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BBQ beef ribs come in many forms........
Yesterday at Palm Door, eleven of Austin’s hottest pitmasters got together for
a good old fashioned beef rib smackdown, featuring the often ignored and occasionally maligned barbecued beef rib. It was a primal love fest. I organized the event for a feature article to run soon in the Austin Chronicle, but this post is just a little
teaser. Suffice it to say that we eight judges shared an embarrassingly rich bounty of smoky superlative beef ribs for the blind judging. Twisted X was there with excellent
craft beers, and Treaty Oak Distillers showed up with a fantastic craft punch,
Q made some dynamite queso and guacamole, and Suzanna rode herd on kitchen
operations with Q, who did the carving. The pit bosses all got to chat each
other up about technique; some had never met before.
The judges:
- Charlie Shirley - VP of Central Texas BBQ Assoc.
- Shayne Lockhart – head of the Star of Texas Rodeo BBQ Cookoff
- Chris Elley – writer, director, producer of BBQ: A Texas Love Story
- Jesse Griffiths – Dai Due chef, nationally known butcher, hunter-gatherer
- Todd Plunk – ManUpTexas BBQ.com
- Nick Barbaro – Chronicle big wig and BBQ expert
- Gerald Mcleod – Chronicle Day Trip column writer, state traveler and
appreciator of fine BBQ
- Me – 17 year veteran Chronicle food contributor and huge BBQ fan
Todd (L) and Gerald (R) scope out a numbered entry displayed by Q (C).
Nick "Mr. Math" Barbaro tallies the judges ciphering.
We judged on appearance (10 pts), texture (20 pts), and taste (30 pts),
and there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot of point spread that separated the top
finishers from each other. MUCH more to come later in the article on Thursday, Jan. 16, print and
online editions, along with Jack Anderson’s delicious photographs. Dang....hungry for beef ribs again.......
Meat expert and sausage kingpin Bruce Aidells chats with Lance Kirkpatrick of Stiles Switch about smoking brisket....
Mick Vann ©
..the end cut....interior was a perfect medium-rare to rare
On Xmas day at Rancho Winslow we had a rather subdued crowd. Both of the
granmaws were under the weather, so they were missed (but got plenty of good food
delivered to them). But Sara and Ilan showed up from Florida, Kara dropped by
for a bit to ride the horse, Christian dropped by, and Havalah was there with
the triple squealing spawns (one sick, as kids are commonly known vectors for
disease). Robert “Empty Leg” Abraham made a showing, after having missed out on
Thanksgiving’s feast. CBoy and Princess Di (The Martha Stewart of Manchaca)
were riding herd, with me holding down the stove. The main event was a 7-rib
prime rib, a cut of meat that I’ve cooked whole herds of in the distant past at
Pelican’s Wharf.
..."before"...
The method is simple: let it come to room temp (takes about 4
hours for a big rack), lather on the salt and pepper, put it in an oven at 250°F
for 3 to 3 ½ hours, until it reaches 120°F internal degrees, tent it with foil,
and let it rest for 30 minutes, and then have Robert slice it with his
grandfather’s carbon steel carving set with the antler handles. Dude was a vet;
he knows how to cut animals. It came out perfectly medium-rare and was as
tender as a baby’s butt. Not sure if my cooking caused that, or if the meat
from Grover at Johnny G’s Butcher Block was the culprit. Maybe we doubled up
and each contributed their share. Regardless, it was very delicious, juicy, and
tender. The best yet.
We had some nice wines to go with. We all went searching for the Silver Range
Malbec that I had gotten at Spec’s for Thanksgiving, but they were out (as
usual). I substituted a 2012 Gouguenheim Malbec, a 2011 Silver Range Cab, and a
2012 Urban Malbec (all Mendoza Valley, ARG), and the clear winner was the
Gouguenheim, declared better than the previous Thanksgiving’s Malbec from
Silver Range. Now IT will be sold out when I return for some more, as is
typical of Spec’s. There was also a chilly bottle of Anna de Cordiníu Brut Rosé
Cava that Havalah needed some of during a spawn squeal session, and a bottle of
District 7 Cab that we never cracked.
...the first of three skillets-full of marrow bones......to make 3 gallons of stock
...the finished cup and a half of rich, unctuous demi glace, next to the horsey sauce......
I had taken about 9 pounds of marrow-laden soup bones, browned them off, and
reduced them in a couple of gallons of
low-sodium beef stock for about 5 hours over a frisky flame, to conjure up
about a cup and a half of rich, thick, sticky demi glace for the meat. I also
threw together some horsey sauce from sour cream and a little mayo, roasted
garlic, horseradish, a dab of lemon, Worcestershire, Dijon, and chives. Di
whipped up a batch of her famous double-stuffed twice-baked potatoes, and we
roasted some Brussels sprouts (I prefer to call them “cabbage veal”). Diane
made a huge layered green salad; very fresh and nice with some bleu cheese
vinaigrette dressing. I used that same meaty, oily skillet from the bones to
sauté up a big wad of sliced mushrooms, with roasted garlic, salt, pepper, a
dab of the demi glace, and a touch of cabernet and sweet butter. They were yum.
...spuds....
...mushrooms.....
...roasted cabbage veal........
...huge salad.....
...the noshatorium......
...pie land......
Noshes included a roasted nut and dried fruit mélange, cream cheese with a
fruity-chile jam, a big globe of aged Gouda, and some spinach-artichoke dip.
Luckily nobody ruined their appetite. The
bakery department at HEB contributed a Lemon Chess (buttermilk) pie, and a four
fruit pie; both were just fine and perfect once the food had settled a tad. We
all ate and drank until we couldn’t anymore, exchanged some nice gifts and
friendship, and got full as ticks. It was a good thing.
Mick Vann ©
