A Grilladelic Christmas- Perfect Gifts #2

These recommendations are for both the erudite pit boss and the neophyte.  Cookbooks.

Becoming a legendary barbecuer does require  on-the-job training, but good recipes and techniques can really take time off the learning curve.  The key is to get books that have recipes that have not only accessible recipes, but information on technique and some “back-story”.  In my humble but expert opinion, grilling and barbecue  have so much tradition, that understanding the history of the art, really helps improve performance at the grill.

Here are a few cookbooks, different genres, that are great gifts and the beginning of a great library.

1. Smoke and Spice- My “go-to” book.  Superb recipes, especially for charcoal and wood fired pits.  I always recommended this as the book for Big Green Egg owners.

2. Paul Kirk’s Championship Sauces and Rubs. This is for the “do-it-yourselfers”.  Not only recipes, but how to make your own.  Terrific recipes for mustards too.

3. Bruce Aidell’s Complete Sausage Book.  Without a doubt, sausage making is not only a lost art but perhaps the most underrated meat for the grill.  Great sausages are able to lift the human spirit unlike any other meat.  This has great recipes and the essential background on a variety of sausages (The classic sausage is by ‘The Sausage Maker- Rytek Kutas, but this is only for the sausage engineer…)

4. Sunset’s Barbecue Book. Old school and out of print.  I bought mine on eBay, where they still are available.  This the ultimate drool-inspiring book.  It features thirty-plus blue prints of the brick, backyard BBQ pits.  Outdoor cooking islands are a hot trend, but before pre-fab, stucco islands, there was the 1930-1950 brick barbecues.  I occasionally see some in the backyards of older homes, unfortunately mostly being used as plant or flower pots.

Dream Grill – Part 2

I am considering abandoning my multiple-Weber-grills-plus-an-old-Hasty-Bake strategy for competitions (and home).  I still like the old school feel to Webers and the artist in me enjoys the nuances of cooking with a kettle.  Every cook is an unique,  one-of-a-kind experience.

However, after lunch with my friend and fellow BBQ enthusiast,  Harlan, and lamenting my poor showing at Silver Lake, I began thinking that life would be a lot easier, with one big grill, preferable a mobile unit.  I do admit, one big portable pit would make my evening family barbecues an exercise in over kill, but over kill can be underrated.

Previously I posted my lust for a Weber Ranch Kettle.  Heavy duty, stainless grates, a tremendous cooking surface.  It still is number one on my chart, but I am trying to think this through with my head, not my heart.  Here is a partial list of the grills that over the next several months, I will do my due diligence on:

The Grillery

Lang Smokers

Hasty Bake

Cajun Grill

Big Green Egg

Tejas Pits

Klose Pits

My plan is to research these units and share my thoughts.  Trying to find the balance between home use and competition use, common sense and “grill-rational thinking”  and affordability and wretched excess…

Grilling in the Rain. Just Grilling in the Rain.

Rain is in the forecast for the Silver Lake BBQ Competition.  I will need to do my best Fred Astaire impression I’m afraid.

It makes me yearn for The Big Green Egg.  The finest foul-weather grill/bbq in the world.  I just have to make due with my Webers and Hasty Bake….adjust for longer cooking times.  The interesting thing about bad weather at  a cookoff, is that it can throw off some teams with less experience.

My next post will be after the event.  Goals:  1) Top 5 finish.  2) Three top ten call outs.

We’ll see.

Secrets of the Brisket King Revealed!

Al Capone’s vault, King Tut’s tomb, and the unraveling of DNA’s genetic code take a back seat to the secret of a perfect barbecued beef brisket.

How do you make a shoe-leather tough piece of beef fork tender? How do you manage the smoke and heat of an open fire for the amount of time it takes to accomplish this amazing feat?

Mark this date: Brisket and Pork Butt Clinic, Thursday, July 17, 6:00 pm, Herman’s Boy, Rockford, MI. $25.00/person. Part humanitarian and part selfishness, as I prepare for the State of Michigan BBQ Championship, I will share with those in the class, the secrets of my award winning beef brisket. Also discussed will be how to barbecue pork shoulder. The grill of choice will be the Big Green Egg, however all techniques will be  applicable to any grill. This is an event not to be missed by those who seek the state of mind best described as “grilladelic”.

Baby Back Ribs- Rib Wars Part II

Coming in at $3.99 to 7.99/lb. (I know, Sam’s and Costco have them cheaper sometimes), baby rack ribs can be considered the most “gourmet” barbecue cuisine. Especially when you factor in the origins of barbecue….inexpensive, tough cuts of meat (the leftovers), needing to be tenderized by slow cooking.

Although I don’t have scientific data, I would say the majority of KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) competitors would choose baby backs in the rib category. They are tender and easy to present. Other than pealing the membrane, there is very little trimming to do.

In my rib journey, I have found there to be a wide range in “quality” of baby backs. Some I have bought, are meatier. Others, like the one above are smaller and leaner. (I bought this rack at a farmer’s market..probably not the product of a “hog factory”).

Regardless, I have found that baby back ribs are good eating. They do require a bit more care than the St. Louis cuts. Much easier to dry out- especially the leaner ones.

I typically cook three racks, using a rib rack, at 250-275 degrees for 1.5-2 hours, heavy smoke (pecan/apple/cherry are my favorites) and then I wrap in tin foil and put back on the grill (lower temp…225 degree range) for another 1-2 hours.

Sometimes I add my bbq sauce at that time. Not always. I then have the option of taking them out of the foil and placing back on the grill for “finishing” (adding some grill marks, carmelizing the sugar in the bbq sauce, adding more color, etc.) I don’t have a consistent routine (I probably should) but usually go with the flow.

I have barbecued over 2000 racks of ribs (commercially and recreationally) and have taught over 100 rib classes. I have tried dozens of techniques, brines, seasonings, sauces, and marinades. The only mistake I make is when I get the coals to hot. However if you follow the simple strategy below you can almost guarantee the adulation of family and friends (plus a dang good rack of ribs)

1. Prep the rib. Trim spares or peal membrane from baby backs. That is about it. (I do peal the membrane from a St. Louis too, but sometimes it doesn’t pull off as easy, so I just score it with a knife)

2. Season with dry rub. Use your favorite. I coat with yellow (wet) mustard first to create a tasty bark on the slab.

3. Preheat grill. I bank the coals on a Weber kettle. In a Big Green Egg, I prefer using a plate setter to diffuse the heat. (However, I have successfully barbecued hundreds of racks without a plate setter) I try to maintain a temperature in the 225-275 range. Easy in an Egg. Harder with a kettle.

4. I place the slabs in a rib rack. This gives me more cooking surface.

5. I add my soaked wood chunks to the coals (I only use lump charcoal) and place the ribs on and let it go- full smoke ahead.

6. After about 1 1/2 hours, I check. If they look good, color wise, I then wrap in foil with a little bbq sauce. If they are still a bit pale, I increase the temperature a bit and then check back in about 20 minutes. I want the ribs to look done, but still be tough.

7. Placing the rib foil packets back on the grill…hopefully around 225-250 degrees…I chill. Job well done. About 1-2 hours later, I take them off. Let them rest and then serve.

There are many variables: number of ribs, type of rib, internal temperature, outside temperature (rain/wind play havoc on a kettle, the Egg is very steady). So a great rib is as much art as it is science.

Green Eggs, Dr. BBQ, Mrs. Dog and Peace on Earth

I was leafing through the Feb. 4 issue of People Magazine while at a grocery store (OK, I bought it and was reading it at home). Anyway I opened it up and there was Ray Lampe, aka Dr. BBQ .

Holy smokes. He did it! I met Ray many years ago at the one of the first “State of MI BBQ Competitions”.  This was at Berlin Raceway in Marne, MI. The Outdoor Cook was only a couple years old. I was new to BBQ competitions. Didn’t know much about nothing.

Anyway, I was cooking on two Big Green Eggs and one Hasty Bake. This big dude came walking by. Stopped. Shook his head sadly. “I don’t like those eggs at all. The Hasty Bake is cool, but those eggs….” He walked off shaking his head.

Well, that was my introduction to Ray Lampe. I met him another couple of times. Exchanged a few e-mails. But that was my first impression. An “egg-hater”. I was to find out that “egg-haters” were many. For some reason egg-heads were an early scourge of BBQ competition. Don’t know why. Eggs cooked great. Looked weird. Cooked great. But green ceramic cookers were different looking for sure.

Flash forward a many years and I start reading about a new egg-head “in-town”: Ray Lampe, aka Dr. BBQ! Ray had become a spokesperson, egg-vocate, egg-vangalist, and egg-lightened BBQer.

Without a doubt, Ray is one of the hardest working  (and most talented) BBQers in America. He travels the country. Competes, writes books, teaches BBQ and still does some catering I think. But I get real kick out of his love for the Egg…

I have a good friend, Julie Applegate (aka Mrs. Dog).

Julie cooked with Ray at the American Royal last year and said she had a great time. Julie is one of the original egg-heads in Michigan. In fact, I think I sold more Eggs from Julie’s referrals than anyone else.

Anyway, it might not be interesting to anyone else, but life makes me laugh. You just never know. Egg-hater one day. Egg-head the next.  What’s next?  World peace?

Grilladelic: Making the world a better place one tender brisket at a time.

ps.  Ray won the Michigan competition that year.  I believed he was using a modified pellet pooper and Moe Pritchett’s Down Home BBQ Sauce! Now, Big Moe is another story (and another legendary BBQer whom I have known for many years!)

Thanksgiving Turkey on the Grill

Advanced Turkey Techniques

With over 90% of households having a grill, reinvent Thanksgiving and present your main course with a beautiful smoke ring and crisp, dark skin. Plus, it saves your oven for sweet potato pie.

To learn more about turkey on the grill, I will be demonstrating advanced turkey techniques at Herman’s Boy, in Rockford, MI this Sunday (Nov. 18) from 2-4. Learm more about turkey’s, brining, The Big Green Egg and more…

Technique

I didn’t want to get to far away from my brisket posts, so here is an outline of the technique I used. First, I have bbq’d briskets for several years. It certainly is not my specialty. Briskets are not what a native born Michigander typically barbecues. However, as a required category in the KCBS circuit, I will do a half dozen every year.

My preferred piece of equipment for a brisket is a Big Green Egg or Hasty Bake. The Egg is perfect because of it’s ability to maintain a steady temperature “forever”. The Egg is also a high moisture grill, so I don’t worry about drying out the meat.

With that said, I have been focusing on simplifying my bbq style. I wanted to be able compete (and win) with the basics…which led me to adapt all my recipes to a basic Weber kettle.

I have always tried to do my briskets at 2 hours per pound. Grill temp at around 225 degrees +/-. The kettle is an imperfect piece of equipment. Stripped down to fuel, grate and vents. More of an art form. No thermostaticly controlled pellet auger   I also have three young kids at home. Long cooks are almost out of the question. My challenge became, how can I do a brisket in the shortest possible time, but still get it fork tender and moist.

My “aha”moment for brisket came in reading a recipe for beef short ribs. Basically braised in a beef broth, wine and bbq sauce solution. Cooked in the oven at low temps. I tried the recipe and it was great. Now how to adapt for a Weber.

This is what I ended up with. A six pound brisket, seasoned with the rub posted earlier. A Weber kettle, lump charcoal banked on both sides. Four chunks of pecan wood. Once the coals were hot, I placed the brisket in the middle, directly on the grates and added the chunks to the coal. Vents open. Four chunks of pecan create a heavy smudge in a kettle…very heavy. After two hours, I opened the lid. The brisket looked like a meteorite. Burnt in it’s descension to earth. In other words, perfect.

At that point, I layed the brisket out on a piece of heavy duty foil. Big enough to wrap twice. I then poured on a concoction made of beef broth, spicy bbq sauce (Orgasmic Slabs brand) and a bottle of Harp beer. ( I bagged the wine from the original recipe). I crimped the foil lightly, allowing for some steam to escape and placed back on the grill. I did not add any more fuel. Closed the vents slightly and walked away. About 3.5 hours later I returned and closed off the vents. 45 minutes later pulled the brisket and let rest. 30 minutes later, sliced and served.

The words to describe it: moist, flavorful, smokey, and beautiful. A six pound brisket, in just over six hours, that kicked some serious .ss! I have duplicated this several times.