Knox Spice has been very generous in helping me get started and I have used a couple of their great rubs already. Bryan Knox from Knox Spice just let me know that they are in the process of changing their packaging. The new packaging is shown above; it replaces the former packaging which looked sharp but wasn’t re-sealable. You can tell that these are quality rubs from the minute you open a package. I’ve already tried several – Yummy Chicken, Jamaican jerk and Chipotle BBQ. Last one up is Cracked Pepper – I can’t wait! You can read more about these awesome rubs here: Knox Dry Rubs.

Folks, of course I want you reading my content, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the links at the side of the page. There’s some cool sites listed over there. There are some forums and message boards full of advice and friendly people; there are some companies that have really been generous in helping me with my new venture; then there are just some really interesting places to visit. I encourage you to browse, and thanks for stopping by.

Dry Rubbed Rat

A couple of weeks ago, I was rooting around in the freezer, trying to figure out what to experiment with next. Lo and behold, I found 2 small roasts of beef, nearly identical in size – maybe 2 or 3 pounds each. I didn’t know if they were chuck roasts, rump roasts, or whatever. I cruised the message boards (see list at right of page) trying to figure out how to do roast beef. Curiously, I found two schools of thought – take it to an internal temp of 150, and take it to a temp of 195. Since my journey so far has been all about tinkering and seeing what works – this would be great!

Each roast went into a baggie overnight, generously hit with Black Bart’s Brisket Rub, from Tastylick’s BBQ. Man, this was gonna be good!

I then put them into the smoker, along with a pastrami I was working on.

When the roasts got to an internal temp of 150, I took one off to let it rest, the other I wrapped in foil and put back on. After an hour or two, unwrapped Roast #1 and sliced it as thin as I could, with a knife.

The meat had an awesome flavor. Wasn’t falling-apart-tender, but was sliced thin enough to make a sandwich that went down real nice. Meanwhile, I had laid down for a nap and fallen asleep. I jumped up and ran to check the smoker. The other roast had hit a temp of 205! Uh oh! I took it off and let it rest, all wrapped up. That one turned out great as well. Not quite falling apart, but just barely able to slice because it was so tender. It was great as well. I don’t think the flavor was as good, but the meat was wicked tender. The flavor on the other roast was a bit better, but it wasn’t as tender. Regardless, I would call them both a success, but not sure what I will do next time!

The 205 roast all sliced up.

Well, you may recall that one of my first smoking projects was to try a pastrami. It came out pretty good, but I needed to improve. Utilizing my lessons learned, I set out to try it again.

Like before, I took a corned beef and soaked it over night in plain fresh water. As I the smoker was warming up for the project of the day (dueling roasts) I hit the corned beef, soon-to-be pastrami really heavy with coarse ground pepper and coriander. A lot of folks’ constructive criticism last time was to use more pepper, so I did.

In the smoker it went. I took it up to an internal temperature of 160 and then foiled it, with my goal to hit an internal temperature of 190-195. I laid down for a little nap, slept for an hour or so and hurried out to check the smoker. I was at an internal temp of 205! Eeeek.

I took the pastrami out, and left it wrapped for about 2 hours. I unwrapped it an “Voila”! It was darned near perfect!

It was awesome, and I made some sandwiches with Uncle Dougie’s Jalapeno Mustard, which is going to get it’s own post one of these days! Fantastic! I had some leftovers and the people at work loved the pastrami also.

Well, after my initial success with some chicken thighs on the smoker, I was anxious to try them again. My wife had bought some chicken quarters on sale so a week ago, I thought I would give them a whirl. First, I rubbed the quarters heavy with some “Yummy Chicken” rub, courtesy of the Knox Spice Company. You can tell the quality of these rubs right out of the package. Nice, coarse grind, lots of color, fragrant – mmmmm. This blend has some sage overtones, and some zing too – very nice! Those quarters were in the fridge about 4 hours or so, with the rub on.

The chicken then went in the smoker at 225 for about 3 hours. I think I turned them once during that time.

Once they were close to the internal temp I was looking for (165, minimum) I kicked open the dampers, added some briquettes, and basted them good with sauce. Mom’s got some of Russ N Frank’s Fiery, the rest got some Sweet Baby Ray’s I had left over in the refrigerator. The smoker temp got up to about 325 and i was basting and turning, basting and turning. Pulled them off when the internal temps were around 170.

The fam liked them! Seems like we have another hit!

I would definitely recommend the rub from Knox Spice – it was awesome. Russ N Frank’s sauce – a must have as well.

I’m hoping you read the first installment of my interview with Obie. Below is the 2nd Part. Thanks again to Obie for taking part, and teaching so many people about BBQ – especially me!

7. There are a ton of different types of smokers out there. What advice do you have on how to select a new smoker/griller? Especially for new people?
Once again, I’ve covered this on the website already, but an here’s an update. 1. Determine required capacity. How many people do you normally feed? How often are you gonna cook for a big group? If it’s only once or twice a year, you really don’t need enough capacity to feed an army. Cook ahead and re-heat. If you do it right, I defy anyone to tell it’s been reheated. If you buy too big you’ll pay extra up front and with a smoker you use a lot more fuel (which ain’t cheap) heating up the space you don’t need. 2. Are you most likely to be grilling, or smoking, or both? If you mostly grill, get a good grill and cheap little water-pan smoker. You really only need the smoker for the smoke flavor—you can do most of the actual cooking in your oven, after you get the requisite smoke. If you’re planning on spending less than $1000, you prob’ly don’t want a horizontal smoker, go with a vertical design. Hey, heat rises, use a design that puts the meat above the fire and the physics work for you. THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE is good control of the airflow. You need adjustable vents on both the inflow and outflowing air. The difference between a campfire and a blast furnace is air control.

8. Since going commercial, what has been your biggest surprise in marketing/selling your products?
Personally, my biggest surprise was how much I enjoyed working the retail shop. Frankly, this wasn’t supposed to be my gig—I had a small but profitable glass biz and my wife (happily, now ex-wife) was supposed to do the spices but she flaked and dropped the ball, after we had actually spent the money to buy it. I had to pick up the pieces or take the loss, so I jumped in…and found I LOVED it. Whoodathunkit? T’other surprise was how some buyers just flat don’t care about quality–only mark-up. Seems particularly endemic in the grocery biz where it’s ONLY about product what sells the most.

9. What’s your favorite thing to eat out of the smoker?
Don’t really have a fave. Smoked prime rib is always a crowd-pleaser, plus all the usual suspects…brisket, ribs, turkey, ham (hoo boy do I have a good ham & turkey recipes!), whole pork loin is so easy and goes so far…don’t care much for pulled pork–too much work for what you get.

10. Besides cooking, running your business and mentoring new people – what other pastimes or hobbies do you enjoy?
MUSIC I personally don’t have much talent for making music, but I love music. I was 13 when the Beatles hit these shores, and spent my youth with Cream, Hendrix, Big Brother, The Doors, The Byrds, Mothers of Invention, Rolling Stones, The Who, etc, etc. I became a rabid Deadhead, marveling at a rock band improvising like a jazz band. In ’72 or so I bought my first LP that featured a steel guitar: Comander Cody &/t Lost Planet Airmen’s “Lost in the Ozone” and then just a year later Willie Nelson brought the hippies and the rednecks together down in Austin and started the Cosmic Cowboy movement (Willie, Waylon, Rusty Wier, Steve Fromholtz, Guy Clark, Willis Allen Ramsey, etc) and I knew I’d found a real home. The Cosmic Cowboy thing fell apart after a few years and what was left in rock seemed like it was only Springsteen, The Eagles and bunch of clueless Eagle impersonators all fronted by guys trying to sing really high so they sounded like women. Ick. I was so desperate that I started listening to Jazz. Then in ’85 I found KNON playing country-rock, featuring guys who sang like men, and I was back on board. The rebirth of the ol Cosmic Cowboy scene became “Texas Music” with regional artists dominating a new movement epicentered in Austin again, and really started taking off. It’s gone through many labels but today it’s called “Americanna”, and features artists from all over the country. In ’05, much to my amazement, I was offered the chance to DJ at KNON-FM, and I began the “Texas Cooking” show, named for a song by Guy Clark….

A quick explanation here: KNON is one of the rarest creatures in this country—a true INDEPENDENT radio station. We have no paid DJ’s…everybody that does a show is a volunteer–someone who loves the music so much that we’ll do our show for free. We’re formatted kinda like a college station with many different shows each showcasing a different type of music, including blues, gospel, hip-hop (or whatever), head-banger heavy metal, Cajun, rockabilly, American Indian, the longest running Grateful Dead show in the US, reggae, jazz, etc, etc. No commercials, we’re a non-profit, community-supported station, and raise a good bit of our funding through pledge drives 4 times a year.
Most importantly, we have no programming directors, which means all the DJ’s are real DJ’s, we get to choose our own music. I don’t require approval from some idiot bean-counter in a suit, if I like it and it fits, I can play it on my show—and that goes for all the shows. What a concept! We play music based on merit, not money or promotional machinery. Nice. KNON streams at www.knon.org.

I am the Tuesday Renegade Radio DJ, and am on 4-6 PM CST, and define my show as “Country-rockin’ honky-tonk stomp, & roadhouse with a twang”. I average 30 songs in two hours, with emphasis on what’s new in the genre. I highly recommend tuning in between 4 and 6 Mon-Fri—all the shows are first-rate, and all the dj’s are amatures. Listening to us screw-up on air (we all do) is just a little comic relief. You will catch the best music around on KNON–period. Oh, and FYI, Don O who does the Texas BBQ Blog is a Blues DJ at KNON–every Fri 6-8 PM CST. Small world.

I want to thank Obie again, for taking me under his wing. He’s been an awesome souce of info, fun to talk to, and the products he sent me to try are top notch. You’ll see lots of references to his products throughout my posts. Please visit his site www.obiecue.com and please have a listen to his radio station as well! ~Dry Rubbed Rat

Enjoyed an outing at Canyon Lake a couple of weeks back. Some old friends and some hard-core carnivores!

I am working through my list of “firsts” on the smoker. I have done pulled pork, beef ribs, chicken thighs, pastrami, and ABTs. Two weeks ago I did ribs (pork). Bought the ribs at Costco. Rubbed down one rack with some Sweet N Heat and rubbed the other rack down with Smooth Moove both courtesy of my friend Obie over at Obiecue.com.

I did the ribs according to Obie’s recommendations, which pretty closely resemble the 3-2-1 method. The ribs turned out great, but I left them on the grill just a tad long on the final step – or the heat was a smidgen hotter than it needed to be. They weren’t burnt, but overcooked just a little bit. I served them up with Russ and Frank’s “Sassy” Sauce, which is an excellent sauce and I highly recommend it. My wife loves the “Fiery” but it is just a little too hot for my taste. Sassy is perfect.

Both of Obie’s rubs were awesome, and the family liked them both. I preferred the “Sweet n Heat’, my wife and daughter gave the nod to “Smooth Moove”. We all agreed it was a tough call though.

OK, I know this is a smoking blog, but I thought these tips were pretty valuable. Posted by my friend AzSlim over at the AHT Forums

For briquettes multiply the width or diameter of the oven by 2,
Width of oven = 10 inches X 2 = 20 bricks
then add 1 briquette more for every 25 degrees above 350 degrees desired.

400 degrees desired – 350 degrees = 50 degrees divided by 25 degrees = 2 more briquettes plus 20 or 22 briquettes

Then divide the result by two and subtract 2 from this result. This number of coals goes on the bottom.
22 divided by 2 = 11 minus 2 = 9 coals for the bottom.
The remainder goes on the top.
22 total coals minus 9 coals =13 coals for the top.

Remember to rotate the oven and the lid every five minutes checking the biscuits often. When the sides of the biscuits begin to brown and pull from the sides of the oven remove the bottom coals and finish cooking and browning with the top coals only. When using natural wood embers try to estimate the same mass as would be derived using briquettes with the hot coals.

Kingsford charcoal bricks are generally good for between 30 minutes and an hour depending on wind, temperature, and humidity. Royal Oak runs a little less but on good days gives more consistent results. Embers from the firepit need to be checked constantly and when they start to turn black replaced immediately. The frequency of replenishment for all sources is decreased significantly if the iron is pre-heated and allowed to stay near the fire but not so near that you can not hold your hand between the fire and the iron. When the iron gets to temperature it will hold heat and release it very consistently. I just heard a rumor that Wal-Mart has “Wireless” thermometer sets that the sensor goes in the pot and the gauge goes outside and alerts when the sensor achieves a pre-set temperature. Reportedly these sell for about ten bucks! Guess who is checking this out and looking for a half dozen!