BBQ Ribs - How to Make the Best BBQ Ribs

If you're in the mood to have the best BBQ ribs ever there's no reason to head off to some restaurant and pay premium prices, you can make them at home for a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, unless you know what you're doing you'll end up with dry, tough, tasteless BBQ ribs. Many people try to make BBQ ribs only to give up, thinking only the so-called 'Pit Masters' can make great BBQ ribs. The key to making great smoked ribs is to apply the three important principles to the process; add flavor, make them tender and make them moist. Follow the steps below and you too can cook the best smoked BBQ ribs just like the pros!

First you'll need to choose a great rack of ribs. You should select a rack of ribs with some fat covering, not too much though. Also, pick the rack up and hold it by the end of the package to see how much it bends. The more it bends, the more tender it will be since it has less connective tissue. If it starts off tender, it'll have a better chance of ending up tender.

\"How To BBQ\"

Remove the membrane on the bone side of the rack. First lay the rack down with the bone side up. Start at the 2nd rib on the short end with a butter knife. Slide the butter knife under the membrane and gently lift towards the small end. Once you have a good amount of the membrane pulled up grab it with a paper towel and gently lift away. With some practice you should be able to get almost all of it in one pull. This is an important step if you want great ribs. After you remove the membrane trim off any excessive fat. Remember as the fat breaks down it will add moisture so don't remove it all! This is a key step if you want to make great smoked ribs. Save some of the trimmed fat, you can use it later in the cooking process.

BBQ Ribs - How to Make the Best BBQ Ribs

Apply some barbecue rub. use your favorite, just try to find one low in sugar. If the rub has a high sugar content it might burn during the long cooking process. Rub the rack down with some yellow mustard first, this will make the rub stick to the ribs and not fall off during the cooking process. Don't worry, you wont taste the mustard. Apply a generous amount of barbecue rub to the rack and rub it in good with your hands, it is called 'rub' after all. A good coating of rub will produce a nice bark later on.

Put the rack in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will allow the rub to really get into the meat. The salt in the rub will pull moisture and proteins to the surface and make a great flavorful 'bark' during cooking. A cold rack of ribs will absorb more smoke flavor and have a deeper smoke ring.

Prepare the smoker. Get your smoker of choice up to 225 degrees. Make sure confirm the temperature with a thermometer. Add some wood chips of your choice now, personally I use a mixture of apple wood and maple wood.

Put the rack in the smoker meat side up and close the door or lid. Barbecue is NOT a spectator sport, walk away and leave it alone! There's no reason to stare at it. It'll cook this way for three hours.

Flip the rack every 45 minutes and spray with apple juice at that time, this will keep the surface of the ribs moist. If you notice the edges starting to dry out place some of the fat you trimmed earlier over the edges.

After about 3 hours you'll want to foil the ribs. Remove the rack and wrap it in aluminum foil, you can add a little barbecue sauce and/or apple juice to the foil pack for even more flavor at this time. Do not skip this step as wrapping the ribs in foil will make the rack juicy and tender as connective tissue breaks down.

After about an hour open the pack and check for tenderness, slide a fork between two large ribs and pull out, if the rack wants to come along for the ride then it's not done, go for another 20 minutes and check again. You want some resistance but not too much, there's still some more cook time left. This is perhaps the most important stage so don't rush it. I've seen some racks get tender in an hour, and some take nearly 3 hours.

Once the ribs pass the pull test take them out of the foil them and place back in the smoker, it isn't necessary to have the smoke going anymore but turn up the heat to about 300 degrees and sauce the ribs. In 15 minutes flip and sauce the ribs again. You can do this step on a grill if you have one available. Watch the temperature though! as the sauce can burn if the temperature is too high.

After applying sauce to the ribs twice remove the rack and enjoy your smoked BBQ ribs! I'm sure you'll agree that these are the best BBQ ribs you've ever had.

BBQ Ribs - How to Make the Best BBQ Ribs

Although the process for making great BBQ ribs seems easy there's actually some real science going on. From pulling proteins to the surface to breaking down connective tissue. There's a purpose to each step and it's all designed to add flavor and moisture to the ribs. For a more detailed look at making great BBQ ribs I suggest reading Smoked BBQ Ribs to learn more.

If you don't actually own a smoker don't despair, it's entirely possible to make great bbq ribs on the grill. I've adapted the process above to using a grill, read BBQ Ribs on the Grill to learn how easy this is.

How to Barbecue - Recommendations and Tips

“Preparing a perfect barbecue is not as simple as one might think.”

I have been a guest at many barbecue parties, all over the world, but rarely have I had the good fortune of enjoying properly grilled meat! Perhaps it is not generally known that barbecuing is a definite skill with specific rules to doing it well.

\"How To BBQ\"

I do remember, however, a wonderful barbecue at the home of a good friend of mine in the south of France. John cooked up and served one of the best barbecues of my life! The meat was first marinated in a wonderful choice of spices, was tender and perfectly cooked! This was a wonderful several course meal served in a magical evening toward the end of the summer in the south of France! A wonderful memory, for me!

How to Barbecue - Recommendations and Tips

I also remember a restaurant in Moscow where great big skewers were grilled on huge barbecue, in the dining room itself!

Another great barbecue that I can remember was in Douala in Cameroon, in western Africa right out in the street! The barbecue consisted of a big steel barrel with wood burning inside and then the chicken was slowly being cooked on a sheet of heavy brown paper, which allowed the chicken to be half smoked while also being grilled. The result was quite delicious and I ate there often during by stay in Douala.

In Asia where people barbecue enormously and the choice of recipes is huge, barbecuing is generally done very well. I have very fond memories of women, sitting on the sidewalk barbecuing tiny bananas with barbecued chicken wings available a little further down that same street!

Grilling, or barbecuing meat is an art in itself and this is why I wanted to write this to helping you to do a better job and also to give you some basic recipes that you can try. I hope that by trying them, I’ll give you the desire to barbecue more often and also to create your own recipes!

Basic Information on how to barbecue

Barbecuing is the art of cooking food on a grill. How one does this can range from simply barbecuing over some wood surrounded by three pebbles and then skewering a piece of meat on a small branch held over the fire, to using the most up-to-date electric or gas grill. In between are all kinds or techniques like using a stove top grill. The methods of barbecuing are just infinite!

Whatever equipment you are using, anything in this chapter could be done with any of them. What you really need to do a good BBQ is a rack and a source of heat.

You can BBQ almost anything: meat of course, but also fish, seafood, vegetables, bread, even cheeses and fruit. In fact, if you are using the BBQ for a meal, you could actually prepare the entire meal on the grill (except the raw parts of the salads, of course)!

At the beginning of the chapter, I told you all about my disappointment with grilled food. The main trouble a non-expert usually has with using a BBQ to cook with is that they tend to get the grill too hot and then burn the food on the outside. With burnt meat, you can see all the black lines on the food. Grill marks should be brown or dark brown but not black. When you see black lines on BBQ-ed food, know that that food was cooked at too high a temperature or was cooked for much too long.

Something else that is very important when grilling is not to burn the fat. Frequently during cooking, fat melts onto the fire and catches fire. Even if it seems professional to look at and fun when the fat burns like this, burned fat or meat are said to be a cause of cancer and the burn taste takes away from the taste of good BBQ-ed food.

Get into the habit of trimming off excess fat before cooking on the BBQ. Even if this has been done before you buy the meat, it is a good idea to check this point before cooking. Make sure that all gristle, extra bones and extra fat have been removed or do it yourself.

Don’t put your BBQ onto the highest heat you can, as it might well be too hot. Temperature is something you need to be watching and adjusting as you cook. Are you interested and want more tips? Download the free ebook excerpt "Cook French and Stay Slim" by Jean-Louis Vosgien www.photos-and-recipes.com [http://www.photos-and-recipes.com/newspage.html]

How to Barbecue - Recommendations and Tips

Jean-Louis Vosgien is a culinary consulting chef. He was the first chef in France to introduce in the 1980's fusion food, which at the time was unknown, and is considered an expert in that field by press people. He created two cookery schools, one in Saint-Tropez and the second in Lorgues, near Saint-Tropez He created a cake, famous in France, “Le Canelou de Provence”, sold today in the three major supermarket chains in France.

Barbeque Tips - Leg of Lamb

There is nothing like cooking a beautiful, juicy leg of lamb outdoors on the barbeque. The key is to get a delicious caramelized outer crust with perfectly moist meat gradually getting pinker as you carve closer to the bone. This is my technique and it works perfectly every time.

My method is based around not cooking the lamb on the barbeque except to finish it prior to serving. Instead, cook it in the oven first and then finish it on the barbeque. This dish starts and ends with a top quality marinade. You can buy these but I much prefer to make my own. You can use whatever you like but I like to make a robust, thick marinade with rosemary, thyme, orange zest, ketchup, paprika, cumin and fennel. To get the marinade into the meat, slash the leg all over to a depth of about half a centimeter, then massage your marinade into the lamb. The next thing I do is use a snug-fitting roasting tin. Using a snug tin means you keep the marinade in and around the meat while it is cooking which keeps it juicy and full of flavor. I often have to saw through the end piece of bone and fold it over in order to get it into the roasting tin.

Barbeque

One your lamb is in the tin, cover it loosely with foil and put in the oven at about 180. The cooking time you choose depends on how rare or well done you like your lamb. If you want it well done then an hour and a half will do it. Reduce the time from there according to your taste. You can use a meat thermometer to check the temperature as well, although the best way I find is to check the color of the juices coming out of the deep parts of the leg, this really tells you how the meat is coming on. Get the barbeque lit about forty minutes before the meat is done.

Barbeque Tips - Leg of Lamb

After the lamb is cooked and the flames have died down, you are ready to barbeque. Place the lamb gently onto the barbeque bars and baste the meat with the lovely juices from the roasting tray. Keep turning and basting, this is what will build up the lovely charred, caramelized outer crust. After about ten minutes the lamb should be done. Get your lamb off the barbeque and wrap it in foil to rest for at least ten minutes. Reduce the pan juices while the lamb is resting. You can put it on the hob or you can just put the tray on the barbeque - this will make the most unbelievable gravy. Once the lamb is rested you are ready to carve it. Carve slices off the leg and serve. The beauty of cooking you lamb like this is that the meat will be incredibly juicy and tender but it will also have the beautiful charred crust on the outside so you can serve up a mixture on each plate. Serve the lamb with wilted greens (perhaps also done on the barbeque in foil parcels) and potatoes.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas for producing beautifully barbequed leg of lamb.

Barbeque Tips - Leg of Lamb

Patrick Attlee is a food writer who loves barbeque season. He is also an advocate for hair thickening shampoo and provides information on the subject for both men and women.

What Exactly is "Texas Style Barbeque"?

No matter how you spell it, barbeque, barbecue, or BBQ, when the vast majority of folks think of barbecue, they think of firing up their backyard grill until red hot and slapping down a steak or pork chops, searing it to get some nice grill marks and voila!

This is perfect for a quick dinner after working a full day, but true Texas style barbecue goes beyond the average barbecue fare of steaks and drumsticks to create an art form that instills a flavor and tenderness on less popular or more difficult cuts that will never be achieved using the standard grilling method. It is not something that you just do on a whim or when in a hurry to eat. It takes patience and lots of trial and error to perfect the flavors and technique. However, once you do, cooking up a perfect brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, or just about any other cut of meat, becomes second nature.

Barbeque

There are a number of keys to Texas 'que - the first being the seasoning, or dry rub. Depending on the cut of meat you choose, select a dry rub that accentuates and accompanies the meat. I'm partial to the dry rubs from Caroline's Rub, but feel free to use your favorite. Depending on the pit master, they will sometimes mix the dry rub with mustard to create a paste that will thoroughly coat the meat, help in the tenderization, and add a tremendous amount of flavor without heavy mustard overtones. I like to do this on larger cuts of meat like briskets and shoulders.

What Exactly is "Texas Style Barbeque"?

Once seasoned, the next key to achieving that true 'que flavor is temperature and indirect heat. In Texas, the rule is low and slow. The lower the better, so you will usually see the pit somewhere in the 200 - 250 degree F range. This low temperature allows the meat to cook to a well-done state without losing its moisture or becoming tough and inedible. In fact, when it comes to cuts like shoulders and brisket, well done is the only way to serve them as the collagen and tough connective tissues don't actually break down and allow the meat to become tender until they reach higher internal temperatures. This is where the patience comes in - because of the low temps involved, it will take far longer for your meat to achieve the desired internal temperatures you require, and the internal temp of the meat may plateau for long periods, which can be completely frustrating. It is not uncommon for me to spend 15 - 20 hours tending to the pit when cooking a large brisket.

Now that you have the temperature right, the next step is smoke from hardwoods. Texans tend to use mesquite and pecan woods, and while mesquite wood has a definitive taste, pecan resembles a less-strongly flavored hickory. So feel free to substitute with some hickory wood which may be more readily available in your area. It will definitely take some time and experimentation with your pit and the quantity of wood you use to achieve the flavor you are really seeking, but eating all that great smoked food as part of the process is a fair trade-off!

One thing that raises a lot of controversy among the "grill-arazzi" is the smoke-ring. The smoke-ring is a reddish colored ring that naturally develops around the internal edge of the meat as a result of the nitrites and chemicals that naturally occur in the smoking process. While most championship barbecue competitions do not consider the ring as part of their judging as it does more for aesthetics than flavoring, the die-hard smokers will argue that the bigger the ring, the better the penetration of the smoke into the meat.

While a popular thing to do when grilling, adding barbecue sauce when cooking Texas style does not mean slathering it on during cooking. Texans view the sauce as a compliment to great barbecue, so more often than not, the finished meat product is served with the sauce on the side. If the barbecue is done right, I find the sauce just gets in the way!

I hope these tips have helped clear up some of the confusion, and if you do have the opportunity to try preparing your own Texas style barbecue, I definitely recommend it. It is a great way to kill a lazy summer day, drink a few brews, and make a few friends...believe me, when your neighbors smell the waft of smoke in the air, you won't be able to beat them off with a stick!

What Exactly is "Texas Style Barbeque"?

Joe Johnson is a proud Texan and a founding partner and chief pit-master with Caroline's Rub [http://www.carolinesrub.com], where he is in charge of product promotion and development for their line of gourmet dry rubs, smoked salt, and Texas chili seasoning.

What is the Best Turkey Cooking Temperature?

If you've ever had turkey at a thanksgiving dinner, but found it dry or bland, then this article may help you understand why. Sometimes it is simply down to the flavoring they used, but often it is down to the way the turkey was cooked - either it was not basted properly, or often enough, or it was cooked at the wrong temperature.

Some people mistakenly cook a turkey at too high a temperature, and keep it in for far too long - this can leave you with a turkey that is very dry and over cooked. While this has a less than ideal taste, it is better than the alternative - an undercooked turkey, and food poisoning.

\"How To BBQ\"

The Right Way to Cook a Turkey

What is the Best Turkey Cooking Temperature?

In general, turkeys should be cooked at 325 degrees. Preheat the oven, and then keep everyone away from it - especially inquisitive children who could be inclined to try to play with the knobs! Try not to open the oven door unless it is time to baste the turkey, as this lets out the heat, and slows down the cooking process.

You can rely on the cooking directions to get an idea of how long the turkey should take to cook, but if you have a meat thermometer this is even better. Insert it into the deepest part of the turkey to check the temperature. A turkey is fully cooked when the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. If it is anything less than this, put the turkey back in for a bit longer, as you could risk giving your guests food poisoning if you serve up an undercooked turkey, and food poisoning is most certainly not fun!

What is the Best Turkey Cooking Temperature?

Learn more about turkey breast cooking time [http://easyquickandsimplerecipes.i-choose-us.com/] . Dinner time does not have to be stressful. Sign up for our FREE report with reduce stress tips [http://www.i-choose-us.com/tips4moms.shtml] for busy moms!

Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipes

What makes great homemade BBQ sauce recipes? Well, it could be the time and love that you put into making this delectable barbeque sauce for your family to enjoy, or it could be the fresh ingredients that you use.

The barbecue that you create is what make your meals so tasty and wonderful. The main ingredients in all barbeque sauces are either tomato sauce or a combination of tomato puree and tomatoes. Knowing this you should be able to create some of your own recipes that will be enjoyed and passed down through your family.

Barbeque

The easiest BBQ sauce can be prepared very quickly. You will need 2 cups of your favorite ketchup, 2 chopped onions, ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, ¼ cup of brown sugar, and chili powder to taste. Sautee the onions and then add the remainder of the ingredients. Cook on low heat for around 15 minutes until the mixture thickens. Then brush on your favorite meat.

Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipes

You can also add or substitute the above ingredients to create some very unique barbeque sauces on your own. You may prefer to add items such as peppers for a nice flavor or even Tabasco sauce for a hotter style.

Now, you can choose your flavorings and spices to add to the tomato sauce. You can use tomato sauce or tomato puree with a whole tomatoes. Try pineapple juice or orange juice for a tropical flavor or add liquid smoke flavoring for that outdoors flavor. You can even use molasses or your favorite pancake syrup to enhance the style of your bbq sauce. Don't just think simple, try the various flavors such as maple or butter pecan to add a new and unique flavor. Either way you are sure to find a delectable recipe that you cook-out party will love.

Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipes

You are free to publish the above article in your ezine or website, provided credit in the form of an (HTML clickable) hyperlink is given to the author.

Hans is author of http://www.steaks-guide.com/ and the barbeque and grill section of http://www.patio-furniture-ideas.com/

Grilling Turkey

How to BBQ Turkey

Turkey has become very popular to do on the barbecue. Turkey pieces are great and come out very tasty on the grill. More and more grillers are preparing whole turkeys on the barbecue. Follow these techniques to great great tasting turkey right off your grill. You can add your own unique taste and texture, just follow these tips as guide lines.

\"How To BBQ\"

Purchasing - Turkey

Grilling Turkey

Buy smaller to medium sized turkeys when you doing them on the barbecue. When buying turkey pieces make sure they are broad and flat, so they will cook evenly on the barbecue.

When purchasing look for turkey with a darker skin pigment, as the darker meat can stand up to the high temperature of the grill. Darker meats also tend to hold sauces and flavours better.

Preparation - BBQ Turkey

To prevent the turkey from drying out, lightly coat it with some olive oil.

When preparing a whole turkey you will need to apply an in-direct grilling technique to fully cook the turkey without burning it. When grilling turkey pieces use a direct grilling method.

Smaller pieces like the thigh need to be seared to lock in the natural juices. Do this by using a high heat to crisp the outer layer and then a lower heat to slow cook the inside.

Don't put stuffing in your turkey before you grill it, rather cook it fully and then place in the stuffing.

Grilling Turkey

Charcoal should be your first choice when grilling turkey as turkey the smoke texture works well with the meat. When using a gas grill use wood chippings to produce a little smoke while grilling..

Lightly grease the grill grid to prevent any meat sticking. When grilling larger sized turkey portions, close the lid to create an even heat distribution.

Here are some grilling time guidelines:

- BBQ Turkey tenderloins/cutlets: 10 - 15 minutes (direct medium heat)

- Grilling Turkey breast: 1 - 2 hours (medium in-direct heat)

- Turkey drumsticks or thighs: 1 hour (in-direct medium heat)

- Whole medium turkeys: 2 - 3 hours (in-direct medium heat)

Grilling Turkey

http://www.bonfeu-bbq.com/grilling-whole-turkey.html

I'm 24, originally from Johannesburg South Africa but recently moved to Marbella, Spain. My hobbies include tennis, gyming and barbecuing.

I have a barbecue and recipe website. I love the outdoors and spend most my free time on the beach.