What goes good with BBQ?

   Well, to tell you the truth, there are tons of side dishes that go well with BBQ. So let us look at a few things first. Do you want your side to be cooked on the grill or do you want it prepared in the house? Some don't care, while others like to do everything on the grill.

   If you are doing things on the grill you are going to need to ramp up those temps a bit more, or else you are going to be waiting a long time. There are however a few things that work well on the grill. Fresh grilled veggies for one. Coat them with a bit of olive oil, and let them get tender. Corn on the cob is one of my favorites.

Corn on the Cob


4-6 ears of corn, husk off and silk removed

1/2 c. butter, room temp
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper flake
1/2 tsp parsley
Mix the butter, garlic powder and the parsley together. When well mixed, spread on corn covering completely. Wrap corn in aluminum foil, place in smoker. If direct heat, about 45 minutes turning often, if indirect, 90 minutes, no need to worry about turning.


   This is one of my favorite ways to have corn. If in the house, you can do it in the oven, just be sure to place something underneath the corn so the butter does not drip.

   BBQ Beans. This is a staple of all BBQ's. If there are no beans, what the hell? Get your favorite bean. Canned, because I can not for the life of me get my dry beans to the right consistency. I use the large gallon cans when I make my beans, you can use what you like. Just remember to make adjustments to your recipe when doing so.


BBQ Beans


1 gal can pork and beans (drained)

1 cup favorite BBQ sauce
1 tbsp Mustard
1 cup Molasses
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 med onion
1 lb bacon (cooked and chopped)
1 tbsp drippings from one of your smokes ( if none, use 1 tsp liquid smoke)

place beans in pot and slowly start cooking them. Add your BBQ sauce first, then add the rest of your ingredients. Taste. If you desire more heat, start with 1 tsp chili powder and ground red pepper. taste and repeat. Cook on low for about 90 minutes, stirring often. Enjoy!


   Other great things that go with your well cooked BBQ, potato salad, baked potatoes, pasta salad, and even potatoes au gratin.


   I can't give you all the recipes for each item, and trust me, everyone has their favorite. All I can tell you is that where there is great BBQ, almost any side will go well with it.

Experimenting with your smoker!

   One of the joys of being a guy who loves cooking for other people, is the plain fact that if I cook something and people eat it, then it must have been good. On the other hand, if I cook 10 steaks for 20 people, and there are still steaks left at the end of the night, I screwed that one up bad. Now my wife will tell you, I don't screw up too often. There was an incident with a meatloaf that wasn't so appealing, as well as a brisket that was a failure the first time I used a water smoker, but those things happen and I accept that. I do strive to make sure the food is good though!

   So last week was the first week we took the concession trailer to a fair setting. It was great, the Platte County Fair was hot, hot, and even hotter by the last day. What we learned was that people like different items, sure my pulled pork sammich was popular, as much as one would expect. But the other vendors were all known for something. The guy next to me had blooming onions and Texas twisters (basically 2 potatoes cut in shoestring fashion and deep fried). He constantly had lines. That man gave me my vision. He said "Chuck, you need a way to put yourself on the map!" Oh great I thought. So I pondered a few days and by Friday I put my plan in action!!!

   We headed out Friday morning with a new excitement. We bought a case of rib eye steaks and went to the fair grounds to get them going. I'm making Smoked Rib Eye Steak Sammiches dammit!!! Fired up the smoker, got the pork shoulder in, and left room to add the steaks later. Headed into the trailer because every steak sammich needs a house sauce right? I whipped up a steak sauce that was simply heaven! Got the steaks on the grill and by the time the fair opened they were so tender they were falling apart.

   Now, this steak was wonderful before I placed it on the bun. Then I went and added this fine sauce I had developed a few hours earlier! Hot damn I am a genius! This was delicious, and I enjoyed it! That was great. I had never smoked a rib eye steak before, and used my general rule of thumb, slow and low, and after about 2 hours perfection was born.

   Basically, what I am getting at is that if you follow the standards, good cook temps and nice seasoning, the food should taste good when you are done.

   My sister in law loves when I smoke salmon. I try to do it especially for her when she comes and visits, it is like a little extra treat for her. Lets go over a quick salmon smoke and let you try that.

   Make sure you have some cedar planks and that they have been soaked for at least 30 minutes preferably 2 hours. Your salmon needs to be thawed and uncooked. Get your fire going ( this is important, I promise!). I always rub the top side of my plank with some EVO (extra virgin olive oil), so it doesn't stick as much. Place the skin side down on the plank.

1 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3 tbsp. black pepper, cracked
2 tbsp. olive oil
juice of one lemon

   Place the ingredients in a bowl and mix well, then cover the top of the salmon thoroughly. Once grill is to temp, place in the smoker and kick back with a nice cold one. Don't worry, it won't take as long as some of our other cooks have.

   After it is able to be flaked with a fork (internal temp of 135 degrees), remove from smoker and set to rest for approximately 5 minutes. Garnish with a twist of lemon maybe a bit of zest, and enjoy!!


   Please, let me know what you want to cook next!!

My Specialty....Pulled Pork!!!

   Everyone has the one thing that they are extremely good at doing. Mine is pulled pork. I have to admit, mine is just plain delicious! I will give you folks the steps to making your pulled pork tender moist and packed full of flavor.


   First and foremost. I usually cook like I am going to feed an army. I have no idea why, but I like to make sure there is enough for everyone. This example will be fore a 15 lb pork shoulder. Bone out, because it gives you two pieces of meat and will reduce the cook time, vs having to wait for the full 22 hours. This is based off of 1.5 hours per lb of meat. Bone out gives two 7.5 lb pieces making it a 11.25 hours cook. ( Did you get all that ?)

   Start your fire, get it going, make sure you have plenty of fuel to last the smoke. With my pulled pork, I prefer a hickory and an apple wood for flavor. Good stuff there!! If you are using chips, make a foil pouch of your chips and poke a small hole for smoke to escape out of. I usually use chunks of apple and hickory logs, but the result is close to the same.


   Back in the kitchen, you should have your favorite pork rub out and our new friend, yellow mustard. For the new people following my blog, it will not affect your food. The mustard is there to hold the rub onto the meat. Ok, we need to score the fat side of the shoulder with a nice hatch mark design. This will get the rub into the gaps and flavor the meat even more. Your getting hungry aren't you? I am. So rub the mustard in real good, we want the rub to stick and be kinda thick, but not overly thick. After you have it lathered in mustard, apply your rub. Get it all over and let it sit about 15 minutes.


   Head out and double check that fire, it should be up to temperature. I like to cook at 240º. After making sure final temperature is right, put another coat of rub on your pork shoulder, and head outside. Place the meat, fat side up!!  This is important, it will let the fat run down around it and through it to create wonderful flavor, and keep it moist. Now go grab a cold one and find something to do for the next 8-12 hours. Now what I do, I mist my meat about every 2 hours. I use a whiskey, honey, and water mix, or I use a mango, honey and water mix. Either way, it is great. Cant really taste the alcohol in it, but it keeps it moist and imparts a good flavor. I suggest you play around with it and find something that you enjoy.

   After time has gone by, and you have obviously kept the fire at the preferred temperature ( you did maintain the right temps didn't you?), our shoulder should have a nice bark on it.


   Once the temp reaches 190º take it out and wrap it up like we did our ribs, but this time it only needs to rest about 20-30 minutes. After that time, you should be able to set the pork shoulder down on the table, and using your palm, press down hard and the meat should break apart and the bone will pop right out. If you are using boneless it will break into several chunks. Grab 2 forks and start pulling the meat apart with the forks.

   There should be a nice smoke ring permeating about 1/4 inch into the meat. That is the sign of perfection. Grab some bread or buns, whichever you prefer, and load it up. Squirt it with your favorite Slidejob BBQ sauce and sit back and enjoy!!


   Let me know how this turns out for you please!!

Ribs...mmmMMMmm Good!!!

   Most people love ribs. Half of those people seem to think that boiling them is the best way to do them. Sure, it gets them cooked properly, and in some circles might be accepted. Then again, when someone tells me that they boil their ribs, I tell them I am sorry they didn't have 6 hours to dedicate to producing a quality slab of ribs. That's right folks, six hours. Six, that's it! Yes, I am going to tell you how to do it.

   I prefer to buy my ribs St Louis style ( that is the cut ). I like everything to look nice and even and not so...well, let's just say, it is easier to eat them trimmed up. Some places will have already trimmed the silver off the back of the ribs, some places do not.

   Most people probably do not trim the silver off of their ribs. In competition it can hurt you, it is not the most pleasant thing to bite into. I keep it on for one reason, if cooked correctly, it will help hold the moisture in your ribs. How is that you ask, if the silver is placed down onto the cooking grate, it keeps the essential moisture from dripping right out of the meat and holds it in a little bit more. So basically, the choice is all up to you.


   Now, get your smoker going and up to temperature. Select the wood you are going to use, and have it ready. Break the meat out and grab that bottle of yellow mustard that we talked about earlier. This is important stuff I tell you!! Get it all covered with mustard. After that, get out your favorite rib rub. I have one that I really enjoy and provides and excellent taste. Let this set for about 20 minutes to get the mustard and the rub merged together, then sprinkle some more rub all over just to make sure.


   Head out to the smoker. If you left the silver on your ribs, place that side down.  Now here is the kicker, and these guidelines need to be followed very closely. Let them smoker for 3 hours. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT mess with them. Only open that smoker if you need to add fuel, otherwise you will ruin this whole process. ( not really, but you get what I am saying).

   After your 3 hours is up, take the ribs out, and wrap them securely in aluminum foil, and place them back into the smoker for two hours. I repeat TWO HOURS!! haha! After the two hours is complete, pull them out, wrap them in some towels and place them in an empty cooler for one hour. Trust me, just do it.


   Grab some beers, get the potato salad made and the baked beans out, the ribs are about done!!! Once your last hour is complete, remove the ribs, and serve! You will thank me. Enjoy!!



I hope everyone enjoys my BBQ posts, as I enjoy sharing them with folks.

Small Rub talk and Brisket walkthrough

   What is a rub? A rub is a mixture of spices, added to a meat before it is cooked in a smoker or on a pit over a long period of time.

   Lets face it, rubs are important. Almost as important as not screwing up the fire. I am a rub user, as are most of the pit masters out there. For the new recruits, a rub is exactly what it says. Rubbing the meat with spices in order to get a good flavor into it! I am going to share with you, some of my techniques, and a couple secrets, to help get you started.

   We need to think about flavors that will work for you. Most rubs usually include a sugar, salt, some form of pepper, paprika, and whatever else you decide you want to put in it. The salt is used to help maintain the moisture in the meat, and the sugars (aside from being yummy) give it a nice bark as well.




   Talking to a few Texans I managed to learn a few things. One, true "Texas" BBQ is not sauced during cooking, if at all. Some places only serve sauce on teh side, and the reason for that is people from other parts of the country complain there is no sauce. I agree with part of this, I never sauce while cooking, only when served. Heck, I spent time getting the rub just right, why go and ruin it with a sauce?


   In Memphis, ribs get no sauce. Hell, they don't need sauce, their rub makes up for it. They use a brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder base. This is the style of most of my rubs as well. I like the flavor the brown sugar gives, and it helps add a nice bark to the meat. The bark will help hold some of the juice in and make the meat that much more tender.

 
   So, here goes the way I do it, and I will explain each step along the way, just so you can get a grasp of whats going on.

   First, select your piece of meat. Whether it be a pork shoulder or a brisket, the explanation here will help for both. If you are using a brisket, I believe the best cut to use is a full packer brisket, which means it has the flat and the point. The flat is the part for sliced brisket, the point is where your burnt ends comes from. Make sure you have something with a nice fat flap on the back, and some decent marbling of fat throughout. You need the fat to breakdown and help maintain the moisture as well as flavor.

   Now that we have our cur of meat, make sure it is dry from the blood in the package (dab it with a paper towel if need be). On the fatty back part, score the fat in a lattice design. This will allow the rub to get down in there a bit more and the fat will disperse more. Here comes the weird part for those not up on BBQ standards. With both hands, rub a nice smooth coat of yellow mustard over the whole brisket. Trust me on this, you will not taste it, the flavor cooks out. This will help glue the rub to the meat. After it is covered with a nice coat of yellow mustard, give it a nice covering of your favorite rub. Which ever you prefer. It can be store bought that's fine as well.

   Get your smoker up to the desired temperature ( I prefer about 240º), make sure the grate is clean and place your meat on it, fat side up. You want the fat side up so that it can drip down through the meat and around the sides. I recommend using a drip pan right under your meat so that you can save some of those drippings if possible. Especially if you are going to slice your meat, and need to keep some moisture in it( we will go over that another day though).

   Make sure your cook area stays at 240º. Remember, figure 1-1.5 hours for each pound of meat. Make sure your wood is in the firebox for the added flavor. When the internal reaches about 185º I take mine out, wrap it up and let it finish cooking on its own for the next hour. This will also allow the meat to reabsorb the juice so it is tender.


Try this out and let me know what you think.

Fueling the Fire!

   Great grilling is achieved by the temperature of the fire! Sounds kinda obvious, but many do not realize that having just a fire, throwing some meat over it, and calling it dinner is not a very effective way of doing things. Besides that, the taste is poor!

   Let's talk about the types of fuel for your fire. The obvious is charcoal. Charcoal is great for your everyday backyard grill out with friends. Burgers cook well on charcoal, as do brats and hot dogs. No real selection to worry about here, unless you want to try one of the types with a Mesquite wood in it or a Hickory in it to add a different type of flavor. Usually the things you are cooking here are not on the grill long enough to absorb enough of the smoke flavor to really make a difference in taste.

   Now if you are going to take your grill use a bit more seriously, going to smoke a brisket or a pork butt, throw the Kingsford out. It usually falls a bit short when it comes to long and high cooking temperatures. You can try the Kingsford Competition briquettes, but they still fall just a bit short for my liking. If cost is something you are worried about, grab a bag of lump charcoal. It can maintain the temps that you will need for your smoking. Using lump charcoal, you are going to have to use wood chips or chunks to get that delicious flavor in your meat though. Lets say we are smoking a pork butt. I would use hickory, and either an apple wood or a pear. The hickory is a mainstay in smoking meat in the midwest, and is one of the easiest hardwoods to get your hands on. Now some people like to use oak, but I am not one of them. I love that Hickory smell! Once teh fire gets roaring and the smoker is at the temperature you want (before putting the meat in), place your apple or cherry chunks on top of the hickory. The mixture of a fruit wood and the hickory is amazing, and your taste buds will thank you for it.


   Lets look at a few samples of types of wood to use, so you don't go getting all over achiever style on us and ruin a $30 pork shoulder.  Let's go over the types of woods that a midwesterner is more likely to use in the grilling other than the list of all woods and what meat should go with what.

• Apple- Nice fruity smoke flavor. Good with beef, poultry, ham and salmon
• Cherry- Kind of sweet, good smoke flavor. All meat and even some seafood.
• Cedar- Has a strong smell to it, used mainly for salmon. ( I prefer planks)
• Grape vine- Fruity, usable with almost any meat.
• Hickory- My fave! Great aroma! Delivers wonderful flavor and is used for all meats, but best on ribs and any pork!
• Maple- medium smokiness, and smells sweet, gives you the feeling there is syrup around somewhere. Good wen used with pork and yard bird ( chicken).
• Mesquite- Has a certain zing to its smell. Warning, only use this in the beginning for about 2-3 hours of smoking. It can ruin a piece of meat and be very bitter tasting if cooked all the way through the smoke.
• Oak- Huge flavor. Beef, pork and fish.
• Peach- Semi sweet. Good with the basics, beef pork, poultry.
• Pear- Another semi sweet wood. This one os better with Poultry and pork.
• Pecan- A bit milder than my friend Hickory, but a bit sweeter as well. Goes with just about anything you wanna smoke!
• Walnut- Needs to be used with a fruit wood to cut the bitterness. Red meats and game of all types. 

   What I do is a 3 step method for my wood. I use my Hickory and my fruit wood at the beginning for 3-4 hours. Then use just plain Hickory until the last 2 hours of smoking, then I add the fruit wood again to finish.

   There you go folks! I hope this helps everyone out and that these tips will help you make some better selections in your fuel type!

   

Grill types

   So, many people own a grill or a smoker, and everyone has the best of intentions when buying it. Unfortunately, the few times you did fire it up, while the results looked good, the meat was either rare, overcooked, or just had no flavor period. So then it sat and collected dust for a few years. I am here to help. I am not saying I am the best, I am not even saying I am better than you. What I am saying is, I know how to make it not only taste good, but look good as well.

  Today I am going to talk about grills and smokers. I use 2 different smokers, and each provides different results. My home smoker is a barrel smoker with an offset firebox. Great for doing small briskets, a Boston pork butt, maybe a slab of ribs. My work smoker is a BBQ Guru Onyx Oven. This thing is pure bliss. It can be a water smoker, or just a simple vertical smoker.

   Really? You don't know what a water smoker is? Well, let me help you, and I will do so in simple terms so you can understand just a bit better. A water smoker has a water bowl right above the fire. What this does is provide a certain amount of water in the air that will help keep your food moist. It is also known as a bullet smoker. See above photo.

   A barrel smoker, which has grown in popularity around the home, can be either direct heat, or indirect heat (we will talk about that at a later time). The small offset firebox allows us to keep the flame off the meat and only allow the smoke to hit it. Some models can have a fire in the large cooking chamber for direct heat for grilling things like burgers brats and hot dogs. The choice is up to you. I will help you however I can.


   The things we will talk about in this blog will be mostly relevant to charcoal/wood grills. I am not real familiar with propane as I have never used one. We will later go into different meats and how to get the best out of them, rubs, smoking techniques and sauces. Follow me and we can explore together. These will be available weekly.