Hungry Planet

The warm weather has done something to me. After months hidden away under blankies on the lounge in a state of semi- hibernation I want to get outside in the fresh air...and grill some shit on the BBQ! Yes I want to marinate meat, slow cook and smoke it on charcoals till it forms a chewy bark and I want to eat it!!!!

Never one to let a bandwagon roll on by without jumin' aboard I am not letting that Texas BBQ bandwagon roll on through town without getting my BBQ on and smokin' me some meat.

My mentor for this exploration of meat will be Jonas Cramby. I will admit there is something wrong about taking Texas BBQ lessons from a Swede but this dude knows his shit, Swede or not. The book starts with the basics, the header "What is BBQ" indicates this book is for the beginner which is what I am.  There is also a well needed explanation of what to smoke your meat in, something I had been quite confused about in the past. I was glad to see the good ol' kettle BBQ on the list. Even if it was listed as the crappiest option for smoking and slow cooking meat it was what I had access to so a good place to start.

Get in my belly!

Our Texas BBQ adventure was to start with a rack of ribs and a spare 6 hours...as this is how long it takes to cook a good rack of ribs whoa! Jonas is a subscriber to the dry rub method of BBQ which was fine by me as past experience with a dry rub on pulled pork created one of my all time fav dishes. I was surprised that the traditional Texas dry rub had so few ingredients, all it took was some paprika, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

Once the meat was marinated with the secret herbs and spices (or not so secret as I listed them above) and the kettle was at a steady 115 Degrees Celsius (and let's just pretend we mastered that steady temperature) the meat went on the grill for 3 hours, flipping once. We then nestled the ribs in foil and gave it a bath of beer, vinegar and garlic Yum! and back on the grill for another hour.

Once we fought of the neighbourhood dog who had sniffed out our BBQ and was poised to snatch our meat we took the meat from the foil and gave it another 30 minutes.

I don't need to describe what happened next cause we ate the shit out of those ribs and it was messy. We made Jonas and America so proud that I can still hear the Star Spangled Banner playing in my head.

If you want to march to the beat of a Texan drum you too should get Texas BBQ with Jonas Cramby, clear a day from your schedule, crack a beer and man the cooker. With enough practice you might even become a Pitmaster in the true Texan style.

Where to get it: Texas BBQ, Meat, Smoke & Love by Jonas Cramby