A Midwestern BBQ Staple – Pork Steaks

If you are not from the Midwest you are probably asking what exactly is a pork steak. Originally considered just a St. Louis thing it is now pretty prevalent throughout the Midwest due to its low price, ease of preparation, tenderness, great flavor and the vast multitude of prep options with them.

The pork steak is cut from a pork shoulder, pork shoulder butt, pork butt or Boston butt which are all the same thing. The reason a cut of meat taken from the shoulder of a pig is called a pork butt is that when meat was shipped back in the day of wooden ships this cut of meat was salted and packed into large barrels, known as butts, and bound for Boston. The shipping barrel was known as a butt and pork shoulders were shipped in them (often to Boston) and eventually adopted the container name as well as the destination city.

A pork steak can be prepared in a multitude of ways. It can be marinated, rubbed, brined prior to grilling. It can be rubbed, sauced, left naked, smoked, indirected or grilled directly during the grilling process. It can be made spicy or sweet or salty. One of my favorite ways of cooking these is indirect with nothing more than salt and black pepper. The most common method of grilling pork steaks is to slather them in your favorite BBQ sauce. Another beautiful thing about pork steaks is they hold up well for large groups in that they can be stacked up deep in a disposable aluminum pan, slathered in sauce and kept warm and tender for hours.

For this post it will be a tag team between my Dad and my Cousin. Dad will go over exactly how to get a pork steak in areas that carry pork shoulder/butts but don’t have pork steaks and Tom will go over one of the many ways to cook pork steaks….

What’s a ‘Pork Steak’?

Outside of the Midwest region of the country (where pork steaks are an extremely popular grilling staple) they aren’t well known and retail grocers do not offer this particularly tasty cut of pork. My cousin, Carol, lives in Maryland and has used the information provided here to obtain pork steaks in her area where they are not normally available. You can obtain them most everywhere if your local purveyor handles ‘Whole Boston Butt’ or ‘Pork Butt Roast’ or any of the myriad of other names such as the ‘Pork Shoulder Butt’ shown below:

Pork steaks are also known as ‘Blade Steaks ‘ and simply put, Pork Steaks are merely a sliced Boston Pork Butt.

I visited a local Save-a-lot Food Store (known for value, quality, and low prices) where the head meat-cutter, Mike, agreed to assist in illustrating how Pork Steaks are cut:

This is what the Whole Butt looks like prior to Mike performing his craft with this tasty cut:

Mike trims the end and any excess fat to fit the steaks to the tray used to sell at retail :

The Boston Butt is sliced into steaks (usually ½” to 1 1/4” thickness) on the saw:

Mike does not slice the whole butt into pork steaks. He saves a portion of one end to sell as a small roast (the back of the pic below) and sells the small end pieces as ‘Finger Ribs,’ which Mike thinks are the tastiest part, (the front of the pic below). What’s in the middle of the two are known as ‘Center Cut Pork Steaks.’ Some grocers slice the entire Butt and that’s referred to as ‘Whole Butt Sliced into Pork Steaks’ and usually offered at a lower retail price since the end pieces are included:

Finally we have view of what the end product looks like before wrapping, pricing, and offering for sale in the display case – small roast on the upper left, finger ribs on the upper right and center cut pork steaks down the middle:

Our thanks to Mike who is a very accomplished griller in his own right (and a pretty good Texas Hold ‘Em player) for helping out with the explanation of what exactly is a pork steak.

Hopefully you’ll be able to take this information to your local butcher (careful here, they usually prefer to be called meat-cutters!) and obtain Pork Steaks in your area. Watch your local ads for the roasts to be on sale to save a few dollars during these difficult economic times and approach your retailer then. I’ve had them many ways—thick-thin-marinated-glazed-simmered in sauce and so forth and they are always enjoyable.

**Editor’s note – now Tom takes over with the cooking of the amazing pork steak**

For a very long time I did not realize that bar-b-que pork steaks were a regional treat. That is until I moved a few states away and the butcher had no idea what I was trying to purchase. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of enjoying a pork steak slow cooked on the grill and slathered in BBQ Sauce, I hope that you will try this and enjoy!

This is a dish I have spent many years trying to perfect. My father-in-law was the master of bar-b-que pork steaks and he set the bar very high. I have cooked these many times and my wife finally told me these are as good as her dad used to make.

A pork steak is just a whole pork butt sliced into steaks (bone in). I typically ask the butcher to slice the pork butt approximately 1 1/4″ thick (they shrink a little when fully cooked).

The first step is to use our standard rub consisting of onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, raw sugar and ground red pepper. Click here to see the exact measurements. Rub generously onto the steaks and place into ziploc bags and refrigerate three hours to overnight.

Ready to go on the grill the next day:

Grill is ready:
I cooked these on the Big Green Egg, but you can do this on any grill. I like to start with the coals medium-hot to quickly sear the steaks:

Then close off the air flow to the grill so that the temp drops to a medium-low heat (approximately 250 degrees). Then continue to grill the pork steaks, turning occasionally for approximately ninety minutes:

**Editor’s note – cooking time will vary from grill to grill as well as based on the thickness of the pork steak. These are pretty thick. Most of the time pork steaks are cut an inch thick or less and need much less cooking time. The good news is practicing on pork steaks to perfect them does not cost a lot**

During the last 20 minutes of cooking, brush bar-b-que sauce onto the steaks (10 minutes on each side):

So far, I have not been too impressed with bottled bar-b-que sauce. We usually purchase the bottled kind and doctor it up a bit. Here is my recommendation.

KC Masterpiece Bar-B-Que Sauce
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 fresh jalapeño pepper finely chopped (ribs & seeds removed)
1 stalk celery finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 dark beers (one for the sauce and one for the cook)

Saute the onion, jalapeño and celery until tender and slightly caramelized. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute or two. Add the brown sugar and stir until incorporated, then slowly stir in the beer. Cook over low heat for thirty minutes.

Along side the pork steaks we did some crostinis:
1 loaf french bread in 1″ slices
olive oil
minced garlic
muenster cheese, grated (or your favorite cheese, creamy cheeses that melt well work best)

Turn the bread in the olive oil so there is a light coating on both sides. Spread minced garlic on one side of the bread. Grill until golden brown on both sides, then top with grated cheese and continue grilling until melted. These are a great appetizer or served along with the meal.

**Editor’s note – for step by step instructions on cooking crostinis click here. Also, the basic process outlined here and in the link is an original recipe of the grillin fool. There are many variations but the concept is an original of mine and one of my favorite things to do on the grill and is always a crowd pleaser**

And here is the final product plated and ready to eat:

**Editor’s note – Awesome job Tom. Can’t wait to have these at the next big family function. Maybe my house on Mother’s day?**

Old School Ribs – Excellent Read for Rib Novices Out There

Over the weekend we celebrated the Grillin Fool’s birthday with some serious grillin, chillin and poker shillin. Ribs, Bacon Wrapped Deer Tenderloin, Grilled Beans and an entire Chub of Bologna. Dad did the ribs as well as the prep work on the Deer Tenderloin. For the ribs he didn’t bother with the latest Rib crazes right now like the 3-2-1 method or trying to produce a flavor “bark” with loads of rub. This was simple, indirect grilling of ribs along with some fruit wood smoke for extra flavor. Would you believe that the smoke ring above was produced in less than 2 hours on a grill that is not a designated smoker?

This is the perfect post for those of you that have not done ribs or are new to cooking ribs. I took some pics of what to look for to figure out when your ribs are done (hint the top pic above is a good indicator). Also, for those of you without dedicated smokers this proves that you can cook some mean ribs without having to have a special grill for it. Click the link below to see what I am talking about.

It was quite a gathering at Fool’s Pappy’s house for the Fool’s birthday and what else would occur but firing up a few grills? Fool indicated he would like ribs for his big day and I obliged (since I’m the supreme griller of ribs among the Fools).**Editor’s note – The other two Grillin Fools beg to differ**

Very meaty baby back ribs were obtained from a couple of local grocers and the stage was set. Five full slabs were cut into ten ½ slabs for easier handling and fitting into the rib racks on the grill. The Ribs prior to being sliced in half:

Prep was very simple but the first step is very crucial to having a good result. The ribs must be ‘skinned’. This is mandatory if you want to have tender tasty ribs. ‘Skinning’ the ribs refers to the removal of the membrane (skin) on the back or bone side of the ribs. Getting this started is sometimes difficult. I usually insert a finger between two bones at one end of the rack and work the skin loose. Occasionally a knife or opposite end of a spoon is required to get it started. I then grab a paper towel to grab the skin (it’s naturally slippery and the towel enhances the grip) and peel the skin the length of the rack as shown. Removal of the skin eliminates toughness when you bite into it and the skin really has no flavor. Removal also allows what ever dry rub used to penetrate the meat (also the wood smoke) thus enhancing flavor. For maximum flavor and tenderness, ‘skin your ribs’:

The dry rub spices were applied next with the first application being a light dusting on both sides of granulated garlic. This was followed by a light application of KC Sweet and Smoky Rub (Master Griller Steve Raichlen’s recipe with a bit less salt). The spices were then ‘patted’ into the meat and not actually rubbed. Some experts I’ve read suggest ‘patting’ the meat aids in preserving tenderness as opposed to actual ‘rubbing’. I don’t know if there is a lot of credence to this but I’ve been doing it for quite a while with good results. Utilizing a ‘light’ amount of spices enhances the flavor of the meat. Many grillers ‘cake’ the ribs to the point of obtaining an overpowering crust on the ribs. I try to avoid that. The rub was applied a few hours before the ribs hit the grill:

Did anyone notice the big candle on the platter of ribs before cooking? It was just the special touch befitting the Grillin’ Fool on his birthday.**Editor’s Note – the candle would’ve been more recognizeable had he actually gotten the flame in the only pic he took of it**

Before using a rib rack, always spray with Pam or a similar product prior to placing the ribs in the rack. This will make cleanup later much easier:

The fire is ready on both grills and it’s time to grill. Two grills were used as half the ribs were smoked with cherry chunks and the other half with apple wood just to have bit of variety. Cooking time was approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes using the indirect method (I had the coals on the left side of the grill and the ribs on the right).

Closeup of ribs on left grill:

Closeup of the ribs on the right grill:

Notice how the ribs are staggered in the rack? The first slab is pushed farther to the back, the next farther to the front, the next farther to the back, etc? This is to allow the heat and smoke to penetrate the meat better. While rib racks allow for more ribs per square inch of grilling space, they also inhibit the permeation of smoke and serve to insulate the ribs against each other. Staggering them like this helps to alleviate both problems.

45 minutes later the ribs on the left:

The half rack in front is cooking at a much faster pace than the rest of the ribs. Time to rearrange:

Not only did I put the half slab that was cooking too fast to the back, I turned the other ribs to be perpendicular to the heat and put some space between the slabs to allow the smoke to circulate in and around them better – basically the theory of staggering them taken a bit farther with the extra room in this rib rack. Here we have a shot that shows how much room there is between them:

And while that half slab that was on front was cooking faster than the other four, the ribs on the other grill were cooking faster as well, but not as quickly of the darkest slab in the pic above:

A pic from above even shows a slight bit of meat separating from the bone:

**Editor’s note – Some are going to ask at what temp the grill on the right was cooking at. Well that’s a little tough to tell. Here is a shot of the grill on the right with the lid closed:

And here is a close up of the thermometer:

good luck checking the temp on that thing.

Here is the grill on the left:

And the temp on the side with the coals:

And the temp on the side with the ribs:

The true temp of the Brinkmann is somewhat higher than these thermometers indicate considering the cold weather we were grillin in. The Brinkmann was probably over 250 and the old Charbroil on the right was hotter than that. Probably at the 275-300 range on the side with the coals.

Wish I had some solid numbers here. This was my fault. I forgot my remote thermometer**

30 minutes later (75 minutes in) ribs on the left along with the Chub of bologna and the beans (more on those later):

Those are coming along nicely but the ones on the right are doing even better:

This pic is a bit dark so I hope you can see the meat pulling back from the bone. This is what you are looking for:

20 minutes later (95 minutes into the process) the ones on the right are looking fantastic. Meat is really pulling away from the bone:

10 minute later (105 minutes in) I pulled them out of the rib rack to get this pic before taking them inside:

I took the half racks above along with the the half rack that was cooking too quickly from the left grill and placed them into disposable tin trays with a little beer in the pan and foil on top and into a 150 degree oven to keep warm:

The other slabs were placed over on the grill to the right in order to finish up as that grill stayed hotter than the Brinkman. Those 4 slabs took about a total of 2 hours.

When served the knife went through them like they were warm butter, not falling off the bone though. Properly cooked ribs should not fall off the bone. They should maintain a texture that is pleasing, tender, and slightly chewy. Usually if you are served ribs that fall off the bone they have been cooked improperly or parboiled (ugh!). This batch came out perfect as many of the guests that night exclaimed. You may have noticed the lack of barbeque sauce. There was none offered and certainly none needed. Occasionally I will add sauce to the mix and try to ‘glaze’ a coat or two on the ribs as some prefer that addition.

Money shot: Notice the meatiness of these ribs! They were very tasty and the smoke ring was readily apparent as you can see. There were no leftovers on this evening!

**Editor’s note – Excellent Job Dad!!!

The Fool’s Pappy’s Inaugural Post – Rotisserized Pork Roast

**Editors note – This is the first contribution by the Fool’s Pappy, now a fellow GrillinFool, to GrillinFools.com. I have to say he did a phenomenal job. The grilling is the easy part. Taking pictures of the process with a crappy digital camera so that they look as good as the shot above is the hard part. If you want to read more about how he prepared and grilled what is in the money shot above please click the link below…

The roast was caught on sale at a local grocer and as you can see is ‘netted’. Occasionally this is offered in half at sale pricing and you could purchase and tie together with butcher twine yourself and save a bit of cash.

Ingredients: Pork Roast, Garlic Cloves (sliced thin), sliced Red Onion, and KC Sweet and Smoky Rub (courtesy Master Raichlen).

Prep: Once the garlic and onion were sliced and the rod inserted I then placed the garlic and onion in between the pieces of roast **Editors note – as you can see below he left the garlic and onion slices sticking out in order to show where he was able to insert them between the two roasts. After the shot was taken he stuffed them all the way into the space between the two roasts.**

And then sprinkled rub liberally all over the roast:

Grill: Stainless Steel Barrel fabricated circa 1970 by G-fool’s Grandpa Russ. Russ is no longer with us but his memory lives on each time we utilize the grill he made and passed on to G-fool’s Pappy ( to be inherited by G-fool when Pappy moves on ). Many slabs of ribs were enjoyed over the years grilled at his lakeside home. We know he would be proud to see the grill still in use and treasured by us:

Coals were prepared and a simple drip pan created from aluminum foil was placed under the roast. I guess this achieves sort of a semi-indirect method:

Smoking Wood: For this one I discovered I was out of apple chips which I normally use (good prep eh?) but decided to use a blend of soaked wood chips I had consisting of sassafras, hickory, wild cherry, and apple. The flavor was quite tasty but I still prefer apple or cherry alone. Here is the loin on the rotisserie in the grill:

Soaked wood chips were added and the lid went down. I checked it about every 30 mins. to add additional charcoal and wood chips. This left significant time to enjoy a glass or two of a nice everyday white wine I’d recently found—Wine 4 Chillin’—at World Market. Believe it or not it was a box wine and wasn’t’ bad at all. They also offer a red blend—Wine 4 Grillin’—which is really nice (we had this one super Bowl Sunday). I’ve often been a fan of ‘premium’ box wines and I’ve had many disagreements with G-fool about them but he drank his share Super Bowl Sunday. **Editor’s note – thanks for pointing that out dad. I’m so embarrassed**

If you’re looking for a decent wine for an outdoor event with a group and looking to keep costs down they are a great alternative. These wines will be my everyday wines at the beach on vacation this year. The portability (4 bottle equivalent per box) is an important factor. I used to haul 3-4 cases of bottles each trip for the 8-10 of us that go and that really filled up the vehicle. Some others I’ve tried that are recommended are Black Box, Hardy’s, and Trove but just remember all box wines are not created equal. Expect to pay $15-22 per box—less than that usually indicates inferior quality in my estimation (just my opinion explore for yourself).

Cooking time: An hour and 15 to and hour and a half regardless of roast size as thickness is usually about the same. I don’t use a fancy-schmancy thermometer because I know it’s what works after many efforts over the years. The roast will arrive at the plate juicy and flavorful, not dried out and tough. Hint: spray rotisserie rod with cooking spray before using to aid in cleaning later. An electrical outlet is required or proper extension cord to reach your outdoor grill. ** Editors note – many modern rotisseries are battery operated**

30 minutes in:

60 minutes in:

Ready to pull from the grill:

Roast was allowed to rest ( foil-covered to keep warmth in ) for about 15 minutes prior to carving. Cut to desired thickness for dinner serving. I usually leave remaining portion intact and slice it thin for sandwiches later or chunks for pork hash. We ultimately produced 4 meals from this roast ( depending on number of diners ). Two adults and two kids initially were fed and the remainder provided 2 batches of pork hash ( a simple recipe to follow ) and enough to slice thin for a couple of hot pork sandwiches.

And here we have the money shot:

I was going to wrap the roast in bacon but after a near heart attack from the Bacon Explosion I decided to forego that idea and stay traditional.

Pork Hash Recipe: This would be a carryover from my youth when my folks were trying to stretch their food budget. It’s very simple. Boil a few potatoes (peeled and sliced into chunks) for 10-12 minutes till fork tender. Drain water and place in a warm skillet with a few dabs of heated bacon grease (pork fat does still rule) **Editor’s note – this from the guy who decided against wrapping the roast in bacon but uses bacon grease to warm the pork up** and grate fresh pepper over them. Fry the potatoes til they gain that special crispness on the outside then add pork (cut into chunks or cubes) and a cup or so of diced onion. Fry together till all is browned and serve (salt to taste). If the bacon grease is not an option for you olive oil can be substituted. This simple creation remains one of my all-time favorites.

Pork Sandwiches: This is REALLY simple. Slice remaining pork into thin slices, drop into skillet with a bit of butter or margarine, and heat till edges begin to brown. Serve on bread with your favorite condiment ( I like a little salt, pepper, and mayo on mine ).

There you have it. G-fool’s Pappy’s first solo effort. **Editor’s note – and a fine effort it was**

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Inspired by the bacon explosion I decided to try a bacon weave wrapped around a pair of pork tenderloins tied together. As the saying goes, everything is better with bacon. I also have some pics from a fellow grillin fool who also did a bacon wrapped pork loin a few weeks ago that I had the privilege of sampling…To see pics and the write up of both, check the link below.

Having done the bacon explosion on Super Bowl Sunday and not being all that impressed with it other than the bacon on the outside I decided to try to incorporate the part I liked about the bacon explosion into something better than a sausage fatty wrapped in bacon. A buddy of mine and follower of this site did this a few weeks ago and it was outstanding and he was kind enough to share some pics of his so this is a two for one post.

First off the weather had a lot to do with the end result and even influences the loins that I bought. Usually when you buy a pork tenderloin the bag has two loins, one shorter and fatter and one longer and skinnier. Considering the temp was only supposed to get to about 35 I decided to get two tenderloin packs of similar size so that I could tie the two longer/thinner tenderloins together in order to reduce cooking time. I didn’t want to spend 4 hours freezing my butt off tending to the grill so I went with smaller cuts.

Here we have the two bags of tenderloin that I bought. You can see one is 2.02 and the other is 2.05 pounds:o

Here we have all 4 tenderloins on a big cutting board. The bottom ternderloin of each pair is the shorter/thicker of the two:

Here are the two shorter thicker ones together. These two were destined for a marinade bath in a gallon ziplock and then a stay in the freezer for grilling later:

And here are the two that I planned on grilling:

I marinaded both sets of loins. As I mentioned earlier, the shorter/thicker ones went to the freezer. The others to the fridge. The marinade consisted of garlic, John’s marinade and flavorizer, black and white pepper and some olive oil. Nothing acidic in this marinade. No need tenderizing the meat anymore than it already is:

The following day I pulled the Tenderloin from the fridge as well as this beauty:

Yes that giant beer has a cork:

Now that a proper beverage is on hand, time to get to the bacon weave. It’s not rocket science but it takes a few minutes. Basically a typical pound of bacon has 16 slices. Lay 8 slices side by side and then interweave the other 8 slices perpendicular to the first 8 slices. In the end it should look like this:

Here are my two tenderloins ready to be tied up next to the bacon weave:

Next step is to tie the two tenderloins together. Usually each tenderloin has a fatter end and a skinnier end. Put the fat end of one tenderloin to the skinny end of the other so it is a uniform thickness throughout. To tie them together simply get some cooking twine:

The cooking twine also works wonders in tying tomato branches up to a trellis as you can see with the ‘maters I grew last year. Those plants are close to feet tall. Just another reason I can’t wait for the weather to warm up:

Here we have the tenderloins tied together. Normally I would add some salt to the meat right now if I were not wrapping it in bacon. Even though I used low sodium bacon it still has plenty of salt:

And here it is wrapped in the bacon weave:

I learned a little trick this last week about using a remote thermometer in a grill. I try to keep the remote thermometer as close to the meat as possible to know what temp it is cooking at. But if the thermometer touches the meat it will report a false temp as the meat will insulate the probe. Solution – stick a cork from a wine bottle onto the end of the probe. Problem solved:

You can see the temp in the picture above. The thermometer is set for beef but that doesn’t matter when I’m just checking the temp of the grill and not the meat. The temp shows 73 inside the house.

And here is the bacon wrapped tenderloin on the grill with the thermometer to the side. Coals on one side the meat on the other so the meat cooks indirectly:

And from here on out I had some issues. The temp fluctuated all over the place inside the grill. From 205 to 340. What was supposed to be a cold day but not windy turned out to be a cold and windy day and thus the temperature went all over the place. So in the end I have no idea at what temp I cooked this. I indirected it for about 3 hours and the temp for a lot of that was about 280 but I’m not entirely certain.

Here is the loin an hour into the process:

And here we have about 45 minutes later. You will see that the color of the bacon has not changed much. It was at this point that I found the temp had dropped dramatically:

After I took the pic above I added more charcoal to bring the temp back up. 45 minutes later, and the sun going down, we have the bacon darkening up nicely:

At this point the tenderloin has been on for 2.5 hours. My wife was ready to eat. So I decided to speed the process up a bit and put the loin a little close to the coals:

15 minutes later I turn the loin 180 degrees so it would not burn the bacon on the one side and then pulled it off to rest:

The bacon is lookin good!!!

I let it rest for about 10 minutes and then sliced:

And here we have it plated with some candied carrots and some pasta salad:

Things I would’ve done to improve the process:

1. First and foremost I would cook the loin first and not the bacon. What I mean is I was more worried about what the bacon would look like in the resting picture than what the meat would taste like. I like Pork Tenderloin to be pink in the middle. A good medium. Pork does not have to be well done anymore. This was well done. The flavor was great but I don’t prefer my tenderloin done this way. So mind the tenderloin and not the bacon. I think if I had pulled it off prior to moving it closer to the heat for that last 30 minutes it would’ve been perfect.
2. If I want the tenderloin to be medium and bacon to be done perfectly I should’ve gone with the thicker tenderloins. Going with the thinner pieces meant less time on the grill but it also meant that the tenderloin was done faster than the bacon. So go with a bigger tenderloins than what I went with. At least 2.5 pounds.
3. And finally, just because I am sick of winter and really want warm weather to do long grill sessions like this, I shouldn’t force it and pick a day where the weather wreaked havoc on my grilling temp.

And now to a bacon wrapped tenderloin done to perfection. Actually it’s three bacon wrapped tenderloins. Jason Butler was kind enough to provide the pictures of the process. Having gotten a chance to taste these I will say that they were done to perfection. Here are the tenderloins wrapped in bacon ready for the grill:

Jason went a little slower and lower than I did and with thicker tenderloins. He kept the temp between 200 and 250 for around 4 hours. How good do these look:

At the end he slathered a couple in sweet baby rays. The front left one was slathered with a thinner homemade sauce. Both were excellent:

And as you can see in this money shot, that is a nice shade of pink in the middle. This stuff was so good it was ridiculous.

Props to Jason for the job well done as well as some pics for the site.

How NOT to Smoke Ribs

While I tout my grilling prowess on this site quite a bit I am also human and I do screw up from time to time. This is one such case back in November of 2008…

As the weather got colder the local grocery store was blowing out their ribs. I bought a couple packs of spares and threw them in the freezer. A few weeks later it was to be a warm Saturday so I thawed the ribs out on Friday, pulled the membrane from the back and marinaded them in Apple Cider, garlic, black pepper and some Worcestershire Sauce in a ziplock. Here they are going into the fridge for the evening:
And the next day we have the ribs laid out and ready for a rub:

You can see some rib tips that will be what I call chef’s prerogative during the smoking process.

Here are the rub ingredients:

Normally I do a paprika/garlic/brown sugar (or turbinado sugar) rub. I decided to change it up a bit here and experiment with Cumin, Curry, Chili Powder, Turbinado Sugar (or Sugar in the Raw), Ground Cinnamon, Granulated Garlic and Crushed Red Pepper Flakes. As usual I never add salt to my rubs. I add a pinch of coarse salt to each side of the ribs independent of the rub and then apply the rub as you see here:

I made enough rub to slather the meat and more for later when I cover them with syrup and more rub before putting them in foil to create a nice bark.

While I prepared the rub I had my charcoal in a chimney getting hot. No need to haul out the big horizontal smoker for two slabs so I just used my Weber with Charcoal Bins on each side to keep the temp down and cook/smoke the meat indirectly:

Then I put my grill grate on that has flip up ends which makes it MUCH easier to add fuel and smoke wood throughout the grilling process which for this session was planned to be a 6 hour process – 3 hours smoking, 2 hours foiled with syrup or honey and more rub, and 1 more hour with no smoke just to harden that amazing bark:

I shut the lid and let the temp come down as displayed on my remote thermometer:

I was looking for anywhere between 200 and 225 on this so 217 will work just fine.

For this session I used a rib rack that holds 5 slabs. One note about rib racks, a quick spritz with some Pam prior to putting the ribs on will make clean up a lot easier. Here are the ribs nestled in the rack with a couple of apple chunks in each charcoal bin:

I placed the lid on the grill and opened the vents to allow the smoke to escape. This raised the temp to 223 with more oxygen hitting the fire:

And here we have an absolutely beautiful sight with the smoke billowing out of the grill:

So far so good. I came back about an hour later and the temp had dropped below 200. I added some more coals and another couple blocks of wood and opened the vents to get the temp back up. And this is where it went south for this smoking session. While waiting for the temp to come up I went inside to get a refill of my beer and then got distracted by something. About an hour later I went back out to check the grill. To my horror here’s what I saw:

I had no idea how long it had been at 288 or if it had been hotter for a while. I opened the lid and the wood was on fire rather than smoking. I had a bark already, but not one I wanted. I decided to forgo the last hour of smoking to try to salvage the ribs and foiled them after only 2 hours. Despite over cooking them right away I went through the process I had planned on originally just a little earlier and the rest of the steps got shorter. So I took one slab and put it bone side down on some foil:

Then I slathered the meat with syrup:

Then I applied more rub. In this case I was hoping the rub would mask the rub the was burnt:

Then put the other slab on top of the first slab, again, boneside down and repeated the process:

Meat pulling away from the bones is normally a good thing. After 5 hours. Not 2 hours. Here we have the second slab slathered in syrup and more rub:

After about an hour in the foil I pulled them and put them back in the rib rack to firm up the bark. If I were just to serve them at this point the rub would be a gritty, greasy mess. So back on the heat for a little while to firm up the bark.

In the end the ribs were ruined. This is not how the ribs should look:

And here they are sliced:

The ribs were fall off the bone and the ribs in the middle of the slabs weren’t bad. The ones on each end of the slabs were inedible.

What I would do differently:

1. I don’t own a green egg. I can’t walk away from the grill for that long. If the temp had dropped I could’ve easily recovered from that by just increasing the cook time but the temp spiking is a fatal error that is pretty tough to recover from.
2. I probably should’ve just slathered them with syup and skipped the extra rub. That way I wouldn’t have had to put the ribs back on the heat at the end to firm up the bark. The last thing those ribs needed was more heat.

Nobody is perfect. Especially the GrillinFool. I’m just glad I got those ribs on sale. Paying full price would’ve really pissed me off for neglecting them while on the grill.

Fall Off the Bone Baby Backs

Since nothing says Merry Christmas like smoked ribs, I thought I would share the last time I did a big batch of ribs.

When it comes to ribs I think there are two kinds of people – those that like them to fall off the bone and those that like them moist and chewy. I fall in the latter category, but I have no problem with those that are in the former. And if I cook my ribs a bit too long and they are fall off the bone I will still enjoy them a great deal. I mean if the worst thing that happens to me in a day is that I have to eat ribs that fall off the bone I’ve had a good day!?!

On this such occasion I was at my in-laws. My in-laws like fall off the bone, sauced ribs. Since that is what my audience wanted, that’s what I gladly made. My FiL is the type of guy to get up at the crack of dawn and smoke ribs for 8-10 hours. I just don’t have that kind of time. And I can provide them with exactly what they want in under four hours. That’s right, four hours for fall off the bone ribs….

The ribs were marinaded in apple cider, garlic and black pepper over night. The next day my MiL made her wonderful Cumin based rub. Cumin, garlic, some brown sugar, onion powder and black pepper. I’m sure I left out some ingredients so I will check with her and update this post when I know more.

I salted the ribs with some coarse salt and then applied the rub and threw them on the my FiL’s sweet Brinkman Offset Smoker. I held back one half slab for myself for a little while so they would not be fall off the bone. Here they are with all of the slabs on the grill:

I know some of you are looking at that pic and see that the coals are actually in the cooking chamber rather than the firebox. This was required to achieve my goal of fall off the bone BBRs in under four hours. To do so I needed to raise the temp from the standard 225 to closer to 275. In order to accomplish this I needed the fire in the cooking chamber rather than the firebox. I slid the grill grates over to the right to have easier access to the fire to add wood and more charcoal.

I was having one problem at this point. The ribs were practically stacked on top of each other which would slow the cooking process as they would insulate each other. I had a couple of options, try to transfer red hot coals from the cooking chamber to the fire box (and add a ton more charcoal to get the temp up) or find away to separate the ribs. After a little digging in the garage I found a rib rack. Problem solved:

In the above pic you can see the lead from my thermometer that leads to the base (out of the pic). With long cooking chambers like this, the thermometer built into the middle of the top of the grill can be off by more than 50 degrees or so from the ends of the grill. I wanted to see what the temp my ribs were at right near where they were cooking.

After 2 hours on the grill, it was time for the foil. Put the ribs on the foil bone side down, slather with either honey or syrup. For a really great bark add more rub but it’s not necessary. These were getting sauced so no extra rub:

After I took this pic I just stacked them on top of each other, folded up the foil around them and back on the grill. After 45 minutes or so in the foil I pulled them, and dunked them in a disposable tin foil pan full of sauce.

The sauce was kicked up Cattleman’s. I took a sauce pan, added some oil, brought some minced garlic up to a sizzle, added some brown sugar and syrup, as well as fresh cracked black pepper. Cooked that for a bit and then added the sauce. Half a pumpkin ale and cooked it down for about an hour to thicken.

While I was doing all of this I also threw on some rib tips. While I normally cook those as a chef’s prerogative and enjoy them throughout the smoking process these were for my BiL’s girlfriend (now fiance) who likes ribs but doesn’t like the bones. Here are the ribs in their BBQ sauce bath, the tips off to the side and my half slab in foil. I hadn’t gotten to removing my slab from the foil yet:

I put the ribs in the sauce right over the heat so they would cook some more in the sauce to guarantee that fall off the bone consistency. Here is a closeup of the ribs in the BBQ bath:

I left the ribs in the sauce for about 30 minutes. So total cooking time was just under 3.5 hours.

This was the second time in about a month I was to grill ribs. I didn’t get a chance to do this method the time before as my FiL’s neighbor started the grill up and put everything on about eight in the morning. When we ate at 6 that night, they were great. I kept telling my FiL that I could do the same in four hours.

So there we are, sitting around the table chowing on ribs and sides. After a few bones, my FiL, looks at me and says, “four hours?” After a couple more bones says it again. All in all I think he said that about 6 times. He just couldn’t believe what he was eating only took four hours.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not a proponent of rushing anything on the grill. Less time grillin meand less time chillin. But I just can’t do 10 hours on the grill. Maybe in a Big Green Egg where you set it and forget it, but not with the equipment available to me.

BTW, I did this method with spares about 6 weeks prior. No pics. The wife had obsconded with the camera. I’d heard about this higher temp shorter time method and wanted to see if it worked. I did two hours in the smoke, and then 90 minutes in the foil. As I was pulling one of the half slabs from the foil, one of the bones hit the edge of the foil that was sticking out and the bone actually fell out of the meat!!! Think about that for a second. How much resistance does tin foil have? Next to none. And the entire bone fell out of the half slab. I almost laughed outloud and was really sorry I didn’t have the camera!?!?

To finish the spares I put them back on the grill for 30 minutes. I realize that the meat was done after 3.5 hours, but I needed to caramelize the bark as they were sauceless ribs. At the higher temp that only takes about 30 minutes. So for Spares, four hours is all you need for fall off the bone ribs.

Anyone want to smoke a fatty?

For some of you that means something very different than what I will discuss in this entry. This is not a something related to sparking up a blunt. This is simply sausage smoked on a grill. There are a million ways to make fatties. Fatties can be sweet, stuffed, spicy and all things in between.

To make a fatty, one must purchase some sort of loose or bulk sausage. I’ve made them with one pound breakfast sausage as well as bulk sausage from the meat counter at the grocery store. Here is a cheese stuffed Fatty:

Click below if you want know more…

The first fatty I ever made was the same day I did the spiral sliced and stuffed pork loin. For that fatty I took a one pound tube of maple breakfast sausage and put it in a mixing bowl. I minced up some of the following: garlic, vidalia onion and about half a honey crisp apple and added that to the mixing bowl. A little cracked black pepper and some brown sugar completed the ingredients. I mixed all of that together and then reshaped the sausage into the form it was in when it was in the plastic tube. Then I applied a sweet rub of paprika, brown sugar, granulated garlic, chili powder and black pepper. The fatty is on the left:
No salt at all on this. There is plenty of salt in the pork.

There is nothing to cooking these things. Throw them on the grill for about 3 hours between 225-250. When it firms up it is done. You don’t really have to flip them over or turn them. You can put bacon on them to baste the meat, but it is not required. Having a second level rack in my offset smoker is a great place for fatties to cook. I like to put them over something else I am cooking so the fat drips over the other meat or dish. I’ve put these over baked beans and in this case I put it over the pork loin:
When I close the grill lid that rack moves forward a few inches and the fatty is right over the loin. I’ve also put them over ribs:

After a couple of hours the fatty and the loin are coming along nicely:
Here are the loin and the fatty resting:
And here we have the loin and fatty plated:
I have also done stuffed fatties. Fatties can be stuffed with anything, cheese, potatoes (someone just mentioned to me Tater Tots which sounds divine), peppers, proscuitto, fruit, veggies, pretty much anything that floats your boat.

For these two fatties I did one identical as above but I forgot the rub. But the other I decided to stuff and use bulk sausage rather than breakfast sausage. I bought a pound of bulk sausage and put it in a mixing bowl. I added minced garlic and onion as well as some black pepper and grated asiago cheese. Then I spread it out on a piece of wax paper and added a couple slices of prosciutto:
Then I added some chunks of blue cheese:
Then I rolled it back up and put it on the platter with the sweet fatty. The stuffed fatty is on the right:
I didn’t think there was much difference between bulk sausage and breakfast sausage but the difference it pretty startling. Here are the two fatties resting (along with some baked beans):
The stuffed fatty is on the right again. Uncooked the breakfast fatty was much larger. When cooked it is much smaller and also much darker. The stuffed fatty looks like it is still raw compared to the other but it cooked through. Here are a couple shots of the stuffed fatty sliced:
When stuffing fatties with cheese you really have to pat the hell out of them as if you are pounding out hamburgers. You can’t have the meat be loose and have cracks form as the meat firms up as the fat renders out. So, I’m telling you that spanking your sausage is required when stuffing fatties with cheese. I mean really give it a good beating. If not you may have some premature cheese leakage.

Here are two stuffed fatties I made for a buddy’s bachelor party (along with ribs and beans). One I spanked harder than the other. Can you see which is which in the upper right?
Here is a close up of those fatties:
When the fatty on the left started oozing I threw a piece of foil under both of them to save the cheese.

Some recommend putting the fatty in the fridge for a while before cooking so that it is easier to manipulate on the grill. I really have not had a problem putting a warm fatty on the grill. As long as it is not touched for the first hour it will firm up enough to be moved without risk of it falling apart.

While I am not a proponent of drug use I am a big fan of smoking fatties so by all means everyone, go smoke some fatties!?!?!

How about a little Rib Off?

Every year about 30 of my family and friends go up to Michigan in the middle of July. The weather is amazing. Go to the pool or the beach during the day, wear a sweatshirt at night. The place is rustic. Not many frills, but it’s a great time. Particularly if you like to eat food cooked on the grill. We rent five cabins each cabin has a grill. We line up the grills next to each other and about 5 of the 7 nights a few of us grill for all 30 people. Last summer we decided to have a rib off between my cousin, my dad and I:

Yeah, that’s the three of us after many hours of grillin and a little too much chillin considering we posed for this pseudo Iron Chef type picture. Gotta love my Dad’s farmer’s tan!?! The rest of the riboff can be read by clicking the link below. It was quite the experience and well worth the read…

First off I have to mention a couple issues we had. My dad (Fool’s Pappy) got an amazing “deal” on some baby backs. Well, they weren’t baby backs. They were a little bigger than BB’s and a little smaller than spares. Second. The membrane would not come off of these things. All three of us had issues. So we just scored them really well with a sharp knife to keep the membrane from making the ribs tough which worked quite well. And the biggest obstacle was the grills we were using. I mentioned this place was rustic. These grills are Uber Cheap Wal Mart Specials. They are not ideal for smoking at all. You’ll see the pics in a minute and understand what I mean.

Now on to the Rib Off. So for the couple of months leading up to vacation we were talking about this Rib Off. All three of us were experimenting with different rubs, marinades, smoke woods, etc. My dad has some crazy Chipotle Rasberry Marinade he going to used. I used Mussleman’s apple sauce and my cousin applied his mainly brown sugar rub the night before and wrapped in cling wrap. All viable beginnings to great rib endings.

But the night before my cousin is saying that he wants to skip the Rib Off and just grill the ribs and not have a competition. He’s making excuses left and right and just wants to have fun. Dad and I aren’t having any of that. Dad’s got his marinade and I’ve got the apple sauce that I heard the guy who owns 17th street grill (and winner of the Memphis Rib Contest 3 different year) uses.

I also had my secret weapon. Someone told me about Penzey’s spices the week before we headed out for vacation. I tell everyone that will listen that Penzey’s are the best. They are far and away better than anything you can get at the grocery store. Part of the reason they are so good is they are much more powerful than anything from the grocery store and much less of the spices are needed. I did not know that little fact prior to using them for the first time during the Rib Off. More on that later.

My cousin and I used apple and my dad used cherry. All of the wood chunks were baseball size. My dad also soaked his cherry wood. My cousin and I did not. This is why I never soak my smoke wood. I really don;t use chips anymore and chunks just don’t need to be soaked. Of the 5 grills we used one of them had the soaked cherry chunks. Guess which one:

Yeap, that would be Grill #4 with no smoke. And now do you understand what I mean about the grills being not well suited for smoking?

About 30 minutes into the process my cousin has to leave to go take care of something. I’d had a few at that point so I cannot remember what that was so Dad and I are cooking his as well as ours. So here I am, my cousin is AWOL, my dad has no smoke. I’ve got a perfect 235 degrees and billowing smoke rolling out of my grill. 30 minutes in and I think I’ve got it in the bag already.

But this is no short cook. There is plenty of time for the tables to turn. My dad settles in to pick up a few tips from the real master while we wait:

With no smoke for close to an hour from Dad’s cherry we decide to throw all of his wood onto the grill (not in the fire) to essentially kiln dry it to get the moisture out so it will smoke when it is eventually added to the fire:

Of course Grillin Fools can’t live by beer alone. We need to maintain our strength. During the process the rib tips were munched on as appetizers for us:

90 minutes in. Let’s check the process. Dad finally has some smoke:

My cousin’s ribs being attended to by us are doing just fine:

And here are my ribs:

About 2 hours in, my ribs are ready for the foil:

I placed them bone side down, slathered the top with syrup and for half of them added more rub to get a really nice bark. Then I sealed them up in the foil and back on the grill:

My cousin’s are looking great:

And here are some of his foiled. Not sure why he didn’t foil the one slab:

And my dad decides to add a little wine to his foil. I use the term “wine” loosely:

Someone told him the wine was really good. It was terrible. My dad really knows his wine, but he’s dabbling in this boxed crap because every now and again someone rates one at 90 points. Not that one…That one was horrible.

BTW, remember me mentioning that we had to score the membrane on these ribs as the membrane just wouldn’t come off? Here’s what it looks like when cooked. Sorta looks like inverse cross hatched grill marks!?!?!

Here is my dad and cousin looking over dad’s ribs:

Here are my dad’s. Some sauced, some not:

Here I am tending to my Ribs. If you are a Cub fan look really close at my shirt:

Here are mine. The slabs on the right had more rub added for a really nice bark:

And here are the winning ribs:

That’s right, my cousin who disappeared for about 3 hours won. He was there for 30 minutes to start and the final 30 minutes.

What went wrong?

Penzey’s that’s what went wrong

See, when someone like me who has used obviously very mediocre spices all his life gets a hold of Penzeys for the first time bad things can happen. Sorta like only driving a V6 all my life and then getting into an Enzo Ferrari and attempting to win a road rally without ever test driving the car. I did two rubs. And both were WAY too spicy for the crowd I was cooking for. I loved them. My Cousin’s wife gave me the nod for best ribs as well as a few others who enjoy spicy food but for most of the people they were just too spicy. My idea of Chipotle spice is very different than that of Penzey’s idea. I still say they are the best out there by far, I just wish I had a chance to test drive them first.

My Dad’s were really good to me but he used that Chipotle Rasberry Marinade that happened to be very spicy as well. So, guess who wins? The guy who rubbed in brown sugar and slapped his ribs on the grill and I cooked them

One of my first photo shoots

I found a file with some old pics on a my desktop at home last night. This is one of the first times I decided to document the process with a camera. I’m guessing this may have been 3 summers ago because I was incredibly proud of my Kershaw Shun Knives that got as engagement and wedding gifts. This is another Garlic stuffed Pork loin, but with a few twists. First I cooked an appetizer with this and second I basted the loin throughout the process with bacon as seen above….Mmmmmm….Bacon…..

One thing I have noticed from these pics is that I have come a long way since then in both grilling and photography!?!?

First the shrimp. I took U8-12 shrimp from the local grocer that were already deveined and removed the shell but left the tail. I did these two ways. The first way I wrapped a large basil leaf around the midsection of the shrimp. Then I wrapped a half piece of bacon around the basil and secured it with a toothpick.

The second I did with Rosemary. In this case I took a short sprig of rosemary and put it in the valley created by the deveining process and then wrapped in bacon as I did with the basil shrimps. A little cracked black pepper is all it needs after that.

Here is a bowl of the shrimps ready for the grill:

Then the loin. As I did before with the garlic stuffed loin I cut slits into the loin and inserted slivers of garlic. I’m guessing I did some sort of marinade considering the color of the meat when raw. The marinade was likely worcestershire, garlic, black pepper and maybe some red wine.

I had yet to buy my Charcoal baskets that keep the coals on each side so this is a quasi indirect/smoking session on a standard 22 inch weber. In this case I seared the loin a bit over the coals before pulling it over to the side with no coals to indirect and smoke:

Here you can see the coals on one side and none on the other:

And after a bit, I rotate to get a bit of a sear all the way around the loin:

Then I pulled the loin to the other side of the grill and added some soaked wood chips and small chunks. Here is where I have grown as a pit master. I never use chips anymore or those tiny chunks as they burn up way too quickly.

And now it’s time to make sure that loin will be juicy when I pull it off:

Evidently I got a little hungry and decided to throw a couple shrimp on the ole barby to enjoy during the process. Notice the bacon browning on the loin. How good does that look?

Once the shrimp is firm and the bacon looks done they are ready to eat:

Here’s a rookie mistake with the bacon used to baste. The first three half slices were running out of fat to render out onto the loin, so instead of pulling those three slices off and eating them, I put three more slices on top of them. Learn from my mistake here. Don’t let perfectly cooked bacon go to waste like I did:

I have no idea how far along in the process this is, but I’m guessing I was about to pull the loin off at this point. How does that bacon look now?

And here we have the loin resting and me proudly displaying my badass cutlery yet again:

Here are a couple of slices. You can see the bits of garlic if you look close:

How things have changed. First, I don’t show off my knives as much. My pictures are clearer than these. I know not to waste bacon. I don’t use wood chips anymore. That was the summer of 2006. A lot can change in 3 short year…

Spiral Sliced and Stuffed Pork Loin

I didn’t want to do two loins in a row, but I found this when I was digging through some old pics.

I took a pork loin, marinaded it in Andria’s, garlic, red wine and black pepper. Then I rinsed off the marinade the following day and spiral sliced the loin until it laid flat.

Basically keep the slice about 1 inch thick and keep rotating the meat forming a spiral. Eventually the loin will lay flat like this:

Once the meat is laid flat, I covered the loin with slices of sandwich size pepperoni.

After that I made up a mixture of white cheddar, grated asiago, a little cream cheese, minced garlic and onion, and black pepper and spread that over the pepperoni.

Then I tied it all up with cooking twine. Don’t tie too tight. Allow some room for the cheese to expand when it gets good and hot.

I put it on the smoker at about 200-225. It was a cold and windy night so keeping the temp up was a little tough.

2.5 hours in with some of the extra pepperoni on top to baste and to eat once it gets crispy. I’ll tell you that smoked pepperoni was amazing. There is a fatty on the upper grill rack

You can see that the cheese is oozing out a bit and is getting close to being done. In the future I recommend putting a sheet of tin foil underneath after about an hour to keep the cheese from falling through the grill grate. There is just no way to keep the cheese from oozing out of this thing.

It was done about 3.5 hours in, but the wife was getting a little chatty with her mom inside and forgot to put the macaroni in. I pushed it off to the side to keep warm for another 30 minutes.

I let it rest for about 10 minutes. If I hadn’t spiral sliced it I would’ve let it rest longer. Here it is resting along with the fatty I did as well.

Sliced and plated