Make Spicy Mustard At Home

If you really like good hot mustard, you can save a lot of money by making it at home.  Mustard is an awesome compliment with barbecue, whether using it for a marinade, making mustard-based cole slaw, or topping a brisket sandwich with it.

THE BASICS:
You "need" two ingredients: mustard flour and water.  Or vinegar.  Or both.  You can literally just put mustard flour in a bowl, and slowly mix in water until it becomes the right consistency for you.  You'll end up with a hot, yellow mustard.

Mustard heat and flavor needs several hours to "open up," so I would always recommend making it a day ahead of time.

Mustard flour and mustard seed need not come into contact with actual heat.  Don't mix with hot water.  If you do, the spiciness will be toned down.  We're pretty sure that's what they do to make commercial yellow mustard.  We're also pretty sure that you wouldn't be reading this if you wanted that.

BEYOND THE BASICS:
Okay, so you want to personalize your mustard a bit.  I'm the same way.  Try purchasing whole mustard seeds... perhaps a mixture of yellow and black. 

Grind these up in a coffee grinder, fairly finely even if you want coarse, grainy mustard.  You'll be surprised how grainy it will still end up.  Mix these with some salt and a dash of one of your favorite spices.  Turmeric is commonly used in mustard.

Mix your ground concoction with vinegar; preferably a lighter colored vinegar such as white wine, rice wine, or champagne vinegar.  Keep slowly adding until reaching a spreadable consistency.

Here's the tricky part... add a bit of water right AFTER the consistency seems perfect.  It should end up slightly thinner than you want.  Overnight, the mustard seeds and spices will soak up a lot of moisture.  You might even add a bit more water or vinegar the next day.

Some say you need to soak whole mustard seeds overnight before processing, but we at Sizzle Grove don't really see the point as long as we give the mustard time to set over night.  If your mustard seems too grainy, or the texture is off... wait another day.

SIZZLE GROVE CURRY MUSTARD:
5 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tbsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed fenugreek leaves (or 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek seeds)
pinch turmeric
pinch ground cumin
pinch ground coriander
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
water

1. Grind mustard seeds and peppercorns in a coffee grinder until mostly fine, but slightly coarse.

2. Mix with other spices in a bowl.

3. Add vinegar, mix.

4. Add water until slightly thinner than desired.

5. Place in a jar, store for a night or two.


**Try using this combination of spices, along with some brown sugar, for your next dry rub on a brisket or lamb roast.  Barbecue until tender and juicy, basting every hour, and slice thinly.  Let meat rest when fully cooked, then slice thinly.  Serve with sliced bread and curry mustard.

India Pale Ale + Barbecue

I still remember the first time I tried drinking an India pale ale, or "IPA."  At my favorite local beer bar, I asked the bartender if I could try a sample of Boulder Brewing Company's "Mojo IPA."  After one sip, I thought "JESUS CHRIST, that's too strong!"  So, I drank a different beer.  Then, for reasons beyond my explanation, I wanted to order a glass of Mojo IPA.


Something about the flavor of hops is enticing and enchanting.  Hops are indeed bitter little monkeys, but they impart citrusy, floral, piney, and earthy flavors, depending on the variety and how much are used in a batch of beer.  Americna IPAs happen to be the hoppiest of all beers, and their intense bite and sharpness makes them a perfect pairing for barbecue.

An India pale ale melds perfectly with spicier varieties of barbecue.  A beer such as Bear Republic's zesty, brownish colored "Hop Rod Rye" would pair beautifully with Texas-style salt and pepper beef barbecue.  Go nuts with the pepper, add a dash of hot sauce, and you've got a great pairing.  Smuttynose "Finestkind" IPA, a particularly bitter unfiltered ale with a distinct grapefruit-ish flavor, could stand up to tangy, peppery Carolina pork barbecue.

Then, there's the big, badass cousin of the IPA... the DOUBLE IPA.  Let's say you're a "best of all worlds" barbecue person... you like your ribs with a spicy, generous dry rub, but you also like a Kansas City-style sweet, tangy, honey or molasses-infused sauce.  Buy yourself a four-pack of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, the bigger brother of their standard 60 Minute IPA.  The beer's bitterness and high alcohol level (9% ABV) is offset by pineappley, honey-like flavors.  This might also be a great beer for making beerbecue sauce (and yes, you can expect a recipe on Sizzle Grove in the near future).

Are you man enough to handle the hops?  Or woman enough?  Tell us about your favorite IPA.  And as always, if you need advice about more kinds of beer to serve with your barbecue, just ask us!  Inquiries may be sent to sizzlegrove@hotmail.com. 

(Photo licensed by Creative Commons)

Memphis Dry Rub

The iconic Charles Vergos' Rendezvous restaurant in Tennessee built the foundation for Memphis style barbecue.  Along with Texas, this style of barbecue is all about not being all about sauce.


Charcoal cooked ribs at Rendezvous are famously slow cooked until tender, mopped with a thin, vinegary baste, then sprinkled with an extra dose of their signature, Greek-inspired dry rub.  Herbs are rarely used in American barbecue rubs, but no one told Charles Vergos when he first started selling ribs out of his restaurant.  Mr. Vergos used the spices he knew best, including generous amounts of garlic and oregano.

Sizzle Grove pays homage to Mr. Vergos with our own Memphis style dry rub.  Next time you make ribs, start with this rub as usual, cook as usual, baste at the end, and then apply a generous dusting at the end of cooking.  Since our version has ten ingredients, we broke it down into approximate percentages for you.  How convenient, no stupid measuring spoons.


INGREDIENTS:
10% Garlic powder
10% Oregano
10% Chili powder (standard American style, which is a blend of spices)
10% Black pepper
20% Kosher salt
20% Paprika
5% Onion powder
5% Ground mustard
5% Cumin
5% Coriander

(Photo by Charles Vergos' Rendezvous)

BBQ IN REVIEW: Dinosaur Barbecue in Harlem, NY

Barbecue can really be an unpredictable cuisine.  Keeping a constant temperature and proper flow of wood smoke is not easy, nor is it easy to constantly have enough food ready coming hot out of the smoker when there are hundreds of hungry customers a day.

When I saw mixed reviews online about Dinosaur Barbecue in Harlem, NY (there are also Syracuse and Rochester locations), I thought to myself "maybe they have good days and bad days."  Or, maybe some reviewers who don't know barbecue were more interested in sweet barbecue sauce rather than well smoked meat.  Well, I still can't tell you if these are accurate assumptions, but I can tell you this... I went on a good day.

A group of us made reservations for a friend's bachelor party, which was smart due to how intensely busy Dinosaur BBQ became after 7pm.  Being six of us, we decided to order one of the family-sized meals, which came with ribs, brisket, pork, chicken, cornbread, and sides... plus one more 1-2 person sized meal.  In retrospect, with the addition of about four pitchers of heavy beer, we might have gone a little nuts.

Dinosaur's meats are generally served without sauce on them, or with sauce added post-cooking, which is the accepted way to do things in the world of barbecue.

Ribs were St. Louis style spares, a bit mild on spice and dry rub flavor, but with an intensely pronounced smoke ring.  The end ribs were pink to the bone from smoke, which was insanely delicious.  The chicken's skin, well spiced and lightly blackened, stuck well to the meat, and was juicy and full of charcoaly barbecuey flavor.  Pulled pork was served on the side of the plate, rather than as sandwiches, and had a noticeable smoke flavor and a drizzling of their vinegary, spicy, tomato-based sauce.  Dinosaur's crowning achievement very well may have been the brisket, which was smoked perfectly, cooked until moist, generously spiced, and any fat was literally melting away as we bit into it.

We were also phenomenally impressed by Dinosaur's side dishes.  Macaroni and cheese had a real sharp cheddary bite to it, sprinkled with what seemed to be a dash of cayenne and some paprika.  Our waitress recommended we try the salted potatoes, which were a huge hit at the table.  She made a good choice.  The beer selection was above average, including favorites such as Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale and local kolsch from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company.

So, to the reviewers out there who gave one or two stars to Dinosaur: I'm sorry to hear that your visit was not as good as mine.  However, maybe those of you self-proclaimed aficionados who make statements about how "You need a good original sauce to start with if you're opening a BBQ restaurant" need to check your standards... because no, you absolutely don't know barbecue.

-Nick

Sour Ale + Barbecue

Scouting out superb suds to serve with your smoked meats can be an overwhelming task.  With the incredible rainbow of beers that craft breweries offer all over the world, how can you pick just one or two?

Well, if you have a little bit of cash to spend, sour ales might be your friend.  You might be wondering what sour ale is.  Sounds a little off-putting?  Some of the most complex ales on earth are sour ales, such as Flemish ales, "wild ales," unblended lambics, and lambics blended with fruit.  A majority of their flavor generally comes from wild yeast as a result of spontaneous fermentation.  And yes, they are mouth-puckering and tangy, which makes them the perfect compliment to barbecue with a tangy, sweet sauce, or to the vinegar-basted barbecue of Tennessee and South Carolina.

Many of you have probably seen Lindemann's Framboise around your liquor stores.  This is a raspberry lambic, which is considerably less sour than many other lambics, but possibly the most readily available of the style.  It tastes more like raspberries than raspberries do and has a high price tag, but this is typical of most lambics and other similar styles.  Some consider it the quintessential gateway "girl beer" due to its fruity flavor, red color, and pink foamy head, but it's a valid compliment for any thickly sweet-sauced barbecue.

Petrus is another Belgian brewery whose beers tend to be brewed on the sour side.  These ales are also fairly easy to find in a reputable liquor store or beer store, and generally won't break your wallet as badly as many other similar beers. However, if you want to explore beyond the most mainstream, there's plenty more to look at.

Unblended lambics, such as Cantillon Vigneronne, do not have fruit in them.  They are straight up wild yeast ales, generally brewed with a certain percentage of wheat malt for complexity.  Flavors range from vinous to briney to cider-like to lemony and beyond.  Beers such as these would be a perfect compliment to Carolina style pork barbecue.  Many unblended lambics, such as geuzes, take years to make, as breweries like to brew one batch, age it for a year or two, then blend it with a younger batch.

Flemish ales are among the most complex beers on planet earth, hailing from the Flanders region of Belgium.  Generally, there are two "colors" of these ales; usually we see the red ones, but beers labeled "oud bruin" (or "old brown") are generally in the Flemish ale category as well.  One of our favorites at Sizzle Grove is called Duchesse de Bourgnone.  This crimson red ale is lightly sour and vinous, subdued by a distinctly sweet vanilla + oak + brown sugar flavor.

Most sour ales are not overwhelmingly high in alcohol, so you won't have to worry about your friends driving home after doing a beer and barbecue day.  If you really want to share them, that is.

Photo licensed by Creative Commons

BBQ BASICS: Barbecue "Don'ts"

Dudes standing over a grill burning meat: a paragon image of 20th-21st century Americana. Maybe we can change that a little bit.

There are a lot of common mistakes in barbecuing (including knowing what "barbecue" is), and possibly even more in standard grilling, due to the respective higher heat. Avoid these errors to improve your outside cooking skills:

1. DON'T slather meat in barbecue sauce before grilling or barbecuing. It will all burn off while your ribs or chicken slowly cooks.
**DO apply a dry rub before cooking, and DO apply a sauce during the last 10-15 minutes of cooking, or simply serve sauce on the side.

2. DON'T carve all the fat away from your meat. This might work fine for fast grilling, but for barbecuing, the slow cooking process allows rendered fat to baste the meat to prevent it from drying out.
**DO score the fatty pieces with a knife and cook "fat side up." Later in the cooking process, when you're almost done, you can cook fat side down to allow the remaining fat to melt away onto the coals.

3. DON'T just use one pair of tongs, unless you go inside and thoroughly wash them before your final use with them. It's unsanitary to touch tongs with raw meat and then use them to handle the finished product.
**DO keep raw meat tongs and cooked meat tongs. Additionally, in a restaurant setting, you'll want different tongs for different types of meat, but at home this is not such a big deal.

4. DON'T keep the grill open for large cuts of meat. Everything will dry out.
**DO close the grill for meat that takes more than 10 or 15 minutes to cook. When grilling sausages or brats or steaks at a high heat, you can leave the grill open if you prefer.

5. DON'T pour your coals into your coal pan before they're well lit enough, especially if you lit them with the aid of lighter fluid.  For one thing, they won't be hot enough, and for another thing, they'll be toxic.
**DO allow the coals in your charcoal chimney to light all the way to the top, until the flame dies down and the coals are all white, THEN pour them into your coal pan.

6. DON'T be stingy with the amount of coals you use just because you're doing low temperature cooking.  You'll be surprised how fast the coals will go out.
**DO use plenty of coals in order to keep the heat going for a long time, but keep a distance between the coals and the meat to allow lower temperature barbecuing.  If you don't have the capability to keep a distance between the coals and the meat, pour the coals to one side of the charcoal pan and keep the meat on the opposite side of the heat source when placing onto the grill grates.

THINK YOU CAN IMPART SOME WISDOM?  SEND US YOUR IDEAS!  EXPECT A LOT MORE BARBECUE DON'TS SOON! 

Chinese-Style Barbecue Sauce

Just as we promised... the delicious way to finish off your spare ribs.

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp Soy sauce
2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
2 tbsp Honey
3 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
1 tsp White pepper
2 small cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Ketchup
1 tsp Peanut oil

STEPS:
1. Crush garlic and simmer in a saucepan with peanut oil, on medium heat, until lightly browned.

2. Add soy sauce, vinegar, hoisin sauce, and ketchup, then add honey and white pepper. Let simmer on low for about five minutes.

3. Apply to spare ribs, or other meat, during the last 10-15 minutes of cooking. Serve any extra sauce on the side for dipping.

Remember, applying sauce at the end of barbecuing keeps the flavor rich and prevents the sauce from burning off during cooking.

Chinese-Style Dry Rub

Chinese spare ribs.  Classic.  Smoked Chinese spare ribs.  Classic Plus.


It's great to keep various jars of dry rubs on hand for making barbecue, especially when you make barbecue unexpectedly.  I know I do it.  Here's an awesome spice rub showcasing some of the great the flavors of Asian cuisine. (Yields about 6 tablespoons of dry rub)

What to mix:
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp White pepper
0.5 tsp Black pepper
1 tbsp Garlic powder
0.5 tbsp Onion powder
2 tsp Asian-style red pepper (available online, or use paprika)
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Mustard powder
2 tsp white sugar

How to use it:
1. Mix all ingredients together in a jar.
2. Brush ribs, or other meat, lightly with rice wine vinegar.
3. Sprinkle generously with Asian-style rub, and get yo' grill on.

NEED A SAUCE TO COMPLIMENT THIS DRY RUB? Try Sizzle Grove's Chinese-Style Barbecue Sauce!

Coffee Rub

You've seen it in several previous posts: Sizzle Grove's favorite dry rub ingredient for large chunks of meat, particularly brisket or other large beef roasts.  We're coffee addicts. Here's a convenient recipe for coffee spice rub:

1.5 tsp Ground coffee
4 tbsp Brown sugar
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Black pepper
0.5 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Garlic powder
Pinch Cayenne or hot pure chili powder
1 tsp Smoked paprika

In case you need some inspiration... try this rub on a smoked roast beef!  Just apply rub on a beef roast, cook for about 45 minutes a pound at 225 Fahrenheit (for medium-rare), turning at even intervals, and baste every hour with a mix of 75% balsamic vinegar to 25% olive oil, plus crushed garlic and a dash of coffee.

Raw + dry rub:
Pictured on left
                            Fully cooked:
                            Pictured on right

BBQ LEFTOVERS: Pulled Pork Enchiladas

Sometimes your friends won't show up to your barbecue. What the hell is wrong with them? Morons. Oh well, so you've got some leftover pulled pork from the 8 pound shoulder you barbecued yesterday. So you're out of cole slaw. So you're out of rolls. You can still make an awesome meal.


Enchiladas are one of the BEST things to make with leftover barbecue, particularly pulled pork or smokey brisket. 

Here's what you need:

*Leftover pulled pork
*Shredded cheddar cheese
*Grated pecorino romano, or other salty hard cheese
*Soft corn tortillas
*A shallow baking pan
*Plenty of Peppery Tomato Barbecue Sauce

Here's what you do:

1. As many enchiladas as you wish to make, take that number of tortillas and put them on a microwaveable dish. Put a dab of water around the dish and microwave for about 30 seconds. This will soften the tortillas.

2. Spread a very thin layer of Peppery Tomato Barbecue Sauce around the bottom of your baking dish.

3. Take a small amount of pulled pork and a small amount of pecorino romano cheese and fill each tortilla... the amount varies based on the size of your tortillas, but make it just enough that you can roll up each tortilla around the filling.

4. After filling each tortilla, place in baking dish lined with small amount of sauce.

5. Pour a generous amount of sauce over all the enchiladas, enough that they're not drenched, but are thoroughly sauced. Sprinkle generously with cheddar, to your liking.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for only about 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned and bubbling. Serve with crispy onion rings or Mexican beans and rice.