Aye, that’s the rub and the sauce

If you’re serious about cooking, barbecue sauce and dry rubs will come up. When it comes down to it, each has a different effect. A barbecue sauce allows you to make the meat juicier and it imparts strong flavor to the meat. A dry rub will do just the opposite; although it adds flavor to the meat, but it also dries out the meat. If you’re looking for an entrée with starches, the barbecue sauce is your best option;  if you are looking for left-overs or something that works with a salad, go for the rub.

Barbecue Sauce

Assuming you don’t simply go with a store brand, odds are your base sauce is going to start with two cups of ketchup, two tablespoons of Worchester sauce, a half-cup of brown sugar, and a few tablespoons of various spices, as well as a some vinegar and white sugar. A few other options you may consider will be honey, Tabasco sauce, molasses, and even a little Teriyaki sauce. You can also substitute soy sauce or any steak sauce for the Worchester sauce for a slightly different taste. For some very interesting changes, you can add in a cup of strong coffee or take out the sugar and other liquids and replace them with dark cola. You can also add in grilled onions few a little extra sweetness or grilled chiles for some extra spice. Keep in mind any dietary limits, such as diabetes or gluten allergies. But just have fun with it…

If you want a good starting barbecue sauce, try this:
3 cups ketchup

½ cup vinegar (apple cider preferred)

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 cup Worchester sauce

3 tablespoons yellow mustard
½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Stir together all of the ingredients except the liquid smoke. Bring to a boil, and then add the liquid smoke. If you add any solids, strain them out. This should give you about slightly more than four cups of barbecue.

Note that this is a generic recipe; it’s not about to win you any awards. Feel free to experiment as much as you like.

The Rub

As rubs are unique to the person, I’m not even going to make suggestions, so much as a build suggestion. Take your favorite pepper, salt, and two or three other dry spices, and combine two cups of each in a large enough tub to spread your meat in it, and have fun. You’ll need to determine what spices you like, and how they combine. You add or drop the amount of spice in half-cup increments until you find the ingredients you like; you can even change the number of ingredients to fit your needs. Just avoid wet ingredients; if you want to do mess with wet ingredients you want a sauce instead.

Good luck and have fun barbecuing!

Barbecue Add-ons

A barbecue is not a barbecue if it is just about the meat. A barbecue is about the celebration, about family, friends, and even about the food. Because of this you need to add a few things, and the next few entries will help you do just that.

A Steel Plate For the Grill

One of those nice things you can add to the grill is a small steel plate, preferably about eight inches by four inches. This should give you plenty of room to play with some basic additions. With a little oil you can grill some vegetables on the plate, such as squashes, onions, or just about any vegetable you want to add to the menu. You can also grill meat that won’t work so well on the grill proper, such as fish and other delicate meats. Keep the plate seasoned and it can be a nice addition to your grill. You can also do cheese steak on the grill as well, as well toast buns and other bread-like objects. Another option is to foil over part of the grill, but it’s more delicate than the plate.

Potatoes and Foil

The barbecue can be used to cook more than meat. In fact, there are some things that can be cooked in the fire itself. Baked potatoes are easy to do; wrap a potato in foil, poke a few holes, and then put it into the barbecue, either on the grill or in the fire, for about 45 minutes. Keep in mind that you can do the same with any tuber, such as sweet potato. Another option is to slice some potatoes and onions, about quarter-inch thick, mix them together, and throw some butter just before wrapping in foil. You can add a number of spices , trade out butter for oil, or any number of different options that you would do to potatoes on the grill.

Kebobs

Although they can be a entrée by themselves, kebobs are always a fun treat. All you need are vegetables that have been cut into large chunks and the pokers to cook them with. This means onions and tomatoes into eights, peppers into thick strips, and squash and pineapple chunks  as large as possible. You can use almost any fruit or vegetable you want, with a preference towards putting vegetables and fruits with strong but complementary flavors together.

The grill can be used for more than just meat. Get creative and have fun; this is one time to play with fire.

The Obligatory Hamburger Grill Part II

Ready to cook some great burgers? Let’s do this!

Cooking Your Burgers

Two major things to keep in mind when cooking: Don’t press and divots. When your burgers are ready to cook, press a small indent on top of the burger before you cook them. When burgers cook they swell a bit, making the burger hard to put on a bun. By making the divot you give the burger room to grow, making for a flatter burger. 

When you actually cook the burger, don’t make the rookie mistake of pressing the burger down, hoping for a quicker cook time; what you end up doing is making a dry burger. Let the burger take its time cooking, and you will be rewarded with some juicy burgers. Realize that when you see the juices on top of the burger that it is almost ready, and let them seep back into the burger.  Flip only once in order to keep the juices.

Although you may be tempted to not take readings, taking temperatures is always a good idea; it keeps you from getting sick and allows for any differences in temperatures.  When it comes to the temperature of your burger, your choices are:

Medium-Rare: 125-130 degrees. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

Medium: 135-140 degrees. Cook for 3-4 minutes per side.

Medium-Well: 145-160 degrees. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side.

Well:  160+ degrees. Cook for 5+ minutes per side.

Putting Stuff On Top

Odds are you are going to want to put things on top of your burgers. Cheese is the obvious; if so, wait until the last 30-45 seconds of cooking to do so. If you throw the cheese on earlier it may get too gooey. If it sounds too late, keep in mind that the burgers will continue to cook even after you take them off the grill. This means that if you put the cheese on too soon it will continue to cook and so it will melt for a lot longer than you want.

For other stuff, the same applies. You may want to grill any other ingredients at the same time as the burgers to maintain freshness. If possible, before you start cover part of the grill in aluminum; this will give you an area to grill items such as vegetables. A little oil on the aluminum and you are ready to go. If you want to do items such as bacon you may want to do them ahead of time.

Fried Burgers

If you are cooking on the stove, another option is to cover the burgers in cracker crumbs and then fry in a couple of tablespoons of oil. After four to five minutes per side take off the heat.

Pocket Burgers

Eventually you will want to try something new, and I cannot condone tofu. With that as a consideration, something you can try is a pocket burger.  Create a spice mix (1 tablespoon salt, 2 tablespoons other spices such as pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, etc.) and put a quarter of a tablespoon on a thin burger. Put a tablespoon of something else in the center of the burger, such blue cheese crumbles, vegetables, or other ingredients. Spread it out to no more than a half-inch from the edge and then cover with the other burger. Crimp the two burgers together. Cook as per a medium-well burger (at least four minutes per side).

The Obligatory Hamburger Grill Part I

All right this is the season where the barbecues are fired up and meat burned to perfection. Ergo, let’s talk some great burgers, shall we?

Charcoal vs. Gas

The first major debate is charcoal vs. gas, and by extension hardwood and electric. Gas grills are great for convenience as it just takes a few minutes and you are grilling. However, that convenience comes at the cost of flavor; there is no flavor imparted by the process itself. At the same time, charcoal takes longer to get ready, as well as having smoke to deal with, but imparts some flavor to the food. Charcoal grills are also cheaper. Generally, anything that applies to an gas grill applies to an electric grill, and the same for charcoal and hardwood grills.

First off: Grill Prep

The grill should be cleaned as soon as you get it. For new grills this means making sure that any packaging is dealt with and that it has been quickly cleaned to deal with any packing materials that may have stuck to the grill. An older grill that you inherit or purchase must be cleaned just to make sure it’s healthy to use. A wire brush, hot soapy water, hot water for the rinse, and a warm grill are usually best. A grill you are about to use needs to be seasoned for essentially non-stick use; all you need to do is soak some paper towels in vegetable oil and then continue to wipe down the grill until it is glossy black.

The Burgers

Before you do anything with the burgers, keep in mind that you want to do as little mixing as possible; the more you mix things into the burger, the more its proteins start talking to each other and the tougher the burger will be when it cooks. That said, start with one teaspoon of salt per 1-1/2 pound of hamburger or your favorite mix; any Lipton dry soup  mix is recommended, such as French onion dip. You can also mix in other ingredients, such as teriyaki sauce and even ketchup. However, keep mixing down to a minimum or you will end up with tough burgers; you may want to try marinating, but do so for short periods to avoid the burger breaking up.

Oh, one last thing: The ideal burger is about 80% meat and 20% fat; this keeps the burger from shrinking while maximizing flavor. Keep that in mind while shopping and you should be okay.

That’s enough for now. Next we’ll be cooking your burgers….