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Last weekend (June 2-4) the wives were out of town so we boys were on our own. Jay’s fence needed mending and his brother Jim is an expert carpenter so he volunteered to come down and take care of things. John is a top-notch handyman and helped with the construction. I am not handy. At all. I knew I’d be a hindrance so I helped by making dinner. Jay had bought some St Louis cut ribs and I quaked in my shoes a bit. I have a Weber Performer kettle grill that I hadn’t used as a barbecue smoker yet. Normally I’d like to practice on my own before tackling a project like this. But oh well. I figured they’d work so hard they’d be very hungry and eat whatever was put in front of them.

The night before I constructed a Kansas City barbecue sauce taken from Meathead Goldwyn’s  Amazing Ribs website. This is not my all time favorite sauce (a little sweet for me) but people gobble it up when I make it. We start with a plethora of ingredients. We dice the onion, mince the garlic, and combine the spices in a little bowl. Everything else gets mixed together.

Kansas City BBQ Sauce Ingredients

To pull it all together, we sauté the onion then add the garlic, then the spices. Then stir in the wet ingredients in and simmer for 15 minutes. Meathead doesn’t include the tamarind paste in the main body of the recipe but mentions it in the narrative. It’s a little expensive but definitely gives the sauce a better-than-your-average-backyard-bbq-sauce quality. You’ll find it in the Asian aisle of you local supermarket.

Meathead knows barbecue so I went all in with his Memphis meat dust rub.

Meathead’s Memphis Meat Dust rub – no salt

Notice there isn’t any salt in the ingredients. I think back in the day his rubs had salt included but it seems he’s changed his method. His approach now is to dry brine the ribs a few hours before cooking with a dusting of kosher salt. Then apply the rub shortly before you put the ribs on the grill. Okay. It’s easier than what I used to do: include the salt in the rub; apply rub to the ribs the night before and wrap with plastic wrap. That was way messy. The new approach is much easier. I applied the salt to the ribs around breakfast time.

St. Louis cut ribs are bigger than baby backs and can be identified by their distinctive rectangular shape. I figured I wasn’t going to get two racks to lay flat on my grill; much less three. So, I headed out to Orchard Supply Hardware to get a rib rack – it doesn’t take much to have an excuse to buy cooking gadgets. Even with the gadget, I thought three racks of these large ribs would be too much; so I set up a mini-competition with myself. I pulled out my Weber gasser for one of the racks.

I rubbed the ribs and started the grills. I mentioned in an earlier post that I have an ABC Barbecue “Slow ‘n Sear” attachment for my charcoal grill. It is a stainless steel semi-circular device that sits on top of the lower grill leaving space to put the top rack over it. The purpose is to create a two-zone cooking area; the charcoal briquettes go in the device and there is a double wall barrier providing a cooler second zone. For long slow cooks – like this one you can pour a quart of hot water in that double-wall barrier providing a better heat buffer and generating a bit of steam that helps the smoke adhere to the meat. Shoulda taken a picture – you can see it farther down.

2 Racks of St Louis Cut Ribs ready for the grill

Notice those binder clips on the grill? They are there to seal the lid forcing the smoke up and over the meat and out the top grill vent. Without it some smoke tends to leak out, especially where the grill probe cables go under the cover.

Here’s a look at the Slow ‘n Sear. If you look closely you can see the briquettes contained in their space along with the boiling water in the reservoir.

Close up(-ish) view of the Slow ‘n Sear

I adhere to the “if you are lookin’ you ain’t cookin”  philosophy of barbecue. Taking the lid off to check the meat cause’s the temperature to dive adding time to the cook. I have a probe that sits in the grill next to the meat to give me a good idea of the temperature at meat level. Heat rises – the hood thermometer will register up to 200° higher than the temperature down where the cooking is happening. For larger cuts of meat I also have a probe for the meat. With that information available, there should be little need to open the grill very much.

All the recipes I looked at said these can take up to six hours to cook so I needed to get the most of the 6 hours I had before dinner. The ribs go on the grills. Here they are a few hours later.  Um, I should have looked a little earlier after all.

St Louis Cut Ribs on the grill

1 rack of St Louis Cut Ribs on the Weber Gas Grill

The lower photo is the Weber Summit 670 gas grill. I have a drip pan with water directly underneath with only the rightmost burner going. On the left under the grill you can see a smoke tube I filled with Apple pellets and lit with a blow torch. The gas grill ribs look good; the kettle grill ribs are cooking a bit faster than I thought they would. That’s a nice way of saying they might burn.

After five hours they passed the bend test. Take some long tongs and grab the ribs lengthwise with the end of the tong about 1/3 to 1/2 down the rack. Pick them up; if the ribs start to break as they bend they are done. These were acing the test. At the end, I slathered on some sauce and grilled them on the direct side for about 30 seconds.

The racks were very dark on the outside. In barbecue we call that “having a good bark”. In this photo you can see they passed the bend test on the left side.

Direct grilling the ribs with sauce for a few seconds

I hoped they would taste better than they looked.

Did I mention I made some beans; you have to have side dishes with your barbecue. I made my standard beans, and added a smoked ham hock because I wasn’t going to make refried beans. Follow the first steps of the recipe, stopping at the refried bean part.

Pinto bean ingredients (plus a smoked ham hock

I brought the racks over to Jay’s house and cut them up into individual ribs. You can see the nice pink smoke ring on the rib in the rib on the lower right.

St Louis Cut Ribs ready for eating

Here I’m bringing them out to the picnic table on the back deck.

Your faithful blogger bringing ribs to the table

Dinner was served

Dinner is served. Ribs with beans and potato salad

Despite my initial worries and my later worries about over-cooking the ribs; they were a hit.

Not the best picture of Jim at all but he’s enjoying dinner. I should have waited until his mouth wasn’t full. Sorry Jim.

Jim caught with his mouth full (Sorry!)

Jay and John enjoyed dinner as well.

Jay and John enjoying dinner

A good time was had by all. Jim, John, and Jay had a little work on the fence to complete the next day before Jim headed back home.

One thing about low ‘n slow barbecue: you have to have an afternoon free to cook. On a nice summer day, this is a perfect activity. Grab a book and something to drink; sit on the deck and read while the meat cooks. I started the grills at noon and they were ready to eat at 5:30 – probably would have been perfect at 4:30 or 5:00. So, next time I’ll keep a better look at them. If you would like to see the cooking logs so you can get a better idea of the process, check out the Slow ‘n Sear cooking log here and the gas grill cooking log here. Cooking logs are essential to my barbecue. I can see what I did last time; how it went and take heed of the “Next Time” information.

July 28, 2017

I must be swayed by habits more than I think. Last week I posted how I usually grill a tri-tip early in the grilling season. This weekend I made brats with peppers and onions; turns out I made this on Memorial Day Weekend a few years ago. Regardless; it’s good and I thought I’d share again. It comes from 2008 Cook’s Illustrated [pay site] but I’ll share some of the highlights here.

This recipe is perfect for company: it’s easy to prep and you don’t have to sweat over the grill very much until the last few minutes. And the results are terrific. It’s absurdly easy; a couple of large onions. three bell peppers – yellow and red please, no green. Some brats, a bit of salt pepper and a few thyme sprigs and you are set.

Ingredients for brats with peppers and onions

Preheat your grill on high.

The onions need some help to cook down. Slice them in rings then microwave them with some salt, pepper, and thyme leaves for 5 or six minutes in a covered microwave safe bowl, turning once.

Here they are at the start.

Onion rings ready for the microwave.

And after a few minutes in the microwave they are much softer

Onion slices out of the microwave and ready for the grill pan.

While the onions are cooking down, quarter the peppers. Layer everything in the pan and cover with aluminum foil. Scrape down the grill and reduce the heat to medium-ish. Place the covered tray in the middle of the grill for 15 minutes.

Let’s talk grill brushes for a moment. Last summer I joined a Kickstarter campaign for the Grillinator Grill Brush (I don’t get a commission or any consideration for this review). I got it late winter and have used it a couple of times the past two weeks. It’s amazing. I’m not sure if it will last longer than others but it does an excellent job cleaning. I ran the brush over the grill a couple of times and all the crud disappeared. Take a look at the bristles on that thing! They had a delay originally because the twisted wires didn’t keep a good enough clamp on the bristles; but they’ve fixed that problem. If you are looking for a grill brush this season; try this one.

Grillinator grill brush

Brats with peppers and sausages in the grill pan.

You can see the onions have cooked down a bit more helped with the fat from the brats.  Can we talk brats for a minute. The ones on the left are from our local New Season’s Market. They used to be the gold standard. Then we found Olympia Provisions; oh, they make good stuff. Their cured meats like salami and sopressata are heavenly. I picked up three of their bratwursts (also sold in New Seasons) along with the standards. No contest; the Olympia Provisions sausages were the hands down champions. They remind me of the street brats I ate in Germany on a trip in 1973. I’ve been trying to find something close to them for years – and now here they are right in my home town. The grind is very fine and the spices are a perfect mixture. They are almost good enough for you to sell your house, quit your job and move to Portland. Almost; I recommend visiting and trying them out first.

Anyway, after 15 minutes remove the aluminum foil cover and put the brats and peppers directly on the grill and let the onions continue to cook down.

Brats and peppers out of the pan and into the fire

I cut the fire under the brats so they wouldn’t flame – they still get a nice color. Flip the brats and peppers and stir the onions every couple of minutes  until everything looks done. The brats are probably cooked through, but you might want to use a quick read thermometer to be sure.

Put it all on a platter; serve, and delight your guests. We had no guests to delight; the big family party will be at one of my niece’s homes tomorrow.

A platter of brats with onions and peppers

And dinner is served. It was so nice out; we sat at the outside table we set up earlier in the day. Traditionally this is served on a bun; but I don’t need the bread. Also, the corn on the cob was cooked in my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker – 3 minutes on high pressure with 2 cups of water followed by quick pressure release.

Dinner is served. Corn on the cob with brats, onions, and peppers.

And here is the random picture of the day.

Rating: ★★★★

As I said above; this is great for company. Here is a copy of the recipe I keep for personal use.

May 21, 2017

We’ve had a few days of beautiful weather in the Portland (Oregon) region; it’s very welcome after the cold and wet winter and early spring we had. Our local school districts had nine (count them 9!) school closure days for snow this past winter. Normally we get maybe one day off of work/school in the winter due to snow. It was a stone drag. We really aren’t set up for snow in the metro area so an accumulation of snow really messes things up. Then we had record wet in March and April – hey this is Portland, so record rain is a serious amount of rain. But like I said, it’s been nice for a few days and the 7-day forecast is more of the same. (Feel free to tease me if I start complaining about the heat later this week.)

And every late spring when I get the grills out, tri-tip is at the forefront of my mind. You can search for it on my site for an interesting (?) trip through my grill history over the years. Tri-tip it is then. It was just the two of us for dinner so I got a 1.5 lb roast at our local New Seasons Market which has great meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables.

I’m a California boy so I always cook tri-tip the same way – Santa Maria rub of kosher salt,  granulated garlic, onion powder, black pepper, white pepper, and red (cayenne) pepper. And I baste it with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Santa Maria rub ingredients for Tri-tip

Then put a nice thick coating on the roast.

Tri-tip with Santa Maria rub applied

While that sits for a bit, fire up the grill. I use a Slow ‘n Sear attachment from ABC Barbecue [I do not receive anything for my recommendations]  to keep the briquettes on one side. It’s great for barbecue; you can get a nice low temperature that will maintain for up to 8 hours. This cook uses a hotter grill for a much shorter time.

Charcoal ready to be fired up on the Weber Performer

Don’t worry about that rusty looking grate. Once the briquettes go in, I slap the grill on and then brush it and oil it.

The tri-tip roast goes on the indirect side and we work to keep the grill temperature at 350° Don’t depend on the thermometer at the top of the lid – it gets real hot up there. We want to maintain the temperature at the grill level – you can see the probe in the next picture. When it registers 350° the thermometer in the lid is registering well over 550°

Tri-tip on the indirect side of the grill

Oh, and for authentic Santa Maria tri-tip you need to use oak wood chunks. I let the grill get a little hotter than the target but it’s all good. It was done in about 45 minutes.

Tri-tip ready to slice

Slicing tri-tip can be a bit tricky; you need to slice it against the grain and there are two sets of grains in this roast. For best results cut it in half the short way right where the convex and concave portions of the roast are – about half way. Then rotate the piece on the left about 90° to slice. The smaller piece on the right can be cut crosswise from the small end to the big end. That’s harder to say than to do. I have 3 tips for you if you are just getting started.

1. Take a good look at the roast before you put the rub on – maybe take a picture. Make a note of the grains to envision how you’ll cut it. Then when it is done; orient the cooked roast on the cutting board the same way you had it when you prepared it. Go from there.
2. Watch this quick Youtube video for a graphical demonstration.
3. Cut those little ends off and eat them before they get on the serving plate. Hey, you did the work, you get a treat! Similar to burnt ends on a brisket. Yum.

Once it’s sliced, serve it up. We had a great jicama, corn, and black bean salad to go along with it. A tasty simple meal for a beautiful day. The rub really makes this dish; it is so peppery.  I think I got the rub recipe proportions from Amazing Ribs; but my original link doesn’t bring up the same rub; Meathead must have changed the way he cooks it.  No worries; you can find my recipe here. And if you are interested I’ve  posted my cooking log here. You can see I had the grill running hotter than I wanted. The right way to go about it is to get the grill completely set up and spend a few minutes getting the temperature right, then put the meat on. I was too anxious to eat I guess. Like I said, no worries; it tasted great.

Rating: ★★★★ An excellent choice for serving company – simple and delicious