Epic Smoke AKA Meatless Monday takes a holiday

Few things say 4th of July  in the U.S. like a cookout, and today will be an epic one. I'm smoking two pork butts, and two racks of pork ribs. The smoked pork freezes very nicely so I'll put some of that up, there will be lunches for the week and a feast tonight!

The Student is eyeballs deep in study, so I was able to putter at a comfortable pace all day.

Everything gets a a generous massage with my rub. The butts I tied up, makes them easier to remove without having them fall apart. The ribs are trimmed, and the silver skin removed from the bone side.

The butts went on about  noon - I was running late. I kept the smoker running at 225-250F for the whole smoke. I really like the Weber smoker - I am able to keep a nice even temp for a long time without fussing with it.

At  3:00 the ribs went on. Which gave me my first peek at the butts.

I added apple wood chunks at the same time. And let this smoke another 5 hours -

Tender, smokey with just enough bark. The butts look awesome as well. Beneath that gruff exterior is meltingly tender and flavorful meat. I need to let this rest before I can shred it.

The ribs I finished on the grill with a brushing of my favorite BBQ.

A couple ribs, some bacon beans, a bit of slaw and a stack of napkins to wipe my face. This is fine 4th of July fare!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
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Oven Roasted Babyback Ribs & Disaster!?

After my post on using the smoker, I had an email that asked what to do if you don't have a smoker, or a BBQ grill. You can easily oven roast pork ribs, you may not get that smokey flavor but that doesn't mean they won't be delicious in their own right!  (If you need the smokey flavor - add a tsp of liquid smoke to the mustard, but personally I'd skip it. No sense trying to pretend to be something it isn't when what it is, is damn fine.)

Today we'll do 2 racks of babybacks. And learn that things don't always go as planned.

Ingredients:

Dry Rub Recipe ( you won't use all of it for this dish)

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 TBS Coarse salt
1 TBS Sweet Spanish paprika "Dulce"
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

2 racks babyback ribs 
4-5 TBS Dijon Mustard
BBQ sauce  (optional)


Remove ribs from package, pat dry with paper towels.

Remove membrane from the back of the ribs. Slide a table knife under the membrane to loosen it up.  If necessary, use a paper towel to grab the membrane and pull it off. Yes I use gloves, I often do in the kitchen or the garden. These are Nitril powderless gloves. You retain tactile sensitivity while keeping your hands clean.

Coat generously with  rub, more on the meat side than the bone side - At this point the ribs can go back into the fridge or you can brush them with the mustard now.

My mouth waters just looking at the rub as it extracts moisture from the meat.

Preheat oven to 250.

Brush ribs with mustard.

Line a large baking sheet with sides (a jelly roll pan) with heavy duty foil. Put a cooling rack on it and place ribs on rack OR use a rib rack placed on the foil lined pan.

Roast for 1.5 - 2 hours, until meat is tender. Spare ribs will need about an hour more time than the babybacks. The reality is, I checked at 2 hours and the oven was only holding at 230 so I increased the heat and let them go another 1.25 hours.

Pull them from the oven. They look good.

If saucing, remove ribs from rack, set rack aside, pour off fat from pan, place ribs back into pan, spread sauce and broil - until sauce is hot and bubbly - be careful not to burn it.

While that was going I made some sweet potato fries.

Plated it up one dry, one sauced.

So there I was, plate of deliciousness, a glass of wine. And I misjudged the edge of the table....

Imagine super slow motion, the plate slipping from my grasp and slowly overturning while I shrieked Nooooooooooo!

Clump! Perfectly upside down on the floor, BBQ sauce and ketchup (not in the picture, guilty as charged) embedded into the carpet.

What would you do? Don't judge me but....

Five second rule and blotting the stain until I think it's gone was my strategy.

The ribs were good, but more roast porky than ribby goodness. A surprise? Not really,  but I prefer the smoker or the grill. In a pinch this works, but since I have the tools, I'll use them next time.

Now where is that oxy-clean?

Until next time, Eat well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Shiny New Toy trial run

For those of you following along, I built and used a cold smoker last fall and winter.  Since then I've been looking into a hot smoker.

Leading up up to my purchase, I looked at some of the cabinet smokers at the big box store - but they seem poorly built.

I don't have the metal working or welding skills (yet!) to construct my own. So, after more research on the internet, I went with the 18.5" (diameter) Weber Smokey Mountain, a charcoal fired smoker with two racks.

Today I fired it up for the first time - 1 large rack of pork spare ribs and a pork shoulder.

A generous amount of my homemade rub:

RUB Recipe

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 TBS Coarse salt
1 TBS Sweet Spanish paprika "Dulce"
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

The shoulder needs to go about 8 hours so we'll start that first.

Next, fire up the smoker..... I'm using the "Minion Method"

I did throw on 3 chunks of  applewood, filled the water pan, set the lower rack and added the pork shoulder.

As this the first firing, I'll have to check often to keep the temp in the 225-250F range. I'm checking it every 10 minutes initially, hopefully I can stabilize it and let it go for 3 hours before I add the ribs. It did stabilize at 225 for several hours.

I added the spare ribs to the top rack.

I did have to add a bit more charcoal, and wood to take this to 9 hours total.

Glaze with your favorite sauce.



















Plate up with some beans and slaw....

This was delicious, and it has a nice smoke ring.

The butt is cooling until I can shred it. Is it just me or does that sounds odd?

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Korean BBQ

Lets try this again, last time I bought the beef short ribs but they were the wrong cut for this, though they were excellent braised. This time,  I purchased the right ones.

I've been wanting to make this for a long time so finally we're going to. This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.com.  I scaled it as I have 1.5 lbs of short ribs. I'm sure the recipe isn't super authentic, b ut let's see what happens anyway.

Marinade Ingredients:
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

3-3/4 cloves garlic, chopped

2-1/4 green onions, chopped

4-1/2 teaspoons Asian (toasted) sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon sesame seeds

Make the marinade:
Whisk together the soy sauce and sugar in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved.

Stir in the black pepper, garlic, green onions, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.

For the ribs:
1-1/2 pounds Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick across bones)

Remove any extra fat, sprinkle with sugar and allow to rest 15 minutes.

Place the ribs in a large plastic sealable bag, and pour the marinade over the ribs. Squeeze out the air and seal.

Shake to coat the ribs with the marinade, and refrigerate. Massage the marinade into the ribs a few times, making sure all the meat contacts the marinade.

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.

Remove the ribs from the marinade, discard the marinade, and grill the ribs until brown and no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes per side.
 
Serve with Kimchee. The ribs were tender, salty/sweet. The sour pickle-like kimchee packed quite a wallop of chili heat. A really great combination. I'll make this again in the heat of the summer with an ice-cold beer!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Ribs - low and slow

Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day, a day of celebration, hot BBQ, and cold beer. To that end I'm going to make some ribs. Specifically pork ribs.

I have a rack of spare ribs  - cut off the sternum, as well as some baby back ribs which of course come from near the back. The spare ribs have more meat but many folks prefer the baby back.

The idea is to get the flavor on/in the ribs before cooking.
I made a quick rub:

RUB Recipe
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 TBS Coarse salt
1 TBS Sweet Spanish paprika "Dulce"
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Here it is in smokey glory

Next unpack and rinse the ribs, then remove the membrane from the bone side, turn them over and dry them well so the rub & smoke will adhere. The baby back are in the back in the photo and the spare ribs in the foreground.

Put a generous amount of the rub on the meat side. Some folks like to put it on the bone side as well, I think it is a waste.

At this point you could wrap them up and put them into the fridge up to over night. I don't have that luxury so I'll get them in the "smoker" now. I'm not trying to cook them in here, just get some flavor on them.

Here is my rigged cold smoker in my gas grill.

A small inexpensive hot plate, caste iron wood chip box, and maple chips. I hope it works.

Add the ribs and smoke for about an hour.

 

Now into the oven at 220 for 3 hours

 

Plus 2 hours at 250 with a little water in the pan.  Here's what they look like out of the oven. - That bald spot? Well, I HAD to test them!

Double wrap in foil and take to the party.

Crisp them up on the grill with your favorite BBQ sauce or eat them dry!

My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog  http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/