Ideas for BBQ - (one for Papoo)
Discussion
Right. We're having a housewarming BBQ in a few weeks and will need to feed around 25-30 people using an 18" Weber. The plan is to do a large slab of some form of slow-cooked meat, possibly followed by something else cooked quickly straight after that's been taken out.
Anyone have any ideas for what sort of meats would work well for this? For the slow cooked meat, I'm considering perhaps doing a mutton leg, but I have no idea what sort of treatment this would need. Not sure about the fast-cooked one either. Maybe a large piece of beef sirloin?
Would welcome any suggestions.
Anyone have any ideas for what sort of meats would work well for this? For the slow cooked meat, I'm considering perhaps doing a mutton leg, but I have no idea what sort of treatment this would need. Not sure about the fast-cooked one either. Maybe a large piece of beef sirloin?
Would welcome any suggestions.
paulmurr said:
Slow cooked: - Big rack of ribs or beef brisket.
Fast cooked: - a butterflied and boned leg of lamb marinated in garlic and rosemary.
I think ribs, then lamb. You'd be surprised how quickly a boned leg will cook pink.Fast cooked: - a butterflied and boned leg of lamb marinated in garlic and rosemary.
I just checked your location: could some crayfish or green-lipped mussels go on for the 'quick cook phase'?
Is sweetcorn in season yet to accompany the ribs?
I'm at work right now, but I'll be sure to get back to you in the next day or so. The one thing I'd say about ribs, is that you'll need a lot more than an 18 weber to cook for 25, because you'll only have 50% of the grate available.
Stuff for big numbers? I'd be inclined to suggest a couple of brisket packer cuts, or a couple of pork shoulders. Ill be back with more later, sorry for the 'blackberry-induced abruptness' of the message..
Stuff for big numbers? I'd be inclined to suggest a couple of brisket packer cuts, or a couple of pork shoulders. Ill be back with more later, sorry for the 'blackberry-induced abruptness' of the message..
But only slightly O/T......
Someone sent me this the other day;
http://klg2a.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-bowl-bacon...
It reminded me of the BBQ'd bacon wrapped meatfest that was posted on here last year.
If you're having kids to the party, they'd love it!
Someone sent me this the other day;
http://klg2a.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-bowl-bacon...
It reminded me of the BBQ'd bacon wrapped meatfest that was posted on here last year.
If you're having kids to the party, they'd love it!
Slight change to the menu, but what about some Tandoori Chicken marinated the day before easy and tasty as well as another long slow cooking dish, such as Leg of Lamb Moroccan style with Harissa and other spices marinated overnight.
Served with a Cucumber Raita & Dhal & simple flat breads
Served with a Cucumber Raita & Dhal & simple flat breads
Alright, sorry for the delayed response. I'm safely back from 2 weeks in (the s
te part of) Las Vegas. I didn't get shot, which was a nice surprise, so here's my take on it..
First up, you're tight on space. But, I think it's doable, at least to get the meat done. You should be able to do two 8lb pork shoulders on the indirect side of an 18" Weber. Once pulled, that would feed a fair few folk, with appropriate sides, etc.
Failing that, I'll wager you know a few others who have the exact same BBQ as you. If you want to have a good day of beer drinking and Q'ing, get a couple more in, a couple of friends, and a boatload of beer. I like to do everything over the fire, so I often resort to this.
Tell me a little more about what you want to make, and I can give you some pretty solid recipes. Are you after 'good old fashioned', deep-south smokey BBQ? Or, are you just wanting to cook over fire for 25 people?
I'll start off assuming the former, if not, let me know, and I'll be right back with recipes for plenty of other stuff.
Traditional slow-smoking BBQ comprises of very few 'dishes'. So, when I do a good cook-out, I make them all: Brisket, pulled pork and ribs. That is the mainstay of the dirty south. It's simple, cheap and bloody delicious. To do them all on 18" Webers, you'll need two. One for brisket, one for pork, and the ribs can go on both of them after the pork and beef come off. If you ask around, you'll find some to borrow, I'm sure.
You'll need 2 or 3 meat thermometers - one for each pork shoulder (try to get one BIG shoulder), and one for the brisket. There is the rule of thumb - 90 mins per lb, but that's pretty much useless. You'll find that each chunk of meat from the same part of the animal may elect to cook faster or slower than the other.
You'll also need charcoal; briquettes or lump, whichever you're most comfortable with, briquettes are easier in a certain sense; in that you will know how many of them you need for an additional x-degrees of heat. Have a few bags of it. Each pit will be going for 10+ hours. Then you'll need a method of holding the BBQ temps at 225'f. Then you'll need wood.
You can't go wrong with hickory. It's readily available, and suits all three meats beautifully. If you can get cherry, use that with hickory on your ribs. You want chunks of wood, not chips, if possible. My technique on a Weber is to have the wood chunks pre-soaked for 2 hours. Then, add it when you add the meat, but don't feel the need to chuck it directly on the fire. Kettle grills aren't famous for being air-tight, and you could get the wood to flame up, buggering up your temperatures. Instead, I place a couple of good-sized wood chunks adjacent to the charcoal. Not quite touching, though. This will give the wood enough heat to smoulder and give off some wonderful thin blue smoke.
When the smoke stops, you need to add a little more. When adding charcoal periodically, look at the wood situation.
As for the meat, for 30 people, I'd do 10lbs of boneless pork shoulder (preferably 1 piece), a 10lb brisket (ask for a 'flat'), and as many racks of ribs as you fancy. Use baby back ribs. They cook faster, are more tender, and behave better. With the brisket, trim off excess external fat. You want about 1/4-1/3 inch layer on the outside. Enough to keep it moist, but thin enough to allow the smoke to get to the meat.
For simplicity's sake, I'd use the same rub on all three meats. They will taste very different after cooking.
A good rub to start with is 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup paprika, 1 tbsp cayenne powder, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp thyme. That's a generic, tasty Kansas City style rub.
Slather all the meats with a thin layer of hot-dog mustard. This helps the rub adhere to the meat. It will render away, help form a great bark and will not impart any flavour to the meat. Liberally (very liberally) coat the meats. On the ribs, just on the meat-side.
Get a spray bottle. In the spray bottle, you will concoct a 'spritz', which will be applied hourly. Use 2 cans of pineapple juice (will aid in crust-forming, and giving a great flavour), a few tbsps of apple cider vinegar (it has great tenderizing properties), a good few dashes of Worcester sauce (for savoury greatness) and about a tbsp of the remaining rub. Give that a good shake.
Here is what to do with your brisket and pork. I'll mention ribs after:
Now, your meat is rubbed and ready to go. Get your pits up to 250f. I know I said 225, but once the meat goes on, it'll come down to that. Add hickory and wait for the smoke to start rolling out.
Chuck on the two pork butts on one pit, brisket on the other, with a meat thermometer in each. You won't need to check the temp for a few hours yet, so you may want to leave them out for now.
Don't bring your meat up to room temp. Meat won't absorb smoke after it its 140'f. So, allow the most time possible by chilling the meat.
Now, it is a case of monitoring the pit temp. Leave the top vent 1/3 open at all times. Use the bottom vent to control the temp. When the bottom vent is fully open and you're slipping below 225, add a handful of lit charcoals, so that with the bottom cracked open, your somewhere around 235. As the temp drops below 225, crack the vent open some more.
Every hour or so, give the meat a generous spritzing, and add your coals. Minimize the 'lid off' time. Here is the good cheat; Once the internal temperature of the meat hits 140'f, it will not absorb more smoke; you are just heating it. So, double wrap it tightly in foil, and bung it in an oven at about 250-275'f. Do your best to wrap around the meat thermometer. It's a pain in the arse. The increased heat will be fine, because you've got it snuggle wrapped up, braising away.
Oh, I forgot to mention that in each foil 'parcel' add a couple of ounces of spritz. Not much, just enough to create some great steam. Your work is nearly done on the big boys.
Pull the brisket out at 190'f, and the pork at 205. The brisket will be thinly sliced (against the grain) and the pork shredded - it will disintegrate with minimal effort at this point. Don't slice or pull until everything is ready, however.
Once the big chunks are snuggly enjoying the oven, tackle the ribs. You've got them nicely rubbed up. Get your pits up to 250'f. They will take 5 hours, using the '2-2-1' method.
This means:
2 hours 'naked' (un-wrapped), basking in the smoke. Spritz at the beginning and at 1 hour.
2-hours tightly foil-wrapped (again, add a little spritz and a couple of big glugs of honey). Do this in the oven for ease. I chuck them all in a foil tray and snugly cover the tray with foil.
1 hour naked again, to firm up the meat and bark slightly. During the last 30 minutes, periodically brush BBQ sauce on them. Not before this point though, as it will burn.
You know the ribs are done when the bones twist easily with your fingers. This method will render fall-off the bone tender baby-backs.
This is going to take you some 12-15 hours. You'll be really drunk by the end, BUT:
The above method will get everything done as close as practicable to each other. That said, you'll need a cooler, and some newspaper/beach towels. As each meat gets cooked, remove it from the heat. Leave it in the foil (beef and pork) or re-wrap it. Wrap it in newspaper or beach towels and chuck it in the cooler. It'll stay hot in there for hours. If the ribs are done first, wrap them and bung them in.
When all is ready (factoring at least 45mins resting time for the pork and beef), get a friend to help serve:
Brisket: brush a layer of BBQ sauce on it, and thinly slice against the grain.
Pork: get 2 forks and shred the crap out of it. Pour your accumulated juices over it. Serve with cheap white bread and BBQ sauce on the side.
Ribs: one last thin coat of BBQ sauce, cut into individual ribs and pile on to a platter.
Eat. Enjoy. Take a nap. Don't wake up until the next day.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask away any questions you may have. I'm bound to have missed some points. Or PM me and I'll get back to you.
Above all, enjoy it. It's a great way to spend a day, and it yields spectacular results which will go down a treat.
te part of) Las Vegas. I didn't get shot, which was a nice surprise, so here's my take on it..First up, you're tight on space. But, I think it's doable, at least to get the meat done. You should be able to do two 8lb pork shoulders on the indirect side of an 18" Weber. Once pulled, that would feed a fair few folk, with appropriate sides, etc.
Failing that, I'll wager you know a few others who have the exact same BBQ as you. If you want to have a good day of beer drinking and Q'ing, get a couple more in, a couple of friends, and a boatload of beer. I like to do everything over the fire, so I often resort to this.
Tell me a little more about what you want to make, and I can give you some pretty solid recipes. Are you after 'good old fashioned', deep-south smokey BBQ? Or, are you just wanting to cook over fire for 25 people?
I'll start off assuming the former, if not, let me know, and I'll be right back with recipes for plenty of other stuff.
Traditional slow-smoking BBQ comprises of very few 'dishes'. So, when I do a good cook-out, I make them all: Brisket, pulled pork and ribs. That is the mainstay of the dirty south. It's simple, cheap and bloody delicious. To do them all on 18" Webers, you'll need two. One for brisket, one for pork, and the ribs can go on both of them after the pork and beef come off. If you ask around, you'll find some to borrow, I'm sure.
You'll need 2 or 3 meat thermometers - one for each pork shoulder (try to get one BIG shoulder), and one for the brisket. There is the rule of thumb - 90 mins per lb, but that's pretty much useless. You'll find that each chunk of meat from the same part of the animal may elect to cook faster or slower than the other.
You'll also need charcoal; briquettes or lump, whichever you're most comfortable with, briquettes are easier in a certain sense; in that you will know how many of them you need for an additional x-degrees of heat. Have a few bags of it. Each pit will be going for 10+ hours. Then you'll need a method of holding the BBQ temps at 225'f. Then you'll need wood.
You can't go wrong with hickory. It's readily available, and suits all three meats beautifully. If you can get cherry, use that with hickory on your ribs. You want chunks of wood, not chips, if possible. My technique on a Weber is to have the wood chunks pre-soaked for 2 hours. Then, add it when you add the meat, but don't feel the need to chuck it directly on the fire. Kettle grills aren't famous for being air-tight, and you could get the wood to flame up, buggering up your temperatures. Instead, I place a couple of good-sized wood chunks adjacent to the charcoal. Not quite touching, though. This will give the wood enough heat to smoulder and give off some wonderful thin blue smoke.
When the smoke stops, you need to add a little more. When adding charcoal periodically, look at the wood situation.
As for the meat, for 30 people, I'd do 10lbs of boneless pork shoulder (preferably 1 piece), a 10lb brisket (ask for a 'flat'), and as many racks of ribs as you fancy. Use baby back ribs. They cook faster, are more tender, and behave better. With the brisket, trim off excess external fat. You want about 1/4-1/3 inch layer on the outside. Enough to keep it moist, but thin enough to allow the smoke to get to the meat.
For simplicity's sake, I'd use the same rub on all three meats. They will taste very different after cooking.
A good rub to start with is 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup paprika, 1 tbsp cayenne powder, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp thyme. That's a generic, tasty Kansas City style rub.
Slather all the meats with a thin layer of hot-dog mustard. This helps the rub adhere to the meat. It will render away, help form a great bark and will not impart any flavour to the meat. Liberally (very liberally) coat the meats. On the ribs, just on the meat-side.
Get a spray bottle. In the spray bottle, you will concoct a 'spritz', which will be applied hourly. Use 2 cans of pineapple juice (will aid in crust-forming, and giving a great flavour), a few tbsps of apple cider vinegar (it has great tenderizing properties), a good few dashes of Worcester sauce (for savoury greatness) and about a tbsp of the remaining rub. Give that a good shake.
Here is what to do with your brisket and pork. I'll mention ribs after:
Now, your meat is rubbed and ready to go. Get your pits up to 250f. I know I said 225, but once the meat goes on, it'll come down to that. Add hickory and wait for the smoke to start rolling out.
Chuck on the two pork butts on one pit, brisket on the other, with a meat thermometer in each. You won't need to check the temp for a few hours yet, so you may want to leave them out for now.
Don't bring your meat up to room temp. Meat won't absorb smoke after it its 140'f. So, allow the most time possible by chilling the meat.
Now, it is a case of monitoring the pit temp. Leave the top vent 1/3 open at all times. Use the bottom vent to control the temp. When the bottom vent is fully open and you're slipping below 225, add a handful of lit charcoals, so that with the bottom cracked open, your somewhere around 235. As the temp drops below 225, crack the vent open some more.
Every hour or so, give the meat a generous spritzing, and add your coals. Minimize the 'lid off' time. Here is the good cheat; Once the internal temperature of the meat hits 140'f, it will not absorb more smoke; you are just heating it. So, double wrap it tightly in foil, and bung it in an oven at about 250-275'f. Do your best to wrap around the meat thermometer. It's a pain in the arse. The increased heat will be fine, because you've got it snuggle wrapped up, braising away.
Oh, I forgot to mention that in each foil 'parcel' add a couple of ounces of spritz. Not much, just enough to create some great steam. Your work is nearly done on the big boys.
Pull the brisket out at 190'f, and the pork at 205. The brisket will be thinly sliced (against the grain) and the pork shredded - it will disintegrate with minimal effort at this point. Don't slice or pull until everything is ready, however.
Once the big chunks are snuggly enjoying the oven, tackle the ribs. You've got them nicely rubbed up. Get your pits up to 250'f. They will take 5 hours, using the '2-2-1' method.
This means:
2 hours 'naked' (un-wrapped), basking in the smoke. Spritz at the beginning and at 1 hour.
2-hours tightly foil-wrapped (again, add a little spritz and a couple of big glugs of honey). Do this in the oven for ease. I chuck them all in a foil tray and snugly cover the tray with foil.
1 hour naked again, to firm up the meat and bark slightly. During the last 30 minutes, periodically brush BBQ sauce on them. Not before this point though, as it will burn.
You know the ribs are done when the bones twist easily with your fingers. This method will render fall-off the bone tender baby-backs.
This is going to take you some 12-15 hours. You'll be really drunk by the end, BUT:
The above method will get everything done as close as practicable to each other. That said, you'll need a cooler, and some newspaper/beach towels. As each meat gets cooked, remove it from the heat. Leave it in the foil (beef and pork) or re-wrap it. Wrap it in newspaper or beach towels and chuck it in the cooler. It'll stay hot in there for hours. If the ribs are done first, wrap them and bung them in.
When all is ready (factoring at least 45mins resting time for the pork and beef), get a friend to help serve:
Brisket: brush a layer of BBQ sauce on it, and thinly slice against the grain.
Pork: get 2 forks and shred the crap out of it. Pour your accumulated juices over it. Serve with cheap white bread and BBQ sauce on the side.
Ribs: one last thin coat of BBQ sauce, cut into individual ribs and pile on to a platter.
Eat. Enjoy. Take a nap. Don't wake up until the next day.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask away any questions you may have. I'm bound to have missed some points. Or PM me and I'll get back to you.
Above all, enjoy it. It's a great way to spend a day, and it yields spectacular results which will go down a treat.
Papoo said:
Alright, sorry for the delayed response. I'm safely back from 2 weeks in (the ste part of) Las Vegas.
wow!te part of) Las Vegas. We discovered 'Dickies' Pit BBQ fast food place in Las Vegas over Christmas, I am sure you must have given it a go while you were out there. Something like that would be great in London.
jazzybee said:
Papoo said:
Alright, sorry for the delayed response. I'm safely back from 2 weeks in (the ste part of) Las Vegas.
wow!te part of) Las Vegas. We discovered 'Dickies' Pit BBQ fast food place in Las Vegas over Christmas, I am sure you must have given it a go while you were out there. Something like that would be great in London.
I am, in all seriousness, pondering a big career change to open a BBQ shack in the UK. I think it's doable. Here, they're 10 a penny, but in the UK, I do think that there is a market for some true, slow-smoked pit BBQ. There are a few elements in the equation which need balancing, but I am actually having a sneaky peak.
It is fairly inexpensive fayre, so it relies on a high headcount. Thankfully, it is fast. Unfortunately, it is a gamble, because all the food must be made overnight. Making rent in London means making a veritable truckload of food the night before, with the hope of it all selling by dinner time. Ideally, the most efficient BBQ operations literally run out of food by the end of the working day. Location depending, I think that this determines weather it is a lunch-only or lunch and dinner place.
Word of mouth, I guess, as with everything in the service industry. I've looked at a few locations, and computed the amount of food I'd need to make (and sell), just to pay the rent. It is a LOT! Problem being, is that my BBQ shack would be AWESOME, therefore everything fresh, and all the other things that come with 'not cutting corners'.
I'll keep you posted!
Papoo said:
jazzybee said:
Papoo said:
Alright, sorry for the delayed response. I'm safely back from 2 weeks in (the ste part of) Las Vegas.
wow!te part of) Las Vegas. We discovered 'Dickies' Pit BBQ fast food place in Las Vegas over Christmas, I am sure you must have given it a go while you were out there. Something like that would be great in London.
I'll keep you posted!
We have been going to Bodeans here for years, but the quality and portions have really dropped over the past 12-18 months. We would most definately be customers if you open a place in West London! Fried Okra would be a must!
Wife wants a gas bbq for the summer (I prefer charcoal) but she wants to do a lot more this year, and is not so good managing the fire. We regularly cook for 12-15 on the weekends (wife is an awesome cook so everybody comes round to ours to eat on the weekends) any recommendations? Weber? Outback? looking to spend £200-£400 or so. Sorry if this is a thread hijack.
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