Although this photo is not of my backyard grill, the idea is the same:
See, I've decided to learn how to barbecue. What brought this on you ask? BBQ PitMasters. I've watched three seasons of this smokin' culinary competition show via Netflix and have fallen in love. The show is all about master grillers from all over the country who compete at barbecue festivals for bragging rights, ribbons, trophies and prize money. They cook everything from baby back ribs to turducken to beef brisket to a whole hog. Pitmasters like Myron Mixon of Jack's Old South BBQ in Georgia to Harry Soo of Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ right here in my home state of California. Yes, California has great barbecue!
When I was growing up, my dad would grill steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs for us four kids in our backyard. He was a wonderful grill cook and had a sauce recipe I wish he'd written down for me! He'd buy these ginormous t-bone steaks and douse them with that secret sauce and slap them on the grill. My sister's went on first 'cause she liked hers done, done, done. Then went my brothers', mom's, his own and finally mine...'cause even as a young kid, I liked mine rare. Wave it over the hot coals to sear the edges and I'm good.
Two years ago the senior software engineering guy and I bought a little old propane-powered bbq grill at a garage sale. [In fact it's just about the size of the one in the photo above.] Works fine. But it's small and you'd be hard pressed to do any cooking with finesse or really get anything smoked on it. [I did buy a bag of cherry wood chips.] But I'm determined to learn how to use it to do some BBQ.
So. With three seasons of BBQ Pitmasters under my brow, I decided to 'cue spareribs for Mother's Day. Yep, that was a holiday for moi, but that's what I wanted to do. Found a recipe and worked up my own flavor profile. The result was a disaster! They burned to a crisp. The recipe I found required the ribs be wrapped tightly in foil and cooked...without peeking inside...for almost three hours. But these were my challenges:
- my utter inexperience
- a teeny grill space
- no way to tell what the temp was inside the grill
I kept both burners on at the lowest setting and kept the lid closed. When the timer went off, I started to unwrap the ribs and, well, the juices had burned the layers of foil together so it was quite an ordeal to get the charred ribs unwrapped. But my family is awesome. Everyone ate a bit of dried out meat and char and declared it an 'experience.' I will try again. What will I do differently?
- leave the grill lid open
- don't wrap the ribs in foil
- once the grill has pre-heated, turn off one side of the flames so it doesn't get so hot
- And watch them carefully
I actually didn't feel badly about this failure...I learned a bunch about what not to do with this old grill. This Wednesday I'm going to grill chicken and clams and oysters. Should be fun.
Oh, my BBQ Pitmaster moniker? How's this: California Granny BBQ.
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