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Ranking the BBQ Meats

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I visit many internet sites during the day and one of my favorites is Deadspin.  It is basically a sports website for people with little time to read or short attention spans.  They throw some humor in there as well and break stories about imaginary girlfriends and stuff like that.  Last week Deadspin had an article which ranked the best flavors of doughnuts.  It is not sports related, but I am a fan of doughnuts so I read to find out  if my favorite was near the top.  Vital information that I could not live without.  Little did I know that if this article was a BBQ contest I would be ostrasized for shiggin.  Yeah I am stealing the idea ( thanks Drew Magary ) and writing my own article ranking the BBQ meats.  I will list the meat first then give my reasoning as to why it is superior to the meats beneath it.

1.  Burnt Ends  (Brisket point)- This is my favorite thing to order at any BBQ restaurant.  I am from KC what do you expect.  Tiny little fatty morsels of beefy goodness.  If they were smaller I would swear this is what the fairies used for fairy dust. They are sooooo good.  Smothered in sauce with extra bark.  You just can’t beat them.

2. Brisket  (flat) -  If burnt ends were Miss America then brisket is a close runner up.  When done right it is better than prime rib to me.  The fat just melts in your mouth like butter.  Most people will have a brisket sandwich.  My question is,  Why do you need the bread?

3.  Spare Ribs (St Louis Cut) -  I specify the St. Louis cut because I do not like eating the rib tips.  Too much work for me.  I like the extra flavor these ribs provide in comparison to the baby back ribs.  Ribs are very versatile.  You can have them from spicy to sweet and they are always good.

4.  Turkey -  I already hear the gasps from the audience.  Yes smoked turkey.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I could eat turkey any day of the year.  Brine it, inject it, rub it and smoke it.  Always good.

5.  Pork Shoulder (Boston Butt) -  I had never had pulled pork till about 6 years ago.  My mom always called it a pork roast and roasted it in the oven seasoned with salt, pepper and caraway seeds.  Served with dumplings and brown pork gravy.  Wow it was good!  When I made my first shoulder I was amazed how much more flavor this cut of meat had when cooked in a smoker.  This cut of meat is literally a sponge for flavor.

6.  Pork Belly/Bacon -  Now this ranks this high on the list because of one thing BACON!  When I was five years old,  I ate a whole pound of bacon for lunch while my mom was visiting with my dad and his golfing buddy.  Kind of a badge of honor I think.  I have never had the rest of the belly, but hope to remedy that soon.

7.  Tri-Tip -  This is a nod to all my California buddies I met at the American Royal last fall.  This piece of meat is rapidly gaining popularity across the US.  It tastes like the best steak at about half the price.  My thanks to El Fuego Fiasco BBQ Team for the Santa Maria spice.  I have not forgotten that I owe you some Drapers AP Rub.

8.  Babyback Ribs – See spare ribs above.  These little guys have just a little less flavor than spares or they would be higher on the list.

beef

9.  Beef Ribs – Like brisket on a stick.  They are juicy and delicious and we fight over them at Christmas after the prime rib is carved.  Smoked on the BBQ they are even better.

10.  Chicken -  White meat or dark meat everyone loves chicken.  The trick is to keep it moist and get some flavor into that meat.  It rounds out the top 10.

11.  Pork Loin -  Living high on the hog as they say.  You can roast it whole or divide into chops.  Stuff it with apples or wrap it in bacon this makes a great dinner.

12.  Ham -  Most BBQ joints around KC do not cook a whole bone in ham.  They cook the processed ham loaf that you can get in any grocery store deli around town.  The process of making your own ham is very long.  It takes weeks and even months to get the ham cured and smoked.   That being said, it would be nice to have bone in smoked ham at a local BBQ restaurant.

13.  Pork Picnic -  Incomplete.  I have never had a pork picnic.  Hopefully some day I will travel down south and have some but until then we will have to rate it an incomplete.

Now, this list is not all encompassing.  I intentionally left off sausage and went with the cuts of meat vs combined elements of sausage.  If I had put it on the list,  it would have been pretty high on the list.  It is not good for me and I love it.  This is my opinion only and does not represent the views of Drapers BBQ ( with the exception of leaving mutton off the list).  You know what opinions are like…everyone’s got one.  So give them to me.  This post is meant to start a discussion.  Please post at the bottom of the article and tell me why you agree or disagree with me.  Use our new share buttons and get your friends to sound off on the subject or post it to your favorite Facebook group.  Lets discuss this cause I am sure pork picnic is too good to be left in the south and burnt ends are too good to be left to KC.

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DBQ at the Ky State BBQ Festival

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 Hot off the presses from last night’s Getting’ Sauced with Draper’s BBQ and the Kentucky State BBQ Festival (so dubbed KSBF from here forward because that is a lot to read) webpage, I have been asked to do the cooking demonstrations for the 2nd Ever Kentucky State BBQ Festival.  I am both honored and humbled by being asked to do this by Brad Simmon’s and the organizers of the event.

For those that were not able to attend last year’s event and missed Brad and I talking about it last night on the radio show let me attempt to describe just what this festival is all about.  The KSBF is loosely based on the Big Apple Block Party.  The organizers invite the best of the best in the world of barbecue out to cook for thousands of new friends.  In short, Joe Consumer can come out and eat the barbecue of world class pitmasters.  The list of pitmasters for this event is impressive to say the least, a definite who’s who of Q.  To get to share an event with the likes of Carey Bringle (Peg Leg Porker BBQ), Moe Cason (Ponderosa BBQ), Pete and Melissa Cookston (Yazoo’s Delta Q), Shelly Hunt (Desperados Barbecue) and Craig Kimmel (Firehouse BBQ) is an honor.

Add to that being asked to sit in for none other than Dr. BBQ, mister Ray Lampe is humbling to say the least.  Ray did amazing cooking demonstrations last year and to say one could ever replace him would be a mistake.  Ray is one of my personal bbq heroes, I got to tell him that at last years KSBF when were vending barbeque sauce and rub.  Ray was such a great guy he even used our products during his demonstrations.  The first barbecue related book I ever read was Ray’s Big Time Barbecue.  Ray has had a great influence on not only me, but a whole generation of barbecue pitmasters and I will forever be in his debt.  I can only do my best to live up to the excepti”onal standard that Ray set at last year’s KSBF.

So what can you expect from the demos this year?  Great competition tips adapted for the backyard and awesome samples cooked on a pit that anyone can use.  That’s right we will have a limited amount of samples during each class.  Mike and I have been working on a curriculum for our classes that is based on our Salt, Smoke, Meat concept.  I took this simplified concept and compressed it even further to work in a 30min demonstration.

On Saturday, September 8th I will be doing the following demos:

  • 12:30pm – Chicken – I will show you how to make competition lollipop chicken legs and let you taste them.  You will also get recipes and instruction for whole and spatchcocked chicken as well.
  • 2:30pm – Ribs – We will discuss baby backs vs spare ribs, go over how to properly trim ribs and I will give you instructions on how to cook 4hr ribs.
  • 4:45pm – Pulled Pork – We will coverBoston butts vs whole shoulders, proper trimming, proper injection and how to cook including our competition timeline.
  • 5:30pm – Brisket – I will cover picking a proper brisket, how to trim correctly, injection recommendations and of course how to cook a great brisket.

On Sunday, Sept 9th I will be doing these:

  • 11:15am – Tailgating – It’s all about easy and great entertaining with this demo.  Moink balls, wings, bacon explosion I got it all covered.
  • 1:30pm – Holiday on the Pit – Give the oven a break, I will show you how to great turkey and ham on your smoker.

We will be cooking all of this on Green Mountain Grill’s pellet grills.  We are proud to be featuring the GMG as part of the cooking process because they are a very affordable, highly capable and easy to use barbecue pit.  These pits with just a little bit of know how and anyone can be a super star in their backyard.

In addition to the demo’s we will also have our booth set up selling our sauce and rub. Danvillewas great to Draper’s BBQ last year and we sold out of sauce and rub.  We are coming prepared this year and look forward to meeting even more new friends and visiting with the fans we made last year.

As you can see this year’s Kentucky State BBQ Festival is a big event for Draper’s BBQ and we have gone “all in” on it.  We can’t wait to get there and are proud to be apart of this event!  See you there!

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Drapers Smokin Maple Glaze

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Holidays that fall on Wednesday are the worst.  No long weekend and having to go back to work the next day make it tough to fit in a BBQ.  I had relatives in town who always like me to BBQ for them, so we cooked a bacon explosion for breakfast on the 4th of July.  Now a lot has been made of bacon explosions at Draper’s recently.  Congratulations to Shane and Mike for being selected to participate in the Chile Pepper Magazine Perfect Rib Challenge in Houston, TX and for there ABT stuffed bacon explosion making it into Chile Pepper Magazine in the near future.

I love bacon explosions.  We usually have them with eggs on biscuits as part of a breakfast sandwich but most of my family did not want just BBQ sauce to top it off.  I had to come up with something different but somehing that still said breakfast.  I took a chance and mixed 2 tablespoons of Drapers Smokin Sauce with 2 tablespoons of maple (flavored) syrup (this is all I needed to glaze but you could make more for dipping if you want).  I used this to glaze my bacon explosion the last 5 minutes of cooking.  It took this bacon explosion to the next level.  The syrup really complimented the Draper’s Smokin Sauce.  The maple flavor of the syrup combined well with some of the unique ingredients and flavors that are in the BBQ sauce.  It was sweet. It was salty. It was savory.  It was everything you ever wanted for breakfast.

After breakfast, I thought about what else I could use this glaze on.  It would be great on a pork chop or pork loin.  I think my kids would like to dunk chicken nuggets in it.  I would put it on grilled pineapple and serve over ice cream for dessert.  I think it would be fantastic with Moink Balls.  Just use Draper’s Smokin sauce for the BBQ sauce and replace the grape jelly with the syrup.  The possibilities with this are endless.

I talked to Shane about what I had done and he confirmed that in competition many teams using Draper’s Smokin’ Sauce are cutting it with agave or honey in order to achieve a glazing affect.  The portions Shane mentioned were a 2 to 1 mix of sauce to agave and that he really likes to add some extra spice to it for a nice sweet heat.  Shane also let the cat out of the bag that the next sauce (currently in testing now at the production facility) will be this sweeter competition glaze.

I would love to get some feedback on this and see if anyone else likes the idea.  If  you make and use the glaze let me know what you used it on and if it was good.  I will tweet out the best ones and give you credit if you leave a twitter handle.  You can always tweet directly to me @qsyourdaddy.  I would love to hear from some Draper’s fans.  Get creative folks.  Talk to ya soon.

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DBQ Atomic Bacon Explosion (ABT meets BE)

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Last week I had to come up with a recipe for a “cooks choice” entry at a small unsanctioned barbecue competition.  Truth be told I relish doing these smaller unsanctioned events since many of the larger, sanctioned events have lost their luster for me personally.  I don’t know if it is the expense of the larger entry fees or the pressure to do well, but the larger events have just lost favor with me.   I have come to love these smaller events because we can go out as a team, have a good time, experiment and typically we do pretty well.  These events are refreshing and much needed.  

After slogging through a few cook books and bouncing around the internet I had a few ideas in mind.  It had been awhile since I had cooked a Bacon Explosion and I was craving one, so I figured that was a good place to start.  I also hadn’t had a A.B.T. in well over a year.  So that was the spark.  I started trying to figure out how I could make this work.  I knew there wouldn’t be any time to practice the dish before the competition so all the trial and error would have to be done in my head.  This violates rule 1 of competition – don’t try new stuff at competitions.  Of course that rule violates my number 1 rule….have fun no matter what.  Give you one guess as to which one I went with.   

So of course I cooked it and turned it in.  Unfortunately I don’t think the judges knew what to make of it since we finished in the middle of the pack for that category.  The people at the competition who were walking by loved it and raved about it, that was enough for me.  So I figured why not post this for the world to see and make use of.

In the interest of full disclosure I am not trying to take credit for this mishmash of recipes, nor am I claiming I thought of it first.  It was truly an original idea, in that I had no previous knowledge of existence of a bacon explosion with an A.B.T. in it.  Given that the internet is filled with billions of talented chefs then I have to imagine somehow, somewhere, someone has done something similar before now.  So before I get any hate mail about “hey you stole my idea,” congrats on thinking of it before me and shame on you for not calling and telling me about it! 

Without further delay here it is.  One part Bacon Explosion, one part A.B.T and two parts awesome that I like to call the DBQ ABE (Atomic Bacon Explosion). 

Ingredients:
2 Packages of thick cut bacon
1 package of your favorite brats
1/4C Fromaggio blend cheese (Asiago, Parmesean, Romano)
3-6 Jalapenos (size dependent)
1 package cream cheese
1 bottle Draper’s Smokin’ Sauce
1 bottle Draper’s A.P. Rub

Step 1
Wash, cap and core your jalapenos.  Using a tool such as the “Pepper Whipper” really speeds up this process.  If you’ve never seen a Pepper Whipper it is the clear plastic tool on the cutting board.  They are very inexpensive, simple and easy to use and if you do very many A.B.T.s then you need one.
Step 2
Place cream cheese in a bowl, either put in the microwave for a couple of seconds to soften or allow to sit out for 20-30min on your counter to aid in easier mixing.  Add 1/4c of the mixed cheese, 1 ½ TBS of AP Rub and 3 TBS of Smokin Sauce to cream cheese and mix well.  The mixing can of course take place in a stand mixer on the low setting.   A note on the mixed cheese, you can use any cheese you wish, I have been a fan of the sharper, dry cheeses in my A.B.T.s so that is what I went with here.  The Parmesan, Romano and Asiago blend works well.
Step 3
Place cheese mixture into a plastic ziptop bag.  Remove one corner of bag and pipe cheese mixture into jalapenos.  Make sure you get the cheese all the way to the bottom of each jalapeno.
Step 4
Lay bacon out on cutting board, making a bacon weave.  Coat completed weave with AP Rub.
Step 4
Remove casings from brats, mix meat together and then spread into one even layer on the bacon weave.  Dust sausage with AP Rub and then drizzle with Smokin’ Sauce.
Step 5
Cut the tip off of one jalapeno.  Place it in the middle of weave / sausage canvas and then place a jalapeno on either side of it.  This will create one long jalapeno.
Step 6
Roll weave and sausage around the jalapenos forming a roll.  Dust with more AP Rub.
Step 7
Smoke on a 250 degree pit until internal temp reaches at least 145 degrees or until you achieve the firmness and color you are looking for.  I like a more direct heat or cooking on the side of the pit with the most heat to ensure the bacon gets fully cooked.  Brush with Smokin’ Sauce the last 15min of cook time and add a second coat just as you are removing from the pit.
Step 8
Let cool for at least 25min before slicing to allow the cream cheese to solidify again and enjoy.

Notes – There are a million and one changes that can easily be made to this recipe.  That is the core of the genius of the basic Bacon Explosion that Jason Day came up with.  If you don’t own the book he wrote with Aaron Chronister (BBQ Makes Everything Better) go check it out, its a great book full of ideas.  

Additions I would consider to this recipe?  Maybe adding chopped onion to the sausage layer or maybe even some bleu cheese.  Adding a small piece of pineapple or other fruit inside the jalapeno before you pipe the cream cheese in.  Using two jalapenos stacked on one another to form a “figure 8″ design in the middle of the roll.  Or maybe even figuring how how to do 4 peppers stacked together to form something akin to a four leaf clover.  Literally the options are endless, use your imagine, don’t be afraid to explore and for goodness sake have FUN with it.  

-Until next time folks….Love Peace and Pork Grease!

Shane

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