Summer means smokers!

[TinkTanker]

Will do.

Tonight I'm just going to get some country-style ribs and throw them in the Dutch oven for a couple of hours. We've been passing the crud around for weeks now and although I'm feeling better, I don't feel like messing around with the grill/smoker. It won't be as good as those cooked outside, but they'll be better than what I could get in a restaurant.

[Pearl@32]

Sizzle, but don't burn.

Those looked a little burnt to me.

Char needs to complement the meat — grill marks on hot dogs (yum!) or steaks with some burnt edges — but with any food that gets grilled, if there's too much char, it ruins the meal! I wish our Famous Dave's recognized this. They char a lot of my orders (burgers & ribs especially) but they charred the heck out of the cedar plank salmon. SALMON?! Seriously? All it should have is GRILL MARKS. Chili's has excellent ribs compared to Famous Dave's.

[TinkTanker]

No pics of the country-style ribs cooked in the oven. Nowhere near as good as cooked outdoors, but still pretty darned good.

I got a little honey-mustard and lightly coated the ribs and used some OTC rib rub, let them rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Threw them in a deep pan and cooked at about 350 for about an hour and a half or so. Poured off the grease/liquid. Sliced some Vidalia onions & bell peppers and put them in another pan and transferred the ribs to second pan. Why use a second pan? Because I'm not cleaning up after myself. Anyway, the peppers and onions are so the ribs sit off the bottom of the pan and roast some and get browned some. Coat with sauce and cook for a while longer, until Ann hollers and asks if supper is ever going to be done. Very little grease was left, so the peppers and onions were good eats too.

Again, not as good as anything cooked outside, but I didn't feel like fooling with the grill.

[Eric]

Sounds tasty!  I love that you threw in some onions and peppers.  Mmm...

[Eric]

Since we were hosting the monthly potluck, I thought I'd try one of the three small Boston butts with below sauce.  Two parts Sriraja Panich and one part beer (Killian's Irish Red), injected about every inch or two. 
It turned out surprisingly tasty, but not overpowering or spicy-hot.  The garlic in the sauce seemed to distribute throughout though streaks of tomato were prominent.  It was a small, but noticeable difference. I wasn't sure how our friend (who is a Thai immigrant) would react to my adding beer, but she wholly approved.  Good timing for her, as she'll be at her company's booth at the National Capital Barbecue Battle in D.C. next weekend. ;-)

Unfortunately, one probably has to go to an Asian or International grocery to get the sauce.

A local friend works with a company which distributes Siraja Panich chili sauce.  It's a slow-aged and preservative-free sauce that I found to be wonderful.  It has a nice garlicky flavor to it, and is not just pure heat.  I understand it's mostly found in "international" food stores.

I don't normally inject anything into a Boston butt (giggity), but I'd really love to try it sometime.  I just think the flavors would work very well.  If not injected, even poured directly over some pulled pork may be tasty.

[Spooky]

Made a dry rub out of a bunch of spices (the base being spices from El Gaucho steak house) in the cupboard and coated several thick cuts of top sirloin last night to be grilled latter today. I'll take some pics and post them latter.

[TinkTanker]

Summer is a great time to get outside and grill a delicious meal. Here are a few basic safety rules and outdoor-cooking tips to help make sure you and your family enjoy a tasty, safe summer cookout.

    Marinate your ribs in bourbon before barbecuing. The best way to do this is by pouring the whiskey down your throat.

    One safety tip to keep in mind while barbecuing is that you should never, ever light your house on fire.

    It's important that you choose the right kind of fire for grilling meat. Class D magnesium-based fires are not the right kind of fire for grilling meat.

    Whatever you do, don't shout the phrase "Johnsonville brats!" at the top of your lungs. Don't let your neighbors do that, either.

    Do you have an entire set of tableware designed with a playful, summery watermelon-slice theme? Well, isn't that adorable. Let me see that spoon! Even the spoon is a little watermelon. Honey, come here and look at this spoon.

    Don't forget to repeatedly baste your cooking pork in barbecue sauce, which will "mask the spoiled taste."
    The endangered Cebu cinnamon tree of the Philippines is the best firewood for grilling. Use anything less, and you might as well be cooking your food on top of smoldering raccoon gao se.

    For optimal flavor, raise your own animals, make your own charcoal, and distill your own vinegar. For passable flavor, head on down to Smokey's Ribs & Things out by the airport.

    When barbecuing veggie burgers, be sure to tie your long hair back. That will keep it away from the flames, you stupid hippie.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/hosting-a-barbecue,8129/

[Eric]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/hosting-a-barbecue,8129/

I'll keep those in mind next week.

[Eric]

Trying some locally-grown Angus burgers with bacon mixed in tonight.  Tomorrow we'll see if we can get our two Delmonico steaks to be as wonderful as the one I had from the butcher shop's next-door restaurant.  We don't normally splurge on pricey steaks, but we'll call it research for when our parents come over. Yeah, that's the ticket. 

I also ordered a 8-10lb Boston butt from them for next week. They don't raise pork, but I'm told their pork is locally-grown
(and yes, Pearl, they do call it "grown"). 

From their website, but mine looked about like this.  Nothing fancy at all, but it's the absolute best steak I've had in years:

[TinkTanker]

I'll have to say that the 'reverse-sear' method of cooking steaks produced the best I've ever had.