Pork Burnt End... Also Known As Meat Candy

So some of you may have heard of "Burnt Ends" either in person, at a restaurant, or somewhere on the internet. I'd read about them quite a few times, but had never had nor seen them anywhere around where I live. My guess is that it's a down south thing because I live on the west coast where the best bbq is what comes off my own grill and the restaurants are basically a waste of money (in my experience, I haven't tried them all, so I'm sure there's some exception somewhere).

Doing some research, I found that you can make burnt ends out of pork. They aren't really burnt ends, but it achieves a similar goal and tastes incredible. So let's get down to making some cubed meat candy.

What you'll need

• Pork Butt
• Apple Pellets (or Oak or Cherry)
• Worcestershire Sauce
• BBQ Sauce (OMG is best)
• foil pan

Seasonings

• 2tbsp pepper
• 1tbsp chilli pepper
• 1tbsp paprika
• 2tbsp Cumin
• 1tbsp curry powder
• 1/4 cup kosher salt

How it's done

So let's get started. First things first, you may notice the rub is basically my pulled pork rub, but with half the salt. Same cut of meat, same rub, very different flavor. 

The first step is to mix the rub ingredients. 

Step two; get the meat on a pan, douse it in Worcestershire sauce, then rub all of the sides with the rub. For this step, use a jar with a lid for sprinkling stuff because we wanna use the extra rub later in the recipe. 

Next, wrap her in foil and let it sit in the fridge overnight to marinade those seasonings in a bit. 

Okay, times up, turn the grill to 180° and throw her on fat side down

Now, wait till it gets to 170° internal temp with a instant read meat thermometer and take it off... but don't turn off the grill, we aren't done yet. 

Once you get it on the counter, get your slicer out and cube it up. 

Cubed? Alright, next you're gonna add the rest of that rub to the cubes inside of a foil pan. Mix them up really really well, then add about a cup of bbq sauce and mix it in really well too. 

Okay, now there's a few things you can do, I put the grill at 300° and covered it with foil (poke holes in the bottom of the pan on the grill to let liquid drain out otherwise you won't get the nice bark you want. After it's cooked a couple hours, turn it up to about 400, take off the foil top and mix it up every 10 minutes, done when it's reached the desired crunch or crust on the pieces, just take one out and eat it to check. 

And that's it. Serve it up with whatever you like. These taste incredible, and they're pretty simple to make. People will be asking what it is and how you made it, pretty much guaranteed. If you've got a different seasoning mix or sauce you prefer, go ahead and use that. It's a hard dish to mess up. 

#hardwoodsonly

Brisket... The Crowning Jewel Of A Pitmaster's Cookbook

A lot of people want to know how great brisket is made, because that crap your friend put in a crock pot for twelve hours that you courteously forced down your throat can't be what barbecue fanatics rave about. 

A little introduction to this. I LOVE brisket. It's among my favorite things out there. It's amazing, and one of the things you simply can't do any way apart from with wood smoke on a barbecue. It's delicious if made right, and downright inedible if made wrong. This is one of the recipes that my lovely aunt taught me... because she rocks. It's also the most requested thing that I make for parties. So let's get started making mouths water two blocks down from smell alone.

What you'll need

• Brisket, obviously. I buy 15-18lb ones at a store called Cash and Carry, it's a restaurant supply store I believe, that's the cheapest place to get it. I am not super picky about being natural or grass fed or any of that because I don't pay over $3.50/lb, but if you want it to be the absolute best, meat quality is very important and natural grass fed is the best. 
• Oak/apple pellets are what I use

For the seasoning

• 1/2 Cup paprika
• 1/4 Cup black pepper
• 1/4 Cup kosher salt
• 1/4 Cup raw sugar
• 3 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp Chili powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tbsp celery salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For the Spray

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup beer (I use fosters or tecate)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Boiling pan

• 24oz beer
• orange
• lemon
• pan from dollar tree

Let's rub it in...

So step one, open up your meat, clean it off and pat it down. Then it's time for the rub. Mix all the seasonings together (I forgot to get a photo of what they look like), then thickly coat the meat, leaving the fat side up. Use your hands to rub it into the meat. 

Let's chill

Now you cover it in foil, throw it in the fridge and let it sit overnight (or at least 8 hours, depending when you wanna start it)

Let's make an atmosphere

So the reason for the dollar tree pan, lemon, and orange is because we actually boil beer, lemon, and orange under the brisket while it cooks. This creates a flavor enhancing atmosphere for the brisket to cook in. 

So, slice the orange and lemon up and put them in the pan, then pour the beer over them to fill it. 

ingredients

What it looks like

Under the grates

Next step... the spray

The spray is very important. It helps give the meat phenomenal flavor while keeping it very moist. It will still develop bark, don't worry, it just helps with it not drying out... not that it's likely it would anyways. DO NOT SHAKE IT TO MIX. I say this because beer is carbonated. You will have spray shooting everywhere... whether or not you're squeezing the handle. Just lightly sway the bottle around and it will mix fine. 

I bought my sprayer at winco, get whatever works for you.

Time to get the party started

Okay, now we turn the grill up to 225° put the meat on, fat side up, spray it all over, and let it go... for about 12 hours, or until it's 197-200° internal temp. Depending on weather this can take longer or less, but you should be cooking it at least 12 hours. Every 45 minutes or so, open it up and spray it with the spray. Here's a progression from a few hours in to completion. It shrinks A LOT.

Last step.

Spray it again once it's off the grill, heavily, on all sides. Then cover with foil and let rest 10 minutes. 

After that, slide and serve, you can make burnt ends out of the flat if you want, I'll have another guide for that another time. 

This stuff is heaven. I'm getting hungry writing this blog... good thing I have some pork burnt ends on right now. Enjoy. Make your friends think you're some genius pitmaster, let me know how it turns out for you.

#HardWoodsOnly

Ribs Ribs Ribs!

Exodus 12:9a "Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire..."

Well, there you have it, even God says you shouldn't boil your ribs. If you do, you're probably maybe facing eternal judgement, but don't sweat it, this recipe will show you the right way to make ribs that fall apart and taste like they came straight from heaven's kitchen... or grill.

I need to give a precursor, this is an abridged form of the Last Meal Ribs from amazingribs.com I've found their rib recipe to be the best and this site is just a compilation of recipes I find worthy of my stamp of excellence, I don't claim responsibility for birthing this recipe.

What you're gonna need

• Ribs, either baby back or St. Louis are preferred, but you can use spare ribs if necessary
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 2 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoon ground ginger powder
• 2 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons rosemary powder
• salt
• apple pellets

Step One: Preparing the Meat

So this is a part a lot of people don't understand. Most figure, "I just gotta buy the meat and throw it on the grill. It'll taste great." While they may be edible if you do that, your experience eating the ribs won't be nearly as good as that slab of meat and bones deserves. 

First stage of the meat prep is rinsing it off with water and then quickly padding it dry with a paper towel. 

After you've done that, you're gonna need to remove the membrane from the back of the ribs. The reason for this is that it becomes hard and leathery while cooking, making eating the ribs a less tasty, and much more challenging experience than it needs to be. 

To remove the membrane, just slide a butter knife under it, then grab it and pull. Depending on the ribs, it will all come off in one piece. I find spare ribs are much much harder to work with as far as removing the membrane goes, but it's necessary to allow the meat to cook correctly and to keep it edible with nothing more than fingers. 

Membrane is mostly removed here

Step Two: Seasoning

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this stage, so I'll put one up of the meat on the grill. 

So for the seasoning, you're gonna use kosher salt or a salt grinder over both sides of the ribs, you don't need to put a whole lot on, just what you would normally do if you were seasoning meat you were about to eat. 

Now let this sit for an hour or so in the fridge, the salt helps to tenderize the meat and bring out flavor. While that's sitting, mix all the other seasonings together. It will be more than you need for just a couple racks. After the hour is up, pull the ribs out of the fridge and cover them in the mix. It doesn't need to be an overly thick coating and the ribs should show through. 

Step Three: Smoke

Turn your grill on to smoke, and leave them be for an hour. 

Step Four: Turn Up The Heat

Now it's time to actually cook your ribs, turn it up to 225° and let them cook for about 5 or 6 hours, 4 if they're baby back. Once that time is up, baste them in your favorite BBQ Sauce. As always, I exclusively recommend OMG BBQ.

Now turn it up to 450 and let it cook the sauce on the ribs. It will take a few minutes, don't let the sauce burn. 

Step Five: Remove The Masterpiece From The Grill

Step Six: Eat

These ribs will pretty much fall apart, and they are probably the best ribs you've ever eaten. So Enjoy, brag, and make about twice as much as you think you'll need because there won't be leftovers no matter how much you make. 

The pink is called a smoke ring, and it's why they taste so damn good.

Notes and Afterthoughts

Many people, especially those in competition circuits do something called a "Texas Crutch." It's basically wrapping them in foil with a little bit of water to make them more tender. I intentionally don't do this for two reasons. One; I'm lazy and don't want the extra step. Two; this is the real reason. When you do the Texas Crutch, it softens the bark on the meat, which I think is actually a negative as that adds a lot of flavor and a great texture. 

#HardwoodsOnly

Smoked, Peppered Salmon: Fish To Fight Over (Monk Original Recipe)

After searching for a good smoked salmon recipe, I finally gave up and made my own. 

So I love salmon. Especially the smoked variety. I've tried a lot of amazing smoked fish in my life, but I was always looking for a combination of flavors that never really seemed to do it for me. Finally, after getting bored of trying other's recipes I decided to just make my own recipe with my favorite simple brine. So let's dive in and make some fish

What you're gonna need

• Salmon fillets 2-5lbs
• a big bowl of water
• 2 1/2 cups kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• Apple Pellets

For the seasoning

Note: this will be relatively spicy depending on your tolerance, also it will need to be doubled or tripled if you're making a lot like I do in the tutorial. For this I tripled it and made 2 whole wild caught Coho Salmon which I filleted myself (which is why they're ugly, I've got no clue what I'm doing when it comes to cutting up fish)

• 2tbsp black pepper
• 1tsp brown sugar
• 1tbsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Step One: The Brine

Mix the water, 2 1/2 cups kosher salt, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar in a bowl. Mix it until all the sugar and salt dissolve. This will only take a couple minutes of stirring. Doesn't need to be perfect. Then cut the salmon into 3 inch strips, add it to the bowl, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Step Two: Mix The Seasoning In A Ziplock Bag

Step Three: Smoking The Flavor In

For this, we use Apple pellets. Turn the grill to smoke, put the fish on it, skin down, and generously coat the top of the fish with the seasoning. Then close the lid and let her smoke for an hour

Step Four: Turn It Up And Take It Off

This step isn't exactly challenging... turn it up to 180° and let it go another hour then take it off

Step Five: Refrigerate... Or Throw Self Control Out The Window And Eat It Hot

Personally, I prefer it cold. However, it does taste excellent hot. I could eat this stuff all day. It's like candy. I advise letting it cool to reduce the condensation produces then stick it into a gallon sized ziplock bag or some air tight Tupperware. 

Final Thoughts:

I've had a few people tell me this recipe has too much pepper, and others tell me it's the best smoked salmon they've had in their life. It really depends on personal preference. I was shooting for a very specific taste when I created this and I think that I hit it right on the head. If you prefer a less peppery/spicy recipe, I would advise dropping the pepper to half and maintaining the same quantities for the other ingredients. 

Something else; you may read this and say "Hey, he's cooking it at 180°... that isn't smoking. When you smoke something, you don't cook it." Well that would be correct and incorrect. There's two types of smoking, cold and hot. Cold smoking is what you do for things like beef jerky. I will never advise anyone try this with fish at home. There are commercial facilities designed for it with very stringent codes that they need to adhere to. You have very high risk of food poisoning if you try cold smoking fish at home. That's why we do it at 180°. It's fully cooked, but it's also smoked... and trust me, it's absolutely delicious. 

#HardwoodsOnly

Perfect Pulled Pork (A Monk's BBQ Original)

Delicious, cheap, and so easy I can do it in my sleep (no, seriously). 
Pulled pork makes for a great meal for large groups (or, in my case, lunch for a week or two from cooking once). If you make it right, it tastes great. It's dirt cheap and can often be found for $1.30/lb. The best part is that it's super simple to make, given you've got a pellet grill. So let's get down to it.

What You Need

• Pork Butt (also called picnic cut, boston butt, etc...) roughly 10lbs
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 2tbsp pepper
• 1tbsp chilli pepper
• 1tbsp paprika
• 2tbsp Cumin
• 1tbsp curry powder
• Jack Daniels or your favorite bourbon
• Apple Pellets

(I also advise building a hopper extension like the one HERE)

Step One: Mix the seasoning in a bag

Step Two: put the meat fat side up on a pan, and coat it thickly in the seasoning

Really rub the seasoning into the meat. It will help the flavors soak in.

 

Step Three: Refrigerate overnight

There should be no instruction necessary here. If you can't figure this one out, perhaps request that your wife take over all kitchen duties to cover your incompetence

Step Four: Drop it on the grill

Get your grill going and set it to 225° then let it go... for about 10 hours

Step Five: Inject your Jack or Bourbon (can be done as soon as it's on the grill)

Do this in multiple locations and be generous. The flavor will be better dispersed that way. Using straight Jack or Bourbon is best in my opinion. Other people use apple juice or a 50/50 mix... I think they're wrong. I've tried that and frankly I like my meat tasting like meat, not like a child's lunchbox

Step Six: Temperature and taking it off the grill

So you need an instant read DIGITAL thermometer. I'll have a post about the good ones soon. Ideally you want the meat to be 197-203° when you remove it from the grill. Personally I aim for 201-203° because this is the point at which it's most tender. It will literally fall apart while being picked up. 

Note; it shrinks a lot while cooking

Step Seven: Pull it. 

So for this step there are a few different ways you can do it. You can use bearclaws, which work very well. Personally, I'm lazy. I use a Kitchenaid stand mixer with the bread hook attachment, this makes quick work of it and saves you having to do it manually

Final Step: Put it on a bun, throw some of your favorite BBQ sauce on it and enjoy.

Other thoughts

So at the beginning I said I could make this in my sleep... I wasn't lying. The photos of this particular batch (I make this stuff pretty regularly) are of meat that was cooked overnight. I created that hopper extension for the specific purpose of being able to put it on the grill and not worry about it running out all night. I exclusively recommend using OMG Barbecue sauce with it. This is the best pulled pork I've encountered. It's a recipe I made personally based off my limited knowledge of meats and seasonings. My Aunt has been a huge help and influence in this knowledge as well as a tremendous amount of research I've done all across the web. Enjoy and as always...

#HardwoodsOnly

Pointing Out The Obvious: A Collection Of Helpful Tricks And Ideas

Hey readers, this is my "why didn't I think of that?" section of my blog. Useful things I've discovered along the way will be posted here. I'll periodically be updating this blog with things that are obvious after you've seen them.

The Hopper Extension
So you're cooking something that needs to go for ten or twelve hours and you have other things to do apart from stirring and adding pellets? Try making one of these. I just took a 4' 12x1 and cut it into pieces. 4 walls, 2 lips to hold it even/in place. The result is the ability to fill my hopper and its new extenstion, then go to bed while my pulled pork cooks (first try, hope this goes well). Don't worry about it catching on fire, a well made pellet grill lets very little heat out and the open lid of the hopper will shield it from the majority of the heat that would get out.

#HardwoodsOnly

Steak, The Only Thing Women Love More Than Chocolate

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. That very well may be true, but a woman can't resist a man who can make the perfect steak. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I plan to teach you to do.

What you'll need

• Steaks 1.5-2" thick Ribeye is best. The thickness is essential. You'll need to ask the butcher to cut it because this isn't a thickness most stores carry. I think Costco is an exception. If you can, it's best to buy the meat day of so it's fresh. All of the high end steak places use this thickness. The reason is that thinner steaks tend to be well done by the time that they're properly browned. There are ways to do it, but I'm not gonna go over that right now. 
• Kosher Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic
• A Stick of Butter
• A tbsp of Olive Oil
• fresh chives
• fresh parsley 
• Oak Pellets 

Step One

Mix all the seasonings. You mix them first because otherwise you create layers of seasoning and not everything penetrates into the meat evenly. Use a LOT of salt. Trust me on this. Add in pepper and garlic powder to taste. Coat all sides evenly. Then let sit and come up to room temperature. The reason for this is that when meat is cold, it cooks and warms at the same time, creating a gradient going from well done on the outside to potentially what you're aiming for in the center. When you let it come to room temp first you can sear the outside and leave everything rare or medium rare as it should be. 

Step Two

Fire up your grill, I advise using Oak, but if you prefer, Apple is also excellent. If you're using a pellet grill, just leave it on smoke. Drop the steaks on it and let it smoke them for an hour. 

Step Three - Butter

While the meat is smoking, take the stick of butter, get it soft, chop up some chives and some parsley (about 1tbsp each) and add the olive oil. Then throw them in a bowl and use an electric mixer to whip the butter and get the herbs mixed in.

Step Four 

Throw the butter on a piece of plastic wrap then roll it up. Should look like a white, vegetable spotted turd

Step Five

When the steaks are done smoking, take them off, throw them on a plate, put a cast iron skillet or pan on the grill and turn it to max. Wait for it to get up to 450°. While you're waiting for that to heat up, use a brush to put vegetable oil on both sides of the steak. Once it's up to heat, throw the steaks on and close it. 

Step Six

Four minutes on each side will make it rare or medium-rare. Remember that if it isn't cooked enough for your taste, you can always put it back on, but if it's over cooked, you can't uncook it. I'd say, with a good cut of meat, you should NEVER make it any more done than medium. Once that's done, pull it off and put the herb filled butter on it then let it sit for 5 minutes (covered in foil to retain heat) before serving

Last Step

Eat, melt the heart of that girl you love so much. Prove you are, in fact, the king of the grill and the steak. Then realize you've spent $100 on a steak at a restaurant that wasn't half as good as what you just made for $12. 

Final notes

Notice in the last photo how it's seared on the outside, but the same color all the way through? This whole process is called a reverse sear and there's a reason we do it like this. You see, most high end steak places have this process where they first sear it in a cast iron skillet, then put it in the oven. That's great, and it's a very efficient way to do it, but it creates the gradient of doneness. We avoid that by doing a reverse sear where the meat is both cooked and seared at the same time by bringing the pan to heat in the closed grill (a more oven-like environment).  The meat both broil/bakes and sears, locking juices in, and only cooking it as much as you want it cooked. The reason those restaurants don't do a reverse sear is simply time. It's over an hour to make a steak. 

As always #HardwoodsOnly