Black Eyed Pigz

Archive for the ‘BBQ Tips’ Category

I am making up a small batch of Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABTs) for tonight’s big game. It’s just the wife and I enjoying them so 8 of these monstrously oversized jalapenos will be more than enough. Basically you’re hollowing out a pepper, and stuffing it with shredded cheese and diced jalapeno, then wrapping it with bacon before putting it on the grill to cook and crisp up the bacon.

Most people prefer to cut the end off the pepper and seed it out, then stuff with cream cheese, but that’s boring. I slice a piece off the side of the pepper, creating a canoe shape, remove the seeds and white ribs, then dice up the cutoff portion, mix it with a blend of shredded colby and jack cheeses. From there I stuff it as full as it will go without bursting the pepper open, and wrap with a whole strip of hickory smoked bacon. Enjoy the photos. These will be cooked later today and I’ll get a photo posted of the final result for you at that time.

The players in this drama.

The side of the peppers sliced off, ready to be cleaned out.

Cored and seeded. 

Cutoffs from the peppers, about to get diced.

Diced.

Cheese and diced jalapenos blended together.

Pepper canoes, stuffed to the bursting point.

And finally, wrapped in thick bacon-y goodness!  These will get
grilled up later today just in time for the big game!

While I was busy cooking today, I made up a batch of my BBQ Beans. The recipe is here on the site, just scroll back a bit to find it.

Here’s the step by step in photos for you:

My favorite part, frying up the bacon.

And here you’ll see I added the chopped onions

Here you’ll see everything but the beans has been added. Man this is making the kitchen smell so good!

And here finally, the beans have been added.

I’m letting them simmer for about an hour, checking the flavor and adding whatever spices I think they need to be just right. More photos to come as I get time.

I got the chance to do some cooking today, while my friends in Maryland are suffering the effects of the blizzard to end all blizzards, we enjoyed a balmy 50 degrees and overcast here in South Carolina.

With that in mind, I decided to do a little Boston Butt on the smoker today. I also made up some bbq beans and amish macaroni salad, not to mention the hickory smoked wings that we’ll be enjoying tomorrow during the superbowl.

But on to the butt! For those who don’t know, a Boston Butt is a section of pork from the front shoulder of a pig, it’s NOT a true butt like you’re sitting on right now.

Here’s how it all went down:

The usual suspects. The near 7lb pork butt, my specially blended rub (hopefully soon to be available for retail sale) and my work area.

Here you’ll see that I slathered the pork with yellow mustard. You can’t taste it, it merely acts as a glue to hold the rub to the pork while sitting overnight in the fridge.

Here my rub is mostly applied to the meat, I make sure to cover all surfaces thoroughly with my blend. From here it’s wrapped and refrigerated overnight.

On to the smoker this morning around 930am. The fire’s burning and the pit is hot! (well, hot enough)

Here it is after about 4.5 hours. Hickory smoked and ready to be thrown in the pan for the rest of the cook. It already smells good.

Look how easily that bone pulls out of the meat. This is directly off the smoker and brought inside. And the house now officially smells like a BBQ Shack.

I haven’t pulled the pork yet, as it has to rest for at least an hour to let all the juices soak back inside it, but on the sample taste from around the bone, this thing is money! Wish you had smell-o-vision!

Quick update. Here’s the food all plated up right before I tore into last night. Man was it tasty!!!!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I know alot of my recipes center around the smoker but I can’t help it. I’m addicted to smokey tender food. But you don’t have to own a smoker to make good BBQ. You can use your charcoal or gas grill just the same. It will take a little learning on your part, but, it’s definitely something you’ll be glad you did.

Basically, you want to cook your bbq over an indirect heat source. That means AWAY from the fire. In a grill, it’s easy really.

For Charcoal owners:
Get your charcoal lit and burned down to white ash, and arrange it all on one side of the pan. Then place your food as far away from that fire source as you possibly can. Open your exhaust vent to allow all the smoke to escape, while you want smokey food, you don’t want so much smoke that it tastes like a half-burnt log from the campfire.

For gas grill owners:
Light one side of your grill. Then follow the directions above.

To impart smoke using your grill, soak a few handfuls of woodchips in water, then wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil. Poke a few holes in the pouch you’ve just made using a fork, and set it directly on top of your fire source. It will produce a nice even smoke for your cook.

Whichever way you go, make sure you have a thermometer that you can measure temperatures with INSIDE the grill, at grate-level where your food is cooking. Ideally, you should be cooking at 250 - 275 degrees.

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions this year, I am posting photos of the Smoked Ham cookout I did on New Year’s Eve.

So, here we go:

Here you’ll see the ham, sitting in just a splash of pineapple juice, waiting to go on the smoker. The ham was left in this pan while it cooked to catch all the juices.

Now after about 3 hours smoking at 250 degrees with hickory wood and charcoal, the ham is ready to be glazed. I brushed on the Honey Pineapple Glaze that I made up and left if on the cooker for about another 20 minutes.

And finally, the ham is glazed and ready to be cut and devoured by the hungry masses. This thing was just incredibly good. That glaze made this thing taste so incredibly good, there’s no way Honey Baked Ham can compete.

Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy…

Friends, for years I have smoked foods using hickory, mesquite and apple woods. And it’s always been wonderful. However, until tonight, I have NEVER used wood to grill with.

Thanks to poor planning, I had just enough charcoal to start the grill, and had to fill in with Hickory wood chunks to do my actual grilling. Let me tell you….I am forever cooking over hickory wood now. No more charcoal grilling for me.

I knew how good BBQ was with hickory, or apple for that matter. But I never knew the flavor explosion I would experience using hickory to grill with. I made some simple little chuck steaks for me and the wife, and I grilled up a few hot dogs for the kids. Normally, my 6 year old will choke down 1 hot dog just to eat, tonight he devoured 2 dogs without question. So, after having my incredibly delicious chuck steaks (seasoned only with salt and pepper) and Hickory Smoke, I took a bite from a left over dog. OMG. It was like a gourmet hot dog. The sweet smoky taste of hickory permeated every bite. It was amazing!

If you’ve never GRILLED over hickory wood, I suggest you try it NOW. Stop what you’re doing, buy some hickory wood chunks and throw ANYTHING on that grill. It’s amazing. Simply. Amazing.

http://www.jackdanielssauces.com/ezmarinader/ez_products.aspx

If you’re in a hurry to marinade some meat for the grill, look no further than the new Jack Daniels EZ Marinades.  It’s sold in a bag that will hold up to 3 pounds of meat.  And it couldn’t be simpler.  You just rip open the bag, throw your meat in, zip it tight and stick it in the fridge. 

And it’s delicious.  I just made 2 3lb chuck roasts using the Steakhouse and the Mesquite flavors for my roasts.  I let them marinade for about an hour then took them out to the charcoal grill.  I seared the roasts directly over the coals, then moved off of the heat, and allowed them to cook indirectly to an internal temp of 160 degrees and let them rest for an hour before cutting them up.  Not only were they cooked to perfection, they were DELICIOUS!

I highly recommend these marinades if you’re not in position to make your own.  Very flavorful, and not overpowering.

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with injectable marinades but it’s a trend that’s been around for nearly a decade now.  The idea is, that instead of soaking your meat in a marinade for hours, you can use a hypodermic style needle to directly inject the marinade throughout your meat.  Saves time, effort, etc…supposedly.

I’ll be honest, I’ve tried this numerous times with numerous meats and flavors, and have yet to see any real benefit to it.  It seems that this shortcut method to marination is a waste of time and resources.  I’ve never found it to add much flavor to my food, maybe in certain bites, but not the overall product.

I prefer a dry rub when I don’t have time to properly marinate a piece of meat.  Call me old fashioned, but anything worth doing is worth doing right, not fast.  It seems as though the marinade doesn’t get into the whole thing when you’re injecting it into spots, and frankly, I’ve seen it running back out of the holes created by the needle while cooking it.  So there can’t be much staying in the meat.

Low and slow doesn’t only apply to COOKING your BBQ.  It encompasses everything about your process.  Take the time to marinate prior to the cook, prepare your seasonings and rubs before you need them, and don’t rush it.  There’s a reason that all fast food tastes the same, but no 2 barbecues ever taste the same.

Folks, if you haven’t discovered this yet, you need to check it out.  www.bbqpitboys.com

These guys produce videos of every possible BBQ technique, method and flavor that you can imagine.  And they do it up real professional like.  If you’re wanting to learn the art of BBQ, this is a great place to start.

With recipes ranging from simple hamburgers and hotdogs to more advanced things like brisket, Bacon Explosion Pork Bombs and how to split and grill a whole chicken, you’re going to be watching for hours.

Check out their site at:  www.bbqpitboys.com and see what you think, I believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.