BBQ Tips and Tricks
GrateTV took an adventure into creating our own sausage with the Kitchen Aid grinder and sausage stuffing attachment. Watch as we break it down step by step and find out more on the step by step method HERE.
We’ve talked about preparing better bratwurst before and you can catch this video and more in our Brat Playlist
The 3-2-1 method for ribs seems to be very popular in competition circles. It’s a barbecue trick that has really caught on.
The trick is to follow the 3-2-1 as time frames.
That’s it. It’s a simple road map but worth noting that “your mileage may vary” depending on the exact heat of the cooker (base numbers assume holding a stable 225 degrees F) and the size of your ribs. Practice with your key smoker to get it like clockwork.
I put the method to music. Give it a look… 2 minutes to brand 3-2-1 into your brain.
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.
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.
Coffee Mop Sauce
When barbecuing big slabs of beef like Brisket or Tri-Tip the Texans know a secret trick. Slather on the sauce early and often throughout the low and slow cooking process to layer on Texas sized flavor.
In fact, the unique sauce they use inherited a new name and BBQ classification. The thin sauce is called a “Mop” because it’s typically too thin to hold on to a regular basting brush and requires a “mop” type floppy cotton yarn brush to soak up the liquid and baste over the beat. It’s a sloppy process.
History has it that President Johnson’s barbecue master Walter Jetton (yep. he had a BBQ master) made the mop famous in his 1960’s era book.
When used in Texas sized PITS sometimes a real household mop is re-purposed for this task to handle the huge quantity. More likely you’ll want to use sa normal sized brisket and a commercially available “drawer sized” bbq mop like the one shown (or this Sauce Mop and Bucket Set
Use this peppery coffee mop sauce liberally on large cuts of beef to layer on flavor and keep the moisture in the meat. Over time the mop will facilitate a rustic sweet bark on the surface of the meat.
Try this peppery slick sauce or "mop" with your next brisket. Douse meat often during low and slow cooking process.
Ingredients
Instructions
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.
A good bratwurst grill master – or brattender as some call them – knows there are several different ways to serve the perfect beer bratwurst. But the most important thing to know you need to really COOK it. Bratwurst is almost always sold in stores as a raw meat product. That means, unlike it’s lowly cousin the hot dog, it is not already cooked and safe to eat per USDA food guidelines for pork. Bottom line you don’t want to get sick eating raw meat.
The most basic way to cook a brat is to brush it with a light oil and grill it over indirect heat for fifteen to 20 minutes. Indirect heat will allow you to get the internal temperature of the sausage hot enough without over-charring the rest of the brat. You want the final product to appear golden brown with unbroken skin (but don’t worry too much about that). Use an instant read thermometer to make sure you reach the recommended 170 degree internal temperature.
If you want to be extra careful about under cooked brats or just want to shorten the live grilling time (really?) you can easily pre-cook or par boil the bratwurst in a pan from the comfort of the kitchen. Just add one to two inches of your favorite beer into a pan over medium heat. Add sliced onions and peppers if desired and bring to the lowest possible simmer. Avoid boiling. You don’t want to rupture the skin of the brats by getting the liquid too hot or boiling. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes and finish off on the grill as described above with a shorter grilling time of 3 to six minutes.
The most social way to cook brats is by enlisting the help of the legendary BRAT tub. A simple shallow pan filled with an inch or two of beer, butter and onions that acts as the brats warm bath after our first grilling step. Keep the pan just off the fire and barely simmering so a hot brat is always on hand. Plus the grill master gets a pass to take his focused attention off the grill to chat and have a beer.
Some other pointers:
Use tongs. Never a fork. You don’t want to prick the casing. That would diminish the juiciness of the end product and could encourage a crazy flare up.
A brush of light oil before the brat hits the grill can help add a crisp texture to the casing.
You can add a lick of smoke even to a gas grill by tossing a foil smoker pouch under the grate before cooking.
Too charred? Keep it handy some joker always wants the burnt one.
Ingredients
Instructions
Is anything wrapped in bacon better? See how sausage takes to the treatment on GrateTV. Jack Waiboer pull a trick out of his sleeve with Stovetop Stuffing and you’ll want to see how it looks. Catch the step by step recipe Here