

To be honest, I LOVE crustaceans! But usually lobster is just meh. It probably has something to do with being hundreds of miles from the nearest coast. (yep, I’m a bit of a fresh seafood snob). Lobster is too expensive for the experience of chewing on rubber bands. Or at least that’s what I thought before cooking them in CVap.

We reviewed these babies after about an hour into holding. The texture was tender and juicy. The flavor was buttery, briny, and sweet. They would be perfectly fine to serve in this state. But if you wanted to give them a little more texture or snap, you could finish them in a high-temperature convection, broiler, or even with a blow torch. This gives the lobster meat a toothier bite

CVap gives you so much flexibility and peace of mind. It ensures that all your hard work isn’t wasted by overcooking these tails and turning them tough and rubbery! Don’t shy away from utilizing them as a surf-n-turf option on your catering menu! CVap allows you to serve lobster with sous vide precision, but at a scale to feed scores of people.

What to do with all those lobster tail leftovers? Vac-packed and freeze them for later use! Or turn them into that New England favorite – lobster rolls!
That’s what we did.

We prepared two versions of lobster rolls:

Diced Lobster, bib lettuce, and melted Plugra butter
Diced lobster, mayo, and Old Bay seasoning

OMG!! So effing good!

butter caterers catering Cook & Hold cook and hold CVap CVap Staging Fancy Food Lobster Oven seafood staged Staging

Perfect Pastrami in CVap

Ever had really good pastrami? Many folks have only experienced the lunchmeat version. But that stuff doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing. We wanted to put our CVap^® Retherm Oven and Winston Smoker Box through the paces to make this savory, smokey meat.

Pastrami’s Past

Food nerd time. Pastrami originated in Romania. The name comes from the Romanian pastramă, a conjugation of the verb a păstra. It means “to preserve food, to keep something for a long duration.” Pastrami likely also has roots throughout the Aegean region. Like so many cured meats, it originated as a way to preserve meats in the absence of refrigeration.

Pastrami came to the United States with Jewish Romanian immigrants in the 1880s. It was originally made with goose breasts but has transitioned to primarily beef. Although originally a staple of ethnic New York delis, it’s now a favorite of folks just about everywhere. The consensus is that pastramă became pastrami because it rhymed with salami.

Give It Time

One thing to remember about Pastrami – it’s a time investment. You’re looking at a week or more to properly brine (or cure) the proteins. It’s not something you’ll make at the spur of the moment. To obtain the best results you have to plan ahead and give it time.

The Brine

Pastrami Brine	Weight (g/kg)	% Formula
Total	9990.7 g	100.000
Water	9 kg	90.084
Brown Sugar	580 g	5.805
Salt	300 g	3.003
Insta Cure #1 (6.25% NaNO2)	60 g	0.601
Coriander, Whole	13 g	0.130
Mustard Seed	10 g	0.100
Black Peppercorns	10 g	0.100
Pink Peppercorns	8 g	0.080
Fennel Seeds, Whole	4.5 g	0.045
Cinnamon Stick, Whole	3 g	0.030
Chili Flakes	1 g	0.010
Clove, Whole	0.7 g	0.007
Bay Leaf	0.5 g	0.005

Pastrami Seasoning – Topical

Pastrami Seasoning	Weight (g/kg)	% Formula
Total	304.4 g	100.000
Brown Sugar	75 kg	24.64
Salt	75 g	24.64
Black Pepper, Ground	72 g	2.65
Coriander, Ground	55 g	18.07
Garlic, Granulated	10 g	3.29
Juniper Berry, Ground	10 g	3.29
Chili Flake	7.4 g	2.43

The Proteins

Beef

most common cuts: brisket, short rib, navel

Pork

most common cuts: shoulder, belly, loin, ham, leg (obviously not kosher)

Turkey

most common cut: breast

The Pastrami Process

Prepare the brine by mixing everything together in a large container. Allow plenty of capacity to add the protein (accounting for displacement). This amount of brine can easily cure four full briskets. Adjust the amount accordingly to accommodate larger or smaller quantities.
Trim excess fat from protein.
Add protein to the brine. Allow red meat (beef or pork) to static (or passively) cure in the refrigerator. Brine for at least five days. Seven days is preferred. The maximum cure time for red meat is 14 days. If you are preparing turkey pastrami the cure time can be reduced to between two to five days.
Remove proteins from the brine. Pat dry.
Combine the topical seasoning ingredients. Apply dry rub to brined proteins. Ensure every surface has a light coating of the dry rub.

Cooking Process

We utilized a CVap RTV7-14UV Retherm Oven. The setting will be similar in whatever CVap oven you use. Since it involves smoking, we recommend full-size CVap ovens. Although you can smoke in smaller models, it can overconcentrate the smoke, resulting in a smoky flavor that’s a bit overpowering.

Cook Time: 9 hours OR until the internal temp reaches at least 185°F

Temperature: Vapor: 190°F/Air: 220°F

Place proteins on the open oven racks.

Engaging the Winston Smoker Kit

Plug the timer into the wall and ensure the smoker box is connected to the timer. We like to use a mixed wood pellet as the smoke medium, but sawdust or smaller type chips (no bigger than a fingernail) can be used.
Adjust the timer to start the box heating. Add your smoke medium onto the heating element inside the smoker box. Place the smoker box on a sheet pan inside the oven, on a bottom rack just above the evaporator. The box will take about 15 to 20 minutes to start smoldering.
Press ENTER once the product is placed inside, and the smoker is filled and in place.

We smoked the pastrami for about five hours. The results were outstanding.

Chef’s Reflections

We had a few thoughts after completing our pastrami testing:

Add a solid sheet pan just above the smoker to catch the drippings. You’ll save yourself a lot of cleanup time.
Allow PLENTY of time to make this recipe. If fact, it would be prudent to prepare a month out from serving.
Vacuum pack the pastrami once it has cooled. Refrigerate for at least a week before slicing. The longer pastrami sits, the better it gets!

Serving Ideas

Now that you’ve got all this awesome pastrami, what are you going to do with it? Pastrami is great all by itself, but it’s best enjoyed as part of an ensemble. Here are a few ideas…

Old School

The classic pastrami on rye bread, with a bit of mustard and a pickle on the side. Add a little sauerkraut, cheese, and dressing to make it a reuben.

Deli Burgers

Pump up the decadence by combining a hamburger patty, horseradish sauce, and mustard on rye.

Pastrami Carbonara

Pastrami is good. Pasta is good. Together, they’re great! Lumache pasta, parsley, parmesan cheese – it’s good stuff.

Potato Rösti with Pastrami

Potatoes, crème fraiche, mustard, yum. Damn the carbs, full speed ahead!

Pastrami Hash

Peppers, potatoes, pastrami – it’s a satisfying combination of delicious flavors.

Pastrami Roll Ups

Watching carbs or going keto? Skip the bread and used the pastrami itself to form these tasty treats. Dip in mustard or Russian dressing. Mm mm.

brisket pastrami smoker

Breakfast Enchiladas with Sausage & Bacon

Need to fix breakfast for a bunch of people? Breakfast enchiladas are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Prepared in a CVap® oven, they are hearty and filling, and of course, deliciously easy.

Enchilada Facts

Of course, we like to nerd out a bit on our recipes. Like so many favorite foods, enchiladas come from Latin American cuisine. Although they were around much longer, enchiladas were first mentioned by Spanish invaders in the mid-1500s. Specifically, conquistadors were served enchiladas in the ancient Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Originally enchiladas were eggs in corn tortillas. The Spanish were quick to modify the native staple. They added meats and spicy sauces, to raise the flavor profile.

Cooking in Breakfast Enchiladas CVap

Admittedly, you don’t have to have a CVap oven to prepare enchiladas. However, if you need to serve more than a handful, a CVap oven will make your life so much easier. In this preparation, we prepared 40 enchiladas. But the recipe can easily be scaled up or down to suit the gang you are feeding.

Breakfast Enchiladas Ingredients

30 – Large eggs
4 cups (1 qt) – Half-and-Half
4 lbs. – Breakfast sausage of choice
1½ lbs. – Bacon of choice (or real bacon bits & pieces)
2 lbs. – Shredded cheese of choice
40 – 6” Flour tortillas
Salt & Pepper to taste

The Process:

Preheat your CVap oven to Vapor 200°F/ Air 350°F.
Pre-cook the sausage in a full 2” hotel pan (should take 15 to 20 minutes).
Pre-cook bacon on a full solid hotel pan (should take about 30 minutes).
Transfer sausage to a bowl. Using gloves, crumble sausage until all the large bits have been broken up.
Slice or chop bacon into small pieces. Reserve about 1/4 cup for top garnish. Add the rest of the chopped bacon to the sausage.
Add half of the cheese to the sausage/bacon mixture. Reserve the rest of the cheese for the topping.
Portion ¼ cup of sausage/bacon/cheese mixture onto each tortilla. Roll up and soldier into a hotel pan.
Mix eggs and half-and-half until well combined. Pour evenly over the rolled enchiladas.
Top with cheese and bacon garnish.
You can bake immediately. However, you can also prepare this ahead of time, cover it, and refrigerate it for baking the next day.
Bake in breakfast enchiladas CVap for about 90 minutes, or until the egg mixture is set and cheese is gooey and melted.

Chef’s note – Traditionally, breakfast enchiladas are made with corn tortillas. We opted for flour since it’s a little easier to work with, and tends to be a bit more popular. But by all means, prepare yours to suit your patrons’ preferences.

bacon CVap enchilada sausage

Retherming Brisket in CVap®

Brisket. Is there a better product to cook to celebrate May’s National BBQ Month? Brisket is incredibly popular, with a 23% increase in menus over the last decade. Whether you’re preparing these babies in-house, or are opting for commercially produced products, CVap ovens are great for retherming brisket without sacrificing quality.

To test the full range of products, we rethermed two brisket types. The first was a fully cooked, house-smoked, whole unsliced brisket. The other was commercially produced Hormel sliced brisket. Notably, both briskets were whole, smoked, and fully cooked. But the commercial product was smaller, roughly seven pounds. Additionally, it came presliced. On the other hand, the homemade product is unsliced and was about 14 pounds. We set them up in the same CHV7-05UV oven, with the same program: Vapor 170°F/Air 200°F. We wrapped both briskets in foil and placed them into the preheated oven.

Retherming Brisket - The Same, But Different

Although these were both whole briskets, they fell under different Food Code 3-403.11(C) requirements. The code requires that rethermed proteins hit their required safe temperature in two hours or less

Because the Hormel brisket was a commercially produced product, the code requires it to reach the minimally safe temperature of 135°F. Our CVap oven easily hit the mark. The Hormel brisket reached safe temp in a little under two hours. Clearly, the lower retherming temperature requirement, coupled with CVap’s high humidity retherming program, and the added ingredients (like phosphate) helped keep this pre-sliced brisket perfectly moist.

However, the food code requirements for previously cooked homemade brisket are more stringent. Code dictates that it must reach a minimum safe temperature of 165°F for 15 seconds. Our initial test reveal that this much larger brisket missed the mark on cook time. Unsurprisingly, this brisket, being twice as large as the Hormel product, took nearly twice as long to hit 165°F in the thickest part of the roast, between the point and flat. But no test is a failure, even if the results are not what we wanted. We headed back to the drawing board.

The solution was simple. We separated the whole brisket into the point and flat and wrapped them separately. Consequently, the two smaller cuts reached the required temperature within the two-hour limit. Although we didn’t test it, you could probably optimize the program by either decreasing the vapor and air temperatures or minimizing the temperature differential between the two (for example, Vapor 180°F/Air 190°F, or Vapor 190°F/Air 200°F).

Why Retherm?

What’s the practicality of retherming briskets instead of serving scratch cooked? Time. Briskets are a classic example of a protein you must cook low and slow to achieve the best results. Unless you can perfectly predict how much your operation needs on a given day (and plan accordingly), it is impractical to cook on-demand. But cooking ahead of time and properly refrigerating reduces the time it takes to retherm and serve. Think of it as a form of staging. Ultimately, anything that helps you serve faster and turn tables is beneficial.

barbecue BBQ beef brisket brisket CVap Barbecue holding cabinet retherm

Barbecue in a CVap® Oven – Smoking & Holding

CVap^® ovens are well-known for their versatility and precision. These qualities make them particularly well-suited for barbecue operations. Barbecue is the realm of low and slow cooking. And nothing does low and slow better than CVap.

We wanted to test the most popular proteins for most BBQ joints, pork ribs, beef brisket, and chicken. First, we needed the perfect rub.

The Seasoning Blend

Brown Sugar – 2 Cups
McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning – 1 Cup
Smoked Paprika – ½ Cup
Granulated Garlic – ¼ Cup
Granulated Onion – ¼ Cup

Prepare the seasoning blend and set it aside.

The Proteins

Pork Back Ribs – 3 to 4 Lbs.
Whole Chickens – 3 Lbs.
Whole Brisket – 17 Lbs.

The Barbecue Process

Pork Back Ribs – RTV5-14UV with the Winston Smoker Box

Cook Time approximately 5 hours
Cook Vapor 190°F / Air 220°F

Hold Infinite
Hold Vapor 135°F / Air 145°F

Holding ribs for an extended time in CVap ovens is beneficial to food quality. The long, slow heat dissolves the connective tissue within the meat. For pull-off-the-bone tenderness, we recommend a five-hour hold. To get fall-off-the-bone tender, extend the hold to six hours.

It’s important to remember that the cooking time depends on the size of the product and the orientation of the product in the pan. Here are a few helpful tips:

Get similar-sized ribs for a similar time cook. We used 2.75-3.25 Lbs.
If you get larger or smaller ribs, just adjust the time accordingly:
- Increase time for larger ribs; >3.5 Lbs. +.
- Decrease time for smaller ribs; <2.5 Lbs.
Increase time if preparing more than 5-6 ribs
- Increasing the thermal load increases the time it takes to reach the desired temperature and texture.
If you shingle the ribs to get more per shelf, you’ll need to increase the cooking time.

Remove back ribs from packaging.
Score backside (bone side) with a paring knife.
Liberally season both sides of each rib. Allow the seasoned ribs to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
Place ribs onto a rack in the preheated oven. Keep placement in a single layer, bone-side down.

**Chef’s Tips – We recommend placing a foil-lined sheet pan on the bottom shelf, just above the smoker. This will catch the product’s drippings and make cleanup easier.

Engaging Barbecue with the Winston Smoker Box

Plug the timer into the wall and ensure the smoker box is connected to the timer. We like to use mixed wood pellets as the smoke medium. However, sawdust or smaller chips (no bigger than a fingernail) can be used.
Adjust the timer to start the heating element, and add your smoke medium onto the heating element inside the smoker box.
Place the smoker box on a sheet pan inside the oven on a bottom rack, just above the evaporator. The box takes about 15-20 minutes to preheat and start smoldering. We smoked the ribs for about 3-4 hours.
Press ENTER once the product is placed inside, and the smoker is filled and in place.

Whole Brisket – RTV5-14UV with the Winston Smoker Kit

Cook Time – 9 Hours
Cook Vapor – 190°F / Air – 220°F

Hold – Infinite
Hold Vapor – 135°F / Air – 145°F

Use the same barbecue seasoning blend as the pork ribs.
Trim the brisket’s top and side fat, and between the point and flat.
Season liberally on all sides, and in between the two muscles.
Place brisket onto a rack in the preheated oven.
Engage the Winston Smoker Box. We used mixed wood pellets for about 6 hours.

Whole Chicken – RTV5-14UV with the Winston Smoker Box

Cook Time – 3 Hours
Cook Vapor – 170°F / Air – 300°F

Use the same seasoning blend as the pork rib and brisket…yes, it’s that universal AND that good!

Pat the chicken dry and season liberally on all sides, under the wings, legs, and inside the cavity.
Place chickens on a rack in the preheated oven.
Be careful not to crowd.
Engage the Winston Smoker Box. We used mixed wood pellets for about two hours. Check internal temperature. As with any poultry, it’s important to cook to at least 165°F.

barbeque brisket Chicken cook and hold ribs smoking