Chef’s Log 6 September 2008 Barbecue Tails (1)1 — My Posse

It’s hard to do anything alone. My posse on my barbecue journey consists of my hardware, my ingredients suppliers, and my recipe coaches. First, the hardware. I rely principally on a Bradley smoker for cooking with wet smoke, which is the essence of barbecue. The Bradley is a sealed box that provides more or less constant heat and more or less constant smoke, as long as you tweak the vent on top and the temperature slider on the bottom. Right after I bought mine a new digital model came out rendering mine more or less obsolete. A digital smoker? Sure. You set the degree of smoke intensity you want, between 0% and 100%. You set the temperature you want, between ambient and about 225 degrees, and you leave. Sort of like remote control digital barbecue. It seems like cheating. But that’s really sulking ... the price of my box tanked when the digital came out, sort of like being caught buying a Gen 1 iPhone just the week before Gen 2 was announced2. Wood discs, called biscuits, are available in a wide range of aromatic flavors. Apple and Pecan work best for fish, oak and mesquite and hickory all work well for beef, and hickory and mesquite work well for pork.

Next in importance is my Weber Summit 450, a grill that can be cranked up to well over 600 degrees. I use the Weber for three kinds of cooking. First is traditional grilling, if you can call a

1 The title of this log is based on one myth, that the term barbecue originated from the French <<barbe et queue>>, or beard and tail, meaning pretty much that barbecue found a way to use the entire animal. This is most unlikely, but it makes a great story; more plausible is the idea that the word came from the Spanish word barbacòa, a framework of sticks and posts that could be used for smoking meats, from the practice they observed in Caribbean islands. 2 Actually, it might really be cheating. I remember discussing my barbecue with a man from North Carolina. He and my daughter starting comparing notes. The man from North Carolina starts by slaughtering a hog. I take out my credit card and go to Main Line Prime. The man from North Carolina cuts down a hickory so near the property line that he can pretend he thought it was his and not his neighbor’s; I buy discs of pre-processed chipped hickory wood to feed through my smoker. The comparison did not make look like a real pit master. Still, if I were buying my smoker today I would probably buy the digital version. Bradley is easy to find, and Amazon usually has a good price on the equipment and the accessories.

two inch thick slab of Duroc pork with a home prepared Cajun rub traditional. Traditional grilling is cooking meat directly over a very hot flame. Some argue that this lacks subtlety, like killing with the point of the knife rather than the edge during a knife fight; while this may have mattered to Paul Atreides’s instructors, it’s irrelevant. Both get the job done. Second is indirect grilling at very high heat; I do this to put a charred crust on a large piece of meat that has already been smoked and is fully cooked; I do this on anything from a standing prime rib beef roast to a pulled pork shoulder. Finally, the Weber can be used for direct grilling, to put a burned crust on an already cooked piece of meat; I do this occasionally with ribs.

Here I’m using the Weber to finish smoked salmon from the Bradley while grilling a double cut Duroc pork chop.

In both smokers, I use a lot of mesquite and hickory for pork, mesquite and oak for beef, apple and pecan for salmon.

And while it’s not really a barbecue, a good panini press really is a grill. I was given one as a gift by one of my graduate students, Ray Adams, and it is indispensable. When I first got it I was using it to make lunch panini, dinner panini, even breakfast panini. We’ve gotten more reasonable as we’ve become more used to it, and by now it’s unusual for us to use it more than four or five times in a week. There are many excellent alternatives; Ray did a lot of homework

and selected the DeLonghi, which is reliable and appears to be pretty much indestructible. If I were to find any fault with it at all, it would be that the hinge in the back does not accommodate thick sandwiches especially well, but, of course, only Americans eat really thick sandwiches.

A good panini represents a marvelous way to use leftovers. I recently discovered that a little bit of leftover steak, some mozzarella, and a little coleslaw provides a fast hybrid sandwich, somewhere between a New York corned beef special and a simple Italian panini.

Next the ingredients. I get almost all of my meat now from Main Line Prime, a butcher shop staffed by Derek, Seth, and Conor. Derek opened it because he found the best way to ensure that he has the meats he needs for his restaurant, of the quality that he demands, is to operate his own butchershop. They have a great selection of heritage breed meats and specialty products like bison or lamb sausage. If you are not familiar with heritage breeds go to Lobel’s online (http://www.lobels.com/store/main/heritage_main.asp) for an explanation. The tersest description is the heritage breeds of beef or pork are to the commercial meats in a grocery store

much as heirloom tomatoes are to the hard juiceless tasteless tomatoes that many of us experienced as kids; heritage meats just taste better. Lobels may also be able to supply you with what you need if you do not have a local butcher who carries Charolais, Hereford, Kurobuta, or Duroc meats. Better meats make for better tasting barbecue. The flavor difference is small on slow cooked smoked meats like pulled pork, but the price difference is small as well. The difference is larger when comparing Kurobuta spare ribs to traditional pork ribs, but the price difference remains small as well. For a New York Strip, charred and rare, with a good Memphis rub, the price difference can be large, with a Charolais dry aged prime steak coming in at about $34.00 per pound, but the flavor difference even when compared to traditional dry aged prime does justify the price. You’ll sort out your own price performance tradeoffs. But I’ve found that the best way to get wonderful meats is to find a butcher who cares as much as I do, knows more than I do, and has better contacts than I will ever have.

As important as the meats are the spices. I get almost all of my spices from Penzeys online (http://penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html). The selection will initially appear a bit overwhelming and you will need to develop your own preferences. I prefer Turkish oregano to Mexican for most dishes but not for chilis or for spicy rubs; I prefer semi-hot Hungarian paprika to sweet Hungarian but have found uses for Spanish smoked. I prefer crushed Pakistan red pepper (very hot) to California (merely hot) because of the complexity of flavor that accompanies the heat in the Pakistani. You will never run out of uses for peppers like Ancho (sweet, smoky, and slightly hot), Chipotle (sweet, smoke, and much hotter), or Aleppo (relatively sweet, mild, and without smoke). I now buy my paprika in 8 ounce bags, oregano in four ounce bags, and sea salt in one pound bags. You’ll find that you also buy cumin, coriander, mustard seed, and celery salt in surprising quantities if you become serious about your barbecue. The only ingredient that I need on a regular basis that I cannot get from Penzeys is turbinado (raw) sugar.

With the right ingredients it does not take long to throw together a delightful dinner. Here is a double cut veal chop with a Memphis rub, after about 16 minutes of grilling, with a few sides and a Victory Baltic Thunder Porter. I’m pleased enough with Victory that I guess I should list them as one of my suppliers as well (http://victorybeer.com/). Importantly, it does save a lot of

time if you keep small batches of your favorite rubs available for last minute snap decisions ... Cajun lamb chops or Memphis rubbed veal chops can be prepared in just a few minutes if you have your rubs ready to go. I usually have Basic Red, Cajun, Memphis, and Texas rubs ready to use.

The last important member of my team is my recipe coach. I got the starting draft of almost all of my recipes from Steve Raichlen, most from his How to Grill, a few from The Barbecue Bible. I think How to Grill is one of the best cookbooks ever written, with wonderful recipes and detailed illustrations that describe the most complex preparations. It’s useful, easy to follow, and actually quite beautiful. It’s also easy to find, on Amazon or at most bookstores.

You’ll find your own go-to recipes, from ribs to rubs, from chorizo-stuffed prime rib from to smoked tofu. You will over time learn to adjust his recipes to fit your own developing preferences. I usually reduce his salt quantities by about a third and I usually increase aromatics like oregano or garlic by about a half. I usually add a bit of turbinado where he does not call for any sugar; I like the way it chars, even at low heat, in the Bradley, but you might find the quickly darkening crust disconcerting. I add powdered hot mustard and a few other spices to his Cajun rub ... you get the idea. Start with Raichlen, develop your preferences, and see where you go from there. ekc