Meat Me in St. Louis

 Just a quick one--Costco had a 3-packs of St. Louis style ribs for 2 bucks a pound, so away we go. Usually I cut up the raw slabs into 4-rib sections, but today wanted to try a little experiment. Cooking the slabs whole and upright. I have 2 weber rib holders that i positioned to hold the ribs apart from each other and upright. Cooking temps and times were 235 degrees for 5 hours, inverting the ribs after 3 hours. At the 5 hour mark, I wrapped the slabs individually and put them in a hotel pan covered with foil to keep in the moisture, finishing them in the oven just shy of 250 degrees for another hour. Pictured above is at 3 hours just prior to flipping the ribs top to bottom.

Ready to wrap at 5 hours!

Eating time! As you can see, the ribs rendered beautifully. I cut them up and drizzled the juice back over them. Delicious!

Lamb Shoulder Roast

 This was one of those happenstance items that I probably would not have gotten had I not scored a marked down package of meat. The various bones in the lamb shoulder are intimidating to say the least--there's the shoulder itself, a big flat bone that I have no idea what it is--it looks the same as the big bone you'd pull out of a pork butt at the end of a cook, and a half dozen long ribs. There's also a bunch of cartilage and connective stuff. You get me? This is a weird chunk of meat. Originally I thought I'd braise it and just cook it til the meat fell off the bones, but it was too big for a 6.5 quart dutch oven, and too small for the 13 quart. So on to the weber kettle it went.

I seasoned it with just salt and pepper, placed a drip pan with some water below, and lit one side of the coal pile with cherry chunks on top. When the fire caught, and covered the grill and got the temp to about 250 degrees and left it alone for the next 4 hours, checking the temp periodically.

After 4 hours, I wrapped the roast in butcher paper, pouring the fat from the drip pan on the butcher paper, and over the meat before wrapping tightly and returning it to the grill. If you want the meat to be fall-apart tender, cook it to over 200 degrees internal temp. I was aiming for more chew so I choose to cook it to 185 degrees.

After another 3 hours, I pulled the roast and let it rest for 45 minutes before slicing. I sliced off 6 rib chops and did the best I could making slices of the remaining roast. There is a definite advantage to cooking it to 200+ degrees and just pulling all meat free if the bones.

Not a cut I would do again unless the markdown fairies bless me with another one. It was tasty, but a leg o' lamb is easier. The bark was delicious, and the flavor was good--just not something I'd go out of my way for. 

Meat on a Stick--A Really Big Stick!

Turns out turkey white meat is not the most popular protein at our Thanksgiving table. This year I got a small whole turkey, and 9 turkey thighs to smoke separately. The whole turkey was only 13 lbs, and it's gonna get rotisseried. This works really well with the Weber rotisserie attachment for the 22 inch kettle. The attachment is a 10 inch tall ring that sits between the kettle body and lid. The ring has a bracket to hold the electric motor, and pass thru holes for the spit. I prepared the turkey simply--just trussed it, and put salt and pepper in the cavity, and salt/pepper/baking powder on the outside of the bird. Thanks to J. Kenji Lopez Alt for the tip of adding the baking powder to aid in crisping the skin. Something about Ph levels--I don't know--I'm not a scientist. Let the turkey rest in the fridge after seasoning it to further dry the skin--I just did it for 4 hours, but overnite is better.

The grill setup I use is a slow n sear insert with charcoal lit at one end of the pile, and wood chunks placed on top of the pile. Put a drip pan under where the turkey is going to be to catch the smoked turkey fat and juices for the gravy.

Mount the spitted turkey on the rotisserie ring, cover, and ideally run the grill at 250 degrees til it's done (175 degrees in the thighs, 155 degrees in the breast). Mine takes about 4-5 hours. The slow n sear insert does a good job moderating the coal burning. This cook got away from me, and the grill temp spiked at 350 but I got it down to 280-300. Total cook time was 3.5 hours. So the lesson is PAY ATTENTION to your grill temp.

Pull the turkey when it hits the desired internal temps--they'll rise some while resting the bird for at least 20 to 40 minutes. Carve it up and enjoy. Strain the the smoked drippings for the gravy. Yum! 

Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back...Ribs!

A screaming deal at Costco Business made me come home with a 3 packs of Baby Back ribs. 97 cents a lb (works out to about $3 per slab. All the prep is standard--dry the slabs with towel, slash the bottom membrane, and cut in half (6 to 7 ribs per half), then season with your favorite rub. Mine was brown sugar, kosher salt, cumin, old bay, paprika, oregano, and red chili flakes.

This cook was on a weber kettle with the slow n sear insert for indirect cooking, and the weber rib stand to hold the slabs. I piled on some hickory chips and cherry chunks and got the temperature to a steady 250 degrees.

2 and a half hours into the cook, I flipped all the slabs bottom to top and front to back to cook them evenly.

Another hour and a half and the ribs were ready to get wrapped (in this case I just put them all in a tightly sealed pan) and go into a holding oven at 225 degrees for an hour.

Right out of the oven and ready for eating.

Good smoke penetration and the bark was fine. I was a little scared that I overcooked them. Baby backs are loin ribs and definitely run a little drier, but spooning some of the rendered fat/juice from the warming tray over the plated slab gave plenty of juice to dip the next bite-spot into.

All in all, a good cook. Ribs had some tooth, but came off the bone clean. $1.50 for a half slab--I'd take these over the costco hot dog.

Assorted Bone-in Pork Chops

How often are you at the store and pass by a screaming deal on assorted bone-in pork chops? Seems like every other week these things are on sale at one chain or another for something less than $2/lb. These are so quick and easy to cook, and for that price, they really can't be beat. Even if you you're feeding someone who doesn't want bone-in chops, you cut the meat off the bone of a loin rib chop, and then you get the cook's prerogative of gnawing on the bone yourself.

My basic quick easy way to cook these guys is to season them an hour or so before cooking and them put them right on a direct fire for about 3 minutes a side (these are skinny 1/2 inch chops.

This package had 4 rib loin chops, 2 t-bone chops (loin/fillet), and 2 shoulder chops. You can go any direction with the seasoning from the simplest Lawry's seasoned salt and cayenne, to a home made rub, to a wet marinade (Korean BBQ flavors would ROCK!)

To get good color and a little charring on these puppies, I had the grill open until flare-ups occurred--about 2 minutes on super hot coals, then cover for another 90 seconds and flip. Cook for another 3 minutes and remove them to rest for a few minutes in a warm pan. Serve with some BBQ sauce or just scarf them down. Sometimes I mop them with sauce on the grill to finish them, but too often I lose too much sauce that way. 

Ribs Again

Hey, we've been down this road over and over and over. But ribs keep coming in, and keep getting cooked, and keep getting eaten. I picked up some St. Louis cut ribs in a 3-slab pack at Costco Business, home of large format meat. Toweled them dry and cut each slab in half, then rubbed with a mixture of Diamond kosher salt, ground black pepper, red chili pepper flakes, smoked paprika, dried oregano, a little garlic powder, and a little ground white pepper (to complete the holy pepper trifecta (not counting the paprika).

Next I loaded the ribs onto the Weber with the Slow 'N Sear charcoal holder, and a Weber rib holder. Topped the charcoal with a hunk of cherry (I'm detecting a theme here), and closed the lid, getting the temperature to 275 degrees.

After an hour and a half, I spun the ribs 180 degrees (so top went to bottom, and front went to back) and closed the lid for another hour and a half at 250 to 275 degrees.

After the end of 3 hours total on the grill, unload the ribs into a hotel pan (or whatever will fit them) and cover tightly with foil. Place the pan in a 225 degree oven for between 1 and 2 hours, until the meat is practically falling off the bone. 

For those who want to work for their food, the ribs can be eaten without the going-in-the-oven step, but they are way more toothsome (al dente, steak-y) that way. Your monkey, your circus--enjoy them how you want. 

Pastrami

 For an easy pastrami, I recently picked up a bunch of meat-on-sale corned beef brisket points. After rinsing them off and drying them, I coated them in a thin layer of yellow mustard, and covered with equal parts of spice-grinder ground black pepper corns and coriander seeds.

Place the meat on the grill. As usual I'm using the Weber kettle, a Slow 'N Sear charcoal holder, and a chunk of cherry wood for smoke. The temp was about 275 for 4 hours.

After 4 hours, wrap in pink butcher paper and place back on the grill or in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours.

And finally, slice against the grain and enjoy in a fat stacked sandwich with sauerkraut and mustard!