These May Be The Best Pickles You’ll Make This Summer!
Plus, a BBQ cookbook review and where to get great “que” in Sarasota
Back in the 1980s, I bought my first smoker. It was a Brinkmann charcoal smoker. No one I knew had a smoker yet. I thought I was ahead of the curve. Real cutting-edge culinary stuff.
It was a simple setup, as I’m sure most of you are aware. A painted metal bullet shape. Inside were three levels. The bottom pan holds the charcoal. The middle holds a pan of water, and the top is where all the cooking happens.
I knew nothing about smoking food. The Brinkmann came with a five-page instruction manual (yes, five WHOLE pages!). How hard could this possibly be? As it turns out, plenty hard. At least it is to get it right. Just goes to show you that looks can be pretty deceiving.
Remember, this was years before “BBQ” was one of the most popular food trends in the country. When you said “BBQ” to someone where I was from in Chicago, that meant grilling. Most likely on a charcoal Weber kettle-style grill.
There was no Food Network, no BBQ Pitmasters; I mean, the famous Memphis in May BBQ competition only started in 1978. There were no guidelines to follow. There was no internet to look crap up when you got stuck. And, of course, no YouTube videos. So unless your father, grandfather, or next-door neighbor had done this, you were pretty much flying blind.
That Brinkmann lasted a pretty long while. It was only replaced when a friend was generous to gift me a Meco electric smoker. Same setup as the Brinkmann, completely different fuel source. Electric was a breeze! 📝 I should probably still be thanking my friend Steve for accidentally lighting the fire that would keep me feeding one smoker or another for the next 30 years!
Smoking on a bullet is a simple affair. The trick is to get the right amount of smoke generated for the protein you’re trying to cook. That’s the biggest challenge to using that thing. Once you get that part dialed in, all that’s left is the beer drinking.
The different types, flavors, and formats of wood I experimented with left even me shaking my head. Think about it: wood chips or chunks? Wood pellets weren’t readily available back then. Soaked or dry? Resting on the heat source or tucked in a smoking container of some type? Oh, yeah, and the big Q for which there are a hundred little A’s, the wood itself. Apple, alder, oak, hickory, cherry, mesquite, a blend??… You’re starting to get the picture, I’m guessing. This is not a straightforward situation.
At one point in my smoky past, I was the proud owner of a second-hand 55-gallon drum smoker. This was the real thing, complete with smokestack and wire mesh cooking grate. I came into possession of that beauty because the owner unexpectedly found himself a guest of local law enforcement the evening before he was supposed to be cooking a pig roast for me (and 100 of my nearest and dearest). The upside, I had the pig in the walk-in of a friend’s restaurant. The downside? At the time, I had absolutely no idea how to use the thing! 📝 Again, thank you to my friend Steve for storing that beast on his farm for the next ten years! (I’m hoping it was OK with his wife. 🙄)
So, what does all of this mean? I haven’t lost my love for slow cooking just about anything using some flavor of wood. These days I’ve graduated to a more adult smoker. Yes, sorry, a pellet smoker. I’ve taken to calling it an outdoor crock pot. It’s not quite as set and forget at that. But it’s really not too far off. I don’t consider it to be cheating. But, boy, it sometimes sure feels that way. The learning curve on these things is super low.
Here’s a story that seems so unlikely it’s worth telling. A NYC food lover and a Chef at one of New York’s four-star Italian restaurants pair up to enter their first BBQ competition. But, oh no, not just some starter BBQ contest. Instead, they go right for the big one, Memphis in May! Somehow (and someone may need to explain this to me later), Chef Matt Abdoo and Rob Shawger managed a first prize in Poultry and second prize in Whole Hog on their very first attempt. This, my friends, just doesn’t happen. At least not at THAT competition.
The story gets just a tad stranger. Their friend from New York, Chef Shane McBride, also enters Memphis in May that year. And the team Shane is a part of also notches a victory! So, what do you think happens next?
That taste of BBQ success prompted the three friends to open a summer BBQ popup restaurant in Brooklyn, of course (I mean, everybody does that, right??). From there, it was easy to see the end line. A real brick and mortar BBQ joint set in Brooklyn, New York, on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Pig Beach BBQ was born!
Chefs Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride didn’t have any real BBQ training (hey, that sounds like me!), but they brought years of culinary experience and expertise (does not sound like me) to bear on their new project. Their restaurant tries to marry BBQ techniques and tastes from around the country. And they do it very well.
Successful restaurant = cookbook. That is the formula, correct? The Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook contains lots of great tips to up your smoking game, plus a whole lot of recipes from the restaurant. Let’s have a little look around, shall we??
WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE (aka Table of Contents)
· Discovering Barbecue
· A Little Barbecue History
· Barbecue Basics
· The Heart of Barbecue: Signature Rubs, Seasonings, Sauces, and Marinades
· Core Barbecue
· Fun With Ribs
· Signature Grills
· Beyond Barbecue
· Side, Sandwiches, and Snacks
· After The Meat, You’ve Got the Sweet
· Barbecue Time is Cocktail Time!
WOW! That’s a ton of barbecue info right there. You know what’s next. Yes, we’re going to make something from the book!
Deciding what to tackle out of a book like this is not an easy call. There is SO much to choose from. Plus, some of these recipes require specialized cooking gear (yes, a smoker!). Finally, we settled on something that everyone could easily attempt and was a great addition to any summertime meal, PICKLES! So, here we go, let’s make some Pig Beach Quick Pickles.
First the official recipe.
Here’s what we were working with, Kirby’s!
PIG BEACH QUICK PICKLES
Easy as one, two, three—these pickles will quickly become a family favorite. At Pig Beach, everyone asks for an extra helping!
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 pound Kirby cucumbers, washed, trimmed, and cut crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
METHOD
Combine the sugar, salt, and mustard seeds in a non-reactive container large enough to hold the cucumbers.
Add the white and rice vinegars and stir to blend. Set aside for about 15 minutes to allow the sugar and salt to dissolve.
Add the cucumber slices and garlic, taking care that they are immersed in the liquid. You may need to add just a touch of water to cover completely.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 1 week before serving. Give the mix a stir before using.
Serve as a side dish, on sandwiches, or chopped in salads.
From Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook by Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride. Copyright © 2022 by Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride. Reprinted by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
All right! Let’s take a look and see how ours turned out, shall we?
This is a recipe for every skill level. It would be a pretty good one to teach up and coming little chefs. No fire, no precise chopping, and ingredients that are easy to gather. No recipe we make in our Sarasota Bites newsletter is ever complete without some notes. Let’s take care of that.
NOTES – 📝
- The wet ingredients, as directed, weren’t enough to take up all the dry ingredients when combined to make a brine. We had a bit of water to our brine to be able to incorporate all of the dry ingredients into the brine.
- We used only 1# of Kirby cucumbers. Since the brine when mixed together was not enough to cover the cucumbers completely, we added water to our mason jar to fill it the rest of the way. Then covered and turned it over a few times to mix.
- They were really easy and fun to make. As we mentioned above, this would make a fantastic family cooking adventure for those with some young chefs!
Here’s a link if you’d like a copy of the recipe to print. I think it is WAY easier to work off the paper. Plus, you can make your own cooking notes just like we did!
PRINT THE PIG BEACH PICKLE RECIPE HERE
Here are some details about Chefs Matt and Shane’s new cookbook.
TITLE: Pig Beach Cookbook
RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2022
AUTHOR: Matt Abdoo and Shane McBride
PAGES: 304
You can buy your very own copy by CLICKING HERE
If Brooklyn isn’t so convenient for you right now, we’ve got some excellent places around Sarasota where you can grab some delicious BBQ. Here are a few local suggestions for you.
Nancy’s Bar-B-Q at Lorraine Corners(14475 State Road 70 E. – LWR, (941) 999-2390)
Stottlemyer’s Smokehouse (19 E. Rd., (941) 312-5969)
Brick’s Smoked Meats (1528 State St., (941) 993-1435)
Gold Rush BBQ (661 S. Tamiami Trail (941) 483-3137)
That’s a wrap! Happy pickle-making. Enjoy!! 🥒🥒🥒
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