Et Tu Que?

Barbeque, BBQ, que or simply Q; it all means the same thing. Cuts of meat cooked at a comparatively low temperature for long periods of time. The most common targets are beef brisket, chickens (whole or quartered) pork shoulder and of course ribs.

I picked up a rack of spare ribs at the store and made a dry rub

The rub has brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper and white pepper. It provides a ton of flavor and just a bit of sweetness.

After trimming the membrane off the back side of the ribs, I rubbed them generously with the dry rub.

Notice there's no mention of sauce here. Since we're cooking for a very long time, any sauce we put on now would either burn or cook right off of the ribs. There will be sauce, just not right now.

The meat is rubbed, the grill is set up, there's only one thing left to do. Add some wood. Every wood has a different flavor in its smoke. Hardwoods are the only choice for smoking unless you happen to enjoy turpentine. For the ribs I used hickory.

I added about 4 ounces to the smoker, and then on went the meat. A rack and a half of ribs and half a chicken.

I put the lid on the grill, adjusted the vents and placed the thermometer, then went into the kitchen to make some sides.

First some barbecue sauce for later.

And some cornbread.

After a long time in the smoker (and eventually wrapped in foil) I had this

Notice how the meat has pulled away from the bone. There's a nice bark on the outside of the ribs as well. I served them with the corn bread and honey butter, mom's cole slaw, and the bourbon barbecue sauce.

They were also good for breakfast the next morning:

And for dinner the following night

 

 

Smoked Pulled Pork

This year for my birthday I received The Smokenator 1000!

While the name may scream 2AM infomercial, the smokenator is in fact an excellent product. It turns a Weber kettle grill into a fully functioning smoker. The setup is simple. The smokenator fits between the charcoal grate and the food grate on the weber.

As you can see, the smokenator consists of a 90 degree bent stainless steel sheet with 2 small holes for loading coals and hardwood and a larger hole to hold a water pan.

There's room for up to 60 coals in the area the smokenator covers, and you get anywhere from 5-7 hours of burn time on one full load of coals. To begin, the vents must be set to limit air flow. The bottom vent gets set so that at the largest opening, a regular #2 pencil fits through. The top vent is opened to about 5/16". The top vent is located opposite the water pan when the lid is on. This configuration draws the smoke across the target food.

48 unlit briquettes go in the smokenator chamber, then another 12 get lit in a chimney starter. Once the coals are lit, they go in the smokenator and need to be distributed evenly. Then I add a few chunks of hardwood. In this case, hickory.

Once all of that setup is complete, the food goes on. I rubbed a 9 pound pork shoulder with salt, pepper, garlic powder, brown sugar, bay leaf and paprika.

The pork went on the grill.

Time to lid up. The shoulder smoked for a good 7 hours. During this time, I refilled the water pan every hour and added chunks of hickory to keep the smoke rolling.

 

When cooking a large piece of meat like this at a relatively low temperatures (I kept the temp around 225-235 degrees by altering the top vent) the meat will heat to a certain point and then 'stall'. In this case, the pork shoulder got to 140 degrees and then just stayed there for a few hours. During this time, the water in the meat is being pushed out. When it reaches the surface, the water evaporates, and the evaporation cools the meat slightly, just like sweating regulates our body temperature when we get too hot. Also during this time, the collagen in the meat, which makes it very tough and chewy, is broken down and becomes gelatin. That's what makes slow cooked meats so 'finger lickin'.

After its time on the smoker, the pork looked like this

It was getting cold out, so i wrapped the shoulder in foil and finished it in a 250 degree oven.

After it reached 185 degrees, I took it out and let it rest for an hour or so, to let the juices in the meat redistribute, and then I pulled it. The 9 pound pork shoulder yielded a good 6 or so pounds of meat. It had a red smoke ring, lots of smoky flavor, and made delicious sandwiches.