Hot Off The Press!!!

I am very excited to announce that my first book is officially published and is now available!

Enjoy!

You can get the book in the basic store or on amazon

Sauce, Sauce, Sauce

If you have never ventured into the realm of homemade BBQ sauce you really should, it is just as rewarding as a perfectly smoked brisket. Sauce is easy and fun to make.

First thing I would suggest is start small (small saucepan, small amount, etc) and TAKE NOTES!!! It never fails the one time you strike gold you forgot to write down ingredient measurements. So make sure and keep notes and write down what you do so when you create that prefect masterpiece you can re-create it again and again.

Now just like the foundation of my secret rub recipe is Salt, Pepper, Sugar, and a distribution agent (Wheat Flour), the foundation of BBQ sauce is pretty much just as simple Salt, Pepper, Sugar, distribution agent (Ketchup). Ketchup is your foundation that all the other flavors and spices attach to. Now when it comes to the core elements of heat and sweet the possibilities are endless. I have tried ALL different kinds of heat and sweet agents from plain old black pepper to grandma’s homemade peach preserves. So you can make your sauce as simple or complex as you want. My daughter and I have so much fun when we make sauce. She has the most important job of constantly stirring the sauce (she says that is the secret to good sauce). My suggestion is start simple and then tweak as you go, just remember all sauce really is when you get down to the core is ketchup, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Use the following recipe as a baseline for your first attempt at homemade BBQ sauce. Simmer the following ingredients in a saucepan for 5 to 10min, then start to add your own elements for added spiciness or sweetness, sample as you go and tweak till you have a finished product you like. Remember to write down what you add, and add small amounts at a time. Have fun with it, this process is the exact process I used when I came up with my secret Original BBQ Sauce recipe and my Black Label BBQ Sauce.

1cup – Ketchup

2 tablespoons – Brown sugar

½ teaspoon – Kosher salt

½ teaspoon – Black pepper

Newcomers

To those of you that are new to BBQ or are still trying to get the hang of this amazing and rewarding hobby I just want to say welcome. As we start to enter the perfect BBQ weather and more and more people are starting to stop at the smokers on display at the local stores, more and more people are looking for help. Well you have found it! As you look through the pages on this blog you will quickly see that the soul purpose of this blog is to help you, to guide you through the choppy waters of traditional slow smoked BBQ.

As I get questions from newcomers to the BBQ world I want to draw your attention to the first post that started this bloq “Bake or Broil, Smoke or Grill” this post is foundational in understanding what slow smoked BBQ is. Moving from backyard burgers to slow smoked brisket is somewhat of a paradigm shift and this post helps get you in the proper mindset to set the stage for success.

The BBQ Manual

I am very excited to say that the current manuscript for my first book is currently being edited and reviewed, so it should not be much longer and "The BBQ Manual" will be available for purchase through Amazon. The book will be a hard copy of the pages and articles found on this site some of the content has been expanded but it was more or less created for those that want a hard copy of the content found on this site. It is also an answer to my bookshelf that has been begging for a book written by yours truly for years.

It has been awhile since I have posted any how-to's, videos or tips, I have been busy in a new position at work and weather has not been cooperating with my desired BBQ efforts. I am working to address a few questions I have received via e-mail and plan to write them up into full blown posts not just generic e-mail replies, so keep those e-mails coming!

I am always looking for ways to expand this blog but want to keep it in line with it's intent to provide information on slow smoked BBQ NOT grilling.

 

Ribs Start to Finish

As most of you know, if you can’t make ribs, you can’t make BBQ. So to seal up the title of pit master its time to start working on mastering those BBQ ribs. My outline is based around beef back ribs (more information about cuts), however just like my outline for brisket also works for pork shoulder my outline for beef ribs works just as well on pork spare ribs. When picking out a rack I typically I look for a rib that has good marbling or a nice even mix of fat and meat. Now for my cooking process it is pretty simple, low and slow just like traditional BBQ should be. I use a method that is commonly referred to as 3-2-1 (or as Shawn likes to say, 3-2-1-plate-stomach), three hours naked (not in foil) two hours dressed (wrapped in foil), and one last hour naked. I use this as a baseline, and adjust as needed. The two hours dressed is where the ribs really get tender, so if you like your ribs fall of the bone try two or maybe a little more, the last hour is used merely to firm the ribs and the dry rub back up so your not eating pot roast on a stick, if you like your ribs smothered in sauce you can add your sauce in the last 5 to 10 min so the sugar in the sauce will caramelize around the ribs.

Step 1: Get your fire started.

You should know this by now and it should be habit, but just in case you forgot don’t waste time playing around start working on getting your temp up to heat. For this example you are going to be looking for a temp around 200 - 250.

                Step 2: Prepping the ribs.

The first thing you must do is de-membrane the ribs. With your ribs turned over (bone side up) you will see a layer of membrane that covers the back side of your ribs. You want to take this membrane off so you won’t have to eat shoe leather. The best process I have found is to take a butter knife and get one corner started, once you have enough started that you can grab it, use a paper towel and pull the membrane off (otherwise you will be fighting the membrane longer than it take to cook ribs). Once you have removed all the membrane from the back of you ribs you can now precede with coving the ribs with my famous secret rub.

               

Step 3: Naked.

Now with the smoker up to heat and your ribs covered in rub you can put your ribs on the smoker. I typically place them bone side down, however I have not found that bone side up or down makes much difference. So this first trip naked is going to be three hours at the desired 200 – 250 degrees, this is when the ribs grab most of the smoke flavor so this is one of the most important times to watch your smoke level and make sure you are working with that thin blue line.

                Step 4: Dressed

After the three hours naked its time to wrap your ribs in foil, this is when most of the cooking really happens. Now you can keep your ribs naked the entire process but just like the brisket I don’t find any value in doing so, it will only add to your cook time. Note since this is when the cooking really happens you can back off or add to as you see fit. If you like your ribs falling off the bone (pot roast on a stick) let them go longer, if you like your ribs to have some form to them try cutting the time down, either way just take a peek in the foil and see if they are cooked the way you like them, once they are then move on to the last step.

                Step5: Dressed

As you probably noticed your ribs are very moist and your rub has turned almost soggy, this is where the last naked hour comes in. It gives the rub exposure to a dryer heat and lets the ribs and rub firm up just a bit, bringing them back to a state of palatability. Here again watch your fire and your smoke, with all that moisture if there is any kind of dragoon lurking in your smoker (creosote) it will gravitate to the moisture and ruin your ribs.

                And there you have it, the simplest ribs you can make that yield the best results. I have tried ribs using just about every method from boiling to mustard covered and this is by far is the easiest way to make some of the best ribs you will ever eat. Enjoy!

The Cuts

                So I was sitting here just having a discussion with some friends of mine about ribs, beef ribs in particular. In NE Oklahoma when it comes to ribs EVERYONE thinks pork ribs typically spare ribs. I however prefer and love a good plate of beef ribs. So that got us in the discussion of the different cuts and butcher terms. If you buy beef from a butcher or have a cow processed there are two man things you want to make very clear, you want your brisket untrimmed (fat cap still on, also known as a packer style), and you want to make sure it has both the flat and point attached (you don’t want them separated). When it comes to your ribs you will most likely have to request the ribs (especially in NE Oklahoma) you will want to specifically request “Back Ribs”, these are the big ribs (Fred Flintstone style). I have included a chart of the different cuts, and where they are on the cow. When it comes to slow smoked BBQ you are looking at Brisket, Ribs and roasts. I will cover roasts at another time in more detail.

Smoker Maintenance

It’s just started raining here in NE Oklahoma and it got me thinking about a few things everyone might want to consider when it comes to maintaining your smoker.

First don’t leave ashes in your smoker ESPICALLY during wet season, the ashes will actually draw the moisture into your smoker and in turn expedite a bad case of cancer (rust).

It’s always a good idea to also spray any hinges latches etc with WD-40 or something of the like. On a semi regular basis, TRUST me you would MUCH rather stay ahead of rusted shut hinges or latches than trying to recover from them. 

Last is covers….I am actually not a big fan of covers, if you do insist on covering your smoker make sure it is WELL ventilated, smokers that are covered for extended periods of time end up trapping moisture in and because they do not get enough air circulation the moisture is unable to evaporate. This is why I normally just give my smoker a GOOD cleaning (spot paint, etc) and make sure the fire box is completely cleaned out for the winter season.

Any of you that know me, know that my smoker is pretty much going year round, like the cheese and olives I COLD smoked in the blizzard of 2008….good times. Anyway just a few off the tops I thought I would share.

Also worth noting if you have a new smoker, it is always a good idea to season the cooking chamber. This process is pretty much the same as season any kind of cast iron cookware, you are going to coat the inside with any kind of oil, you can use spray (pam, etc) or beef fat, whatever you want (it don’t affect any kind of taste so use whatever you have on hand or whatever is cheap) once all the cooking chamber surfaces are coated you will then just fire up the smoker and heat it to about 250 degrees. This will turn that oil into a nice protective coating that will more or less repel any water.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/