BBQ Tips and Tricks
Grill Marks
Don’t have a meat thermometer and need a way to know just the right time to pull the steaks off the grill? Use this simple BBQ Trick that we call the OK Handy method for using the ball of your thumb to determine if your BBQ meat is Rare/ Medium / or Well Done. It’s easy… plus how to use a toothpick to test the doneness of ribs. More on the tip HERE or watch the video here.
Backyard BBQ enthusiasts can learn a few tricks from competition cookers when it comes to hardware like top notch smokers and gadgets like the BBQ Guru and The Stoker to trick them out.
These days you’ll see a lot of hard core competitive cookers using a specially made smoker called the Backwoods Competitor from a company called Backwoods Smokers. The takeaway here is you can get very consistent results with a well built air tight smoker. If you use only charcoal or cook in KCBS or MIM sanctioned events or groups that only allow using wood or charcoal this model could be for you. The cooking is done with efficient use of charcoal.
The smoker features heavy duty latches and is built for competition. At 350 pounds it’s ready mount on a small trailer and with over 3000 square inches of cook space it can accommodate most all levels of competition other than whole hogs.
Competition cook Seth Watari says “We loaded up with hardwood lump at four in the morning and at eleven am and still had about half the charcoal left.” That’s a perfect time frame for a low slow cook for home or competition.
Many teams will take this type of smoker to the next level with a remote controlled blower add on. The most popular brands being the BBQ Guru and The Stoker can be purchased in kits ranging from 200 to 500 dollars. The main heat source is charcoal and the use of an electric blower and remote control still falls within competition guidelines.
“The BBQ Guru…also has a meat probe and it has an alarm so when you hit your target temperature it will regulate the inside of the oven to hold it there. I’m a fan.” says cooker Mark Lamb from the Carolina Moon cook team.
Jack Waiboer from Carolina Pitmasters likes The Stoker’s remote control capabilities, “We can actually run multiple cookers off an iPhone or a laptop computer.”
When you get your system down and timing just right it’s hard to beat the solid construction and hi-tech consistency the Backwoods Smoker with a BBQ Guru or Stoker can offer cook teams and the dependable quality even a backyard BBQ enthusiast will appreciate.
Our weekly BBQ and Grill Show – GrateTV took a trip around the competition grounds to talk to some cookers over the last few months… here’s a year end visit to a few of our friends. Don’t miss Jack Waiboer (http://carolinapitmasters.com) doing meat shots about halfway into the video.
As always please subscribe to our many feeds and check back weekly for more BBQ.
Mixing the Special Sauce
Everybody can recite the recipe of McDonald’s Flagship burger the Big Mac.
“TwoAllBeefPattiesSpecialSauceLettuceCheesePicklesOnionsOnASesameSeedBun.”
But what about that “special sauce” recipe?
Even more special on a home made hamburger.
I don’t have any connections at the golden arches… but I did eat a BigMac today and then I jumped on the internet to find the closest knock off I could find.
There are a bunch of options but this one seemed the closest. After mixing up
a dozen different BBQ sauces this week this sauce stands out as something… well special. It was a real treat on a homemade burger.
But after 12.50 in ingredients maybe I should have just gone to McDonalds. Still, give this McDonalds Special Sauce Recipe Knockoff a try.
It rocks.
This Micky D's Knockoff nails the taste of the real thing.
Ingredients
Instructions
There’s something exotic about a good Hoisin Sauce. It’s hard to tell what ingredients make it so unique. The soybeans? Garlic? Plums? It’s the Chinese ketchup and it’s the starting point to making our U.S. knock-off of a Chinese BBQ Sauce.
The fresh ingredients make this sauce really zippy. I mean if you put fresh garlic, Hoisin, and fresh ginger in my Elmer’s Glue I would probably eat it… but in this blend of fresh sweet and tangy ingredients it’ll make you want to eat it like soup. But save some for everybody.
This Chinese BBQ Sauce Recipe is especially good on chicken and nice and sticky for spare ribs. Another good thing is it wont have to simmer long… 
should be ready in five/ten minute.
Serve this sauce with fresh green onion garnish.
This American version of a Chinese BBQ Sauce has a freshness you can't get in bottled brands that comes from the sherry, fresh ginger, and garlic. Perfect to give an average backyard cook out a bit of an international flair. For a dynamic dipping sauce add one and a half tablespoons of smooth peanut butter.
Ingredients
Instructions
Some folks consider Kansas City the epicenter of American BBQ. Fans of South Carolina Mustard sauce, Carolina Vinegar Sauce, and Texas Sauce would surely beg to differ. KC has a good argument. Kansas City BBQ Sauce is one of the most popular off the shelf sauces in grocery stores and the Kansas City Barbecue Society is the largest and most influential sanctioning organizations in existence.
Mainstream America loves a super sweet smokey thick sauce and that’s exactly what Kansas City, Mo specializes in. The style of sauce has been commercialized under the brand KC Masterpiece. A man child psychologist named Rich Davis developed the recipe in 1977 originally with only five ingredients. Since then it has been purchased by Kingsford and has become one of the top selling barbecue sauces in the Nation.
Our version of Kansas City sauce has that same deep rich tomato undertone with a sweet smokey finish. It’s the perfect sauce for both chicken and pork as it literally defines the phrase “sticks to your ribs.”
This thick tomatoey sweet and thick sauce is a mainstream American favorite for ribs, sliced pork, and chicken. Serve extra on the side.
Ingredients
Instructions
I first heard of Danny Gaulden’s Glaze when shooting a GrateTV episode on Twice Smoked Ham with Jack Waiboer. He used this glaze on other occasions too and said it was the best around. After looking for the best glaze recipe to share Gaulden’s name kept coming up. It’s interesting to note that I found several variations on this same recipe!
So I went to the source… http://dannysbbq.com where Gaulden actually has a 2003 update on his original 1999 version (the original had a beer option in stead of the vinegar). Jack Waiboer suggests a bit of Southern Comfort in lieu of some vinegar. Meathead at Amazing Ribs suggests “amping” it up with some hot sauce.
The basic 4 parts brown sugar, 1 part mustard, and 1 part cider vinegar seems just right to me. Gaulden suggests using it on ribs IMMEDIATELY after pulling them off the grill. Check out his site and give his recipes a try.
This is the go-to glaze for many a pitmaster originated by Danny Gaulden at Dannysbbq.com
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Perfect for pork like a ham glaze and ribs and also good on beef.
Use caution around the heat.
We know preparing the holiday meal can be a daunting task especially when there are a lot of unfamiliar mouths to feed in the house. Well, here’s our BBQ Tricks guide to smoking a mid sized to large bird this was about an 17 pound turkey.
We’re using a standard Brinkmann gourmet bullet type charcoal smoker with a large chimney of charcoal briquettes and also watersoaked hickory chunks to add smoke. A weber smokey mtn. cooker or any indirect heat would be similar – hardwood lump charcoal may burn a little hotter so that may speed things a bit if you use that.
Get the charcoal ready by firing up a chimney and waiting until the top coals are burning with some white ash. We’ll have another video here to show you how to do that. Waiting til the coals are white lets you make sure most any impurities are burned out of the charcoal and won’t give the bird an off taste.
While the coals are heating up you can unwrap your bird. Typically large birds like this from the grocery store are already sold as “enhanced” with a brining solution already. It will be labeled on the packaging as enhanced. So really you do not need to brine unless you really want to. And you can. Over brining can actually make the meat kinda mushy,,. So just be aware of that.
Final Temperature shoud be 160 to 170 degrees
All you need to do is give the bird a good rinse and pat dry with paper towels… remove the weird parts of it popes nose at the end , pull out the neck and organs that are stuffed inside and trim off any other excess skin you think is gonna detract from the final look of your turkey. Make sure you remove all the plastic packaging that’s inside too.
Season the bird generously inside and lightly out with your favorite dry rub seasoning. It could be anything. Then you may opt to inject the bird with some melted butter and Cajun seasoning. It’s nice.
The one tip we have is to inject from the INSIDE of the Cavity to keep the outside pristine. Or just do what we did here…. Loosen the skin of the turkey all around the breasts and as deep into the legs as you possibly can and massage some spice rub under the skin and into the meatiest part of the bird. Or as we like to call it getting to poultry third base here. It gets it nice and seasoned.
Next, it’s about time to load the smoker with the charcoal and top with some wood chunks like hickory to produce smoke. Place the bird over the water pan to prevent drips and block the direct heat of the fire just a little bit. Smoker should be 225 degrees – this smoker simply reads ideal – which is fine. Close the lid, leave untouched for two to three hours and reloading with more charcoal after that if you need. Reload wood chunks through that little side door each hour. You don’t want to open the lid if you don’t have to. That just adds 15 to 25 minutes every time you open the lid. By adding wood chunks to the side door you also get a little glimpse of the skin thru the side door to make sure you’re not over doing it.
After about three or three and half hours check the temperature of the bird using a meat thermometer – you’re shooting for minimum 160 to 170 degrees in the breast. Usually we’d hit deepest part of thigh but it’s kinda hard to get to in this smoker
Use gloves to carefully remove the bird and be careful of hot liquid in the carcass… drain that out if you can. Let the bird rest for at least fifteen minutes before carving.
This turkey took just about four hours and fifteen minutes with opening the lid simply once after three hours.
Our biggest tip… always give yourself an extra couple of hours leeway just in case. Because it’s easier to keep that bird warm and rest it a little bit longer than to rush the whole cooking process. It’s really that simple
If you need more turkey tips it’s all at the website – www.barbecuetricks.com.
Sure the Holidays are really about Family and Giving and mainly God. But at here at BarbecueTricks.com we thought we’d celebrate by giving you a gift of one of our favorite things. Barbecue sauce. We can’t get enough. And apparently most of America has an insatiable appetite for barbecue sauce. The supermarket store shelves are stocked with dozens upon dozens of different bottled varieties.
So instead of just one gift you’ll get twelve this Holiday season… Twelve sauce recipes. One per day until Christmas Eve. That’s just how we roll.
Here’s the FULL LIST – Enjoy:
Day 1 – South Carolina Mustard Sauce
Day 2 – Western Carolina Vinegar Sauce
Day 3 – Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce
Day 4 – Blue BBQ Sauce
Day 5 – Alabama White Sauce
Day 6 – Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce
Day 7 – Texas Coffee Mop
Day 8 – Danny’s Glaze
Day 9 – Kansas City Sweet and Smokey Sauce
Day 10 – Chinese BBQ Sauce – sweet and sticky!
Day 11 – McDonald’s Special Sauce
Day 12 – Best For Last Almost Award Winning Sauce
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The Palmetto state is home to a different kind of Barbecue sauce. It’s Northern brethren in Western North Carolina have staked their claim in a vinegary thin and spicy sauce that cuts the fattiness of whole hog pulled pork. But South Carolinian’s like to keep their options open and are in fact one of the only places you can find a different – mustard based style of barbecue sauce.
The origins of the mustard infusion is said to have been passed down from German influences from settlers on the Carolina coast. In the mid 1700 the British Colony of South Carolina brought in thousands of families to the area to settle in and make the state their home. They brought with them a traditional German fair in food with the common use of mustard. To this day most of the biggest names in South Carolina are of German decent including the Bessinger family who still wave the mustard flag in their BBQ joints in the Columbia and Charleston area.
Although the thought of a mustard sauce is foreign to many. Barbecue fans tend to like this tangy take on a thick sweet sauce. There are hundreds of variations that can be created with different variety of mustard but tradition leans to a simple affordable yellow blend that we’ve adapted below. This mainstream blend of mustard and vinegar makes for another tangy way to cut through fatty pulled pork at your next pig pickin’.
Serve this sauce warm on the side with pulled pork or mix above amount with one shredded/pulled boston butt.
Ingredients
Instructions
Also known as “Carolina Gold” this tangy and sweet sauce uses basic yellow mustard as the key ingredient. Serve this sauce warm, on the side, with pulled pork or mix below amount directly with one shredded/pulled Boston butt.
1 small white onion, minced Small 2 Tbsp butter1 clove of garlic, minced1 cup yellow mustard 3/4 cup brown sugar3/4 cup pickle juice or cider vinegar 1 tsp kosher salt1 tsp fresh ground black pepperHot sauce to taste
Saute’’ garlic and onion until translucent. Add mustard and remaining ingredients and simmer for ten minutes until thickened. Strain out onion pulp (optional).
