The BBQ, Grilling and Cooking Thread

[mophead]

I was off-topic in planter's NELEM II thread talking about cooking pig and such, even though I'm not going / can't make it to the event. BUT, but we ought to have a thread to talk about BBQ, smoking, grilling and cooking in general. Mystrys and I cook and I know several other members are in the food biz. Even if you are not in the service industry, talk about what you like, cook well, enjoy eating and so on and so forth.

Me personally, I like me some smoked stuff, grilled stuff; enough to brave temperatures in the teens to grill some fish and chicken last night.

What'cha got? Discuss. Nom nom nom nom nom nommy.....

Food is just like light, we need both to survive.

[Galvonaut]

Oh great - thanks Mophead - I'm hungry now and it's 2330

I'm a great fan of cooking - my 2 favourite dishes to cook are probably lasagne and banoffee pie. I'm quite partial to wood pigeon but don't get that often now I am unarmed and also venison - the trick with venison is to drench it in butter ...nom nom

I'm sure I'll revisit this thread and it will inspire me to eat more - er, I mean cook more!

Keith

[ImageLight]

Nothing like southern smoked brisket left in the pit for 7 or 8 hours... Of coarse the BBQ sauce better be bangin too!!!

[Bradfo69]

I heartily agree since this is the section for anything and everything else. And being a caterer kinda helps too! Thumbs up for the whole grillin', smoking and barbequing thing. I'm partial to Weber kettle grills along with various hardwood charcoals for much of what I do on a personal level. Not a big fan of gas for outdoor cooking - except pure grilling. But gas for an inside kitchen is a must. I don't do nearly the amount of kitchen work/cooking that I used to but, as you can guess... when the time does come to be in the kitchen, just like lasers, I've got all kinds of gadgets! LOL

Oh, and cookbooks??? Yeah... hundreds.

[Stiffler]

While I do love me some brisket (and ribs, and chicken, and pork), I prefer a good rub over actual BBQ sauce.

[planters]

The outdoor aspect and the event with the preparation ,unusual equipment, "cook in charge", smells and long wait is at least 1/2 of it. A good sandwich and I mean a really good deli sandwich tastes great, but you can eat it in the car and just doesn't compare to an outdoor extravaganza.

I went back to the NELEM II thread and all the food was gone! So, to partially hijack this back for a second, this suggests the date for the meeting shouldn't be so early in the spring that it's too uncomfortable to cook outside. But not so late that it might be too hot in the arena and uncomfortable inside.

[TechJunkie]

Cooking with TJ

[shrad]

for BBQs the best I cand think of is pork ribs, or better beef ribs, that you boil with spices and soja sauce for 45 minutes, while boiling you make a sauce with half evaporated coke for it to caramelize along with honey or maple sirup, worcestershire sauce, soja saus, tabasco or even mashed pepers, brown sugar, etc... to the proportions you prefer, and reduce it to 1/2 so it is a browny caramel... then add half the quantity of fresh coke to liquefy

once the meat is cooked and cold, let it sit in the sauce overnight in the fridge and grill it in the BBQ, and pour some sauce regularly to caramelize it on the fire... these are the best ribs I know of, which detach without effort under the teeth and are juicy as hell

[mophead]

At our house, I cook the meat, and mystrys cooks most everything else. Not that she can't cook protein, she can - and she's good at it, but I prefer to. I'm with you guys, I don't use gas much at all. Gas grills can be made to taste like 'coal, but I prefer charcoal anyday. Brickettes or lump charcoal? Depends on what i'm cooking and a few other factors. For long smoking always lump and hickory wood, for a quick grilling something, kingsford works ok. Not the best, but ok. NO lighter fluid. I like a charcoal chimney, they are as quick as lighter fluid with none of the solvent taste.

I'll share a few of the rubs I use. Yes, I like dry rubs more than wet BBQ, personal preference. Nothing wrong with sauce on the side, or a small mopping in the last hour of cooking, but me, Memphis dry all the way.

For beef I use: (all by volume)
1.5 parts salt
1.5 parts dehydrated garlic powder
2.0 parts black pepper
1.0 parts roasted and ground cumin (roast in a skillet, then grind in a spice grinder / coffee grinder)

That's pretty good for most all beef, grilled or otherwise. I like to gook on a hot, HOT fire for grilling. Wet the meat with some Worcestershire and use the beef seasoning.... A good amount of it, but not coated completely, followed by a spray of olive oil from a refillable oil mister. <-- Saves money on the spray oil. Great for steaks. We like ours Pittsburgh.

Chicken and pork rub....
2 parts beef rub
1 part cumin
1 part paprika (good paprika, not the cheap crap)
1 part chili powder (light, dark, smoked.... your choice)

We use this on pretty much all chicken and pork (except smoked butts -- completely different post)

Grilled chicken: Possible the best grilled chicken you'll ever try, my opinion.
about 3-4 Tbs of sesame oil (one volume)
same amount of olive oil (one volume)
2 volumes of soy sauce...

whisk it, it should emulsify, then add a good amount of the chicken seasoning, whisk again. It is not a marinade, more of just a coating. If you marinade the chicken in it, it'll be way too strong. 5-15 mins max. If you choose to taste the bare marinade, it taste like crap. It really does, although it does the chickens justice.

If you are using boneless/skinless thighs, as is. If using breasts, butterfly them where you have 2 thinner pieces but still attached in the center. Grill them hot and fast. Keep the fire hot, grill lid closed, turn them once, lid closed again and then pull them off.

If y'all want more of this, I'll keep putting it out there. Lemme know

[hakzaw1]

I have had Mopheads pulled pork made with much love and he and the 'Mrs' have it down to a fine science.

my Competitive cook-off team has been doing contests for 16 years and i have been on the team since 1999. WE only use our gas 'flame thrower' to start the aged oak or pecan (in four smokers)we allow to age the wood at least one year. We do use a good brand of charcoal only in our fajitas cooker to get the higher temp.

We cook our heavily marinade injected briskets ( about 30 of them each year) for a min of 10 hours then foil wrap and allow to rest a min. of one hour before the judges come to witness the cutting and take away our four entries- in 2012 we got a 1500$ check and first place from 140 cuts.

We also do well with our ribs(abour 60 sides) and the 'open' category called the 'friday nite feast' No 'sales' is permitted at this Brazoria County Fair Cook -Off so we give away all the meat and sides and pass out around 21 Kegs of beer over the three day affair. Any from here may come -you are invited- this happens around mid October in Angelton Tx.

check out our old 'site' it got full a few years back so since then our new pics go up only at FBook find us, and friend us, and 'like' us, The Pitmeisters

pitmeisters.mysite copypasta that in your browser.

click on any in the blue box then click the pics for a larger view.

Our 'booth' is by far the most popular of all there. With around 2000 passing thru on Crazy Night (Fri)

hak