Rouses MARCH-APRIL_2017_final_m

PITMASTER

’Cue Me In Tim: A lot of people are fearful of slow- smoking large cuts of meat like brisket. It’s not as simple like throwing a couple of Rouses steaks on the grill. Mike: We can do 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of brisket a month. We use the whole brisket, but can get a pre-trimmed brisket (Rouses sells both). Prep couldn’t be easier. With good-tasting beef, you only need a rub, or even just salt and pepper, which is what they do in Texas. The point is you want beef to taste like beef — you wouldn’t want to cover up that good flavor. Tim: I cook brisket on my Big Green Egg with your rub. It’s a two-day process for me, which involves cooking overnight, low and very slow. Mike: At home I cook on a pit at 225 degrees. In the restaurant, I can dial it in lower — at 190 or 200 degrees — because I have more time. A whole brisket takes me about 16 hours, cooked indirectly over a wood fire. Sixteen hours is just enough time for that fat-crisped outer bark to build. Tim: People get freaked out the first time they do a brisket and see that crust turning black. Mike: They just don’t know how pretty it is on the inside.That smoke ring (layer of dark pink) is just under the crust. Tim: I’ve heard about cooking brisket “hot and fast” but I’ve never tried it.

Mike: If you want to fast-cook it, you do it at 250 degrees.But you have to introduce some moisture, so you put a little pan of water underneath it to lessen the heat’s impact on the meat. You want the pan between the fire and the beef. Myron Mixon won Memphis in May’s — first place in brisket and Grand Champion — and he fast-cooks his brisket in a “water smoker.” Tim: Now Mike, here’s where I’m a champion: ribs. I won Rouses Big Green Egg Cookoff a couple of years ago. Lately I’ve been putting our beef short ribs on the smoker. (Short rib is like brisket on a bone.) I put some of your rub on those ribs, then smoke them at 250 degrees for about eight hours. Mike: I have a better way, an easier way. You should actually smoke the short ribs after you’ve cooked them. Start with a small pan. Add the short ribs, season them with Big Mike’s Rub, throw in some chopped onions, a few bay leaves. Put a couple of the bay leaves in the bottom of the pan and a few on top. You don’t need any liquid. Wrap the pan in foil and cook in your kitchen oven for 4-5 hours at 225 degrees.Transfer the ribs out of the pan and into the smoker and cook them for another hour and a half.The bake makes it easy, and the ribs get a lot of flavor without spending all day on the smoker. And you talk about bay leaves making a huge difference … Tim: Do they get a sauce?

Mike: You want a mustard sauce for beef short ribs. Go 2:1:1 with the ratio — two parts Big Mike’s BBQ sauce, one part mustard, one part honey. Serve it on the side or add it last minute. Be careful with the sauce. You never want to put sauce or honey on meat when you cook it until the very end, say the last 15 minutes or so. A sweet, thick sauce will burn and get bitter if you put it on too soon. Once the sauce is on, watch it close for burning. Tim: Finally, let’s talk turkey. You smoke them year round at your place. Mike: A good smoked turkey is different from your usual Thanksgiving turkey, which can be dry. You might need gravy on that Thanksgiving turkey, but smoked turkey can be a whole other bird. At Big Mike’s, we brine our turkeys overnight to get the best flavor out of them, then rub them with fresh herbs, spices and a salt.Then we put the rub on before we smoke them. I promise you, you’re gonna ask for seconds of my turkey.

[PAGE 24] photo by Joe Racoma [TOP RIGHT] Big Mike — photo by Joe Racoma [BOTTOM] Big Mike’s BBQ Brisket — photo by Randy Hawthorne

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