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BBQHeresy

~ There is no wrong way to bbq if it's YOUR way and works for you!

BBQHeresy

Monthly Archives: May 2013

A Walk Down Memory Lane aka Chicken Thoughts

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

aunt, bar-b-que beans, bbq, bbq pit, briquets, burgers, Cajun sausage, charcoal, chicken, cole slaw, cookie sheet, Dad, hamburgers, hot dogs, leftovers, low and slow, pecan pie, pork chops, potato salad, seasoning, sides, steak, uncle

No, this is NOT thoughts about being a coward!  Got that??  LOL  It was thinking back on how my Dad cooked chicken bbq that got this post started.  Miss ya, Dad!

I grew up in a very small town in SW LA.  My parents were, indeed, genuine, true Cajuns.  Some of my best memories from back then are of bbqs that we’d have at home almost always on a Sunday.

Mom would get together with Aunt Bertie on Thursday and they’d cook up a huge pot of Cajun bbq sauce.  It was thick and chunky with onion and bell pepper and celery pieces, salt and pepper and garlic powder, catsup and tomato sauce and tomato paste, made with love and ending up all tomato-ey and overall absolutely scrumptious!  Us kids would dip pieces of bread in it and eat the sauce just like that till Mom shooed us away!  LOL  Since we didn’t have the bbq until Sunday, the flavors had a chance to meld and mellow in the ice box till it was time to take some and put it in a small pot, cover with vegetable oil and heat it to boiling.  Then, they’d pour off the oil to use for basting.

Saturday night, Dad started things off by splitting a couple of chickens, getting a couple or 3 pork chops, digging out a piece of sirloin steak from the freezer, making up some hamburger patties, get a big hunk or 2 of Cajun pure pork smoked sausage and, about my favorite (don’t tell anybody, but it’s STILL one of my faves!!), a whole pack of hot dogs!  He’d use a big full size cookie/cake sheet to hold it all and start seasoning.  The chicken came first.  A bit of salt, a good shake or 5 of black pepper, a light dusting with garlic powder, a sprinkle of paprika, turn over and repeat.  Next, on top of the chicken, came the pork chops and steak.  Same-o-same-o on the seasonings.  Finally, on top, he’d lay the hamburger patties out and the sealed package of hot dogs.  The sausage was seasoned enough that it just was plopped wherever it would fit.  Then, cover with a dish towel and into the ice box overnight.

Come Sunday morning, it was early Mass for us!  7 AM in the morning!  We’d all get up early and head over and attend.  It was usually over about 8 AM.  We’d come home, change out of our Sunday clothes and Dad would get started.  About that time, Mom and Aunt Bertie would get started on the side dishes of oven  bar-b-que baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad and garlic bread.  They’d usually put in a pecan pie, too.

He had a 55 gallon drum that had been sliced in half, hinged at the back, a handle put on the top front, and mounted on legs.  Back then, these big metal drums had screw-in bungs.  The bbq pit was always set up to that the bung was on the lid part, at the top.  It was removed when the cooking was going to start and acted kinda sorta like a chimney.  The guy who made them would cut air vents in each end at the bottom that were used to control the heat and coals.   The pit always got set up under a big old pecan tree for the shade.  There were a few chairs around for my Dad, my uncle (usually Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Bertie were there) and maybe a couple for the kids if we were good. About that time, the radio got plugged in and tuned to a “chankey-chank” station with good Cajun music.  IIRC, it was a station in Eunice, LA, on the AM dial.

Dad was a big fan of charcoal, not briquets.  Back then (we’re talking late 50’s to  early to late 60’s), we didn’t have fancy stuff like chimneys to light the coal.  The coals went on the bottom of the barrel in a pile.  He’d set the end vents open all the way and then give the charcoal a splash of kerosene, let it soak for 5 minutes, then toss on a strike-anywhere kitchen match that he had lit.  After the flames died down (lid open) and the kerosene smell went away, he’d spread out the coals and put on the cooking grates.  After a couple of minutes, he’d get out the big pliers, grab the grates with the pliers and then use a stiff wire brush to clean the grates.  When the grates were clean, he’d put them back over the coals and it was time to sit back and relax a bit and get the real bbqing going.

Dad would take the chicken halves and put them on first.  A little sizzle when they hit the grill and then lid down.  Every 20 minutes of so, he’d take some of the oil from the bbq sauce Mom and her friends had fixed on Thursday and give the chicken a good baste with it and flip them.  Course, it was beer time, too (not for me, though I was too young.  😦 LOL).  While the chicken was cooking, he’d keep adjusting the side vents to keep the temperature juuuuuusssttt right and use a little piece of wood to hold the top of the pit open just a little, no more than an inch.  Nope, no thermometer, just experience.

After a couple or three of hours of turning, basting, basting, turning and pulling and twisting the leg at the end till it was loose which showed the chicken was done, he’d put the chicken halves on one side of the pit, move the coals over to the other side of the pit and put on the pork chops, the sausage hunks and the steaks.  He’d cook those for about 30 minutes, flipping every 10  minutes or so.  By then, the coals was dying down pretty good, so he was doing “low and slow”.  When the steaks, sausage and pork chops were done, he’d move them over onto the chicken halves if there wasn’t enough room on the cool side for them to sit on the grate.  Generally, they’d get one or 2 swabs with the bbq sauce basting oil at each flip and then get set on top of the chicken.  Last but certainly not least, he’d open the side vent where the coals were, give them a few minutes to heat up and then he’d throw on the burgers and hot dogs.  The burgers went on over the coals, the hot dogs on the side of the coals.  They cooked the quickest, so of course they were the last to go on.  The coals were still about medium low, so it took another 20 or 30 minutes to get them done, being VERY careful with the hot dogs, turning them every few minutes so they wouldn’t burn.

When the burgers and hot dogs went on, it was time for the ladies to start setting the table and getting out the potato salad, cole slaw, bbq baked beans and french bread that had been split, buttered, garlic powdered, wrapped in foil, and put into a warm oven about 10 AM.

He’d get that big old cookie sheet and stack everything on it with a little of everything showing under the rest and carry it into the house and set it on the table.  Like I said, you could see everything, but the chicken was the star!  Golden brown color with a tinge of red from the sauce, skin almost but not quite crisp, steam rising from it, you could tell it was the best and tastiest thing on that big old platter of meat!  OK, I admit it, I think the hot dogs were a close second!  LOL

By 1 PM, it was time to eat!  A nice blessing of the food then everyone sat down and dug in.  Oh mannnnn!!  Dad would take a sharp knife and cut the chicken halves into quarters and then split off the legs from the thighs and the wings from the breasts.  Usually it wouldn’t take hardly any knife work, the chicken would just pull apart at the right places.  The steam would rise and the juices would flow clear.  Then we’d get our choice..a leg, a thigh, wing section or some breast.  Add a piece of steak, a little pork chop piece, a small slice of sausage, a burger and a hot dog and there wasn’t hardly room on the plate for the side dishes!  But we’d manage to get some of each of them on the plate.  Spread out some of the homemade bbq sauce all over and then chow down.  OHHHHHHHH!

After we had eaten about all we could, Mom would bring out her special homemade pecan pie.  It was heaven in a pie tin!  Of course, after all of that, it was time for a little nap.  Then leftovers for the next day or so.   MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Good memories, folks.  And absolutely NO heresy here.  🙂

P.S.

Ask nice and I’ll put up the recipes I remember.  🙂  LOLOL

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Some Simple And Tasty Ideas for Rib Eye, T-Bone or Sirloin Steak

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

bbq, grill, Italian dressing, Jaccard, marinate, potato, ribeye, sirloin steak, steak, t-bone, tender steak, Worchestershire sauce

A long time ago, I read an article about how liquid Italian dressing worked really good as a meat marinade, especially for steak.  I decided to try it.  I took a nice hunk of t-bone steak about 1″ thick, dumped it into a large ziplock bag, added about 1/4 bottle of cheap Italian dressing and stuck it in the refrigerator for about 15 hours.  I took it out, blotted it dry with paper towels, let it warm up for about 30 minutes, then put it on a medium hot grill, direct cook.  I turned it after about 4 minutes, let the second side cook another 4 minutes, then took it off, let it rest for a bit and had it with a nice microwave-baked ‘tater.  It was really good!  Seems like it was quite a bit more tender than just sprinking with salt, pepper and garlic powder and cooking.

A while later, I decided to try it again, but a bit more extreme.  I got a couple of nice ribeye steaks that were a little thinner than my first ones (about 3/4″ thick), stuck them in a large ziplock, added 1/2 bottle of cheap Italian dressing, tossed it in the refrigerator and turned it every 12 hours or so for 3 days.  On the 4th day, I blotted them dry, cooked over medium high heat the same way, let rest for about 10 minutes, then had them, again with a microwave baked ‘tater.  Those steaks were literally fork-tender!

Yeah, I’m a big fan of really tender steaks, in case you hadn’t noticed.  🙂

Another nice little gizmo available to us cookers is a thingie called a Jaccard.  It’s a multi-blade meat tenderizer like Emeril uses.  Ok, like Emeril used to use since his show isn’t on any more.  I’m still bummed about that, btw!  Anywho, there are Jaccards with a single row of skinny blades, with double rows of skinny blades and 4 or so rows of skinny blades.  For those of you whose Google foo isn’t strong today, here’s what one looks like:

You take that thing and poke your meat up one side, turn it 90 degrees, and go down the same side, then turn the steak over and repeat.  Push the handle hard enough to get the blades to go all the way through!  I’ve found that if I put on a bit of fresh ground sea salt, a nice grind or 3 fresh pepper, a light sprinkle of garlic powder (garlic powder NOT garlic salt cuz i can’t control how much salt is mixed with garlic salt and the meat always ended up over salted), give it a splash of Lea and Perrins Worchestershire sauce, rub that in, then Jaccard the heck outta both sides, let it marinade for a couple of hours and cook on medium-high heat, turning once after 4 or 5 minutes, and finish it for 5 minutes after flipping (Whew!  That last sentence is waaay long.  Sorry.).  The steak comes out almost as tender as 3 days marinating in Italian dressing.  Also, doing the Jaccard after seasoning helps the seasoning get way down into the meat fibers which flavors the meat alllllllllll the way through.  So don’t go overboard on the seasoning!  It’ll over power your taste buds pretty quick and overwhelm the taste of the meat.

Between the Italian dressing marinade and the Jaccard, I’ve found I can get the steaks on sale to be as tender and tasty as the premium “choice” ones and save a couple of $$ per pound.  But the choice cuts get even better when you do these 2 things!

Yet another way I like to cook steak, especially sirloin steaks about 3/4″ thick, is to season VERY lightly, Jaccard, let rest, cook and then, when they come off the grill and onto a plate give them a pretty hefty dose on both sides of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) that’s been seasoned with a nice bit of fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  I hit it with the EVOO right as it comes off and let the steaks rest for a few minutes in the oil.  Oh wow! Remember, EVOO is one of the “good” oils!

Sweetie and Bunny both started out liking their steak medium well to well done.  I like mine more medium rare cuz the juices are still in the meat and it seems to have a richer flavor.  I’ve slowly been bringing them around to medium rare.  The last time I cooked steak, i did it medium rare (about 2-3 minutes/side over medium high heat), they both raved about how good it was.  🙂

My latest endeavors in steak cooking are what’s called a “reverse sear” that uses a 2 zone bbq fire.  Look it up over at http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/cooking_temperatures_and_reverse_sear.html on Meathead’s tips page.  Wow!!  Oh, btw, would ya please let him know ya got to his site from my little blog here?

Enough for now.  I’ll put up some chicken recipes next time.  Oh, and just a teaser, I’ve got a killer recipe that makes the meat taste like the Outback Restaurant best steaks!  Coming soon.  🙂

Sweetie Got Me Some Great Anniversary Presents! WOOHOO!!

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Anniversary, BBQ, Grilling, Presents, Wisdom Teeth

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

anniversary, bbq, cooking, grilling, presents, smoking, wisdom teeth

Yesterday, May 28, 2013, was Sweetie, Bunny and my 13 anniversary….8th year that Sweetie and I have been married.  🙂

I’d been looking for a few little cooking tools around our little SE NM town, but wasn’t having much luck finding them.  We had one very small cooking specialty store downtown, but it closed a month or so ago.  Bummer!

It just so happened that Bunny has been having problems with his wisdom teeth, so yesterday, Sweetie and Bunny headed over to El Paso, TX to get the problem dealt with.  It was a successful trip for the wisdom teeth removal.  Whew!

What I didn’t know, however, was that Sweetie stopped in at a specialty cooking store there and brought back the cooking goodies I hadn’t been able to find here….plus a couple of extras.  What a gal!

OK, so ya want to know what the goodies were?  Pretty simple, actually.  A heavy wire mesh basket good for veggies and shrimp and stuff on the bbq, a tapered rolling pin for rolling out pizza crusts (which I’m gonna cook on the Kettle Pizza unit) and 2 bottles of specialty bbq sauce that the clerks said if I didn’t like, they’d refund the $$ for them.  🙂  Way to go, Sweetie!  Thanks tons!

Now, we’ll give Bunny a couple of weeks to let his jaws heal (the oral surgeon removed all 4 wisdom teeth) and we’ll fire up the old WS and see what comes out of it.

P.S.

I’d sure appreciate ya’ll leaving a comment or 2, just to show me ya’ll are making it to the site.  TIA!

You Absolutely, Positively HAVE To Go To A Good Pizza Parlor For Great Pizza!

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Heresy!!!!  LOL

There’s a great company here in the U.S. that makes an accessory for 22.5″ kettle grills like the Weber Silver or Gold that makes absolutely outstanding pizzas on the bbq grill, believe it or not.  It’s the Kettle Pizza company at http://www.kettlepizza.com/ .

It’s kind of hard to describe what it is, so head over to the site and check it out.  I’ve got a pic of it in my Arsenal pages.  Here it is again if you’re too lazy to check out my arsenal:

Kettle Pizza Attachment

Kettle Pizza Attachment

What is NOT hard to describe is how incredibly easy and tasty the pizza is when you cook it on their accessory.  I do a slight modification to their Kettle Pizza device, though. I put a 2nd grill on the top of the Kettle Pizza attachment that I’ve covered with a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, shiny side down.  That seems to reflect the heat down onto the top of the pizza and cooks it as quickly as the bottom cooks.  Oh yeah, I use one of their large round pizza stones on the bottom grill, too.  The temperature of the stone gets up to over 800 degrees!  That’s coming real close to the best hottest ovens in the best pizza parlors.  Plus, it’s genuine wood fired pizza!  The taste is unbeatable.

I’ve tried with and without a pizza pan on the stone and it all depends on what kind of pizza you’re cooking.  They have all come out wonderfully.  🙂  Oh, and btw, it takes a whopping 3-4 minutes to cook an incredible pizza!  WOWZERS!  Yeah, you’ve got to turn it 2 or 3 times, so be careful to use tongs or the turner tools from the site.

What do you mean, “What kind of pizza are you cooking?”  Yeah, there really are lots of different kinds of pizza.  Neapolitan, regular crust, 65% hydration crusts, thin crust pizzas, deep dish pizzas, pan pizzas, French bread pizzas and tons more!   Use your Google-fu to find great recipes all over the place.  In a later post, I’ll give a link or 2 to some of the sites I’ve found to be outstanding and when I get a chance, I’ll post some of my favorite crust recipes.  Hint:  make your crust a couple of days in advance, let it rise, then stash it in the ‘fridge (or as Emeril would say, the ice box) for a couple of days in an oiled zip lock baggie, then let it warm up and roll it out.

In the meantime, head over to http://www.kettlepizza.com/ and check out this thing!  It rocks and will cook the absolutely BEST pizza you’ll ever have!

Oh, btw, here’s a pic of one of my last “supreme” pizza with everything!  Supreme Pizza with Everything

Grudging Help At First

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

So who says you have to have decades of experience before you can cook incredible bbq??  Not me, for dang sure!

Yesterday, I got busy in the kitchen prepping some items for tomorrow’s meal.  I asked my 16 yo DS for a bunch of help getting dinner for the evening ready…..porterhouse steaks on the grill, done with reverse searing.  OK, remember, he’s 16.  He’s got tons more exciting stuff to do, like XBox and iPad, right?  He grudgingly agreed to help until he realized he’d be the one lighting the chimney with briquets and charcoal!  He could make FIRE with Dad’s permission!  Way cool!  His attitude immediately got better!  LOL

Anywho, he got 1/2 a large chimney of mixed briquets and charcoal going and dumped out into the WS, then pushed the coals all to one side for indirect cooking.  I’d marinated a couple of porterhouse steaks for 2 days in Italian dressing.  He took them and put them on the cool side for 10 minutes on each side.  They ended up looking like this:  Image

We added more coals and briquets to the fire and let them get screaming hot.  When they were all glowing, he put them on the hot side for about 3 minutes per side, then took them off.  We brought them inside, let rest for about 5 minutes while he got the boiled ‘taters and microwaved corn on the cob ready (got a crazy easy way to fix fresh corn on the cob!  I’ll post the recipe later when I get my Recipe section set up).  Then I sliced them and we ate very well.  Yep, they were outstanding…..and cooked by a 16 yo young man.  🙂

The finished porterhouses looked like this:  Image

I wish my camera was a little better so ya’ll could see the pink in the center.  Perfect medium.  He done good!

Oh, btw, he cooked these for Sweetie and my 13 anniversary which was today (Tuesday)  🙂

One Of The Best BBQ Sites Online

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bar-b-que, bbq, grilling, recipes, ribs, smoking, tips

A while back, when I decided to get more serious about bbq’ing, I started searching the web for really REALLY good sites.  The one that impressed me the most and keeps iimpressing is http://www.amazingribs.com/ run by a guy called Meathead.  This site really appealed to the scientist in me.  LOL  But it appealed a whole bunch more to the good cooker in me!

He takes a rather different approach to bbq’ing, kind of a Zen thing in places, tons of explanations of the whys, wherefores, hows and becauses, recipes, tips and techniques, and a bunch more stuff.  Give his site a peek and tell him B.J. Verret sent ya!

My Latest “Heresy”

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

crock pot, food, pork ribs, tender ribs

Starting Friday afternoon, I set up my Weber Silver (WS) with a really cool device called an IQ110 by a company here in the U.S. called pitmasteriq.  The address of their site with their products is  http://store.pitmasteriq.com/auteco.html .  The IQ110 has a kind of steel cup that fastens onto one of the bottom vents of the Weber (has attachments for all the popular pits on the site) with a toggle bolt.  There is s temperature sensor probe that fastens to the inside of the pit on the grill.  Finally, there is a thermostat/motor that blows air when the temperature is lower than what the thermostat is set at.  You tape up the other 2 vents with heat resistant tape.  The IQ110 automatically controls the temperature of the WS and gives the chef lots of free time.  In fact, I cooked a brisket overnight on Friday/Saturday and only had to add charcoal 2X between 7 PM Friday and 2 PM Saturday.  As the site says “BLOW your pit!”

Anywho, I started my brisket about 7 PM Friday, May 24.  It went until about 2 PM Saturday but never got above 180 degrees.  Drat!  Soooooooo, I took it off the WS, put it in a cooking bag and finished it in the oven at 225 degrees until the inner temp was 203 degrees.  Tender as buttah!

While the brisket was on the WS on Saturday afternoon early, I started some pork ribs I’d rubbed the night before (yeah, I’ve got 2 WS’s!).  I usually cook them “high and fast” as opposed to “low and slow” but this time I thought I’d try them low and slow.  Well, long story short, after 6 hours they were cooked, but not tender.  I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for a couple of hours and about all that was happening was they were drying out.  Today I said “The heck with this!” and got out the crock pot.  Yeah, I bet there’s folks that are shuddering in their shoes about this!  Well too bad!  About 3 hours in the crock pot and I had falling-off-the-bone tender ribs!  Sweetie and Bunny and I polished them off this evening…..2 full slabs.  YUMMY!

And that’s what worked for me this weekend.  🙂

Introduction

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by TXKajun in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bar-b-que, bbq, Cajun Injector, hover grill, IQ110, rotisserie, smoking, Weber

Well howdy, all!  A brand new blog from da good ol’ TXKajun in SE NM.

I’m brand new to blogging, but definitely NOT brand new to bar-b-queing!  I’ve been doing it for over 40 years now.  During that time, I’ve heard sooooooo many times “Oh, you have to cook over charcoal to call it bar-b-que.”  Or “What do you mean you finish up your brisket in the oven?  Are you crazy!??”   Or “You have to do it the old fashioned way, low and slow.”

Well, I’m here to tell you IT AIN’T SO!!!  YEP, BBQ HERESY!!

But for all you folks out there who have struggled to bbq “the right way” and haven’t had success, then be relieved…..VERY relieved….to know that IMHO, the only hard and fast rule for cooking outstanding bbq is “Do it your way.  Whatever works for you is all you have to know!”

I can hear the sighs of relief already!  LOL

Relax, sit back and have a good read or 3.  I hope this blog will entertain as well as educate.

Now I don’t claim to be the best barbque guru in the world, k?  But Sweetie and Bunny (my wife and 16 yo DS) sure like to scarf mine down.  I use charcoal grills, my current favorite being the Weber Silver.  A word of advice about the WS!  It has TONS of accessories!  A rotisserie, a smoker basket, coal holder baskets, a hover grill, temperature controllers, thermometers, and on and on and on!  It’ll suck you in and turn a $99 grill into a $500 cooking system before you know it.  No, don’t ask how I know!  LOL  I’ll get to that eventually.  🙂  I also have a very nice offset smoker made by New Braunfels that I like bunches and have got a couple of “hot-rod” mods on.  Finally, I’ve got an electric smoker from Cajun Injector for making my Cajun pure pork smoked sausage.

OK, enough for 1st post.  Laterz!

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