In honor of Cochon 555 coming to Memphis next weekend, I wanted to talk about what this traveling event celebrates… Heritage Pork. Now, when you go to your average supermarket for pork that’s what you get… average meat. Over the years the market has demanded a leaner, cheaper and faster-to-market hog. Unfortunately this has driven the quality of the meat …
Cooking Without The Foil
When I’m cooking competition bbq, you better believe I’m using aluminum foil. Call it the “Texas Crutch”, call it cheating, call it whatever you want; but I’m a wrapper. Here’s why: It prevents the meat from absorbing too much smoke so it doesn’t turn out bitter and It keeps the meat nice and moist, so it comes out really tender …
Building A Fire In Your Smoker – creating the positive draft flow
A week ago I had a ton of great barbecue questions come in, so I shot a few videos answering them. On question was all about controlling and building a fire – and feeding the fire vs the the vent at the top of cooker. A Backwoods model is the perfect smoker to demonstrate this on, so I shot this …
Smoking BBQ: Dry Wood vs. Soaked Wood
Now the debate of using soaked wood vs. dry wood has been going on for a long time, and you’ll find people on both sides of the fence. For me, I’ve always used dry wood for smoking. In my style of cooking wood is used to produce smoke for flavoring the product. It’s not the main heat source; I use …
How to Wet Age a Brisket
Wet aging beef is the process of letting meat sit in the proper environment – over a set period of time – which allows the enzymes in the meat to naturally break down the protein strands. I don’t know the science behind all the details of WHY and HOW it works, but it just makes sense. Basically, wet aging works …
Smoked “Sirloin Tip” Recipe
I started out searching for a Tri Tip roast, but in my part of the country it can be a challenge to find. What I did come across was piece of beef called a Sirloin Tip Roast. This cut comes off the cow right beside the Tri Tip section (hence: Tri Tip’s Cousin), but it’s actually part of the Bottom …
How to Get that Perfect “Thin Blue Smoke”
When your BBQing, what type of smoke is best and how do you build the right fire to produce it? Everyone knows that different woods produce different flavor profiles, but the type of smoke that comes off these woods is really what is important. If you’ve been around BBQ enough, you’re sure to have heard about “Thin Blue Smoke”… and …
Removing Membranes From Ribs
I got this video the other day from Bobby Grizzle of Hillbilly Konk BBQ. He said his wife found a quicker way to remove the “silver skin” membrane from the back of ribs. Bobby said they removed 18 silver skins in about 15 minutes using this method. I’m all about making this job easier, so I had to pass it …
Barbecue, Grilling, And Judging Classes
If you’re looking for a list of barbecue or judging classes, Meathead over at AmazingRibs.com has put together a great one: Barbecue, Grilling, And Judging Classes I agree completely with him. If you’re serious about winning at competition barbecue then you must take every opportunity to learn from the people doing it on a day to day basis. I consider …
Jerk Chicken Recipe on the Weber Kettle
Jerk Chicken Recipe This week I wanted to fire up my trusty 22-inch weber kettle and do a little jerk chicken recipe. For the chicken, I use a 5lbs whole bird that I cut into pieces myself. But you can use a pre-cut chicken – or just about any pieces of the chicken you like. And since it’s pretty cheap, …
Trussing a Chicken for Rotisserie or Smoker
The other day I was cooking chicken and decided to shoot a quick video where I truss – or tie – a chicken. This is a step a lot of folks forget when they are cooking rotisserie chicken but it keeps it all together, helps it cook more evenly and makes it look the best when it’s done cooking… and …
Freezing and Storing BBQ
Most people don’t realize that you can store and freeze cooked BBQ – and have it come out almost as good as when it’s cooked fresh…. ALMOST The key here is to keep it out of the danger zone once it comes off the cooker so bacteria doesn’t have time to grow – and then storing it properly. You can …
Smokin on a Pellet Cooker
Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with a new kind of smoker… well it’s not really new, but for a charcoal and wood man, it’s a little different. I’m talking about a pellet smoker. For those of you that don’t know, a pellet smoker is a cooker that runs off of compressed wood “pellets”. This type of grill …
BBQr’s Delight
Wood cooking pellets have been around for many years, and I see more and more teams using pellet smokers now days. There are several companies manufacturing cooking pellets, but the absolute best pellet on the market is made by a company called BBQr’s Delight. BBQr’s Delight is located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and ran by Candy Weaver. You may have …
How To Grill a Porterhouse Steak
The Porterhouse is a man’s steak if there ever was one. It’s basically two steaks in one the NY Strip on one side of the bone and the filet on the other. The bone gives both cuts tremendous flavor and when cooked just right, you won’t find a better steak. That’s why the Porter House demands the most money on …