During our first day of BBQ Ribs 101 with Kingsford and Chris Lilly we were lucky to get a break to eat.  (There will more to come on my amazing opportunity to learn from some of the greats in the world of BBQ.) We had, I mean got, to cook our lunches yesterday.  Along with some really nice yakitori they set out bowls of dates, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, shitake mushrooms and candied pecans along with the prosciutto.

I filled a couple of dates with different combinations of the ingredients and wrapped them up in huge slices of the La Quercia prosciutto.  After working to get the date stuffed with a candied pecan on to a skewer I placed them on the grill, provided by Pitmaker.

Does bacon or prosciutto make dates taste better.  Darn skippy it does.  The combination of the perfectly cured La Quercia prosciutto along, the tang of the goat cheese and the sweetness from the dates made for a perfect appetizer for the a great meal with great people.  I can’t believe how good this tasted.

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Photo by Kyle Kurlick, Memphis Commercial Appeal

Grail Note:  Since I’m visiting Memphis for the World Barbecue Championships I found this article by Jennifer Biggs of the Commercial Appeal, to be not only timely but very much an eye opener.  The thoughts expressed by these well known experts are quite revealing.

In barbecue as in life, it’s all about balance. Take sauce: Too much vinegar, and it’s only fit for basting. Too much pepper, and it burns your mouth.

Although when you’re at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest Thursday through Saturday in Tom Lee Park, you’ll hear again and again that when you come to Memphis, you’ve got to be ready to bring on the sugar, you can get too much of a good thing.

To compensate for sweetness, you’ve got to have spice and acidity. Otherwise, you might as well have ketchup.

And the balance isn’t about just the sauce, so let’s start at the beginning.

Read the rest of the article here.

I had a little pork loin in the freezer leftover from a previous cook and only had just a bit of time to to whip up some dinner.  While thinking about what I was exploring the pantry, thinking about what I was going to cook, I came across a cast iron cooking insert for my Char-Broil RED gasser.  The light bulb went off and stir fry was now on the menu.

Stir fry on the grill is perfect for me.  Taking Asian flavor profiles and fusing them with the grill gives you a unique flavor blend.  The char and caramelization you get from cooking on the grill makes things pretty special.  In this case it wasn’t on the grill but the something that resembles a cast iron skillet.  One of the cooking utensils on my “wish list” is a big cast iron wok.  It’s not going to happen for a while so the next best thing is the cast iron insert on my grill.

The only problem with the insert is it’s to small so I had to cook everything in stages and then combine in a bowl.  Not really that big of a problem, but I’m sure the flavors would have been better if I could have cooked everything together.  But even with the handicap of to small of a “wok” it came out pretty good.

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(Congratulations to Gaye M. for winning a $30.00 gift certificate, good towards the purchase of her Easter Ham.  And a big thank-you to the National Pork Board for sponsoring this contest.)

There’s only one thing better than a great ham dinner for Easter and that’s a free ham dinner for Easter.  And thanks to the National Pork Board for donating a $30.00 gift certificate that one lucky reader of the BBQ Grail blog.

Entering the contest is easy.  All you have to do is go to recipe section of Pork Be Inspired,  and leave a comment on this blog post with your favorite ham recipe from Pork Be Inspired. (Originally, the plan was to count the number of ham recipes found on the website.  However, I blew that one because there are way to many recipes to do that. So just leave your favorite and you’ll be entered.)

You may enter the contest once a day through Midnight (Pacific) on March 27th.  On March 28th the winner will be chosen randomly from those entries with the correct number of ham recipes found on Pork Be Inspired.  The winner will be notified via email.  In order to get your gift certificate in time for Easter the winner needs to reply the same day they are notified with their name and address.  The certificate will be mailed by the National Pork Board to the winner.

Please Tweet and Share on Facebook!

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After using the rub a couple of times I found that I wasn’t less conflicted at all.  Many of my readers know that Neil Strawder is one of my all-time favorite BBQ community people.  As my dad used to say, “He’s just good people.”  So when I make a statement like Bigmista’s Perfect Pork Rub might possibly be one of the best rubs ever to hit the market I didn’t want people to think I was just saying that because Neil and I are friends.

At the same time I didn’t think it was fair to Neil that I didn’t tell people how fantastic this stuff was.  So yes, Neil Strawder is my friend, yes Neil sent me the rub for free and yes…Bigmista’s Barbecue’s Perfect Pork Rub is some of the best rub I’ve ever used.  This stuff rocks and if you have not tried it you really should.

“It took me over five years to perfect our pork rub,” Neil told me recently when I had a chance to ask him a few questions about his rub. “There were lots of trials and error that went into developing this unique blend of spices,” he explained about the time it took him to master the flavor profile.

And as soon as you open the package you realize, with the first whiff, that it is a unique blend of spices.  “The special thing about this rub is that it uses some spices that aren’t usually associated with pork. There is a bit of cinnamon in there and that is usually used in sweet dishes and desserts. The brain usually associates cinnamon with sweets but it isn’t sweet on its own. It’s a great addition for meat,” Neil continued.  I have to admit I smelled the the cinnamon immediately and my first thought was that Neil could be nuts.  But the flavor it adds to this rub along with the other spices is amazing.

Bigmista’s Barbecue is the King of Los Angeles area BBQ since this is the same pork rub they use on their pork and ribs you can get a bit of the taste that has people all over Southern California raving about his food.

I’ve used the rub on pork chops that were just simply grilled on my Weber kettle and now I can’t wait use the rub as a base for a pork brine.  But the best use was the recent chopped rib meat sandwiches that I made recently.  The flavor of the rub changes when it’s on the smoker for an extended period of time.  It doesn’t really lose any flavor but it doesn’t mellow a little and when you’re going to add a little sauce to the meat the mellow flavor really works to enhance everything, both the meat taste and the sauce profile.

For the most part, I’ve learned over the years that almost any rub designed for pork should also work for chicken and sometimes even fish.  I can’t wait to try this rub on a whole roasted chicken and also on some salmon.  I’m thinking it’s going to be good.

Bigmista’s Perfect Pork Rub can be ordered from the man himself at Bigmista’s Barbecue.

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I love to cook and I love to eat.  And for the past couple decades eating healthy has not always been a priority.  As I’ve gotten older, and hopefully a little wiser, I’m starting to realize that I need to put more emphasis on healthier eating.

For those of you who have enjoyed all the bacon, sauces, butter and other fun stuff, don’t worry they aren’t going away.  But I will be posting more “healthier” alternatives on the blog than I have in the past.  And pork is going will be a big part of my healthier eating lifestyle change.

Today’s pork makes it easier to eat healthier. Today’s pork cuts, on average, have 16 percent less total fat and 27 percent less saturated fat than they did just 21 years ago.  Compared to many other outdoor cooking alternatives pork is one of the healthier proteins to cook.  And with the USDA agreeing with what many of us already knew, that pork may be served medium rare (145 degrees followed by a three-minute rest) you can get some great tasting, tender and juicy dishes.

Since I diced the pork loin after cooking I and wasn’t going to be able to get that tasty caramelization on each piece from being on the grill I wanted to insure good flavor in every bite I decided to brine the pork loin with a little seasoning.  The brine process helps give the pork additional flavor and will help you keep the juiciness of the pork at it juicy best.

After you’ve removed the pork from the brine make sure you rinse all the salt off of it.  It’s a good idea to soak the brine in clear water for 3o minutes or so after you’ve rinsed it.  Just make sure you get the salt off.  Then season the pork with the same seasoning you used in the brine.  In my opinion it’s a good idea to try to use a seasoning that’s a little lower in salt.

Grill the pork over high direct heat on all sides.  Make sure you get some grill marks.  Grill marks aren’t just for looks, they add flavor, so get some char on that pork.  Once you’ve grilled it all the way around move the pork to indirect heat and cook to 140 degrees internal.  After a three-minute rest you’ll have a perfect 145 degree, medium rare.

Dice, chop or slice the pork into whatever shape and size you want for the tacos  Fill your tortilla with the pork and whatever fixings you want and you’ll have a great meal.

My tacos were served with black beans and avocado slaw and tasted just about as good as can be.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the recipes to complete this great meal.

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Confit Pig Tails

Courtesy Iowa Farmer Today

“I was turned on to cooking pig tails and inspired to bring this forgotten and not highly thought of cut of pork to the public by  Chef Michael Paley in Kentucky.

“Pig tails are all bony and fatty in a gelatinous sort of way. That may not sound good nor promising, but I will guarantee you, properly cooked these we bring great flavors and textures worth the troubles.

“This recipe will take a couple of days and steps, first by brining the tails. Brining will help carry the seasonings throughout the meat. Then, we’re going to confit the pork in olive oil slowly to break down and tenderize the connective tissues. Next, we’ll fry them  at a higher heat to get the skin nice and crisp, then finally glaze them in sweet spiced balsamic vinegar.”

• 1 qt. cold water
• 2 qts. ice cubes
• ½ C. white sugar
• ½ C. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground fennel
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. crushed chili flake
• 2 bay leafs
• 12 pig tails
• 4 qts. olive oil
• ½ C. honey
• 1 tsp. crushed pink peppercorns
• 2 T. balsamic vinegar
• rice flour

For the brine: Combine salt, sugar, fennel seed, coriander, peppercorn, chili, cinnamon and bay leaf in a stock pot with 1 qt. water and bring to a boil.

Remove mixture from the stove and add ice to the brine and let sit until brine reaches room temperature.

Wash and rinse tails, then place in a large clean plastic container. Pour cooled brine over the pork.

Wrap, cover and refrigerate about six hours. Remove tails from brine mixture. Rinse well and pat dry.

To confit the tails: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place the tails in a deep Dutch oven or roasting pan.

Add olive oil to the pork. Make sure to add enough oil so the tails are covered completely.

Cover with foil and place in the oven four hours. Remove from oven and allow meat to cool in the fat.

When the roasting pan is cool enough to touch, place the pan with the tails and olive oil in the refrigerator overnight.

For the glaze: Combine the honey, balsamic and crushed pink peppercorn in a small sauce pan over low heat until ingredients combine. Set aside.

Remove the tails from the olive oil. Cut the tails into about one-inch pieces, making your cuts between each vertebra. Lightly dust tail pieces in rice flour.

In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, add about a inch of the confit fat to the pan and heat to about 325 degrees.

Add the tail pieces a few at time and fry for about two minutes. Remove them from the oil allow to drain on a paper towel for a minute, then toss with glaze.

If you’ve read this blog for very long you know that good reviews of BBQ restaurants are few and far between.  As an official “BBQ Snob” I just don’t come across restaurants that warrant praise very often.  This weekend I’m in Des Moines, Iowa for the 14th Annual Niman Ranch Hog Farmer Appreciation Dinner and tonight I had the good fortune to eat at a wonderful BBQ restaurant.  Smokey D’s…

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ restaurant should have.  You can smell the wonderful sweet aroma of good BBQ from a block away and you can smell the wood smoke in the parking lot AND the restaurant smells like BBQ.  Everyone that knows good BBQ knows you can tell you’re going to have at least a decent dining experience before you’ve left the parking lot.

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ establishment should have.  Great food, a good vibe and fantastic  customer service.  It’s Thursday night and the restaurant was very, very busy.  Darren Warth, one of the owners, said it was a little slow.  This is a good sign…a packed restaurant and it’s a slow night.

I ordered the two meat dinner combo with brisket, chopped pork, mac & cheese and beans.  By the time I filled my drink cup and sat down our food was making its way to the table.  Super fast service is not always a plus in my book.  This often times means the food is sitting under heat lamps or drowning in sauce in warming pans.  It was obvious when the food arrived this was not the case.  Sauce on the side and everything freshly cut and plated.  BBQ perfection so far…

 The Food…

First and most importantly the meat was served with sauce on the side.  This is always a good sign.  When a restaurant serves it’s meats without sauce I’m always happier.  In my mind this means they aren’t trying to hide something.

The chopped pork was flavorful with little pieces of bark mixed in.  It wasn’t soggy or over cooked.  It was very good.  The brisket was good.  Nice beautiful smoke ring with just a hint of smoke (more on that later).  I prefer my brisket a little “juicier” than it’s served at Smokey D’s.  I don’t mean the brisket was dry, it wasn’t, I just like to get some of the fat cap on my brisket.  Smokey D’s serves it with almost all the fat trimmed off.  It’s not bad this way, in fact, most people probably prefer it without the fat, I just like the fat.

You can tell a lot about a BBQ restaurant by the sides they serve.  I ordered the beans and mac & cheese.  Both were excellent.  The beans weren’t cooked to mush and had great flavor.  The mac & cheese was awesome.  I loved it.  There was a little spice to it.  Not really a “heat” spice, but it did tickle the tongue on the way down.  Darren shared with me the pepper that’s in it and I can’t wait to give it a try at home.  (Since I didn’t ask if it was a “secret” I won’t share it just in case it is)

Now for some BBQ Restaurant Review hyperbole!

The cornbread is like crack.  I could sit down at Smokey D’s and eat just this stuff.  It is without a doubt the best cornbread I have ever eaten.  It’s just cornbread.  No peppers, no pieces of corn…just cornbread.   The cornbread does have a little sweet crunch on the top, but that’s just sugar sprinkled on the batter before baking.  Darren said they have their own pastry chef in-house.  Whoever this person is  should win the Nobel Cornbread Award!

And I ate a whole peach pie!  Well not really.  They don’t have peach pie at Smokey D’s, but they do have these amazing Peach Sliders.  And they tasted great too.

The restaurant is full of BBQ Championship trophys.  The gang at Smokey D’s don’t just run a first class BBQ restaurant they are amazing competition BBQ cooks.  And winning the Grand Prize on the 2nd Season of BBQ Pitmasters is proof enough these folks know their BBQ.

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The “Hog Heaven”is labeled as competition rub.  Don’t let that designation scare you off.  If you get a chance to try them I think you’ll be happy…even if you’re just cooking in your backyard.  Just an added note to all rub makers:  Drop the “competition” label off your packaging if you want to sell to the wider backyarder market.  It’s just a guess, but I think you’re losing market share with the competition designation.  Lot’s of people win with “non competition” rubs.

The first thing you’ll notice, about “Hog Heaven”, is that for a rub it’s loaded with much more herbs than I normally expect to see in this type of rub.  I love the herbal flavors mixed with the more tradition rub ingredients.  One thing to remember when using this rub!  It comes packaged in a mylar bag type of package (which I prefer) but you’ve got to mix the rub up.  The herbs have a tendency to settle at the top of the package and if you don’t mix them up you’ll get a load of herbs without the other ingredients.  This shouldn’t be much a problem because you should always shake and/or mix your rubs before applying anyway.

I try to test most of the rubs I receive on pork ribs, this gives me a good basis for comparison between the various rubs.  So first up was “Hog Heaven” and since it’s called a rib rub I figured there wasn’t much sense in changing my normal pattern.  I gave a couple racks of pork ribs, trimmed to St. Louis cut a good dose of the rub.

You’ll notice in the picture the nice layer of herbs mixed with the other rub ingredients.  In the end this will give you a nice flavor to your ribs.  Although I did lightly sauce the ribs I think they would be perfectly good with no sauce at all.  I’d give them a try naked to see how you like them before saucing.  And I think a sauce less on the sweet side would match this rub very well.

I also tried “Hog Heaven” on some grilled chicken.  And I let me tell you!  This is an outstanding rub for chicken.  I didn’t smoke the chicken, which would be the more traditional way with a rub.  I grilled it instead.  No sauce…just rub and some heat.  It was fantastic.  I think I actually prefer this on chicken.  And I can already tell, even though I didn’t try it, that it would compliment fish too.

If you are using this rub on any meat and planning to use a direct heat cooking method make sure you monitor your heat.  Different ingredients in different rubs and seasonings burn at different temperatures.  The herbs in this rub will burn quicker than most rub ingredients (because they’re herbs) so just watch you food and keep the temperature in a moderate range and you’ll be just fine.

The “Raging Bull” beef rub is closer to a traditional rub than the “Hog Heaven,” but it has some different flavor profiles than most beef rubs out there.  One main ingredient, which I’m not going to share, is used in some great steak recipes in some of the best steak houses, so you aren’t going to go wrong.  But be warned it isn’t want you might expect.  If you look at the rub to the right you might be able to pick out some of the ingredients that are a little different.

I don’t know for sure what Steve had in mind for this rub, probably brisket, but I used a chuck roast for my test run.  And it worked fantastic.  Nice bark and more importantly a very nice flavor that just made the beef flavor in the roast jump.  I really like this rub.  It will go on my list of rubs I purchase.

Above you can see the rub when it was first applied to the chuck roast (Left) and then after a couple hours in the smoke(right).  The bark started to form almost immediately.  What was fantastic about this was the flavor of the bark really added to the overall flavor of the meat after I pulled it.

We used the pulled beef in some very nice tacos. (which I forgot to take pictures of).

You can purchase both these rubs from Great Lakes BBQ Supply and I suggest you do.

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Pig Candy is very simply made by smoking bacon after it’s been coated in a mixture of brown sugar.  Sometimes the brown sugar contains a little chili powder for an added kick at the end.

Normally I like to use thick cut bacon for Pig Candy.  It makes for a much chewier and tasty treat.  This time though I got used Burger’s Bacon Steaks.  The slices of bacon from Burger’s Smokehouse are just thick cut they are thickerer cut.  The slices are 1/4 inch.

To give you some idea of how thick this bacon is there are only 8 slices per pound.  Regular slices bacon is usually about 15 slices per pound and thick cut bacon is about 10 slices per pound.

I had the bright idea of using wooden skewers  so the Pig Candy could be eaten like “state fair” food.  I mean what’s more “state fair” food like than bacon on a stick?  However, brown sugar melts real nice and coats the bacon real nice but it also glued the bacon to the stick so it didn’t come off the stick like I hoped.  Not going to try that technique again.

As I was pulling the Pig Candy off the smoker I noticed Mrs. Grail was melting dark chocolate for some dessert she was making so I borrowed a little and drizzled the Pig Candy with the chocolate.  Chocolate and salt goes together and the dark chocolate added a nice touch to the Pig Candy.

The next time you’ve got some spare space on your smoker lay some bacon on the grate and cover it with brown sugar.  Smoke the bacon until the sugar is melted and turn the bacon over, cover with brown sugar and smoke until it just starts to get crisp.  Remove from smoker and let it cool.  You’ll have some the tastiest pork you’ve ever cooked.

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