These Ribs Are Smokin' Hot

Two years ago, my crew and I went all out on a barbecue dinner for 180 people. I had someone on site at 4 a.m., stoking the fire. At 6, I arrived, and the wood was a beautiful gray charcoal at a temperature of about 200-225 F – perfect for smoking. By 7, the ribs were smokin’ hot. For the next 10 hours, we smoked the baby back ribs (pork) and used a wet mop combination of apple cider vinegar and lime juice to keep the ribs moist and juicy.

The night before, I put my magic spice rub on 40 racks of ribs, which was all we could fit in the smoker, then let them marinate for 12 hours. The key for cooking ribs is low (temperature) and slow (cooking time).

The people’s reviews that night were all positive. That night, I let people put on barbecue sauce on the dry ribs. Since then, I’ve changed my method to putting sauce on the last 15 minutes – in a pan if I’m doing them on my grill at home. That lets the sauce thicken and crunch up a bit.

If you’re doing ribs on your grill at home, you can do them in four hours at 250 degrees F. I barbecued three racks earlier in the week, and the racks easily split apart after 3 ½ hours, which is what I look for. Grab a rack on one end and twist; if they break apart, they’re done. Any longer than that, and they dry out, unless you’re mopping those puppies every 30 minutes or so. You can also wrap them in tin foil to keep them moist.

Here’s a few rib tips:

• When you find a good producer of ribs, buy them at the same place every time. I think Costco produces really quality ribs, lean and meaty. Packages come with three racks for between $20 and $25, depending on the weight. That will comfortably feed 10-12 people 3-5 ribs each. Some people like pork (baby backs are my favorite), some like spare ribs, some like beef (Texas, not my favorite). Know what you like and stick with it.

• When grilling (direct heat), don’t keep the ribs over the flame too long; they’ll blacken quickly, as mine did this week. Start with the meaty side down first (fat-side down first causes flare-ups), brown them a little (15-20 minutes), then flip (another 15-20 minutes). If they cook too fast, remove them from the heat to a cooler spot on the grill but keep the lid down.

• Cooking ribs in the oven works just fine; you just won’t have the smoke ring that some people like. You can always add liquid smoke to your wet mop for added smokiness.

• If you’re using a smoker, keep track of the temperature. Keep adding wood every hour or so, so that the wood is never blazing, which raises the temperature too high. It takes a little practice to handle the fire properly on a smoker, which uses indirect heat. Some barbecue chefs use charcoal briquets to light the wood. Smoke is what gives barbecue a grayish/purplish ring around the meat, which is a good thing.

• I’m a big believer in putting dry rubs on meats and letting them sit for 8-12 hours. I don’t readily share my exact spice rub mixture, but I do tell people the secret: salt and pepper over night. If you look at champion barbecue chefs’ recipes, they all have some sort of mixture of red chili powder (perhaps even a little cayenne), salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Some chefs mix in cumin or paprika, or even a little sweetness with either brown sugar or molasses. Have fun. I have a few spices I always put in, but sometimes I play around a little.

• Don’t put on barbecue sauce until the very end, 15-20 minutes. If there’s any sugar or tomato in the sauce, it will crystallize quickly and prematurely blacken the meat. Some people like sweet sauces, whereas others like spicy. You pick.

• If you’re worried about your meat drying out, keep a wet mop on hand. I don’t really have a wet mop; I use a pastry brush and dabble on a little vinegar or line juice every 30 minutes.

When you read up on all the so-called experts, there’s a half a dozen things everyone does the same, and a dozen more that each chef swears is the best method. I’ve done ribs 10 different ways, and they all tasted pretty good. I’ve tasted one of my buddies’ ribs that aren’t marinated overnight, and they’re fantastic.

The next time you have a hankering for ribs, you can always order out, but the three racks I made earlier this week, plus potato salad, cole slaw and corn bread cost about $30 total to feed four that night, plus leftovers for days. At a restaurant, it would cost twice that.

This is a perfect meal to invite friends or neighbors over for a casual meal. Married couples can split up the cooking duties. If you’re single, make it a potluck where everyone brings a classic barbecue side dish.

A meal always tastes better when shared with others.

For my Barbecue Baby Back Ribs recipe, go to my Web site at http://www.dougmeadweb.com

Follow me on Twitter at DougMeadFood at http://www.twitter.com.

Learning From Kitchen Disasters

Dinner was supposed to be served at 8 p.m. At 8:10, I was asked when the gourmet cheeseburgers would be on the serving line. “Five minutes,” I said. Then I heard one of my teenage servers say, “Ten minutes. They’ll be ready in 10 minutes.” Thanks for the vote of confidence.

At 8:15, I sent two trays of 20 “gourmet cheeseburgers” to feed the group of 140 single adults at Cornerstone Fellowship’s Dinner for Six on Saturday. Already on the line were chicken and cheddar sausages, Louisiana hot links, macaroni salad and cole slaw. To doll up the burgers, we had grilled onions and mushrooms. The three appetizers had been served up, and my crew was prepping strawberry shortcake for dessert a half hour later.

These weren’t your ordinary, everyday burger patties with a slice of American cheese thrown on at the last minute. These were a cross of four cheeses stuffed inside thick, juicy burgers. The test tastings were phenomenal. I know; I was there.

At 8:30, word began filtering back to me on the grill. “Some people are complaining their burgers are raw.” Ugh. Those are words a caterer doesn’t want to hear. By then, ensuing darkness had exacerbated the problem. The truth is, the burgers were between rare and medium rare, and a few I saw were even medium. It doesn’t matter; the paying customers were not happy.

The problem wasn’t that the burger flipper – me – didn’t know how to tell the difference between medium rare and medium well: The problem was that the grill, actually a smoker, wasn’t keeping its temperature much over 225 degrees. To grill burgers, the barbecue temperature should be between 350 and 400 degrees. Lower temperatures means a longer time on the grill. My tests the previous week, done at 300 degrees on my home grill because that’s the temperature I thought I’d get at the church smoker to from past experience, had the burgers finishing at roughly 20 minutes.

To make matters worse, someone at the church had forgotten to refill its four propane tanks. I was left with one half-full tank and three pretty empty tanks. Twice, the tanks ran out, which caused a temperature drop to under 150 degrees. Time is of the essence in such cases, because food that is cooking is meant to increase in temperature; a decrease is not good, and the local health department sends out “helpful warnings” against such practices. At one point, I found one measly piece of wood, some cardboard, but no kindling or newspaper. I tried getting the wood to burn, because it would increase the temperature to well over 300 degrees. No burn.

During one of the tank switches, the regulator hose was not tightening enough into the tank because the male piece was stripping, and I could hear a leak. One of my workers is a plumber during the week, and he had plumber’s tape in his truck. That fixed the leak. My hero.

Eventually, we started sending burgers back to the kitchen to cook for another 10 minutes in a 400-degree convection oven. That did the trick, but by then, the customers were groaning about having spent good money on lousy burgers. They were ready to listen to the evening’s entertainment, two clean comedians (no swearing, dirty or off-color jokes).

So how can such catastrophes be avoided? I did my homework, because even though I swore I’d never use the hunk o’ junk again, I probably will have to use it again. The answer is making sure at least two tanks are filled before hand, and having a few pieces of wood on hand – plus kindling and lighter fluid. Part of being a good cook is how you respond to kitchen mishaps. Sometimes, that means coming up with a better plan the next time out. Caterers who continue to make the same mistakes over and over will soon be out of business.

Alas, all was not lost. Every time I do Dinner for Six, I try a new recipe, with a few tests under my belt. My barbecue wings (done on the same, dastardly barbecue) were a huge hit. I know because every time we sent a plate out, they came back empty a minute later. All the workers raved about them. Maybe seeing a server with barbecue stains on his lips and shirt was a selling point to the crowd.

Oh, and by the way, as the last batch of burgers cooked, I looked down and could see a flicker of flame from the fireplace and the barbecue temperature was at 325. Nice timing.

To find my barbecued wings recipe, go to my Web site at http://www.dougmeadweb.com. Enjoy.

Follow me on Twitter under DougMeadFood at https://twitter.com/

Caring for the needy among us

Five years ago, Cornerstone Fellowship in Livermore, California came up with the idea for Rimz & Ribz, a combination car-show/barbecue activity for the family. The day was designed with one thing in mind: be an outreach to car buffs and barbecue nuts.

Aside from the cars, a house band played rock ‘n roll music, quality barbecue lunch was served at $10 per head, and this year offered the kickoff for a Chili Cookoff. The cooking contest actually got underway in May when our satellite church in Brentwood hosted its own Rimz & Ribz event, at which a Chili Cookoff and Rib Cookoff occurred. Brentwood extended the challenge to offer an opportunity to witness to a non-church goer in splitting the cookoff duties.

Foodies and car afficionados meander about the parking lot. As they walk around, a buzz occurs about how active Cornerstone is in the community and worldwide. To wit:

• On Mondays, Serve the City serves up 100 meals to the homeless at a partner church, the Vineyard, in Livermore. Some 20 volunteers dole out the food and build relationships with those coming through the doors. Clothing is also available.

• Throughout the month, the church collects good to distribute to the needy in our community. On the second Saturday of the month, 40 volunteers meet in Vineyard’s parking lot to distribute upwards of 70 boxes to needy families. Fresh eggs, flour, sugar, tortillas, bread, potatoes, canned goods, diapers and toiletries go out to families.

• Cornerstone just started giving English lessons to Latinos to help them improve their chances of landing a job.

• Cornerstone supports a growing Rohi orphanage in the slums of Nakuru, Kenya, a town of 800,000. The orphanage provides food, clothing and an education.

• Our church partners with Children’s Water Foundation and Meaningful Life International to dig fresh-water wells in Ghana, so that villages can survive and thrive. Fresh water is essential to life in sub-Sahara Africa.

• More than 300 Cornerstone people are going to devastated Haiti this summer as part of a short-term mission. Short-term missionaries spend eight days rebuilding an orphanage, sharing God’s word in a tent city, caring for orphans and healing people through medicine.

You get the point. I go to Cornerstone because I believe in its mission to care for the needy, in the midst of our own community and worldwide where we think we can make a difference by sharing God’s love for others.

Jesus gave us the command to care for the needy among us in Matthew 25:40: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

What’s my part? I cook for that homeless meal once a month, my wife and I help with the food distribution every other month and I’m on the construction team going to Haiti, leaving July 31. Plus, I write and teach about using good food to share God’s love.

These are things I believe in because Jesus said it was important for us, his followers, to care for those in need. How do we share the gospel to people whose stomach’s are growling because of hunger? How do we share God’s love for someone who is shivering because she doesn’t own a coat?

This post is meant to encourage you to get involved. Although I won Saturday’s Chili Cookoff, I entered so that I could share the importance of caring for others, perhaps through food. Everyone has some kind of gift to share with others. Stop making excuses. Just do it.