This weekend I plan to cook some ribs and a pork shoulder. I need to to practice my almost non-existant BBQ skills. It amazing that I’m not very good at it, considering it is one of my favorite foods.
I have had “BBQ” at a lot of people’s houses, and not very many of them know what they are doing. I do have one friend though, who kicks some serious ass. His name is David Collins. In my opinion David could be a proffessional chef. I have never eaten at Dave’s house and the food not be fantastic. And as far as BBQ, Dave has the Carolina BBQ, the Kansas City, and even Texas smokes securely in his back pocket. That’s right. Dave is a bad ass when it comes to cooking.
But now Dave lives too far away; about 5 hours away near Atlanta. So, I have to learn to do the BBQ thing myself. That’s not to say that I wont visit Dave on occassion. I am in Culinary school. What kind of a chef wouldn’t have at least a basic handle on BBQ? Especially one who loves to eat it as much as I do.
So what I want to practice this weekend is a long cook at low temperature to produce a tender rack of ribs and pork shoulder. I haven’t decided what type of wood I will use. I have some mesquite on hand, which would add a pretty potent smoke flavor (which I don’t mind). Or I may go out buy some oak or hickory. They are not as potent; a little milder flavor. Hickory would add that same smoke flavor of some brands of bacon.
But then I’m lazy, so, I will probably use what I have. That’s my rig to the left. Sad to say, I, a Texan, had to watch some YouTube videos to learn how to maintain my heat. No time for pride to be getting in the way. I learned how much smoke actually needs to be produced, and how much is too much. In my thinking, lots of smoke was a good thing. But it turns out that too much smoke, or the wrong kind of smoke can ruin your meat. And certain types of wood such as pine or cedar can not even be used. It will not only ruin your meat, but also your smoker, because of the resin. It’s a good thing I did some reading because I was wondering about other woods. If you want more info about woods used to cook check out, The Pitboss BBQ Blog. Also, on YouTube, check out Offset Smoker Fire Management – how to video. And if you have a smaller type rig, check out BBQ Chicken (Love’s Wood Pit BBQ Recipe), a video on how to smoke a chicken. I’ve used the method and it works perfectly.
Well, thats all for now. I will let you know how it turned out. Someone may have to remind me though.
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