I made a collision-course dinner tonight smashing two cooking passions into eachother: Barbecue and Tacos. The final dish was a slow smoked top round roast (labled a "London Broil"), pulled, and wrapped up in tortillas with a chipotle and tomato salsa and a purple cabbage, red onion and cilantro slaw. These bad boys packed a serious flavor punch! The smoked beef proudly held its own in conjunction with the chipotle salsa, and the slaw added a nice crunchy texture. Interested? Read on to see what I did.

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I picked up a massive two-and-a-quarter inch thick rib steak from Prime Meats delicatessen yesterday, and grilled up a very simple and tasty weeknight dinner. This one should make it into your summer rotation... It's so easy! Here's the recipe:

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We headed to Maine this past weekend to visit my parents and my sisters. And while picking up a few things at their local butcher I noticed a few racks of big honkin' loin back ribs and figured I should make some barbecue for dinner. My folks are not exposed to a ton of barbecue, so I thought it'd be fun to serve up a few slabs of ribs on saturday night. I "smoked" these on my father's weber gas grill with a few foil packets of wood chips (a hickory, oak, and apple blend from Stubb's), and I was really suprised by how well they turned out. 

I have a weber gas grill circa 2004 which I love, but man have they made improvements in the past few years. My pop's grill had four burners running north-south, compared to mine which has three running east-west. The north-south configuration allowed me to have one burner on the far side lit with wood chips smoldering on top, and the ribs nicely lined up on the far end of the grill soaking up the smoke and cooking over indirect heat. I set that one burner on medium high, and it maintained a perfect 215 degree temp for hours and hours and hours. I've never been able to keep such a low temp setting on my gas... so now I have gas-grill-envy. 

Anyway, I started to thinking that this really isn't much different from some of the big boy professional pits out there that run on gas with larger logs of wood burning to create smoke. And if they can produce killer (KILLER!) ribs, than I think this backyard grill could as well. This time around the ribs weren't quite tender enough for a barbecue snob such as myself to totally rave about. When I took the ribs out they had come to temp, but could have gone another hour or even two... but I wasn't going to make mom and dad stay up til midnight to eat dinner! So we had some tasty ribs, but the larger ones tended toward more of a pork chop texture. Still though, my BBQB Shake made for a great rub, and I made up some of Mike Mills' "Apple City Barbecue" sauce which was a huge crowd pleaser at the dinner table. Sweet, vinegary, a tiny kick... huge hit! The ribs had a substantial smoke falvor, and the rub and souce combination was teriffic. 

That next morning my mom told me that as my dad was drifting off to sleep he says, "Those ribs were really great... wish i could buy some of those around here."

I might have just found my first customer. 

I've just had the incredible pleasure of spending 72 hours with the good people of 17th Street Bar & Grill and On Cue Consulting in Murphysboro, Illinois. They've been holding a series of barbecue seminars for a few years now, and I finally had the opportunity to send myself down south (or is it the midwest? the debate will never end) to see what its all about. I attended the Business of BBQ class geared at both newbie 'cue enthusiasts and seasoned pitmasters looking to fine tune their skills. 

For those considering checking out the seminar, here's my wrap-up of the events. 

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A few weeks ago I spotted a 4-bone rack of beef ribs in the butcher's counter at Union Market in the slope. Seeing as this is a rarity, I picked 'em up and tossed 'em in the freezer for a later date. Then on this friday I figured I should thaw them out for the weekend, but after putting them in the fridge to thaw I forgot all about them until Sunday mid-day. Fearing a spoil setting in, I got a fire going on the Smokey Mountain and set to prepping ribs with zero foresight. Turns out I shouldn't plan things ever again... these impromtu ribs kicked some serious butt!

I simply sprinkled my BBQB shake (my rub with granulated brown sugar mixed in), and smoked over red oak and applewood for about 3 hours. Temps hovered between 215-230. When I came to check on them I had some serious meat shrinkage happening, and the meat felt tender to the touch. So i pulled 'em off, sprinkled a little more shake on them, wrapped in plastic wrap, and kept in a cooler (acting as a warmer) for a few hours. When I came back and unwrapped them, I was treated to a wonderfully saucy, moist, beefy, and sweet meaty treat! These were outstanding. I had captured beef drippings while they smoked and made a sauce from those drippings. But it stayed right in the fridge. These ribs were absolutely killer with just that simple shake. Here are a few shots of the process.  

Only problem with them is that I'm left wishing I bought two racks.

I currently find myself in southern illinois, learning the business of barbecue from "the legend" Mike Mills and his daughter Amy Mills. After a 10-hr day of full-on barbecue love-making, topped off with pork steaks, st louis ribs, and what must be the finest 23-yr old rum ever created, I got in the car to head back to the hotel. As I'm 5 minutes into the drive, I start thinking of the original 17th street bar still in operation I'm leaving in my taillights, and figure I'm a fool to not slip inside for a drink and a little more 'cue. Every once and a while I make the right decision... and tonight was one of those rare instances. I turned the car around, walked inside to find Amy, Mike, Chris, and the crew from Brother's Jimmy (in NYC) in there sampling half the menu. Here's my take on their chopped pork sandwich.  

Price: $8 

Appearance: The pic doesn't do it justice because I smashed the whole thing flat with my palm and then thought I should take a picture. But the meat here is chopped, not pulled. Lots of "smoke ring" coloring throughout, and just a few hits of bark. They serve with the slaw on the side, which I quickly dumped right on top. 

Pork solo: Perhaps the best smoke flavor I've had. Not overpowering, but fully infused. I learned today they smoke over wild cherry and/or apple depending on supply. The meat is very moist, and incredibly easy to eat in its chopped nature. Really good stuff. 

Bun: A big, flat, doughy, hamburger bun. Hard to complain on this one. 

Cole Slaw: Also chopped, with a serious vinegar hit. Tasty stuff, and cuts the richnes of the pork perfectly. 

Sauce: They tossed a little sauce on themselves, and I saw no reason to add any more. Honestly I couldn't discern it from the entire package, but based on the ribs i had the other night I'd presume the strong vinegar hit takes the heart attack out of the pork. 

Total package: A really great combination all around. Like serisouly REALLY great. I'm partial to a bit more crusty bark, but I'm grasping at straws to be critical here. This is one hell of a pork sandwich. Likely the best I've reviewed in this Pork-a-thon thread. Serisouly killer stuff. Get some. Now!