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.
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.
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.
|