Oven-Barbequed Ribs

Blasphemy or Saving Grace



Two years ago the damned local fire marshal decreed that not only was it now against fire regulations to use an open flame grill (gas or charcoal) within 20 feet of a multi-family dwelling (read "my condo") but that you can't even store a grill (gas or charcoal) within 20 feet of the dwelling. It's a completely reasonable rule. Most people are idiots and I don’t want an idiot burning down my house because he gets drunk and uses too much lighter fluid. But I'm not an idiot and I totally detest the rule because it put an end to one of my favorite modes of cooking.

I hauled my grill and smoker out to my parents' house and visit them (parents and grills) when I can, but my parents live 30 minutes away and I've gone from cooking over flame two or three times a month to cooking over flame two or three times a summer.

I hauled my grill and smoker out to my parents' house and visit them (parents and grills) when I can.

If all I want is a grilled flavor in a steak, I can use my stove-top smoker and then toss the steak on a really hot grill pan to get the sear and char. But that's a quick technique that doesn't work for smoked Boston Butt or pork ribs, which require long, slow cooking to become tender. So recently I tried a technique I've been hearing about in unexpected places — liquid smoke.

Probably like you, I figured liquid smoke was an artificial product. That's not necessarily bad, but typically such products are one-dimensional. For example, artificial vanilla extract contains vanillin but none of the other complex flavors that make true vanilla true vanilla. I figured the same was true of liquid smoke. I was wrong.

Liquid smoke is made from real smoke filtered through water. It has most of the flavor — and probably all of the carcinogens — you get from cooking over wood. So I've been playing with it to see if I could get at least the flavor, if not the texture, of meat cooked in a smoker. I'm still experimenting, but these ribs turned out reasonbly well.

Oven-Smoked Country Ribs
Serves 4.

12 country-style pork ribs — bone-in
Dry rub
1/4 c liquid smoke
Barbeque sauce (if desired)

Generously season ribs with rub, stuff in a zippered bag, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

Wrap ribs tightly in heavy-duty foil, add liquid smoke, and cook at 225F for 5 1/2 hours.

Open up foil and drain off the liquid, it's too smoky to keep, so discard it.

At this point I had preheated my grill pan over medium-high heat. I brushed the ribs with sauce and tossed them on the grill pan for about 4 minutes per side to provide browning and caramelization.

Liquid smoke does give you a genuine smoke flavor, but the result is more one-dimensional than actual slow smoking over charcoal with soaked wood chips. So in terms of genuine flavor it falls somewhere between imitation vanilla flavoring and real vanilla extract. My conclusion is the techique is an improvement on doing without, but it still feels a bit blasphemous.

Try these ribs with...
French Fries
Potatoes Parmigiano
Fried Okra

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | pork | barbeque | main dish

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Meat

Meat



I noticed that my friend, the good Doctor and Reverend Biggles of Meathenge, was reduced to posting a photo of chicken in a pot this morning. The struck me as the perfect occasion to rub his nose in the pulled pork I smoked for 12 hours on Thursday.



You can find a recipe for the dry rub here and the sauce here.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin weeks | seriously good | pulled pork | barbeque

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Barbequed Beans

Beans Are Good for the Heart — and Soul



When I was a kid there were times when I took my lunch to school and other periods when I bought my lunch at the cafeteria. Thinking back, I don't recall a particular rhyme or reason to it nor do I particularly remember caring except in one case, when the cafeteria was serving beans I wanted to take my lunch.

In the South at that time beans were often a main dish — and they were horrible. Pinto beans would be cooked for six or seven hours, with perhaps a ham hock as the only flavoring, until they were a lumpy grayish-brown paste. Horrible things that turned me against dried beans.

Beans beans, they're good for the heart
The more you eat the more your fart
The more you fart, the better you feel
So eat your beans at every meal.
~ traditional

There were exceptions, I've always liked cassoulet and my mother made a mean pot of Senate Bean Soup, but even in those cases, a single helping was enough to last me for a year. But for the most part I've had problems getting past the memory of those nasty beans served in the school cafeteria.

But a couple of years ago something prompted me to make a quick cassoulet-like dish that completely blew me away and prompted me to further beanish experiments — among them a stab at making real (smoked) barbequed beans. As you can see from the article, that didn't work out, but this past Memorial Day I tried again and this time I succeeded.

Barbequed Beans
Serves 8.

1 lb dried, dark pinto beans
1 tbsp salt
1 smoked ham hock
1 onion — peeled and cut into eighths
6 oz thick cut bacon — cooked until slightly crisp and cut into lardons
1/2 onion — diced and sautéed in bacon fat
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
1/2 c barbeque sauce
1 1/2 c canned, plain tomato sauce
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp ground mace
2 tbsp chili powder
salt and black pepper to taste

Put the beans, ham hock, onion quarters and 6 cups of water in a soup pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 2 1/2 hours. Drain beans, keeping about 1 cup of cooking liquid. Pick the meat off the ham hock and add back to the beans.

In the meantime, cook the bacon in a skillet and drain most of the fat, keeping about 2 tablespoons. Sauté the diced onion in the bacon fat until the onion begins to brown. Set aside.

In an aluminum-foil roasting pan, combine the beans and all other ingredients. (Everything to this point can be done a day in advance.)

If you don't have a smoker or don't want to use it, the beans should be cooked for about 3 more hours, uncovered, in 225F oven. But if, like me, you have a barrel smoker, then once your fire is going place a rack in the middle of the smoker (this is directly over the water pan in my smoker — and do fill the water pan). Set the beans, uncovered, on this rack, then add the top rack and set whatever meat you're planning on smoking on it. I did ribs, but even turkey or chickens would be all right. The idea is that as the meat cooks any juices drip into the beans adding still more flavor. Smoke for at least 3 hours and 5 to 6 is better.

The beans came out tender, but mostly whole (no lumpy mush) with a distinct smoke flavor. Absolutely delicious, a complete success.

Technorati: Food | recipe | beans | side dish | barbeque | bbq

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Potato Salad

Not Your Grandmother's Potato Salad



My family has few traditional recipes. There's Mummo's Bourbon Cake, a Christmas treat that's made Thanksgiving weekend and then aged (with regular shots of bourbon) until Christmas. And while Mom made the bourbon cake, Dad would make eggnog, which was also aged until Christmas.

During strawberry season there would be one Saturday or Sunday night supper that consisted solely of Strawberry Shortcake, which Mom made. And summers featured Dad's salad dressing, a soy sauce-based dressing that's particularly good on a green salad that includes leftover grilled steak.

Food has replaced sex in my life, now I can't even get into my own pants ~ Unknown

In fact, for a brief period of time my brother Loren cooked for banquets at a local hotel. The first time there was leftover steak from the banquet he brought it out to my parent's house for the dogs. My mother had a fit over feeding "perfectly good steak" to the dogs so she cut it up for salad. Loren was too squeamish to eat it, but I happened to be there that day and I agreed with my mother — after all, the only things that had touched the meat were a steak knife and my brother's hands.

But those few recipes are about it for traditions, except for Sutherland Potato Salad. And although this isn't your grandmother's potato salad, it is my grandmother's — maybe even her grandmother's.

This is an old recipe (if you can even call it a recipe) from my mother's family that's unusual because the dressing is just oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. The salad itself consists of nothing but potatoes and onions — no eggs, celery, pickles, relish, mayo, mustard, or anything else. Those who've never had this salad are often put off by the idea because it's so drastically different from most potato salads. Nevertheless, one bite always produces raves. It really is a case of the total being greater than the sum of it's parts.

But, given such simple ingredients, every Sutherland who makes it has their own little tweaks. Some swear by baking potatoes while others prefer red potatoes. Some use white onions and others red onions or yellow onions. My Aunt Gloria insisted on white vinegar while I think cider vinegar is best. My mother added fresh dill to her's for a while and I've come to consider the dill essential.

The basic recipe consists of:

3 lb potatoes
1 lg onion
salad oil (vegetable, corn, or canola)
vinegar
salt and pepper

My version consists of:

3 lb Yukon Gold (or baking/Russet/Idaho) potatoes
1 lg red onion (3" diameter)
canola oil
cider vinegar
1/4 c minced fresh dill
salt and pepper

Ingredients
Yukon Golds are perfect for this salad. I like their hint of sweetness and they're a medium-high starch potato. I avoid low starch potatoes for two reasons. First, higher starch potatoes are absorbent and will soak up the oil and vinegar, while with low-starch potatoes the dressing tends to pool in the bowl. Second, high-starch potatoes crumble a bit during mixing and these potato particles absorb more of the dressing and cling to the larger pieces of potatoes resulting in something akin in texture and function to mayonnaise. (Look at the photo, it isn't out of focus, it's grainy because of the potato sauce.)

Red (Bermuda) onions are relatively mild and slightly sweet, which offers a nice contrast to the sour vinegar. Also, the purple color makes for a much more visually appealing dish.

I use canola oil, but any neutral oil will do. The purpose of the oil is mouth feel, not flavor, so avoid olive oil.

I prefer cider vinegar, but white (distilled) vinegar is also fine. Avoid wine-based or flavored vinegars, they detract from the whole rather than contribute to it.

You can skip the dill, but of all the variations on this recipe that I've eaten over the years dill is the only one that works (although, Aunt Gloria was horrified by the idea). The dill adds an herbal, grassy note that gives the salad a freshness it is otherwise missing. And, like the red onion, it makes a more visually appealing result.

Assembly
Cut the onion in quarters vertically, then each quarter in half horizontally. Separate the layers and cut the larger pieces in half again. You should end up with a collection of 1/2 inch squares and some randomly-sized pieces from the center. Dump the onion into a large bowl.

Peel the potatoes and cut into bite-size pieces (1/2 to 3/4 inch square). Cook in boiling, salted water until completely cooked — about 12 minutes. Drain and immediately add to the onions. Mix with 1/2 cup of oil, 1/4 cup of vinegar, a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of black pepper. It's essential that the potatoes be hot when mixing in the oil and vinegar because they'll absorb the liquids.

Let the salad sit for a couple of minutes, then taste it (be sure to include a bite of onion). You will almost certainly need to add more oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper but at this point how much of each is a matter of your personal taste. Ideally the flavor will be on the tart side because the tartness will decline as the salad ages.

Let the salad cool to room temperature, then mix in minced dill. Taste again and tweak as needed. Chill for at least four hours, but ideally overnight. Stir and taste one last time before serving.

Note, with the coating of oil and acidity of the vinegar, this is probably the safest potato salad you could take on a picnic.

Technorati: Food | recipe | potato salad | potatoes | picnic | barbeque | salad

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