How To Cook Competition Style Pork Ribs on a Kamado Grill

Our first BBQ competition of the year is this weekend at the Blooming BBQ and Blues Festival in Sevierville, TN.  That means we have spent the past several fine tuning our processes for our chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.  For example, this past weekend I made five racks of these:

We made two significant changes since last year.  First, after talking to many winning competitors and spending good money on classes from top teams, I am swallowing my pride and using commercial products instead of my own rubs and sauces.  I still stand by my spare ribs using my NMT Basic BBQ Rub and NMT Cherry Barbecue Sauce as an excellent rib to eat at home.  Competitions are just a different beast.

The second change is we are not using The Warthog stick burner BBQ trailer for competitions this year.  Instead we are using kamado grills because

1. that is what we are used to cooking on, 
2. they run all day on one load of coal/wood, 
3. they maintain steady temperatures, 
4. they aren't bothered by weather, and
5. they make moist, flavorful BBQ.  

We will be cooking on the Grill Dome brand of kamado grills.  My first hands on experience with the Grill Dome brand was at the Blount BBQ Bash where a team called Pull My Meat was cooking on them. I was intrigued by the hinge design that has adjustment screws and spoke to one of the cooks about them compared to their Big Green Eggs.  I walked away from that conversation very interested in them.

These are stock Grill Domes - the exact same grill/smoker/roaster that you could have in your backyard. 

I love being out on my deck early in the morning with the smoker running while everyone else is just starting to wake up.  It's so quiet and peaceful, like a walk alone on the beach.  It really is like meditation.

Here is how I am doing my competition ribs this year, assuming a standard KCBS turn in time of 12:30 Saturday.

Hot To Cook Competition Style Pork Ribs on a Kamado Grill
Before getting to the contest site, I have already trimmed 4 racks of pork spare ribs into St Louis style ribs.  Here is a post I did on how to trim St Louis style ribs.  They are just trimmed, there can't be any seasoning, brine, injections, or anything like that done to them until after the official meat inspection on Friday. 

If the weather forecast is for dry, I will get my coal and wood all set up Friday afternoon.  If it is going to be super damp overnight (humid, raining), I will keep the coal somewhere nice and dry like my car then just load it in Saturday morning. 

I start with a cleaned out kamado grill - no ash or left over coal - so I can get started and up to cooking temperatures quickly.

I bury several pieces of hickory chunks throughout the coal in the fire box and then top it with a little more coal.  This is different than my pork and brisket set ups where I use a triangle burn set up.

5am Saturday

• Light grill, set it up for indirect heat using a spider and drip pan and bring it up to 275°F.  I want my grill to be steady and burning cleanly for at least an hour before my ribs go on.

5:30am Saturday

• Season the ribs on both sides with a moderate coat of a sweet BBQ rub and a similar amount of a spicy BBQ rub.  I'm going with Meat Church Deez Nuts for sweet and Smoking Guns Hot for the spicy.  If you are trying this at home and want something you can buy from the grocery store, you could try a sweet rub like McCormick's Brown Sugar and Bourbon rub and use their Fiery Five Pepper rub as the spicy.

You can buy pre-trimmed ribs at some places.  GFS Marketplaces sells boxes of 5 from Chicago Meat Authority and Costco sells three packs of St Louis trimmed spares from Smithfield.

All rubbed up and ready to go!

7am Saturday

• Place the ribs on the smoker with the bone side down and meat side up.
• I use a multi rack set up like the Grill Extender, a homemade second rack, or in this case I was using an Adjustable Rig.  Whatever I use, I try to keep the ribs as far up in the cooking chamber that I can.  Low in the chamber the rib ends will be over the hot spots and get too dark.

This is an example of when you know your kamado is ready for smoking.  The thick, white smoke on the left is from incomplete combustion and will leave your food tasting like a foul smoke.  The one on the right is burning cleanly - the wood is still creating the compounds needed to make your food taste great and impart a smoke ring.  

9am Saturday

• Spritz ribs with spray butter.

10:30 Saturday

• Pull ribs from smoker and foil them.
• For each rib, place an 18 x 24 double piece of foil on a table and sprinkle lightly with light brown sugar (less than 1/4 cup), a few squirts of liquid margarine, and drizzle about 2 tablespoons of honey.  Place the rib down meat side down and then top with the same amounts of sugar, margarine, and honey. Pull the foil edges up to make a 'nest' and pour 1/4 cup of apple juice around the rib and then seal the foil into a packet around the rib.  Place them all back on the cooker.

I like using a hotel pan so I can get the ribs off of the grill and shut the lid as quick as possible to keep my cooking temps stable.  Just leaving the lid open for 5 minutes is enough to let your fire get out of control.

 11:15am Saturday

•  Open the foil pack and check for doneness by looking at the bone draw back and flexibility of the rib..  I want the ribs done at noon when chicken turn ins are gone so at this point, I'll either slow down (drop the temp) or speed up (raise the temp) as needed.  If they aren't getting done, I'll leave them in the foil.  If they are looking done, I'll take them out and put them back on the grill "naked". 

Ribs back on after being foiled.

11:45am Saturday

• Warm up the BBQ sauce.  Easily the most common sauce used by competitive BBQ teams is Blues Hog Original or Blues Hog Original mixed 1:1 with Blues Hog Tennessee Red.  

 12:00pm Saturday

• Take the ribs off the grill.  
• Remove the indirect piece (plate setter, spider/pizza stone combo, Indirect Rack/stone) and place a handful of wood chips on the coal.  This will give you a burst of smoke.
• Brush the sauce onto the ribs and a light sprinkle of fine sea salt.
• Place the ribs back onto the grill meat side up for 5-10 minutes for one last kiss of smoke. It's going to LOOK like it's getting too much smoke here but for such a short duration, it will be fine.

 12:15pm Saturday

• I pick the best looking slabs and then slice them bone side down.
• I brush the top and sides again with one last thin coat of sauce.
• I take the best 4 rib sections and plate them in the blind box in a 4 x 4 configuration.

At first glance, this box looked okay but that's why I took this mobile phone picture.  Judges don't have a lot of time to form their opinion on the appearance of a turn in.  In the few seconds they have to see the ribs, the judges' brains reach a lot of quick decisions.  One thing that helps create a positive opinion is symmetry and that's what bothers me about this box.  The ribs in back are skinner than the ones in front. There are gaps around the third rib on the second row. The front right rib significantly shorter than the others on the front.  That's a lot of differences.  Do the judges think through all of that in 4-6 seconds that they see an entry?  No, but if you give the brain a good dose of symmetry, there's a good chance that judge will form a positive decision on appearance. 

Not a great box, I'd probably give it an 8 for appearance but it was all 9s in taste/tenderness

12:25pm Saturday
Wipe the box for any sauce, close the box, and walk/run the ribs to the turn in table.

Wish us luck this weekend.  I feel like we are ready for it.  If you are in the area, stop by our booth and say hello!

Update:  Got 6th out of 44 well qualified teams at the KCBS contest at Sevierville Blooming BBQ and Bluegrass Festival for these last weekend.  Any day you get a call is a good day.

Grill Dome Sponsorship

It is only ten days until our first BBQ competition of the season.  If you follow my Twitter account or my Facebook page, then you have seen a couple of new colorful kamado grills in my pictures.  

We are excited to have Grill Dome sponsor us this year and they have provided us with these two Grill Dome Infinity Series kamado grills.  You'll be seeing them often on this blog, at our competitions, and at certain cooking demos. 

We have only had them put together for a little over a week but John and I have already run through several cooks on these. We couldn't wait to try them out.  He's done things like grilled chicken and pizzas and has been impressed with their performance.  My first cook on the blue one was Green Chile and Brisket Enchiladas.  

I have to admit this this wasn't a recipe, it's a "cheating" recipe because I used a commercial enchilada sauce because I was short on time.  I used Rick Bayless' new (new to us at least) line which cost more than twice as much as the other canned options.  It really wasn't bad, I'd use it again when I don't want to make my own green enchilada sauce or red enchilada sauce.   

I used about a cup of leftover brisket that Alexis chopped up and seasoned with some of my fajita dry rub.

To warm up the corn tortillas, I put them in a foil pack with a damp paper towel and tossed them on the Grill Dome indirect at 400°F for about 5 minutes.

Then I just rolled them up with about 1/4 cup of cheese and 2 tablespoons of brisket.

I poured a few tablespoons of the enchilada sauce in a casserole stoneware dish and put the assembled enchiladas in seam side down. Then I topped that with more cheese and poured on the rest of the sauce.

The Grill Dome held temperatures rock steady, just like I'd expect from a quality kamado grill.

Twenty minutes later, our quicky dinner was ready.  Total cheater dinner but my tastebuds and stomach did not care.

Enchiladas, burritos, chimichangas, and tacos are fantastic ways to use leftover brisket.

Friday night I cooked these three large briskets on the Grill Dome for a big Mayweather-Pacquiau Fight Night Party on Saturday.

Prep was trimming, injected with Butcher's BBQ, and seasoned with garlic powder, my beef rub, and Obicue's brisket seasoning.  I let them sit in a cold Cambro until ready to cook.

I cooked these at our competition temps of 275-290°F to practice timing.  Fuel was Grill Dome coal (which burned exceptionally well, btw) and hickory chunks.  I put them on at 4am.

I mopped them twice with a competition seasoning mop that I was trying out.  Think I'll skip it next time.  I foiled them when they reached around 180°F but I was going by the color.  I pulled them off at an internal temperature of 200-204°F.  Total cooking time was about 7 1/2 hours.  I stored them in a warm Cambro and took them to the party whole, to slice on site.

I normally prefer whole packer briskets but these flats did quite alright.  They were moist and very tender, almost a touch too tender for competition.

We also served 4 smoked pork butts, 5 hotel pans of chicken, half steam pans of MOINK! balls, ABT's, beans, potato salad, coleslaw, and buffalo chicken dip.  We were thinking that we made way too much for the 30 people who confirmed they were coming but more than twice that showed up.  Sunday morning only about a pound of pork was left and nothing else. 

I have also fired up the Grill Dome a few times just for quick meals like some grilled chicken breast to use in meals this week.

So after a heavy weeks worth of use, I'm quite happy with the performance of these Grill Dome kamado grills.  The ceramics are nice and thick and they come with a lot of nice touches that I appreciate.

Look at all of that virgin ceramic, just waiting to get smoked up.

That heavy duty spring loaded hinge seems durable and makes the top effortless to open.  The first thing I noticed on the very first Grill Dome that I saw in person a few years ago was the adjustable screws on the hinge because I've had to re-allign the dome on one of my other kamados a few times.  Also notice the dome clips, I guess that keeps the bands from getting loose and having the dome fall off.  I've heard horror stories about that happening to kamado owners after a high temp cook and their dome falls out of the ring and breaks.

I like the graduated scale for the upper vent lid - that makes knowing your settings easy and consistent.

Same goes for the bottom slide vent - it is marked so you know specifically how wide it is open.

I like the stainless steel bands that come standard and the heavy duty bolts.

Flip top standard grate let's you replenish coal or wood chips.  That need doesn't arise often with a kamado grill because they are so fuel efficient, but at least the option is there.

I know it has only been a week but I am enjoying cooking on the Grill Dome and I am looking forward to using these heavily this year.  Can you have our Big Green Eggs and Vision grills?  Heck no!  They are all quality kamado grills and we'll still be using them too.  But my Domer friends were right, these Grill Domes are fantastic cookers.  I have John's initial impressions in a post coming up next week. 

Here's my home security system for my grills.  I just taught Ramsay the BBQ Pit Bull where brisket comes from.

He's still a puppy, only 7 months old.  He just looks intimidating, he's the biggest cuddle bug ever.

 

So wish us luck for the Bloomin' BBQ and Bluegrass contest in Sevierville, TN on May 15-16th.  If you're there, stop by our team booth and say hello (just understand we'll be pretty slammed between 9am to 1:30pm on Saturday). 

[Standard FTC Disclaimer]  Grill Dome has provided us with two Grill Dome Infinity Series kamado grills as part of our sponsorship.

Cajun Pit Beef

Sam's Club had CAB whole beef eye of rounds for sale so I thought I'd make some lunch meat.  

Roast beef and caramelized onions

Beef eye of round is very lean so you only want to cook it to medium rare to keep it tender and a buttery injection can help matters.  The eye of round also doesn't bring a ton of flavor to the table, so you'll want to use some strong flavors.  This Cajun Pit Beef incorporates those two things to make lunch meat way better than anything you'll get at the deli.

Cajun Pit Beef

Ingredients

• 4-6 lb beef eye of round
• 1 recipe NMT Cajun Rub (see picture)
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter

Equipment:  Injecting syringe, food safe spray bottle, roasting rack/pan (optional)

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add the stock, butter, and 1 teaspoon of the NMT Cajun Rub.  Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and then remove from heat.  Strain through a sieve while hot then allow to cool.  Pour half into your spray bottle.  Reserve the other half for injecting.
2. Pre-heat your grill to 275°F.
3. Prep the beef - Trim off any excess fat.  Put the reserved half of the liquid in the injecting syringe and inject the beef in several places every few inches.  Wipe off any injection that seeps out and then season the beef on all sides with the NMT Cajun Rub.
4. Cook the beef until it reaches an internal temperature of 125-127°F.  I'll give specific steps for various cookers below.  Whenever you see the surface of the meat beginning to dry, spritz it with some of the stock/butter solution in the spray bottle.  At 275°F the roast should take about 90 minutes to 2 hours, 15 minutes - depending on a lot of factors.  Use your thermometer.
5. Allow the beef to rest for 15 minutes.  Then wrap it in foil and refrigerate it overnight or at least 8 hours.  
6. Slice thinly with a sharp carving knife and store refrigerated.

Using the bold flavors in the rub and injection add to the eye of round but don't cover anything up.

If you get your beef from a butcher, it will probably already be trimmed.  But if you buy it from a wholesale club, it is likely going to require a good bit of trimming.

Just season the roast until it is covered heavily on all sides.  It may seem like a lot but that flavor is going to be in small doses once sliced.

This particular time, I cooked the roast on the new design of the Pit Barrel Cooker.  I have a follow up post covering the changes of this popular drum cooker.

Just hang the roast from one of the hooks.

Regardless of the cooker you are using, this is a good example of when to spritz with the stock and butter solution. It keeps the surface moist and builds additional layers of flavor.

Resting after the cook.  Note the 149 max temp in the upper left of the ChefAlarm - that occurred when the probe was out of the meat, this roast never got above 135°F even after resting.  150 would be dry, dry, dry.  You can see that it took right at 1 hour, 26 minutes took cook on the Pit Barrel Cooker.

For other cookers, a roasting rack and pan combo works the best.  Save the drippings and you can use that to make a Cajun gravy.  Just mix 2 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp butter in a medium skillet then stir in the pan drippings plus extra beef stock as needed to make your gravy.  Season with salt and pepper or salt and more Cajun rub.

Here's a Cajun Pit Beef that I did on the Big Green Egg a long while back.  I seared it at the beginning and then slow roasted it for a little over an hour.  I kept the au jus and made the Cajun gravy noted above.

If cooking this on a kettle grill like my Char-Broil Kettleman, I'd put the roast rack combination to one side as noted above and only put coals on the opposite side, then cook at 275-300°F for about 90 minutes.  45 minutes in to the cook, I'd flip the towel err "roast" and rotate the pan 180 degrees for even cooking.  

If cooking on a 3 burner gas grill, you would set the grill up like this with the roast/rack/pan on the right and the only burner on is the one of the left side.  Of course, the lid would be closed and the towel would be replaced by an eye of round.  Don't grill towels kids....(No, You're a towel)

Waiting until the meat has chilled makes it easier to slice thinly for sandwiches.  I wouldn't waste your money on electric slicers made for the home, even if they say "professional" in their name.  They are under powered, too slow, and their plastic bodies are too flimsy.  You're better off with a good slicing knife.  Sorry about the too short field of focus, it was dim light and I was trying speed up my shutter.

When I don't have au jus to make the gravy, I like to make a quick horseradish sauce with 1 cup sour cream, 1 heaping tablespoon of horseradish, a pinch or two of dill weed, a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, and salt/pepper to taste.  

[Standard FTC Disclaimer]  I received no cash compensation for this post.  I received the Char-Broil grills as a member of their All-Star team and I got the Pit Barrel Cooker for review.

Five Tips for Grilling Rookies, Work Cookout, and Practice Competition Cook

One of the first recipes that I ever grilled up was a tasty flank steak marinated in a mixture of red wine, oil, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.  

To this day it is still one of our favorites, so when I saw that the topic for my April post at Char-Broil Live was "So You're Learning To Grill......", I immediately knew which recipe I was going to use.  I also gave 5 tips for those new to grilling.  

So humor me and hop on over to Char-Broil Live and check out a super simple Grilled Marinated Flank Steak. 

Work Cookout

Our Knoxville staff wanted to throw a cookout for Spring so we did a "Fire Day Friday" with burgers, dogs, and homemade ice cream.  I swear, this office will find any excuse to do an "everybody bring something" food get together.  That's not a bad thing.

I grilled the burgers and dogs, of course.  Even though we were cooking 3 dozen burgers, no nasty frozen burgers for us - those have a texture of warm wet cardboard.   Wait - I lie, we did use frozen burger patties for the vegetarian burgers.  But we hand made the beef burgers. I used ground chuck seasoned with 1 teaspoon Montreal seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon dried onion flake, and 1/4 teaspoon dried minced garlic per pound.  Then I dusted them with a touch of salt as they finished.  We used 1/4 pound beef hot dogs from Gordon Food Services and they were VERY good.   Good times!

Competition Practice

Our competition team did some practice cooks this weekend for our next competition at Bloomin' BBQ and Bluegrass in Sevierville, TN on May 15-16. 

I swear the poorly aligned burnt ends in the brisket turn in box drives me insane every time I look at it.  Small details like that matter.

Brisket is on point (see what I did there?) and that program is set except for my burnt end presentation flub.  Chicken thighs (not pictured) are very close, John is just doing one small tweak.  Pork is pretty set, just a slight adjustment to the cooking process.   We didn't do ribs, we'll be working on them this coming weekend on our new competition equipment that we just got in - a pair of really nice Grill Dome Infinity Series.  We didn't have time to get them broken in before this weekend's cook but they are now ready for next weekend.  

Hope that you all had a great weekend and have a rocking week.