Often inexperienced cooks don’t understand the importance of right leavening of the dough for having the most mouthwatering pastry: bread, rolls, buns etc. So, it’s always better to get to know more about what you are going to do and to cook.

Actually, a process of proofing is a final step of rising the dough before it is going to be baked. Proofing is considered to be a part of a fermentation process, which is about the dough being leavened by the yeast. Sometimes proofing may be called proving, or less often a blooming process.

What is a proofing Box?

When you are in a process of cooking any yeast dough, an inseparable part of the cooking is letting your dough to rise, ferment or proof. For that purpose, you have to cover the dough, let it rest at a certain temp, which usually makes up 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit (27-30 degrees Celsius). Also, humidity is extremely important and it should be about 75 per cent. Yeast needs these conditions to be active, as if the temp and humidity conditions aren’t high enough, yeast will get slow or inactive and the dough will not rise at all or will rise very low.

So, most professional cooks possess a proofing box, that is a high cabinet capable to keep the necessary air temp and humidity for hours to let the dough rise to the needed extent.

What Can I Use instead of a Proofing Basket?

When not having a basket or box for proofing your dough, don’t get upset, just read the article and you will figure out what to do. For that purpose, you will be in need of hot water, a thermometer, a pan for baking and some enclosed room (space). With these helpful objects you will be able to ferment your dough at any temp at your home.

What is the Temperature of a Proofing Oven?

If it’s warm enough in your home for your yeast to get active (80-90 degrees Fahrenheit), just cover your dough and put it in some warm corner (it might be an oven, for instance) and check that there is no draft there.

But if you see that it’s quite cold at your accommodation, then turn on the oven, heat it up to the necessary temp and then turn it off, put the dough in and leave it to rest. That is a comfy method, but it has got certain drawbacks. There is a risk of your dough being over proofed. If the temp in an oven gets too high and the dough is too warm, yeast will give out too much gas and, as a result, the dough will lower instead of rising.

Make a Homey Proofing Box

But creating your own homey proofing box is a wonderful idea to get the best quality dough for your pastry.

1. So, take water, a thermometer, a dish for baking, a big measuring glass and start creating your proofing box. Install two rack in the oven, the first should be in the middle and the second one at the bottom. You will need them for a baking dish and for a water glass.
2. Heat about 700-800 ml of water until it has got a temp around 200 degrees Fahrenheit or 92-93 Celsius. Check the temp out with a thermometer.
3. Cover the dish with the dough with some plastic wrapping or a towel and place it into the center of the oven.
4. Take a glass or any cup you like (it may also be some dish) and pour hot water in it, then place it on the lower rack of the oven.
5. Close the oven door and let the dough have the steam and warmth from water for a few hours. From time to time, check the temperature in the oven with the thermometer to make sure it isn’t too low.

Check this video out to see how it may be made:

Arduino Proofing Box

If you wish to make your proofing process at home even easier and you know a little about technical parts, you might use Arduino controllers to control a temperature at your oven or cabinet for proofing. Actually, Arduino is a platform, that includes both software and hardware for helping to program microcontrollers. Here is a tip about how to create your own Arduino proofing box, read the article and give it a try.

The Fresh Loaf Proofing Box

There are various opinions about how and where it is better to proof dough, but there are a few variants for you to think about.

If you are thinking about getting a professional Proofing box, one of the best variants is buying Brod & Taylor proofing box, which is costlier than making a cabinet at home, but certainly more comfortable in use.

One of the best variants is also using your microwave oven as a box, which is capable to keep a certain temperature for some time or you might use a lamp and a controller of temp for maintaining a constantly warm environment. Still, this method will need some time and thinking to finish it.

Some people use a cabinet instead of a microwave oven for home process of rising the dough. Just choose the most appropriate method for you.

Pizza Dough Proofing Box

Having an effective proofing box or oven is important for creating a famous crust dough for a pizza, as well. A rectangular or round dish for a pizza dough will be okay for a proofing process, but if you have decided to get a brand proofing box, there is a great choice of them online and they may be made from various materials. There is a video of Brod & Taylor proofing box for you to see how it looks and works:

Just improve your cooking skills and enjoy the most delicious pastry!

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

Their parts should work together as system, so you are able to have easy experience with grill cooking when you start the program and wait until it’s ready. The pellets are brought to the fire to get the desired temperature of smoking, a digital board for control and special sensors work together to support the necessary cooking temp.

But if some of the parts got problems, the error codes are shown. These mysterious problems should be deciphered to get an idea what is going on. It’s not as simple as dealing with a charcoal grill, but that is possible to handle it.

Traeger Error Code 1

If you have seen this number of a code on the screen of your grill. It is very likely that you have got bad connection on your RTD. So, the digital display shows you the cause of a problem, but it doesn’t always show it. The abbreviation ERR on the screen may mean that there must be malfunction of the RTD probe. Anyway, if you see some error code on a display of your Traeger, you will be able to understand what is going on. But, of course, in most cases you had better consult a professional and refer to the repair service. Maybe, you need some part to be replaced by a pro and the grill will work as it did before.

Traeger HER Code Fix

When you saw a HEr error code on your digital screen, it means that the temperature of a grill went too high and it is more than 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The possible problems with a smoker may be the following:

1. Too much ash or grease in the grill
2. Faulty temperature probe
3. Faulty temp controller
4. Bad pellets and too much dust in them

So, what you should do to get some checking:

1. Shut the power off and try to resent the controller
2. Check the pellet if they are of a satisfactory quality for smoking
3. Check the fire pot if it isn’t too stuffed

But handling such a problem keep in mind that there are many causes of this error code and maybe try to refer to a specialist, who will fix your problem and save your time and nerves.

How to Fix LEr Code on Traeger

If a LEr error code has appeared on your display of a grill, it means the temperature of the grill is less than 125 degrees Fahrenheit. It may happen if you set it for a low and slow smoke, or maybe you ran out of pellets or they are too dusty and the fire pot is too dirty and stuffed. Maybe it is a windy day and your grill isn’t just able to reach the necessary heat. In this case you should turn up the temperature set for your grilling and it will be fine.

But if the weather is okay, there are the following steps you should do for checking:

1. Check the fire pot for dust, make sure your grill is clean as it might be a cause of your low temp
2. There might be problems with a heat sensor. So, restart it and see how it goes further
3. Maybe there are problems with p- setting, which is ‘p’ setting. You should restart it too.

These are the possible problems happening to your grill, but the problem may get much bigger and you have to call for a pro unless you are really good at fixing grills.

Traeger Error Code Er2

If you saw such an error code on a display of your grill, it means there is a short circuit in it. You need to shut power off and call for a technician to insulate all the wires and make all the connections secure. Sometimes, this error code means there is weak connection in a smoker.

Traeger Troubleshooting

Maintenance and troubleshooting of the Traeger grills may be quite a problem if you haven’t got good knowledge of technology and the way how a smoker works. But still, if you are eager to take good care of your hi-tech grill and prevent possible problems which may arise, you might watch multiple videos on Youtube and read some useful articles helping you to figure out how to solve various technical faults. There are some links for you to enjoy and learn:

Traeger RTD Probe

If your probe failed to work, it’s quite easy to replace it for a new one and your sensors will work in an excellent way while reading the temperature and controlling it during the grilling process.

Traeger Temperature Problems

The problems with too low or too high temperatures in a grill happen quite often when used, and if you are reading this article, it means you already know what are the causes of such situations. But from time to time you might notice that during the process of smoking your meat or ribs you see the temperature fluctuations and might think there is a problem.

The fact is there is no problem at all. Actually, depending on the weather conditions like wind or cold, or just in the cause of grilling temperatures may fluctuate, the temp does not always stay the same and if the fluctuation range does not exceed 20-50 degrees F, it means that everything is ok with your smoker. But if the temp fluctuations are more than 30 degrees, you should worry and try to figure out what is wrong with your Traeger grill.

Anyway, when you fixed all the problems and started to cook brisket, ribs or any other tasty meat dishes, you may be sitting on a chair and enjoy the fresh air or a wonderful view on a forest or mountains (if you live near them) while your Traeger is cooking your meat for your enjoyment for hours.

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

What Is GMG?

GMG is a Green Mountain Grill brand, which is famous for reasonable prices and excellent quality of modernized grills. They sell high-quality and long-lasting pellet grill ovens in the market. Their grills possess great control of temperatures while cooking and the comfy WiFi mode when you are able to control your meat smoking process through internet.

How Do You Cook Steak on a ‘Mountain’ grill?

First, let’s see how the pellet grills works:

1. The inner temp is controlled by a digital controller, which regulates the flow of pellets.
2. The auger is tuned by an engine and pellets are fed into a firebox.
3. In a box with fire there is a hot stick, which heats the pellets and a combustion ventilator helps them to continue burning.
4. A ventilator located inside the pellet hopper supports necessary pressure level and prevents burning-out in a hopper department.
5. When these two flows of air meat each other, they make up the necessary fire for wood burning and the smoke of hardwood circulates in the grill cooking the meat.

If you are going to cook a steak in the GMG grill, first, generally you are advised to let the meat have the room temp before putting it on the grate. Without this preparation you might get the undercooked inside of the meat and the overcooked crust of the brisket, ribs or a steak. It’s desirable to use a rubbing for a steak to bring it more taste and flavor. Don’t use the rubbing with a high salt content and the salt dries the meat while smoking. Rub it with butter, oil, sugar, mixture of herbs or sprinkle with some apple juice.

What Temperature Do You Cook Steak on a Green Mountain Grill?

For receiving an amazingly tasty steak you need to grill at a high temp like 450 or 500 degrees F (this makes up 232 or 260 degrees C). 275 or 300 degrees Fahrenheit (135 or 177 C) are the temps for a slower cooking process. From time to time, if you have got some time you may try cooking like that: first, smoke a steak at a temp 150 degrees F (that is 66 C) for an hour and then, heat the grill up to 500 degrees F to finish the cooking fast. In general, the time of cooking depends on how thick your steak is and how fried you prefer it to be.

How Hot Can a Green Mountain Grill Get?

Usually, a Green Mountain Grill smoker may get the temp range from 150 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The Davy Crockett model of a grill may have a range from 150 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit and it’s for your use if you like high temp cooking of the brisket, ribs or a steak.

What Is the Warranty on Green Mountain Grills?

A limited warranty usually covers faults in materials and performance for a three -year period of time. During these three years the company is obliged to do the repairing or replacing of any faulty Green Mountain Grill, that will be returned due to some problems of functioning, to one of the dealers or to the company store by the primary buyer. All the claims should be received until warranty period is available.

How Do I Reset My GMG Grill?

For resetting the Davy Crockett model you should:

1. Pull a plug from the socket.
2. Press the ‘Food’ button, turn the grill on again while keeping pressing the ‘Food’ button and set the button free 15 seconds later.
3. The LCD display will start counting from one to nine hundred ninety- nine, and after that wait for the display to show ‘Off’ on it.
4.  Pull the plug from the socket again and plug it again to finish the reset of the board.
5. For rebooting the chip, which is wireless, wait for thirty seconds for a grill to do that. Then your grill is ready to serve you.

For the other two grill models the steps of a resetting process are the same.

Here are the tips in the video:

Is It Healthier to Cook with Charcoal or Propane?

There are some disputes about this question and when we speak about getting the smoky taste and the incredible crust, the absolute winner is the charcoal way of cooking. But speaking about the other advantages, they come from using the gas grills.

The scientists investigated these two ways of smoking and found out that the meat cooked with charcoal has got more carcinogens in it. These carcinogens are named PHAs. But the meat made with the help of propane gas has got less of those. When cooking the meat, fat goes down the meat, it burns and make up the smoke with these PHAs. This smoke covers the meat piece you are cooking. Actually, gas makes less smoke than charcoal during the cooking process. Plus, flames of the charcoal are hotter than those of the gas and they make up another carcinogen, named HCAs. In fact, propane grills also create these carcinogens, but they are in smaller amounts when being cooked. So, when you do the trimming of the meat, you get the lean meat and it would get less fat going down the meat and burning and less smoke, and the amount of PHAs decreases.

If you do the marinating of the meat in lemon juice or vinegar, it soaks these substances and the amount of HCAs gets down to ninety per cent.

When you turn the meat over quite often, it also contributes to decreasing the level of HCAs in the finished meat dish.

These are just few answers to the grill questions people ask, the grills may get broken or start misfunctioning as any kind of equipment you have at your home. O, refer to the support service and use the warranty you have and use your grills with pleasure and taste, make your guests and your family happy with the delicious smoked meat.

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

Offset Smoker

New Braunfels company was famous for the manufacturing of the offset smokers, which were quite famous among the fans of traditional smoking. So, offset smokers are the oven, which are created for cooking the meat outside and they are classical smokers.

Classical smoking means that the ovens don’t use pellets or gas for making the meat ready for eating. In the following smoking machine, there is a separate horizontal department where the meat or veggies are smoked, while the wood or charcoal for a smoking process are placed in a firebox, which is attached to one of the department sides. In the offset smokers there are often shelves for placing various kinds of meat at the same time. So, the cook is able to place a lot of brisket pieces, ribs, steaks and pork or beef shoulders in an oven when starting the process of cooking. Of course, these grills are extremely popular as you get the wonderful crust and a smoky taste of your meat dishes after making them in the grill of this type.

Smoker Price

A smoker price may vary a lot depending on the kind of a smoker, the brand and the age, of course. The Braunfels smokers are usually not expensive and their price ranges from 100 dollars and more. Nowadays the old smokers of this brand are sold online and in the various stores for a very low price, so after buying it, a grill lover is able to remodel and it and make multiple modifications to the old thing and bring it to its second life.

Bbq Pits (Braunfels)

In 2002 the man, owning the Braunfels company made a decision to shut it down and the products of this brand started to be produced in the Char-Broil plant as the Char-Broil bought the name. The Char –Broil brand is one of the biggest producers of electrical and gas grills for outdoor use in the US. Their main plants and offices are located in Columbus.

In general, the old Braunfels grills are considered to be more classical and heavy ovens in comparison with the new ones from the Char-Broil factories. So, the lovers of old grills prefer to obtain the grills of the older manufacturing and redesign them for further use. The new grills are thought to have several important modifications and they have got thinner metal covering, which makes them lighter but more prone to breaking.

Vertical Smoker

Vertical smokers are perfect for those cooks, who love to cook in big amounts. These smokers are often named cabinet grills. A vertical grill is a large box or department with many shelves in it, so you might put into it a lot of various meat kinds like chicken meat, a lot of ribs, briskets, pork bellies, pork shoulders etc. You may smoke as much meat as you like and need there.

Hondo Smoker

New Braunfels company was famous for their Hondo smokers and after getting a new owner there are only two models of Hondo series left. They are the Hondo Offset Smoker and the Junior Hondo Offset Smoker. The improvements were made to the new models and they possess cast iron grates already instead of the old think porcelain grating. They also added handles for the oven for more comfortable usage. There some faults in the following grills: the temp controls are absent and it’s very uncomfortable for the users as they have to get a thermometer and measure the temp with its help by putting it into the pit.

Smoker Cover

When you acquired the best grill smoker, you had better think about getting the best and most suitable smoker cover for it. The perfect variant is obtaining the cover designed exactly for your grill model. The covers are great for preventing various troubles with the grills like rust, influence of different harmful elements in the air etc. Plus, your grill is going to look shiner and newer with the smoker coverage. It will certainly make the lifespan of a grill oven longer when using the grill cover fitting your oven model. It’s up to you to decide in this situation but you need to think ahead of time and care about your grill equipment.

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

For example, when you are making bacon and eggs, you fry bacon in a frying pan, then you let it cool down and clean it from the grease, then you use this pan for frying eggs or you need to use another frying pan for the eggs.

That’s all not very comfy and you might feel much better if you use a George Foreman grill for frying your bacon. It’s very convenient and fast to do.

Also, there is almost no cleaning to do after the frying process. Due to the top cover during the cooking the grease isn’t splattered over the stove as you have your bacon covered with it. The top cover doesn’t get enough contact with the bacon to get dirty and the grease goes down to the dripping tray. Cooks often deal with the problems of the bacon curling up in the frying pan, but in the grill it wouldn’t happen.

The only thing you should do is giving the bacon a turnover to the other side seven-ten minutes later and then wait for 5 minutes. That’s it! The bacon is ready and perfect and it doesn’t have any curling.

The Foreman grill is definitely worth trying, and you won’t be able to use another way of cooking your tasty bacon after using this grill. The way of cooking bacon pieces in a grill is also healthier as it has got less grease in the pieces left. Here are several videos on Youtube for you to watch and understand dhow it happens:

What Temperature Do You Cook Bacon on a George Foreman Grill?

The usual temp while cooking your bacon makes up around 375 degrees F (it’s medium- high temp) and the way of cooking depends on what you are going to fry on this grill brand.

George Foreman Grill Instructions

When speaking about the bacon, the steps are the following:

1. Turn on the Foreman grill and let it get heated for five minutes.
2. Don’t forget to put the dripping dish under the grill and then put the bacon pieces on the oven.
3. Then, close the top lid ad wait from three to eight minutes to turn the bacon over. The time of waiting before the flip depends on how crispy or rare you are eager to have your bacon on the dish.
4. So, then open the top lid and flip the pieces of bacon over. Be careful to avoid popping the hot fat on your hands and arms, wear special mittens or a shirt with long sleeves.
5. Then, flip the bacon over, close the lid again and wait for about five minutes, then your bacon is ready and you may serve it. At once you are able to fry from four to eight slices of bacon for you, your family or guests.

George Foreman Grill Recipes

Before jumping to the recipes, let’s speak how to select bacon at any store. When you are walking in a supermarket, you would see the cured bacon in most cases and it means it’s salted with pink, usual or celery salt. Such bacon contains nitrates and they are not good for human health.

So, try to find uncured bacon, but, still, this one also is cured a little and has got nitrates, just not such a big amount of them. If you prefer having fat bacon, choose the pork bacon, when you keep to a diet, choose the turkey bacon, which is leaner.

The types of meat for bacon are multiple and they might be beef bacon, lamb bacon, duck bacon, turkey bacon, pork pieces and even salmon pieces of bacon. Bacon made from duck, salmon or lamb are not so easy to find and you need to look for them in the specialized stores. You already know how to make the pork bacon pieces, so let’s see how to prepare turkey bacon.

Turkey Bacon in a Grill

You will need:

1. 1 pound of turkey pieces of bacon
2. Olive oil (extra virgin) for grilling

The cooking will take around 15 minutes and it’s served for four people.

Cooking:

1. Heat the grill for 5 minutes with the lid closed, get the dripping dish ready under the grill and get the paper towels for the cooked bacon ready.
2. Pour oil on the grilling plates and then put the turkey pieces as many as you are able to. Close the top cover and wait for five minutes, flip the pieces over and then wait for ten minutes to have them cooked.
3. Take paper towels and put the meat pieces into them, then pour the oil again on the grilling plates and put another set of slices for grilling. Repeat the process.

There is one more interesting recipe for grilling.

Grilled Sugared Bacon

You will need:

1. 1 pound of any pieces of bacon
2. Half a cup of brown sugar
3. 2 teaspoons of black pepper (ground).

The cooking will take around 8-10 minutes and it’s served for four people

The steps are almost the same, just before putting the slices on the grilling plates you need:

1. Mix pepper with brown sugar in a plate or a bowl, then put the bacon pieces on the paper or foil in a row, spread the mixture on the pieces, then turn them over and spread the mixture again
2. Place the pieces of bacon on the grilling plates and cook for seven minutes, then flip them over.

Remember that the grilling marks of the grill will get brown because of the sugar and if you don’t like it, do the frying of the bacon partially and then spread the mixture on them and continue cooking until they are ready for serving. The sugar will get caramelized and you will receive the tasty crust on your pieces of bacon.

How to Clean George Foreman Grill

Watch these videos to find you how to do the cleaning of the excellent George Foreman grills:

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

Plenty of questions arise when cooking this meat type about how long to make, how to do that for the softest and most delicious final result.

As a rule, in most recipes one may see the scheme of cooking a meat piece with a view to 1 or hour and a half for one pound of brisket piece. You may keep to this rule, but there are many shades of grilling the meat piece and you should know about them.

One important factor that while cooking the smoked piece with this time scheme, you should heat your oven up to 250 Fahrenheit before putting the meat in. Also, it’s useful to let your brisket lie at a room temp for around an hour before letting it into the grill oven.

How Long Does It Take to Smoke a 12 Pound Brisket?

It would take about 12 hours or even more, depending on the style you use for smoking, if it’s slow and low style, the duration is right, but when, for example, it’s fast and hot, the time will be very different.

How Long Does It Take to Smoke a 16 Pound Brisket?

As you see, it might take about 16 hours or more when cooking with slow and low smoking. You are able to cut the big piece of brisket into two or three parts and in this case the cooking will be faster. If you are planning to do the wrapping of the brisket, it may also push on the time of bruising.

How Long Does It Take to Smoke a 5 Pound Brisket?

It might take from 5 to 7 hours, still, with the fast and hot style you will make the process much faster or wrapping the meat piece in a foil will make the cooking shorter, of course.

How Long Do You Smoke a 9lb Brisket?

Deciding to make some meat which weighs around 9 lb, you might expect to have it finished after 9 hours of the process of smoking in a grill oven at an approximate temp of 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Actually, this piece of meat is not big and it’s very likely to be quite thin.  You don’t need to overcook it and smoke it for longer than nine or ten hours.

Do You Smoke a Brisket Fat Side Up or Down?

There are pros and cons of getting the meat ready with the fat side lying up or the fat side lying down. It often depends on where the heating temp comes from in the oven.

It’s okay to smoke the meat with the fat side lying up if the heating temp comes from the grill top, as fat prevents overcooking it from this side and the meat is tender with acquiring thick crust on the low side. But the rubbing usually goes off when cooking like this.

When cooking the brisket with the fat down, you get better crust, especially when the heating temp comes from the bottom of the grill. The meat side would not get stuck to some grill grate in this case. But if the grill oven is with the heat from the top, you have a chance of getting the dry meat.

In fact, most cooks prefer smoking the brisket fat side lying down, but you should take into account all these details and decide for yourself.

Here is video for you to watch and make a proper decision:

How Long Does It Take to Smoke a 2 Pound Brisket?

It might take you about 2-3, or even 4 hours of smoking, but be careful to avoid having the brisket overcooked and too dried. Usually, such a small piece of this meat isn’t that fat to cook it for a long time and the oven temp should vary from 225 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, not higher.

Do You Have to Wrap a Brisket in Foil When Smoking?

Thus, there are 3 main characteristics that are important when deciding about the duration of cooking:

1. How large the brisket is
2. At what temp you are going to cook it
3. if you do the wrapping of the meat or not

So the common rule of 1 hour for a pound means you will cook with the Texas style ‘slow and low’. If you are going to wrap the brisket in a butcher paper, you usually do that around after 5 hours of smoking and then you have it wrapped for the other 5 or 7 hours while cooking.

It describes the cooking of the average weight brisket piece. Wrapping helps to prevent penetrating too much smoke into the meat and also contributes to preserving meat’s moisture. In addition, wrapping the brisket makes the smoking faster in time.

When you cook the brisket in a foil, not in a butcher paper, you have to cook it with a view to 45 minutes for a pound of brisket. So, smoke the meat for around 6 hours first, this will let the meat soak enough smoke and acquire the wonderful crust and then wrap it into the aluminum foil with two layers and do the tight wrapping.

If you like, you might add some broth or any other suitable liquid for bringing enough moisture to the smoked meat. It may be about one cup of liquid or even more, the flavor of the meat will get better in this case and it will contribute to the braising process. In case the wrapping is loose, it will take more time to get the brisket done.

If you are firm about smoking your meat with the ‘fast and hot’ style, you need to cook it with the 30 minutes for a pound rule to avoid overcooking and drying the tasty dish. With the following conditions the temperature of the grill oven should be around 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Many cooks don’t recommend smoking a brisket like this, but you may try to do carefully and succeed in getting the best meat smoked.

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

Some stores like Costco, sell the ribs with their membranes on or without it. So, when you are getting your ribs from a store, ask the salesperson if there is membrane on your ribs or it’s removed already. If you haven’t asked the salespeople and the ribs are already at home, you need to check and understand if there is some membrane or not.

The membrane should be torn off from the ribs as it is really not nice for smoking them. Sometimes the membrane is named silverskin or the peritoneum.

Do You Have to Remove the Membrane on Ribs?

Yes, it needs to be removed as it’s ropy, tough and it’s really not tasty to try to chew it when the ribs are finished. Also, membrane doesn’t let the smoke penetrate into the meat and create its famous smoky taste and flavor. Yes, you would get the smoky taste but it would be subtle and not so mouthwatering as it is without the removed membrane. So, for the full taste of smoke and really soft meat of the ribs the rib’s membrane must be torn off.

How Do You Remove the Membrane from Ribs?

If you obtained your ribs, open the package and check if there is some silvery or whitish dense skin on the bone side of the ribs. If it’s present, there is membrane and you should do its removing. Actually, this membrane may be seen on all meat types but we don’t pay much attention to it until it’s the lamb, pork or beef sirloin or ribs. In fact, this membrane is located in the abdominal area of an animal and it covers the organs of the abdomen.
Here are two videos for you showing how to tear off the membrane from the ribs properly and easily and then a short description of how to do that in several steps:

For this a little tough process you need to take a spoon or a fruit knife, avoid using any sharp knife, as you may cut yourself or cut the meat on the ribs:

1. At the bony side of a rack, try to put the knife or spoon under the silvery membrane and separate it a little from the bones.
2. When you that the skin is getting loosed a little, put a few fingers under the skin and start tearing it off from the bones in a gentle way.
3. You had better use the paper napkin or towel to keep the skin as it might be too slippery when holding it with your hands. You need to pull carefully and slowly trying not to tear it into pieces. If it happened, just continue removing the left pieces of the membrane until the ribs are full free from the skin.
4. After removing the tissue, you may see how elastic it actually is and why it must be torn off.
5. Eating finished ribs with this tissue would be like chewing on the rubber piece. In addition, the tissue would prevent the ribs from soaking the rubbing and seasonings and the flavor would be far from perfect after smoking.

Do You Have to Remove Membrane from Beef Ribs?

Yes, you need to do that as well as removing the tissue from the pork ribs as the result and disadvantage of leaving the silverskin of the ribs will be the same. The ribs would get hard to chew them on and flavor would be not so tasty, also, the rubbing would be hard to be soaked into the rib meat during smoking.

Do St. Louis Style Ribs Have a Membrane?

The ribs, which are smoked using the famous and popular St. Louis style, have their skin removed from the ribs and the peculiarity of cooking in this style is that the ribs are divided into two parts: the part of spareribs and the part of loin-back ribs. So, they are cooked separately. Cooks are still arguing if the silverskin should be torn off or not, as some pitmasters think that the ribs come out smoky and tasty even with the membrane on. But, in general, it’s still better to remove the peritoneum from the ribs, especially if you are just starting your journey in the world of rib smoking.

Can You Remove Rib Membrane after Cooking?

Yes, it may be done after the cooking has been finished, but if you are firm about cutting the skin off, you ‘d rather do it before the cooking, not after. But if you forgot to do that before the start of the smoking process, and you are not a fan of chewing the cooked membrane, don’t doubt, tear it off after the ribs are finished. Some pit masters think that removing the skin is unnecessary as it helps to keep ribs together when turning them over on the smoker and they like its special taste. Anyway, it’s up to you to decide to remove or not.

How Do You Fix Tough Ribs?

If the ribs came out tough, there is a way to save them and make them softer. Make a barbeque sauce, which consists of a mixture of some barbeque sauce you like and the vinegar of apple cider, the mixture percentage should be 50/50. Then, apply this coat on the ribs. The next step is wrapping the ribs in a foil tightly and putting them into the oven with the low and slow style with the 300 degrees F for around one hour. Then your tender ribs are ready for eating and enjoying their taste and texture.

How Do You Know Ribs Are Done?

When you are completely new in the ribs smoking, it’s hard to understand if they are finished or not. For checking that take a toothpick, poke it into the meat between the bones and when there is no resistance or little resistance of the meat, it’s ready for cooling it down. If it’s still springy, keep on cooking.

Have a good meal!

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking

The recipes and suggestions differ a lot, some people suggest wrapping your slab of brisket in paper or foil, some cooks and pros think that there is no wrapping needed. Maybe, it is worth trying different ways of cooking this delicious and fatty meat and later come up with a decision which recipe is really perfect for you and your taste.

Tips to Keep in Mind

Obviously, the first step in creating an ideal brisket dish is choosing the best quality fresh meat. Usually, a whole slab of brisket is smoked with the fat side down on the grill and the fat may be trimmed from the lean side of the brisket. 

Of course, skills of a nice cook are necessary for creating a delicious smoked brisket, but in most cases with a profound description in a recipe even a real starter can cope with this way of cooking. So, if you are not pretty good at cooking meat, don’t worry, just follow the rules in a recipe or watch a video made by a nice chef and your dish is doomed to be tasty and fresh.

When to Wrap Brisket in Butcher Paper

When you found a recipe description where a meat slab has to be wrapped in butcher paper, you should know that it’s made for letting smoke come into the meat piece and keeping all the juices inside the meat itself. 

As a rule, brisket is wrapped in butcher paper when it’s half -finished or two third finished while performing the cooking process. If you do like that, every time the result will be satisfactory and the brisket will turn out to be juicy and tender.

In case you don’t want a complicated plan of cooking this type of meat, just rub the piece with any kind of salt (sea salt, Kosher salt etc.), black pepper, paprika, several herbs or some garlic powder etc. to your taste. It is better to put a meat piece on the smoker when it is not cold any more, but if you are in a hurry, it’s okay to do that.

One more tip is to cook the meat slowly and with low heat. The approximate temp should be 230 degrees Fahrenheit. So, when the internal temp of the brisket reaches about 106-165 degrees Fahrenheit and crust is really visible and beautiful, you take it out and wrap in butcher paper.

This paper may be obtained online easily and it might be pink or brown mainly and you should wrap the meat tight, get three layers of it around the brisket.

Traeger Brisket No Wrap

If you prefer cooking and grabbing no wrap brisket, it is likely to be cooked for a longer period of time, but still, the meat will have the proper moist and tenderness. Cooking in a Traeger grill you may be sure you will end up tasting a really delicious dish.

It depends on what kind of a Traeger grill you have got. If you possess a grill with oak wood, for instance, before cooking the slab you may rub it with the special Traeger rub coating, black pepper, apple juice or some other herbs and then let the brisket get smoked over the wood made from oak.

It’s really hard to imagine how tasty the dish will get. 

But if you are a lover of simple cooking and you have got the simple Traeger grill, just take the meat, rub it with seasoning you love, maybe choose some Traeger rub mix (coffee, for instance) and put your slab onto the smoker.

Usually, the meat is smoked for about 10 hours on a low heat to get tender and juicy. But you had better look up for a decent recipe online before the first try.

When to Pull Brisket off Smoker

In general, cooks advice to keep to the following rules when you are cooking a wrapped brisket. The Texas recipe suggests that when the internal temperature of the meat is about 160 or 170 degrees Fahrenheit, take it out, wrap it in a foil or butcher paper, but do it tightly and in several layers (2 or 3 layers, typically).

Then increase the temperature of your smoker up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and wait until the inner temp of the meat is around 200 degrees, take the brisket out again and remove the wrapping. After cooling down for one hour you may start slicing and serving the finished brisket.

Wrap Brisket in Foil and Towel

With a variety of recipes and ways of cooking a smoked brisket, one of the simplest and most popular one is cooking it in foil. When cooking brisket in foil, you get the fastest way of cooking this fatty and good-tasting slab of meat, and, also, you get it tender-smoked and full of incredibly tasty flavor.

You should definitely try to cook it like this at least once. There are several video for you to watch and learn:

Wrapping a brisket in a towel after smoking is an effective way to leave it warm for as long as you can and there is one more useful side effect when using a towel wrap – the meat will get even more tender when staying towel-wrapped for a few hours or even longer.

So, every means of cooking has got its pros and cons and some complications.

You should think over the desirable result of your cooking and then choose which way of cooking to use. If you wish to become a true backyard cook making meat on the pit, search for various recipes online and enjoy wonderful cooking experience in the fresh air.

The brisket is not too easy to make, but it is totally worth all the labor when you taste the tender hot meat cooked by you.

Eat Drink Rabbit

This post was posted in Cooking