Mexican street corn - My way

Mexican street corn

During the summer we love to eat corn on the cob and we really enjoy Mexican street corn. We often have my mom eating with us and she can't eat corn on the cob anymore, but enjoys the corn. This is how I make our Mexican street corn so she can enjoy it too. You can make it on the stove top or the grill. The grill adds a bit more smokey flavor to it. 

Ingredients:

• Frozen corn - 1 bag
• mayonnaise - 1/4 cup
• Chili powder - 2 tsp
• Paprika - 1 tbls
• salt - pinch
• Pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Cojita cheese
• Sometimes BBQ rub - to taste

Start to cook the corn in a pan on the stove top or a foil lined (especially if the basket has large holes in it) veggie basket on the grill. You can get it going in the microwave and then transfer it to either pan too. Stir it often so it doesn't burn. 

Grilling Mexican street corn.

Once it is no longer frozen add the mayonnaise and stir the corn so the mayonnaise coats the kernels. I also add the salt and pepper at this time. You can let it sit on the heat for a bit and cook. I like to get some charred kernels when I do it on the grill. I like the flavor of the roasted corn. 

Once it is heated all the way through add the chili powder and paprika (and rub if you like) and stir it all up to mix the spices through the corn. Let it continue to sit and cook for a few minutes more. 

Add some cojita cheese and stir it again to mix the cheese into the corn. Remove from the heat and put into a bowl to serve. Top it with some more cheese and cilantro, if you like cilantro and serve. 

I find this is a great side for just about anything I cook on the grill. Pork loin, hamburgers, pulled pork, brisket... anything really. If you have left over pork or brisket and make tacos with them, the corn is really good in the tacos or on the side. 

Drunken Chicken with a Twist

I've been thinking about trying to make a drunken spatchcock chicken for a long time. I finally tried it this weekend and videoed it. Normally with a drunken chicken you take a half can of beer and stick the chicken on it and set it on the cooker until it's done. Spatchcocking basically means you butterfly it. Therefor it can't fit it on a can of beer any more. I laid mine on a rack in a pan and put some wine in the pan to cook it. It was a first for me to try it this way and also video it. 

How to: Smoking a Turkey 101

In 2009 a friend gave me an old smoker he never used. This was the start of a beautiful thing at my house. It was a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and I was trying to figure out what to make on it first.

The first cooker.

My wife and I talked about it and decided we would try smoked turkey. I had never smoked anything by myself. It was going to be an adventure. My wife bought two turkeys. I asked, “Why?” Her reply was, “I’ll roast one incase the smoked one doesn’t turn out.” "OK," I thought, "Play it safe so we don’t go hungry on Thanksgiving Day."

BBQ 101 - Parts of BBQ and Judging Criteria

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of judging at BBQ & Blues here in Charlotte, NC. I was judging the pork entries with three lovely ladies, and we started talking about the BBQ. As we talked I realized that, while they knew what they liked in the flavor and texture, they were unfamiliar with the terms used in BBQ and what the different parts were.

I’d like to explain some of the fundamentals of good Q to help the less experienced understand the terms and get more familiar with the food we love.

Many argue what the true definition of BBQ is. Some define it as whole hog; others limit their definition to pork shoulder or butt. Still others say BBQ means beef brisket. Many up North call any grilling out BBQ.

To me, grilling hot dog and hamburgers doesn't really fall into the category of BBQ. For me, it’s BBQ when it is cooked with smoke, usually at a low temperature. (See my more in depth definition here: What is BBQ?)

BBQ varies by region too. Most judges and aficionados will agree that good BBQ can stand on its own and needs no sauce. If the meat is cooked correctly, the rub, mop and smoke will make for a symphony on your taste buds.

When it is cooked correctly, all BBQ will share three main parts (chicken may be an exception to this rule): bark, smoke ring and the meat. When the meat is judged, it is judged on three criteria: appearance, tenderness and taste.

Parts is Parts in BBQ

Bark
Bark, also known as Mr. Brown, is the outer part of the BBQ’d meat. Many think this is burnt and charred. If the meat is cooked low and slow, however, the meat doesn't burn. If there is lots of sugar in the rub, it may caramelize and burn; but most bark is simply carmelized spices. The bark tends to be tan, mahogany or dark brown almost black color, depending on the rub spices used.

You can see the dark brown to black bark on this pork butt

The bark is formed from the rub that is put on the meat. As the meat cooks, the juices pull to the surface and mix with the rub creating a shell of sorts. It is this shell that helps keep the rest of the moisture in to make a flavor that is oh so good. If you mop while cooking, this also contributes to the bark's flavor and helps to return some moisture to the meat.

Chicken doesn't tend to get bark on it, but it does get a smoke ring. The hardest part of cooking chicken is getting bite-through skin. Bite-through skin is the grail of the pit master for chicken.

When the meat is served, always put some bark in with it. Mixing the bark in with the rest of the meat helps to highlight the flavors that you work so hard to get.

Smoke Ring
Just under the bark is usually a red ring called the smoke ring. This can be from 1/8" to 1/4" depending on conditions. Many say this is a sign of good BBQ, and it can be. Certain chemicals can be used to enhance this ring without smoke, but a good smoke ring sure looks nice when serving up a plate of brisket.

The meat takes on a red tinge due to a chemical reaction between the smoke and the meat. Many mistake this pink tinge as undercooked meat. That misconception is one reason many BBQ restaurants don't serve smoked chicken, as it tends to look pinker than the other meats and gets mistaken as being undercooked.

You can see the red smoke ring on this box of brisket.

The Meat
Depending on what you are cooking, the meat will vary in color. Pork is also known as Mrs. White. When pork is done cooking, it tends to be white to tan, hence the name.

Mrs. White and Mr. Brown getting together.

If you ever hear a pit master or BBQ fanatic talking about Mr. Brown and Mrs. White, they are referring to the bark and the inner meat. When they get together in good Q, magic happens.

If the meat is cooked correctly, it will come apart easily and be very tender and moist. The low and slow style of cooking helps to break down the connective tissue and take a regularly tough piece of meat and make it into a beautiful, tender bite of sustenance.

What Judges Want

The judging criteria can be a bit subjective.

• Appearance : Would I want to eat this? Does it look appetizing? We each have our own opinions.
• Tenderness: Is it tough? Soft? Does it fall apart? This one is a little less subjective, but people like their meat different ways.
• Taste: Do you like it? Is it too salty? Too smokey? Too spicy? One persons spicy is another persons mild.

Each of these three things help you decide what good Q is.

Appearance
When a box or plate of BBQ is set in front of me, I look at it and think, “Does this make me want to eat it?” We eat with our eyes first, so if something doesn't look appetizing we will tend not to want to eat it. If it is sloppy and messy, it doesn't make me want taste it.

Looks good enough to eat.

Tenderness
This one is a less subjective then the other criteria. With pork if you feel like you are tearing off a piece or have to chew it forever, it is too tough. If it feels like a pork paste in your mouth, it is over cooked and just has a nasty texture.

Chicken is much like pork in the area of tenderness. One thing many try to achieve is a bite-through skin. When smoking chicken, the skin may have great flavor but tends to get rubbery. You want to be able to bite into the chicken and have just the piece of skin you bite into come off into your mouth and leave the rest of the skin on the piece of meat.

Many people like their ribs to "fall off the bone." These are overcooked. When you bite into a rib you should get what is called a "watermelon bite". You know when you bite into a piece of watermelon and you leave teeth marks? Kind of like that. When you bite into a rib, only the piece you bit into should come away, leaving the rest of the meat on the bone. That’s when you know the ribs are cooked correctly.

Brisket shouldn't fall apart when it is served. You should be able to slice it about the thickness of a #2 pencil without it falling apart. You can do a pull test with brisket, where you take one of your slices and pull it apart gently. It shouldn't fall apart but shouldn't be hard to pull part either. As it stretches you should see some of the connective tissue holding it together stretching out. If it's like shoe leather, it is too tough. If it falls to bits, it is too soft.

Taste
I think this is one of the most subjective parts of good BBQ. Everyone has different flavor preferences, but there are some that most can agree on. Good BBQ doesn't need sauce to enhance it. It should taste good on its own to let the meat flavor shine through.

Many judges seem to lump taste and tenderness together. When I compete, I find that the taste and tenderness scores seem to go together. I have turned in meat that I thought tasted ok but the tenderness was perfect and gotten great scores. I have also turned in meat where the tenderness was awful and the flavor was phenomenal and received terrible taste scores. For some reason, many judges don't differentiate the two.

When judging, I've had BBQ that I want to keep eating and BBQ that I just want to spit out. When comparing notes with the judges after the tasting, we often have all agreed on which BBQ was the worst but could not agree on which one was the best. Most people can tell bad BBQ without difficulty. When it comes to what you think is best, opinions may differ.

As I have said, BBQ varies from region to region. Tastes vary but the main parts of BBQ stay the same: bark, smoke ring and meat. The judging criteria doesn't change: appearance, tenderness and taste. A little bit of knowledge can enhance your experience with BBQ and help you understand what the fanatics are talking about.

How to: Pork Butt 101

I get questions from friends and family on how to cook a pork butt quite often. Questions like: What rub do I use? How long do I cook it? What temperature do I cook it at? Can I do it on a gas grill?

Well today I'm going to try to explain how I do it and hopefully answer some of these questions. There are lots of ways to cook butts and no one way is the "correct" way. Again this is how I do it. I like the results as do family and friends, but hopefully this will help some of you start cooking and experimenting with variations.

What you will need.

• If your cooking pork butt you need a pork butt. The pork butt is actually the shoulder of the pig. It is also called a Boston butt. The Virtual Weber Bullet site has a great section explaining what the pork butt is and where it comes from. A pork butt looks like this before it is cooked. 
• You will also need a cooker (gas, charcoal or wood burning). I prefer a combination of charcoal and wood as I get a good smokey flavor from it.
• Charcoal, wood or a full propane tank to cook with.
• Your favorite rub
• Mustard
• Honey
• Mop sauce (recipe below)
• Meat thermometer
• Oven thermometer
• Foil
• Large pan
• Food service gloves (I like these as they keep my hands clean and make clean up easier. I wear them when handling the raw meat.)
• Spray bottle
• Food brush
• About 6-8 hours to cook.

Thats the list of things you will need for the cook. Wait. What. No sauce? If done right, you don't need any sauce for the meat but can add it if you want. I would say get whatever your favorite type of sauce is and use it. I use homemade sauces. My mustard sauce is from Dr. BBQ's Big Time BBQ Cookbook and my tomato based sauce is from the Joy of Cooking.

Prepping the meat
Take your butt -pork butt that is- out of whatever packaging it is in. I do this over the sink, that way the juices that come out don't get everywhere. Set the butt in the pan fat-cap side up.

What is the fat-cap? The fat-cap is that big white thing on one side of the butt. That is all fat. DON'T trim it off.

Trim off any pieces of the pork that are dangling. You'll have to feel around the butt to do this. sometimes there are little pieces of meat that hang off that you will want to trim because they cook to fast and get tough and gross.

Once the butt is trimmed you are ready to paint the mustard on it. In a little bowl mix about 1/2 cup of mustard with a 1/8 cup of honey to make a honey mustard sauce. Paint the entire butt with this mixture. This helps the rub stick to the butt and I think it helps the bark set up better.

What is bark? Good question. When the butt cooks it creates an outer "shell" from the rub and mop on it. It is YUMMY. My bark tends to be dark but it can range from a nice mahogany red color to a dark brown, almost black. When the pork is pulled you mix it in with the inside meat and it gives it great flavor. See the picture below.

After the butt is slathered with the honey mustard you need to put the rub on it. Shake it all over the butt so the whole piece of meat is covered with rub. Even on the fat-cap side but you don't need as much there as you probably won't eat much if any of that, it's fat after all.

Once this is done make sure it is sitting fat-cap side up and put it in the fridge over night… or you can leave it out for an hour before putting it on the cooker. I do this part the night before I cook and put the butt in the fridge over night to let the rub pull out the juices and settle on the meat. I pull it out of the fridge before I get the fire going on the cooker and add a little more rub to it. This is about an hour before I'm ready to put it on the fire.

Cooking the meat
To cook the butt we are going to use indirect heat. Indirect cooking means the fire isn't directly under the meat. On a gas grill you would only light one side of the cooker. On an offset smoker you just use the fire box and on a charcoal grill you will need to se the coals on one side of the grill to keep the meat from getting burned. If you have a bullet cooker you will have a water pan between the meat and the fire to help regulate the temperature.

If you do have a charcoal cooker I recommend the "Minion Method" to get your fire set up.

Patio Daddio BBQ has a great article on his blog about smoking using gas. If you are using a gas grill I recommend reading it.

Place your oven thermometer on the side you are going to be cooking on. You want your cooker to get up to 225º and stay between 225º-250º while cooking. This is the temp you want on the side away from the fire.

Once you reach temperature you can put your meat on the cooker. Remember put it on the side without the fire with the fat-cap up. Close the lid and relax. The hard parts over… or is it.

Why do you put the fat-cap up? Glad you asked. As the meat cooks the fat renders both inside and outside the meat. As it renders, it drips down the meat, imparting more flavor to it. It also drips onto the hot metal of the cooker and the smoke created imparts more flavor to the meat.

I check fire and mop the meat every hour. Remember though "if you're lookin', you ain't cookin'." I try to check the temp and mop it at the same time and do it quickly. That's why I use a spray bottle to mop.

The mop I use is a 1/2 cup each of:

• Worcestershire sauce
• soy sauce
• apple cider vinegar
• olive oil
• water 
• apple juice 

Shake it all up, put it in a spray bottle and spritz the meat every hour.

If your temperature is dropping you will need to add some fuel to the fire. Not a lot. I usually add about 4-6 briquettes to keep the fire going. Some cookers will take more fuel then others and the outside weather conditions will affect the heat output and fuel consumption. Experimenting is the only way you can figure out what works best with your cooker… or joining an online forum and asking others who have similar cookers.

Is it done, yet?
After about five hours I will check the temperature of the meat. Pork is done cooking at about 160º but if you pull the butt off the fire then it will be too tough. You want the internal temperature of the meat to be around 195º. At that temp it is ready to pull and should pull nicely. You can go higher to 200º-210º but I like 195º.

If after five hours, it is not near 195º I would check the temperature in another 2 hours. Some butts can take 12 hours to cook. I have never had one take that long but others I know have. Also there is a time when the temperature of the meat stalls. It maintains an internal temperature for awhile and doesn't get hotter. It's ok, just let it keep cooking and keep mopping it.

YEAH! It's done.
Now that the internal temperature is at 195º get some of your foil and wrap the butt up in it and let it rest for about 30 minutes. It will continue to cook due to the heat of the meat but it also allows the juices to redistribute in the meat. The meat will be hot when you unwrap it. I will let it sit for another 30 minutes unwrapped before I try to pull it so it cools some.

Pulling the butt.
The first thing you want to do is pull out the bone from the butt. If the meat is done the bone should be showing more as the meat has pulled away from it. grab it and pull it out. It should remove easily. If it doesn't the meat wasn't quite hot enough. No worries, as long as it is over 165º it is cooked to eat. It won't pull as easily but it should taste good.

THE MEAT IS HOT AND CONTAINS FAT DEPOSITS WHICH ARE HOTTER.

You will also want to remove the fat-cap. It should slide right off. I pick through that because there is some really good meat hiding in the layers of the fat. I also like to take some of the bark that was created from the fat-cap and mix it into the pulled pork for extra bursts of flavor.

You can use your hands or two forks and pull the meat apart and put it in the pan. I have a pair of silicon gloves I use for this. they are great. Keep the bark mixed in with the rest of the meat because that adds punches of flavor throughout. Once it is pulled you are ready to serve it to all the drooling people at your house.

If you have any questions about this post a comment and I will try my best to answer.