posted
I posted this in the Men Only! thread, but decided the topic is worthy of a thread all its own.
I just got a marinade injector to try with my BBQing. Anyone ever use one? Is it better to make a special injecting marinade or can I just use the sauce I make (it takes forever to make the sauce, and I would prefer not to have to make a separate marinade.)? Will the injector put to many holes in the meat which will let the glorious juices out and defeat the purpose?
Also, how do you make your BBQ sauces? I like to caramelize jalapeno and garlic. Yummy. What other peppers are good? I'm thinking about trying javenero (havenero?) peppers, but that might be going overboard. I've never made BBQ sauce completely from scratch. I usually use a base sauce from the store and add my own flavors to that. Has anyone had any luck with making it from scratch?
Do you prefer gas or charcoal? I prefer charcoal for taste and slow cooking, but gas is better for an even heat; typically better for grilling but not BBQing.
Anyways, I love talking about BBQ, so if anyone else is an aficionado, lets discuss.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Honestly, I haven't like the way my sauces have turned out from scratch, but I do really like to make my own rubs.
Ain't nothin' better than a beer-butt chicken with homemade rub, slow cooked over charcol and hickory chips...mmmmmmm good.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
What do you use in your rub? Also, what beer do you use? I've always used Shiner, but I'm thinking I might try something else, maybe an ale?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hehe vonk....I don't drink so honestly I should be getting advice from you on what beer to use for cooking. I just pick up something in a tall can from the corner gas station, usually Budweiser or something.
As for the rub, I'll have to wait till I get home this afternoon. It's a pretty spicy rub, and I can't remember what goes in it unless looking at the spice rack.
I'd be really interested in seeing other people's rubs--especially those that may be a bit sweeter. I know technically you either rub or use BBQ sauce, but I wouldn't mind a decent rub to put on the baby back ribs while they cook for the first few hours. I like my ribs sweet and sticky, so any rub ideas would be awesome. I used Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce for the ribs.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
Bao - Ack! Budweiser?! Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm fairly certain that the taste doesn't transfer all that much to the chicken, but it does to some extent. And besides, no one should use Budweiser for anything other than target practice. You can get canned Shiner, which is great. I've been thinking about using Guinnes or Bass or maybe some Youngs Double Chocolate. I would be willing to bet that the better the beer, the better the chicken. Anyone else know?
I like the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, but nothing in a bottle can beat homemade flavors. My friend makes some excellent sauce with Makers Mark (we're kinda alcohol snobs, can you tell?), but I haven't been able to get it to work right. You have to cook off the alcohol, but not to fast or you loose all of the flavor.
Hmmm, I wonder if I can use my super-cool marinade injector to inject the beer/whiskey directly into the chicken/brisket/sausage/loin/steak?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
How exactly do you make homemade sauce? I'm a huge, huge fan of ribs, BBQ, and whiskey/bourbon/et all.... and putting them all together to me sounds like Heaven.
That said, I nearly died a while ago when I was in Dave and Buster's and saw that they had a Jack Daniels burger. Omigod.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
When I make sauce I carmelize a couple of jalepenos peppers and a clove of garlic in butter with a hefty dose of cayan and Tony C's. Then I add a bottle of the most plain basic BBQ sauce I can find at the store. (That's why I was asking about making it from scratch. It would feel more authentic if I could make all of it.) Add a bottle of liquid smoke. You have to make sure that you get the same liquid smoke flavor as BBQ flavor (Mesquite of Hickory). Then season to your taste. I really like it spicy so I use about half a bottle of Frank's Red Hot and gobs of cayan. Then you poor in a bottle of your favorite beer. My favorite for this is Newcastle. Or you can do whiskey at this point. Then you just let it simmer for a couple of hours, until it is about as thick as the bottle sauce was originally.
That's just how I do it. I can only assume there are much better ways to make BBQ sauce, and I am eager to hear any. Pretty much, the whole idea behind it is to eyeball everything and make it to your own specifications.
Edit: Also, that is my ribs sauce, for loin I tend to use more asian spices and sauces. For steak I tend to leave out the spicy all together and just go for smokey, garlicy and whiskey...y.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
If we ever have a Hatrack BBQ you guys gotta make something and let me eat it... This sounds so tasty!
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
vonk...what's the best way to cook baby back ribs that you've found?
I have to cheat..if I make them in the BBQ then they end up too dry
I put them on a cookie sheet, and add about a quarter inch mixture of water, apple juice, and liquid smoke to the pan. I cook them in the oven for about 3-4 hours at about 250F, covered in foil.
Then I put them on a fairly hot grill for about an hour and a half basting every ten minutes with apple juice/liquid smoke mixture and jack daniels bbq sauce. They literally melt in your mouth when they're done...but I'd like to be a bit more purist in how I prepare them. How do you keep your ribs moist on your charcol grill?
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
" I know technically you either rub or use BBQ sauce,"
This isn't really true. In fact, its downright wrong for ribs. Famous Daves resturants use the method of rubbing, slow cooking, and then saucing. And they've won rib cook offs all over the country
Finding your own combination of rub and bbq sauce is a time consuming process, and is pretty individualized. I tend to go for rich, tomato based midwestern or southwestern style sauces that have a good dose of molasses. My rubs tend towards the "chili" style... heavy on the cayenne pepper and cumin.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Joe's Really Good Barbecue Sauce for Pork 4 to 6 oz butter 2 tablespoons diced shallots 1 sprig of fresh thyme 1/3 cup of brown gravy 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1/2 cup A-1 sauce 1 tablespoon distilled vinegar 1 tablespoon mesquite seasoning 2/3 cup of water garlic salt pepper crushed red pepper (the kind they sell in the spice aisle)
Lightly sautéshallots and thyme in 1 oz of butter. Add remaining butter and remaining ingredients. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes and add garlic salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste. Very tangy, and also good on barbecued steak.
Joe's Really Good Barbecue Sauce for Ribs 1 1/2 cups ketchup 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 3/4 cup (or more, to taste ) bourbon 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (optional) A few drops Tabasco sauce
posted
Man, Icarus, those sauces sound great. My mom uses butter with her ribs, but I've never tried it. I think I may steal your pork sauce and add some peppers to it. I likey the spicy.
Bao - I've never heard of using apple juice as a marinade. Is that to tenderize the meat, or for flavoring? I've heard it suggested many times to marinade ribs in coke (or any other soft drink) for about a day to tenderize the meat. I've never tried it, but I think next time I will.
After that I'll let the ribs marinade in the BBQ sauce for at least 12 hours. Then its straight on to the grill. I make sure they're coated in sauce and then put them straight over the fire for just a minute or two on each side to seer the outside, so the precious juice doesn't leak out. Then I take them off the heat and let them grill, basting constantly, for about 3 to 4 hours. When it looks like they are almost done I wrap them in foil and coat them heavily in the sauce and put them back on the grill, again on low heat. I let that simmer for about and hour or so, take them off the grill and eat them with a spoon.
I've never won any awards, but my family said I make better ribs than my mom, and in my world, that's all that matters.
I don't really know if that is the purist way to do it though. Icarus, do you use the oven when you make ribs, or just a grill?
Also, what's the deal with this rub? I've never used a rub before, and I would kill to know what you use. Is it just a matter of combining various spices and rubbing them into the meat before marinating? or does the rub take the place of marinating?
(also - my spell check seems to think that both marinate and marinade are the correct spelling. Which one is it?)
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Rubbing takes the place of marinading, typically speaking, although it is possible to both rub and marinade prior to cooking.
If you do marinade or rub prior to cooking, when barbequing, avoid using tomato and sugar. If you use these seasonings, prior to cooking, they will burn as you cook, and you'll get a burned taste on your barbeque.
This is primarily why bbq sauce goes on in the last ten minutes of cooking... a good bbq sauce has either maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, or some other strong sweetener, and is often tomato based. To avoid getting "burnt" flavor, use your other marinades or rubs early in cooking.
If you go for a wet marinade prior to cooking, use a beer or vinegar, or soup stock as your base. Add vegetables like carrots and celery, and any spices and seasonings you want... as long as they don't have sugar in them.
My dry rub is primarily a combination of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, oregano, and chili pepper. I'll rub this onto my meat, and then combine some of the leftover with vinegar and lemon juice, and use this as a mop.
A mop is a sauce that can be spread over meat while it is cooking, so again it won't contain sugar or tomato. The purpose of the mop is to keep the meat moist as it cooks, since true bbqing is 6-24 hours of slow cooking at 215-225 degrees.
Pure bbqing uses a "pit." Basically, though, all you need is a low temperature heat source. Slow cooking in the oven or the grill will taste basically the same... unless you use wood chips in your grill to generate smoky flavor for your meat. I don't have a grill at my current apartment (not allowed) so I use the oven, and my ribs come out fabulous every time. Not as good as when they are smoked, but still very awesome Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
So when do you put the sauce on? I've always been of the impression that a good sauce is the most important thing, but from what you've said it seems like having a good rub/marinade/'mop' is more important.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
A good rub and mop are very important, but the BBQ sauce at the end is the dominant flavor when eating. The mop and rub give flavor to the meat, but the sauce has a powerful flavor all its own. If you everything right, all the flavors compliment each other. The sauce carries the tomato and sugar, and both are essential for good bbq. You can eat bbq meat naked (without sauce) and it will be tender and tasty, but it won't taste like "barbeque" because the flavors that we most associate with the style are the flavors of the sauce. Without the sauce, you're eating flavored meat. WIth the sauce... you're in heaven.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Here's a rub recipe that I got out of a magazine. I love it on pork or a good steak (I tweaked it a bit because I like a little more spice than the original).
3 Tbsp sugar 1 1/2 Tbsp each salt and ground balck pepper 3/4 Tbsp paprika and red cayenne pepper 1 tsp garlic powder
Use on beef or pork before basting with barbeque sauce. (This can be stored in a jar on your shelf for up to 3 months). YUM!
With that same recipe, there are 4 other rub recipes if anyone is interested (Mexican, Moroccan, Caribbean Jerk and Cajun) although I don't know the rules on copyright for this type thing.
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
So I'm thinking about cooking a steak tonight and I want to try this fancy rubbing ya'll keep talking about. I figure I'd use black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder and maybe a little Tony C's, just cause I like Tony C's. Should I use sugar too? This is one of the things that worries me. Any addt'l thoughts on good rubs?
I've never cooked steak before (I know, I'm a horrible person and have no right to call anything I cook BBQ) so I'm not sure what I'm looking for as far as done is concerned. I like my steak medium to medium rare. Any hints ya'll could give me?
Anyways, any help from Ye Ol' Grill Masters would be much appreciated.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
One of my favorite rubs has coarse ground pepper, coarse sea salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, ground cumin, and some kind of seed I can't think of off the top of my head.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) bourbon 
