Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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May 11, 2010
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Charlotte, NC
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Snorting his way across the USA
Every Saturday morning, I hop in the car and take the short drive to the grocery store. Well, I used to take the short drive to the gym, but it has been closed for some time but the grocery store is next door. Because Saturday is... BBQ day!!

But I had a quandary. the WX prediction was for rain. I do not like doing BBQ in the rain. Yes, I'm calling it BBQ. We have had this discussion before. So, I'm really looking for something that I could do in the oven. I saw some really nice slabs of spares and baby backs, but I did ribs last weekend. I'd do ribs every day if I could. And if I could, I'd weigh 400 pounds.

The choices were really disappointing in general. There were some pork shoulders that could be crock potted, but I don't like using shoulder for pulled pork. I dislike the taste and the fat. There were some nice tri tips and chicken to go with it, but those necessarily need to be grilled (yes I said grilled, I'll explain later.)

Then there were the cross rib roasts. The cross rib roasts were on sale, cheap. They are generally cheap, because they are generally tough, or tough and dry they way most people cook them. Which is over, at too high of a heat. But cooked, and sliced correctly, they can be tender and delicious. There was one single cross rib roast that was the right size, slightly over three pounds, and it passed the prod test. So, I just accepted that it would be my 'BBQ' destiny and I could do a forward sear and slow cook at 250 to medium. So here we are, all rubbed down with a mixture of Italian spices in balsamic vinegar, salt, and a bit of olive oil. I wanted to use some garlic but the clove I had sitting in the pantry went bad. Probably explains the recent rash of vampire sightings in the driveway.

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But things changed. Accuweather should be renamed Inaccuweather because for most of the day was CAVU blue skies, where the weather update suggested that torrential showers should be occurring. Maybe the forecaster was still hung over from Friday night. So....

Why not just BBQ it? Yes, BBQ, not grilling. It is a roast. Well, tri tip is also a roast but it is best grilled, as it is wide and flat. The cross rib is too thick in cross section to be able to pull of direct heat grilling, plus, it needs a lower, longer consistent heat. Indirect covered.

cr2.jpg

The coal holders are handy for keeping the coals to the side, so the roast (or ribs, or whole chicken, or whatever) can sit there unattended as it slow cooks in the truest of BBQ tradition that one can have in place of an actual smoker. I've been able to keep coals going for up to five hours which works for ribs. I fashioned a foil drip pan. Now... a word on the meat thermometer. If I had put more thought in to it, I would have positioned it to be visible through the top vent, but it was what it was. The whole thing took about an hour and a half to reach medium. Medium rare is about as rare as you can cook a cross rib without it being tough, and that is a fine line. And if you over do it, you turn it in to a dry hockey puck, and that is also a fine line. (Insert Sac Arrow humming 'it's a fine line...... between love and hate' as he's channeling his inner Persuaders.)

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This is the finished product. Twenty minutes from the time of this photo it will be sliced up. Slicing against the grain is important here. Thin is better than thick. Outcome? It was HECKA good. Tender, nice smoky Italian taste. The side was a Ceasar salad, although cole slaw would have complimented it nicely as well. Cole slaw can compliment anything nicely.

The BBQ method works fairly well as the freshly applied coals from the chimney create a sear mode, which declines with time and degrades in to a slow cook mode, which is what we are shooting for. If I were going for ribs, I would have choked down the air vents much more than I did, to keep the heat down lower for a longer period of time. And there is a fine line (see, now that Persuaders song is going through my head) between just enough air, and not enough to keep the coals burning.
 
Outside looks great, but need pics of the interior...
 
I just want this Charles Cross fellow to explain his rib roast.
 
Thin. It's a thin line between love and hate.

And Pretenders, not persuaders. ;)
 
Yep, they covered it. Never heard the original although I was certainly alive at the time.
 
Definitely a good example where the tougher cut is a darn tasty cut. Maybe sous vide could make the line...fatter.
 
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