BBQ Tips and Tricks
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.
This week our GrateTV BBQ and Grill Show podcast takes a look at the Holiday twice smoked ham. This is the perfect Christmas meal for the BBQ enthusiast. It looks incredible. It’s a killer presentation and it’s not all that hard to prepare. Jack Waiboer gives you the step by step HERE.
For us it’s the best way to do Christmas Ham. Take a look and come back for more every week.
This week the GRATETV BBQ and Grill Show visits some power players at Patriots Point for this year’s BBQ Throwdown. Jack Fulton and Jimmy Haygood from http://foodforthesouthernsoul.com know the ins and outs of good BBQ. Check out their words of BBQ wisdom and have a few meat shots for us.
I first heard of a SMOKE fried turkey about a year ago when Jack Waiboer mentioned it in discussions on frying turkey. It went something like “You wanna try something REALLY good ya gotta smoke fry a turkey.”
I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind so I set up shop for us to demo the making of what Jack calls a “SMO-Fried” turkey for http://GrateTV.com. I now know it’s as good as it sounds and – although it may be double the work – it’s not really very difficult.
It’s worth another reminder – don’t burn down the house… ask Jack about his old garage door.
Here’s the Deal:
Smo-Fried turkey is a natural progression combining 2 of the most popular ways to cook a turkey. It?s really quite simple, smoke or grill the bird then drop it in hot grease to finish off the cook and crisp up the skin. Please be very careful. Hot grease, liquids, and fire mixed together can spell disaster if you don?t put safety as your top priority! Trust us we call it the garage door killer from personal experience.
Smo-Fried Turkey
Ingredients:
10 bs. Turkey, completely thawed.
3 Gal OilInjection:
Equal parts butter, hot sauce (we used Texas Pete wing sauce), white grape juice,
Rub: Tony Chachere’s,Directions:
Inject turkey breast from inside cavity, legs and thighs from outside. Rub under skin, on top of skin, and inside of cavity.
Smoke over hardwood coals and chunks at a settled temperature for at least 2 hours.Finish turkey in a 325- 350 degree, preheated turkey frying apparatus, until done. 170 degrees in deep thigh. Takes about 30 mins. Let rest, carve, then serve.https://barbecuetricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/turkeya.jpg
Ingredients
Instructions
GrateTV paid a visit to one of the South East’s winning-est BBQ Teams… Mike’s Catering. Mike Fields has been cooking and competing for over a decade and has plenty of Grand Champion trophies to prove his team’s elite status. Take a look and meat the Mike’s Catering team and grab a tip on award winning chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.
GrateTV is a weekly web video series on barbecue and grilling. Subscribe and rate on Youtube, iTunes and Facebook.
Watch as we put together an innovative shrimp taco with a carrier of a different kind. Try it and sen un #GRATEPLATE photos for us to share at http://Gratetv.com/submit
Shrimp On Wire Kebab
Jack Waiboer creates an Ostrich Egg recipe that you’ll want to try on the Grill. Stuffed Turkey rolled up in a crispy Turkey Bacon weave. It’s a poultry explosion. Full recipe here at http://GrateTV.com search “ostrich egg.”
Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Turkey Breast
R-2-B-Q
One trick to great BBQ smokers is that you can build a cooker all on your own for less than $200 by constructing an Ugly Drum Smoker. A “U.D.S.” as some call them.
“If you don’t include the lid you’re talking under $100″ says Seth Watari from Southern BBQ Network. Watari suggests a search on Craigs List to find deals on the Lids. Best to find cast-offs from Weber 22” Kettles. Thaey are just the right size for the 55 gallon drums.
Watari very successfully competes in cook-offs throughout the South East and the UDS cookers work great. His “R-2-BQ” Star Wars themed smoker recently brought home the grand championship in Best Of Berkeley. One suggestion: Use high temperature paint where you can to customize. “I use a paint that withstands up to 500 degrees and if your cooker gets over 500 degrees – the paint is the least of your worries.”
One more advanced modification is the thermometer / fan control. One very popular brand is the BBQ Guru. The gizmo has advanced features including smart phone control.
The Ugly Drum Smokers are common on the BBQ circuit and you can find more details on how to construct your own HERE.
Two Pork Butts with Money Muscle circled. Note fat stripes.
It’s a BBQ secret weapon. If you’ve ever judged a BBQ contest you may be familiar with what’s called “the money muscle.” Using it in a judged box is a bbq trick that has become well known.
It’s named “money muscle” because a lot of competitive cookers think it’s the best tasting part of the Boston Butt (or pork butt) and is essential on winning the top level money in pro cook-offs.
How do you find the money muscle? Look at the opposite end of the bone. It’s tube shaped (with striations and stripes). You’ll see the bands of fat evenly spaced along the muscle. When fully cooked that fat should easily melt away and render to provide almost a mini loin that cookers will slice and present in a blind box for competition. It’s located high on the pork shoulder (read “high on the hog”) and is the beginning of the loin.
That muscle just doesn’t get worked much so it’s super tender.
Butt with Money Muscle trimmed for competition cooking
Cookers will also promote bark creation around the money muscle by trimming around the muscle and using a good rub. Some competitions will disallow full separation from the rest of the but while cooking so often it is carved so it is still connected.
“You have to trim it up so it’s nice and round and it’s kinda like a little loin. The great cooks really use that muscle to really showcase their meat” according to champion Pitmaster Jack Waiboer.
The money muscle will cook faster than the rest of the butt (shoot for 180 degrees for the muscle 195 for the rest of the butt). Once done, the log shaped muscle can be sliced into medallions and presented beautifully in the turn in box. The addition of a good bark on the succulent meat is a combination that wins over judges (especially in the tenderness category).
See more about the money muscle on THIS Episode of GrateTV
