Long Time

Sorry guys I haven't posted recently. Been cooking some on the weekends but sadly have my dishes turn out terrible while the others have been spectacular. Made an awesome oven roasted chicken three weeks ago but the following week screwed up smoked squash ravioli from scratch. Ehhh...

Well yesterday I noticed a new Southwestern restaurant in town, a favorite cuisine of me, which got me thinking what would I serve in a restaurant of mine in ten or fifteen years (a goal)

First thing that came to mind was St. Louis style pork ribs, as I've placed very well with them in my most recent competition, a non KCBS event down in Camden.

Now, I'd usually hit them with my original chili-espresso rub (another post, but it's excellent) and then baste with my citrus-hickory sauce midway through, which people really like a lot. But I wanted to try something different, so I slathered them in mustard and cayenne and marinated them for two hours before hitting them with a sugarless version of my original rub.

Because they were pretty thin, I cooked them for 3 1/4 hours (an hour less then usual, which really alarmed me). I usually foil 'em to get them more tender but again I was experimenting. Two chunks of maple smoke gave some light smoky flavor in the finished product. When the ribs were looking like crap I hit them with a brine of sorts, vinegar + plenty o' brown sugar + teaspoon of salt. Gave them a little carmalized texture. Oh well for the dry ribs.

Made up a sauce, with 1/2 cup of white vinegar, 1/2 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of chili powder, a couple tablespoons of ketchup, and a teaspoon and a half of dried mustard. Strong but delicious. Doesn't outpace my citrus sauce but it'll be a second option when our club is selling BBQ in January at school.

Cut them up, and served them with some of my strong, finely ground red cabbage slaw (why it looks so odd) and some classic homefries, salted and peppered. Decided this'd be my first menu option but with the citrus sauce. They weren't falling off the bone like usual, which I liked for a change. Tender but with a little chew.

Here's some pics! I think they're better then usual.

Thanks for looking~ Hopefully weekly posts coming again!

Sorry folks, I was away/fevered last week. Vacation was fun on Cape Cod as I got to smoke some bluefish and striper on a ezBQ. This weekend I'll post the story which I must say is pretty funny. But then driving back on Sunday, I got a sore throat, and a three day 101 F with the inability to talk/swallow. Arghh. Man it has not been a fun last seven days. But today was alright, because I got back to the grill with some massive pork chops, sausage and rice stuffed peppers, and a grilled cherry tomato and pickled onion salad. The pork chops were massive and my balsamic honey glaze worked absolutely perfectly. They were great. The peppers would good if not a little bland and I really should have boiled the peppers.

Pics!

A Busy Weekend

I had one busy weekend trying to fit as much smoking/cooking into two days.

I won some Hi Mountain Canadian bacon cure, go here if you want to read, and go to www.playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com to show some support for thirdeye, the guy who gave the stuff to me. It'd take a lot of words to go through the process again so just head over to Brethren.com and read it. Good stuff. I'll post a few pics here anyways.

Then I made a BLT the next day. Sorry for the bad quality pic, can't see the bacon. But just to prove I used some of it.

Then tonight I made sausage + peppers, with a new rub I made up... best I've ever made. Not many people put a rub on sweet italian sausage, but it added some zing (Old Bay) and some pepper. Also paprika, cumin, and dried mustard in there.

I cooked them till they were thoroughly done but moist. No one wants an undercooked sausage.

Peppers and onions.

Finished product, under low light.

Hope you guys enjoyed your weekend! I'll see you guys next weekend for a small shoulder (to freeze) and some spares!

Until next time,

Very Sorry Guys

I'm sitting in bio class and it's been five days since I've touched a grill or smoker. I may be going through smoke withdrawl, but I've got some pork chops and buckboard bacon to cook this weekend. Plus, I may do a shoulder to freeze for the week. I'll take pictures, of course, but I understand I've been inactive. I'll be back this weekend.

Inconclusive Victory for BBQ!

Here's some pics from the ribs I did last night. I believe I won 2-1, after someone waffled back and forth, but we may have confused plates. Mine were moist (surprising since they were smoked, not boiled, with a modern sauce, and smoky, tender but with some chew. They liked that the others tasted like their Mama's (go figure; probably boiled till extremely tender then sauced using some bottled stuff) but I must admit they were very, very tender and sweet with the Hickory sauce. Still didn't beat my crust and my ribs though!

Ribs on the new ECB

The day is here!

I got the ribs on at 7:25, about fourty minutes from this post. Rubbed in salt, pepper, dried mustard, brown sugar.

PIC:

Fifteen minutes later, I saw a LOT of smoke and I went outside and the gauge was through the roof! I pulled the ribs and found the culprit; the cherry wood had caught. The nice friend who gave me the wood said you wouldn't need to soak them, but a huge fire caught when it mixed with flaming hot grease. I've gotten the temp down but I got to keep watching them.

Not too much damage to the ribs, maybe a light char on the bottom, but they appeared to have survived.

It's Here!

Here's my new Brinkmann smoker, purchased for $10 with fifteen pounds of Kingsford blue and a charcoal grate. Well worth it. I love my Weber so I'm going to have to balance the cooking between them. This Brinkmann's only getting briskets, pork shoulders, ribs, and other things like bacon that need to be smoked, not grilled. Otherwise the Weber regins supreme.

Thanks a lot guys for all the support.

In a few minutes I'm going to head on into the kitchen and make up the potato salad. We bought a small bucket for $6 at the Farmer's Market, so I'll boil them quickly, pour over vinegar and mustard, then coat thoroughly with mayo. By tomorrow afternoon all the mayonnaise will be gone. It's pretty delicious.

I'm also going to try to get my Brinkmann this morning; I'll post pictures immediately. Going to test it out on some pork chops tonight to get used to it for tomorrow.

On top of this all I still have dreaded summer reading. Arghh!

Until next time,

Ribs are here!

The baby backs were just picked up! We ended up with five meaty racks for seven people! And they were $5.50 a LB! Insane! I know, it's a crazy amount. Parents thought leftovers would be nice.

I get a measly rack to smoke for our family competition, so I cut them in half and put them in a drink of apple juice concentrate diluted down to the top of the ribs in a Zip-Loc bag, plus a teaspoon and a half of dried mustard, a teaspoon of Old Bay, and a couple tablespoons of Brown Sugar, plus some salt and ground black pepper. I'll take them out in 24-26 hours, and then give them a very light rub of brown sugar, dried mustard, and Old Bay. Later on in the cook, I'll be using my signature sauce. Most people just rub and sauce, but I need to go the extra mile so my ribs won! Triple levels of flavor.

On the negative, I won't be picking up the Brinkmann tonight since we're going to a minor league baseball game, the last home game! We got free tickets from a rainout so why not! Besides that I don't get my smoker till tomorrow, if it's not sold today.

Also on the positive I picked up three center pork chops also at the Amish market for $9, why not? A nice thick pork chop a person. Plus we got a quarter pound of dried mustard so I think I'm going to try some mustard chops now that we have this awesome spice! Hopefully I'll have the smoker up and running with the charcoal tray drilled out and elevated for better airflow. I'll be sure to post pics!

That's all for today, I'm figuring that I won't be doing the potato salad till tomorrow morning. Friday'll be the busiest day, plus I got to finish summer reading. Potato Salad, Salsa, Vegetable Broth for Boiled Ribs (I'm helping the competition) and our last bit of shopping.

See you guys till tomorrow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWgQLPHZJZ8

Fourty Eight Hours Away!

The hours are flying away! Today's agenda (in order of neccesity):

1. Pick up four racks of ribs for 7+ people.

2. Get my rack marinading in the concentrated apple juice.

3. Pick up my El Cheapo Brinkmann for $10.

4. Modify the Brinkmann by drilling holes in the charcoal tray for airflow!

5. Boil the potatoes for potato salad. I've learned that good potato salad needs at the very least twenty four hours before it gets good. Unlike my vinegar based cole slaw, I use heavy mayo on my potato salad, with a lot of dried yellow mustard and red onion. I'll post pics tonight when it's done!

6. Start the Beakness program!

7. Test the Brinkmann out to get used to it, maybe perhaps on dinner. Any ideas for dinner, post in comments below? We've had seafood and pasta recently, I'm thinking of a solid steak that I can use on the Brink. Plus I'd like to burn off whatever the hell they had in there before.

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Starting tonight, pics will be coming in one big storm!

6th Annual Beakness

One more tradition I need to let you guys in on. The Beakness!

Held either the last Saturday of August or the first Saturday in September, the Beakness is a chicken race! Yes, you heard me, a chicken race! We always have between three (this year) and nine hens entering the field for the winning laurels (or just some extra feed! :D)

It's the sixth annual, I can tell you. I always have a program made up, for some reason, plus we have a little betting. A crapshoot, but it's fun!

Rib Plan

I'm getting four racks of baby backs for my party this weekend. Three + racks will be done by my competition (family), while I'll take a solitary rack and try to convince them smoking's the way!

Here's the delcious details.

I'll pick them up tomorrow afternoon. In the evening, after dinner, they go into some apple juice concentrate diluted down only enough to sufficiently cover the ribs (I'll cut the rack in half). The concentrated apple juice will I hope bring some sweetness and acidity to the ribs, plus the obvious fruit note.

Twenty four hours later, I'll pull them out and dry them thou roughly and I'm only going to hit them with a light rub; plenty of brown sugar, a dash of Old Bay (my favorite spice/seasoning, you'll see it in 95% of my food), a little mild paprika, thorough ground black pepper and salt. I'm not adding much, as I'd rather have the brown sugar and apple juice come through more then other notes.

If I do in fact end up with a ECB by Saturday morning (hopefully modded for consumption sake), or even my regular Weber kettle, I'll be up before 6:30, since I'm not allowed to touch the smoker/grill after guests arrive, so I want plenty of wiggle room. I'll use Kingsford Blue, some chunks of cherry wood (thanks to thirdeye, go check him out!) and some mulberry logs if needed. I don't know how long they'll take, but I'll probably smoke 'em thoroughly for two hours, baste them in a honey-citrus sauce (described below) and then foil them for anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours. I'll peak occasionally.

When I feel like they are getting close, I'll un-foil and let that sauce carmalize but not char. On the smoker I'll move to the second rack, on the Weber more off to the side. I'll keep basting so the outside is moist and the inside delicious.

I'll need to find a way to keep them warm till the tasting at 5. I'll figure that out later. :)

That's not my only responsiblities. I'll be making potato salad and salsa (famous) the day before, then shrimp n grilled veggies in the morning, on my makeshift pan (An aluminum pie tin with a clothes hanger bent into a handle, glued on, it seriously works!) and then bruschetta.

Busy day coming! And BTW here's the recipe for a very good Honey-Citrus BBQ Sauce

1 Small Bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ sauce, in a sauce pan. Cut the squeeze to get quicker flow. It's better and cheaper then making it.

2/3 cup of No Pulp Orange Juice, or to taste

1/4 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar

A teaspoon of dried mustard.

Generous, generous, black pepper.

A touch of cayenne, Old Bay, or Tobasco (to taste).

Heat in saucepan till bubbles on sides appear. Stir thoroughly, and serve or cool for later.

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Thanks guys, more coming!

Hello World!

I'm a high school student who's been barbecuing and smoking food for about a year and a half now. I'll soon be purchasing a used Brinkmann Smoke N' Grill, commonly known as the El Cheapo Brinkmann (thus ECB: I didn't understand the acronym for a while!). I'll be starting with a rack of ribs this weekend for my birthday for a friendly competition, my BBQ ribs vs. those boiled and then grilled. Should be fun!

Instead of posting all my food pics over at BBQ Brethren, I'll instead post every night's cook (or those when I cook, which will be infrequent with school rolling around), whether it's BBQ or general purpose cooking. In two years time, I hope to be competing on a barbecue circuit, and get my arse kicked for a while. Whatcha gonna do, not only does cooking take a while, learning takes a while.

And thus starts BBQ's Apprentice! Enjoy.