I tried my hand at an overnight smoked whole brisket this week, and for a first run I was pretty happy with the results. I almost always prefer the "moist" to the "lean" sections of brisket, and while that held true here as well, I could appreciate the lean slices in this smoke. I think it sat too long in the warming cooler, but overall a solid effort in preparation for my first KCBS sanctioned competition in mid-august. If you want to take a deep dive into my notes on the smoke, read on! 

Read the rest of this post »

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.

Read the rest of this post »

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'm not entirely sure where the inspiration came from, but I was struck with the thought of a BBQ Dinner for Christmas Eve this year. Growing up, Christmas Eve's dinner was a bigger (eating) event to me than anything on Christmas day, mostly because it was usually our immediate family only, and we sat in the dining room for just the 2nd time that year. Plus my mother almost always made this incredibly rich (and beefy!) beef stroganoff that I absolutely loved. So perhaps in an effort to carry on that tradition, I decided to pick up a brisket flat and fire up the smoker on the 24th, in about 6 inches of snow on a steady 20 degree afternoon: 

I used briquets for the first time in the smoker, and they held a constant temperature waaaaay better than my normal hardwood charcoal. BBQ people always say this, but I never tried because the concept of a briquette seems too industrial to me. I also couldn't find hickory chunks in December (come on people, we bbq all year long!), so i had just a few leftover chucks, and then opted for the mesquite infused briquette in combination with kingsford's "competition" briquettes. Ultimately the smoke flavor was good, but more subtle than i would have pulled from a full smoke of hickory. 

I contemplated making a bbq sauce for this, but then remembered our friends Jamie and Amanda gave us some Iron Works sauce as a gift this past fall, and I figured why make a sauce when an authentic bbq joint in texas already has... and that sauce is sitting in my cupboard? It did not disappoint. That's a solid sauce! Rich, sweet, savory, a nice bite, a little heat... it married perfectly with the smoked brisket. 

So here's what I did this time around:

I started with a 5 lb brisket flat and had the butcher trim all but a 1/4 inch of fat from the top. He was a little overzealous on that trimming, but everything turned out fine. I then read a great tip on the virtual weber bullet site about cutting a small corner off the raw brisket to show which way the grain runs in the beef. Once the beef comes off the smoker its tough to tell how to cut against the grain, so this little tip makes it super easy to start cutting. Thanks guys! I then marinated this in a beer/vinegar/rub concoction overnight. And the next morning rubbed it with my new favorite beef rub I created for this fall's chili competitions. I'm keeping that one a secret, 'cause I kind of think i need to sell the damn thing its that good! Anyway, here are a few shots of this process:

I then smoked it at 220-20 for 4.5 hrs, wrapped it in foil and continued smoking for another 2.5 hrs. It came off smelling amazing, and after letting it rest for about 45 minutes I sliced it up:

We served it with classic collards and some orange/maple roasted sweet potato spears: 

The final verdict? Overall flavor was really, really (really!) great. The sauce and rub combination was killer. The crust was a little soft which i attribute to no sugar in the rub, a heavy hand when applying it that morning,  and maybe wrapping in foil a touch early. The flavor was totally there, I just missed the crust texture. It also could have been a bit smokier, but when I make this baby again it'll kill! Great winter meal, and makes me realize winter really is the time to serve up some bbq. 

Inspiration struck me first from Josh over at Meatwave, and then again by Tracy over at More, Please this weekend... it was time to try my hand at some bbq that's totally different. I've never really had Korean BBQ, so i have no idea if this is it. Add to this conundrum that the base recipe I'm following is from a guy who also doesn't know what Korean BBQ is, and I'm not really sure what I made tonight, exactly. Though it was really tasty. Sweet, salty, tangy.... very different from my normal type of grilling seasoning. 

It all started with a marinade for the beef. This is essentially Meatwave's recipe, though with my certain seed and nut allergies, i had to modify it to axe the sesame seeds and sesame oil. I simply used olive oil instead of sesame, and removed the sesame seeds entirely. I also couldn't find Mirin and substituted rice wine vinegar, so really this marinade is kind of a thrown together concoction of soy sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, garlic, scallion, and olive oil:

And now for the beef... A few weeks ago I was at Kinderhook Farm to pick up my beef ribs and I also grabbed a rib steak. As he handed it to me, Lee confessed there had been a miscommunication at the butcher and this rib steak was cut a bit thinner than the last one I had. I was perplexed with what to do with it, but then along came this recipe calling for a very thinly sliced rib steak and I knew i had the right meal for it. Josh suggested freezing for an hour to aid with easy thin slicing... it totally worked: I then tossed that in a zip-lock bag with the marinade, swirled it all around, pressed out the air, sealed it, and tossed it in the fridge for about 8 hrs: 
As dusk fell i got some charcoal going: I then grilled the beef slices over very high heat for about 1-2 minutes per side. This is super super fast grilling! After I got them all off, i was left with a plate that looked like this: I then served them in some boston lettuce leaves: Along side the main event I plated some cold soba noodles (thanks for the inspiration More,Please!), topped with steamed broccoli which had a drizzled sauce of soy, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, sugar, ginger, scallion, and garlic. Its essentially the same as the marinade for the steak, but with some ginger mixed in and not as much sugar:
This was a really welcomed meal! Very different from what I normally cook and really quite tasty. The beef was truly outstanding. It had an amazingly sweet initial taste, followed by a true beefy flavor. It was fantastic. We topped each lettuce bundle with some Kim Chi which added a little crunch, tartness and heat... but the main event of the beef was still front and center.I won't regurgitate the recipe as was so clearly outlined here... follow it, it worked like magic for me!

Now.... this is getting me excited to make some kind of soy-based pork rib... mmmmm... stay tuned! 

These beef ribs were unexpectedly the crowd pleaser at the Fletcher Family 4th of July Birthday Party Shindig. It was my son Jack's 3rd birthday, and our nephew Ian's 4th.... the weekend was filled with pool parties, ice cream cakes, presents, horseshoes, fireworks, crying, goodie bags, beer, wine, and of course, bbq. For the main mealtime event i planned two pork shoulders, and a rack of beef ribs. I'll write on the pork elsewhere, but this time around the beef was the winner of the day. Here's how it went down:

I started with a special order of ribs from the good folks at Kinderhook Farm. I called up Lee a month ago and asked if it was possible to get a side of ribs and it just so happened he had a cow dry aging at the moment, and it would be butchered in time for the fourth. So I went over about a week ago and picked up a nice looking rack just shy of 10 lbs, four bones, and about 12 inches tall on its longest end:

The morning of the bbq I didn't do any prep work to the meat itself (no piercing, no brining, no membrane work, etc), just rubbed it with a very simple dry rub of ground chipotle, salt, and pepper:

I then prepped my big ole char-broil for an indirect smoke-fest over hardwood charcoal and water-soaked hickory chunks:

 I put the rack meat side down for the first 2 hrs:

Then flipped 'em over for the second two hours:

I added a few wood chunks after two hours, but otherwise the half-bag of hardwood charcoal lasted for the full time:

After four hours i wrapped it in foil and let the coals die down for another 30 minutes or so. I then took it off the grill and let it sit for a good hour, still wrapped in the foil, in a barely warm oven (160, the lowest i could get it).

From there i was left with the dilema of how to serve it. Originally i planned to serve "dinosaur" ribs, and assumed only the three meat-eating men at the table would want one... but as I slowly realized i had seven hungry folks with mouths watering as they looked at the final rack, i decided to slice the meat off the bone, and cut into large bite-sized pieces. I tried to get a good combo of exposed crust to tender meat as possible, and removed some larger pieces of fat that did not render:

I served it with a tomato-vinegar sauce i pinched from an old cooks illustrated book:

And while it didn't need the sauce, every third bite or so i'd dip it in to get a little extra kick. 

These ribs were really amazing... kind of like an insanely juicy version of brisket. I was really blown away by how moist every bite was. And the hickory penetration was really wonderful, nicely complimented by the chipotle rub. This isn't the most casual weekend bbq menu item, but it was really worth the effort which was mostly the time you put into it. Plus, you look like a real pro pulling something like that off the grill. Its a great item for a weekend party where friends and family are hanging around all day... the smoke/meat aroma filling the air all day generates a ton anticipation, and this preparation does not disappoint. 

I'm still too full of beef to post the actual recipe... but stay tuned, i'll get it up here shortly.  Here's the breakdown: 

Rub: 

• 1 Tablespoon dried chipotle powder
• 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 Tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
• Mix all ingredients together well, store in an airtight container. 

Meat:

• One 4-bone rack of beef ribs, weighing in around 8=10 lbs
• You'll likely need to get this from your butcher... its not an often served item at a grocery meat counter

Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground dry chipotle pepper
• 1 garlic clove minced
•  2 cups tomato juice
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Melt the butter in a sauce pan, sauté the onion for a few minutes, add the garlic for 1 minute, then add the tomato juice followed by 1/2 cup of the white vinegar and then everything else. Cook for 20-30 minutes over medium heat to thicken by one third. Remove from the heat, and add the remaining 1/4 cup white vinegar for some extra zing.  

Ribs Process:

• Soak 10 hickory wood chunks in water for 2 hrs, or overnight.
• Rub the rub all over the ribs, making sure to get all sides and ends covered well. 
• Get a large grill going with coals piled on one side (about half a bag of the standard cowboy charcoal bag will do)
• Place a foil pan filled with water on the other side of the grill (this will keep things moist, keep the temperature down, and will also keep those coals positioned on one side of the grill
• Once the fire his ashed over, drop on 4-5 water-soaked hickory chunks around edges of the coals. 
• Place the ribs on the grate over the foil pan, meat side down, and as far away from the coals as possible
• Close the lid tightly, and close any vents about 75% closed. your goal is to have an internal grill area temp of 220-250, so you want to smother this fire as much as possible without extinguishing it entirely. 
• Smoke this for 2 hrs
• After 2 hours, open up the lid, toss on more charcoal if needed (I didn't need to), more hickory chunks if needed (i added 4 more), and flip and rotate the ribs so that the end farthest away from the coals is now closest. 
• Close the lid, and smoke for 2 more hours
• At this point the meat should be pulled back from the end of the bones by about 1-2 inches, and the bones should twist just a little from the meat. 
• Wrap the ribs in tin foil, and let rest on the grill as the coals burn out, or in a barely warmed oven (less than 200 degrees) for 1-2 hours depending on how hungry you are.
• Using a knife, slice the ribs lengthwise to separate entirely
• Then slice the meat away from each bone. 
• With the long strips of boneless meat in front of you, slice 1/2 inch chunks uniformly, discarding any non-rendered fat or tough membrane/connective tissues, and trying to include some rub crust with every bite of meat.
• Serve in chunks with the sauce at the table for guests to dip into every once and a while. 
• Potato salad and fresh pickles would make nice sides, and one could turn this into a sandwich easily by serving some soft bread rolls. 
• This will feed 4-6 people, depending on how heavily those people like to eat.