Sun Jan 13, 2013 10:55 pm
Ok so ribs & brisket recipe.
I bought a half a rolled brisket as that’s what I thought would fit in my 4.5l oval slow cooker.
I made this spice rub.
http://bbq.about.com/od/rubrecipes/r/bl31115b.htm
I used this for both the ribs and the brisket.
In the morning the day before I generously rubbed the brisket, paying special attention to any exposed meat. I wrapped it in tin foil and put it in the fridge.
Important note about brisket. If you buy it off the shelf rather than from a proper butcher they trim the excess fat off the top. Doing this means you can’t cook it dry, as you would in a slow barbecue or in the oven to make the outside crispy, it winds up inedible. You have to cook it in liquid, so I made a simple cooking liquid made up of mirepoix (onion then half the amount of carrots & celery) cut into 1/2 inch chunks immersed in beef stock. In terms of measures I used 1l of stock and 200g onions and 100g each of celery and carrot.
Brown the brisket in a sautee pan and then put in the mirepoix together with the beef stock. I did that in 2 batches to properly deglaze the pan without over filling. When that’s done, put a layer of veg in the bottom of the slow cooker, lay the brisket on top and pour the rest of the veg and stock around & over the meat.
Put the slow cooker on high for the first 2 hours and then put it on low for the rest of the time. Ideal total cooking time is 12-14 hours. I cooked mine for 20 hours due to going out evening before, and it was a little overdone. I turned the brisket over at about 1/3 the way through as the top of the meat was out of the liquid.
If you don’t have a slow cooker you could do it in the oven in a stock pot, on about 130c for 6-8 hours.
I had difficulty getting the meat out of the slow cooker it was so tender. I then shredded it with a pair of forks.
I served it in rolls 2 ways. The first was to strain the cooking liquid into a bowl and drop some of the meat in. You then fish out the meat and if you really like the sauce, dip the bread in it as well. The second was a homemade barbecue sauce and Nigella’s New Orleans coleslaw.
BBQ Sauce http://bbq.about.com/od/barbecuesaucerecipes/r/bl91211c.htm
Coleslaw http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/new-orleans-coleslaw-88
Be warned, that recipe makes a LOT of coleslaw. Half it if you aren’t feeding double digits.
Ok onto the ribs.
I couldn’t get a rack of ribs, so I bought 1kg of individual ribs. I prefer spare ribs, they need longer than baby back, but much tastier.
I dumped the ribs in a big ziplock bag poured in the rest of the brisket rub and shook / massaged it into the ribs. I put that in the fridge at the same time as the brisket but I didn’t start to cook it until I left for clinic at 8:30am. The ribs had almost a day in the rub.
I would normally cook these on a rack inside a roasting tray, but I have a new roasting pan and my rack wouldn’t fit.
By far the best way to cook these is to put water in the bottom of the tray, put the ribs on a rack above and seal it over the top with tin foil. Cook it on a lowish oven (130-140c) for 4-6 hours. If they’re done before you need them, just turn the oven off and they’ll keep warm for a couple of hours if you don’t open the foil.
As I didn’t have rack, I put the ribs on the base of the tray and put the water in 2 rectangular bowls in the tray. Unfortunately that meant I lost rub from the underside of the ribs as the water condensed off the tin foil, but they still tasted good.
If you have time, I didn’t as I had to go to RAU in the morning, get a ridged griddle pan and give the ribs 5 minutes each side on a very high heat to crisp up the edges to give you a taste contrast with the very tender meat. If you do this, baste it with the BBQ Sauce above.
The meat is so tender you can suck it off the bone, and you know if you’ve cooked them long enough if the bone is totally clean when you’re done.
I’ll follow up later with the wings recipe, which weren’t as nice. The hot sauce I made wasn’t nearly firey enough, and the sweet, buttery sauce was too thin.