Cooking on a smoker or grill recipes

[Nottso]

Memphis Style Rub

1/4 cup Paprika

3 Tbs hot chili powder
1 Tbs packed dark brown sugar
1 Tbs white sugar

2 tsp MSG (Ac'cent)- prevents clumping, adds flavor.
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

[Nottso]

Ribs, Suckas!

Foreword: Many people think wrapping the ribs is a waste of time and effort and I kind of agree in a lot of cases. In this case, though, it's all about repeat-ability. My ribs come out the same every time. I know they'll be done to the consistency and the taste that I want. I don't make my ribs to be "fall off the bone" tender as that's borderline "mushy" and I'm not having any mushy BBQ 'round here. No sir. I want them tender but I also want to know that I'm chewing on some good BBQ as opposed to some mushy garbage akin to a raw oyster.

I already posted my rub & sauce recipes and here is how I make my ribs. I use the 3-2-1 method for spare ribs or 2-2-1 for baby backs. The numbers refer to hours. 3 hours in the smoke, then 2 hours in the wrap, and the final hour to firm them back up, form a nice bark, and to set the sauce if you like your ribs sauced during the cook as opposed to serving them with sauce on the side.

I much prefer spares over baby backs and more specifically, St. Louis cut spares. Prep starts the night before. I rinse the ribs thoroughly in cold water and then remove the membrane. It seems like the rinse actually makes the tedious job of removing the membrane a little easier. This could very easily be all in my head, but hey, it's my head and I'll generally do what it wants. A lot of people brush their ribs with oil or yellow mustard so that the rub adheres better but I do not. My rub sticks just fine all on its own.

I start with the meat side down and apply the rub very heavily to the bone side. I don't actually "rub" it at all, I just let it sit until the rub gets that nice "wet" look to it (about 10 or 15 minutes). Then I flip them over and apply the rub very heavily to the meat side. I don't wrap the ribs, I just lightly cover the platter and the ribs with aluminum foil and place them in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, I pull the ribs from the fridge so that they can come up to room temperature while I light the smoker and get the temp where I want it (225 for ribs). I use hardwood lump charcoal only and I add a couple of fist-sized chunks of Hickory for smoke. I use pure apple juice in the water pan. Lump charcoal has no additives in it so it doesn't impart any flavor into the meat that I don't want and it also produces very little ash. You want to see thin, blue, wispy smoke coming from the exhaust. If you have big clouds of thick, white smoke rolling out of the exhaust you're way over-smoking the meat. Over smoking is the most common mistake made.

I light my UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) via what is known as "the Minion method." There will be a link at the bottom to show how this is done and why. I start with enough charcoal to ensure that I don't have to add any during the cook. When I'm done cooking, I close all the intake vents and the exhaust in the UDS and the fire snuffs itself out very quickly so there is no wasted charcoal. I'm very fortunate in that my UDS cooks very evenly and holds temperature to an almost unbelievable degree. I'll add some "smoker tips" below.

I bring the smoker up to 225 degrees and let it stabilize there for 30 to 45 minutes which also gives the meat time to come to room temperature. I put the ribs on the smoker, meat side up, making sure that there's at least an inch of room all the way around and between them so that the smoke can surround them completely. I let them smoke at 225 degrees for 3 hours and then pull them off and bring them in the house to wrap them.

To wrap the ribs, I use double-wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. I tear off a piece of foil long enough to wrap the ribs, lay it on the counter, and turn all 4 ends up so that it will hold a small amount of liquid. I lay down a snake-like ribbon of squeezeable butter, roughly as long and as wide as the rack of ribs I'm working with. Then I carefully add around 1/4 cup of 100% apple juice. After that, I sprinkle light brown sugar in a pattern roughly as long and as wide as the ribs. Then I lay the ribs on top of it, bone side down. I add another butter-snake to the top of the ribs and sprinkle the top with more light brown sugar. I then pinch the foil closed at the top and roll it downwards to make a good seal. After that, I give the ends of the foil the same treatment. I don't wrap them real tightly so that there's room for all that liquidy goodness to steam and so that I don't tear the foil. I then wrap it in a second layer of foil, in the same manner, again being careful to get a good seal.

The wrapped ribs go back in the smoker for 2 hours, bone side down. Some people do it meat side down but laying right in the liquid can easily make the ribs get mushy (yuck). After the ribs have steamed for 2 hours, I pull them off the smoker again and bring them back in the house and to the kitchen sink to unwrap them. Be very careful when you unwrap them as the escaping steam will scald you good n' proper if you let it. There will also be quite a bit of boiling hot liquid in the foil that should be drained very carefully.

The unwrapped ribs go back in the smoker for one more hour to firm them up and make for a nice bark. If you're going to sauce your ribs, do so at about the halfway point of this last hour as that will allow the sauce to set nicely and form a nice glaze, giving them that rich, mahogany look to them.

I don't bother with a meat thermometer or probe when it comes to ribs as it's very hard to get an accurate reading. You'll know they're done if the meat has pulled back from the bone ends by 1/4" to 1/2" and if they bend nicely when picked up with tongs in the middle of the rack. The steaming process all but assures that they won't dry out as long as you don't let your smoker temp run wild on you.

Smoker Tips

Your exhaust should always be completely wide open. Use the intake vents to regulate your heat. When you make an adjustment, even a small one, wait a full 15 minutes to see the full effect of that adjustment before making any further adjustments. If you don't, you'll likely start "the slinky effect" as you chase the temperature up and down, never getting it where you want it, and driving yourself completely insane in the process. Never open the lid to lower the temperature, as this will initially lower the temp but then it will spike way up due to all the air you let in.

I use a Maverick ET733 wireless remote thermometer that has 2 probes. One for smoker temp and one for internal meat temp. While I don't use the meat probe for ribs, I use it on everything else. This thing has been a God-send. I can be up to 300' from the smoker and still monitor the temps and I can set "high temp" and "low temp" alarms to alert me if something were to go awry. It made a HUGE difference in my cook quality, right from the first time that I used it.

Maverick's previous model, the ET732, also has 2 probes and works just as well overall for less money. The ET732 just doesn't have quite as many features. Ebay seems to be the best place to buy them. I think the ET732 can be had there for around $25 to $35 and the ET733 for around $50 to $60. This is money well spent as you'll never again lose an expensive cut of meat to a runaway smoker and BBQing will become so much more enjoyable and stress-free that you'll likley find yourself cooking more instead of feeling like you have to go out for good BBQ.

The Minion Method

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/minion-method-explained-with-tutorial

[Guest]

Mind the clay pot bellies, stone ware, and cookware there's a lot of lead in many of them... if you don't want your head to feel 3 miles thick at the forehead? Best to avoid that shit... also for camping? steer clear of the aluminum... alzehiemers gentlemen.

Time to do some house keeping.

[Nottso]

The two BEST tips for good BBQ...

1) Keep a notebook. Write down the weather conditions (temp, wind, etc), the temp in your smoker, what you're cooking, how you seasoned it, what you used for smoke, and every other little fine detail you can think of. After the cook, write down what you and/or others thought of the meat.

If you felt like it was too light or too heavy on one of the ingredients in the rub or sauce, write that shit down.

If you felt like it was too smokey or not smokey enough, write that shit down.

If you felt like the consistency was too tough (under cooked) or too soft (over cooked), write that shit down.

Remember, the main reason we slow-smoke our meat is so that there's time to break down the collagens (connective tissues) and to render the fat into juicy goodness throughout the meat.

Keeping a notebook and referring back to it before your next cook allows you to make MINOR adjustments to your recipe and/or your process and MINOR adjustments are key. To change the consistency of the meat, for instance, you might want to try adjusting the temp OR the time but not both at once right out of the gate. Make the change that's easier for you first. If that doesn't do it, make the other change instead. If neither works, maybe try a combination, but always write that shit down.

2) DO let your meat loaf. On large cuts of meat (not so much for ribs) you want to let the meat "rest" for 15 - 30 minutes after it comes out of the smoker or off the grill before you carve it. While cooking, the juices are all forced to the outside of the meat. Allowing the meat to rest before carving allows the juices to redistribute themselves throughout the meat. Did you ever cut right into a large cut of meat (especially a turkey) and see all these juices flowing out of it and think you were about to enjoy some really juicy goodness, only to be disappointed by some shoe-leather-dry waste of the time and effort you put into it? If so, it's because you didn't let it rest. All the juices ran out onto the platter when you cut into it for the first time.

Allowing the meat to rest won't let it get cold. The internal temp will actually continue to rise while it rests, meaning it continues to cook. I usually pull large cuts out of the smoker when they're 5 degrees away from my desired internal finish temp.

Note: The FDA guidelines for pork changed a few years back. For lean cuts 145 degrees internal is now considered safe as opposed to 160. On fatty stuff like sausages, though, 160 is still the "safe" number.

[Nottso]

I love grilling out as well, but all of you surpassed me in the meat department, here is my recipe for Italian taters on the grill

4-5 medium to large sized taters
fresh garlic
1 stick of butter
olive oil
salt and pepper
Italian seasoning (the little shaker version you find in stores)
1/2 of miller lite (or whatever you want)

Place the stick of butter on top of some aluminum foil, slice the taters up thin and put over the top of the butter. Put as much or as little as you want of the olive oil on top. season with salt, pepper and the italian seasoning to your preference, cut up and add the fresh garlic cloves and top it off with some beer. Close it up and let her rip for about 30-40 minutes on the top rack of your grill or until the taters are nice and soft. Enjoy!

I used to do my taters in a similar fashion but no Italian seasoning and no beer. I'll have to try that as it sounds really good. A while back, a friend did some that we really liked and they're damn near too simple to make.

I like to use red potatoes and especially the "B" sized (smaller). All you do is wash them and then cut them up into chunks (I quarter them). You could slice them if you prefer, and sliced will cook faster than chunked, but we like them chunked. Put them in a plastic grocery bag and drizzle them with olive oil. Shake them around a bit to get oil on all of them. Then add a package of dry onion soup mix and shake them again to get the soup mix on all of the potatoes. Wrap them in heavy duty foil and throw them on the grill or smoker. Temp will determine time. At 325 they'll be done in an hour. At 225 they'll take as long as 3 hours.

If I'm slow smoking something at a low temp I'll "cheat" and put the potatoes in a covered Corningware dish and cook them in the oven instead. Since they get foiled when on the grill or smoker they don't get any additional flavoring from it anyways. All they need is a heat source. I throw 'em in the oven at 325 an hour before the meat comes off the smoker.

[Ramzilla]

Nottso you are the Grillmaster! I looked up those thermometers and the cheapest I could find was like $60. Still gonna try and pick one up though. Does that "mean jean" have a vinegar taste or no? I hate vinegary sauces.

[Ramzilla]

I have started trying to keep me a notebook to keep track but I am horrible at updating it. That is my main goal right now. I think I could vastly improve my skills by writing down all the info and what worked or didn't work.

[Nottso]

I don't know that I'm any kind of a master, but I have spent a lot of time at it and take it somewhat seriously. Not so much that it ceases to be fun, though. That would ruin the whole deal for me.

I also don't like vinegar tasting sauces. Even though there's a good bit of vinegar in it, and vinegar is important to the recipe, you don't taste it. I think most people would describe it as "smokey sweet" with just a little bit of heat. You definitely want ground celery seed or celery flakes, though. Whole celery seed is like tiny little bb's in the sauce.

The Maverick thermometer really helped my BBQ a lot. Maybe more than anything else. It lets me know exactly what's going on inside the smoker and the meat without ever having to lift the lid and as the popular cliche goes, "If you're lookin', you ain't cookin'."

If you try my recipes they should be just a starting point for you. You and you family may like it a little different. Hell, you may like it a lot different.

[Ramzilla]

I will definitely be trying them. I want a Maverick thermo but my smoker had an internal meat probe and digital temp reading that are pretty accurate(within 5*) so I am not looking I just have to walk outside and keep checking.

[Nottso]

If my smoker had those I probably never would have bought a Maverick but I gotta say it's pretty damned nice to not even go out to the smoker to check the temps.

I think Maverick is coming out with a new one, and that someone else already offers one, that uses Bluetooth and an app to send the temps right to your phone. That could be even handier yet.

[Nottso]

The following is what I use on beef. Anything from steaks to beef ribs to burgers. If you try some of this, use it sparingly. It has a lot more heat than the ingredients would lead you to believe and it can get away from you in pretty quickly. Which reminds me... I have a killer recipe for beef ribs. It's not my recipe, I got it off a forum from a guy that used to work in a restaurant that specialized in beef ribs. I'll post it up in a minute here.

Beef Seasoning

2 tablespoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pinch cinnamon

1 pinch MSG (Ac'cent)- prevents clumping, adds flavor.

[Nottso]

Smoked Beef Ribs


Beef ribs are by nature real fatty and the object is to render as much fat as possible. I used to work part time in a smoke house where beef ribs were the house specialty and needless to say I have more than a few racks working there.

The temp we used was 220 - 230 and after a thick coating of your favorite rub, they were smoked for 4 hours with the membrane on. Then we cut the ribs apart but removed the membrane first at this point.

The ribs were sauced and placed in a foil pan, covered and placed back in the smoker for another 2 hours at the same temp, at which time more fat is rendered and the meat steams and tenderizies because of the closed enviornment. This stage is crucial or you end up with fairly fatty, tough ribs. Additional sauce is added before serving.

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Again, this recipe is not mine. The guy I got it from was fine with it being shared around, I just don't want to take credit for something that isn't mine. The above is a direct copy/paste from the original forum post that I got the recipe from.

I prefer beef short ribs as opposed to beef spare ribs just because the meat is much thicker. Either way works as well as the other, though.

The only thing I do differently is to remove the membrane before cooking so that I'm not trying to remove it with the ribs already hot. Unfortunately, removing the membrane beforehand is a huge pain in the ass. Removing the membrane from beef ribs is a lot harder than removing the membrane from pork ribs... at least for me it is, anyways.

[Nottso]

Bacon Wrapped, Maple Glazed, Hickory Smoked, Pork Tenderloin

Below is another recipe that I got somewhere on the Internet. I normally pretty much have to tinker with any and every recipe I try but I've never tinkered with this one at all. I honestly can't think of a single thing that I could do to make it one bit better. A lot of my friends are also way into BBQ and every single person I've ever fed this to has said pretty much the same thing, which is that it was THE best piece of pork they'd ever put into their mouths. This shit is THAT good. The downside is that it's pretty "labor intensive" to make, but it's well worth it in my opinion.

Bacon Wrapped, Maple Glazed, Hickory Smoked, Pork Tenderloin

Brine

2 quarts water (8 cups)
1 cup Dale’s seasoning
1 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cracked pepper or coarse ground pepper
1Tbsp rubbed sage
2-3 bay leaves
5 large garlic cloves, smashed

Take all of your brine ingredients and bring to a boil on the stove, stirring to mix well. Turn off heat and let cool. When completely cooled pour into a plastic bowl with lid and submerge tenderloin. Let these tenderloins soak overnight or longer. DO NOT throw away brine after you remove the tenderloins.

Other Ingredients

1 or 2 pork tenderloins, totaling 4-5 pounds
2 -3 pounds sliced bacon
onion powder
garlic powder
cracked pepper or coarse ground black pepper
2 cups pure maple syrup


Bacon Prep

Take the maple syrup and put in a bowl, add about 2 tsp or more of cracked pepper. Mix together well. Separate your strips of bacon and submerge in maple syrup and pepper mix – stir it around a few times to make sure the bacon is evenly coated with the maple and pepper.

Pork Loin Prep

Remove loin from brine – In your smoker, if you have a drip/steam pan, instead of using water fill it 1-inch from the top with the brine. If your smoker doesn’t have a steam/dip pan, you can use a foil pan and place it on a bottom rack.

Pat loin dry with paper towel

Season loin with garlic powder, onion powder, and a little cracked pepper

Take the tapered end of the pork loin and fold it over; hold it together while you wrap it with a piece of bacon. Overlap your bacon and wrap tightly so you have no loose ends or sagging bacon pieces – and so you won’t have to use toothpicks to keep the bacon in place. Continue wrapping the entire loin. At the end of the last piece of bacon, tuck the end under a piece of bacon that has been tightly wrapped.

Take the leftover maple syrup that your bacon was soaking in and pour over the loin.

Sprinkle bacon wrapped loins with a little more pepper (if you haven’t already gone wild with the pepper in the maple syrup and/or on the pork loin).

Place the loins in the smoker and smoke at 200 – 220 degrees until the meat reaches 145 degrees.

Remove from smoker, add a light glaze of sauce, wrap in foil and let rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving. OR... what I like to do is pull it off the smoker and put it under the broiler in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up the bacon just a little bit, then glaze with sauce, wrap it, and let it rest.

Leftovers Serving Suggestion

If you have any leftover, put 1" thick slices on Pillsbury Grand biscuits with a slice of American cheese for breakfast.

[Ramzilla]

That pork loin sounds amazing. I smoke chicken breasts in a similar fashion and they are awesome.

[Nottso]

The pork loin is insanely good but like I said, the prep is a LOT of work. I'm sure you've done beer can chicken, yes? If not, you need to. Really good, really simple, and they cook fast. There are a ton of recipes on the net if you Google it. I use the little $5 stands available at most stores. Link to stand pic directly below.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0261/0379/products/beer-can-2_1024x1024.jpg?v=1383043078

Disclaimer: I'm not selling these things and don't even know the seller. It was just the first one that popped up in a search.

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About 10 years ago I started doing beer can turkey for Thanksgiving. My family won't have it any other way now. A couple of years ago I bought a "Turkey Cannon" like the one in the link below. Damned handy on birds up to 14 or 16 pounds. This year's Thanksgiving bird was 30 pounds and the Turkey Cannon was no good for that so I went back to the old standby of a big Foster's beer can. At 360 degrees, that 30 pound bird was done in only 5-1/2 hours.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Camp-Chef-Campchef-Turkey-Cannon-Infusion-Roaster-Indoor-Outdoor-New-/301694343952?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463e625b10

Disclaimer: I'm not selling these things and don't know this seller either. It was again just the first one that popped up in a search.

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Over the years, I've picked up a couple of things that make beer can chickens or turkeys even better (in my family's opinion).

I add plenty of seasonings right into the beer so that they steam into the meat with the beer. Do this in the sink, as the beer will foam like crazy when the seasonings are added.

Once the bird is on the can, I like to drop chunks of onion and garlic down through the neck hole so it ends up on top of the beer can. This really imparts a lot of those flavors into the meat.

I also plug the neck hole with a small peeled potato or peeled onion, then pull the skin flap over it and pin it with toothpicks or small wooden skewers. This forces the steam into the meat as opposed to letting it escape straight up through the neck hole.

Remember, these will cook much faster than normal, as they're roasting from the outside and steaming from the inside all at the same time. If your smoker has one side hotter than the other you may need to rotate the bird a half-turn at the midway point of the cook so that the skin gets evenly crispy without getting too dark on one side. You MUST let them rest after cooking and before carving. About 15 minutes for a chicken and 30 minutes for a turkey.

And now I'm hungry.