Tulsa BBQ Experience

  



My wife, son and I recently went to Tulsa Oklahoma to visit my mom who moved there about six years ago.  While we were there we visited two local barbeque joints that were recommended to me by a fellow member of "The Smoke Ring" barbeque forum.  

My first stop was "The Knotty Pine" which is located at 3301 West 5th Street, in Tulsa.  The restaurant has been there since 1952.  Before that it was a BBQ joint called "OK Barbeque".  I guess that restaurant had been there since the 30's.       

The Knotty Pine is rich with BBQ history.  Some would call it a dive... From the "Beer and Bar B Que" sign that is struggling to stay lit to the creaky floors, it is just the type of place I seek out when I'm visiting states known for good BBQ.  You feel like you're in another time and there are no frills there at all.  The food is served on a sheet of paper placed over a rectangular plastic tray.  I ordered ribs with a side of beens and coleslaw.  The food was great!  Ribs were tender and had a very nice smokey flavor.  My wife had the brisket sandwich and she too was very happy.  The beef was moist and tender with a nice flavorful bark.  

Their menu is broken up into half orders and full orders.  The half orders come with one side, bread pickles, peppers and onions.  Prices range from about six bucks to a little over eight.  The full orders come with two sides and range from about seven bucks to a tad over twelve.

We also ate at "Albert G's" located at 2748 S. Harvard in Tulsa.  The food was great but it didn't have that dive/joint feel to it.  I had the three meat combo and chose brisket, ribs and chicken.  All were cooked to perfection and I had no complaints at all.  My wife had brisket and she was very pleased with her meal.  Prices were about the same as the Knotty Pine, but like I said...  It just didn't have that historical joint feel that I personally love when I'm eating barbeque.  

The photos shown on this post are of the Knotty Pine and my 5 year-old Garrett, enjoying a rib.

BBQ Rib Cook

Well, the weather was real nice today and I had this urge to barbeque some ribs.  This was totally unplanned, but when you gotta' have ribs, you gotta have ribs!

My wife loves beef ribs, and I lean towards pork, so I decided to keep harmony in the house and did a rack of each.  The little market I bought the meat at didn't have pork spare ribs so I settled for baby backs.  My all time favorite rib is pork spare ribs, trimmed St. Louis style.

Here's how I cooked them:                                                

The first thing that I do is get my cooker warmed up.  I shoot for a temperature between 220 degrees and 240 degrees.  While I'm waiting I prep my ribs.  This includes any trimming, removing the thin membrane (silver skin) which is located on the backside of the ribs.  This is very important as I helps the flavors penetrate the meat more evenly.  All you need to do is get it started on the end or edge with a knife, wiggle a finger underneath and tear it off.  The hardest part is getting it started. 

Now, once my cooker is up to temp, I place the ribs in the cooking chamber bone side down.  I close the lid and add chunk wood to the firebox of my off-set cooker.  Try to avoid huge billowing lofts of smoke from your cooker.  What you want to see is a nice even stream of bluish smoke coming from your smoke stack.  If you have too much smoke, you run the risk of creosote forming which will create a very bitter taste.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                For   this cook I'm using apple wood.  My all time favorite woods to cook with are apple, pecan and hickory.  Sometimes I'll mix my woods to add different layers of smoke flavor.  I'm going to smoke this ribs during the first three hours of the cooking process.  The key to a good smoked flavor is to keep the temperature as even as possible.  To master this you just need to practice, practice, practice the air mixture on you smoker.  I keep my stack fully opened and adjust the damper on the firebox.

After three hours, I remove the ribs and place them bone side up on a sheet of aluminum foil.  At this point, I spray the ribs down with apple juice.  The ribs are then tightly wrapped in the foil and placed back in the cooking chamber for another hour.  At this point I am no longer using any smoking wood.  Remember, the meat on ribs is pretty thin and you do not want an overwhelming smoky flavor.

After one hour in the foil, I'm check the tenderness of the ribs.  I'll look to see if the meat is starting to pull away from the bone and pick up one end of the slab with my tongs.  When the slab bends down to a right angle (90 degrees) their pretty tender.  What you DON'T want is the meat falling off of the bone.  When I hear, "The ribs were so tender the meat fell off of the bone" I cringe!  Rib meat should NOT fall off of the bone.  You want the meat tender but there should still be a little "tug" to it.  

Now My ribs have been cooking for about four hours and they are ready to be finished with my sauce.  I remove the ribs from the foil and place them back in the cooking chamber, then generously baste the ribs with my sauce.  If you want more of a glazed finish, you may want to ad a little honey to the sauce.  Don't lose control of your heat during this process.  You don't want to burn the sauce after cooking for four hours!  After about thirty minutes, I'll add more sauce and cook an additional thirty minutes.

After the last thirty minutes you're done!  So, to recap the cooking times...  Three hours of smoking, one hour foiled and one hour finishing with sauce.  

Enjoy! 

 

Modifications to offset smoker (New Braunfels Black Diamond)

This post is more for the hardcore backyard smoker. I own a New Braunfels Black Diamond smoker and have had great results with it for about fifteen years or so. That being said, there are a few downfalls to this smoker, which can be overcome with a little elbow grease.

After several years, my smoker started to develop some rust, especially around the firebox. I did what most people would do. Gave it a quick sand and sprayed it with high temp paint. That lasted about a month before the rust started up again. The next step for me was take the thing apart and have it sandblasted and coated. I had the whole smoker coated with heat-coat, which is what high-end headers are coated with. I also had the legs coated with a baked on powder-coat. Before re-assembling the smoker I gave it a couple of coats with high-temp paint.

As I put it back together I took care of a couple other issues. I sealed the fire box to the cooking chamber with fire brick mortar to keep smoke from leaking out through the joints. I also used oven gasket to seal off all of the lids. I replaced the wooden handles and tubular brackets with thick steal brackets and spring handles, which I welded on. I did this all about four years ago and the performance has increased and I haven't seen a speck of rust.

Today I started working on more modifications. In order to hold the heat and keep it consistent and I lined the bottom of the cooking chamber with fire with firebrick. The next modifications will be extending the inside portion of the smoke stack closer to the grill (cooking surface) and installing a baffle from the fire box, to the cooking chamber. My goal is the direct the heat and the smoke under the cooking surface. I just started mocking up the baffle and hope to have it finished next week. I've attached some photos of the modifications thus far.

UPDATE: On the above two photos, you can see that since I my last post I have added a Horizon Convection Plate. This is a 1/4" thick plate of steel that has a series of holes which change to a larger size as the progress towards the end of the smoke chamber. This connects at the firebox opening and causes the smoke to go under the meat then rise up evenly. In order to achieve this I also had to add a sheet of aluminum (until I make a permanent fix out of sheet metal). In addition to this, I extended the smoke stack down towards the grill. This changes the draft and again, helps keep the smoke low at the level of the food.

Rotisserie Pork Rib Roast

Due to some members of our family being out of town on Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate a few days late.  Tonight was the night.

My father-in-law doesn't like turkey, so we opted on a bone-in pork roast.  I bought a nice fresh roast at a local butcher shop.  It had ten ribs and weighed in at a tad under eight pounds.  I decided to cook this on the rotisserie.

Now, when I smoke or roast low and slow, I use my off-set smoker.  For grilling and rotisserie cooking, I use the good old Weber kettle BBQ.  I do my outdoor cooking old school and can't bring myself to buy a gas grill.  And I'm not convinced that you can get the same results from gas, no matter what the salesperson at BBG says!

Anyway, here is how I cooked it...

Last night, I rubbed down the roast with extra virgin olive oil, then various spices and herbs including thyme, basil, lavender and even fennel pollen.  I had the roast trussed up, so after rubbing in the herbs, I wove sprigs of fresh rosemary through the twine.  After I was done with the rub, I wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap then tossed it in the fridge overnight.

The cooking time I came up with was 20 minutes per pound, while trying to maintain a temperature of 350 degrees.  That turns out to be a little under three hours.  

I lit a full charcoal chimney with charcoal and after it was ready, I piled it evenly on one side of the grill.  I then put the roast on the spit, inserted into the rotisserie motor and got it turning.  Put the lid on and walked away!

2 hours and 45 minutes later, the internal temp of the pork was 160 degrees and it was done.  I then remove the roast from the spit, wrapped it tightly in aluminum foil and let it rest for about thirty minutes before carving.

The end result was a very moist and delicious roast.

Enjoy!

Barbeque sauce recipe

This is a great BBQ sauce recipe.  This can be used as is, or as a base for your own ideas.  I'll add a little pineapple juice for an Hawaiian twist, or maybe a little rum or Jack Daniels as it simmers.  The options are limitless...  

BBQ Sauce Recipe

In a large sauce pan, add the following:

1 tbs butter

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Fresh lemon juice from two medium sized lemons

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1-1 1/2 cups water

1 small white onion (diced finely)

2 cups sugar

1 tbs yellow mustard

1 tbs crushed red pepper flakes (adjust more or less to personal taste)

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbs McCormick’s BBQ Seasoning

3 tsp celery seed

Bring the above ingredients to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Stir frequently.  

Add the following:

One 24oz bottle of catchup.  

2 tbs liquid smoke

1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Simmer for another 40-50 minutes, stirring frequently.  Allow to cool.

World's Best Cornbread Recipe

This is, without a doubt, the BEST cornbread recipe in the world.  It is easy to make, sweet, savory and very moist.  Your guests will absolutely love this.  It will impress all who try this...  Please let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb butter

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 can creamed corn

1 - 4 oz can chopped green chiles

1/2 cup Jack cheese, grated

1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 cup yellow corn meal

4 tsp baking powder

Instructions:  Cream butter and add sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.  Add corn and chopped green chiles.  Add cheese and salt.  Mix (or sift) together flour, corn meal and baking powder; add to mixture.  Pour into greased 8x12x2 glass dish.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for one hour. 

West Coast BBQ...Great BBQ in La Mesa, CA (San Diego County)

Tonight my family and I tried out a little BBQ joint called, West Coast BBQ.  I'm a real BBQ snob, so at first I was a little reluctant to go.  Although there are a few REAL BBQ restaurants in San Diego, most places idea of a good rib is when the meat falls off of the bone.  I hate that!

Ok, here's my review...  The restaurant is located in a small strip mall located at 6126 Lake Murray Blvd. in La Mesa.  As soon as I got out of the car I knew I was in for a treat.  The air was filled with the aroma of smoked meat.  I love that smell!!!  The place was packed, which was another good sign.

The menu was just basic BBQ.  Pork spare ribs, baby back, beef ribs, pulled pork and sliced beef (brisket).  The meat is slow smoked with a southern style rub and then served wet, with their homemade sauce.  The sauce was sweet with a little heat at the back of the throat.  Pretty good stuff.

I ordered the "Rib Lovers Plate."  The meat was cooked to perfection.  Nice smoke ring, tender, moist and came off the bone with a slight "tug".  The plate consisted of three large beef ribs, three nice sized spare ribs and six baby back ribs.  It also came with two side dishes.  I picked the BBQ beans (which were great) and the fries.  My wife had the beef rib plate with beans and cole slaw.  She loved her meal and really liked the slaw.  My plate was $18.00 and my wife's was $14.00. 

All in all I really liked the experience.  My only suggestion would be PUT A ROLL OF PAPER TOWELS ON THE TABLE!!!!

I Do plan on returning to this great rib joint!  Next time it will be pulled pork.