Grill and Barrel

Because few things go together as well as beer and BBQ!

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Entries in barbecue (14)

Saturday

Aug082009

Review: Peace, Love, and Barbecue

Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 9:12AM

PL&BBQ I grew up in southern Illinois and was attending Southern Illinois University about the same time that Mike Mills was opening his first restaurant, 17th St. BBQ, in Murphysboro, IL. My roommate and I would occasionally make the trip to Lake Egypt to eat BBQ at a place that we liked, but we were totally unaware of the happenings less than 10 miles away from campus.

Mike Mills is an author, a restauranteur, a Memphis in May Champion, and is referred to as The Legend in BBQ circles. This book, Peace, Love, & Barbecue: Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales, and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbecue, is his perspective on the culture of BBQ.

Peace, Love, and Barbecue isn't an autobiography, though it tells Mike's story from his viewpoint. It's not merely a cookbook, though it's chocked full of awesome recipes from some of the best BBQ'ers in the country. It's not an instructional guide, but there are lots of tips and recommendations throughout the book. It's not a travel guide, but you could use it to locate the best BBQ joints in the country. This book is all of those things and more.

For every beer you drink, throw on about 6 lumps of charcoal or one small stick of wood - Mike Mills

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, hearing from the who's who in the BBQ world, perusing the recipes and planning my next BBQ experiment, and getting a deeper look at the culture around one of the most uniquely American foods, BBQ. This is a must read for anyone who cooks as a hobby, aspires to cook competitively, or simply enjoys good BBQ.

So here's wishing you Peace, Love, and BBQ!

Cheers,
Braddog

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Thursday

Jun252009

Tip: Holding Meat Until Mealtime

Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 9:51AM

If you spend any time at all reading the numerous BBQ forums on the interwebs, you'll see a question asked quite often. "The meat's done too early, how do I keep it warm until dinner?" When cooking low 'n' slow over an extended period of time, you can run into this situation quite often.

Photo from the Naked Whiz Photo from the Naked Whiz
Here's how to deal with it:

When the meat hits the desired internal temperature (you are checking internal temps and not cooking by the clock, right?), pull if off the cooker and double wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil.
Poke your thermometer through the foil so you can continue to monitor internal temperature of the meat.
Then wrap the meat in an old towel or blanket for extra insulation, leaving the thermometer or lead from your thermometer probe accessible.
Place the wrapped meat into a dry cooler. Some folks like to preheat the cooler with warm water, but that's a personal preference.
Periodically check the meat's temperature. As long as it stays above ~150* or so you should be okay. Remember the danger zone for meat is between 45*-140* or so. If the meat spends more then a couple of hours in the danger zone, be safe and don't eat it.
When it's time to serve, unwrap the meat and serve it as you normally would.

Using this method, I've personally been able to hold ~65lbs. of pork butt for 5+ hours. However, if the meat drops below the saftey threshold I'd recommend you move to plan B. Pull the pork, refrigerate, and reheat at mealtime. I'll cover reheating another time.

Check out a much more detailed description at http://www.nakedwhiz.com/coolerholding.htm

I usually try to error on the side of being too early and pad my start time a little. Given my choice of having meat done too soon or too late, I'll take too soon any time. I'd much prefer to hold the meat than to try to hurry it up.

Cheers,
Braddog

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Tuesday

Jun092009

Review: Bar-B-Cutie

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6:26AM

For many years, my uncle and I would travel to Talladega, AL for the Winston Cup races. It became a tradition for us to stop in Franklin, TN and eat BBQ at Herbert's. So when I headed south with my family for vacation this year, I was anxiously anticipating a stop at Herbert's for dinner.

However, I was very dissappointed to find that Herbert's has closed and a new strip mall stands where the restaurant once served up some might fine "Q". I was encourged to at least find a BBQ joint in the strip mall, called Bar-b-Cutie. It was dinner time and my wife and kids had agreed to BBQ for dinner, so we ventured inside.

BBCutie

It became apparent pretty quickly that we were in a franchised joint. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but you definitely loose some of the quaintness of a local joint. The joint served up BBQ that would do in a pinch, but it just doesn't live up to the place that used to stand in that spot. The BBQ was okay, the sides were disappointing, but the sweet tea was good!

Here's my run down of Bar-B-Cutie:

BBQ – B-

Side Dishes – C

Atmosphere – B

Value – B

Overall – B-

Cheers,
Braddog

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Thursday

May212009

Big Green Egg Ash Pan

Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 8:15AM

As I've mentioned here a number of times, I cook primarily on a Big Green Egg. For the first two years that I owned this cooker, I simply used a bucket and the BGE ash tool to rake the ashes out of the bottom of the cooker. That worked great until I built my new egg table. Now, it's impossible to place bucket under the BGE directly, making ash removal a bit tougher.

A friend of mine happened to be in the BBQ store recently and came home with tales of an ash pan that was curved to fit the outside of the Big Green Egg. So, I acquired one of these for myself. This works like a champ and has made ash removal much easier now the egg is on the new table.

Cheers,
Braddog

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Tuesday

Mar102009

Rib Pickin' - Spareribs or Babybacks

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 10:34AM

rib-cross-section It had been awhile since I'd done ribs on my Big Green Egg, but with the weather hovering around ~70 degrees I decided Saturday was a perfect day to fire up the cooker. So off to the store I went for some ribs. When I got there, all that was available were spare ribs. Now I usualy cook baby backs but didn't feel like hunting all over town for them so I just went with St Louis style spare ribs.

What's the differnece? Well, baby backs come from "high on the hog" and are typically smaller and more tender. Spareribs on the other hand come from the belly of the hog, are larger, and typically have more fat. You also have to deal with a flap of meat on the bone side of spare ribs and a strip of meat and cartilage along the edge. You can find spareribs with the extra flap and cartilage removed by the butcher. These trimmed spareribs are often referred to as "St. Louis Style".

Spare Ribs

Baby Back Ribs Baby Back Ribs
While the spare ribs turned out okay, my family let me know in no uncertain terms that they prefer the "other kind". So from now on, I'll stick to baby back ribs even if I have to chase all over town to find them.

Cheers,
Braddog

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Sunday

Jan252009

Review: Legends of Texas BBQ

Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 1:39PM

I spend a bunch of time on the internet. Heck, I'm a blogger and "IT professional" so it's almost an occupational hazard. But a lot of the time online is spent reading about and researching BBQ and Beer. As a result, I'm not much on cook books. Most of the info in just about any cookbook can be found at any one of a number of BBQ forums, websites etc.

Nonetheless, I received "Legends of Texas BBQ" as a gift and once I began reading it I found that I couldn't put it down. This wasn't really as much about the recipes although there are plenty. Instead, I found myself drawn to the narrative of the history of Texas BBQ. The stories about the German immigrants and tradition of slow smoking meats and sausages in the Texas hill country were fascinating. I enjoyed the tales of meat counters serving up fresh BBQ on butcher's paper to ranchers, roughnecks and laborers. And I especially enjoyed the photography. The book is full of black and white photos of legendary pit masters, BBQ stands, and people eating BBQ at a variety of places.

While I haven't tried many of the recipes in the book, I would highly recommend this for anyone who has an interest in the history of this past time and specifically Texas BBQ. In fact, I'd love to use this book as a roadmap for an attempt to eat my way across Texas.

Cheers,
Braddog

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tagged

Legends of Texas BBQ,

Tuesday

Jan132009

3,2,1...RIBS!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 8:19PM

No, that's not a countdown. It's actually a technique, and one that I've used to great success with BBQ Ribs on the Big Green Egg.

The general approach behind the 3-2-1 method is this:

3 hrs on the cooker, using an indirect setup
2 hrs wrapped in aluminum foil with a cup of apple juice
1 hr unwrapped, back on the cooker with sauce if desired.

This would give you a total cooking time of 6 hours, but I've found that using a slightly modified version of this method I can have great ribs in about 5 hours. So here's the blow by blow on how I do ribs.

The first step, and a very important one, is to remove the membrane from the underside of each rack of ribs. Removing the membrane allows the rubs to penetrate the meat. When cooked, it also has a papery consistency if you don't remove it.
Just like pork butt, I slather each slab with a coating of yellow mustard followed by the BBQ rub of your choice.
Setup the cooker for indirect cooking and stabilize the temp at 250 degrees.
Put the ribs on the cooking grate with the meaty side up.
Cook indirect for 3 hours. By the end of 3 hours, the meat should begin to pull back from the bone nicely.
After 3 hours, wrap each rack individually in foil. Add a cup of apple juice to each foil pack and return them to the cooker for 60-75 minutes.. I usually put them on with meaty side of the ribs down for this step.
After a little more than an hour, remove the ribs from their respective foil pouches, brush both sides lightly with sauce (optional), and return them to the cooker for 45mins to an hour, to let them firm up and the sauce get good and sticky. Be careful removing them from the foil because they will likely be falling apart.
That's it! Serve 'em up and enjoy!

I was asked to cook 6 racks for a birthday party last Saturday. Here are some pics of my effort.

3-2-1-Ribs

As I've said before, every cooker cooks a little differently. So you should play with the timing of each step until you find what works for your setup and your taste. If you have a variation on the 3-2-1 method, I'd love to hear about it.

Cheers,
Braddog

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Tuesday

Jan062009

Pulled Pork on the Big Green Egg

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 7:12PM

Pulled pork is one of the cornerstones of BBQ. Luckily, it's also one of the easiest things to do. There are some variations on the ingredients in pulled pork but the most important one is patience. Remember BBQ is cooked low and slow and it's done when it's done.

Here's how I prepare pulled pork:

Start with a whole pork butt. Sometimes you'll find these called Boston Butt, bone in butt, etc. and they typically run 6-8lbs.
Slather the entire butt with cheap yellow mustard. Not dijon, not Grey Poupon, not spicey; just simple yellow mustard. You won't taste this and it really just serves to bind the rub to the meat.
Liberally apply the rub of your choice. There are a couple of commercially available rubs that I like. If you don't already have a favorite, I'd recommend Dizzy Pig's Dizzy Dust or Bad Byron's Butt Rub. Personally, I can't tell much difference in doing this much in advance of starting your pit, but I'll leave that up to you.
Fire up your pit for indirect cooking with a drip pan and get your temperature settled in to about 250 degrees. I leave the drip pan empty. To me, it's just for catching the drippings. Note: if you're using a cooker with a water pan, then I'd add water to the pan.
Put your butt on and settle in for a long cook. I use 1.5 hrs per lb. as an estimate for planning purposes only. At the end of the day, every cooker is going to cook a little different and so will each piece of meat. Remember, the meat is done when it's done. Cook by internal temp of the meat, not the clock.
After 4-5 hrs, your butt should be close to 160 degrees internal temperature. It's in this range, +/- 10 degrees that the internal temperature of the meat will plateau. Once it plateaus, it can stay there for several more hours. It's in this plateau that the magic is happening. The connective tissues are breaking down and the fat is rendering from the meat. Keep feeding the fire (if needed) and be patient. While pork is edible at 160 degrees, it ain't done.
Once the meat breaks the plateau, the temperature will begin to rise again. Once it hits 195 degrees internal temperature, it's done. Wrap it in foil and let it rest for at least an hour.
When you're ready to eat (and who wouldn't be by now?), unwrap the butt and it should easily pull apart. I like to use a couple of forks for pulling the meat apart. I also discard the bone and any excess fat during this process.
Serve it up on cheap white hamburger buns and provide some BBQ sauce as a condiment.
Enjoy!

So get out there and get cooking, but remember patience is required to get through that plateau. Hang in there, the results are worth it.

Cheers,
Braddog

tagged

Bad Byron's Butt Rub,

Thursday

Dec182008

Reaching across the BBQ aisle

Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 9:09AM

I'm fairly synical when it comes to politics. Aw who am I kidding? I'm fairly syncial about most things. But I only just saw this quote from President Elect Obama. I think his comments reflect a plank in a platform that I could get behind.

Barak Obama gave an outdoor shirtsleeve speech at a "barbecue" in Eau Claire, WI on Sunday 8/24/08, the day after he announced Joe Biden as his running mate. He began his remarks by demonstrating a grasp of a controversy even more divisive than taxes: "There was a debate about whether technically this could be called a barbecue. Because my theory is that if there's no barbecue, it's not a barbecue. It's a cookout."

Heck if the President understands the difference between BBQ & grilling, maybe there's hope yet!

Cheers,
Braddog

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Monday

Dec152008

BBQ Beef on the Big Green Egg

Monday, December 15, 2008 at 9:17PM

Chuck Roast with a load of ABT's Chuck Roast with a load of ABT'sI personally enjoy pulled pork about as well as any BBQ. But now and then I need something different. So, about a year ago I started doing this recipe that really turns out some tasty pulled beef. Here's the recipe:

I buy a package of chuck roast from Sam's. There are two in a package, usually totalling ~8 lbs. or so.
I hit them with a good dose of Dizzy Pig's Raising the Steaks or something similar.
Setup up your cooker for indirect cooking and stabilize the temperature at 250 degrees. On the Big Green Egg, this means use the platesetter with the drip pan under the cooking grate.
BBQ Beef off of the Big Green EggPut the chuckies on over a drip pan and let them cook until they reach an internal temperature of ~160 degrees.
Once they reach 160 degrees, put them into a foil pan, add a can of beer (I sometimes use apple juice instead), cover the pan with with aluminum foil, and put them back on the cooker.
When they reach 190 degrees, they should be tender enough to pull like a pork butt. Insert a fork and give it a twist. If it twists easily, they're done.Drain the beer, pull them apart (discarding the fatty parts), and add sauce.
I like to put the sauced beef back on the cooker uncovered for another hour or so.
Serve it up on hamburger buns and enjoy!

Total cook time for this is about 5-6 hrs. I love having this in the fridge for sandwhiches. If you haven't tried BBQ or pulled beef, you should definitely give it a shot.

Cheers,
Braddog

tagged

Raisin' the Steaks,

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