Pitmaster, p.14
Pitmaster, page 14
Add the stock, coconut milk, curry paste, and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer.
To serve, slice the goat leg and arrange the slices on a platter around the bone. Arrange the carrots and watermelon around the goat slices. Spoon the curry sauce over the goat. Chop together the pistachios, cilantro, garlic, and ginger. Sprinkle the pistachio mixture over the platter. Cut the lime into quarters and squeeze over the goat. Garnish with the Pickled Watermelon Rind.
Bring the platter of goat out to your guests and let them serve themselves.
STORAGE
Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.
◁ Giant Pork and Rabe Hero Sandwich
When we tailgate, we go all out. We’ve done several versions of a giant, five-foot (1.5 m) sub. Building this, we become the pied pipers of sandwiches. People gather around and start to drool.
For tailgates, we smoke the pork butt overnight at home and bring it to the event in a dedicated cooler used as an insulator to keep the meat hot. We chop the meat on site when we are ready to create the sandwich. It’s a little bit of cooking theater right in the parking lot.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Serves: 20 to 30 as part of a tailgate buffet
INGREDIENTS
One 5-foot (1.5 m) sub roll, split lengthwise
4 cups (900 g) Garlic Fennel Mayo
2 Barbecue Pork Butts (7 to 9 pounds, or 3.2 to 4.1 kg each) (see here for Classic Pulled Pork), kept hot
1 batch of Broccoli Rabe, warm
1 batch of Caramelized Veggies, warm
2 cups (270 g) toasted pine nuts (optional)
2 pounds (900 g) thinly slice fontina cheese
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Propane torch (optional)
Two extra-large cutting boards
METHOD
Chop the pork butts well with two large chef’s knives.
Place the sub roll, split lengthwise, on your table. (We usually use two large cutting boards positioned side by side.)
Dress the bottom half with the Garlic Fennel Mayo. Top with the pork and then the Broccoli Rabe, making sure to drizzle any accumulated juices onto the sandwich. Add the Caramelized Veggies, pine nuts, and finally, the fontina cheese. Sometimes we use a torch to melt the cheese. Smear some more of the Garlic Fennel Mayo on the top half of the sub roll and set it in place. Slice the sandwich with a serrated knife into 20 to 30 pieces and let your crowd help themselves.
STORAGE
Wrap leftover sandwiches tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
GARLIC FENNEL MAYO
Prep time: 30 minutes
Yield: 5 cups
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil
15 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon (6 g) fennel seeds
4 cups (900 g) prepared mayonnaise
1/2 cup (30 g) flat leaf Italian parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup (20 g) fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons (28 ml) fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
METHOD
Place the oil and garlic in a 1-quart (946 ml) saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook and stir constantly until the garlic browns, about 2 to 4 minutes. Add the fennel seeds, stir well, and transfer to a stainless steel bowl to cool to room temperature. Fold in the mayonnaise, herbs, and lemon juice. Mix well and season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until needed.
STORAGE
Refrigerate for up to 1 week.
BROCCOLI RABE
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Yield: 6 cups (240 g)
INGREDIENTS
3 pounds (1.3 kg) broccoli rabe, stems removed, crowns coarsely chopped
1 cup (235 ml) extra virgin olive oil
15 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup (16 g) crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup (60 ml) balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup red (120 ml) wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
METHOD
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the broccoli rabe for 3 minutes. Shock it in an ice water bath and then drain well. Allow it to cool and squeeze out any excess moisture.
Place the oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat until the oil is hot enough to move quickly across the pan and ripple a little when tilted. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and quickly stir for about 1 minute until the garlic starts to brown. Add the blanched broccoli rabe, mix well, and cook until coated with oil and warm, about 4 minutes. Add both vinegars, mix well, and season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.
STORAGE
Refrigerate for up to 3 days.
CARAMELIZED VEGGIES
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yield: 3 cups (450 g)
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (235 ml) olive oil
6 yellow onions, julienned
2 pounds (900 g) button mushrooms, sliced thin
4 heads of fennel, julienned
6 red bell peppers, julienned
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
METHOD
Place the oil in an 8-quart (7.6 L) pot over medium heat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted and caramelized, about 15 to 20 minutes. Season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.
STORAGE
Refrigerate covered for up to 3 days.
◁ Ode to Ozersky Sliders
While we were working on our book Wicked Good Burgers, food writer Josh Ozersky took us under his wing and taught us a few things about burger cooking. Most notably, he showed us that with burgers—as with barbecue—simple is usually best. Josh tragically passed away and the world lost a jaw-dropping writer and meat-eating aficionado. Here is our homage to Josh’s favorite sliders.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes for the onions; 30 minutes for the burgers
Yield: 1 dozen sliders
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds (900 g) ground beef, 75/25 blend
4 tablespoons (55 g) salted butter
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
Slider buns
Yellow mustard
Kosher salt
6 slices of American cheese, each cut in half
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
12-inch (30 cm) cast iron pan
Standard sized paper grocery store bag
Platter large enough to hold 12 sliders
An infrared thermometer
Solid face metal spatula
Wooden spoon
METHOD
Shape the beef into 12 golf ball-sized meatballs and refrigerate until ready to cook the burgers.
Place the cast iron pan on medium heat and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onions. Cook and stir frequently for 15 minutes. Add a tablespoon (15 ml) of water, turn the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the cover, return the heat to medium, and continue cooking the onions until golden brown, about another 10 minutes. The caramelized onions can be made in advance and refrigerated or proceed directly to cooking the burgers.
Lay the paper bag on its side and slide the platter inside. Set your buns and mustard out.
Place the cast iron pan over high heat for at least five minutes or until it is smoking hot. An infrared thermometer should read 500°F (260°C) or a drizzle of water should evaporate violently. If the onions are cool, heat them in the pan for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Move the onions to a bowl. Sprinkle the tops of the meatballs with about a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt each.
Place three meatballs salt-side down into the blazing hot pan. Flatten the meatballs into burgers with the spatula. Use a wooden spoon for leverage to push the spatula down firmly to evenly flatten the burger. Season the tops of each burger with another 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cook for one minute and use the spatula to flip the burgers, working around the edges first so you don’t disrupt the developed crust. Add a 1/2 slice of cheese to each burger. Cook for 1 additional minute. If necessary, cover the pan for 15 seconds to encourage the cheese to melt a bit more.
With a quick, firm scraping motion, remove each burger and place it on a bun. Add mustard and a tablespoon (10 g) of the onions. Firmly place the top of the bun on each burgers, place them on the platter, and roll the paper bag shut. Repeat for the remaining burgers. Let the last batch of burgers sit in the closed bag for at least 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the platter from the bag and serve immediately.
STORAGE
There will not be any leftover sliders.
◁ Gingerbread Butter Cake
This is a Northeast Philadelphia specialty introduced to us by our dear friend (and the photographer of this book) Ken Goodman. Andy has experimented with variations on the classic and gingerbread was a real winner. The cake layer is pretty spicy, but it needs to be to stand up to the sweet topping. The flavor will mellow a bit overnight.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Serves: 8 to 10
INGREDIENTS
1 pound (455 g) pound cake mix
2 1/2 teaspoons (5 g) ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
4 large eggs, divided
1/2 cup (170 g) blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup (112 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 pound (455 g) powdered sugar
8 ounces (225 g) cream cheese, softened
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4). Coat a 13 × 9-inch (33 × 23 cm) baking pan with cooking spray and dust with granulated sugar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cake mix and spices and mix well. Add 2 eggs, the molasses, and butter. Beat until well blended, scraping down the bowl. Beat for 1 minute on medium-high speed and then spread the batter in the prepared pan and smooth the top.
In a clean mixer bowl, combine the remaining 2 eggs, powdered sugar, and cream cheese. Beat just until blended. (It’s okay if some small bits of cream cheese remain; do not overmix.) Spread this mixture evenly over the cake batter.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out almost clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. The top layer should look golden and pillowy and be fully set (not jiggly).
Cool completely and cut into squares.
STORAGE
Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
6
Competition Barbecue
“You know what my favorite ring is? The next one.”
-TOM BRADY
What compels normally sane people to shell out over $1,000 for the privilege to cook barbecue in a 100°F (40°C) parking lot, or in a driving rainstorm—a foot (30 cm) deep in mud—if the goal is simply to cook great barbecue, this can be done in the comfort of your backyard.
And while competitions do offer prize money, we could write another book on better ways to invest $1,000 than on a barbecue contest. Case in point, Chris will spend $300 on a gold-grade 22-pound (10 kg) wagyu brisket to compete in a contest where the top prize for brisket is $250.
The financial investment is just the beginning. Most competitors with full-time jobs and family commitments spend the week leading up to the big event visiting multiple supermarkets to hunt and peck for perfect racks of ribs, in a late-night chicken skin scrapping session, cleaning the barbecue pit, and loading the trailer with a 50-item pack list. Then they get into a truck and drive 8 hours to the contest site. There’s site setup, meat inspection and preparation, and only now at midnight on Friday are they finally ready to cook. The overnight cooking of pork shoulders and beef briskets usually results in about 3 hours of uneven sleep. Breakfast may be two cups of coffee, an energy drink, and nip of whiskey.
So why invest all of this time and money?
Here’s how it happens: A backyard barbecuer starts getting the hang of cooking and more than one guest at the cookout exclaims, “These are the best ribs I’ve ever had!” There’s a barbecue contest later in the summer in the next town over. The barbecuer figures it would be fun, but the “best ribs ever” probably come in 49th place out of 60 teams. Now the barbecuer has a choice: Option 1 is to shrug and keep cooking in the backyard. Option 2 is to immediately sign up for another contest.
We’re Option 2 people. Option 2 requires dedication, tenacity, and a lot of practice. Only after the golf clubs have gathered dust, and many, many weekends have been dedicated to perfecting competition recipes, will the winning call finally come. And when the barbecuer gets that first place rib, the competitive fire is not extinguished—it is stoked. The next barbecue win is always the best one.
The recipes are all here in this chapter. If you are an Option 2 type, get to work.
◁ Competition Chicken Thighs and Wings
In order to procure twelve extra-large chicken thighs, you will probably need to buy two, if not three, family packs from the supermarket and choose the largest pieces. You’ll be trimming the chicken for this recipe; save the scraps for our Smoky Chicken Stock
Prep time: 2 hours
Cook time: 3 hours
Serves: 12
INGREDIENTS
2 to 3 family packs of extra-large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
12 jumbo whole chicken wings
2 1/2 cups (570 ml) Chicken Injection
1 1/4 cups (125 g) Chicken Rub or a commercial blend such as Smokin’ Guns BBQ Hot Rub, 3 Eyz BBQ Spice Rub, or Dizzy Dust
1/2 cup (112 g) salted butter, room temperature
2 cups (475 ml) IQUE Sauce v2.0
1/2 cup (120 ml) peach juice
1/2 cup (170 g) high-quality honey, warm
2 tablespoons (28 g) kosher salt ground fine in a spice grinder
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Wood choice: cherry
Half-size aluminum pans
METHOD
Remove the skins from all of the chicken thighs. Cull through and find the 12 largest thighs and the 12 largest skins. Save the remaining thighs for an alternative use. (The bones are great for Smoky Chicken Stock.) Trim the thighs into uniform square shapes. Remove most of the meat from the back of the bone. Using a paper towel, carefully pull veins from the thigh meat. Scrape the excess fat from each skin; using a relatively dull chef knife, start at the edges and scrape away the fat. Don't get too greedy. If you tear the skin trying to get that last bit off, you will need to toss the skin and start over. The finished skin should be transparent. Wrap each of the trimmed thighs in a scraped skin and set aside.
Prep the wings. Separate the wing into drum, wingette, and tip portions. Save the drums for another meal and the tips for your chicken stock. The wingettes are for this award-winning chicken turn in.
Hold the thigh skin-side down in your gloved hand and inject 1 ounce (28 ml) of injection on each side of the bone. Repeat for all of the thighs. Inject each wingette with 1 ounce (28 ml) of injection. Place the chicken in freezer bags and refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, follow the timeline or the next page for a noontime competition turn in—or lunch.
TIMELINE
8:30 a.m.
Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and dry thoroughly with paper towels.
9 a.m.
Place the thighs skin side down and sprinkle a generous amount of dry rub on the back side of each thigh. Place the wings flat side down and sprinkle a generous amount of dry rub on the meaty side of each wing. Place in half-size aluminum pans and return to the refrigerator or your cooler. Make sure your smoker is on track to be settled in at 275°F (140°C) by 10 a.m.
9:30 a.m.
Flip the thighs onto a cooling rack. Dry the skin again with paper towels. This is the presentation side of the chicken and any moisture will create splotches. Lightly sprinkle the skin side with dry rub. Flip the wings onto a cooling rack. Dry the skin with paper towels. Lightly sprinkle the flat side with dry rub.
10 a.m.
The smoker should be at 275°F (140°C). We like cherry wood for mild flavor and the vibrant color it imparts on chicken. If you are running a charcoal based fire, add two chunks of hardwood at this time. Put the thighs on the smoker.
10:15 a.m.
Put the wings on the smoker.
11 a.m.
Move the thighs to a half-size aluminum pan along with 4 tablespoons (55 g) of salted butter. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and return to smoker.
11:30 a.m.
In a saucepan, combine the IQUE Sauce v2.0 and peach juice. Warm (do not boil) and mix well.
11:35 a.m.
Remove the thighs and wings from the smoker. Put on a cotton glove and then a second layer of disposable gloves. With a gloved hand, dip each thigh and wings into the warm sauce.
11:45 a.m.
Return the things and wings to the smoker or place on a direct low heat charcoal fire for 5 minutes.
