From http://Gratetv.com Jack and West check out a spice grinder and answer mail about smokers. ;Plus a secret ingredient.
SBBQN 1st Event – Snake Burner – Queology
From http://Gratetv.com a montage of the Southern BBQ Networks launch event with a glimpse at a propane camp water heater and “snake” style charcoal burner. October 2010
All about Scale and Its a Twist Off
From http://gratetv.com a look at using scales to perfect your recipies and a prickly secret ingredient.
Grate TV the podcast covers Old Will Knotts Scales, Agave Nectar, and bullet vs. gas cooking.
Bite Through Chicken and Magic Apron
From http://GrateTV.com Jack Waiboer and Bill West take a look at chicken challenges plus the batman apron and another secret ingredient. 10/06/2010
12 Tips For Low and Slow Smoking
Get That Great Smoked Flavour With Barbecue Smokers
By Mick Jonesey
So what are they really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about barbecue smokers–info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.
If your barbecue smokers facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important barbecue smokers information slip by you.
Do’s and DON’T’S:
1- Please don’t mix up barbecue smokers with Grilling – This is one of those greenhorn things that forever differentiate loyal barbecue smokers enthusiasts from the ignorant public. Remember, grilling is a fast, hot fling you have with a steak, burger, or hotdog..whilst barbecue smokers depicts the day long relationship you have with a rack of ribs, a pork shoulder, a beef brisket, etc. A lot more finesse is needed for barbecue smokers, as well as lots of time
2 – Lighter Fluid – Unless you savour the taste of petroleum distillates (i.e. Petrol, lamp oil, paint thinner), don’t even try it. Your barbecue smokers food is going to have a while to get acquainted your fuel source, and we don’t want smoke to be substituted by fumes.
3 – Self-lighting briquettes – these little lazy guy lumps are in essence lighter fluid sponges.see above.
4 – Liquid Smoke – This stuff is made by burning green wood and liquefying the resulting smoke. If properly cooking barbecue over wood coals, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN CONSIDER IT? The only place I’ve seen it used, where it might make sense, is in barbecue sauce, but even that is debatable. Everywhere else, including jerky, is fraudulent. It’s like opening up a can of Spaghetti-O’s and calling it Fine Italian Pasta.
5 – Ovens – At NO TIME should an oven be considered as part of the barbecue smokers procedure. Therefore, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make barbecue smokers ribs in the oven. You can make some great oven-cooked ribs, but please don’t call them barbecued.
6 – Boiling Ribs – the ultimate taboo..Most of the taboos listed above have one or two exceptions that will keep you from getting hung, but this one NEVER EVER EVER EVER should a rib of ANY type come into contact with boiling water unless you’re making soup. If you need to boil them to make them tender, hang it up and order take-out.
7 – Crock Pot w/Barbecue Sauce – Ugh, a cross between the oven taboo and the boiling ribs taboo..need I say more? Throw some foil in the mix and you’ve just insulted the entire community.
8 – Best Cooker – asking a man what the best barbecue smokers rig is, is akin to asking him who the best ball team is. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone else disagrees. Be very wary when asking for this opinion topic, as it could easily get out of hand..and if you use the word ceramic or egg in your question..you better DUCK!
9 – Favorite Meat – very regionally sensitive discussion. Various parts of the nation have their own version of barbecue smokers, which involves different cuts of meat from different animals. Generally speaking: east is pork ribs, southeast is pork shoulders and whole hogs, south is beef and brisket.
10 – Wet or Dry – sauced or on the side. Very much like meat, this preference is displayed along regional lines, with the eastern folks liking the sweet and/or vinegary sauces, and the Texans liking the barbecue smokers or DRY situations.
11 – Lump or Briquettes – Here’s one near and dear to my heart. When I started this barbecue smokers hobby, I had a Brinkman Offset, a pile of hickory logs, and a bag of a certain brand of charcoal briquettes. Some fine fine barbecue smokers cooks tell me that they don’t notice anything different between fuels, but others say that there is a nasty, bitter, acrid, chemically smell/taste they find when using certain royal and kingly briquettes..and I’m inclined to agree.
12 – Cooking with flaming logs or glowing coals – right off the bat, I’ll say that BOTH are right.but one is much harder and, for me, much more expensive. The conventional purists insist that the original barbecuing pitmasters would burn their wood all the way down to coals before adding food to the pit. Then, they would add glowing coals to the pit as the cook progressed, preburned in another area. But, when cooking with blazing wood, you must be careful to have just the right fire going or you’ll ruin your food with bitter creosoted smoke. (small hot fire with almost invisible smoke) When using barbecue smokers with preburned coals, you don’t run that risk but you waste a lot of wood and spend a lot of time preburning and shoveling.
find out more… http://www.barbecue-smokers.net/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mick_Jonesey
http://EzineArticles.com/?Get-That-Great-Smoked-Flavour-With-Barbecue-Smokers&id=5094369
Praise The Lard and Check Your Chicken
From http://GrateTV.com Jack and Bill look at checking chicken’s internal temperature plus a kebab gadget and secret ingredient. Taped in Mount Pleasant, SC, ;GrateTV is a BBQ and grilling show for both the backyard cook and competition cooker.
Judging BBQ and Dont Forget The Burn Barrel
From http://GrateTV.com Jack and West talk judging competitions and take a look at this week’s secret ingredient. ;A viewer sends in a Grate Plate photo.
Grate Better Best: Choosing Grill Grates
Hot Grates
How to Barbecue Better Using Cooking Grates
Cooking grates come in different types and materials, and each has its own advantages, depending on its use and the preference of the cook. Grill grates hold your food when you are barbecuing or grilling. So let us take a look at the choices available when it comes to outdoor cooking grates.
When it comes to popularity, cast iron grates seem to be the choice. The heavier wide cast iron grates can hold heat for a long time and cook evenly. As a result, you get well seared, quickly cooked food. The only problem with iron grill grates is maintenance. Apart from the regular cleaning, you must ensure that cast iron grills are well seasoned before you use them and this must be done periodically even when they are in regular use. They do come with manufacturers instructions on how to season them. While it is not a difficult task to season them, neglecting to do it can result in rust. If you do keep them well seasoned, cast iron can be as good as nonstick grates and appear to last longer than a lifetime.
A better option, if you want the advantage of longer heat but not the associated maintenance hassle with cast iron, you can opt for porcelain coated iron grates. These combine the quality of durability, as well as avoid the problem of rust as long as the porcelain coating is intact. Over time, the porcelain coating can crack, chip or wear off unless you are really careful when you handle it. At the time of cleaning, it is better to use brass bristles in place of metal scrapers with hard edges.
Stainless cooking grates for grills are less durable than iron; however, with good care, these can also last a long time. You also get steel grates coated with porcelain just like cast iron grates coated with porcelain. One problem, however, is that these grates are quite thin and too widely spaced to hold heat. While this does not really affect smoking or indirectly cooking huge portions of meat, beef, steaks and chops could pose an issue since you will not get those attractive grill marks. Serious chefs prefer wider grates.
If you compare stainless cooking grates for grills, porcelain enameled cast iron cooking grates and porcelain coated cast iron grates, porcelain coated cast iron grates let you cook at lower temperatures because there is longer retention of heat. Stainless steel grates come with the longest warranty followed by porcelain coated cast iron grates and the porcelain enameled ones.
Generally, it is better to buy stainless cooking grates for bbq grills so that they are not prone to rust. Often we find barbecue grills that are perfect with all the features we want at a price that is hard to refuse, yet does not have the kind of grate we want. In such cases, you can always check with the manufacturer. For example, you can opt for Weber porcelain enameled cast iron cooking grates that give you the advantage of long lasting grates that retain excellent heat and are supposed to be easy to maintain. But most weekend barbecuers feel that it is hard to keep it seasoned because they get so heated. This manufacturer also offers the option of choosing stainless cooking grates for the grills. These are easy to clean before cooking. By coating them with oil, you can keep food from sticking to it. Importantly, the grill marks are prominent. Another big advantage of stainless steel is its lightweight property making it easy to handle particularly while adding wood or briquettes to your smoker box. Stainless steel is also a good material for camping cooking grates.
About The Author: Jonathan Goodman is the owner of Market Merchants an online retailer specializing in home and garden products. My passion for bbq grilling and fireplaces is the core focus of Market Merchants. I am a member of the Hearth Patio Barbeque Association (HPBA), the National BBQ group (NBBQ), and the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS). We sell these products because we love them and are passionate about consumer living needs. So whether its furniture and decor, home improvement, kitchen and dining, or outdoor living Market Merchants brings a dedicated commitment to the customer and a passion for high quality products. Visit Market Merchants for a wide selection of cooking grates from our grill accessories department.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Goodman
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Barbecue-Better-Using-Cooking-Grates&id=1144397
Woking and Rollin, Perfect Butts.
Episode 14 of GrateTV has Bill and Jack checkin out what makes a perfect butt and they will have you woking and rolling with the gadget of the week. ;This weeks website of the week has a little trick up its sleeve.
Judging BBQ Competitions Fun and Free
The annual BBQ cook off came to town this past weekend and I decided to take a new angle at it. Each year I had been scraping together a team and spending upwards of four hundred bucks to compete for bragging rights and the hope to make a bit of the cash back (some guys do… I haven’t yet). There is definately some to that “thrill of the grill” but I wanted to try something different.
This year I signed up as a judge for the self sanctioned competition. First off… some of the big BBQ sanctioning groups (KCBS and Memphis In May) have training classes you need to take so you may not be able to jump directly in but it’s not difficult. My event was self sanctioned (they made up their own rules) and the group enlisted judges from other organizations. This is not uncommon and, in general, the attitudes around the judging tents seems to be fairly loose, laid back and ready to teach newbies. Don’t be surprised if it seems a bit chaotic.
I learned that being a judge was, for me, better than competing.
Judging bbq competitions may be right for you too if you are:
- Non competitive – I’m not selling a sauce a trophy isn’t that big of deal to me
- Hungry and love to eat – (yes despite taking only a bite of each item you will leave FULL)
- A foodie
- On a budget. I didn’t want to spend the $$ on meat, charcoal, extras and an entry fee. It adds up.
- Lacking free time – It takes two days to prep, cook , and compete. Judging just takes a leisurely Saturday.
- Wanting to feel important. Teams lacking sleep will act silly when they see you marked “judge.”
- Fond of sleeping in a real bed with air conditioning.
- Wanting to compete in the future
The last point is a good one. You get a whole new perspective on how serious (yes one cooker missed his turn in time and his chicken was eliminated) and sometime subjective judging can be.
BBQ Tricks and Tips I took away:
- Read the rules – you’re only judged on what’s listed.
- Appearance matters – it’s usually an individual point in the judging. I saw a few boxes smudged with fingerprints (yuck) and sloppy with sauce. Layout the food in the box in a clean, orderly and attractive manner. In my case they opened the box and we all looked at it and simply judged “appearance” from 1 to 9. That was almost a third of the total potential score.
- Keep it hot. The pieces that were warmer seemed to taste better.
- Stay away from lighter fluid.
- Judges expect some sauce, in general like sweet, NOT heat.
- Perfect ribs won’t fall off the bone (that’s overdone) but they should come off easy.
Overall I was surprised how similar all the ribs were and how everything was still warm. Judging was an econmical way to experience the thrill of the grill without touching any charcoal and still getting a good night’s sleep.