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USCHO Cooks: Are you our Top Chef?

I've heard similar and used to do the same until I heard that as well.

That said. Humidity within your enclosure is absolutely imperative. The stall is just evaporative cooling. It's not melting connective tissue or making things tender. It's removing the moisture from your hunk of meat. It's why the crutch is such a great technique and why it punches through the stall. One of the other reasons I stopped doing a mop. Every time you open the door you lose moisture in the air. Now, I'll say that a mop is absolutely crucial depending on the style of BBQ you're doing. So it's not a criticism of mops. Just YMMV.

if you can find a way to keep humidity saturated and still exhaust the smoke, you've got yourself a great smoker setup. I would kill for an automated mopper I could trigger without opening the door. Holy grail man.
 
SJHovey said:
I'm curious about soaking the chips. I used to do that, but then I heard somewhere (or maybe saw on a show) that soaking the chips is actually counter-productive. First, it produces steam which screws with your temperature in the smoker. Second, until the water is all "steamed off" there is no smoke, which is sub-optimal.

After hearing about that, I stopped soaking my chips ahead of time.

Honestly, I'm not sure that I've noticed any difference, but perhaps my taste buds have been killed through age. I'm curious about the experience of others, though.
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I don't use soaked chips exclusively - I add some periodically to non-soaked wood and chips.

cc: dx - I agree keeping the lid closed as much as possible is paramount which is why I only mop about every 45 - 60 minutes. I've found I prefer the results vs no mop for ribs.
 
Yeah, mop vs no mop comes down entirely to how you like your ribs.

I prefer a hybrid of Texas-Memphis. Dry rub that's more in line with a Franklin's but absolutely no slather, sauce, or liquid sugar or acid touch the meat after the initial dry application of the dry rub. I do use the crutch and do a modified 3-2-1 where I just don't do the extra hour. I like my ribs to be tender but not entirely fall off the bone. My general rule is to do the opposite of twisting the bone. If you can twist the bone, they're approaching or have already passed "done".

I also have a pork rub I've been perfecting for over a decade. It's probably too complicated but I'll be damned if it isn't super tasty and complex. 13 ingredients. Mostly sugar and salt. Effectively a dry brine I apply the night before and allow to crust up the exterior.

The other thing I do that I know some people (including Franklin's) don't do is remove the silver skin. There is nothing worse in my mind than a parchment-like inedible layer that adds nothing and I believe removes flavor if you peel it off after the cook. I think Franklin's and Salt Lick get this absolutely wrong.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Yeah, mop vs no mop comes down entirely to how you like your ribs.

I prefer a hybrid of Texas-Memphis. Dry rub that's more in line with a Franklin's but absolutely no slather, sauce, or liquid sugar or acid touch the meat after the initial dry application of the dry rub. I do use the crutch and do a modified 3-2-1 where I just don't do the extra hour. I like my ribs to be tender but not entirely fall off the bone. My general rule is to do the opposite of twisting the bone. If you can twist the bone, they're approaching or have already passed "done".

I also have a pork rub I've been perfecting for over a decade. It's probably too complicated but I'll be damned if it isn't super tasty and complex. 13 ingredients. Mostly sugar and salt. Effectively a dry brine I apply the night before and allow to crust up the exterior.

The other thing I do that I know some people (including Franklin's) don't do is remove the silver skin. There is nothing worse in my mind than a parchment-like inedible layer that adds nothing and I believe removes flavor if you peel it off after the cook. I think Franklin's and Salt Lick get this absolutely wrong.
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Yeah, I agree, you definitely have to remove the silver skin, even though it's pain to do.

I apply the rub, then smoke them for about 3 hours at maybe 235-245. I then remove them, run two strips of honey down both sides of the ribs, lay them meat side down, wrap them in foil and put them back on for another one and a half or two hours. I like to put them back on without the foil for another 45 minutes or an hour to get a little bit of crispiness to the outer layer, compared with how they are coming out of the foil. I've experimented with sprinkling a little more rub on them after I remove the foil, but before putting them on for the last hour, but I've found that you have to be pretty careful and, at most, lightly dust them with the rub or the seasoning will get too intense.
 
I remove the skin.

My rub is typically off the cuff but will for the most part is going to include at least any of the following: paprika, black pepper, salt, ground mustard seed, garlic, brown sugar (although I can live without this), cumin, celery salt and cayenne pepper.
 
No mop, don't want my ribs wet when they hit the table. Dry rub and smoke is all I want on ribs or any other smoked meats.

Roasted vegetables are the bomb. Sweet potatoes, Butternut squash, carrots, onions, broccoli, Cauliflower, Green beans, pea pods, onions, garlic and whatever else one can think of. Whatever happens to be in fridge at the time. Olive oil, salt pepper and sometimes turmeric
 
Ok a bit more smoker talk.

I did a brisket this summer which was my most successful to date. My beef rub is significantly less complex. Salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar, cumin, allspice. No specific order.

It's been so hard for me to get the cook right on brisket. I don't know why. It just has. Part of my problem was the idea that it needed to get cooked to pulled pork temps. Which was insane, stupid, obviously wrong, augh why!!!!? Anyways, I now pull it at 190 degF.

Just as important as the rub is the mix of woods. God it took me far too long to figure out the right mixes. I used to basically smoke pork only with apple and hickory. Too much fruit wood tends to give way to aggressive smoke. Most of what I use now is hickory, pecan, oak, apple, and cherry. Pork calls for mostly hickory, a good amount of pecan, and a bit of apple. And for me, beef is oak, pecan, and hickory.

Chicken is a wildcard and it depends significantly on the recipe. Jerk is exclusively pecan and lots of it. Herbs de Provence is usually something super light if I have it, otherwise half the normal amount of chips using only pecan. BBQ-ish is usually hickory and apple.

I've been trying to get my hands on some inexpensive lighter woods but most of the stuff I've seen is expensive or limited in use. Alder, peach, maple. I know you can get these online but i also don't really want bags of wood sitting around taking up space. Maybe I'll just get them next time I need to stock up from Western.

Oh, and one thing I've learned is that mesquite is a joke that Texas plays on the rest of us. Never use it. That shit is nasty unless you're into masochism. Acrid awful smoke.
 
My wife had me buy some hot cocoa mixes for an event the other day. Well, the peppermint varieties weren’t popular.

Ghirardelli was the best. Okay, but not great.
Starbucks was under that, but not horrible.
Target’s seasonal brand Wonderland ended up being spearmint despite its labeling saying otherwise. I poured liquid toothpaste into my mouth, that’s how it tastes. I kind of want to trash the mug so as to not infect the damage upon future drinks that may end up in the mug.
 
St. Clown said:
My wife had me buy some hot cocoa mixes for an event the other day. Well, the peppermint varieties weren’t popular.
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They are way too strong for me.

I like the Godiva cannisters if you can find them. But milk chocolate only, the others flavors are a FAIL.

Needless to say, with milk not water. We are not barbarians.
 
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dxmnkd316 said:
Cow au vin tonight. Marc Murphy's recipe. Not written very clearly. But it's in the oven.
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That’s a good recipe. I’ll never top the one made with my cousin last week- the Eric Ripert trained chef who now cooks in Lyon.

it is indescribable the difference made when it’s a high end chef. No matter what I do, it will not turn out like theirs and I’m ok with that concept

cannot wait to get to Lyon and try more stuff - he’s had many stints in Asia after nyc but this is first European one
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
That’s a good recipe. I’ll never top the one made with my cousin last week- the Eric Ripert trained chef who now cooks in Lyon.

it is indescribable the difference made when it’s a high end chef. No matter what I do, it will not turn out like theirs and I’m ok with that concept

cannot wait to get to Lyon and try more stuff - he’s had many stints in Asia after nyc but this is first European one
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O.O


Whoa that sounds amazing.
 
I'll just say that I really like a lot of Marc Murphy's recipes. They always turn out even with adjustments for what you have on hand. His boeuf bourguignon was tremendous as well.

We were supposed to make his Pain Perdu for Christmas Eve brunch but there was a miscommunication and my MIL is making a French toast bake instead. :-/

oh well.

Totally unrelated. We're doing a standing rib roast for Christmas Day. Roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. Other sides TBD. Excited but a bit terrified given the cost of the roast.
 
I'm not a very good cook, but my husband makes it very tasty. Since I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I have to follow a diet. So I buy ozempic online for myself to feel better. Also, I often buy products to take home, from which my husband then makes excellent dishes
 
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dxmnkd316 said:
Totally unrelated. We're doing a standing rib roast for Christmas Day. Roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. Other sides TBD. Excited but a bit terrified given the cost of the roast.
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Everything but the carrots were great. The carrots and the timing. All of it got screwed up because Hy-Vee was out of sourdough Thursday morning. Forgot to go back and check Friday morning and didn't have time that evening.

anyways, so on top of everything we made sourdough from scratch. The roast took over 70 minutes longer than it should have. But mother of god was it good. The bread also didn't rise very well in the oven but had great structure when we cut into it. Delicious. The potatoes were spectacular. Veggies were good. Grated some parm over the top as soon as the potatoes and veggies came out. Very nice touch. Otherwise, salt and pepper for everything.

when I started carving the roast, my brother came into the kitchen and started taking pictures. That made me feel a hell of a lot better about the timing. Even my dad, who hates rare meat (yeah, I know, he grew up in the 50s, food was dangerous back then) went back for seconds.

oh oh oh. And I managed to not set off the smoke detectors. So all in all, great success.
 
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