I screwed up

Looks like I messed this up. My last post does link to Dr BBQ's blog, but he's not the guy who sent me the email. Dr BBQ is Ray Lampe and writes for Fiery-Foods. I had nothing to do with the creation of his blog.

Brian Pearcy is the BBQ Guy. He's got a great website where you can buy all sorts of BBQ related books, gooods and accessories. And he's got a great new blog. Check it out here.

Inspiration

It's good to see that people are reading my blog. I'm grateful for your comments and e-mails. I just got this one in my mail this morning. It's from one of the legends of the BBQ world. I'm honored to know that I've inspired him, because he has inspired me. Be sure to check him out.... Tell him I sent you.

"Hi,
I found your bbq blog site on the internet today and wanted to send a compliment. You’ve inspired me to start one as well. Have you seen the www.drbbqblog.com yet?
Thanks,

Brian Pearcy
aka "The BBQ Guy"
Phone: 734-459-6302
www.thebbqguy.com"

Friday after Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving came and went without a hitch. Very quiet. My wife spent most of the day in bed with a migrane. My daughter said that it didn't seem like a holiday. My father-in-law kept asking who was coming over. The turkey took less than 3 hours to cook. The leftovers are finished.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. We're going to have a very small dinner this year. Just me, the wife, kids and father-in-law. You see, my wife's mother died on July 3rd after a long battle with cancer.

So this year, we're staying close to home and celebrating quietly. I may smoke the turkey, but most likely, I'll do it in the oven using a recipe from last year's Bon Appetit magazine for "Roast Turkey with Prosciutto-Hazelnut Crust." I made this last year and it was excellent. Of course there will still be the home made cranberry sauce and stuffing, but it won't be a massive food feast.

I'm not sure we're doing the right thing by keeping the holiday small. My wife wants a quiet day, so that's what we'll have, but I know the kids are disappointed. Last year we had 18 people (which is just some very close relatives) for the day with a 27lb turkey. (This year I bought a 13lb turkey which my daughter said looks like a chicken.) I cooked for at least 24 hours straight and made food for two different houses with another 4 in the second home.

I hope this is the right way to mourn, keeping things small, but I wonder if a return to normal would be better. Last year's Thanksgiving was marred by my wife's aunt's stroke (she lives in the apartment upstairs) and Christmas was marred by my mother-in-law's cancer diagnosis. I know I'm ready to return to normal, but I still have both my parents. So, we'll keep it small and see how it goes.

Restaurant Review - Pearson's Texas BBQ

Pearson's Texas BBQ
170 East 81st Street
New York City, 10028
(212) 288-2700

Thursday I finally had a chance to go to Pearson's for dinner. Pearson's Texas BBQ is something of a NYC legend. I don't know all the facts, but apparently Robert Pearson, who is English, opened his first BBQ place in Conneticut some 20 years ago. After that he moved it to Jackson Heights, Queens and now has moved on the the toney upper east side of Manhattan. His was the first real pit in NYC.

Pearson's Texas BBQ is a small restaurant, with an even smaller bar area. The food is served in red plastic trays with red and white checked paper liners. If you saw the old show "The Restaurant" of Rocco's you get the idea. But Pearson's is much more down scale. It's very much like Rudy's in Austin Texas. Unlike all the other BBQ joints in NY, you know you're approaching Pearson's by the smell of the pit. It permeates the surrounding neighborhood.

So, how's the food?

I started with hush puppies with a chipolte dip ($4.00). I was served 7 tablespoon sized hush puppies, with the dip in a plastic take out container. The hush puppies were awful. They were burnt and the chipolte dip had absolutely no kick to it. Don't waste your money. Virgil's has some great hush puppies.

I ordered the two meat platter of barbecued brisket and barbecued pork shoulder. ($17.95) The brisket was cooked to perfection. Tender, moist and nicely, if a bit bland, flavored. It had a nice bark and a pink smoke ring. When I was trained to judge brisket for KCBS contests, one of the tests was to pull the beef slightly, it should give a bit, like an accordion opening up. Pearson's passed with flying colors.

The pork, which was pulled, was also excellent. It had a dark bark and the meat was moist. It had just the right mouth feel, tender and a little chewy, but not mushy. The menu also had an additional choice of barbecued North Carolina style pork. I asked the waiter the difference was and he wasn't able to define either style correctly. The only thing he could say is that the NC style had a sauce on it.

The meats came with a side of coleslaw which was served in a plastic takeout container. The coleslaw was a standard NY style coleslaw, unremarkable and dull.

After trying the meats as presented, naked and without sauce, I sampled the two sauces on the table. One was "mild" and the other "spicy", but neither had much bite to them. Now in true Texas BBQ, sauces are only served grugdingly. If they serve a sauce at all, it has great flavor and a definite heat to it. Both of Pearson's sauces miss the mark.

I also ordered the sweet ice tea. Good, but not great. Go to Daisy May's if you want sweet ice tea. It's much much better.

Overall, Pearson's has the best BBQ meat I've ever had in NYC, with the exception of my own. But, the sauces, sides and appetizers were all a disappointment. Pearson's is also fairly pricey, but that's to be expected based on its location. Will I be back? - hell yeah, but I think I'll stay with the sandwiches.

The plan

John Lennon once said that one of the reasons that the Beatles got so big was that they never planned on being the biggest band in the world. They concentrated on the next small step. If we can get a booking, if we can get a single recored, if we can get a number one. etc. Always keep things in small steps.

So in it's basic form, this is my concept to create winning BBQ.

1. Form a BBQ team and enter and win some State BBQ contests.
2. Start a small cateering business selling BBQ to established delis and restaurants in Brooklyn
3. Win some more contests
4. Start my own BBQ/Cateering company
5. Win some sauce/rub contests
6. Start selling rubs, sauces, on the internet
7. Start my own BBQ restaurant
8. Francishe the restaraunt
9. Retire.
10. Enter and win some BBQ contests.

Ten easy steps that are so much more complicated then I orginally realized. Each step is filled with pitt falls and traps. Obviously there are many many more steps involved. Licensing, incorporation, etc. Right now money is my big issue. I'm working on getting that resolved then I can move on to the others.

Best BBQ Contests

Here's the list of best BBQ contests as posted by Travel Magazine.

10. National Capital Barbecue Battle
9. Massachusetts State BBQ & Blues Festival
8. Canadian Barbecue & Chili Festival
7. National Championship Barbecue Cook-Off
6. Big Pig Jig
5. Blue Ridge BBQ Festival
4. World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest
3. Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue
2. American Royal Barbecue
1. Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Contest

And here's there article about them. Enjoy.

Baby Back to BBQ

I started this blog to talk about BBQ and how I would create award winning food. So, let's get back on topic. Today I experimented with Baby Back Ribs. I usually cook Spare Ribs, but they didnt look so good at the butcher, so, today it's baby backs.

I bought a 10lb cyrovac package of Swift Baby Back Ribs from Costco. A lot of people I know think baby back ribs are from young pigs. Not so. They're just a different cut of meat from traditional spare ribs and usually cost about 3 times more.

Part of my experimenting today was foiling my meat. I usually don't foil my meat. I'm not dependent on the "Texas Crutch" but I noticed a lot of people doing this at BBQ contests. So why not? Let's give it a shot. The other was using a rub sent to me by Solid Kick of the BBQ-Brethren. He sent me a bottle of Blues Hog Dry Rub.

So I rubbed the ribs with Blues Hog after a slather of French's mustard. Let sit for a few minutes, till everything was tacky.

Temp: 64 at 1:00 pm when they went on to 60 when they came off at 5:30 pm
Wind: 12 to 18 mph
Fuel: Charcoal and Cherry wood chunks. No water pan.
Cooked the ribs standing vertically in a rib rack.
Rub: Blues Hog Dry Rub
Slather: French's Mustard
Mop: Apple juice, some rub, Chiptole Tabasco sauce and spices.
Cooking Temp: About 275-300. I don't know exactly as I don't use a thermometer.
Finishing Sauce: Mad Dog original, meat drippings and left over mop.

I put the ribs on the fire about 1:00. I added some cherry chips and let cook till about 2:00 pm. At 2:00, I mopped the ribs for the first time. Continued mopping every half hour after that. After smoking for 3 hours, removed the ribs and wrapped in aluminum foil (EEK!!! THE TEXAS CRUTCH!!!) with some honey and a little of the mop. Returned the ribs to the grill and cooked for one hour more. Mixed the meat juices from the foil packages with the sauce.
Took the ribs out of the foil, 2 of the three slabs were breaking apart as I moved them. One I thought was a bit over cooked.

I slathered them with the sauce and put the ribs over direct heat to carmelize the sauce for about 10 minutes turning often. Let them sit for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving. How'd they turn out?

Appearance: 2 (The meat of two of the slabs was falling off the bone and the slabs broke apart. All of the slabs were very very dark. I prefer a more red. The remaining slab appeared very dry when viewed from the side.)
Taste: 6 (The best tasting slab was the slab that I thought was a bit overcooked. Overall the rub and sauce combo was a little hotter than I was looking for and would not do well in a northern competition.)
Tenderness: 6 (Again, this is based on the "overcooked" slab. Every bite was very very tender, but a bit dry. The other two which were falling off the bone, were way too messy for competition cooking. However, they were excellent eating!)

Well, if this is any example of how I'd do at a contest, I have a long way to go to win one. There are a few tricks I would have used to present that "over cooked" slab. It probably could have done pretty well. But today was an experiment. I'm learning. And out of 10 lbs of meat, between 4 people, there were NO leftovers.

How did I rate this? Check out the Kansas City BBQ Society for their rules.
CD playing as I wrote this: Joe Jackson's greatest Hits

VOTE!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
I don't care who you vote for, but get out and vote.

So you want to be a BBQ Star?

Tonight at 10:oopm EST, on the Food Network, on The Secret Life Of... they're airing a show on BBQ. I and the rest of the BBQ-Brethren cooking team were interviewed by the host during Guitarbeque. Will I be on it? I don't know. You'll have to watch and see.

So you want to be a Barbeque star
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an Backyard Chef
Then take some time and learn how to smoke
And with your beef smoked right
And your pants fit tight
It's gonna be all right
Then it's time to go Kansas City
Where the agent man won't let you down
Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell rubs and sportswear
And in a contest or two
If you make the ribs
The girls'll tear you apart
The price you paid for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game, you're a little insane
The money that came and the public acclaim
Don't forget what you are, you're a Barbeque star
La la la...

Apologies to the Byrds.