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Barbecue
Cooking meat on a grill or smoker has become a vital test of every man’s culinary skill. My housekeeper’s unemployed husband recently bought a $3,500 smoker to expand his talents. I have tried to develop the skills of a pit master over the years but have found it to be with serious flaws, mainly because of the difficultly of controlling all of the variables that can ruin a meal. I am basically lazy, but I like to eat, and have learned how to create the flavor and texture of the food I like. For cooking meat, there is nothing better than sous-vide. Here is how I slow-cook pulled pork.
Start with a pork shoulder, 3 to 4 pounds. Cut the meat into large chunks and place in one-gallon freezer bags. Add salt and several splashes of liquid smoke. Cook in a sous-vide water bath at 165 degrees for 16 hours. Place the meat on a cutting board and use two forks to pull it apart. Place the meat back into a pan for the oven and add one cup of the liquid from the sous-vide bags. Season the meat with a pork rub that you like. I like a mixture of Butt Rub and McCormick’s Barbecue seasoning. Heat it in the oven at 350 degrees for maybe 30 minutes, then serve with a liquid barbecue sauce on top.
I have eaten barbecue all over the US, and although there are advantages to every local cuisine, I think the lightly flavored mustard sauce of the low country of South Carolina makes the best base sauce for barbecue. Just a little bit in the meat to set the palate and then add a sweet red sauce to finish it off. Have Crystal sauce available for those who like heat.
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For cooking meat there is nothing better than charcoal.
Costco has brisket on sale at the moment for $2.99 /lb.
Moments ago, I trimmed and separated the point from the flat on my 19# brisket slab. I will smoke one of the pieces this Sunday.
I have used sous-vide for a lot of things, one of my favorites is a rear leg venison roast. I use 135 degrees, to keep it very rare, and then slice it super thin and serve it on kimmelweck with horseradish. I make an ajous from a bottle of porter and beef Better than Bouillon. My Buffalo family has had this many times, and even though they are also hunters, never realized it was venison. They finally asked where I bought the roast beef because it was so good.
my trick to super thin slicing: Freeze the roast (after sous-vide) then remove from freezer, slightly defrost, then slice while still hard, but can be easily sliced (almost shaved). Return to freezer while still frozen.
Maybe but nothing is more fool proof than sous-vide.
It’s like you’re looking to start a war. 🤔 😉
So, where are we all coming this Sunday?
I used to work with hunters who always gave me cuts of venison as a Christmas present. I never was able to cook any of it into palatable food but that was before I discovered sous-vide.
I used to work with hunters who always gave me cuts of venison as a Christmas present. I never was able to cook any of it into palatable food but that was before I discovered sous-vide.
The flavor of venison is very dependent upon a few things:
Do not automatically assume your culinary skills are suspect, if you are preparing donated game. It might be the quality of the game.
You like to use sous-vide. Cool. I know quite a few people that do.
Then learn to cook.
I know that where I live now it’s heretical, but you lost me at pulled pork.
I live in the Pittsburgh area. All are welcome to join me. Be warned we have chores too! PM if you want an addy.
I had guests from Taiwan a couple of weekends ago, they helped dig post holes, and erect fence for a new riding arena (still not completed…)
Shockingly, Ricochet’s vegetarians, of whom I am one, find this assertion unconvincing.
He is indeed because there is nothing better than grilling or smoking with a wood fire. A lot of heresy being spoken here tonight.
To each his own.
My own is dry rub in the smoker and finished on the grill at max temp for a crusty outside. Ribs, brisket, picanaha, prime rib it makes no difference.
I will provide you with a side of sauce and try hard to hide my disappointment.
Venison is not a prime meat for BBQ in my book. It’s too dry. I might take the tenderloins, marinate in teriyaki sauce and then cook it on the grill but that is about the only cut. Venison cooked slow with a little beef bouillion and I agree it can be indistinguishable from beef. Personally my favorite is making stroganoff with it or an Azeri dish with dried fruit. Also ground venison in chili is excellent. BBQ venison…not so much.
I saw a t-shirt that said “I like my butt rubbed and my pork pulled.” I thought it was funny.
I love pulled pork.
My secret: Cook the pork shoulders in the oven overnight covered with tin foil in a pan of cider vinegar with some spices at 190 or 200. Then pull the pork early in the morning, then smoke the pork all day in the juices from the night before – keep stirring it every hour or two, so you get the smoke on all the pork. Once all the sop cooks off, it’s done. Takes 12-16 hours in the smoker.
Heaven on earth.
I will not attempt to cook or smoke, especially since my friend Ivan and my daughter Valerie do it so well. We are blessed to have a local Amish butcher and pork from hogs that are pastured in old apple orchards, so Ivan drives up from Virginia to WNY to smoke our pork.
Where I do have some skill is picking BBQ restaurants. The secret is simple: the shackier the restaurant, the better the meat. If you can find a BBQ joint with sliding garage doors, it’s bound to be good.
One thing I miss from my years in northern VA was the days when son Brian and I would teach an NRA Basic Pistol class, take them to Clark Brothers Gun Shop in Warrenton to shoot, then across the street to BBQ Country for a meal. Not only was their meat amazing, they had splendid cornbread. And it all tasted better with a little gunpowder residue from your fingers.
Brilliant!
I watched the MasterClass with Aaron Franklin, a world-famous barbecue/pitmaster. I got depressed because of the detail with which he selected the wood, the meticulous attention and design, and control of the fire … it was a long time before the class even got near the meat. It was still informative but humbling. I will never get to that level, even with the right equipment.
I use my standing gas smoker almost exclusively for ribs. Lots of rub, mustard…a couple of hours simmering in grape and apple juice… Overnight prep, and a full day in the smoker. Low and slow. And worth it.
That may matter at a certain level, but I don’t know – it’s barbeque – it’s not neurosurgery.
I use any kind of nut wood – hickory is the classic, of course, but I use a lot of various kinds of oak – tastes great. I just use whatever tree has fallen down nearby recently.
Temp control can only be so good with a wood fire – it varies some – doesn’t seem to matter.
Beer is important, as well, of course. I generally use Yuengling, but craft brews work fine as well.
It’s barbeque – it’s not an exact science.
What? Not bourbon?
It takes 12-16 hours to smoke the pork.
I can’t drink bourbon for 16 hours.
That sounds fantastic.
I am not saying that my version of sous-vide barbecue is better than what can be produced in a wood fired smoker over 16 hours of labor but it is much easier and truly foolproof. It is as good as any commercial barbecue served in restaurants such as Corky’s or Jim Neely’s Interstate in Memphis, Mister Barbecue in Winston-Salem, or the Bessinger chain throughout South Carolina. It is so easy to make you can wrap up two pound servings to give as gifts for any occasion.
I absolutely believe that. I also love sous vide – can’t go wrong.
It takes me 24 hours to make barbeque. I don’t doubt that there is an easier way.
Barbeque is a labor of love. And like love, it doesn’t have to make sense.
That is so good it needs it to be on a tee shirt.
Or a barbecue apron.
@SouthernPessimist , just to be clear, those freezer bags are placed in the 165 degree water bath for 16 hours? The bag will hold up to that? Also, for the water bath for that temperature and for that length of time – are you just doing that on stovetop with large pot of water or something more ‘controllable’ like a crock pot filled with water?
This post has been a welcome break – also liked those tips on vennison. I typically don’t care for it but my brother-in-law cooked up some back strap from a fresh deer he dressed, like right on the spot, and it was very good.