Precision engineered charcoal grills


 
 
Traditional American Barbecue Classics

 

 Traditional smoked Southern Style ribs and chicken
Ribs and chicken, two of
the "Sacred Four"

 

The "other" ribs smoked on the charcoal grill
Smoked country-style ribs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Two zone fire, drip pan and ribs on their way to perfection
The basic setup for all
southern style cooking
on the B1 grill.

 

Sometimes called the "Texas Crutch", this works amazingly well
Wrap the ribs to tenderize.

 

Final crust on the ribs
The final sear on some baby back
ribs. If you're going to add sauce,
do it now. But you really don't need
sauce if you did this right.

 

  

 

Finishing up the pork shoulder roast before serving
Traditional pork roast smoked
fall-apart tender for pulled
pork sandwiches

 

Sliced pork roast.
Pulled pork with cider/pepper
sauce

 

 

 

  

 

Traditional southern-US style barbecued meats are all pretty much prepared with the same cooking technique on our grills.

  • A fairly low temperature fire (somewhere around 250° F) for multiple hours with lots of smoke from soaked wood chunks, chips or sawdust.
  • A resting period wrapped in foil with some aromatic liquid. (Some disparagingly call using a foil-wrap "the Texas crutch". But who's got 14 hours to make pulled pork?)
  • A final drying/searing/carmelizing over a charcoal fire.

The devil is in the details, of course, but understanding the basic steps always helps you master the fundamentals.

For example, go get a rack of (full-size) St. Louis style pork spareribs, and give them the 3-2-1 treatment: three hours of smoke, two hours wrapped, and another hour of grill. After you've got that down, branch out and try some baby backs. You'll find that they get overly tender if you cook them this long. Still good, but you don't want the meat to stay on the plate when you pick up the bone. So for baby backs, 2-1-1 may suit your tastes better.

On the other hand, for a beef brisket, this is too short. Brisket may work out better at 4-3-1. Depends on the cut, the temperature, and how you like your brisket.

We're not going to give you specific recipes for rubs, marinades, injections, what kind of wood to use for which meats, etc, etc.. There has been more than enough written about that. And if you are seriously considering a grill of this caliber, you've been through that learning curve. Suffice it to say that you can make authentic, smokey southern style barbecue on the B1 grill with ease.

Use both grates for high volume smoking
Five racks of baby backs

Remember that you can use only the top grate, only the slow cook rack down inside the grill, or you can use both if you are feeding a crowd.

 

Ribs

Here we are referring to pork ribs, either loin back spareribs or baby backs. They're the same meat from different size animals. A full sparerib is the whole rib including the "brisket", which is the bony piece usually full of gristle. The St. Louis cut is the sparerib with the brisket gone.

The basic prep is the same for both:

Cut them into two pieces so they are easier to handle and fit the grill.

Pull of the paper/membrane on the back by grabbing it through a towel. (With baby backs, you can leave this membrane on, and just burn it off in the final grilling.) Trim off any chunks of fat that are not obviously part of the ribs, including the brisket. You want the racks to be as uniform in thickness as possible.

Marinade them overnight in cheap italian dressing inside a baggy.

Scrape off the dressing and heavily season with your favorite rib rub and let them warm up out of the fridge.

Set up the grill in a two hour train and place a drip pan under the indirect (right) side of the grate.

Smoke for three hours at 250-300° F until a lot of the fat is rendered out and you can poke a fork through them, but they're not too tender. For baby backs, you may want to cut this back to two hours. Spray lightly with apple cider from a spray bottle every half hour or so.

Wrap in foil with a half cup of beer or stock or vinegar/water mixture and either put them back on the grill as the fire dies out, or put them in the oven at 200, or in a cooler. Check them after an hour or two and they should be quite tender. A fork will easily pierce the meat.

Put them back on the grill over indirect heat for another hour to re-energize the crust, dry them out a little bit and get 'em hot. Add more rub if you are serving Memphis style.

Serve them cut up with warm sauces on the side.

The smoke ring is a sign of good technique and good flavor
Notice the pink "Smoke Ring"
on these ribs.It comes from the
interaction of the meat with smoke.
It is a sign of properly prepared ribs.

 

 

 

Roasts

Click here for a complete pork roast recipe.

It's the same basic procedure for roasts, whether pork, beef or lamb. The basic prep is the same:

Pat in a thick coat of rub the night before. Some poeple will use a coating of mustard as a "glue" to form a thicker crust and to add some flavor.

Warm the roast on the counter before it goes on the grill.

Set up the grill in a two hour train and place a drip pan under the indirect (right) side of the grate.

Smoke for four hours at 250-300° F until a lot of the fat is rendered out and you can poke a fork easily into the meat. Internal temp should be above 185°. You want this to be very tender, so you smoke it longer than ribs.

Wrap in foil with a vinegar/pepper mixture and either put back on the grill as the fire dies out, or in the oven at 200, or in a small cooler. Check it after an hour or two. A fork will easily pierce the meat. Don't use a tomato based sauce here, or you'll never be able to show your face in the Carolinas....

Back on the grill over direct heat for ten minutes to re-energize the crust and get it hot.

Serve cut up with warm sauces on the side, or sliced for platters, or pulled apart with a fork that your great grandma gave to your grandma that was only use for pulled pork. Yeah, it is that important.

  

 

 

Brisket

To be perfectly honest, I haven't mastered brisket on this grill. As they say in Germany - Scheisse!

I've tried it many times and the results ranged from O.K. to shoe leather. Nothing up to our usual standards for competition quality BBQ. I'll keep working on it.

So far the only truly good brisket I've managed was slow-cooked in a crock pot with onions, chicken broth and liquid smoke (it's surprisingly authentic tasting) with all the window shades down to hide my shame.

I then took it out and grilled it for an hour with more smoke and a thick rub. It was actually very good. But I would be laughed out of any serious grilling discussion. More to follow as I get on top of this.

 

   


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