January 2010 - Barbecue Tricks

Slather It On...

When exploring how to BBQ with perfection you will need to know the many essential flavors of various types of BBQ meats. I personally feel that simplicity is usually best. Too many contradicting flavors can take away from the flavor of the meat and will likely overwhelm your taste buds. With barbecue, the woods used during the cooking and the seasonings used for rubbing and marinating the meat should add flavor but not be over powering.

Among the more frequently used BBQ woods you will find apple, cherry and maple barbecue smoking chips. I like to have a few varieties available. I also am always sure to have on hand what I feel are the essential BBQ seasoning, spices, and basting products. These items can be used in various combinations based on your personal preference. Making your own BBQ rubs, brine, and barbecue sauces for any of your favorite meats will be quite easy if you keep the following list on hand.

Basting & Sauce Ingredients:

Apple juice: This is Ideal for basting any BBQ meat and especially useful for ribs, pork butt, and chicken. Apple juice and apple cider can often be used in many brine recipes, bbq sauces, injections, or even in the water pan to keep the meat moist.

Rub it in... Rub it in...

Apple cider vinegar: This is a great ingredient for BBQ sauces and mops. You may also use it to thin store bought sauces and make a quick and simple mop or marinade. This is also a great product for dressing bbq pulled pork.

Molasses: This is used primarily for making sauces. The bold flavor and dark color gives the sauce its thick texture an dark color. Molasses and apple cider vinegar are 2 key ingredients I use in my personal sauce recipes.

Whiskey or Bourbon: Using these can bring great malt flavor and help to add balance to your mops or sauces. Try a bottle mixed with half Jack Daniel’s and half apple juice for basting BBQ meats.

Brown Sugar: This is another essential ingredient in my own barbecue sauce recipes. This is a great way to bring a subtle sweetness to pork butt, chicken, ribs, or pulled pork dishes. Brown sugar blends very well with hot or spicy flavors to give you just a touch of sweetness in your hot and spicy sauce.

Seasonings and Spices:

Onion powder: This is one of my personal preferences of ingredients for my BBQ rubs. The onion flavor works well with any BBQ meat.

Cumin: This is among the most important ingredients for BBQ rubs and chili recipes. This ingredient will bring a slight smoky flavor and it is especially good for a pork BBQ.

Paprika: The primary ingredient found in virtually all BBQ rubs as well as chili recipes. This adds a great color and flavor to any BBQ meat and the subtle flavor helps to balance the other ingredients.

Chile Powder: This flavorful blend can be used on any BBQ meat. This is a great way to add some spice or heat to your BBQ meat.

Garlic powder: One of the major ingredients in my personal recipes of BBQ rubs and sauces. This adds a subtle sweetness along with a touch of heat and brings balance to spicy flavors.

Kosher salt: I personally don’t care for a really salty taste. This salt helps to bring out the actual flavor of BBQ meats and has a much more subtle flavor than regular salt.

Black pepper: A very important part of any seasoning blend to get that hot and spicy touch. The bold flavor and peppery fragrance makes any BBQ meat better.

The truth about BBQ is that personal preference dictates the end result more than anything else. Practice with the flavors you enjoy and try different combinations of seasonings. You will find some you like and some you don’t but, ultimately you will enjoy the journey to find your BBQ perfection. The last and most important tip here is “cook low and slow”. This simply means use a temperature of 325 degrees or less (275 – 300 degrees is best) and cook for a longer period of time. Always make sure the temperature is constant and keep you water pan full so the meat doesn’t dry out. You can even BBQ in your oven at home during the winter if you think it is too cold to fire up the grill. Making BBQ in the oven will follow these same guidelines but for wood or smoke flavor you want to use a liquid smoke product rather than wood chips.

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BBQ Beef Brisket worth the all day cook.

It was a wet Christmas Day but nothing would get in the way of an appointment I had with a 6.5 lbs. beef brisket set to feed family visiting for the holiday.

The key to brisket – I determined – is simply time. Cook’s Illustrated (a favorite reference) writes about how to trick the process and only truly “smoke” the beef on a grill or smoker for a mere two hours and then finish off the brisket (wrapped in foil) for an additional number of hours at 300 degrees. They say two hours is all you need to provide the smoke infusion.

We love a good BBQ trick or two but this day we kept to tradition. Low and slow over charcoal (we mixed hardwood lump and Kingsford Hickory 70/30) and used water soaked Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrel Oak Chips for smoke. (However Mesquite is a brisket favorite and a better choice).

The process began the night before the cooking by preparing a simple rub and rubbing down the brisket. Feel free to trim down the fat cap. There’s no need for more that about a quarter of an inch of a layer of fat. But you do want some. We opted to rub the seasoning on/in the fat too. Then in the refrigerator ’til morning.

The Brisket Rub ( to cover 7 to 9 lbs. Brisket)

1 Packet Taco seasoning (1.25oz – Publix Generic brand)
2 tbl. Garlic Pepper mix (Tone’s)
5 tbl. Brown Sugar
5 tbl. Paprika
5 tbl. Tony Catchere’s Creole Seasoning

Brisket has a “flat” side and a “point.” The flat looks similar to a flank steak with a long grain. The point is on top of the flat with a later of fat in between. The grain runs in a different direction on the point (something to remember when slicing). We used what would be considered a small 6.5 lbs brisket that was mainly “flat.” Typical of what you would find in a major supermarket but not mega cookout sized (you can find the biggies -8 pounds and bigger – at Sam’s, Walmart’s, or a butcher).

Time is the big issue. We put our 6.5 pounder on a Brinkman Smoker at 9:00 am Fat side up.

You don’t want to open the lid of the smoker more than you have to at this point. Adding chips in the small side door is fine. Some say every time you now lift the lid you’ll have to add 15 minutes to your cook time. We added wet wood chips to the coals through the side door every 40 minutes or so until 11:30am.

At 11:30 we raised the smoker off the bottom and added some additional charcoal (1 chimney already hot / white ash) and wood chips, plus added water to the drip pan.

Smoker Temperature should stay between 225 and 275. The Brinkman smoker has a reading of “Ideal” and I tried to stay at that level until about 1:50pm. Then CAREFULLY wrap the brisket in foil. Seal it as much as you can to retain drippings and return to the smoker for two to four hours until the brisket reached an internal temperature of about 207 degrees. The thermometer will slide right in with very little resistance. 207 degrees sounds crazy to some that find a rare steak (130 degrees) the most tender… but there’s different chemistry happening. The tissues in the tough brisket (collagen) only begin to melt at around 180 degrees. You’ll just want to watch that the meat doesn’t dry out (keep it wrapped) and that the smoker isn’t too hot.

We pulled our brisket off at about 4:30pm with a reading of 206 and let it rest in a cooler wrapped in paper bags (new trash compactor bags work well) until a half hour before time to serve. The internal temperature will still rise when resting. Give yourself plenty of time in the planning – we used all eight and a half hours (including an hour to let the meat rest before cutting).

Remember to carve against the grain into pencil thick ( quarter inch) slices if possible. Our results were so tender we had to cut a bit thicker. Electric slicers come in handy here.

Total cook time – about nine hours. Process starts the night before. Our experiment was with 6.5 pond brisket.

Serves about 12 to 16 (WITH 6.5 LBS.)

Essential Ingredients For BBQ

BBQ Brisket Video

Beef Brisket Step By Step

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Archives for January 2010

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