Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler First timer with BBq'ing (tips?)

hey, its me again (I usually hang out in the HT forums) and I am showing keen interest into the tasty world of BBQ. I am in a conquest to take pride of my BBQ'ing skills and shall be named the 'BBQ King'. I shall reign supreme!!!

*ahem*

Anyways, I got some BBQ food over the summer and setup my BBQ and wondering if you could gimme any helpful tips (especially on how to cook them) and good BBQ recipes I should try.

These are the item I have obtained/acquired so far in my quest:

Pork side ribs
Pork Chops (3/4" center cut)
New York steaks
Bacon wrapped tenderloin
Shrimp

I first of all shall know how to cook these items, and then obtained top secret hidden recipes.


I will inform you about my quest, and shall take pictures are these desired items.

Thanks.

So, Paul, is the beer cold in Calgary tonight?

I think you'd probably "grill" the steaks, shrimp and chops, and "barbeque" the ribs.

I very highly recommend The Cook's Illustrated Guide To Grilling And Barbecue

Seems like we've ruminated upon this topic quite a bit. My opinion is that it's more about technique than recipes.

Steaks are easy. Chops are easy. Hot fire, flip once, check temperature. Ribs are harder, at least on a grill. I imagine they're fairly easy on a smoker. Never tried shrimp.

I suggest that you also grill veggies. Olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic can do wonders to green onions, eggplant, turnip, tomatoes and cabbage. Corn brushed with olive oil and chipotle is awesome too.

no no no. If you have thick chops, you want medium to low heat so the outside doesn't get tough while the inside reaches a safe temp.

Chops and steaks I always go medium to low heat on the grill, I've made to much charcol playing with the high heats.

Oops. Pay no attention to the guy who hasn't grilled chops in a few years.

ok i am going to BBQ today. To start off, going to BBQ New York steaks and BBQ'ed shrimp.

I am going to marinate my steaks and wondering how long should I cook them on each side to achieve a medium well? I heard you only flip the steak once on medium/low. Is this true? And for how long?

For the shrimp, thinking of making garlic buttered shrimp. Should I cook a set for about 2-3 minutes and during that time flipping them over?

Many people I know (that work in restaurants serving steak) use the hand method of testing doneness:
---
Using the palm of your hand, follow the instructions below. This is how meat will feel to the touch when it has reached the indicated doneness.

Rare: Squeeze the pad at the base of your thumb. It should feel spongy and offer very little resistance.

Medium: Press on the middle of the palm of your outstretched hand. It should feel firm and snap back quickly.

Well-Done: Squeeze the base of your small finger. It should feel very firm with almost no give. (For best flavor it is not recommended that you cook your steak to well-done.)
---

Personally I just make an incision and look at it. So if you don't like anyone making the first cut into your steak, don't have me make it. Meat thermometers don't work worth jack in things like steaks, I find.

When it doubt, check it out.

Also, steakhouses seem to undercook steaks by 1 or 2 levels... and there's usually a level or so difference in people's judgements...

Mine are:
Well - solid colour throughout, no free running juices
Medium well - inside is slightly pink, juices mostly colourless
Medium - inside is pink, juices run pink to red
Medium Rare - inside is pink to red, juices run red
Rare - inside is red, blood everywhere
Blue Rare - I wave an acetylene torch near your steak, enjoy your tapeworm



Bren R.

Paul,

This is the best marinade and cooking method I have found. To make it work, your BBQ must be really hot and use steaks no more than 1" thick. I get my BBQ up to at least 700F before I throw the steaks on.

Also check out this thread.

Shrimp need skewers or a special grate that will keep the little buggers from falling into the fire.

Cutting into your steak while grilling will cause it to lose a bunch of juice, but if you are picky about getting it to a certain level of doneness....

Personally, I do the poke and prod method, usually trying to err on the side of under-cooked. Stick em on a plate, wrap with foil and let em sit for 5 minutes.

Going to grill up some carne asada today, marinated in OJ and homegrown habaneros. Hope I don't get hurt.

I agree with just about everything Hay just said. I don't marinate steak any more, unless it's really, really not a good cut of meat. Dry rubs are an excellent way to go. Penzey's Spices has some good mixes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118765164430203472.html?mod=fpa_mostpop

Saw this today... thought of you guys... barbequing KILLS!

Kind of reminds me of the HVAC guy that tried to upsell me on an electrostatic air cleaner... "uh, you've seen me go out for a smoke about 10 times since you've been here... how concerned do you think I am about what I put in my lungs?"

Bren R.

I got my first real grill this summer (Weber s-650) and I've been using the hell out of it and gotten pretty good.

1. For steaks what I do is set a 2 zone fire. 1/2 the grill to medium high to high (the webers get hot!) and the other half to low. I let the total grill temp get to about 600-700.

2. For prepping the steak I either use a dry store bought rub OR for my wife A-1 (she prefers A-1).

3. I put both steaks on the hot side of the grill for 1 min. I then rotate them 45 degrees and grill another min. Then flip and repeat the above for the other side. At this point you'll have anywhere from rare to medium rare steaks (depending on thickness) with nice grill marks (I usually pull my steak off here).

4. If you want medium to medium well (for the wife) bring the steaks to the cooler side of the grill and cook another minute or 2 on each side.

I don't rely on the poke test and instead use an instant read meat thermometer to ensure correct doness.

Mo's grillin

What temp do you go for with medium rare/rare? I usually aim for 135, but I'm not sure if that's right. This trouble is compounded by the fact that most of the time, my steaks aren't of uniform thickness. Maybe I need to spend more money on meat...

Our meat thermometer says:
Rare - 140
Medium - 160
Well - 170

Bren R.

Your meat thermometer is evil. Evil, I tells you! 170? That's not well done, that's graphite.

Mmm carbon steak.

Bren R.

Mmm. Cake.

My thermometer says 120 130 140 160 for rare medium rare medium well and well. I find the steak keeps gooking so if you pull it at 150 it'll be well done by the time it hits the table. Also thickness varies this a little as well.

As a Weber charcoal BBQ owner and a Rib enthusiast (we have had an annual family rib competition for 6 years) There is only 1 way to do ribs. Braise them and then finish with some dry heat on the hot grill and sauce them as they come off. The meat falls off the bone! With the right sauce -- thems good eatin'!

And of course drink lots of beer....

Smoke ribs on the bbq tomorrow.

A friend is putting on the show with his new Kenmore cooker.
He plans on cooking them all day so i hope he knows what he's doing. Otherwise we'll all be chewing leather for dinner.
I may have to skip the dinner and stick with the liquid course.

I like a nice T-Bone steak with just a little seasoning salt and if its 3/4" thick or so about 5-7 min on one side at 350-400 and 5-7 on the other and you have medium rare to medium depending on the actual thickness and temps.

I am with Bren, if I am in doubt I cut it open, better safe than sick.

Woah, a lot of msgs in this topic.

Ok, well I did BBQ first time and it was awesome! I will explain more about this with pics tommorrow or in the next few days depending on my schedule.