Kelvin Beachum has a passion for barbecuing that stemmed from his mother and he has offered up four grilling tips that will make your holiday cookout unforgettable.
Tip 1: Use a SmokerKB: I'm not an expert by any means, but smoking allows the meat to cook for a lot longer and it becomes way more tender. I like to smoke my meat compared to the gas. On a gas grill, the fire is literally up under the meat. When you smoke it, the smoke box is away from the meat. I have a smoker at home that's almost five feet long. It has real tires on it. I have to bring an air tank out to it when I need to fill them up. If you mess up and you can see what's going on with the smoker, you have time to make an adjustment. When you have that gas right up under you and you mess up, you're screwed. You have to start over.
Tip 2: Wake Up EarlyKB: I don't start as early as my mother did when we were younger, but I get up at about five or six in the morning and get my brisket on the pit. First you have to get the smoker all cleaned up, nice and neat before you go to work.
Tip 3: Trust the ProcessKB: Some people want to cook for 30 minutes. I want to cook for six to eight hours. It's a process, man. I'm willing to wait for my meat to be just right. I start it out in foil, bring it in and cut it up a bit, then put it back in foil and put it back on the pit. Then I let it simmer, get some grill marks on it, put it in a basket in the smoker. I have some different techniques that I use to let it get exactly how I want to. I guess there's no rubric for what I do. I always switch it up, always bringing a little something different to bring a little different texture to the meat.
Tip 4: Toss the Lighter Fluid in the GarbageKB: I cook with rocks, so I'll go find big boulders in my smoke box to keep the heat going instead of throwing lighter fluid or any of those things on the fire to keep it going. I also cook with a lot of wood. I use mesquite wood and oak wood. Those are a couple things I like to do.
Bonus Tip: Let 'Em Marinate
KB: If I'm doing a slab of ribs, I want to let them marinate for a night or two. I'm not going to give away my seasonings or my marinade tips. I can't do that. As it pertains to the actual cooking of the slab of ribs, I put them in two to three sheets of foil and I put them as far away from the smoke box as possible. Those are the things I allow to stay on for the longest. Then I just work it. I keep flipping it for a couple hours before taking it inside and checking it out. Sometimes I'll cut the slab in half or individuals, wrap it back in foil and put it back on the smoker away from the smoke box. What I'm looking for is that meat to literally be falling off the bone. If it isn't falling off the bone, then I didn't do my job.
Grill Master Beachum's Menu (He's in Arizona training)KB: You'd have brisket, ribs, pork chops, hamburgers, sausage, wings, chicken and drumlets. I started to dabble with salmon. I started using pineapples a little bit. You'd have a little watermelon because it's hot out here. For the sides, you'd have potato salad, baked beans, some Kool-Aid, sweet tea and peach cobbler. It would be a nice little spread.
Get to it. Happy Fourth of July.
