I just cooked my first barbecue! And they loved it!

Cafe Society
1

The back story - I love to cook. Learned first from my mom, and then worked in restaurants for several years, usually as a prep/pantry cook. And I love to be the grillman at Yankee BBQs (the ones that dont actually feature barbecue). I am certainly not a chef, but give me a recipe and I’ll knock it out the park 8 times out of 10. (And the first crepe always seems to be offered up to the kitchen gods.)

So my friend asked me to be the grillman at her daughters birthday party yesterday. (She turned 3 years old.) She so I was grilling the usual suspects - hamburgers, brats, hot dogs and corn for about a dozen kids and dozen more adults or so. And she also bought three slabs of St Louis spare ribs.

But I have never done real barbecue. I grew up in Seattle where barbecue means going to Three Pigs in Bellevue. My aunts in Texas could do a mean barbecue (My mouth still waters when I think of my late Aunt Rita’s beef brisket.) And I have tasted some good bbq after moving to St Louis.

I felt confident enough to do it though. I’ve watched plenty of shows on the Food Network and other channels to give it a show. I did a quick recipe search and went with Alton Brown’s dry rub (with my own +1). He hasn’t let me down yet, and he didnt yesterday.

One caveat - we only had charcoal, no hardwood. So I guess I still havent done real barbecue. (Also it was a kids pool party, so no alcohol involved.) But I set the coals at the bottom the pit, let them ash over, then threw the slabs on (not directly over the heat at first though). Two and half hours later I took them off, let them rest and then had them dig in.

I also found out when my friends in-laws arrived that I was taking over the reins from grandpa - which I found very flattering. And he enjoyed just being able to kick back and be grandpa instead of having to fuss over the food. But I also knew grandma and grandpa would be the ones to please. Nothing but raves. My friend’s sister-in-law said they were the best she’s had. Definitely knock it out of the park yesterday!

I have a feeling I might be drafted for a few more parties this summer. I’m looking forward to it.

So what are your success stories by the barbecue pit? (or just at the grill or in the kitchen?)

PS Also is there a good site that breaks down all the different types of barbecue? That shows the difference between Kansas City-style, Memphis-style, Eastern Carolina vs Western Carolina? I’ve been by the bug - there aint no going back, is there?

2

My friend is from Georgia, and when his parents came to visit I asked what I should make when they visit and he told me I should try pulled pork. He typed the instructions in a chat window and I wrote them in pencil on a scrap piece of paper.

I made the pork (boston butt, smoked over a drip pan with hot sauce and garlic, in a Weber grill) and it was a huge success. His parents said it was the best pulled pork they’ve ever had outside of Georgia.

So the next year I made another, this time for my company party (there are just 4 of us in my company.) Success again!

I did it again for a party for my bowling team 2 years later. Score!

I just did it again Saturday for a party my parents had today. It was my brother and his wife’s 1st wedding anniversary so my “gift” to them was “smokin’ a pig.” I noticed that everyone was sort of “scared” of the pork at first but they all came back for seconds and thirds. Honestly, none of them had ever had pulled pork before. But it was so GOOD!! Everyone really enjoyed it.

I don’t marinate or sauce the pork in any way when I serve it. I make mustard-based sauce to go with it (being an Ohioan, I am free to choose whatever style sauce I want w/o running into “red vs. yellow” politics) but I let everyone choose their sauce…and some use ketchup. And, I still use the “recipe” from my friend, still off that same scrap piece of paper.

I’m pretty proud of my pork smoking skill. It’s not something most northerners can pull off. Congratulations Agnostic Pagan - and yes, you WILL be doing it again :slight_smile:

3

Wiki to the rescue!
Now you have to invest in a proper smoker.

4

Congratulations! It’s good to see people using the term barbecue properly! :wink: Even if you did it over charcoal, I’d still consider it barbecue if you worked it low and slow with indirect heat. (2 1/2 hours for spares is a little faster and hotter than I’m used to, but, close enough). But, really, you should throw in some hardwood chunks in there, because the smoke flavor will knock your socks off.

If you do decide to get into serious smoking, check out this excellent 5-step program to learning the art of barbecue on a Weber Smokey Mountain. Now, if you have the money, you can go and pick yourself up a Big Green Egg, but, for me, the WSM is probably the best introductory smoker, and retails around $200 or so, depending on where you buy it.

Keep up the barbecue! The basics are not really that difficult, but it does take a lot of experiments to get an instinctive feel for fire control, when to pull the meat, how much and what kind of wood to use, etc. Everybody likes their barbecue a little bit different, and it will take a lot of smoking and, best of all, eatingeatingeating to figure out your style. But, oh what a wonderful journey it is!

5

My sister was going to host Thanksgiving/60th birthday party for my brother in law. Thirty six people. She was freaking out, as she has a very tiny kitchen.
She asked me how in the hell she was going to do this. I told her to make it a pot luck. Assign a different dish to each bother and sister attending (my BIL is from a BIG family) I told her I would do the turkeys on Weber kettles outside, and that would give them room in the kitchen.
:confused: was the reply.
Don’t sweat it I said, I got it covered.
I brined two 20lb turkeys ala Alton Brown (plus my own improvements) hauled them and a Weber kettle up in my car. (she lives 200 miles away)
So about 3 hours before we were set to eat, I set up the kettles and put the turkeys on.
All the guests kept coming out to the backyard to look and ask questions. The responses ranged from
:rolleyes:
:dubious:
:smack:
:confused:
:eek:
:cool:
Then the birds came off the Webers. I swear I didn’t think any of that first bird was going to make the table as people kept coming by to snitch a piece of turkey off of the serving platter.
bottom line is there are thirty six people that now think I am a barbecue god.
:smiley:

6

That recipe rocks, doesn’t it? I put some wine in mine. Grilling, yeah, that would make it even better!

7

I feel like we should be doing some king of rite of passage ceremony! Dancing for your return from a successful Lion Hunt.

Honestly, congratulations on your initiatrion. There’s nothing like fire and meat. The greatest culinary achievement of all time.

Know your Fire. Know your Meat. That’s the best advice I can give.