The Ultimate Home Pit Master Guide

Pork Spare Ribs

At Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, the spare ribs are so popular that the line for them is typically 300 people long — at 11 a.m. Chef and owner Aaron Franklin says his secrets are easy to duplicate at home. “The first is buying ribs that haven’t been enhanced with a solution of salt and preservatives,” says Franklin. “That stuff will make the ribs steam instead of smoking properly.” (Buy ribs at a local butcher, and avoid labels with language like “Contains a solution to enhance juiciness.”) The second is liberally slathering the meat with Franklin’s Barbecue Sauce, which creates spare ribs crusted with bark, that unbeatable crunchy coating of meat, smoke, and caramelized sauce.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 2 racks of pork spare ribs
• salt and pepper
• apple cider vinegar

Franklin’s Barbecue Sauce

• 1¾ cups ketchup
• ½ cup water, plus 2 tbsp
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup white vinegar, plus 1 tbsp
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1½ tsp kosher salt
• 1½ tsp coarse black pepper

Directions (Cook time: 8 hours)

1. Preheat smoker or charcoal grill (see opposite page) to a medium-low heat, ideally 275°.

2. Season ribs heavily with salt and pepper, then set on the grill, meat side up. Use a spray bottle to spritz ribs with apple cider vinegar; close smoker lid.

3. Make barbecue sauce by combining all ingredients in a small pot and simmering over medium heat for a few minutes. Let cool.

4. Two hours into cooking, spritz meat again with apple cider vinegar.

5. After three hours, spritz ribs again and brush with sauce. Turn ribs over, spritz the bone side, and brush with sauce. Close smoker lid and wait 15 minutes.

6. Tear off two pieces of aluminum foil, each large enough to enclose one rack. Spritz one side of foil with cider vinegar and brush with sauce. Lay a rack of ribs on each. Wrap tightly around ribs and crimp closed.

7. Cook two hours in smoker or in a 275° oven. Let ribs rest 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Serving

Cut into individual ribs and serve with additional barbecue sauce, plus coleslaw or collard greens.

Whole Chicken

Everybody loves barbecued chicken, but all those thighs and drumsticks demand a lot of fussy attention, and they cook too fast to soak up that rich, smoky flavor. The solution, says Ryan Farr, author of Whole Beast Butchery and the chef-owner at 4505 Burgers & BBQ in San Francisco, is smoking the whole chicken. “Whole chickens are cheaper than parts, and it’s easier to get crispy skin,” Farr says. Plus, the meat stays juicier when you cook it in bigger pieces. Farr punches up the taste by brining the chicken first, then rubbing it all over with harissa, a North African chili paste.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• 1 large chicken (5 to 6 lbs)
• 2 tbsp harissa
• Salt
• chicken brine
• 1 gallon water
• 1 cup salt
• 1 head garlic, cut in half
• 1 lemon, cut in half
• ¼ cup honey
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns

Directions (Cook time: three hours)

1. The day before, put all brine ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve salt, then let cool. Place chicken in cool brine; refrigerate overnight.

2. Remove chicken from brine and dry with paper towels. (If you have time, let chicken dry in the fridge for several hours. This will help the skin crisp during cooking.)

3. Preheat smoker or grill to low heat (around 200°). Rub harissa over outside of chicken, then salt liberally. Set chicken on smoker grate, breast side up, and close lid. Check meat’s internal temperature after one hour. It’s done when a thermometer inserted into a thigh reads 160°, typically 2½ hours.

4. Remove chicken from smoker and let rest 45 minutes.

Serving

Remove the backbone by making cuts with poultry shears up both sides of it. Flip chicken over, and cut up the middle of the breast to get two equal halves.

Farr serves his barbecued chicken with a fresh salad and what he calls an Alabama white sauce. “Just mix up some mayo, chopped pickled jalapeños, and some of that pickling juice,” Farr says.

“Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, some ground coriander, black pepper, and salt, and mix it all together.”

Salmon Fillet

In the 19th century, if you didn’t smoke the fish you caught, it would spoil. But it takes time to cook all those fillets, so when smoked salmon became the delicacy we know it as today, most restaurants bought presmoked fillets to avoid the hassle. Not so with Willows Inn on remote Lummi Island, north of Seattle, which has perfected the age-old practice. “The key is to start with good fish,” says Willows chef Blaine Wetzel, winner of this year’s James Beard Award for best Northwest chef. “The quality of the fish gets amplified — good or bad — through smoking.” That’s why Wetzel prefers wild salmon, ideally sockeye or king.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1 fillet of salmon (3 to 5 lbs)
• ½ cup Kosher salt
• ½ cup white verjuice (or ¼ cup white wine and ¼ cup white wine vinegar)
• ½ cup melted unsalted butter
• ½ cup brown sugar

Directions (Cook time: 8 hours)

1. The day before, make a brine by combining a quart of water with a half cup of salt. Bring to a boil; stir to dissolve salt. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 lbs of ice to chill brine.

2. Using needle-nose pliers or tweezers, remove all pin bones from fillet.

3. Once the brine is cold, place fillet in a large baking pan, and pour the brine over the fish until it’s submerged. Brine 35 minutes, then remove fish, rinse under water, and set on a drying rack over a baking pan. Refrigerate overnight, uncovered.

4. Preheat smoker or grill to as low a temperature as possible (ideally 110°). “The idea is to smoke it as long as you can without quite cooking the fish,” says Wetzel.

5. Meanwhile, make a glaze by combining the verjuice, butter, and brown sugar in a small pot. Heat to a simmer, stir to combine, and remove from heat.

6. Set salmon, skin side down, on grill. Smoke for six hours, brushing with glaze every two hours.

7. After six hours, increase smoker temperature slightly (to 200°), and smoke for 30 minutes more.

Serving

Set the fillet on a cutting board, and let people pick it apart with their fingers. Make sure to smoke a big batch, because the leftovers are just as good. To save them, wrap what’s left in tin foil. Pop it in the oven to warm before serving, or use it for an easy salmon spread: Mix together ¼ lb smoked salmon, finely chopped; juice from half a lemon; a little minced dill; a pinch of salt; and ½ cup crème fraîche or sour cream.

Beef Short Plate

When people think of barbecued beef, they usually think of brisket, because of the way the cut tenderizes in a smoker. The problem with brisket, says chef Quinn Hatfield, owner of the new L.A. smokehouse Odys & Penelope, is that one part of it is thick and fatty while another part is thin and lean, “so the whole brisket never comes out amazing.” His fix is to use the so-called beef short plate, an evenly marbled cut from the front belly of a cow. Typically cut into short ribs, the short plate smokes up beautifully when cooked whole. “One hundred percent of it comes out like the best brisket you’ve ever eaten,” says Hatfield. Most butchers carry short ribs, and that’s a fine substitute, but to get your hands on a short plate, you’ll need to order ahead. Trust us, it’s worth it.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1 piece of beef short plate, on the bone
• canola oil
• salt and pepper

Directions (Cook time: eight hours)

1. Preheat smoker or grill to medium-low heat (250°).

2. Brush meat with canola oil, then season with lots of salt and pepper.

3. Set meat on smoker grate, rib side down. Cook until a thermometer stuck into middle of meat reads 200°, about 8 to 10 hours.

4. Let meat rest off the smoker for 30 minutes before carving, so juices don’t bleed out.

Serving

Pull meat away from the ribs with a fork and carve into long slices. Or make lengthwise cuts between the bones to create four immense bone-in servings. You can add barbecue sauce, but it’ll taste brilliant without anything at all.