The BBQ thread

[Dick Whitman]

Any pitmasters here?

After years of firing up the gas grill, I bought a Webber kettle grill this spring and have had some fun experimenting with low-and-slow cooking. I've had a couple failures - including a particularly embarrassing one on Kentucky Derby Day. (My friends will forever be convinced that all my ribs taste like a shoe.)

But for the most part, I'm coming around. I made some beef short ribs this past Sunday that were to die for. Pitch black bark. Melt in your mouth meat.

I've been using the store-brought "Cowboy Rub," which might be a little strong, so I'm interested in rub ideas. I typically use Jack Daniel's wood chips or blocks for smoke, but I'm open to suggestions. I seem to be able to maintain temperature better at 225-260 range since I started putting a water pan on the grates. My mop sauce is simple - apple cider vinegar, apple juice, and a touch of Very Old Barton bourbon.

 

[amraeder]

My rub (I don't measure, generally, so just in order of how much of each ingredient there is, most-to-least):

• Salt
  
• Brown sugar (first 2 probably roughly equal parts)
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Onion power
• Paprika
• Ground mustard
• Cocoa powder

 

[Buck]

I want to get a smoker, or some type of smoker-grill combo thing.
I'm not sure I'll get one, but I want one.

 

[Buck]

What about the Yoder YS640?
That looks like it works as grill and a smoker and seems to get good reviews.

But it's $1,500. I could get a used Martin D18 guitar for that.
Of course, the grill-smoker is household benefit for the family while the guitar would really just be for me.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I use a gas grill with a couple of these smoker boxes. On a five burner grill I turn the two on the right on low and these triangle boxes sit down between the burners.

I've gotten real nice smoke rings on ribs and brisket so far this summer .

 

[El Guapo]

I have an offset smoker bought at a sporting goods store that I use once a month for brisket. It's my obsession, and I'm already looking to upgrade equipment. I keep my rub basic: kosher salt, coarse black pepper and granulated garlic. If I feel saucy I'll mix in some paprika.

For the weekly stuff, I just bought a Weber Original. No complaints, the thing is great. Can't wait to tap into its potential.

Aaron Franklin, Myron Mixon and Meathead Goldwyn are my BBQ gurus of the moment.

 

[spikechiquet]

When I lived in Indiana, I worked with a guy from Austin and became friends with a Purdue student that was from Houston. Those guys taught me a ton!

After jonesing for their BBQ (I never had to make my own when I lived there) after moving to Ohio, I got tips on how to use my charcoal grill for indirect and did some good stuff on there.
When I was home last summer, we smoked salmon for a 4th of July party and it convinced me to just buy a smoker. I have worn that thing out already! LOL

It's a basic Wal-Mart bought bullet made by Kingsford. I can get it to hold at 175 for a good long time and I just have a bucket of soaked Hickory chunks always ready to go. Salmon, ribs, brisket, wings, turkey, sausage, venison...I've done a lot.

I'm more of a sauce guy, but I do a basic rub..pretty much with what has already been stated. I'm nowhere near good enough to be in a competition, but myself and friends think the food comes out pretty good.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Do you guys get a nice black bark from the lighter rubs?

 

[amraeder]

Do you guys get a nice black bark from the lighter rubs?

What qualifies as a lighter rub? Seems like anything with sugar to caramelize + smoke + time should work...

Do people brine their meat - especially pork? What do they put it in to brine.?I don't really have any container that seems big enough to brine a pork shoulder in + small enough to fit in my fridge....

 

[Neutral Corner]

Consider trying mesquite instead of hickory chips. It's a very different taste.

This is my standard rub:

BBQ Spice Rub Recipe

A water pan is helpful. I've also been known to soak my wood chips for several hours and put them in a tightly wrapped aluminum foil pouch and pierce it several times to allow smoke to escape.

 

[kleeda]

The BBQ bible is AmazingRibs.com. The site can be annoying as "Meathead" tries to make money, but all the advice is spot on. "Meathead" Goldwyn also has at least one book. I don't do books for cooking anymore, so I use the website. I have a $70 vertical smoker with an extra $50 worth of conversions and the results would make most of the restaurants in Texas flee in submission. I also have a Weber Kettle Grill that's good for 95-percent of the time when you want great, but not sublime. A Kettle Grill will not get you sublime. I have to refurb the vertical smoker every three years or so, but at about $10 and two hours work. The Weber is indestructible.

 

[amraeder]

Dinner. A small pork shoulder roast.
Served with couscous side salad.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

All this BBQ talk is making me horny.

I mean hungry.

 

[Buck]

I have a $70 vertical smoker with an extra $50 worth of conversions and the results would make most of the restaurants in Texas flee in submission. I also have a Weber Kettle Grill that's good for 95-percent of the time when you want great, but not sublime. A Kettle Grill will not get you sublime. I have to refurb the vertical smoker every three years or so, but at about $10 and two hours work. The Weber is indestructible.

I am not prone to envy, but this post makes me envious.
I want to have some smoking equipment and a better grilling set-up.
I want to develop some of ability with the former and improve my ability with the latter.

I don't care about the ability to refurbish equipment on my own. I cannot do anything like that. I can barely change a tire or hang a picture, 'upgrading' a smoker is not in my range of abilities. I do not aspire to acquire such ability nor envy those who have such ability.

 

[User 11148]

The BBQ bible is AmazingRibs.com. The site can be annoying as "Meathead" tries to make money, but all the advice is spot on. "Meathead" Goldwyn also has at least one book. I don't do books for cooking anymore, so I use the website. I have a $70 vertical smoker with an extra $50 worth of conversions and the results would make most of the restaurants in Texas flee in submission. I also have a Weber Kettle Grill that's good for 95-percent of the time when you want great, but not sublime. A Kettle Grill will not get you sublime. I have to refurb the vertical smoker every three years or so, but at about $10 and two hours work. The Weber is indestructible.

In my father's later years he really got into the charcoal-in-the-chimney (with wine and music on the side) ritual with a full-sized Weber. Now that he's long gone I keep the memory alive (a bit) by following his lead with an 18.5-inch Weber someone had left on the street for trash. All it needed was a new grid and I was in business.

I am curious about your smoker. Is it charcoal?

 

[kleeda]

Yes, I have a charcoal Brinkmann. This one:

 

[kleeda]

I am not prone to envy, but this post makes me envious.
I want to have some smoking equipment and a better grilling set-up.
I want to develop some of ability with the former and improve my ability with the latter.

I don't care about the ability to refurbish equipment on my own. I cannot do anything like that. I can barely change a tire or hang a picture, 'upgrading' a smoker is not in my range of abilities. I do not aspire to acquire such ability nor envy those who have such ability.

Problem is, there are two ways to get good equipment. You can cheaply upgrade inferior equipment (such as the Brinkmann above) or you can spend thousands on great equipment. All you really need is Big Green Egg felt liner to close up all the gaps on the Brinkmann's doors and you're more than halfway there. I stuck a cheap pizza stone on the bottom for better heat retention. A put my regular pizza stone on top for the same reason when I use the smoker. Then you need a good digital thermometer that measures both the temperature of the meat and the temp inside the smoker (two separate probes). I did all that for under $200. Just have to redo the felt every so often.

 

[Buck]

Problem is, there are two ways to get good equipment. You can cheaply upgrade inferior equipment (such as the Brinkmann above) or you can spend thousands on great equipment. All you really need is Big Green Egg felt liner to close up all the gaps on the Brinkmann's doors and you're more than halfway there. I stuck a cheap pizza stone on the bottom for better heat retention. A put my regular pizza stone on top for the same reason when I use the smoker. Then you need a good digital thermometer that measures both the temperature of the meat and the temp inside the smoker (two separate probes). I did all that for under $200. Just have to redo the felt every so often.

You say that because you are the type of person who can think of such things and accomplish them.
I tried to mount a guitar hook on a wall, used the stud finder and everything.
I put the guitar on the hook and ripped out a piece of wall the size of my fist.

No matter how simple you might think it is, it is beyond my ken and even further beyond my execution.

People like me have to pay.
Sadly, which means maybe I can save enough to get a smoker in my retirement.

 

[Dick Whitman]

You say that because you are the type of person who can think of such things and accomplish them.
I tried to mount a guitar hook on a wall, used the stud finder and everything.
I put the guitar on the hook and ripped out a piece of wall the size of my fist.

No matter how simple you might think it is, it is beyond my ken and even further beyond my execution.

People like me have to pay.
Sadly, which means maybe I can save enough to get a smoker in my retirement.

This is the first chapter of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." There are two types of people in the world: People who fix things and people who just replace them or live with them being broken.

I didn't use my gas grill for a year because it stopped igniting. My brother came over, took a one-minute look at it, and asked for a Double A battery.

My high school friends are all blue collar tradesmen, and they think it's an absolute riot that I can analyze "Moby ****" or Jon Lester's BABIP with authority, but I can't fix a leak if my life depended on it.

 

[justgladtobehere]

I would reiterate the mention of Aaron Franklin. His PBS show is online.

Watch Full Episodes Online of BBQ with Franklin on PBS

A few of the episodes deal with equipment and the different uses. In one such episode, he builds an offset smoker. So if you have an old oil drum and a blowtorch, you could do it too.

As for style, he is a very strict traditional (central?) Texas BBQ chef. Nothing but salt and pepper on his meats. I think he would die before he put sauce on anything.

Another PBS show is Project Smoke. The host, Steven Raichlen, is less dogmatic and cooks in a bunch of different styles with a bunch of different equipment. Former journalist, too. Mr. Gee might know him.