BBQ TIPS, PITS & QUICKIES

RULE #1: Quit kidding yourself! Buy a meat thermometer (See Quickies).

COOKING TIPS FOR RUBS

ALL-PURPOSE INFO
Pick a Flavor: As noted, rubs come in quite a range of flavors. Taste the rub to see if it's gonna give you what you want for the particular dish you're preparing. I make some rubs that I like on everything, and some others that are much more specialized. Don't be afraid to try new combinations, but pay attention to your individual taste preferences. For example, the more sugar in a rub, the more likely I am to use it on pork and less likely to use it on beef, (with exceptions, of course!). Utilize the great variety of flavors available to you in rubs to tailor your BBQ to your personal palate.
Rub Early: Give the flavors an hour or two to penetrate, if you can. I usually rub before I start the fire.
Salt Penetrates, Sugar Seals: Salt helps carry flavor into the meat better than sugar but it doesn't give much protection against moisture loss. (Sometimes, Dry is good: see Smooth Moove label for Idiot Proof Jerky). If your cooking technique seals the meat (searing, deep frying, etc.) then use a rub with more salt than sugar. (See Steakmaker label for Steak) Likewise big thick chunks of meat don't dry out quickly and are hard to penetrate so look to more salt than sugar once again. . Sugar will melt and glaze which effectively seals the meat, so sugar based rubs are perfect on meats that tend to dry out, like chicken and pork.

SMOKING (Cooking with indirect heat)

Once is good, twice is better: Two moderate rubbings are usually better than one heavy coat. My rule of thumb is, "If I can't see the meat, then the smoke can't either". Only season the meat moderately when you start cooking, because a thick coat of rub will give you a layer of splendidly smoked seasoning on relatively plain meat. I put on enough to give color, but I can still see the meat through the rub. Cook the meat to desired smokiness, (In a good smoker, meat often gets enough smoke flavor before it's through cooking.) then pull it off the pit and season it again with a much heavier sprinkling of rub on all sides. Next either transfer the smoked meat to a non-smoky oven to finish cooking or protect the meat from further smoking by wrapping it in aluminum foil and put it back on the pit. Foil-wrapping the meat also helps to tenderize without drying by steaming the meat in its own juices. (See Sweet 'N Heat label for ribs)

GRILLING (Cooking over direct heat):

As Temperature Rises, Sugar Falls: Sugar caramelizes at medium cooking temperatures (bueno) but it burns at high heat (yuck-o). Sugar will "brown" (caramelize) at lower temperatures than the meat it's covering. That's great for looks, but if I want to sear and brown the meat, I'll lay off sugar. (See Steakmaker label for Steak)
Sweet Meat Likes LOW Heat: Meats like chicken, pork, and fish cook best at low grilling temperatures and a high sugar rub will form a protective glaze that both seasons and seals the meat. My favorite technique is to baste with fruit juices and sprinkle on enough rub to cover the meat. The rub will melt as it hits the moisture and form a beautiful glossy glaze that will brown at low heat. (See Sweet Rub label for Championship Chicken)

QUICKIES

RULE #1: Quit kidding yourself! Buy a meat thermometer. Start using it and STOP GUESSING if the meat is done. Yeah, yeah, we've all heard about people who don't need one, but just assume that you're not one of those people. Basic thermometers start at about $5, and run up through the $85 models that (this is so cool) let you wear a remote display like a beeper and give you a continuous temperature readout and alarm. Stick the tip of the probe in the center of the meat, not touching bone or solid fat. Any meat is sterile after holding 160° for one minute. Poultry is done at 165°, pork at 158-160, beef medium rare 140, medium well 160. To tenderize meat you have to get it hot enough to break down the collagen - ribs 193, brisket - 195.

YOU CAN PUSH A COW BUT YOU CAN'T PUSH A CHICKEN- Sear beef over the hottest fire you can manage but cook chicken low and slow. I can hold the back of my hand for ten seconds over a good chicken-cookin' fire. BONE IN roughly doubles the cooking time on chicken, so I always prefer to 'cue bone-in because I'll have more time to get more grill flavor. Leg quarters-1-1½ hours, bone-in breast-45 min -1 hr, boneless breast 20-25 min.

BARK- WURST BITES- The bark on many popular smoke woods, Pecan for example, gives a bitter, acrid taste to the smoke. For the smoothest smoke flavor, knock the bark off your smoke wood, or at least add the wood with the bark side away from the heat of the fire.

INSULATE THE BOTTOM OF YOUR FIREBOX WHENEVER POSSIBLE- When I put down a layer of firebrick in the firebox of my trailer mounted smoker, I immediately cut my wood consumption by 1/3. Depending on the shape of your pit you may need to use washed sand (brick or play sand) but any heat you lose out the bottom is just wasted. Be careful that you don't clog your air inlets.

PIT DESIGN

As smokers become more popular, I see a lot of people working harder than they ought to because of a poorly designed pit. Thanks no doubt to the abundance of both empty oil drums and heavy pipe casings, the horizontal smoker with an external firebox is so common in this part of the world that they're called "Texas Style" smokers. (Although I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't some crazy Cajun who built the first one.) I have a big trailer-mounted home-built pit and extensive experience with small backyard models built from thin steel. Frankly, for inexpensive BBQ pits, I like the vertical models, "the Black Bullets" that use a water pan between the fire and meat. With good timing, you can get a charcoal burner for around $30.00, and they'll do two briskets. These vertical water smokers also come in propane and electric models, and they all work pretty well.

I have a problem with the poor efficiency of the cheap horizontal smokers. The whole point of this type of rig is to give you control of the fire so that you can put your meat on and go away for a couple of hours. A well-built pit will easily hold a steady temperature for two or three hours. The light steel just doesn't seem to hold heat very well.

Also, I don't like round fireboxes, because they tend to fill in the edges of the firebox with ashes very quickly, so they don't "breath" well across the full width of the firebox. The round cross-section also makes it much harder to insulate the bottom of the box. (See Quickies)

Many of the horizontal pits also ignore a very basic fact of nature-namely HEAT RISES. Look at where the smokestack taps into the cooking chamber. Is it at or near the top? If it's higher than the meat level, then hot smoke can come into the cooker, run across the top and out the stack WITHOUT EVER GETTING DOWN TO THE LEVEL OF THE MEAT. This is sooo inefficient. No wonder they call 'em "consumer" models; they sure consume a whole lot more fuel than they should.

My recommendation is to avoid the lightweight horizontal units. Get an inexpensive water smoker, (or 2 or 3! Heck you can buy 4 or 5 for the price of a horizontal), and save your nickels until you can afford the price of a proper heavy pit ($500-2500) that will hold temperature and be a joy to use.

Good Luck and Keep 'em Smokin'
Obie