Top Tips on American Barbecue
How to Light the Charcoal
The first step for any barbeque is to light the charcoal. Lighting charcoal can be a tricky business, and success can be quite random, depending on weather conditions, particularly with variable winds. For a near 100% success rate, I recommend a chimney lighter.
Chimney lighters actually come in various designs, but the concept is always the same.
A chimney lighter is specially designed to maximise airflow and ensures your coals light every time. The coals are kept a few inches above the firelighters, allowing plenty of intake air.
For safety and convenience when lighting charcoal, place the chimney starter inside the barbecue while it is lighting. If it’s the first set of coals in the cooking session, I’ll place the chimney starter in the main BBQ.
Lighting the Charcoal
Don’t use lighter fluid! The smell can taint the food, I prefer to use BBQ lighters. It’s just less hassle and far more efficient. It is important however to use proper barbecue lighters and not regular firelighters.
Barbecue lighters are specially designed for use with food and do not contain petroleum and don’t cause any nasty fumes. Generally, two cubes placed below the chimney starter will suffice, although you can get away with using only one. However, if you use only one, the charcoal may take longer to ignite, and who wants to wait around when it’s time to start cooking some delicious barbecue food!
The Minion Method
The Minion Method is a unique way of setting up the charcoal to ensure a consistent and prolonged burn at lower temperatures. This technique allows for slow cooking, smoking, or roasting at temperatures below 150°C for 18-22 hours.
Below is the original Minion Method, there are some variations that call for using wood chunks on the top and bottom for flavour.
1. Fill your charcoal chimney half way to the top with charcoal briquettes and light.
2. Spread a tight layer of unlit charcoal at the bottom of your grill
3. Once the charcoal in your charcoal chimney is burned evenly grey, carefully add the lit briquettes on top of your layer of unlit briquettes.
4. You will need to adjust the vents on your grill to ensure proper air flow. Too much will cause all of the charcoal to ignite, while too little could cause low temperatures.
How to Buy Beef Brisket
Always choose Prime Grade beef brisket. Make sure that is it a whole brisket, that hasn’t been trimmed too heavily, and contains a good quantity of meat and fat.
FAT EQUALS FLAVOUR!
A beef brisket is composed of two parts, the flat and the point, and they may have hard sections of fat on them. You will want to trim those out. The fat on top of the brisket is called the “fat cap” and should be white. The thickness of the fat cap varies, but ultimately you want it to be about 1/4 of an inch thick. Thicker is ok because you can trim it down.
When purchasing a beef brisket, make sure the meat is a deep red colour, which will represent freshness, and make sure it has plenty of fat incorporated throughout the meat, not just on top. The combination of the deep red colour and the white fat of a brisket is called marbling, and is the key to choosing a good brisket to BBQ. The marbling will resemble the same patterns you see when looking at a slab of marble. The fat looks like veins running throughout the meat. Since the brisket is such a thick cut of meat, the fat located throughout the meat will help to keep the beef brisket moist while smoking.
Make sure the brisket has not been frozen. A frozen brisket may not display a deep red colour, the fat may be darker instead of white, and the brisket will not turn out as tender and juicy as a fresh one after smoking it.
When I choose a brisket, I lift the brisket in the middle to see how limber it is. I have seen briskets that are stiff as a board and some that bend over each side of my hand. The stiff ones have probably been frozen or they can be tough. I have noticed that a stiff brisket may not be as tender as a limber brisket. Some people disagree with this test, but I am a firm believer because of the results I get.
The weight of the brisket should be between 4-6kgs. A larger brisket takes longer to cook, and the flat may become tougher because of the longer cooking time. The flat is thin and tends to cook faster.
Article from ERIC LUHNING – CHEF PRESENTER (Melbourne teacher) for McCormicks Grill Mates rubs and marinades.
Adopted Aussie, and American BBQ Master! Eric joined the BBQ School Melbourne team in 2013 and is part of a vital fabric that is BBQ School Melbourne. Every week our adopted Aussie delivers BBQ cooking classes which ooze passion, information and fun, and he is loved by many of our BBQ School guests so much so that they come back time and time again to learn recipes, tips and secrets from him. Eric or Uncle E-Rock has an exceptional working history starting in his home country – Canada before seeing the light and moving to Oz, starting his Aussie career at Bistro M with the Meridian International Hotel School in Victoria.
