The Ultimate BBQ Thread

[Trollhole]

Anything and everything that is related to cooking low and slow and using smoke.

If you think BBQ is throwing a burger or hotdog on a grill please take your post elsewhere. Thats grilling.

Pics, recipes, methods, woods, and meats are all fair game.

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I'll start.

120-150 lb pig. Whole hog. Head optional. As fat as I can find it from my local meat processor. I can always trim fat off, hard to add more.

Injected with Cider Vinegar. Heinz is what I use. No cheap stuff. Injection consist of Cider Vinegar, coke, Freshly ground pepper, Kosher salt, brown sugar, and ginger. Brought to a boil then let cool. Injected 1 hr before it goes on. Then rub pig with a light coating of butter, red pepper, Kosher salt, Paprika, and a dab of Garlic, 1 box of Dark brown Sugar on top of that making sure to leave areas bare for good smoke penetration.

Get cooker up to 250 and throw it on skin side down. After 1hr reduce temp of cooker to 225. I cook over coals from a burn barrel. Wood consists of mainly pecan, white oak, and cherry. Coals only no raw wood. Only raw wood thrown in is hickory. Hickory has to be fresh but not green. I like it aged around 3 months. Smoke should be constant. My cooker has a water tank which adds moisture as well as provides a good heat sink to keep temp steady.

Mop every hr. Mop consists of aplle juice, cider vinegar, with about 7 types of dried pepper added, kosher salt, butter and dark brown sugar. Mop stays in the cooker the whole time. I think it gets better and better as it sits in the smoke and is hot when when applied.

When temp in the butt and shoulders reaches around 140 you can stop adding Hickory. The meat will not be able to draw anymore smoke after this temp is reached. I cook until the butt and shoulders reach 180. Pulled by hand.

Sauces will come in another post.

[NorCalDoug]

kick ass!

['74 UA FJ]

Great thread idea!

[Texx]

Pork and sweet sauce...GAG! Barbecue is Beef Brisket, rubbed and slow smoked...any Texan can tell you that!

[Capocaccia]

I live in memphis.

[NorCalDoug]

Originally Posted by Capocaccia

I live in memphis.

I've been to memphis.

alls I can say is, "I'm sorry."

[TheJackRabbit]

Heinz is what I use

That sounds really good except for that part aboout the liberal democrat with the phony German accent who married that shyster gigalo, Kerry.

BTW, here in northern New Mexico, we would subsitute a young goat for the hog. Still, it sounds great. Please let me know when itis ready and I will be along directly!

[cary]

My only suggestion, make sure you use wood charcoal and take your time. IMHO, using petroleum based charcoal (i.e. kingsford) is no better than using a gas grill and in many cases worse.

['74 UA FJ]

Originally Posted by cary

My only suggestion, make sure you use wood charcoal and take your time. IMHO, using petroleum based charcoal (i.e. kingsford) is no better than using a gas grill and in many cases worse.

Kingsford, imo, is much better than a gas grill as far as taste goes.

[Texx]

You guys sure got alot of learning to do. Charcoal, shmarcoal. Mesquite wood is the way to go! And it's growing right outside my door!

[woooody]

Marshall -- very impressive.

BBQ is definitely a regional thing. When I traveled for my job, I hit as much BBQ as I could. I really like the tomato based sauces (KC). I don't really care for the vinegar style, or the mustard style. But to each their own.

My current set up is a Weber Ranch Kettle. Baby backs and tri-tip. I like piling the coals in the middle, and ringing the out side with half racks. The tri tips cook closer to the center.

My marinade prep on the ribs is a mixture or Montreal Steak seasoning and Lemon Pepper and fresh minced garlic and Worcester Sauce for 24 - 36 hours. BBQ sauce is a mixture of Cattleman's smoky and Kinder's Hot -- There is also a "wayland's" sauce, but I haven't found it for a couple of years.

[SOCALFJ]

Wow, you guys are making me feel like a pansy over here. I bbq almost every night of the week. I dont know anyone that uses their grill as much as i do. It's a addiction. I use both gas, charcoal and i have a water smoker too. Biggest thing i do is 2 rottisserrie chickens at the same time with some small veggies. I guess i don't have room for a pig or else i'd try it!

I'll have to post up some pics and info tonight of my home bbq'ing and jerky.

For now, here's a tri-tip and some cheddarwursts we did on the last trip out to the desert.

[woooody]

Could you get a smaller Weber?

[BHMCruiser]

Just so we're defining our terms properly, cooking meat on the grill is not necessarily bbq. For instance, in no circumstances is cooking any sort of sausage bbq. Furthermore, grilling a steak is not bbq. IMO, bbq is the art of taking a large piece of meat and cooking it in such a way that the smoke is an integral part of the finished product. It is impossible to bbq with anything other than wood, or possibly charcoal; no gas.

So:

ribs over mesquite = bbq
hot dogs over propane = not bbq

Any bbq'ers care to weigh in?

[SOCALFJ]

Originally Posted by woooody

Could you get a smaller Weber?

Dude we're in the middle of BFE.. what you want me to do, tow a freaken 20 foot smoker behind me up the rocks?

[Trollhole]

Using wood to smoke meat=BBQ in this thread.

Smoked pork
Smoked sausage
Smoked beef
Smoked chicken
Smoked goat (if that is what gets your rocks off)

Ribs can be discussed but not if it takes you less than an hr to cook them.

Though I think it's taboo to smoke with an electric or gas smoker it will be allowed.

[BHMCruiser]

Originally Posted by Trollhole

Using wood to smoke meat=BBQ in this thread.

Smoked pork
Smoked sausage
Smoked beef
Smoked chicken
Smoked goat (if that is what gets your rocks off)

Ribs can be discussed but not if it takes you less than an hr to cook them.

Though I think it's taboo to smoke with an electric or gas smoker it will be allowed.

I am amazed that you would even consider including sausage and excluding ribs.

By your criteria, is smoked salmon bbq?

[Trollhole]

Originally Posted by BHMCruiser

I am amazed that you would even consider including sausage and excluding ribs.

By your criteria, is smoked salmon bbq?

By my terms fish is excluded.

I understand where you are coming from and yes Sausage is not something you pull or cut up neither are ribs. But they go with BBQ so well. I always throw a couple dozen hot italian sausages on the pig. Around 2 in the morning they provide a great way of soaking up all the beer I drank that night. Ribs are also a great side food for BBQ.

[BHMCruiser]

Originally Posted by Trollhole

By my terms fish is excluded.

I understand where you are coming from and yes Sausage is not something you pull or cut up neither are ribs. But they go with BBQ so well. I always throw a couple dozen hot italian sausages on the pig. Around 2 in the morning they provide a great way of soaking up all the beer I drank that night. Ribs are also a great side food for BBQ.

I cannot agree with you. Ribs in my book are barbecue, and sausage is not. But hey, those are the kinds of differences that make the world go 'round.

[yooper]

Originally Posted by cary

My only suggestion, make sure you use wood charcoal and take your time. IMHO, using petroleum based charcoal (i.e. kingsford) is no better than using a gas grill and in many cases worse.

Originally Posted by '74 UA FJ

Kingsford, imo, is much better than a gas grill as far as taste goes.

Kingsford should be bankrupted and all their factories burned down, using up all the charcoal lighter fluid in the world to do the job. That shit is vile.


VERY thread idea. Let's hear some more recipes and maybe equipment recommendations. I'm in the market for a BBQ/smoker. Does anyone know if the CharBroil smokers are up to the old New Braunfels standards?

[Degnol]

Originally Posted by cary

My only suggestion, make sure you use wood charcoal and take your time. IMHO, using petroleum based charcoal (i.e. kingsford) is no better than using a gas grill and in many cases worse.

Kingsford was the name of one of Henry Ford's sons-in-law. Henry had a pile of oak scraps from the off-fall from cutting top bows from Model As. He was the original enviornmentalist/cheapskate and financed a charcoal plant and let Kingsford run/manage/own it. All the charcoal was made from the oak..............it was good honest charcoal. Then the Clorox Company bought it and it is now made from petroleum sludge and sand. Yeah, it lights, but it sucks.

I use lump charcoal or briquettes made from hardwood. You will not find the word "hardwood" anywhere on a bag of Kingsford.


JMO


Ed

[decavo]

I built a gas smoker the gas keeps a steady heat and the smoke flovors the meat and steam when i need it ..



beef brisket :

trim the fat off of it not all

grate up some ginger and fresh garlic add some mushroon soy sauce some dried hot pepper and chunk in a bag over night or a few days .. what ever ...smoke turn it every 30 min for 3 hours or so .. wrap it in thick cut country bacon and wrap it all in tin foil put it back on the heat for a few hours turn every 30 min ..open up slice it up and pour on your fave bbq sauce or not and the bacon is kick but mixed it there

[NorCalDoug]

I'd love to get a real nice smoker eventually. I almost picked up a kamado a couple years ago, but I had to change my plans.

For my bbqing needs I use my 22" Weber kettle. It works well enough and I can manage to control the temperature fairly well, but I will upgrade in the future.

I've bbq'd ribs, brisket, and porkshoulder. Tri-tip has seen time on my bbq as well...but I've found that too much time on the bqq causes tri-tip to dry out. Occasionally, I'll do a pork loin...but like the tri-tip, it has a tendency to dry out if on too long.

With pork, I'll usually brine the ribs, loin, shoulder, etc. first. I haven't injected anything yet, but would like to give it a shot (so to speak) eventually. I have a dry rub that I make up (I'll post the recipe/formula when I dig it up) for my meat.

I have a weber genesis grill for quick-n-dirty grilling needs...and although we're not talking about grilling, I have been able to slow cook quite a few things on it (adding soaked hickory chunks or some decent cherry wood chunks from a cherry tree I cut down a few years ago for some smoke when appropriate).

[woooody]

Originally Posted by Trollhole

Using wood to smoke meat=BBQ in this thread.

Smoked pork
Smoked sausage
Smoked beef
Smoked chicken
Smoked goat (if that is what gets your rocks off)

Ribs can be discussed but not if it takes you less than an hr to cook them.

Though I think it's taboo to smoke with an electric or gas smoker it will be allowed.

It's funny how regional this is. Am I OK at 2 - 2 1/2 hours for ribs?

It seems out west, as log as it's not gas, it's BBQ. In the south, only smoked is BBQ. Again, regional differences.

Texican brought some brisket to Surf and Turf last year.... I've never found anything quite like that in California.