SUMMER BARBECUES

[Pumpkin_Man]

Hi Folks:

I talk alot about riding motorcycles, trips to the beach and 4th of July Fireworks, but another one of my favorite things about summer is barbecue. I love to slow roast all kinds of things on my smoker, and every year on my Birthday I slow roast either a turkey, or a standing rib roast or a brisket. I have beef down pat, and I'm okay with turkey, but I still need work. Pork is almost a lost cause with me out on the barbecue, though I do okay with it when I oven roast it.

What do you guys like to do. Do any of you like to spark up the old grill to do some quick hamburgers, or do you like to use a smoker, and slowly barbecue a good thick roast like I do?

Do you like to use regular briquettes, or do you use lump charcoal or wood? I'm partial to the regular briquettes when I do fast grilling of burgers, hot dogs or even steaks, but when it comes to slow barbecuing, I prefer lump charcoal or even wood. I barbecued one of my corned beef roasts last Saturday, and it came out great. It wasn't quite as tender as the oven roasted corned beefs I did, but it tasted great and it was tender enough.

Again, pork is my major deficiency in barbecuing. I would love to learn how do to barbecued ribs the way the Rib Hut in Joliet does them.

Mike

[iHaunt]

Mike, about BBQ... which do you prefer? Beef, pork or chicken?

By the way, have you tried BBQ frog legs? I've never tried it before. But I do love fried or steamed frog legs!

[Murfreesboro]

Mike, you and my husband are kindred spirits in this area. He loves nothing in the world more than grilling. He has been learning tips from the PBS cooking series Cook's Country. He is a serious fan of that show, even sends away for the DVDs. Recently he learned how to indirect grill chicken (coals on one side, chicken on the other), and several different types of rubs that are just superb. His grilled pork chops come out great, too. We eat a lot of grilled food. I also love the crock pot and oven meals, but my husband is not such a big fan of those. I just love smelling supper cooking in the house all day.

My husband uses charcoal briquettes, I believe, and he uses a "chimney" to start them. He stuffs the chimney with coals and newspaper, then lights the newspaper. Once the coals ash over, he dumps them into the base of the grill. That way he doesn't have to use lighter fluid and get that chemical residue on the grill or the food.

I am not too knowledgeable about grilling myself, as my husband is the grillmaster around here. We also own a smoker, inherited from his dad, but we have never used it. We use a Weber Smokey Joe.

[iHaunt]

Anyone tasted bbq frog legs before? bbq salmon? Anything like that?

[Pumpkin_Man]

iHaunt, I am pretty much a beef man when it comes to the barbecue. I like to do a good rib roast very slowly in my smoker. I hae tried pork, but it usualy turns out too dry. I have never actualy don chicken on the barbecue, but I have done turkey breasts, and as long as I didn't over do them, they would come out nice and juicey.

Murf, your husband sounds like a man after my own heart.l What I do, is I use lump charcoal, and I will start a wood fire in a seperate container, and when it burns down to coals, I'll shovel the hot coals into the fire chamber. I did a corned beef brisket last March that way for my St. patrick's Dinner and it disappeared faster then the ones I did in the oven. Everyone wanted the barbecued, but I ran out. I did a standing rib roast for my 40th birthday the same way, and that entire 15 pound roast did a total disappearing act. No left overs. I was planning on trying my hand at a rack of pork again, but I might just go with an uncorned brisket instead, some time before the month is out.

I also plan to do home made baked pork & beans, but I do that in the crock pot. The crock pot is my 2nd choice when it comes to slow cooking.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I wish you could have tasted the grilled pork roast my husband cooked last Saturday, Mike. He started it by indirect grilling on the Smokey Joe, but then he transferred it to the oven to finish it up. The whole process took him several hours, and when he was done, it was perfect, pull-apart pork barbecue. Yum!

He made that North Carolina-style sauce for it, the vinegar-based one.

[Pumpkin_Man]

That does sound good, and there's nothing like barbecued pork IF one knows how to barbecue it. I tend to dry it out, so I usualy do pork in the oven, but I do beef on the barbecue it allways comes out great. I have also had pretty good luck with turkey, but you have to be really careful not to over do it, or it, too will be as dry as a bone.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

We're going to grill chicken, hamburgers, & kielbasa sausage tonight. We're having a fruit salad and red beans & rice on the side.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Sounds pretty tasty. I'm having a couple of buddies of mine over tomorrow, so I am going to grill up some Rib Eye steaks. We're going to have corn on the cob as our side dish. Yes, my grocery store actualy stocks corn on the cob all year round.

Mike

[iHaunt]

We got grilled Polish sausages tonite! Very good!

By the way, you made me very tempt to eat rib eye steak!

[Pumpkin_Man]

A Rib Dyd steak cooked on the grill, there's nothing like it.

Mike

[iHaunt]

So you like pork loin? Shoulder?

[Pumpkin_Man]

When it's done right, I LOVE pork, but I have had absoultely NO LUCK cooking it on the barbecue. When I do pork in the oven, that's a whole other story. I like to slow roast rack of pork in the oven and it's so tender the meat falls right off the bones, and it's JUICY and delicious. But when I try to do a rack of pork or even a pork tenderloin out on the barbecue it comes out dry as a bone.

So I am pretty much a beef man when it comes to barbecuing. I have also had some success barbecuing turkey, but for the most part, when it's barbecue, it's beef.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Have you tried indirect grilling the pork, Mike? Meat on one side, coals on the other, and covered for a long time? My husband did that a few weeks back (finished cooking it in the oven). It took forever, but it was juicy and delicious and shredded perfectly.

He has started cooking chicken that way, too, and it is so moist and delicious!

[iHaunt]

Hey Mike!

Send me a small recipe how to cook summer BBQ please. Dont care about pork, chicken, beef, everything! Thanks!

I love you as my uncle!