Seriously, start with something simple and cheap, like chicken leg quarters. Pull back the skin, sprinkle with a little pepper or cajun seasoning, put the skin back in place, give the piece of a meat a light coating of canola oil spray, add more seasoning, cook both sides on 400 until the thickest part of the meat (thigh) reaches 170. You can add a brushing of barbecue sauce at 155-160, if you like.
One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was when my brother in law got a smoker for Christmas. All the smoked food, none of time it takes (him) to smoke it.
Fan of the vinegar based sauces myself. Childhood spent in western Kentucky where pulled pork is second only to country ham. BBQ always first for me. I would ask for city ham (not spoiled or anything). Very enjoyable read. Thank you!
True story: I often see a place that serves the generically named "Carolina BBQ." That always hickory-smokes my gourd. I'm from piedmont North Carolina (ketchup-based), and Eastern North Carolina (vinegar-based) and South Carolina (mustard-based) are all highly different. So, there is no such thing as "Carolina BBQ." When I see that display, I mess with them. Badly. It tells me they don't know what they're talking about, so the barbecue they're selling is a fraud.
No mutton bbq in Trigg County where I lived. Owensboro is known for it. They sell both mutton and pork at the St. Jerome Church festival at Fancy Farm on the first Saturday in August. They allow two hours of political speeches on that day. I took pictures of the pits when I went. Only one sauce. Vinegary and very thin. Yeah, people love to put everything in boxes.
Thanks, my second career is many things that I enjoy—photography, self-publishing books for writers, and developing and editing content. Barbecue is a hobby. I generally smoke for the customer base 9-10 times a year. Super Bowl Sunday is my biggest day. It's bonkers, actually. The surprise is the number of people who want barbecue the weekends after Thanksgiving and Christmas. They've had their fill of turkey and ham, so prime smoked hawg sells like crazy. Go figure.
Pick up a bag of wood chips (around $5), fill the smoker box with chips, then fill it with water, put on the lid, and let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water, place the smoker box in one of the back corners, and turn up the burner on that side of the grill to high. It will take 15 minutes or so for the smoker box to heat and emit smoke. When it does, place your meat and turn down that heat for your cook.
I plan to pick one up as well, but I've smoked things on my charcoal grill in the past by just putting the wood chips in aluminum foil and poking holes in the top for the smoke to escape when the wood begins to smolder.
Great stuff. I have Weber smoker that has done me well for years. Seems like finishing pulled pork on a skillet to crisp it up a little adds some flavor. Still need to do beef ribs.
Interesting read. Good looking, mouth watering stuff. A pig can be cooked so many ways, and the taste is amazing just about every time. The lemon juice tip is one I like to use. One question, though:
When's the last time you had your cholesterol checked? Might wanna keep an eye on it. Cuz this stuff is off the charts in saturated fats. Jez sayin'.
Thanks to my cardiologist, my cholesterol is just fine, thanks. But the truth is I eat very little of the barbecue that I cook. As the old saying goes, don't eat your profits. The way my driveway business works is I email a menu to my customer base when I'm running the smokers, they order, and that's what I fix. They come by and pick up their orders. Sometimes there's enough left for a couple of sammiches and some sides, but that's about it. Technically, I sell out every smoke.
Oh, that changes everything. I thought you were cooking for family (and friends). I'm thinking, gawd, that's a lot to eat over a summer. Got it. Glad you are keeping an eye on the ol ticker. The pay off is enormous.. We get to live longer.😄
Acute overconsumption of refined carbohydrates is mainly where the dangerous systemic cholesterol is produced. Your body can handle dietary fat consumption fairly well. I'm surprised you don't know this
I did know that. I'm surprised you assume I didn't.
The limit on daily saturated fats should be around 10%. Over that and your bad chloresterol LDL goes up. You can eat whatever you want. It was just a priviso.
I fell into the well of low heat, slow smoke, chemistry cook decades ago and haven’t hit water yet. There is always more rainbow at the end of the rainbow when folks start dealing out their techniques. Kept waiting for how you occupy yourself during “the stall,” and dishing on the magic that happens during that smoke show, but you didn’t go there. That slab has crazy awesome caramelization. And as I recall, the Inn pressure cooks, then finishes on 1000 degree grill/oven for toothy char.
That caramelization is the bark, and I do that on all my ribs and pork butts. People love the bark, especially with the pieces mixed with their sammiches ($5) or 1-pound bags of pulled pork ($12). I also use some of the fatty pieces and bark in my spicy cowpoke beans, which I could sell by the trough if I had a commercial kitchen. The beans are slow-cooked over mesquite for 2 hours for that campfire flavor, and that added flavor of the bark makes them irresistible after the beans have settled for an hour. These beans are a meal by themselves. They're fairly incredible. I'm quite proud of my work on this side.
Oh, I know what it is, I just can’t reproduce it on ribs like that. Smooth as glass, even as Steven. Brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, and a bunch of 250 degree smoke, and then stuff you’re keepin’ in your pocket. Magical. I can buckle knees with a butt and the occasional brisket, when properly motivated. I can smoke a Thanksgiving turkey that both crackles and cries when you slice into it. A couple $.99/lb. chickens become the centerpiece of Sunday dinner, and the following week’s smoked chicken salad. Bad salmon is great lox. But that pic above eludes me. Kudos.
Smoked chicken salad is on my list because, selfishly, I would eat a lot of that product.
I don't sell brisket, get asked about it all the time. Brisket is great to make at home for yourself or family, but I'm constantly having to be aware of scale and price points. For high-maintenance brisket to be worth my time, I would have to charge $30 per pound. And that's close to the prices in Texas these days. I won't do that to my customers.
You can also use orange juice—you know, the citrus juices—for this tenderization. Lemon juice is cheaper and does the same thing. You won't get a flavor from the orange juice either.
Is it a must to remove the silver skin on the back of the rack? It helps the rub to do it's thing, but I don't always remove it. I should get more serious and really dig in. I love grilling. Great blog !! Thank you !!
Nice guess, but no. I like to believe most barbecuists know by now to remove the membrane from the back of a slab 'o ribs, so I didn't use that as one of my tips. But yes, I remove that membrane from all my ribs. The ribs will be more tender and slide off the bone easier without that layer.
A couple of pointers about that process: It's easier to remove the membrane if the slab is close to room temperature. It's also easier on baby backs than St. Louis-cut. And, it's easier if you use a paper towel instead of trying to pry the membrane loose with a case knife. Start from the corner of the narrow end of the slab, grab the "tab" of the membrane with your fingers and paper towel, and carefully roll it back and tear off.
Oddly, it's extremely difficult to get that membrane to come off the three-pack of Swift ribs at Costco. There's something about the sealing of that three-pack that makes that membrane stick and hold. In that case, take the tip of a good knife and slice through the membrane between each bone, massage with the lemon juice, and you'll be fine.
Some people use apple cider vinegar on ribs, but I don't. I should probably do a sample that way and see how they turn out. Likewise, some people put a lot of rub on both sides of the slab; I don't apply any rub on the backside. Between the rub, smoke and sauce, don't you want to taste the meat?
Um…you caught me in a literary lift off when you mentioned what the Montgomery Inn cook suggested you do to cook meat. When you didn’t mention his advice, I thought it was a well played maneuver to hold a reader’s attention until the very end. But. No.
Do you remember the end of the Brad Pitt/Kevin Spacey/Morgan Freeman movie Seven? Well…”What did the cook say, Tut? Ahhhh…what did the cook saaayyy!!!?”
Similar to what PR_J said above, I heard the ribs were boiled then finished on a high heat grill. Pressure cooking makes sense if the finish is hot enough.
Today’s TML was very informative, Dennis. I really enjoyed it.
Most restaurants that serv barbecue (pulled pork, chicken, ribs) have a pressure smoker. That's been the norm for 20 years or so. My ribs are on the charcoal-and-wood smokers around 3½ hours, wrapped in the pink butcher paper, and allowed to sweat and rest the remainder of the way.
Awesome non sports blog, nice job! I just bought a Weber Spirit II 3 burner literally two weekends ago. I’m sure your smokers are better overall for long cooks, but do you find the gas grill suitable for smoking things like wings or other cuts of chicken? I still have my old trusty Weber kettle grill and I’ve smoked with it, but gas seems appealing for the more precise temperature control.
Also, what was the tip from the ex-Montgomery Inn cook? Really curious about that.
See above on the Montgomery Inn tip, but sure, you can use the Weber gas grills for a lot of barbecuish things. I HIGHLY recommend those grill mats. I bought mine at Costco five years ago and they're so durable that I've only used two of the 10 that came in the pack. I cook on them, clean them with soap, water and steel wool, and they're good to go again.
As for the wings on the Spirit (which I also have), I place them on the bread rack instead of directly on the grates. Put your smoker box in the back corner of the grill. Don't place your wings on the rack until the smoker box is hot and emitting the smoke. Cook at 380-400 degrees. You can use hickory or apple woods chips in the smoker box. Mesquite, oak and pecan are too strong of a smoke for such small pieces of meats.
I cook chicken quarters, breasts, and thighs on the Weber gas all the time.
Gosh, a super question, but sorry… I don't have such a recipe for the ketchup-based sauces. You might get lucky with the vinegar-based sauces, but they also need some sugar. However, the white (mayonnaise-based) sauce has very little sugar and that will work GREAT on chicken dishes. I'm not a big mayo fan, but I love the white barbecue sauce. I have a handful of customers who hook that stuff up to an IV—they put it on salads, fish, raw veggies, wings, and all sorts of ways I never imagined. To me, the white sauce was made for chicken—grilled, fried, smoked, pulled, you name it. And if you want something truly great, the white sauce on grilled catfish. Devine!
I've come up with a mayo/hot sauce mix with a bunch of spices for catfish over the years. Sometimes add tartar and both a sweet and sour relish. Friend used to work at Frisch's making the tartar sauce, said they use both. And of course any touch of lemon or lime juice added in will jump the fish flavor, too.
Never heard of white sauce before. Sounds similar. And yes, divine..
I love Frisch's tartar sauce, but once I perfected my white sauce, I tossed all the tartar and béarnaise sauces into the trash. So yes, I have used my white sauce on fish, chicken, burgers, wings and steaks.
The Kroger likely has Ivory white sauce (commonly called Alabama white sauce), but the original is Big Bob Gibson's out of Decatur, Alabammy. Order a bottle from them.
I'm a grilling idiot. After reading this, I feel like I could potentially cook something without turning it into jerkey.
Thanks. That's what I said. In 1996. 😆
Seriously, start with something simple and cheap, like chicken leg quarters. Pull back the skin, sprinkle with a little pepper or cajun seasoning, put the skin back in place, give the piece of a meat a light coating of canola oil spray, add more seasoning, cook both sides on 400 until the thickest part of the meat (thigh) reaches 170. You can add a brushing of barbecue sauce at 155-160, if you like.
Piece 'o carrot cake.
One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was when my brother in law got a smoker for Christmas. All the smoked food, none of time it takes (him) to smoke it.
Ahhh, an interloper.
Proudly so ;-)
Outstanding commentary
Fan of the vinegar based sauces myself. Childhood spent in western Kentucky where pulled pork is second only to country ham. BBQ always first for me. I would ask for city ham (not spoiled or anything). Very enjoyable read. Thank you!
What is the sauce of choice for mutton? Ha.
True story: I often see a place that serves the generically named "Carolina BBQ." That always hickory-smokes my gourd. I'm from piedmont North Carolina (ketchup-based), and Eastern North Carolina (vinegar-based) and South Carolina (mustard-based) are all highly different. So, there is no such thing as "Carolina BBQ." When I see that display, I mess with them. Badly. It tells me they don't know what they're talking about, so the barbecue they're selling is a fraud.
No mutton bbq in Trigg County where I lived. Owensboro is known for it. They sell both mutton and pork at the St. Jerome Church festival at Fancy Farm on the first Saturday in August. They allow two hours of political speeches on that day. I took pictures of the pits when I went. Only one sauce. Vinegary and very thin. Yeah, people love to put everything in boxes.
Love that you have found a second career.
Thanks, my second career is many things that I enjoy—photography, self-publishing books for writers, and developing and editing content. Barbecue is a hobby. I generally smoke for the customer base 9-10 times a year. Super Bowl Sunday is my biggest day. It's bonkers, actually. The surprise is the number of people who want barbecue the weekends after Thanksgiving and Christmas. They've had their fill of turkey and ham, so prime smoked hawg sells like crazy. Go figure.
Great read! I was today years old when I learned they make smoker boxes you can put on your gas grill ...
Look's like I'll be making a trip to Home Depot to purchase one this weekend, along with some wood chips. Happy Father's Day to me (and my stomach)!
Don't spend a lot of money. I use a cast iron smoker box and it has lasted 20 years. https://www.amazon.com/GrillPro-00150-Cast-Iron-Smoker/dp/B000FJG4R4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3QSYILKVQDYXJ&keywords=Char-Broil+Cast+Iron+Smoker+Box&qid=1686766071&sprefix=%2Caps%2C340&sr=8-5
Pick up a bag of wood chips (around $5), fill the smoker box with chips, then fill it with water, put on the lid, and let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water, place the smoker box in one of the back corners, and turn up the burner on that side of the grill to high. It will take 15 minutes or so for the smoker box to heat and emit smoke. When it does, place your meat and turn down that heat for your cook.
Sounds like a great plan! Thanks so much!
I plan to pick one up as well, but I've smoked things on my charcoal grill in the past by just putting the wood chips in aluminum foil and poking holes in the top for the smoke to escape when the wood begins to smolder.
That will work, but soak the chips in advance, per the instrux just above.
Enjoyed your post ‘Mr. Hemingway’… lots of great information.
Great stuff. I have Weber smoker that has done me well for years. Seems like finishing pulled pork on a skillet to crisp it up a little adds some flavor. Still need to do beef ribs.
You do whut to fresh, tender, succulent pulled pork?!?!
Interesting read. Good looking, mouth watering stuff. A pig can be cooked so many ways, and the taste is amazing just about every time. The lemon juice tip is one I like to use. One question, though:
When's the last time you had your cholesterol checked? Might wanna keep an eye on it. Cuz this stuff is off the charts in saturated fats. Jez sayin'.
Thanks to my cardiologist, my cholesterol is just fine, thanks. But the truth is I eat very little of the barbecue that I cook. As the old saying goes, don't eat your profits. The way my driveway business works is I email a menu to my customer base when I'm running the smokers, they order, and that's what I fix. They come by and pick up their orders. Sometimes there's enough left for a couple of sammiches and some sides, but that's about it. Technically, I sell out every smoke.
Oh, that changes everything. I thought you were cooking for family (and friends). I'm thinking, gawd, that's a lot to eat over a summer. Got it. Glad you are keeping an eye on the ol ticker. The pay off is enormous.. We get to live longer.😄
Acute overconsumption of refined carbohydrates is mainly where the dangerous systemic cholesterol is produced. Your body can handle dietary fat consumption fairly well. I'm surprised you don't know this
I did know that. I'm surprised you assume I didn't.
The limit on daily saturated fats should be around 10%. Over that and your bad chloresterol LDL goes up. You can eat whatever you want. It was just a priviso.
Low & slow smoking is just about the best way there is of removing these saturated fats from your meats as it drips out
I fell into the well of low heat, slow smoke, chemistry cook decades ago and haven’t hit water yet. There is always more rainbow at the end of the rainbow when folks start dealing out their techniques. Kept waiting for how you occupy yourself during “the stall,” and dishing on the magic that happens during that smoke show, but you didn’t go there. That slab has crazy awesome caramelization. And as I recall, the Inn pressure cooks, then finishes on 1000 degree grill/oven for toothy char.
That caramelization is the bark, and I do that on all my ribs and pork butts. People love the bark, especially with the pieces mixed with their sammiches ($5) or 1-pound bags of pulled pork ($12). I also use some of the fatty pieces and bark in my spicy cowpoke beans, which I could sell by the trough if I had a commercial kitchen. The beans are slow-cooked over mesquite for 2 hours for that campfire flavor, and that added flavor of the bark makes them irresistible after the beans have settled for an hour. These beans are a meal by themselves. They're fairly incredible. I'm quite proud of my work on this side.
Oh, I know what it is, I just can’t reproduce it on ribs like that. Smooth as glass, even as Steven. Brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, and a bunch of 250 degree smoke, and then stuff you’re keepin’ in your pocket. Magical. I can buckle knees with a butt and the occasional brisket, when properly motivated. I can smoke a Thanksgiving turkey that both crackles and cries when you slice into it. A couple $.99/lb. chickens become the centerpiece of Sunday dinner, and the following week’s smoked chicken salad. Bad salmon is great lox. But that pic above eludes me. Kudos.
Smoked chicken salad is on my list because, selfishly, I would eat a lot of that product.
I don't sell brisket, get asked about it all the time. Brisket is great to make at home for yourself or family, but I'm constantly having to be aware of scale and price points. For high-maintenance brisket to be worth my time, I would have to charge $30 per pound. And that's close to the prices in Texas these days. I won't do that to my customers.
Tip for the chia salad, include a bit of bourbon salt. Smoke and bourbon play well together. Crusty bread.
Nice topic. Enjoyed all the insights and will be keeping more lemon juice on-hand!
You can also use orange juice—you know, the citrus juices—for this tenderization. Lemon juice is cheaper and does the same thing. You won't get a flavor from the orange juice either.
Is it a must to remove the silver skin on the back of the rack? It helps the rub to do it's thing, but I don't always remove it. I should get more serious and really dig in. I love grilling. Great blog !! Thank you !!
Nice guess, but no. I like to believe most barbecuists know by now to remove the membrane from the back of a slab 'o ribs, so I didn't use that as one of my tips. But yes, I remove that membrane from all my ribs. The ribs will be more tender and slide off the bone easier without that layer.
A couple of pointers about that process: It's easier to remove the membrane if the slab is close to room temperature. It's also easier on baby backs than St. Louis-cut. And, it's easier if you use a paper towel instead of trying to pry the membrane loose with a case knife. Start from the corner of the narrow end of the slab, grab the "tab" of the membrane with your fingers and paper towel, and carefully roll it back and tear off.
Oddly, it's extremely difficult to get that membrane to come off the three-pack of Swift ribs at Costco. There's something about the sealing of that three-pack that makes that membrane stick and hold. In that case, take the tip of a good knife and slice through the membrane between each bone, massage with the lemon juice, and you'll be fine.
Vinegar works for this too?
Some people use apple cider vinegar on ribs, but I don't. I should probably do a sample that way and see how they turn out. Likewise, some people put a lot of rub on both sides of the slab; I don't apply any rub on the backside. Between the rub, smoke and sauce, don't you want to taste the meat?
Seems like the rub would be more or mostly headed for bone on the back side?
Um…you caught me in a literary lift off when you mentioned what the Montgomery Inn cook suggested you do to cook meat. When you didn’t mention his advice, I thought it was a well played maneuver to hold a reader’s attention until the very end. But. No.
Do you remember the end of the Brad Pitt/Kevin Spacey/Morgan Freeman movie Seven? Well…”What did the cook say, Tut? Ahhhh…what did the cook saaayyy!!!?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHpHxLZReiI
I'm guessing #3 of the 5
I did not mention the Montgomery Inn secret. It's a process thing, not a recipe, so I don't think it's my place to squeal.
Similar to what PR_J said above, I heard the ribs were boiled then finished on a high heat grill. Pressure cooking makes sense if the finish is hot enough.
Today’s TML was very informative, Dennis. I really enjoyed it.
Most restaurants that serv barbecue (pulled pork, chicken, ribs) have a pressure smoker. That's been the norm for 20 years or so. My ribs are on the charcoal-and-wood smokers around 3½ hours, wrapped in the pink butcher paper, and allowed to sweat and rest the remainder of the way.
Awesome non sports blog, nice job! I just bought a Weber Spirit II 3 burner literally two weekends ago. I’m sure your smokers are better overall for long cooks, but do you find the gas grill suitable for smoking things like wings or other cuts of chicken? I still have my old trusty Weber kettle grill and I’ve smoked with it, but gas seems appealing for the more precise temperature control.
Also, what was the tip from the ex-Montgomery Inn cook? Really curious about that.
See above on the Montgomery Inn tip, but sure, you can use the Weber gas grills for a lot of barbecuish things. I HIGHLY recommend those grill mats. I bought mine at Costco five years ago and they're so durable that I've only used two of the 10 that came in the pack. I cook on them, clean them with soap, water and steel wool, and they're good to go again.
As for the wings on the Spirit (which I also have), I place them on the bread rack instead of directly on the grates. Put your smoker box in the back corner of the grill. Don't place your wings on the rack until the smoker box is hot and emitting the smoke. Cook at 380-400 degrees. You can use hickory or apple woods chips in the smoker box. Mesquite, oak and pecan are too strong of a smoke for such small pieces of meats.
I cook chicken quarters, breasts, and thighs on the Weber gas all the time.
GreatPost and sound advice …
I'm diabetic. Do you have a recipe for sugar-free sauce?
I found this sugar-free barbecue sauce by accident…
https://www.amazon.com/Lillies-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free-Ingredients-Keto-Friendly/dp/B0BJ7L4F72/ref=sr_1_55?crid=S41VE1U7G9DQ&keywords=white+barbecue+sauce&qid=1686768378&sprefix=white+barnecue+sauce%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-55
Gosh, a super question, but sorry… I don't have such a recipe for the ketchup-based sauces. You might get lucky with the vinegar-based sauces, but they also need some sugar. However, the white (mayonnaise-based) sauce has very little sugar and that will work GREAT on chicken dishes. I'm not a big mayo fan, but I love the white barbecue sauce. I have a handful of customers who hook that stuff up to an IV—they put it on salads, fish, raw veggies, wings, and all sorts of ways I never imagined. To me, the white sauce was made for chicken—grilled, fried, smoked, pulled, you name it. And if you want something truly great, the white sauce on grilled catfish. Devine!
I've come up with a mayo/hot sauce mix with a bunch of spices for catfish over the years. Sometimes add tartar and both a sweet and sour relish. Friend used to work at Frisch's making the tartar sauce, said they use both. And of course any touch of lemon or lime juice added in will jump the fish flavor, too.
Never heard of white sauce before. Sounds similar. And yes, divine..
I love Frisch's tartar sauce, but once I perfected my white sauce, I tossed all the tartar and béarnaise sauces into the trash. So yes, I have used my white sauce on fish, chicken, burgers, wings and steaks.
The Kroger likely has Ivory white sauce (commonly called Alabama white sauce), but the original is Big Bob Gibson's out of Decatur, Alabammy. Order a bottle from them.