St Louis Style Ribs

Last Saturday after dicking with the membrane on two slabs of ribs for 45 minutes I was ready to quit this crazy hobby. Tonight I have a new "rules to live by". Before ever trying something new in life, always check for a youtube video first - you are sure to save lots of the time and wasted effort.

This evening, Brent and I discussed where to get our ribs and whether we should trim them St Louis style ourselves or let the butcher. This lead me to youtube and a leap forward in my Q knowledge. I have attached a link to a video below that is great for trimming St Louis style ribs. I'm now convinced to trim the whole slab myself.

Now about that 45 minute thumb wrestling match with the membrane last Saturday. After watching the video I have come to the conclusion that the butcher at YB Meats removed the first membrane for me - what a nice young man. Maybe next time he will tell me that. You see I learned there are actually two membranes. The first appears relatively easy to remove. The second is on the bone and if removed the rib bones will fall out when you cook the ribs. I'm convinced I was trying to remove the second membrane, hence my headaches and part of the reason the bones fell out when we were done cooking.

Moral: a new rule to live by - always consult youtube first.

Enjoy the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYMNLMQmM4s

Handling our meat

one would think men of our experience would know how to handle our meat, Sat night's over "tong-ation" of the ribs and chix showed otherwise.

At walgreens, I found gloves for handling hot items and bought a set. basically like oven mitts but shaped more like cotton gardening gloves - $10 a piece. I also bought a box of 100 vinyl food handling gloves - they won't handle heat (do any?) but the hot handling gloves are washable.

Rubbing - read some articles that showed using apple juice and mixtures with it (Jack Daniels?) and applying with a spray bottle works well - spray it first, add rub, and spray again. I bought two spray bottles in case we want to go this route.

check out BBQpirates website - they look like they've done well without all the industrial equip...

Will the Weber arrive?

It just may happen - that is my quest to out E-Bay Mr. Todd on the infamous WSMS. After an all-in winning bid that beat Todd's price by enormous $9 and a few emails to follow up on where the hell it was, the guy finally emailed me back with tracking info. According to UPS, it should be on my doorstep tonight!

Let's just hope it doesn't look like some newbie picked it up and dropped it out of a back of a pickup when we unvail it. Hope to have it set up & plan to run heat through it Tue or Wed night as well as rub some dirt on it (whilst we'll look more qualified this time, shiny stuff probably doesn't vogue well)...

So, sounds like we will have 3 bullets & the kettle - this might work - think we need to figure out how to cook the chix thighs - I like the idea of smoking it on a bullet and finishing it on the kettle but I read a few competition sites that actually used a kettle for all.

Thermometer - A personal experience

A big thanks to Lance for posting the information on installing a thermometer in your Bullet. Fortunately, Lance and Todd understand a few basic economic principles that prevented us from chasing too far down that rabbit trail of government style spending. Here's the deal: a $15 thermometer should not require a $45 uni-bit for the installation. That only make sense if you are responsible for spending tax payer money.

Lance and I both got our thermometers installed with a simple bit - 3/8" in my case. Before installing mine I tested it to see if it was properly calibrated - held it in a pot of boiling water and it appears to be properly calibrated. For the record, I ordered mine from kck.com - good prices and quick delivery. I'm going to order another one for my kettle. For the kettle I will probably get the one that goes up to 750 degrees.

Here's a picture of my handy work - notice the symmetry of the thermometer and vent relative to the handle.

Add a thermometer to your bullet

Here is a great post with picturess that shows how to drill the hole and add the thermometer.

http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8680069052/m/2430080894

Chicken Thighs

I've been searching for good chicken thigh recipes and techniques and have come up with some ideas. It seems to me that we need to learn how to glaze our entries base upon looking at contest pictures on the Internet. One idea is to cut your standard sauce with honey and brush it on.

As far chicken thigh recipes, I have found a recipe I will try out this weekend for our K-State tailgate. Google "Jumpin' Jim's Chicken Thighs". Looks like a good place to start.

I'm also adding a link to the Weber Bullet discussion forum that has a vast encyclopedia barbeque knowledge.

Chicken . . . . It's all about the chicken

I won't admit this to just anybody, but I spent my lunch today at Dillons looking at chicken thighs. Yes, chicken thighs.

Here is an example of what will replace the skinny slivers of dry chicken breast we presented last time. Lance has instructed me to practice chicken thighs at least 3 times before the next competition. That's more chicken thighs than I have eaten in my entire life.

The beginnings . . .

This journey started one cold weekend the spring of 2008 when four friends decided to take their varied cooking skills into the public arena of competitive barbeque. When the weekend drew to a close the team had been humbled, shared fine food and drink, had many laughs, and formed memories that are sure to be embellished for years to come. But for all that seemed so right, the judges tally sheet indicated something had gone seriously wrong. But what could it be?

Some would say things started down hill before the team ever assembled in Manhattan. Five minutes into the event Todd was informed he had really mucked up the selection of ribs and brisket. What a bombshell. It could have been the fact we showed up with the price tag still lingering on our new Weber Bullet. Maybe having four different opinions for everything we did was a problem. It could have been lack of sleep since several of us nearly froze our manhood off. Should we use wood chips or wood logs for smoke? Should we use briquettes or natural chunk charcoal? Were we the only ones with an electronic instant read chef"s thermometer stuck in the vent hole to monitor cooking temperature? Then there is that small issue of presentation - we put so much planning and forethought into that critical area. How could we possibly be rewarded with a 3 spot from the judges.

And so it is from where we pick ourselves up and move on. Please feel free to post your thoughts and ideas on this blog so we may never look so silly again.