>
> That's all well and good, but I still prefer a nice mound of boneless,
> smoky BBQ goodness. And I've had BBQ where the sauce was an
> afterthought, squirted on after it was piled on a plate. There's no
> time for the flavor of the sauce to work its way into the meat.
>
I really like country-style ribs. That seems to be about the best
compromise. What I do is apply a dry-rub a day or two before cooking, then
slow cook them over charcoal for two hours. Then i dunk each piece in my
sauce and place them back on the grill. Just when the sauce on the bottom
gets nice and gooey, I flip them over. Then at the point that side is
gooey, I dunk the pieces in the sauce again and repeat the process with
frequent turnings. USUALLY two dunkings will do it, but sometimes three if
my sauce isn't thick enough from too little honey. By this point the grill
temperature is low enough that things don't burn (hopefully). I find that
an hour and a half to two hours on the grill after the initial dunking seems
to be about right and will drive some aspects of the sauce about 5mm into
the meat while the red tinge from the dry rub will go most of the way in.
Just to give you a teaser--this is not all inclusive ingredients of my sauce
(and by the way, I always serve two versions--medium and hot):
- Two bottles of "Open Pit Hickory" and two bottles of "Open Pit Original".
- One container of honey (you'll use most of it)
- One bottle of "Red Hot" (you'll use most of it)
- Two tablespoons olive oil
- One half bulb of garlic-crushed or minced to 2mm chunks) (approximately
four tablespoons)
- One large green pepper minced very fine (2mm chunks)
- One package of green onions sliced up fine (2mm slices)--all the way up
the stems
- One medium onion, minced very fine (2mm chunks)
- Two or Three Aneheim chili peppers minced--no seeds
- Two banana peppers - minced
- One tablespoon of mustard seeds, lightly crushed
- One tablespoon salt
- One tablespoon fresh course ground black pepper
- One teaspoon finely ground white pepper
- One green chili pepper (optional) minced very fine (2mm chunks)
- One fresh Jalapeno pepper (optional and variable up to three) minced very
fine (2mm chunks)
- One Half tablespoon soy sauce
- One Half tablespoon Worsechester sauce
- Three tablespoons lemon juice (substitute with up to one tablespoon lime
juice)
- One tablespoon Mayo
- One tablespoon brown sugar
- Spices, lots and lots of spices and other non-mentioned ingredients. (you
don't think I'm going to tell you everything, do you? Let's just say that
there are at least a few more items in the fridge that may appear in the
list and on rare occasion may include a cheep red wine suitable for cooking)
Simmer covered for up to three hours, stirring often. When dunking, keep the
saucepan hot so it doesn't cool the meat down too much and don't plunge raw
meet into the sauce.
Serve cool. This is enough sauce for 18-20 pounds of meat and still gives a
pint or two left over for table service. The grilling area and grill will be
a disaster area--plan on a full-tilt burnoff later.
In spite of the appearance of various pepper products in the list, the sauce
really isn't all that spicy hot when it is cooked over the grill. In fact,
what happens is that the long-term cooking process really deadens the heat
and the honey creates a cooling affect too. If you want to heat up your ribs
a bit, just dip them in some extra sauce. The ribs will be gooey and a bit
sticky from the cooked on sauce, but the brilliance of this setup is that
the applicaton of a touch of fresh sauce to the meat will just intensify the
flavors, not change them.
It is absolutely critical that I use "Open Pit" and honey. "Open Pit" is
the only major commercial brand of BBQ sauce that doesn't burn and honey
doesn't either. The honey and "Red Hot" pepper sauce are the user
variables. For an entire bottle of Red Hot, you'll need an entire bear
container of honey. If you use half a bottle of Red Hot, use half a bear of
honey. Using "Open Pit" may seem like a compromise--it isn't totally
homemade. Neither is many of the other ingredients. I did try this starting
from scratch with tomato paste, and found it too much work for no gain.
Trust me, this ain't no Open Pit sauce in the end. BTW, I've tried this
with other commercial BBQ sauces and other pepper sauces. ONLY Open Pit and
Red Hot will do. There is something very specific about their recipes that
work for this. I can't get other brands of pepper sauce to work the same.
The rest of the minced ingredients create a most unusual BBQ sauce--it's a
sauce that you can actually chew.
Because of the peppers, Karen won't let me cook this in the house anymore.
Our eyes burn for weeks when coming into the house.
When grilling the country-style pork ribs, I always cover the top of the
ribs with pieces of chicken (full skin on legs, quarters, wings, etc). When
flipping the ribs over, I have to move all the chicken over or up on the
riser grill. Unsauced meats can be kept over on a small part of the grill.
Beef ribs can be cooked in the same grill, but must be kept separate. I've
also had EXTREMELY positive results with a Turkey breast or small turkey
cooked in there too and dunked in the sauce.
At the end of the 3.5 - 4.0 hours of cooking, place all the meat in a
TIGHTLY covered large aluminum-foil disposable broiler pan with one
tablespoon of water and place in a 250F oven for 30-45 minutes to make the
rib meat dislodge from the bones.
The thing about the ribs and chicken is that the juices from the chicken
flow down onto the ribs which keeps them from drying out, it tenderizes it
and it changes the flavor characteristic very slightly taking away the edgy
pork flavor that a lot of people don't care for. The juices from the pork
affect the chicken and give it a flavor that is very rich. As the chicken is
not directly cooked by the flame (pork is underneath it), it cooks more
slowly and doesn't burn or dry out.
The turkey done this way doesn't taste like turkey at all. In fact, you can
totally mistake the outer layers for pork.
The key to all this is one word: carmelization.
AG
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