Barbecue
Growing up in the city (Philadelphia, originally), we always thought barbecue (bbq, barbeque, bar-b-cue) was a way to cook hamburgers and hot dogs on a gas grill. I took a trip to North Carolina and tasted "barbecue" for the first time. It was a wonderful pork dish with a clear sauce on it with just a hint of tang and smoke flavor. I spent a few years trying to duplicate that taste. Thanks to the internet, I was able to do that and much more. What is called barbecue is often referred to as "pulled pork"
I now own two smokers and make that pork barbecue with the Eastern North Carolina vinegar sauce, and also a variety of regional types of barbecue. Taking a tough brisket and cooking it to tender eating is satisfying skill. The smell of hickory smoke makes you salivate and you continue the quest for the best you can make.
Everyone likes ribs. Most restaurants steam or parboil them to make them tender. This washes out the good taste of the meat also, so they cover them with a sweet sauce. Good ribs are made by slow cooking them for hours. This renders the fat, breaks down the collagen, and make a rib that is just full of flavor. I offer sauce on the side, but most folks don't want to cover up the smoky meat flavor.
Baby back and Country style ribs
Techniques vary according to local tradition and personal tastes. Now that I live in New England, there is no local traditions of bbq to be upheld so I indulge in many styles. Pork shoulders from the Carolinas, ribs from St. Louis, beef from Texas. The meat can be rubbed with seasonings before cooking and sauced after, but if made just right, no condiments are needed to enjoy tender meat cooked with wood.
Barbecue is also a social time. It takes hours to make barbecue and it best done with friends as the kibitzing and sipping an adult beverage improves the final product. These are hundreds of years old traditions that must be kept alive for our children to enjoy.
Take a peek at the page called "Other Stuff" to see a photo of my smokers. Check out the links from the links page for more places to visit.
Pulled pork barbecue will vary depending on the region. In Eastern North Carolina, the sauce is cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, red pepper. As you travel west, you will find tomato based sauces. South Carolina favors a mustard sauce with perhaps a little sugar added..
I just added some photos of the pits used by Bob in GA, a traditionalist in the world of barbecue. His methods employ cooking whole hogs over wood burned to coals. This is the most common way pork barbecue was cooked many years ago and still considered the best method by many. There is a separate pit just for burning the wood to hot coals. The radiant heat from the coals gives a crisp skin but allows for tender meat. Click to go to the Other Stuff page for details.
For more information on real barbecue cooking, visit Bob and Ginger at www.bobinga.com
Grilling
I bought a new Vermont Castings grill this summer. The difference between the grills sold at the big discount stores and the higher end grills is astounding. It has made the experience much more fun this year and I've been experimenting and making variations of things that don't quite qualify as a true recipe. The high output side burner is a dream also.
Proper grilling sears the outside of the meat and concentrates the flavor of the meat and adds a bit of a charred taste. This requires high heat at first and then reducing the heat to cook through. When the meat is almost done, I put on a sauce or glaze of some sort to add to the flavors.
Most of the glazes have four or five ingredients. Butter and honey give body as well as flavor. I like lemon and lime so some juice is usually added to offset the sweetness of the honey. Tarragon vinegar will do the same with more of an herb flavor added to the end result. As you experiment, you will find flavor combinations that will astound you. You may also find a couple that will never get from the experimental stage, but you have to try things to come up with the best results.
This grill also has an infra-red rotisserie burner. It makes things cooked on the spit just great. My oldest grandson, Nathan, used it to make a Father's Day dinner. A boneless rib eye roast was one of the best ever. The seasoned meat was put on the spit and just twirled away for a couple of hours.
Steak
Steak is one of the easiest meals to make, yet can be ruined by carelessness or over cooking. . First step is to buy good steak. I'd rather eat it less often and have the best cuts rather than more frequent and eat tough cuts. My favorite is Strip steak (followed by rib eye), cut to at least 1" to 1 1/4" thick..
Preheat the gill as hot as you can. My thermometer pegs at 800 degrees but I still let it heat a few more minutes. Steaks are allowed to warm up beforehand and sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning. I get mine from Ames Country Store (see links) but it is available elsewhere. Ames just happens to have one a little better than most.
Put the steak on the grill. Keep the lid open and the heat high. Three minutes, flip the steak. Three more minutes remove the steak to a serving platter. Let stand 15 minutes and serve. I do check the temperature with a thermometer and take them off at 110 degrees. This leaves them a bit pink inside and full of juice and flavor.
When it comes to steak, I've been reluctant to hide the great taste of beef with a lot of sauces or seasoning, but I have found one that compliments well.
Step one is to soften some butter while you do the rest. Sauté shallots in a pan using butter or oil. When the shallots are clean, splash in an ounce or so of bourbon, then reduce the liquid. When done, let the cool a bit and add to the softened butter. Mix in well. Add the Sauce Robert. If you do not have this or don't have time to make it, a bit of commercial barbecue sauce will do. The end product will have a pinkish color.
Serve it on the side so each person can add it to the steak as desired.
Sauce Robert
(White Wine - Mustard Sauce)
Sweat one medium chopped onion (8 oz.) in 1 tbsp. butter until translucent.
Add 7 oz. good white wine and reduce by 2/3.
Moisten the onion/wine infusion with 1 1/4 cups demi-glace (recipe follows).
Cook the sauce for 10 minutes. The onion may either be strained out or left in
at this point.
Finish the sauce with a pinch of sugar and 1 tbsp. of Dijon Mustard. Do
not allow the sauce to come to a boil after the mustard has been added, it may
break.
Demi-Glace
A brown stock (beef) thickened with a roux (50% flour, 50% fat i.e.. butter,
oil, lard, etc, cooked together until a nutty aroma and a light brown
color has been achieved) whisked together. The resultant sauce is allowed
to reduce by 1/2 to 3/4.
For 2 qt. beef stock use1/2 lb. flour and 1/2 lb. butter to form roux, then
reduce to approx. 2 cups.
Sauce Robert (Ro-bear) is a delicious sauce which is excellent on beef.
Pig Roast
Labor Day weekend we were invited to a pig roast at my son Tom's house. He had a couple of people he knows bring the rig and prepare the 65 pound hog. Ivan, the fellow that did the cooking learned how to prepare the hog when he lived in Puerto Rico. It was stuffed with garlic and other seasonings, tied to a spit, and cooked for about five hours.
The cooker was a design that Ivan was familiar with, and built by David Millette. His brother Tom was also involved in the endeavor. Basic material is an oil tank with a center section added. The fire box is an expanded metal grate on the lower front, the spit on the upper rear. It is semi-direct heat, not like a true offset. This gives some benefit or radiant heat from the coals.
Click on a thumbnail to see a larger image.
Drive system is a gear drive that happened to be in
Dave's garage, the spit is a Stainless rod with a couple of added holders. Gears
work with a bicycle chain and a variable speed controller is used to adjust the
speed.. Simplicity at its best. It may be trailer mounted in the
future.
Wondering what the buckets are hanging on the back?
Counterweights for the lid of course. Filled with water on site, they save a lot of
lugging heavy weights around.
This is the tradition of ingenuity and barbecue coming together for a real feast. The pig was good eating, the cooker is a marvel of made from scraps of steel. The fun of a real barbecue is still the people and this was no different.