The Barbecue Thread

Local Yocal has them in the freezer case.

Whole Foods, maybe? I saw bison back ribs at my local.

Unless our house is still on the market this weekend I will be trying to make brisket for real this Saturday. I'm feverishly researching as much as I can and it's just getting more confusing since no one can agree on any point.

One advantage of moving to Houston is that we're now within convenient day trips to Central Texas barbecue hotspots. Case in point: yesterday I took my dad out to Giddings to pick up their new car (he's a retiree, whaddayagonnado). And oh, hey, City Meat Market is right there in the downtown square. This place has been open since 1901 and just oozes character. You walk in by the butcher counter (largely empty; they make their nut on barbecue, mostly) and then go to the back of the store to the pit room. You walk in and get hit with a blast of heat, order various meats that they cut for you, carry it to the table on butcher paper that's transparent by the time you get there, and then dig in. They've made concessions to modern tastes and offer sauce and sides now.

The ribs were extraordinary. Meaty, powerfully seasoned and smoked, and at just the right temp. The sausage is that dry, crumbly Central Texas kind that takes some getting used to. It had more fat though, and so it was juicier, but it was somewhat underseasoned.

But then the brisket. To my horror, when I ordered brisket, the counter guy turned around, stabbed his fork into a bucket of liquid, and fished out a hunk of brisket to cut from. Apparently they get tossed in a bucket off the heat. This of course dilutes the smoke, washes off the rub and any bark accumulated. And the meat was more or less shoe leather. I have no idea what the advantage to doing it that way is, unless it's just a bizarre little tradition there. But on the upside, I can't possibly do brisket that bad, so that gave me an ever so slight boost in confidence.

Damn, Pareista; that went from triumph to tragedy rather quickly...

Slavery was also a tradition around those parts for a few years.

#OhIWentThere

Time to carpetbag the fuck out of that town.

Reading the review, the writer seems a bit conflicted, and had the same critique as you regarding the sausage. If I ever get there, I'm just gonna stick to the ribs.

Yeah, when I was seriously jonesing to try smoking out last spring that's what I did too for some ribs and a shoulder. How are you going to rig it?

If you want additional resources, once again I'll plug Amazing ribs which has an entire article about setting up your gas grill for smoking.

So our house still hasn't sold. Why is this relevant to the barbecue thread? Because until it does I can't try making brisket.
"Oh sweetheart I just love this house! The kitchen will be perfect for all our vegan meals!"
"Indeed, my love. I'm ready to make an offer, even above asking price. Now let's just step out on the back patio to check out the garden and OH GOD WHAT IS THAT SMOKY FLESHY SMELL"
"WHY IS THAT SOOT COVERED MAN SHIRTLESS"
"OFFER RESCINDED. My attorney will be in touch!"

The menu is still up in the air, so I can't speak definitely. It's shaping up like this, however:

Smoked whole brisket (the star, of course)
Smoked sausage
Smoked chicken
Dill-horseradish potato salad
Green beans with almonds and vinaigrette (depending on budget, I'll go haricot verts)
Quinoa-chickpea salad (yep, back already)
Grilled vegetable salad
Homemade bread (3-4 loaves; rye, wheat, a couple white)
Homebrewed beer
Bottled water

As far as logistics, I can definitely blanch the green beans a day ahead, and the quinoa thing can be almost entirely prepared in advance and brought to room temperature (just add dressing before "service"). Really all of the sides can be made ahead with a little last minute tossing, except for the grilled veggies. Bread will be made 1-2 days in advance.

The brisket I'll start in the evening/very early morning and do an overnight smoke. Then after I foil my brisket and move it to the oven ("Texas Crutch"), I'll re-up my smoke and do the sausage, since they can hang in a warm oven better than chicken. After the sausage I'll do the chicken, in the last couple hours leading up to meal time. Set up a buffet, scream "come and get it," ring a big triangle (which I totally need to get). And if it goes poorly, it's okay 'cause by lunch/dinner time I'll be at least buzzed.

Open Questions/To Be Determined:
1. Do I want to make barbecue sauce(s)? You know how I feel, but I have to keep my guests in mind. At least that I could do in advance.
2. What sausage should I buy? I ain't making it.
3. I just did potato salad a couple weeks ago, do I really want to do that again?
4. I'm thinking instead of whole chickens, or even cut-up whole chickens, I'll buy value packs of chicken thighs or thighs and legs and just serve those. Cheaper, even cook times, and everybody likes them.

It sucks that I'll be out of town all this weekend, which would have been prime "get your house in order" time.
 

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, Hirsche's was on my list. I'm considering grilling the potatoes and then making the salad. I've done it before and like it, but I've never done it when making it ahead.

One thing that will be fun: because my egg will be so busy with the meat, I'm using my propane grill for the grilled vegetables/whatever the hell else I decide I want slap some heat on. Two grills going at once, a glass of beer I brewed myself ... this is going to be the manliest moment in my life.

You could also wrap some root veg in foil, and toss them in the smoker with the meat.  That way, they'll get done far earlier than if you pull the grill out at the last minute, and if you want to do a potato salad, they can cool with ample time for slicing. 

My rig was fairly simple.  I put an aluminum pan into the bottom of the Weber, then made a pile of unlit briquettes next to it.  After making it even, I poured a chimney starter full of lit briquettes over it,  poured water into the pan, then put down the grate.  After letting it come up to temp, I scraped and oiled the grate, then pulled it in order to place a pie pan under the area that my meat would eventually rest.  After re-settling the grate, I placed the brisket fat-side-down over the coals, to get a sear.  After five, flipped to the other side for another five, then moved it off the direct heat for the long haul.  I put a foil packet of soaked applewood chips* over the coals, then put the lid on, with the vents half-closed.  Every few hours, I lit more coals in the chimney and poured them in on the same side.  Toward the end of the night, I put a foil-wrapped potato, and two beets, on the grill, then eventually ate them all together. 

The brisket turned out moist, rich and delicious.  Since I was cooking only for myself, I made do with a 2 2/3 pound piece of flat-cut, which I let sit for a day and a half in a rub of salt, sugar, ancho, chipotle and garlic, with a liberal layer of black pepper to hold it all in.  Unfortunately, there was no real smoke ring; it took a while for it to get uniformly black, as I was unable to maintain consistent smoke.  My fruitwood connections failed me, so I had to make do.  A note:  I had forgotten just how rich beef brisket is.  I wish I'd had something acid to cut the fat, like a pickle, or, gasp, a nicely vinegared dipping sauce.





This is actually from an earlier experiment with the same rig, where the protein is duck breast.  I didn't shoot photos of the brisket, as it was raining a lot, and I was jetting back and forth between the grill, and the World Cup final.

I got the meat at Whole Foods, and it had a gorgeous fatcap. I mainly got super lucky. There was one small flap of meat on the underside that, in hindsight, I wish I'd trimmed, because it was completely dry. Beef jerky dry. But, yes, it had the perfect texture, and I think the sugar in the rub helped make that beautiful, uniform bark. More smoky flavor would have been nice, but that's what I get for using wood chips instead of lumps. My own worst critic, over here!

Oh, and for baking potatoes, I've taken to putting a cushion of kosher salt in the foil, before wrapping the potato. It does magical things to the texture: you end up with what feels like a mashed potato inside the jacket. Not ideal for potato salad, but imagine smoked mashed potatoes? Do the foil wrap until it's done, then unwrap and place back in the smoker for fifteen, twenty minutes, then remove and mash? I just thought of that, but now, I'm gonna have to make it...