The Best Barbecue You'll Ever Eat

Here were going to cook our barbecue ribs in the oven in a large brown paper bag.Yes you really can cook your barbecue ribs in a brown paper bag and they will be oh so delicious. You will need a large brown paper bag and kitchen twine to tie the bag closed. In a large brown paper bag you can cook a couple of racks of ribs. You'll probably want to cut the racks of ribs in half so they will all fit in the bag and allow you to tie the bag closed with the kitchen twine.

You'll want to make the Texas Barbecue Sauce below to use with your barbecue ribs. Once you have the barbecue sauce made set it aside covered for a few minutes.

Put your ribs into a large stock pot covered with a cup of vinegar in the water and boil for one hour. Then take your ribs out of the water and allow them to drain. Pour your barbecue sauce over your ribs and brush the sauce over them well with a kitchen brush. If you have two racks of ribs cut them in half at this point. Put the racks of ribs into the paper bag and tie the bag closed with kitchen twine.

Place the bag of ribs into a baking pan and put it into a 350 degree oven for one and one half hours. When you take your bag of ribs out of the oven you'll have some of the most delicious ribs you'll ever taste in your life.

Be sure to set your pan with the bag of ribs in it on one of the lower racks in the oven while they are cooking. You don't want your paper bag to touch the top of the oven or it could catch on fire.

When you take your bag of ribs out of the oven be sure that you cut the bag open carefully because a lot of hot steam will come out. Be sure not to get burned by the hot steam.

If you've never tried cooking barbecue ribs in a paper bag you should give it a try. I guarantee you that you will love it.

Barbecue

In the south the definition of barbecue is to cook meat outdoors in a closed grill or pit by indirect heat. What this means is that you have your charcoal fire on one side and you cook your meat over on the other side. It is by this method that you can cook meat cuts like beef brisket and have them turn out delicious and tender.

A beef brisket cooked this way should take about 8 - 10 hours. In order to cook a brisket for this long your going to have to keep adding charcoal to the fire and the fire is going to have to be kept low. You probably need to keep some charcoal going in a large tin can so you can take tongs and add more charcoal to the fire as you need to.

Barbecuing Tips

You can wear heavy-duty rubber gloves to test cooked meat. Pork will be done when you fill it give under your gloved hands and a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees.

Resist peeking because this lets the heat out and slows down the cooking process.

You can soak chunks of hardwood, such as hickory, mesquite, or applewood in water overnight so that when you place the wood on your charcoal fire you'll get smoke and not fire.

Barbecuing used to be a social event in the south and in some parts of the south it still is but its also a big business. If you drive through western North Carolina you'll find barbecue restaurants on almost every corner and each will have its own unique flavor of barbecue.

Pork

Almost all cuts of pork are tender and can be cooked by dry heat. But keep in mind that pork is lean and cooks quickly. Overcooking can make it dry and tough, You can test thicker cuts of pork with a meat thermometer to test for doneness. You need a temperature of 160 degrees in the thickest part of the meat.

Cooking Pork

Its recommended that you cook pork to 160 degrees. Pork that's grilled or smoked will sometimes remain pink but you want to check with a thermometer that it is 160 degrees or above.

Look for pork that has pink flesh, a clean smell, and white fat. Cured pork should be rosy pink. Pork will take on a gray color when its been in the meat display case to long.

You'll want to store your pork in the same package you purchased it in. You can keep it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or you can freeze it for up to 3 months. Try to use any ground pork up that's stored in the refrigerator with in 2 days.

Almost everyone you know loves barbecue! And despite how popular barbecue has become one big question remains. Where did barbecue get it's origins. Where did barbecue come from. And why is barbecue so important in the Carolinas. Did you know that when people refer to one of the four major types of barbecue which are vinegar and pepper, mustard, light tomato and heavy tomato that they are referring to barbecue sauces which have their origins in either North Carolina or South Carolina. And these sauces are still used today here in the Carolinas and other parts of the United States.

Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce

The simplest form of a barbecue sauce is a vinegar and pepper barbecue sauce and that sauce originated in eastern North Carolina where it remains popular today. And all that sauce has in it is vinegar with red pepper flakes floating in it. No one really knows who invented this sauce but it's really popular up and down the coastal regions of North and South Carolina. This sauce is often put into squirt bottles and its squirted onto and into pork shoulders and pork butts as their cooked on low charcoal fires with apple or mesquite wood that has been soaked overnight quite often in apple cider. The resulting smoke helps to give a wonderful smoky flavor to the meat that is being cooked slowly on low charcoal fires.

Mustard Barbecue Sauce

Our second sauce is the mustard sauce and it's come to be identified as the definitive barbecue sauce of South Carolina. But you'll now find that it's spread as far south as Miami and as far away as Bangkok Thailand. Most people especially those living in South Carolina where the sauce is said to have originated will tell you that this sauce most likely originated with German settlers who brought the sauce to South Carolina around 1600. The German people love sauces made with mustard and many fine German families have made various forms of this sauce in South Carolina for hundreds of years.

People who like a little bit of sweetness in their barbecue sauce love the light tomato barbecue sauce. That sauce is made by mixing tomato ketchup, vinegar, and red pepper flakes. This sauce was first made in the Carolinas in the early 1900s and you'll find that this sauce is very popular in some parts of North and South Carolina today.

Western North Carolina Barbecue Sauce

The heavy tomato barbecue sauce is at least two hundred years old and possibly older. It has been made and served in the central and western parts of North Carolina for at least the last two hundred years. This is the sauce that you'll often be served with pulled pork barbecue in the Piedmont and mountain region of North Carolina today. This same type of barbecue sauce is the one sold in various forms by companies like Kraft and KC Masterpiece. This is also the sauce most often served with ribs. And while you'll often find this sauce being served every where from Kansas to British Colombia it was first served in the Carolinas. Barbecue would just not be barbecue with out this wonderful barbecue sauce!

If you drive down the road in the Carolinas today you'll find barbecue in it's various forms served from one end of the Carolinas to the other. And almost everyone who cooks barbecue in the area thinks that their form of barbecue is the right one. And while the sauce is important it's also very important how the meat is cooked before the sauce is brushed or squirted onto the meat.

Are You A Charcoal Fire Barbecue Purist

Most barbecue purists will agree that to be really good barbecue has to be cooked over a long period of time over a low charcoal fire with chips and small pieces of wood added to the charcoal fire from time to time so that the wood will smoke and it's that smoke that adds magic to the barbecue. In order for the smoke to work right the wood needs to be soaked over night in either apple cider or water so that the wood will smoulder and put off smoke. You'll find that the most popular wood is either mesquite or apple. Just like the various sauces you'll hear people argue that the type of wood is important also. I think apple wood soaked over night in apple cider makes the best smoke.

And you'll find that the long slow process of barbecuing works best for large cuts of meat like beef briskets, Boston butts, and pork shoulders. When you cook those large cuts of meat over a long period of time with low heat and lots of good smoke you'll end up with barbecue that will almost drive you wild with desire.

You'll find that distinctions and preferences for the flavor of barbecue sauce used to baste and to accompany barbecued meats and poultry will vary greatly from region to region. But no matter what sauce you prefer you have to have the sides to go with it. Here in North Carolina you'll find hush puppies and cole slaw are most often served with barbecue while in Florida it's usually just the bun and the sauce. No matter how you make it or what you serve with it you'll find some really great recipes for barbecue here on this page.

I had seen various forms of this sauce made and served for a number of years. While working as Executive Chef at the Florida Cracker Cafe in St Augustine Florida I was asked to develop a version of this barbecue sauce to be used on grilled chicken breast and also to be served with our homemade chicken strips.

I think if you make this barbecue sauce and try it on either grilled chicken or chicken strips that you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good it is. I think it's one of the best mustard based barbecue sauces ever and you won't find a better recipe for it anywhere.

Recipe For South Carolina Yellow Mustard Barbecue Sauce

1. Six Cups Yellow Mustard.

2. Four Cups Red Wine Vinegar.

3. Two Cups Brown Sugar.

4. Four Tablespoons Butter.

5. Two Tablespoons Seasoned Salt.

6. Two Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce.

7. One Tablespoon Black Pepper.

8. One Large Sweet Onion Very Finely Diced.

9. One Tablespoon Turmeric.

We made this sauce in a blender in about three batches and then mixed everything up together well and put it into a large plastic container with a lid in the refrigerator to chill well. This sauce is best served chilled. Cook your grilled chicken until done and then brush this sauce on. With your chicken fingers or chicken strips serve a small cup of this sauce to each person so they can dip their chicken in the sauce. To me it's one of the best sauces you'll ever eat. One thing to keep in mind is that you want your onion to be very finely diced. Really almost liquid. And this barbecue sauce will always be better the second day after the sauce has been in the refrigerator and blended together over night.

Here is a recipe for a Texas Style Barbecue Sauce that is one of the most delicious barbecue sauces you will ever eat. It's an excellent barbecue sauce on pork, chicken, or beef. I use this barbecue sauce on my grilled chicken thighs and people love them.

Delicious Barbecue Chicken Thighs

I remove the skin and bones from my chicken thighs and then I soak them for at least four hours in liquid Italian dressing in the refrigerator. After four hours I remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and wash them off under cold running water. You then put your chicken on the grill and cook until almost done before you add the barbecue sauce to it.This makes some of if not the best chicken barbecue you'll ever taste. This barbecue sauce is also excellent on homemade deep fried chicken tenders or chicken strips.

Remember never to add your barbecue sauce to the meat until about the last 15 minutes of cooking time. If you add the barbecue sauce to soon the sugars in the barbecue sauce will burn and ruin the taste of your meat.

Texas Barbecue Sauce Recipe

1. Four Cups Ketchup.

2. One Cup White Vinegar.

3. One Cup Honey.

4. One Cup Water.

5. Two Teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes.

6. One Fourth Cup Very Fine Crushed Onion.

7. Two Tablespoons Of Worcestershire Sauce.

8. One Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper.

9. One Teaspoon Garlic Powder.

10. One Teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper.

Bring your barbecue sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to a low simmer for twenty minutes. Store your barbecue sauce in the refrigerator tightly covered after it has cooled to room temperature. Never put hot foods directly in the refrigerator or they can spoil.

This delicious and tangy barbecue sauce will keep just fine in the refrigerator for a month or more. Just be sure to store it in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid.

The Sides You Serve Are Important For A Great Barbecue Meal

If your really trying to serve a great barbecue meal you should not forget the sides. Some sides I always serve with my barbecue meals include potato salad, barbecue cole slaw, garlic cheese biscuits, hushpuppies, coconut cake, sweet tea, lemonade, banana pudding and much more. I'm sorry but when I'm putting together a really great barbecue meal for entertaining I don't think about low fat.