BBQ on the road

I was in Atlanta on business last week. While there one of our dinner stops was a place called Fat Matt's Rib Shack. It was quite awesome. I had a 1/2 rack of ribs, rum baked beans and a side of cole slaw. It was, in a word, amazing.

Besides the great food and good live music, they had a Christmas pig. It was all lit up with Christmas lights and decked out for the Holidays. This picture is kind of crappy. You gotta see it to believe it.

If you are ever in Atlanta and want some GREAT barbecue (this is the sort of stuff I aspire to cook), you need to stop by this place. It is fantastic.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you all did too. Sadly all the turkey is gone, but we still have a big pile of mashed potatoes and some wild rice leftovers. Back ribs were on sale at the local grocery, so the smoker is fired up and we are having a couple of slabs of ribs to go with those wonderful Thanksgiving leftovers.

Simple Is Good

One of the things that has attracted me to BBQ as a style of cuisine is that it is simple. I've talked with folks about this off and on over the years. The most recent discussion along these lines I had was with my Dad when he and my Mom and youngest brother were in town a couple of weeks ago. We had my inlaws over as well to celebrate my daughter's birthday and her requests for birthday dinner were hot dogs and pulled pork.

So as I was getting the pork shoulder ready to go in the smoker my Dad and I were talking about food (one of his favorite topics along with stocks, gas prices and the weather) and he made an off handed comment about people overly complicating food. I that is one of the things I loved about barbecue. It's simple and really just requires patience and time.

This got me to thinking a bit more about food in general. Most of the things I REALLY like are not too high up on the food complexity scale. I'll usually take spaghetti and meatballs over scampi, fried chicken over coq au vin or scrambled eggs over Eggs Benedict. It's not that I don't like or appreciate the latter dishes in each pairing, but generally speaking I prefer the simpler dishes. I think this is mostly driven by the joy I find in preparing food for myself and others. The chances of me ever making anything that involves things like wine reduction or truffle oil are close to zero. Meanwhile every piece of fried chicken I ingest I not only get to enjoy, but I get to figure out what parts I really like and apply them to my own preparation. I guess it's a delicious bonus that keeps on giving!

Sometimes I even wonder if the people that say they want and like the fancy, exotic, off-the-wall stuff are being honest, or if they are trying to show off in some way by telling the world what an exquisite palate they have. I have seen this behavior most consistently when we order pizza as a group at any job I've been at. I'm a big fan of the cheese pizza, or something with one or two toppings, like pepperoni, or sausage, or maybe some feta or mushrooms. Pretty simple, straightforward, tasty stuff. And with just one or two items I get to enjoy the flavors I'm in the mood for without having a cacophony in my mouth.

Meanwhile a lot of my co-workers head straight for the specialty or gourmet section of the pizza menu. So we usually end up with 1 or at most 2 of the more mundane run of the mill pizzas and 3 or 4 or more or the fancy pants foo-foo pizza.

Now, and I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but this wouldn't bug me so much if the people that ordered the fancy crap actually ate the fancy crap. But NOOOOOOOOOOO, the pretentious cocksuckers head right for the pepperoni pizza and all grab a couple of slices of that and, maybe, grab one piece of the stuff off the gourmet side of the menu. So by the time the folks that wanted a nice, simple, tasty pizza get to the table, the chances of them getting what they asked for are right around zero. However, there seems to be plenty of the pizza left that is topped with wilted yak penis sauteed in a white wine reduction and a hint of snail entrails.

Somewhere along the way eating, like almost everything else we as a society do, has become as much about image and advertising what a wonderful, complex, complete and fully functioning individual you are as it is about fueling your body and enjoying something delicious with people you care about. If you really like the yak penis and snail entrails, by all means order them and enjoy them. But for all you folks that say you like the exotic stuff but look like a kid taking cough medicine while you eat it, take a good look at what you really like. It's OK to like simple food. Really.

Simple is good.

Doing Ribs

I was shopping yesterday and saw some instructions on cooking ribs that started with 'heat your gas grill'. I wanted to cry. Here's the right way to approach ribs.

For those of you that live or work around Ann Arbor, MI and haven't yet tried it, get out to Satchel's. For those that have been, it's probably been too long. You should go back :-)

Fair Food

This is a bit later than I thought I would get it up, but here are some photos of the food we had at the fair. Everybody was happy with everything. Not only did I feed the folks that showed up for the parade but I also set some aside for dinner for the people parking cars at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Chelsea. From all accounts it was a record breaking year parking cars. Nice job.

A note on the hot dogs. Some people were surprised I threw these on the smoker. While I wouldn't go out of my way to smoke hot dogs, if the smoker is going anyway, put them on there! I highly recommend it. The color and taste is a lot different. Judging from the responses different was very good indeed :-)

The Cooking Has Begun!

Just after 6:30 am the turkey drumsticks went on. The ribs will go on at around 8:30 and the hot dogs probably around 11-ish. The rack will be full of food. Here's hoping it all comes out well and the guests are happy. When it is all said and done I'm guessing I'll have about 24 pounds of meat on the smoker today.

After sitting in a brine for about 36 hours they turkey got hit with a salt and pepper rub, about 2 parts kosher salt to one part pepper. Everything thing else is as seasoned as it is going to get. Just need to apply heat, wait and eat.

WOOHOO!!!

The Fair Is Upon Us Once Again

The Chelsea Summer Fair is once again going on. The parade is tomorrow and preparations for tomorrow's gathering have already begun. 2 racks of St Louis ribs are in the fridge covered with some rub and 6 turkey drumsticks are brining in a mixture of salt, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, rubbed sage, Gulden's mustard, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. The measurements on the brine are far from exact. I just threw a bit (maybe 1/4 cup of each?) of each in a bowl and whisked with some water, poured over the meat and then added enough water to cover. The drumsticks are sitting in two large bowls in the fridge. I originally had them in a bag, but alas the bag started leaking. I've had mixed results with brining large hunks of meat in ziploc bags. They seem to spring a leak on me half the time, even though it always appears to work fine for people on cooking shows. You would think by now I would just give up on the bags.

In somewhat related news, I was feeling lazy a few weeks ago and just bought a can of the local store brand's version of what they call Kansas City Steak Rub. It turns out that this is fantastic on ribs. It also turns out that the provider of the spice rub is The Nutmeg Spice Company. They are located in CT (The Nutmeg State for those of you that don't know) so in some bizarre way worlds are colliding as I get a taste of home preparing a southern style cuisine while living in the Midwest. I'm tempted to try some of their other preparations based on how much I like the Kansas City rub. The site has a store locator so if you're not into making your own rubs all the time, see if there is a store in your area that sells the stuff. It doesn't have Emeril's face on it, but it is still damn tasty.

Pork Shoulder Leftovers

If you're like me, it is almost impossible to make barbecue in small portions, especially pork shoulder. There are quite a few things you can do with leftover pork shoulder, other than make yet another sandwich. Not that there is anything wrong with yet another sandwich. Piles of succulent smokey goodness piled high on a fluffy white bun and smothered in the sauce of your choice. MMmmmmm.....

Anyway, some other things you can do with pork shoulder leftovers

• Egg rolls. Especially if you have some leftover cole slaw. Drain the slaw if you need to, stuff the egg roll wrappers with a mix of shredded pork and slaw, wrap up and pan fry in a bit of oil.
• Pork fried rice. Culinary worlds will be colliding here in one of the tastiest ways imaginable.
• Put it in scrambled eggs.
• Top a pizza with it. Personally I kind of hate the 'BBQ Pizza' some places offer that has barbecue sauce for the pizza sauce and has bits of chicken on it. By 'kind of hate' I mean that I think it is vile, gross, disgusting, vomit inducing swill. But put some pork shoulder on the pizza in place of sausage or pepperoni? Hell Yes!!
• Make a cheese steak with it. Grab a pile of pork, heat it up on a non stick pan smothered with cheddar and pile that on some french bread.
• Make a hash with potatoes, bell peppers and onions. Throw some pork in it. Plate is optional. I've been known to just grab a spoon and eat it out of the pan.
• Tacos

Just a few ideas. Almost every culture on the planet uses pork in one way or another (I know some abstain. More for me!) so if you are working on ideas for dinner, and you just happen to have some leftover pork in the fridge, see how you can work it into tonight's dinner. Chances are you will be glad you did.

Some More Thoughts About Gear

One of my earliest posts here was some thoughts on gear. While my general thoughts on that have not changed (You can prepare great tasting BBQ with some simple tools and a bit of creativity), I have definitely come to appreciate having good tools. Two things made me realize this.

We took a great vacation a few weeks ago with my brother in law and his family and my sister in law and her step daughter. I brought a pair of our good spring loaded tongs along, knowing that I'm always searching for spring loaded tongs in any cottage I'm in. Turns out they got left there and I couldn't find either of our other two pair. I still have no idea where they are. The day before I was going to suck it up and buy another pair (I figured as soon as I bought another pair the others would magically appear), my sister in law sent us another pair, simply because I whined a little I suppose. Whatever the reason, I'm eternally grateful. Good tongs are a must. This was recent incident number one that made me appreciate good gear.

The second event that made me really appreciate good gear was tasting the ribs I pulled off the smoker not too long ago. They were delicious. I thought I made pretty good ribs before. I probably did if I'm going to  believe my friends, neighbors and family, but this latest batch is just amazing. It's the first batch I did in the smoker. I'll of course have to do others just to make sure it is not a fluke, but these are just great. They are tender, juicy and are just starting to pull away from the bone. They come off clean but aren't done to the point where they are falling off the bone at the slightest touch. The other food I've done on it has been really good, but these are just so much better than any other ribs I've cooked, ever. I now regret not having an honest to goodness smoker sooner.

Generally speaking when people get interested in a craft they tend to get the best tools they can. I've been slowly collecting gear and books for years now. I strongly suggest doing this if you are serious about your Q. One thing I will not change my opinion about, however, is that the equipment needs to be expensive or top of the line. It just isn't true. People win awards on drum smokers. I built mine for about 100 bucks. As far as cost goes for a smoker, that is dirt cheap. You can spend several hundred or even thousands on a commercial rig if you like. I won't stop you.

Tips abound for preparation techniques, which cuts of meat to use, how to spice things up, the temperature you should cook at, the fuel you should use and just about every aspect of preparing barbecue (or any other food, in my experience) but good advice and tips on good gear are relatively hard to come by. And they can make a very big difference. So get good gear. Take care of it and it will keep you well fed for a long time to come.

Fruity Chicken

In our softball league we have several picnics. Our head umpire brings dogs and buns and beer. Just about everybody else brings a dish to pass. More often than not I bring something off the smoker or grill. This year I did drumsticks.

Meat:
30 chicken drumsticks

Marinade:
46 oz (1 can) pineapple juice
8 oz lime juice
1/2 cup salt
2 oz Frank's Red Hot

Mix juices, salt and hot sauce in a bowl. Put chicken in a 2 1/2 gallon zip top bag, cover in marinade (you may have to add a bit of water to cover the chicken completely), get all the air out of the bag and let marinade in the fridge overnight.

Next day, fire up the smoker and let the chicken cook for between 3 and 4 hours. We, sadly, got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but people were hungry and they grabbed chicken cold out of cooler, not wanting to wait for the other games to get done and have them heated up on the grill. Everybody that had some said it was delicious, even cold.

The above picture doesn't really do them justice. Most of them were really a beautiful mahogany color when they came off the smoker and they were tasty, with a nice fruity aroma. A little more red hot or a stronger hot sauce may have been a good idea, but I wasn't interested in spicy this time around. The sweet smoky pineapple smell was intoxicating. It was definitely a nice change from the heavy, earthy and sometimes peppery flavors that usually define barbecue. If you are looking for a change give this a try. I know I'll be cooking this again.

Christening the smoker

I was laid up for a little while and it took me a while to get my smoker to a usable state, but it is there and has had a pork shoulder cooked in it for its inaugural smoke. We spent the weekend of June 30 with some friends who were kind enough to let me use their shop and yard to finish the smoker and were thus able to share some pulled pork with them. Everybody was happy with how it came out and I have to say it is one of the easier pork shoulders I've ever done. There is still some tweaking to be done with air intake and it needs another coat of paint, but for all practical purposes it is done and able to produce ample amounts of smoky deliciousness. Here is what it looks like. Following will be a description of the steps I had to take after burning out the smoker to get it to a state where I could cook with it.

First, other than the vessel itself I needed something for the handle, the charcoal basket/firebox, grill thermometer, cooking grate and an assortment of screws and washers to put the grate and handle on.

• Grate: I got a weber grate for their 22 1/2" kettle grill. The diameter of the grate is just over 21" and it fit about perfectly into the can. Most people suggest not getting the grates that flip up to allow you to put more charcoal in, but that was the only type of grate I could find.
• Charcoal basket: Directions abound online for how to make a charcoal basket. What I ended up using is one of the deep cooking baskets you would use on the grill top for cooking things like shrimp or vegetables. The sides aren't quite deep enough for the amount of fuel you would need for a long cook. I plan on getting a charcoal grate and some expanded metal and making my own as described here . This basket was rested on 3 bricks to allow the ashes to fall away as the charcoal was burning.
• Screws, lock washers and fender washers were picked up at the hardware store. If memory serves I got 10/32 screws that were 2 inches long for placing the grate and a couple of 3/4 inch screws for attaching the handle to the lid.
• The handle itself is a wooden dowel and two L brackets. Very simple. The brackets are attached to the dowel with wood screws.
• The grate I put just above the lip at the bottom of the first section of the barrel. One tip I found that was extremely helpful was to just use 3 screws instead of the usually suggested 4 to rest the grate on. Triangles are stronger shapes than squares and this saves you from having to be exact in the height of the screws. If the screws are not perfectly level the grate will still be stable.
• Thermometer. I found a char-broil replacement thermometer and used that. One tip for mounting this is to put the 300 degree mark right around high noon. If you are BBQ'ing anything I can't imagine ever wanting to go over 300 degrees. This will make it easy to see if you are running the smoker at too high of a temperature.
• Paint. 2 cans of blue engine enamel and one can of yellow exhaust paint.

Cost for all the parts was about $2 for the screws and washers, $18 for the grate, $8 for the basket, $6 for the handle parts, and somewhere around $10 for the temperature gauge. So about $44 total for the parts. The paint was around $22 for the 3 cans of paint. Total cost was right around $96 including the barrel itself.

After getting the barrel burned out we removed rust, remaining paint and anything else from the outside. To do this we used a combination of a soda blaster, wire brush, rotary sander and grinding wheel. The soda blaster did the best job on the left over paint. The wire brush did the best job on the rust. The grinding wheel took down the burrs from the holes I drilled and the sander finished things up. After sanding the outside and cleaning out the inside the whole thing was wiped down with a rag and acetone to get any debris off. Then it was painted with the enamel. After the enamel was dry the handle was attached to the lid and the thermometer attached to the barrel. Then I measured around the barrel to figure out how far apart the screws needed to be for holding the grate. The circumference of the barrel was almost 72", so the holes were put 24" apart. The first hole for the grate was drilled just where the metal starts to bow out for the lip at the bottom of the first section. Then that was measured and the two other holes were drilled at the same height.

To attach the screws for the grate a fender washer was put on the inside, then a lock washer on top of that and then the nut on top of that. When the screws were attached the grate was dropped in. As long as the weight is anywhere near the center, the grate is very stable. After making sure the grate was stable, I put 3 bricks in the bottom of the smoker, put the pan for the charcoal basket on top of that, put a chimney of charcoal in the basket, then got another chimney of charcoal started in the chimney. I coated the inside of the entire smoker with a liberal dose of cooking spray. When the charcoal in the chimney was good and hot, I dropped it on top of the unlit charcoal in the basket, put the grate in, sprayed the grate then dropped the pork shoulder in and put the lid on.

For most of the time it was cooking it was pegged at 200 degrees. I had to add some more fuel about 4 1/2 hours into cooking to finish it up as the temp dropped down to about 175 degrees. All told the shoulder was on for about 6 1/2 hours and it came out great.

Future Enhancements

• As stated above, some more holes need to be drilled out for greater air intake. I would have preferred the smoker to be running just a touch hotter, maybe around 225 degrees.
• Vent covers for controlling the air flow on windy days that might have the smoker running too hot. A frequent suggestion I have found is refrigerator magnets. I'll start with those and see how it works out.
• Another coat of paint. Including a yellow block M.
• A 2nd grate near the top of the smoker. This will allow me to do vast quantities shallower food like ribs and turkey drumsticks along with pork shoulders, briskets and whole chickens on the main grate.
• If I can find a lid for a 22 1/2" grill I'll pick that up. That will allow me to use the 2nd grate for another level of pork shoulder. 

That is, I think, everything related to building my first smoker. The food it turned out was great. If you have a weekend or two to spare and care about your BBQ and don't want to spend a lot of money on something resembling a commercial grade smoker I would highly recommend building your own. People have won big competitions cooking on these things. They can obviously turn out great food.

Fire In The Hole!

The first step of creating a drum smoker, after getting the drum, is to burn it out. This is probably the most fun part. I drilled 4 1/2 inch holes about 4 inches from the bottom for ventilation, filled it up with wood and lit it up. In all of the instructions I found online I didn't find anybody that talked about burning out the top of the drum, but I did that too. It created LOTS of smoke. On the plus side, we were able to have a marshmallow roasting party while cleaning the barrel. Thanks to my buddy for letting me use his copious yard space to do this. I'm sure my neighbors would not have been terribly happy with me had I done this in my backyard...

The barrel I got from Craislist for 30 bucks along with the ventilation holes I drilled

Now that's a FIRE!!

The kids taking advantage of said fire to make some s'mores.

Putting the lid on resulted in LOTS of smoke, but you need to burn out the top as well. I removed it for a while, then put it on at a pretty steep angle so much less smoke was produced.

New Project!

For good or ill, I found a 55 gallon food grade steel drum for 30 bucks on Craigslist. I've been wanting to build up my own drum smoker for some time now. I finally found the drum. Now to get cracking on this thing. Time to watch some videos and do some research on building one of these things :-)

Peppers and Onions

One of my very favorite things to do while the coals are still blazing hot (before I put the meat on) is to get a cast iron skillet, oil it up and then set it over the fire. When it is good and hot add a pile of julienned onions and peppers to the pan. Season liberally with kosher salt. I shut the lid on my grill and come back and turn them occasionally. You'll need a decent oven mitt and a pair of long handled tongs to move the veggies around in the pan.

The coals get hotter than my stove top and do a great job caramelizing the peppers and onions. And you get a hint of smokiness to boot. Usually they take between 15 and 20 minutes to cook down. I usually end up with about 1/4 of the volume I started with. I cooked some to put on top of the burgers I did on the grill last night and they were a hit.