Recently, the good people at Charbroil sent the Grillin Fools a couple grills to review.  The first to get a review was the Big Easy Smoker, Roaster and Grill (BESRG) that I used with this recipe and is getting more and more use as I find more and more ways to use it.  I wrote a full review of the BESRG that you can find here.

One of my criticisms was that the grill runs too hot with the low temp being 375.  That I wish it ran lower so I can set it and forget it for smoking say a pork butt or a brisket.  But then I started to think about it.  I don’t do much low and slow anymore.  I use what is now commonly called the high heat method rather than low and slow.  High heat method is somewhat of a misnomer since the high heat method is generally between 275-325 for ribs, brisket, and pulled pork.  That’s more medium.  But if I’m getting great results at 325, what’s another 50 degrees?  So I decided to see if I could pull off pulled pork at 375.  From the pics above I’m guessing you already know the results.  See below to see the pictures and instructions on how to do this every step of the way…

This was sort of a last minute idea so I went to my local grocer to get a pork shoulder/pork butt/Boston butt. All of these are the exact same thing.  The reason a cut of meat taken from the shoulder of a pig is called a pork butt or Boston butt is that back in the day of wooden ships this cut of meat was salted and packed into large barrels, known as butts, for the sailors on long voyages. The shipping barrel, or butt, was often to Boston since it was a major port, and eventually the container name, and sometimes the destination city, were adopted as the name of the cut of meat.  Pork shoulder, pork butt, and Boston butt are all the same thing.

The only variety the grocer had was the picnic butt which has a long bone going right through the middle.  I purchased an 8+ pounder and cut off a 3+ pound section, away from the thick bone, to do for the first time:

Not having any idea if this would work I didn’t want to use the whole thing and waste it if it sucked.  In the picture above you can see the smaller one on the right, that I cooked, and the larger half flipped over to see the fat cap.

I put the bigger piece in the freezer and slathered the smaller with a rub:

Since wet sauces and sugars tend to not do so well with infrared cooking, due to the high temps, my normally sweet rub was replaced by this:

1 TBSP granulated garlic
1 TBSP sweet paprika
1 TSP chili powder
1/4 TSP ground mustard
1 TSP fresh ground black pepper
1 TSP onion powder (I was out of granulated onion)
1/2 TSP celery seed
1/2 TSP cinnamon
1/4 TSP cumin
1 TSP Penzey’s smoke salt (course salt can be substituted as well)
1/2 TSP crushed red pepper (optional)

Use whatever rub you like but make sure it has no sugars in it.  I was worried I was pressing my luck with the cinnamon but it worked well.

I slathered it on all sides and put it in a ziplock for a few hours.  I had some rub left over so I put that on the pork after I placed it into the basket to go into the BESRG:

Then it was time to prep the grill.  Another criticism I had of the BESRG is that the smoker box isn’t all that well designed.  It’s small and not easy to change out the wood chips after they have smoked, so I went with a very easy fix.  Tin foil tray:

Filled with dry hickory chips:

Place the foil tray on the bottom of the grill:

I set the temp on high and cranked the BESRG on.  When I got some smoke out of the chips I dropped the temp to low (375) and got the meat ready to go in.

I inserted a thermometer probe into the thickest part of the meat:

And dropped the basket into the chamber.  After 90 minutes this is what it looked like.  I wasn’t getting any heavy smoke at this point but some was wafting up.  Everything was smelling and looking great:

The internal temperature was up to 139.  So far so good:

Please note, that I wasn’t going for a total temp of 160.  It was the default setting and I figured when I got to that point I could reset it.  The target here is 190-195.

At this point I gave the meat a mopping with apple cider:

I mopped every 30 minutes from this point on.  It was taking much longer than I thought and after 2 hours I kicked the temp up to medium on the dial.  At the three hour mark I kicked it up to high.  You’re not reading that wrong.  I kicked the temp up to high for the last hour.  I hit it with 500 degrees for the last hour and because it’s infrared the end result was awesome.  If I had done that with convection (hot, drying air) I would’ve really dried it out at that temp. But I got away with it with infrared which heats the meat directly rather than heat the air to heat the meat.  And I had to kick it up or I was never going to eat.  It stalled at 160 just like most pork butts do in conventional grill.  See, the clock on that thermometer is an hour slow because I never adjusted it for day light savings time.  I didn’t wind up eating until 10:30 that night.

At at 3.5 hours (approximately 9:30) it looked like this:

It had a nice bark on the outside and smelled amazing. It still has a little ways to go though as the internal temperature is still only 181:

Finally, at just over four hours, the remote I had clipped to my pocket beeped at me.  It finally got to 190:

Here’s the meat at the four hour and 15 minute mark.

Now time for the foil and some resting:

Now wrap it in a towel:

And put it in something that is used to control temp like an empty cooler, an unlit oven or a microwave like I did here:

Why all the hassle of letting it rest?  Resting is very important to maintaining juicy meat.  See, when the meat comes out of a hot grill the juices inside are in an excited state.  The molecules are moving a million miles an hour but contained inside the meat.  Slice into it right away and all those juices are going to have an exit and will quickly run out of the meat all over the plate or cutting board.  Letting the meat rest inside foil and a towel will allow those juices to calm down without the meat getting cold.

After 30 minutes it was the moment of truth.  I easily forked away half of the cut as it fell apart easily thanks to my two forks:

It was completely forked in less than two minutes because it was so tender and juicy:

Normally when dealing with boneless pork butt I use the ziplock bag method of breaking the meat up.  Place the meat in a two gallon ziplock, place it on the counter and then smack the crap out of it a couple times with the back of a frying pan.  But since it was 10:45 when I was finally going to pull the meat I decided against the risk of waking up my 2 year old and 8 week old. But if you want to see how that’s done, check out this video:

The million dollar question – how was it?  It was really good.  The bark was great.  The meat was tender and juicy and pulled easily.  It didn’t have a ton of smoke flavor, but that’s not always a bad thing.  My wife and a coworker are people that don’t like a lot of smoke.  I didn’t think those people existed but there seems to be a lot of them out there.  The flavor was excellent and the maintenance of the cookout was pretty simple.  I put the meat in and mopped twice an hour for the last couple of hours.  That’s it.  I will be doing the other side of the pork shoulder soon enough because this was a home run.

So now I have to wonder if I need to go back and edit my review of the BESRG since it makes some really good pulled pork despite the fact that it can’t get down to 200.  This thing grows on me more and more every time I use it.

If you have any questions about pulled pork done infrared, feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email

For other pork recipes including reverse seared pork steaks click here.

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Here we talk about the things that have changed in terms of grilling over the years.  I also talk about the thumb test used to determine when a steak is done.  This was my first ever radio interview and I was pretty nervous.  While I didn’t sound nervous I did make a huge screw up.  See if you can spot it in the interview.

Here’s the link to the Thumb Test post.  And here’s a link to that rare steak you saw a picture of at the end of the Thumb Test discussion.

You can follow us on our Grillin Fools Facebook page where you can post your own grillin pictures.

This interview aired on a radio show in the Houston area called Your Livable Garden on 7/3/2010.  Michael Shawn Kelly and Blinda Ann Kelly, owners of Mirror Lake Designs and winners of five international landscaping awards, host the nation’s longest running landscape architectural radio show which currently airs on KSEV AM 700 on Saturday mornings from 6-8 and Sunday mornings on KPRC 950 from 8-10, both out of Houston.  They discuss all aspects of outdoor design and living including our favorite subject – outdoor cooking.

The grilling discussion doesn’t start until about the 2:13 mark.  Until then you can enjoy some good country music, or you can fast forward to the start of the audio clip with the corresponding pictures.

Link to the Clip with Picture by Picture Instructions of the Processes as I explain them

Keep in mind that when we did the two posts below the notion of “high heat” smoking was something of a fad.  Now it’s much more mainstream albeit a bit misnamed.  High heat means around 275-325.  That’s really more of a medium heat to medium low.

Here is the link to the step by step, pic by pic writeup of the pulled pork discussed in that clip, including video of smacking the meat in the ziplock bag.

Here’s the link to the brisket done in that clip and here’s a clip to another brisket recipe.

You can follow the Grillin Fools on our Facebook page and post your own grillin pictures and share what you are doing on the grill.

In May the good folks at Charbroil sent the Grillin Fools two grills from their new product line to review.  The new CB940X and the Big Easy Smoker, Roaster and Grill which I will call the BESRG from here on out.  Dad will be doing the review on the CB940X soon.  Below you will find my review of the BESRG after running it through quite a few cookouts in order to give it a thorough testing…

For the sake of full disclosure we did not have to pay for these grills other than the taxes we will have to pay for them at the end of the year.  That being said we were also told we could say anything we want to about them as long as we are honest.  As you will see below, I will do exactly that.

Truth be told, when I used this grill the first two times I was not at all happy with it.  I had planned on not writing a review as I just didn’t have anything positive to say.  What’s the old adage?  If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it.  So I sent an email to my contact at Charbroil explaining my reservations in very specific detail wondering if I had ruined the relationship with them.  He listened to my concerns and offered a few suggestions.  Of course I didn’t quit playing with the new toy after two cookouts so I took his tips and gave it a couple more tries.  Since the first two cookouts I have been nothing but impressed and have come to find out that my first two horrible grill sessions were from user error and not the grill.  I’ve never owned a gas grill or an infrared grill (this being both) and there is some adjustments that needed to be made on my part.

Once I got a handle on what it can and can’t do as well as make it through the learning curve of what it means to use an infrared grill I have been able to make some seriously great food on it.

A little about infrared grilling.  Originally infrared grilling was achieved by having propane or natural gas heat up a stainless steel or ceramic surface with millions of microscopic holes to create infrared heat.  What happens with this grill is that the flame is isolated from the food by stainless steel  to stop air flow (convection) and thus produces only radiant heat which cooks the meat directly rather than heating the air to cook the meat.  The resulting heat can reach incredible levels.  Infrared temperatures can get as high as 900 degrees although this grill has a max of only 575.  Only?  Seems crazy to say just under 600 degrees is low, but in terms of infrared it is a bit more than us Grillin Fools will ever need.

So why is this so important?

1) Conventional cooking on grills, both gas and charcoal, use convection, or hot air, to do the cooking which wicks the moisture away from the meat that will eventually dry the meat out.  Infrared cooks the meat directly without the drying hot air.

2) No need to preheat, unless you are smoking in which case you need to preheat to get the wood to start to smolder, thus you save time.

3) The temperatures range of the BESRG, and the way infrared heats the meat and not the air, allows for a similar effects to deep frying.  In other words, you can deep fry a turkey or chicken without oil and thus not risk burning down the deck of having an oil explosion.  And with no preheating you save the time it takes getting the oil up to temp.

That is how this grill came about.  It was originally an oil-less turkey fryer that Charbroil decided to make more versatile.

4) With any gas grill, temperature control is much easier than with charcoal.  You set it and forget it.

Now, on to the review.  Before I get into the things I have cooked on it which include two steaks (at two different times which is significant and I will explain later), two chickens, maple plank salmon, two different pizzas, crostinis, ribs twice, and a 9 pound turkey, let me get to the assembly.

You could say this thing has the same birthday as my second son.  My son was born on the morning of May 28th, 2010.  That night, while momma and baby were resting comfortably in the hospital, my 2 year old and I put the grill together.  I was able to put the BESRG together in a little over an hour.  I probably could’ve done it in 45 minutes had my first son not been so “helpful.”  I wish I could find the memory chip that had the pictures of the assembly process.  My son sitting in the lid is priceless.  If I find the chip I will update the pictures.

I was a little leery putting together a gas grill as I’d never done that before but the instructions were very easy to follow and I had no issues whatsoever with the assembly process.  Same can be said for the CB940X but that’s for another review.

After I assembled it I followed the instructions and coated the entire inside of the unit with spray oil as well as the basket and the stainless steel grill grate and cranked it up to high to season it.  I recommend this with any new grill you buy, whether charcoal or gas.  You want to burn off all the oils and lubricants used in the manufacturing process as well as seal the surfaces on the inside of the grill to prevent the inside from rusting.

I actually coated it twice with oil before I put on a big fat bone in rib eye.  I thought my favorite steak cut was perfect for the inaugural cook.  I cranked it up to high and got 575 degrees on my little oven thermometer.  I couldn’t wait.  I figured I would get a nice sear in less than 30 seconds.  The sear that you see on a perfectly done steak is very important to create a flavor crust.  Some say that it’s to seal the juices in, but Alton Brown proved that to be a myth.  Still, the sear is very important for flavor.

Here’s where I ran into my first problem.  Normally when I do a steak over charcoal I get those sear marks after 60-90 seconds.  Then I rotate 45 degrees and get my cross hatch grill marks and flip and repeat.  Max time on each side is 2-3 minutes and my steak is really rare and only needs a couple minutes baking to be perfect for my taste.  At 575 degrees It took three minutes to get the first set of grill marks.  Then another thee to get the other and that’s just on one side.  So that was six minutes on one side and 12 minutes total just getting the sear.  Good by rare and hello medium before I’m even done searing the steak.  This is another pic on the missing chip.  The steak was tender, juicy, and delicious, but I prefer my steaks rare or medium rare at the most.

If you like a rare or medium rare steak you’re thinking that there is no way you would buy one of these.  That would be faulty logic because I made a mistake.  See, while I “seasoned” the grill and the grill grate I really only cooked off the bad chemicals and made the silver grill grate a little less silver.  The clean grill grate didn’t transfer the heat to the meat well.

The problem was that I didn’t do enough seasoning, not the grill.  After I cooked a few more things on the grill and really seasoned the grill grate was black rather than a little off-silver as it was when I did the first steak.  Here is the well seasoned grill grate ready for my second steak:

In the second go round I got grill marks in less than 60 seconds on this sirloin:

I didn’t want to risk overcooking another expensive cut so I went with the much cheaper, yet still delicious, sirloin.  Rather than 6 minutes per side I had my 2 minutes per side, dropped the temp to low, baked for another couple of minutes and I was giddy with the results.  Tender, juicy, delicious and red all the way through, just like I like it.

On to cookout #2.  I decided to smoke a couple of chickens.  I took two good size birds and marinaded each of them – one in the Walkerwood Jerk Marinade and one in Peach and Pepper sauce, both of which can be purchased at Saucehut.com, and I highly recommend both.  After 12 hours in the marinade I put them in the big basket:

I filled the smoker box with wood chips and cranked the heat up to high to get the smoke going based on the documentation and then dropped the heat setting down to low once the smoke started rolling.  Then I put the basket with the birds in the chamber:

Much to my dismay the low temp was only 375:

Hard to take your time and smoke some chickens at that temp.  It’s even harder when the tiny smoker box that I filled with chips, that was supposed to give off 45 minutes of smoke, according to the documentation, stopped making smoke after 15 minutes.  In order to add more chips you have to empty the ash from the box which requires taking the basket with the two birds out, empty, refill (all while not burning yourself on the 400 degree metal), crank the heat back up to 575 to get them to smoke and then drop down to low and put the birds back in.

Rather than risk burning myself or dropping the birds I opted for no smoke.  And it was good that I didn’t risk injury as two hours of smoke wouldn’t have saved these birds.  The skin split on them in less than 30 minutes:

In less than an hour I had some really rubbery chicken.

Again, not a ringing endorsement of this grill, right?  Didn’t I say that I really liked this grill?  I did.  And again I made a mistake, not the grill.  Evidently two things to avoid when cooking in the chamber are liquids on the outside of the meat and sugary rubs.  The liquid marinades that coated the outside of the chickens somehow messes up the cooking process resulting in rubbery, chewy chicken.  I don’t know the science behind it but this is a no-no.  And sugars blacken quickly because of the high temps.  Although the latter isn’t always bad.

On the 4th of July I brined a 9 pound turkey in a combination of apple juice, sprite, water, salt and sugar.  A lot of sugar.  And while I rinsed the bird off thoroughly, patted it dry and only applied a rub of granulated garlic, it blackened pretty good.  I put it in the chamber legs down and breast up:

I turned it on to high and closed the lid for the first 30 minutes as I read doing so really makes the skin brown and crispy.

Well, after 30 minutes I opened the lid and was wondering if White Castle was open on the 4th and how many I needed to feed eight because it was blackening quickly.  I put foil over the top of the turkey to try to slow down the blackening which didn’t help as it’s not going to shield the infrared energy the way it would hot air from a charcoal grill.

After 30 minutes of the foil I pulled the foil off and drizzled olive oil in it every 10 minutes for the next 30 minutes.  The rule of thumb is 10 minutes per pound.  I pulled it exactly at 90 minutes when the temp in the thickest part of the thigh reached 167.  I took it in to carve and had very low expectations.

After letting it rest for 15 minutes, and suffering from the disappointed looks from my friends and family, I carved it.  While carving I sampled a little chef’s prerogative.  It wasn’t dry.  It wasn’t rubbery.  It wasn’t horrible.  In fact it was one of the best turkeys I have ever eaten.  The skin was blackened but by no means burnt.  It wasn’t visually appealing but it was incredibly moist and flavorful.  Even the blackest of the black skin was delicious.  I almost don’t want to post this picture because I’m going to have too many people thinking I’m fibbing on this one.  Some of you won’t believe me that this turkey was delicious but I can produce seven other people that will testify that it was.  But here’s the pic anyway:

I know.  Looks horrendous but it was great.  And here it is resting:

And carved:

I tell you, I got nothing but raves about a bird that looked like that.  I can’t wait to do another one without the sugars in the brine.  I’ll update this post when I do.

The lesson, if you brine, avoid any sugars.  Go with water, salt, and flavorizers that are not sugary like garlic and onions.

So why do I tell you all of this?  Why show the bad pictures and discuss the mistakes?  I do this so you don’t repeat those mistakes.  So you don’t overcook a big steak or make rubbery chicken.  So your learning curve on an infrared grill is faster than mine.  That’s what we have been doing on this site for more than two years.  Our entire goal is to take the 80+ combined years of grilling experience the three Grillin Fools have and help those who come to this site avoid the  thousands upon thousands of mistakes we have made over the years.

So let’s get to some fun stuff I did on the grill and much better pictures.  Let’s talk about all the successes I had since my first two failures.

Maple plank salmon.  I took a salmon steak, slathered it with dijon mustard, sprinkled with brown sugar and placed it on a maple plank I soaked in water for about 60 minutes.  This is a very simple recipe and my go to salmon dish.  I set the temp to low and placed the plank with the salmon on the grill.  The other filet of fish on there is some bassa for my wife who likes lighter, white fishes:

The temp was perfect to smolder the wood without scorching or charring it which invariably happens when I plank cook over charcoal.  It was almost as if the BESRG was designed plank grilling in mind.  The salmon was perfectly cooked and really picked up the sweetness of the maple which perfectly compliments the brown sugar in the recipe:

The grill does amazing things with bread.  I did crostinis along with the maple plank salmon and they came out wonderfully, although you have to be careful in that crostinis are usually done with two zone cooking – toast the bread on each side on the side with the heat and then pull to the side with no heat, cover with cheese, and close the lid to melt the cheese.  There is no cool zone here.  So very lightly toast on the bottom:

Flip to toast the top, flip back over, cover with cheese (in this case Havarti):

Close the lid to melt the and finish toasting the bottom:

I have grilled two pizzas on the BESRG, both using a store bought Boboli crust.  Some will scoff at that, but I’ve got a toddler and a new born, I need to save time.  First I set the grill to high grilled the red onions and yellow peppers to get a little char:

I assembled my pizza with slices of fresh mozzarella and grated asiago:

I set it to low, place the prepped pizza on the grill grate and it cooked like it was on a baking or pizza stone without the stone in about 12 minutes:

Really incredible.  The crust had a crunchiness that I can only get with a pizza stone, but there was no stone.  And the second time I did it I got cross hatch grill marks on the bottom of the crust:

Only my fellow grillin nerds will appreciate that!!

For this second one, I added some smoke wood to the bottom in foil and  gave it some great hickory smoke flavor.

And probably the coolest thing I did on the BESRG was Rendezvous Ribs which need to be cooked between 300-350 for 30 minutes on each side with frequent mop bastings.  I know cooking ribs in an hour sounds nuts to a lot of you, but I highly recommend you try it.  They were incredible:

As you know I’m not going to blow smoke up your butt (pun intended) and say this thing is the worlds greatest grill.  I’ve done some things well on it, but it also has some issues I don’t like:

1) No thermometer.  I have to use a portable oven thermometer.  While one of the benefits of a gas grill is it’s easy to regulate temps, it would be nice to know what those temps are.

2) The smoker box is poorly designed.  15 minutes of smoke is not enough.  But I have a solution that is very easy and cheap.  Aluminum foil pans full of wood chips on the bottom produce well over an hour of smoke:

Hell, the pans are easier than dealing with the box.  When I’m done with them I pitch the pans for easy clean up rather than shake out the ash of a little box into the trashcan:

3) I don’t like the low temp is not all that low at 375.  I would love it if this thing could go down to 225.  Sure, I do most of my formerly low and slow recipes at 275-325 these days and make great stuff in less time but it doesn’t mean I don’t want the option to do low and slow, particularly with a grill that I can set and forget because it’s gas.

I think I might have to rethink the above criticism.  I did some pretty incredible pulled pork at 375 after writing this review.  Here’s the write up of the full process on how I made pulled pork in this bad boy.

4) Size of the grill. I wish it were bigger.  It only has a 15 inch grill surface, which I was wish was larger, but where it makes up for that is that it also has a 16 inch deep chamber.  The size of this thing will be perfect for a lot of folks.  It will fit on the smallest apartment balcony.  I would prefer it be larger, but I know the size will actually appeal to a lot of people, particularly with the deep chamber that can accommodate up to three chickens or a 24 pound turkey.    Think about that!  Most turkeys done on Thanksgiving are less than 24 pounds.  At 10 minutes a pound, you can have a deep fried turkey without the oil in four hours.  Free up the oven for the yams and rolls and do the turkey outside.  Do it one time and you will never go back.  It’s also pretty portable.  I fit the grill in the back of my Ford Escape with no problem.  I had to lean it to the side, but it fit fine and is fairly light, which would make it a really nice traveling grill too.

So all in all, if you avoid the mistakes I made, this is a really nice grill.  It makes a mean steak, awesome deep fried turkey without the oil, and is perfect for plank grilling.  If you can avoid putting sugars or liquids on birds before putting them inside the chamber, like I did, you will be fine.  Oh, and make sure that grill grate is good and seasoned before you hit it with a nice steak.

My concerns for this are pretty minor.  Considering the low cost (reduced to $129 at Lowe’s), and its versatility, I’m finding myself using this thing more and more.  I plan on trying a small pork butt on it soon and see if I can pull off pulled pork at 375 degrees.  I know, I know.  Some of you are saying I’m nuts but I think it can be done.  I will update this post when I do it this weekend or next.  Since I started writing this review, I did Rendezvous ribs on it again for Dad over the weekend as well as tried to do the Rendezvous method on my charcoal grill.  The ribs from the BESRG were amazing.  The ones from the charcoal grill weren’t so good.  It’s VERY difficult to maintain a constant temp of 300-350 on a charcoal grill.  I had temps from 200-400 throughout the process and tons of flareups causing the ribs to be tough.

As always, if you have any questions, simply leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

If you want to see other product reviews click here.

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No Mexican food this time, but I got a packaged corned beef brisket (in a brine) at the market. I didn’t know what to do with this piece of meat, so I went online to see what I can do. Lo and behold, I was searching GrillinFools.com and came across a few corned beef brisket recipes. I found that Tom, Scott and Greg have cooked up a corned beef for a St. Patty’s Day trifecta earlier this year. As I went through all the recipes, Scott had the most traditional recipe. For me, the traditional recipe is something I always want to try for any first attempt. In the recipe, Scott mentioned that corned beef brisket is not typically smoked and that smoking it is actually pastrami. I got very excited because pastrami is one of my favorite lunch meats. Scott went on to do a modified corned beef. However, I intend to go all the way with the pastrami.

Inside the package, the brisket had a brine solution and a seasoning pack. This was great because most of the work was already done for me. I tossed away the seasoning, who knows what that stuff tastes like.

Notice this isn’t the whole brisket, this is just the point half of it. The other part of the brisket is the flat.  Any of these cuts or the whole brisket can be used in this recipe. As you can see, it has quite a bit of fat on one side, and generally, the other side is well trimmed:

The first task was to use Scott’s method of soaking the brisket.  To leach the salt out submerse it in water.  Change the water one time for every pound of meat plus one change of the water.

Again, you can see how grey the beef looks when it is done soaking:

The second task is to make the pastrami rub. This rub is almost basic.  I say almost because all you really need is black pepper and ground coriander. I found this rub recipe on a website and I simplified it further:

4 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
2 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tsp paprika
1 Tsp onion powder
½ Tsp thyme

Mix all the ingredients together and rub it on the brisket:

While the corned beef sits at room temperature, I fire up the grill manufacturer that shall not be named. I fill my smoker accessory with water, charcoal and two types of wood – pecan and cherry:

After about 10 minutes the temperature is in the range I like:

The corned beef brisket is put on the grill and it’s ready to absorb a lot of smoke:

I want to point out that I forgot to put a drip pan underneath the brisket. I didn’t notice this until it was almost done. It was quite messy and the most critical thing was that my bottom air vents were getting clogged. This made air control a little more difficult.

After an hour in the smoke, the soon to be pastrami is cruising along at 230 degrees despite the semi clogged vents:

You can see some spots are starting to blacken a little bit:

At the 2 hour mark, I inserted the digital temp gauge in the pastrami. I want to get the internal temperature up to 160 degrees because I’m going put it in the fridge overnight and serve it for lunch the next day:

After a total time of 5.5 hours, the internal temp hit 160 degrees. The pastrami has a wonderfully exterior dark crust and it smells so good:

I put off temptation to start eating and sealed the pan with a foil sheet:

Into the fridge the pastrami went. My brother and my folks were coming over for a BBQ the next day.  They were getting here early enough for lunch. I was hoping they would get a kick out of having some homemade pastrami. We all love pastrami because we grew up eating pastrami sandwiches at a Southern California chain restaurant called “The Hat”. We’re a long ways from SoCal now, but I’m attempting to create some nostalgia on the grill.

***Editor’s note ~ For those not serving it the next day, let the pastrami rest for a good 15-20 minutes before slicing***

Finally, the next day arrives. One hour before lunch would be served, I fire up the tamale steam pot. About 5 minutes later, I place the pastrami in the steamer. By using the steam pot I am further breaking down the connective tissue in the meat and adding moisture to the cooking process. As a result, the pastrami will be very moist and juicy:

The same result can be achieved in the microwave if you wrap the pastrami in wet paper towels. In addition, this process is great for leftovers.

About 45 minutes in the steam pot on high heat is sufficient. At this point the steam is carrying the aroma throughout my house, it’s amazing!

I started to slice the pastrami into sandwich size portions:

The Hat serves their pastrami in thin slices. Unfortunately, I don’t have a meat slicer or a knife that can get the job done. Instead, I sliced thick chucks because my sandwiches must have lots of meat. In traditional Hat fashion, the sandwich is served on bread with mustard and pickles:

When I asked my Mom if my pastrami reminded her of “The Hat” she said, “Not really”. Oh well, *sigh*, she ate all of her pastrami sandwich…that has to say something:

In my successful attempt at pastrami, I will make a few changes next time:

1) Trim the fat cap to a very thin layer of fat. It didn’t quite melt away as much as I hoped.

2) Put a drip pan under the meat!

3) Try it without the steam (just curious)

4) Stop trying to get my parents approval.

If you have any questions or comments, simply leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll pass it along to Arthur.

Click here for other beef recipes on the grill.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on our Facebook page where you can post your own grilling pictures.

Tamales, Campfire Fish Tacos, Grilled Guacamole, now carne asada? Is there a pattern here or is it just innate skills at work? No matter, in between all the burgers, pork steaks and rib eyes, I indulge myself (and my wife) with authentic Mexican cuisine on the grill. I was inspired to make my own when I just couldn’t find a place in town that makes good carne asada.

It starts with the steak, most restaurants use thin sliced flank steak. Flank is a good steak, it’s easy to find, but it is a tough piece of meat. The perfect steak for carne asada is skirt steak. This is a tough piece of meat too, but it can become very tender if grilled right. Skirt steak is really difficult to find, it’s not going to be in your typical grocery store unless you live in a Latin community. In fact, I found mine while I was buying ingredients for my tamales at the Mexican grocery store. I just asked for it and the cashier asked me “how much do you need?”  They sold it for $5/lb, while just a couple of days before, my butcher told me he could get me some for $10/lb. I took 2 lbs, but I should have asked for more. The skirt steak looked very fresh and it had a nice marbled appearance.

Because of a few nights of inclement weather, the skirt steak had to sit in the freezer for a week. When it thawed in fridge for a couple of days, it suffered some oxidation and started to turn brown around the edges. I recommend using it immediately since it’s a very thin piece of meat. Just to be sure, it still smelled fresh and the steak didn’t feel tacky, a clear indication of spoiled beef. By the way, look at that marbling!

Feel free to trim off the fat and just to clean it up a little. However, to me, you’re just taking away the flavor.

This would be my first time making carne asada and it won’t be my last because it came out very tasty. I’ll show you how I prepared mine, and then I’ll show you how great they came out on the grill.

I begin with a spicy citrus marinade.

Marinade Ingredients:

4 Oranges
2 Limes
2 Serrano peppers sliced
1 Jalapeno pepper sliced
1 Cup of sliced onions
½ Cup of cilantro
2 TBSP of minced garlic
1 Beer
2 LBs of skirt steak

First, slice the oranges and limes in half:

Here is the juice I squeezed from the fruit, hmmmmm….it doesn’t look like enough. I might have to improvise:

Add the sliced onion and cilantro to the juice:

Add the jalapeños and the serrano peppers to the marinade:

Add the garlic too:

This marinade definitely needs more liquids, but I’m all out of juice.

Beer saves the day. I bypassed the flavor challenged Bud Light for the unfiltered wheat pale ale craft brew. This turned out to be a great marinade:

***Editor’s note ~ This marinade being diluted with beer may have saved the dish.  Too much concentrated citrus will cook meat with the acid from in the juice.  I would not recommend upping the citrus in this and skipping the beer as you may pull well done meat out of the ziplock before it ever hits the grill.***

Pour the marinade and add the skirt steak into a one gallon or bigger storage bag. Take out all the air and seal it tight:

Marinate the steak for a few hours in the fridge. I let mine marinate over night. This is going to have some intense flavor!

The day of the cook, my family and I spent the day in Grafton, IL. We did a bit of trolling around in hot humid conditions. We ate lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Mississippi Half Step. The fried catfish sandwich is good and enormous there! The day ended after cruising along the sparkling river and riding the ferry back to St. Charles. The ferry ride was a bonus, we had to take the extended route because of the low river. The boys loved it, we all did:

After our day trip across the river, we headed back home and started our evening meal. To grill the carne asada, I prepared the grill manufacturer that shall not be named for direct grilling. I filled my charcoal starter up with charcoal:

Unquestionably, I always opt for the charcoal starter. I never use lighter fluid. My poor wife recently had a company picnic where they had grilled hamburgers. She said her veggie burger was ruined because the cooker used large amounts of lighter fluid. Yes, you really can taste the difference.

Moreover, I used red oak chunks for more flavor. Mesquite wood is also a great substitute:

Around this time I noticed a few drops of rain falling down. Rain doesn’t really bother me, I’m committed to the task at hand. Unless there was lightning or severe thunderstorms, I can work through it. While the coals got hot, I prepared the meat. I pulled out a few items.

Fajita seasoning
Salsa
Corn tortillas
Avocados

The skirt steak is now ready to be rubbed down. It didn’t need it, but I wanted to try out the new fajita seasoning I just bought. If you don’t have a rub, just use salt and pepper to season. When I took out the steak from the marinade, it had a citrus and cilantro aroma scent. It smelled delicious. Next, I laid them flat on the table and applied the rub on the steak to both sides:

When I was done with that, I check on the coals which were glowing orange and the rain was coming down a little harder. So I banked the charcoal to one side and now it’s ready to go:

Hoping for a quick grill, I threw the steaks on. And just when I thought I could finish before it rained harder, I was caught outside in a thunder storm:

I didn’t mind, it was a relief from being out in near 100 degree weather earlier. The coals were so hot, the rain evaporated on the lid of the grill manufacturer that shall not be named. During this time, I was unable to take decent pictures, but here is one after about 5 minutes on one side just before I flipped it:

After a few minutes on the other side, I put them on the opposite end with no coals.  I placed them on piece of foil that was cooking onions. Skirt steak is best cooked well done, it has become a very tender piece of meat:

Just as when the rain was starting to let up, the carne asada was done. Let it rest for a minute:

Carne asada is a versatile dish. It can be served as is, but I felt like making them into tacos this evening. First I cut the steak into thin strips. Conventional wisdom is to slice it against the grain, but I sliced it with the grain. I took one bite and the steak was so tender it tore off easily. Against or with the grain is up to you:

Second, put some carne asada on a couple of heated stacked corn tortillas. Two tortillas give the taco more strength so it doesn’t fall apart during the final step. Third, add some grilled onion, sliced avocado and top it with salsa:

Final step, it’s time to enjoy the best taco I ever had:

I’m definitely doing these again. Next time, I’ll marinade the skirt steak using dried chile’s or make some carne asada fries or make more tacos! So many possibilities…

***Editor’s note ~ Awesome job as usual Arthur.  Keep up the great work.***

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email and I will forward it on to Arthur.

For other beef concoctions on the grill, click here.

Also, check out the GrillinFools Facebook page where you can post your own grillin pictures.

This is the craziest rib method I have ever tried.  I had some really low expectations but I tried it anyway. I was floored at how well they turned out.  For those of you not familiar with the method, let me explain so that you will understand why I was skeptical.  See, the Rendezvous method requires the ribs to be cooked over direct heat at 300-350 for one hour with repeated bastings.  1 hour?  Seems nuts.  Most people think I’m nuts when I say I can make great ribs in two hours, but one hour is nuts by my own standards.  I tried it anyway and the results were spectacular…

There are many different variations of this method developed by Charlie Vergos at Rendevous Ribs in Memphis but this is the one I used.  First make up the Rendezvous Rub.  There are many different recipes for this.  This is the one I used:

1/4 Cup salt
1/4 Cup pepper
1 Tbsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp celery salt
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp chili powder

This makes much more than you need but it can be saved.  And while it seems like there is a ton of salt in this recipe, it’s not as bad as it seems once you see the method.  The original recipe called for twice as much salt and celery seed.   I cut the salt in half and since I didn’t have any celery seed I substituted celery salt which I had in my my pantry.

Combine 1/4 cup of the rub with two cups of white vinegar and two cups water and set aside.  Do not put the rub on the meat.  The rub only goes into the mop sauce and then on the meat at the end.

I actually bought a can of the real rub sold by the Rendezvous company. When I get a chance to try it I will update this post.

Now let’s get to the ribs.  I brined ribs for the first time but you don’t have to do this.  For my first stab at this method I did half a slab that I brined and half that I did not.  The ones that I did not brine were really good.  The ones I brined were better.

The ingredients for the brine:

32 ounces of pomegranate juice
1/3 cup salt
1/2 loose packed brown sugar

I mixed up the juice, salt and sugar on the stove over medium heat for maybe two minutes stirring constantly until the sugar and salt was dissolved:

I turned off the burner and tossed in 4-5 ice cubes.  I stirred some more until the ice was gone and the brine was back to room temperature.  You don’t want to cook the ribs in the brine:

I skinned the ribs by pealing back the membrane on the bone side of the ribs.  Here is a quick video of how to skin ribs.  If you can’t get them barehanded like Tom does in the vid, paper towels are your friend.  They really help to grip the skin:

I placed the ribs in a ziplock bag with the brine 4 hours before they were to go on the grill:

You will notice that a full slab of ribs are in the ziplock, but I only did a half slab with this method and the other half went onto the smoker for my usual method.  I removed the ribs from the brine, rinsed them under cold water and patted then dry with paper towels.

I wanted to test the brined ribs with a couple different cooking styles and test the differences so I did one slab with no brine or marinade as a control for the experiment.  The other four half slabs got a rub and went onto the smoker.  The two on the right only got a little fresh cracked black pepper on each side:

Now this is where it gets interesting.  The Rendezvous Method requires the meat to be cooked over direct heat at 300-350 and the meat kept at 18-24 inches over the top of the heat.  I don’t have a bullet or vertical smoker so how can pull this off?  Enter in the new Charbroil Big Easy Smoker, Roster, and Grill:

Charbroil sent us this grill and the new CB940X to review. For full disclosure they didn’t pay us to review them but did not charge us for the grills either.  This is the first gas grill I’ve ever owned.

I’ve done a few things on it to give it a thorough review.  This is one of them.  It does some things well and some things not so well. I will give the full review after I do a couple more things on it.  In the mean time I will discuss using it for this recipe which it did very well.

***Update ~ Here is the review in all its glory***

Why did it work so well?  Because it’s got a deep cooking chamber which gives me the effect of a vertical or bullet smoker:

The grill has a fairly deep chamber running about 16 inches and worked perfectly for this:

But first I need to add some smoke flavor or I might as well cook these on my stove.  The Big Easy comes with a little smoker box that can be filled with chips or pellets but it doesn’t last long.  Maybe 15 minutes and then it’s a pain to change out the chips.  But that’s not all that hard to overcome. A little tin foil and I have all the smoke I want.  I made tin foil trays and filled them with apple wood chips and placed them on the bottom of the grill chamber:

The foil will keep me from having to clean up ash from the bottom of the chamber.  Here we have the foil trays the next day:

And viola, no ash at the bottom of the chamber after removing the trays:

I spark the grill up and put it on high to get the chips to smoke:

Once the chips  start to smoke I drop down to low:

According to my cheap oven thermometer the temp is 450 on the grill grate:

But once I open the lid the temp will drop faster than the cheap thermometer can keep up with.  Not to mention the aluminum grill grate will dissipate the heat well, so I put the ribs on bone side down and slathered with the mop sauce:

I left the lid up and slathered the ribs three times over the first 15 minutes.  Here are the ribs at 15 minutes:

Here they are on the bone side.  Our goal is to get this side golden brown and flip at 30 minutes.  At 15 minutes the bone side is goldening nicely, but not ready to flip:

And you can see that the temp is more in line with what we’re looking for at this point and stayed constant for the rest of the session:

I basted a total of maybe five times and then flipped at 30 minutes.  Here is what they looked like at 30 minutes on top:

Notice the pull back of the meat from the bones:

Here they are flipped:

One half  slab has some significant blackening.  That is the one that I brined.  That half slab is full of extra sugars that blackened more than the plain half slab.  Don’t be scared by the blackening.  The ribs were not burnt.

On a very positive note about the grill, as you can see, the smoke is rolling out very well from the foil trays.

After 45 minutes I checked the meat side of the non brined slab:

Here is the brined slab.  A little blacker, but not a problem, trust me:

I basted a 3-4 times after I flipped them.  The recipe called for the ribs to be on for 30 minutes on each side but the ribs told me they were done at 25 minutes based.  This picture tells it all.  You can see the unbrined slab looking golden and perfect and the brined slab you can see the meat pealing back from the bone which is what you are looking for with any ribs you do no matter what method you use:

Here are two of the ribs from the Rendezvous Method on a plate along on the left along side three other ribs that I did on the smoker as I played around with brining ribs.  You will notice that the smoked ribs have a smoke ring and the Rendezvous ribs do not:

The recipe called for the rub to be sprinkled over the ribs before serving but I wanted to get a taste for the ribs without it and frankly I was a little scared that the salt would overpower them.  After a couple bites of each I added a sprinkle of the rub:

The sprinkled rub really finished the ribs off perfectly.  The salt was not overpowering and they really were delicious.  They were meaty, tender and juicy with the brined ribs being extremely juicy.  They were not fall off the bone but they were excellent and since I feel that fall off the bone is overdone these came out beautifully.

I wasn’t the only one that tried these.  I used my FiL and MiL as taste testers yet again (God love them for putting up with so many of my grilling experiments) and they raved over the Rendezvous ribs.

Minimal prep, short cooking times, and incredible flavor.  This was a home run.  So much so that while I prep this write up for you, I have some spares in a cider brine that will be going on the Big Easy in about 20 minutes.  But as my satellite just went out, I’m guessing I’m going to get drenched in the process.  Ah well.  Wouldn’t be the first time I drug a grill down to the garage although it will be the first time I drug a gas grill though!?!?  Then again, wouldn’t be the first time I got soaked grilling either…

What I would do differently:

• Next time I plan on doing the brine with apple cider over pomegranate to see how that turns out as it’s my favorite marinade.  Also I plan on adding garlic to the brine.
• I plan on tweaking the Rendezvous rub.  Maybe use celery seed in the mop and possibly a little red pepper flake to add a little heat.
• I might change up the mop sauce and replace the water with beer.

***Update ~ Since doing these a couple times with the rub above I tried it with the real Rendezvous Rub:

The rub doesn’t have near the salt content as what mine does above and is really good although it has a great deal of cumin in it.  My only complaint is that I would prefer a little less cumin, but I know there are folks out there that love it.  My MiL is one of them.  I really enjoyed it but I couldn’t do this rub every time, but that’s just me.

I also tried to recreate this method on a standard charcoal grill and failed miserably.  I couldn’t keep the temps constant.  They fluctuated between 200-400 and I had frequent flareups.  The resulting ribs were much tougher than those on the Big Easy:

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

For other rib recipes click here.

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<executive assistant’s first name>,

A friend of mine has a  friend who works for your company.  He gave me your email address as someone I should contact about an event myself and the other two Grillin Fools, owners of GrillinFools.com, are having on October 9th in St. Louis.  The event is a true backyard BBQ contest in that no custom rigs are allowed.  Only mass market grills under $500.  If the pros want to attend they have to use the grills of us joes.  We’re trying to remove the intimidation factor that keeps so many from participating in competition BBQ and get back to what BBQ is all about – people hanging out by the pit, sharing tips, enjoying the weather and each others company.

The Grillin Fools are are very socially conscious and are giving half the proceeds to a charity that has yet to be determined.  Susan G Kolman, Wounded Warriors, MS society, and St. Baldrick’s are at the top of our list as well as a local charity called the St. Patrick’s Center that teaches homeless people job skills to help get them find employment and get off the street.  We are about to launch an apparel line and will be donating 10% of everything we make charity as well.  We can’t justify all that we have been blessed with without giving some back to help others.  I live by that in my personal life and will continue to do so in this hobby of mine that is morphing into something bigger in front of my eyes as the website continues to grow.

So why am I telling you about all of this?  We were hoping that Weber would be willing to donate something for the grand prize for our Backyard BBQ Bash.  We plan on having three categories, appetizer, the St. Louis classic the pork steak, and ribs as well as a Grand Pit Master for best combined score for all three. This is our first competition and right now we can only afford trophies for the categories and the Grand Pit Master.  We thought a grill from Weber would be a great prize for the competition.

If this is not something you can do, I completely understand.  You must get thousands of requests like this.  I thought I would give it a shot and also tell you that we’re big fans.  We have featured one of my two Weber Kettles on the site many times in one shape or another in the process of grilling the basics like ribs, chicken, and steaks on them as well as the things like lettuce, bison, meatloaf, lobster, and potatoes.  My blue One Touch Gold is my go to grill.  The only time I pull out my Char Griller Smoker Pro is when I need the extra space.  I would buy that new 26 inch Kettle that I have been salivating over but with a new son less than 2 weeks old at home, my wife would strangle me if I brought home another grill.  We are not exclusive to Weber, as my dad is a Charbroil guy and my cousin is a Big Green Egg head, but Weber has been featured more than either of them as I am the founder of the website and use it more than any of my other grills.  Click here to see a list all the things I have done on the site using your grills.

Thank you for your time and your wonderful products.

Truly…

…….Scott Thomas
The Original Grillin Fool

The response I got was this:

Dear Mr. Thomas:

Your recent email inquiry has been forwarded to my attention for response.  First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us with respect to the history surrounding GrillinFools.com.  Clearly, you and your partners have a true passion for grilling and a gift for sharing that passion with others.

However, with respect to your website we have a few concerns.  First, your use of our trademarks, namely “Weber” and “Weber Kettle” in your “key words” banner on the left side of your home page is misleading.  Clicking on these trademarks takes one to a random recipe that you are promoting, rather than anything “Weber” or “Weber Kettle.”  Not only is this an unauthorized use of our federally registered trademarks, it is very confusing to any visitor to your site who clicks on these key words to gain information on Weber.  Please remove our trademarks from your site, and confirm that you have done so.

Lastly, with respect to your request for a donation, you are correct that we receive “thousands of these.”  In addition, Weber has established business relationships with third parties, which prevent us from associating with certain organizations and products. Even when we are able to clear any conflicts, a simple grill donation has often turned into false marketing claims, which results in Weber being promoted, without our knowledge, as being a sponsor, associated with or endorsing a particular contest.  It is for all of these reasons that we also choose to make our donations and charitable partnerships quietly without any advertising.

We truly appreciate your loyalty to our brand and to our Company.  However, as stated above, we need to caution you against how our trademarks are used.  Weber is not just the name of our Company, it is a federally registered trademark for a huge variety of goods and services. As such, we regulate and protect its use at all costs.

We thank you for respecting our rights and wish you and your partners the best of luck with your internet and barbecue ventures.

Respectfully,

Nancy Misch

Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs

Weber-Stephen Products Co.

That’s right.  I got your garden variety cease and desist letter.  So after years of being a loyal fan, supporter and frequent encourager to buy products from grill manufacturer that shall not be named, I was told not to use their name on this website.  The reason I am posting and linking to this is that I felt that any Grillin Fool who checks this site should know why I had to go back and remove or change certain words.

Some will call this sour grapes on my part because I didn’t get a donation.  That’s not it at all.  I knew getting a donation was a long shot but thought the cause was worth the effort to take a few minutes to fire off an email.  I also understand they have an obligation to protect their trademark but it still doesn’t feel good to be told to remove them from the website when we were essentially promoting their products free of charge for the last two years formally and informally for years before that.  There is no better testimonial advertising for a grill than what we do here at GrillinFools.com in making great stuff on those grills.  To help convey how I feel, I will let someone else sum it up.  an iFriend explained it better than I can:

It has got to be chapping your hide and I feel for you GrillinFool. I’ve read you hyping their products and recommending them to new comers asking for suggestions over the past few years. Almost like a good friend just told you to pound salt!

If grill manufacturer that shall not be named does not want us promoting their products we will comply fully and completely and no longer promote them in any way.  There are plenty of other manufacturers out there that would love the free publicity we provide.  I’m not going to tell you not to buy their products.  That’s up to you do decide based on your grilling needs, budget, available options, etc., but I will no longer add any further content to this site using their grills and risk raising the ire of their legal department because I used their product to make something on the grill and documented the process to help others have the same success.  I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors…

…….Scott Thomas

The Original Grillin Fool

Competition BBQ is all the rage these days and people spend thousands, if not tens of thousands, to compete in them.  But where does that leave you and I who make great stuff on a grill we bought at Lowe’s/Home Depot/Amazon/etc.?  Even the Grillin Fools feel intimidated by those with the means to buy custom rigs and apply cool paint jobs to them not to mention that some of these people are professional chefs.  The only culinary school I went to was the Culinary School of Hard Knocks where I learned how to burn and under cook meat for years before I ever figured out how to do it properly.

Well, now Joe Backyard BBQer has a place to compete.  The Grillin Fools are having a BBQ Competition in which all the cooking has to be done on mass market grills purchased for less than $500.  If some of the pros want to compete in this competition they can, as I don’t personally know every professional chef in town, but I would prefer they not even enter, but if they do enter the pros have to use the same grills as us joes.

The date is Saturday, October 9th at Sylvan Springs Park across the street from Jefferson Barracks.

We have the very retro Ordnance Pavilion:

I chose this one because of this last picture showing the concrete area out front which should accommodate the 20 teams nicely, particularly if we have any inclement weather.  Better to be on concrete than dirt or a grassy slope if it rains.  Also, since I expect quite a few teams from Illinois as well as Missouri I thought this was a good spot right in the middle.

We have tentatively set three categories  for judging with a trophy for each as well as one for the Grand Pit Master which will go to the team with the most points in all three categories which are: Appetizer (please get as creative as you like), Pork Steak, and Ribs.  We are working to have more prizes along with the trophies.  I will let you know about that as soon as I hear back from a few people.  You may compete in one, two or all three of the categories.

So far our celebrity judges include George Mahe from St. Louis Magazine.  We met George last year at a BBQ contest he was judging.  George is a great guy and you can follow his antics here. We also have Joe Bonwich, Food Critic and Editor for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and his lovely wife Jennie.  You can read Joe in the paper and on his blog.

Check in is slated at 8:00 a.m. as of right now with judging for the three categories being two hours apart with Appetizers at 3:00 pm, Pork Steaks at 4:00 pm and Ribs at 5:00 pm.  Those of you that do not need that long to do ribs or pork steaks can arrive later than 8:00.  The early check in is for those that like to take the longest with their ribs.

As for the $500 cap on grills, we realize that this competition will likely require more than one grill.  The $500 cap does not apply to the cumulative cost of all your grills.  If you bring five grills that cost $499 each you are fine.  The rule is that all grilling has to be done on a sub $500 grill not how many grills it is done on.

Buy in is only $50/team with half the proceeds going to a yet to Wounded Warrior Project or the Fisher House.  Since we will be across the street from Jefferson Barracks, as well as the fact that we are currently fighting two wars and my dad and cousin are both vets we thought these to worthy causes would be great.

We are limiting this to only 20 teams for our first Backyard BBQ Bash so get your entry fees in early.  Email Greg@GrillinFools.com to find out where you should send your check along with team name and names of your team members.

Sylvan Springs Park is off Sheridan road East of Telegraph just north of 255 at:

300 Halsey St
St Louis, MO 63125

Here is a link to the location that you can type in your address to get directions.

Here is a map.  X marks the pavilion:

And here is an aerial view of the park with the Ordnance pavilion being the gray box in the upper right.  There is a second parking lot to the north of the pavilion just outside this picture to accommodate extra cars should we need it:

With only 20 slots, this event will fill fast.  Get your entry in soon if you want to compete.  And of course, you don’t have to compete to come down and check it out.

Also, you can get updates and follow the GrillinFools on Facebook.

With the success of the Reverse Seared Pork Steaks I decided to try the method with country style ribs.  These meaty hunks lend themselves nicely to this process as they are not as thin as pork steaks and can handle extensive periods of smoke without drying out.  The process is fairly simple but extremely satisfying…

I started with nine country style ribs that I marinaded overnight in Cherry Coke Zero.  It’s kind of a long story as to why I had Cherry Coke Zero and would’ve preferred just Cherry Coke for this but I was going for the cherry more than the coke.  And both are very acidic so they act as great tenderizers.  After an all night bath in the Coke I patted them dry with paper towels and placed them on a large cutting board:

I then applied some smoked salt and granulated garlic from Penzey’s before adding Dad’s go to rub which is essentially Raichken’s KC Sweet and Smoky Rub.  The reason for the salt is Dad told me he went light on the salt in the last batch he made for me.

Rub Ingredients:

2/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup paprika
¼ cup seasoned salt
¼ cup smoked salt or hickory-smoked salt
¼ cup onion salt
¼ cup celery salt
2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cayenne pepper

This recipe makes enough rub for about 100 country style ribs.  We always make extra to keep it on hand.

Now with country style ribs you can’t just hit the top and the bottom with rub.  You have to hit it on all four sides:

What I recommend is hitting it on top and two sides on the cutting board and then putting it top side down on the grill and hitting the bottom.  You will save a ton of rub that way.  If you do all four sides on the cutting board the bottom side will leave a bunch of rub stuck to the board and you will have to reapply.

I set up the grill for indirect grilling.  Coals on the right, and ribs on the left underneath the chimney on my offset smoker.  Why put the ribs under the chimney?  Because of the coals and smoke wood are under the chimney the smoke will go straight out rather than across your meat and impart that amazing flavor and smoke ring:

Since I used the Cherry Coke Zero for the marinade, I went with that theme and used cherry wood chunks for my smoke.  If you don’t have access to cherry wood, check this extensive list of woods and what they are best with and find something you have locally and go with what you have available.

The grill was set at 250 for what I expected to be a two hour smoke before searing:

It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the flowers next to my grill were doing great:

I went inside and was talking to some people online about what a wonderful day to grill I was experiencing when I looked out the window and saw everything had changed in less than 20 minutes:

The sky was dark, the wind was howling and I had to scramble.  But all is good.  What’s a garage for other than storing cars and crap?  Why grilling of course:

At one hour I checked the ribs and added another chunk of cherry:

As you can see in the background on the left it was raining.  After sitting on the porch with my 2 year old for a little while watching it pour he started singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  I explained what a water spout was and pointed to one of ours.  So of course he wanted to go play with the spout.  His mom wasn’t home so I said, “go for it.”  For the first time in his life he played in the rain.  Do you think he enjoyed himself?

Back to the ribs.  One hour and 45 minutes total on the grill and they were close to being ready for the sear but not quite.  I used the thumb test to check for doneness which can be used on more than steaks.  They were still a little spongy, so I left them on, but they were looking good, and as you can see the sun was back out:

After two hours they were ready for a sear:

All I did was get a quick char directly over the flames on all sides to form a flavor crust.  But for some reason I didn’t get a pic of that.  Sorry.

After the quick sear they got a slathering of sauce by dunking them into a pot of sauce one at a time:

The sauce was what I had on hand, Sweet Baby Rays, doctored with some brown sugar, honey, minced garlic, chili powder and a little dried mustard.  Use whatever sauce you prefer.  I put the ribs back on the side with no heat and closed the lid to caramelize the sauce.  After 15 minutes I gave them another bath and another 15 minutes in the grill.  Here is the final product, what do you think?

Juicy with a nice smoke ring.  Layers of flavor from the marinade, to the smoke ring, to the flavor crust, to the sauce.  Awesome.

If you have any questions about the the country style ribs above, simply leave a comment below or email me.

Click here If you are interested in other pork recipes and here if you want other rib recipes.

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