Foreign beer and Smoked meat: Part 1

As usual, the weekend affords me plenty of time to not do my research or other work associated with the research and to cook.  Seeing as how it is summer time, it seems only fitting that one should make proper use of the grill whenever possible.  So two nights ago as I was putting a glass into the freezer to get a nice chill before I poured a beer into it (it was a miller lite… I know what you’re gonna, but someone has to drink the leftover beer!) and I noticed a bag of ribs I had bought from the butcher.  Unsure how I had forgotten about a large quantity of spare ribs, I defrosted them in the fridge over night.

The next afternoon (friday) I put together my special dry rub.  Now, I’m not about to tell you all the ingredients and certainly not all the ratios, but I happen to believe that a good rub for smoking follows this basic outline: Brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powder, plus or minus cayanne pepper for heat.  On top of this, if you have any particular spices you want to use for your particular meat, add them to the dry rub.  Please note this basic rub recipe is tending towards more of a BBQ style, and of BBQ styles, more Kansas than Memphis or Carolina.  For those you can remove the brown sugar (Memphis doesnt have it) or you can add cumin (carolina).  I happen to also add a little cumin also to my dry rub, among other things.  I’m not a strick regional BBQ-ist, I just cook what I like!  So I rub down the meat and let it sit in the fridge for another 24 hrs or so, before I start the charcoal.

Now, when I am ready to smoke meat, there are some things to consider.  One involves the type of meat.  The fattier the meat, the lower the temp and more time you should have to break down the fats and form gelatin (rest phase, after smoking), which lets the meat have some texture as you eat, and not just be soft as pudding.  The next quesiton is “what kind of smoke flavor do you want?”.  There is applewood, hickor, mesquite…. all depends on your personal favorite.  Me, I like mesquite for beef and applewood for pig.  Another is a question of how in the heck can I smoke meat on a regular charcoal grill?  I’ve found that if I set the hot coals to one side of my grill, wrap the meat in aluminum foil and set that at the other end of the grill, and put the lid so that the airflow is over the meats, I get more of a convection style cooking going on, and lets me cook meat without the fire having direct access to the meat.  I also found (this may be specific to me) that if i tilt my grill at about a 10 degree angle and put the coals on the high end, I can better regulate the temp of the coals, but that’s just me!

When it’s time to cook, since the grill is much smaller than a regular smoker, wrap the meat in aluminum foil.  be sure to add a little oil, just a touch, and some apple cider vinegar to the aluminum and seal it up nice, so that the seals are rolled over each other and rolled up… not just layers of aluminum.  This will let you open them to check on how the meat is cooking, and retain moisture.  I say, for ribs, since they are so thin, cook for about an hour, to an hour and a half on the grill while covered in the aluminum foil.  This should give you plenty of time to take your favorite wood chips (remember I mentioned them above?) in water.  Make sure they soak for a while, the longer the soak, the more smoke you’ll get from them.

Dont forget, between each step, you should probably consume some beer.  Today I chose to drink A Keller Bier St. Georgen Brau, a Chimay Blanche, and a bottle of Leffe blonde.  The St. Georgen Brau was actually my least favorite of the bunch, it was very much sweeter than I prefer, almost had the molasses like taste that I dislike so much from Porter style beers.  Had good head and fine carbonation, but I just could not get past the sweetness to taste any other flavors.  This said, moving onto the Chimay was a delight. Following the sweet German beer, this bitter and nicely hopped Belgian beer was a treat.  I’m also always amazed (and slightly jealous) of the near perfect head that you can get from pouring a Chimay.  I cant get my beer to make that, and I think it has to deal with the malts….  Anyway, the Leffe was a beer I hadnt had in a very long time, and I had it with the dinner.  It went very well with the peppery taste of the ribs, and was a nice counter to the saltiness as well.  But, back to the smoking….

When the ribs look like they have been cooked fairly well (remember, these arent real olde fashioned smoked ribs, we’re improvising on a friendly backyard grill), remove the aluminum foil and add some of the soaked woodchips to the charcoal.  Be sure to cover with the vent over the meats, placed away from the direct heat again, and sit back and wait.  Soon the smoke should be pouring out of the vent.  You can get about 15 minutes or so of smoke from one handful of the woodchips, so, depending on what type of meat you want to cook (for brisket, soak more chips for longer smoking, ribs use the shortest), I’d suggest about 3 sessions of smoking should do the trick.  Once again, the thicker the meat, after you remove it from the fire you should be able to cut it and see the smoke line, the distance the smoke was able to penetrate the meat.

Let the ribs set for about 15 minutes and serve!  Be sure to have the cold beer ready and, maybe if you choose, a side dish.  Me, tonight, I did not choose green vegetables.