Year of the Pig

This weekend was the 5th year for the Big Apple Barbecue, and the first time I have been able to attend. The event was Saturday and Sunday in Madison Square Park and takes on the task of educating New Yorkers about real Southern Barbecue (and also benefiting the Madison Square Park Conservancy).

I had heard of this event in years past as being more pain than pleasure to attend because of the mobs of hungry, hot New Yorkers waiting “on line” for their plates of Barbecue. I have to say that I think the event planners worked out their past problems this year. There were certainly still mobs of New Yorkers to deal with, but the lines were manageable, and you could easily get around and sample your barbecue of all varieties to your little arteries’ content. The weather was beautiful and mild to boot.

I regret that I did not get to sample as much barbecue as I would have liked and that I only stayed for an hour or so, but I was thoroughly impressed with the event. For either a barbecue lover or novice, there was a wide spectrum of American barbecue to see and sample, a chance that you rarely get in one place. The Pitmasters hailed from a wide range of the BBQ-belt (Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina) as well as from several of the real New York BBQ restaurants (Blue Smoke, Hill Country, Rack-n-Soul, Dinosaur) and each had a tent set up around Madison Square Park where each group prepared and sold one $8 plate of barbecue. For the most part, each plate consisted of one main item such as beef brisket, pulled pork, or ribs, and one side such as beans or coleslaw.

As for me, I sampled some pork, of course, and, believe it or not, not the ribs. I know. The pulled pork at Charleston, South Carolina’s Black Jack BBQ looked good to me. It didn’t hurt that the line was short, and I was hungry. As I went through the line, they had just taken out some pork shoulders and were picking them apart as I waited. They looked great, and the Blackjack pork-puller offered me the bone for my dog as it slid easily out of the shoulder. I don’t have a dog. I was served my sandwich and was happy to see an open spot at a picnic table right there in front of the tent. The sandwich was good, the pork was juicy and flavorful. Certainly it hit the spot. I sampled their mustard sauce, which was tart and spicy, and also good.

With my hunger sated, I walked around for a while and checked out the rest of the festival. I wanted to try it all, but alas, I did not have the stomach for it. I passed up some great looking tents, including the beef ribs from Hill Country (I figured there was no reason to sample one of the local joints) and the one that everyone wanted to see and sample, the whole hog from Mitchell’s BBQ of Wilson, NC. Certainly, it is always a sight to see whole hogs on the on their own custom smokers:

And how about them cracklins:

And this dude from Mitchell’s was possibly the most photogenic fellow at the festival:

I walked by the Blue Smoke tent and felt bad. Not a single person was in line for their apple brined and apple wood smoked chicken, which I am sure was delicious:

Now I love smoked chicken, and I appreciate that they were doing something besides beef and pork, but I bet they learned their lesson about chicken this year if it went like this all weekend.

Lastly, I tasted the Brisket and Sausage from Baker’s Ribs of Dallas, Texas. For the record, I thought the brisket was good, although not my favorite, and the BBQ sauce that they had was tangy and sweet, but kind of awful. Definitely not my favorite. I did like the sausage, though. It had a soft hotdog-like consistency with a wonderful maple and smoke flavor.

If you want more info and good pictures from this event, definitely check out this great blog, “Off The Broiler”, which has very good coverage of this event including two podcasts featuring interviews with many of the pitmasters and participants of the Big Apple Block Party.

Overall, it was a great event. Seems like the bugs have been worked out, and I can only imagine it will get better. Next year I will be there with more time and a Bubba Fast Pass!

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I had bought a 1/2 a pork picnic at the supermarket and I decided to smoke that and make pulled pork for dinner on Sunday. I had invited over Corin (Crushinator) and Renee and Matt (our own Squidocto) for a relaxing Sunday evening dinner in the back yard and also found out that my housemate Kat and her friend Matt were planning to make a bunch of food too, including some ribs that they had made before and told me about. Sounded promising!

Neither Alissa nor I had ever cooked a Pork Picnic before, and the night before we had trimmed off the thick layer of skin. Wow that pig skin is a pain. This was a half picnic, weighing in at about 3 pounds. I figured I would just smoke it like a Boston Butt, and it would be fine. I read that it was less fatty than a Boston Butt, so I planned to baste it frequently. We used the same Mustard Slather from the day before, and put together a new rub from the Paul Kirk Book, called the “The Baron’s Cajun Rub” (see below for recipe) because we wanted something a little spicier. We tossed it on the smoker around 10 am. I let the rub set in for a few hours, and then started basting the picnic every 30-45 minutes, with the Memphis Basting Sauce from the previous post.

Meanwhile, Kat and Matt prepared their Ribs (see Ribs-a-la-Kat):

To make a long story short, I smoked that picnic for a good 7 hours and it did not appear to have gotten tender yet. I got out the left over ribs from the day before and heated them up so that we would have dinner, and just let the Picnic smoke on, thinking that my smoker was just too low of a temperature (around 200) and that it was gonna take a long time. We had a fine dinner with swiss chard, bbq beans, coleslaw, corn and ribs. And soon after, Kat and Matt were down with the 2nd course, finishing off their Stout-boiled ribs on the grill and then grilling up some seriously delicious red bell peppers stuffed with hominy and jack cheese and avacado. Nice job Matt! As for the ribs, I thought they were very good. Very tender, but not of the falling off the bone stew meat variety. The sauce was tangy and spicy. It was a good method, definitely worth experimenting with, although I must add, smoking is definitely my favorite way to go so far.

As for the picnic, we continued to smoke it and baste it. It ended up being quite dried out. We still pulled the meat apart and mixed it with the a BBQ sauce from the Paul Kirk book and a little apple sauce. It ended up being good for lunches during the week, but definitely not worth showing off to your friends.

Anyway, another 4 ribs brought me up to 67 ribs. Thanks to all the piggies, near and far!

**The Baron’s Cajun Rub
1/4 cup Cayenne Pepper
1/4 Sweet Hungarian Paprika
2 Tbs Chili Seasoning
2 Tbs Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp White Pepper
1 Tsp Dry Mustard (I used Coleman’s)
1 Tsp Ground Thyme
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Onion Powder
1/2 Tsp Rubbed Sage

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R.U.B.: Righteous Urban Barbeque!

Yes, one geek offered to take another geek to lunch, and where did that geek wanna go? You got it…to R.U.B., for some Ribs. We invited a third geek, and so it was that the three geeks, ended up at a table for three, with three orders of ribs, three sides, and till about three o’clock before I had to be back to work.

But that was plenty of time for the mission at hand, and BloggyMcBlogBlog, the Crushinator and myself ordered up a platter each of Rub’s “Long End” and “Short End” Spare Ribs as well as an order of their Baby Back Ribs. To accompany all that piggy goodness, we ordered Hush Puppies (I think those are fried in Lard, btw), Greens, and their damn fine Beans.

I have eaten at R.U.B. a number of times and have had their Brisket, Pulled Pork and I usually get their smoked chicken, which I highly recommend. This is the first time I have had their ribs, and they did not disappoint!

The restaurant opened a couple of years ago, and the co-owner Paul Kirk, the self-proclaimed “Baron of Barbeque” is a well know Pitmaster with many BBQ books, and even a BBQ school. It is a no frills looking place with a menu boasting a great selection of smoked meats and even a $250 bottle of Dom Perignon to take advantage of those high falutin’ Manhattan types. The meats are served on wax paper on metal pans, and garnished with wonder bread and pickle chips.

As for the ribs today, I would say, I enjoyed them awfully well. Definitely worth the time and money for anyone who likes some excellent smoked ribs. The meats were warm, not hot, and are smoked daily. They are not covered in sauce, but R.U.B. on the side sauces are good if you care to drown your food in them. The ribs were deliciously smoky, the meat firm and tender. As crispy and dry, and at the same time juicy and succulant. These are ribs that I like. Yum!

As for the various cuts of Ribs, it seemed like the overall table favorite was the “Long End” Spare Ribs, which were the meatiest ones. I, however, cannot really say that I preferred one over the others, they were all excellent.

Also a word about the sides. The greens were fine, but nothing to choke your chicken about. The hush puppies, well they are lard fried cornbread balls. Fine again, but not my favorite. The beans, however, are rich and dark, and smoky as HECK, with big chunks of their Burnt Ends. Delicious!

I am proud to say that I was able to enjoy 8 of these ribs today, and thanks to BloggyMcBlogBlog for picking up the bill. That’s 53 Year of the Pig Ribs. I would have just eaten 7, but I couldn’t just leave that last rib there all rejected and alone, and who wants to waste a styrofoam box on one rib. By the way, that reminds me of my one criticism of R.U.B.: I know they are going for a “low rent” feel with the pie pans and white bread and all, but I still don’t get off on a restaurant serving all their sit-down customers in styrofoam and plastic and paper. I just get sick of trash, that’s all. Sorry about being preachy. I will stop now.

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After a victorious double-header Bocce victory at Floyd I meandered down the block on Atlantic Avenue to try some ribs from Waterfront Ale House. I had been there once before and remembered enjoying the food, the great selection of beers and the generally good feeling of the bar. This time I got take out so we could go back to Floyd, and I carried a giant bag of food back down the block. The ribs are what we are interested in here, of course, and even more so because the menu calls them “AWARD WINNING.” Looking at the Waterfront’s website I see that the cooks there have competed in a number of regional BBQ competitions and done well. Good for them! However, on this occasion, the ribs were decent but nothing to write home about, ’specially not for 25 smackers. We got a full rack of St. Louis Cut Spare Ribs, and they did hit the spot as I was craving some ribs, but the sauce was nothing special, and the ribs themselves were a little dry and not terribly tender. They did have a nice flavor and some of the ribs were better than others. I imagine they could be better on other nights. I am just guessing, but maybe some of the ribs were older and reheated, its not like I expect them to be made to order, but maybe some had just gotten too dried out. There was definitely an inconsistency to the ribs, some of the groups were better than others. Anyway, I still like that place, and the ribs did hit the spot, evidenced by the fact that I ate 6 of them (thank you piggy). That’s 30 1/2 ribs, and counting. I will be back there to try some of their other BBQ.

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That’s right. Today starts it: Chinese New Year, and it’s the long awaited YEAR OF THE PIG. So, why not blog about pigs. I am no expert, but I can have a pig blog. I mean, I do really like pigs. And ribs.

This blog has started out of the search for excellent Ribs. As recently stated, I like Ribs. I am gonna cook and eat a lot of ribs in the Year of the Pig, so why not keep a record of this journey? I am not saying that this blog has to be about ribs and ribs alone, but by the Year of the Rat, I am pretty sure I am gonna know a thing or two about excellent Ribs. Anything tangentially related to pork, pigs, and pigishness is gonna be fair game here, and to be honest, that covers a lot.

Anyway, Welcome all, to YEAR OF THE PIG!

(PS–I will NOT be doing a similar blog in the year of the RAT)

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