Why does hickory impart bold flavor and rich, brown coloring to red meat, while the light smokiness of alder makes it a go-to for salmon? 

The same fundamental components make up all kinds of wood: cellulose, a long chain molecule; hemicellulose, made of different carbohydrates and sugars; and lignin, another complex polymer from the cell walls. Lignin, a tough compound which accounts for between one-fifth and one-third of a wood's weight, is what makes it such a strong material. But every tree or shrub contains unique secondary properties, and these properties account for the beguiling, exotic aromas of camphor laurel (used to cook smoked duck in China), and the intense smokiness from mesquite (the only wood that can produce the bold and pungent flavors of Tex-Mex [link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbacoa barbacoa]), among others.

Every cooking tradition is different, and the best choice will depend on what you're cooking and how you're cooking it. As a rule, however, hardwoods produce the best results—yielding richer color and bolder aromas than other options such as fir or pine. The chart below outlines some virtues and pitfalls of different kinds of wood.

Wood Selection Guide

Barbecue may be a gift from the gods, but there are some persistent myths around meat-smoking that can seriously hinder your success. Knowing how to separate fact from pernicious fiction will allow you to predictably produce meat with awesome flavor and texture—and that means barbecuing will be a helluva lot more fun.

Barbecue Geekery: Myth-Busting

The Great Barbecue Crusade

While smoked meat may be mankind's most primitive cuisine, achieving predictably delicious barbecue is all about carefully controlled conditions. From wood combustion to food temperature, learning to stay in charge of the factors that impact your food will greatly enhance your experience at the pit. 

Another way to amp up the pleasure factor: Try combining smoking with sous vide cooking. (Yup, we went there.) Once you do, you'll discover a whole new world in which you can achieve great barbecue without a sleepless night at the smoker.

Barbecue Techniques

Introduction to Barbecue

Welcome back to our two-part series featuring our friend **smoked-meats sensei Meathead Goldwyn**! After [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/amazing-ribs-with-meathead-pt-i-traditional-barbecue-techniques--2 a day of succulent, traditionally smoked ribs] and ice-cold beers on Grant’s patio, the team reconvened the next morning in the ChefSteps development kitchen. 

This time, Grant and Meathead were joined by Ryan Udvett, [link http://amazingribs.com/ Amazingribs.com]’s test kitchen director/secret weapon, and Ben Johnson, our own development chef. (Important aside: Ben started grilling for his family as a young child and has an extraordinary ability to make all meats taste amazing. Seriously, we think he might be some sort of meat witch. Are meat witches a thing? If so, he’s definitely one of them.) Each team took a different approach to **barbecuing ribs without the benefit of a smoker** and then chewed over the results to understand the best techniques for achieving a crusty, delicious bark; tender, flavor-packed meat; smokiness; and the smoke ring that signals superior ’cue. 

Watch the video above to see the insights that came out of this highly aromatic experiment. Feeling inspired? You’re in good hands with this [link http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/smoky_sauna_indoor_ribs.html indoor recipe from Amazing Ribs], as well as with our [link apartment-ribs Apartment Ribs]. Heck, why not cook up both and have your own tasting party? If there’s one thing we learned from this most enjoyable indoor/outdoor barbecue party, it’s that you can never have too many ribs.

Want to devour more barbecue recipes and science? Try our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/barbecue/landing#/ free guide on all things barbecue]. 

Got your own secrets for indoor barbecue? Share them in the comments below!

Amazing Ribs With Meathead, Part II: Exploring Indoor Barbecue

What makes a great rib? That’s the question we asked our esteemed guest Meathead Goldwyn—the legendary man behind the incredible barbecue site [link http://amazingribs.com/recipes Amazingribs.com]. On a sunny day this summer, our teams convened on the patio of Grant’s new house—he’d recently moved from a city apartment and was eager to embark on some **serious outdoor cooking**—to get into it. Grant whipped up Meathead’s signature [link http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/best_BBQ_ribs_ever.html Last Meal Ribs] recipe, then asked Meathead to critique his work. Watch the video to learn what a world-class rib guy looks for in traditionally cooked ribs, and stay tuned for the [link /activities/amazing-ribs-with-meathead-part-ii-exploring-indoor-barbecue second part] of this series, where the crew heads indoors to explore techniques for cooking ribs *without a smoker*.

Amazing Ribs With Meathead, Part I: Traditional Barbecue Techniques

Amazing Ribs With Meathead

Here's our shot at Pacific Northwest barbecue. We soak wild salmon in our pastrami brine for 48 hours, then smoke it at a low temperature. The result is a smoky, savory fish that flakes into bite-sized morsels, and has a delicious, slightly-sweet bark. Just the way salmon candy should be—and a proper tribute to our home turf.

Salmon Pastrami

What constitutes proper barbecued pork is a controversial topic. For those who hail from the coastal region of North Carolina, barbecue means the whole hog. The smoked pig is picked and chopped, and then dressed with a fiery vinegar sauce, and that's it. Folks from further inland prefer to smoke pork shoulder alone and dress it with a sauce tempered by a touch of ketchup. Though it may not be for purists, our barbecued pork shoulder mixes and matches some of our favorite aspects of Carolina-style barbecue. 

We favor the pork butt for the rich, succulent texture it develops over twelve hours of low-and-slow cooking. And while the smoke from smoldering hickory is traditional, we've found that we really enjoy the robust flavor and extra-dark bark we get from oak chips charred over true hardwood charcoal. 

Finally, after chopping the meat into tender shreds with bits of flavorful bark, we like to add our own [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/carolina-gold-bbq-sauce Carolina Gold BBQ sauce]. And although some South Carolinians will be familiar with that addition, when they notice that we've used Dijon mustard instead of the yellow Ballpark stuff, they might just think we're a bunch of heretics. But _our_ barbecue religion isn't about tradition; it's about taste. We suggest you try it yourself, ideally on a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/hawaiian-sweet-rolls bun] and heaped with some of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/creamy-coleslaw our Creamy Coleslaw].

Smoked Barbecue Pork Shoulder

Short ribs are among the most flavorful cuts of beef, and can be remarkably tender, juicy, and flavorful when cooked properly. For barbecue—and for some purists these will be fighting words—short ribs are a much better cut of beef than brisket, as long as they're cooked low-and-slow, in a moist environment. Not convinced? Try our recipe for sous vide–cooked and traditionally-smoked barbecue beef short ribs with an East Texas–style [Sweet and Sticky BBQ Glaze](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sweet-and-sticky-bbq-glaze).

Sous Vide Barbecue Beef Short Ribs

Like that rebel game changer who first put bacon on a cheeseburger, we ask you to consider another delicious, if slightly sacrilegious, concept: Jewish barbecue. The world of slow, smoky cuisine that revolves mostly around pork is actually just steps away from pastrami, which we believe to be one of Jewish cookery’s biggest triumphs. It is this cognitive mashup that led us to one of our biggest triumphs: the 200-hour sous vide pastrami.
 
*Pastrami*, descended from the Turkish *basturma*, or “pressed,” originally referred to a way to preserve meat, but in the United States, it came to denote the cured, spiced beef developed in New York’s Jewish neighborhoods. After a dry cure, beef was smoked and then steamed. Iconic delis like New York’s [link http://katzsdelicatessen.com Katz’s], which has been open since 1888, have kept their recipes largely unchanged over the centuries. Newer establishments like the [link http://mileenddeli.com Mile End Deli], which introduced Montreal’s smoked-meat cousin to New Yorkers, are taking artisanal, high-minded approaches to the meat. Both approaches have garnered fervent fans.
 
Unlike traditional American barbecue, pastrami is first pickled—either cured in a wet brine or rubbed with dry spices—and then smoked. But as in traditional American barbecue, low-and-slow cooking is paramount. Long, low cooking transforms tough cuts of meat like short ribs or brisket into juicy, melt-in-your-mouth-tender bites. And we’ve taken this concept to its logical extreme.
 
Sous vide allows us to cook the lightly cured meat for two days in a controlled environment, yielding consistently tender results. We owe the flavoring to David Kinch and John Paul Carmona at [link http://www.manresarestaurant.com Manresa] in Los Gatos, California. Carmona, inspired by his first-ever Katz’s pastrami sandwich, developed a Katzesque pastrami brine, which we think is even better than the original.

Sous Vide Pastrami

A rack of smoked baby backs is the grail of American barbecue. It's a standard by which skill is judged. In our opinion, truly great ribs are succulent and bone-tender, with a chewy bark that has some snap, and a profound meaty flavor that's complemented—but never overwhelmed—by the rub or glaze used to coat them. Amazing ribs should make your mouth water. They should have a burnt-sienna complexion, and a distinctly seductive smokiness. And as you bite into them, the meat should pull away from the bone, but with a bit of hesitation. Great ribs are like that relationship that you know is wrong, but you just can't resist.

Those who are puritanical in such matters might be shocked, but we prepare our ribs sous vide. We rely on the convenience and control of sous vide cooking to turn out perfectly cooked baby back ribs, and then finish them with four hours of careful smoking (never let the smoker get too hot). The result will be just as god intended: perfectly tacky, succulently meaty, mouthwateringly golden-brown pork ribs that'll leave you begging for more.

Dry-Style Barbecue Baby Back Ribs

Outdoor Barbecue Recipes

Maybe you live in a tiny Tokyo efficiency and gaze up at the clouds each morning from your sweet little box in the sky. Maybe you reside in a stately London row house with lion-head door knockers festooning the front entry. Doesn’t matter. Because whether home is a sprawling ranch on the range—where the deer and the antelope play—or a five-floor walk-up in a major metropolis, we believe you should be able to make barbecue there. And not just when the weather permits or once you’ve amassed the funds to invest in a smoker. No, you should be able to create incredible barbecue, indoors, whenever you damn well please. And if you don’t want to wear pants while you do it, well, that’s okay too.

Driven by this belief, we’ve spent countless hours figuring out how to harness the strengths of sous vide cooking to replicate traditional barbecue techniques—slow-and-low cooking, smoke-infused flavor, a beautiful red rub to lend spice and sweetness. But barbecue is as much an art as it is a science, and we’re constantly adjusting our favorite recipes to get more consistent, more delicious results that are easier to replicate at home. In that spirit, we present an updated version of one of the classic ChefSteps recipes: Apartment Ribs. Inspired by a collaboration with our go-to ’cue guru and all-around good friend Meathead Goldwyn (the man behind Amazingribs.com), these tender fellas showcase a new rub and a more straightforward approach to developing smoky flavor and a traditional look. You can use this recipe to make ribs indoors easily, whether you’re working in a wee kitchenette or a tricked-out professional commissary. So stop by the deli and pick up a nice rack or two. Tonight you’re gonna experience a whole new spin on superlative indoor barbecue—pants optional, flavor guaranteed.

Sous Vide Barbecue Ribs

Brisket is a pitmaster's mainstay. But let's face it, even at the best places it's often the least interesting option on the menu—dry, bland, blah. Tired of the ho-hum stuff (and never one to shy away from a challenge), our kitchen crew set out to make **a better brisket, with juicy, smoky meat and a sticky, satisfying bark**. Just to up the ante, they decided to develop it **without the aid of a smoker**, instead testing recipes indoors and using liquid smoke and nitrites to evoke a smoky flavor and signature pink ring at the edge of the meat—both hallmarks of first-rate 'cue. 

The upshot for you, hungry meat fiends: the best dang barbecue brisket you'll ever make. What's more, **you can make it in the climate-controlled comforts of your own kitchen**.  You don't need a smoker, you don't need a lot of space. Heck, you don't even have to have any prior barbecuing experience to make this thing happen. What you do need: a few easy-to-find ingredients. These include liquid aminos (a gluten-free soy sauce alternative), but you can sub in soy sauce if you want. A big ole hunk of meat, however, is mandatory. Grab some carnivorous buddies—you're gonna want to show this one off.

*NOTE: Our recipe includes curing salts to create the appearance and flavor of a traditional smoke ring. It works because the nitrites in the curing salt slowly decompose into nitric oxide, which reacts with myoglobin in the meat to create the telltale pink color of traditional wood smoked barbecue brisket (with traditional barbecue, burning wood creates nitric oxide directly). A word of caution, however, when adding the curing salts to our brine: It's important that the brine not be too acidic. A highly acidic solution will cause the curing salts to rapidly decompose into nitric oxide, which is dangerous as a concentrated gas. So don't add vinegar to the brine, and never mix liquid smoke (which is acidic) directly with curing salts. (It's okay to add curing salts to a solution that includes some liquid smoke, as we do in this recipe.) In other words, just follow the recipe carefully. If you're going to add any acid, feel free to ask about safety in the comments.

ANOTHER NOTE: Salt: We love it! The salt amounts in our recipes tend to reflect the time we’ve spent in restaurant kitchens. We season assertively, and we often eat and serve meat in smallish portions. If you prefer your food less salty or envision eating great quantities of brisket at a time, you can opt to omit the salt in the rub step below, adding it only to the brine. Your meat will still be delicious—so, so delicious.

Sous Vide Barbecue Brisket

With crispy, amber-hued skin and penetrating smoky flavor, this barbecued bird is the go-to dish you’ve been waiting for all your chicken-loving life.  And **you don’t even need a smoker to make it**—all you need, in fact, is a basic oven. So whether you’re keeping it tight in a tiny urban studio or spreading out in some Nashville mansion, we think the technique will find a recurring role in your repertoire of favorite recipes. 

There are three challenges to achieving a great smoked chicken indoors. First—and this is true whenever you’re working with a whole bird—it’s **tricky to get the dark meat cooked through without overcooking the white meat**. Second, you want to get that crackly, golden skin without drying out the interior meat. And third, you want to achieve smoky flavor, but you don’t have the benefit of a smoker. 

Our chefs conquered the first issue by cutting the bird in half, then laying the halves flat out on a baking tray. This helps the chicken’s legs and thighs get done faster, so the breast won’t end up overdone. They took on the second challenge with a brine-and-glaze method, cooking the chicken at a low temperature in a traditional oven and applying a simple glaze several times to **really develop the texture, color, and flavor of the skin while ensuring that the meat stayed nice and juicy**. Both the brine and the glaze contain liquid smoke, which, used in the proper proportion, gives the chicken a deep, smoky flavor without overpowering the dish. We think you’re going to love the results as much as we do. So give it a go, and then tell us all about it in the comments. 

PSST: Need more dinner ideas? Looking to up your outdoor and indoor cooking game?  Enroll in our free [link https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/barbecue/landing#/ Barbecue class] for tons of meaty tips, low-and-slow techniques, and delectable side dish ideas.

Smokerless Smoked Chicken

When we set out to create our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/indoor-barbecue Indoor Barbecue series], we knew we’d have to include a pork shoulder recipe. Pork shoulder, after all, is the perennial crowd-pleaser of the barbecued-protein set. Whether you’re **stuffing it into pulled pork sandwiches, mixing it into a hearty breakfast hash, or cutting it into thick slices for a fancy dinner**, a rich, meaty pork shoulder renders every meat eater happy and well fed.

Here, we show you how to make a smoked pork shoulder sans smoker—you can cook it up easily in the comfort of your own kitchen, no outdoor equipment required. **We cook the shoulder sous vide to slowly transform it into tender, fall-apart barbecue.** After that, there’s very little oversight—just leave it in the water bath while you whip up some tasty sides for that pig. Once you’ve massaged it in spice rub and transferred it to the oven to finish, its incredible aromas are hard to miss. Don’t be surprised when your neighbors come a-knockin’.

**A FEW NOTES BEFORE YOU BEGIN:** 
**Curing salts**: This recipe includes the *optional* step of using nitrites to create the appearance and flavor of a traditional smoke ring. The nitrites can be found in the curing salt we use, called **Prague powder No. 1**. It works because the nitrites in the curing salt slowly decompose into nitric oxide, which reacts with myoglobin in the meat to create the telltale pink color of traditional wood-smoked shoulder. (With traditional barbecue, burning wood creates nitric oxide directly.)

When adding the curing salts to the brine, it’s important that the brine not be too acidic. Ours isn’t, but proceed carefully **if you decide to blaze your own trail**. A highly acidic solution will cause the curing salts to rapidly decompose into nitric oxide, which is dangerous as a concentrated gas. Don’t add vinegar to the brine, and never mix liquid smoke (which is acidic) directly with curing salts. (It’s okay to add curing salts to a watered-down solution that includes some liquid smoke, as we do in this recipe.) When in doubt, just follow the recipe carefully. If you’re going to add any acid, feel free to ask about safety in the comments. 

**Brining:** We use injection brining. Yup, you’ll need a [link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00191YVW2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00191YVW2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=delvkitc-20 syringe], but don’t worry: they’re easy to buy and easy to use. Just inject your meat and move on with your meal. **You can totally go with the traditional method**—**submerging meat directly in brine**—but the drawback is it takes a long time for the brine to penetrate the large cut of meat. Here, you’d need to wait six days.

**Cooking temp:** We cook the shoulder at [f 140] to achieve a steaklike texture. For the fall-apart texture that makes great tacos and pulled pork, set the temperature to [f 158].

**Finishing temp:** We finish the shoulder in the oven for three to four hours, cooking it slowly to allow a rich bark to form on the outside of the meat. If you are short or time, however, you can crank the oven up to [f 325] and bake the pork for one hour. You’ll still get a good bark, but you may run the risk of overcooking your meat around the outside. Don’t worry. It will still be amazing.

Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Shoulder

Indoor Barbecue Recipes

If you don't have a smoker at home, you can still make some amazing Memphis-style ribs using our Apartment Rib Rub on a rack of our [Apartment Ribs](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/apartment-ribs). A finished slab of ribs has a deep smoked flavor—with just a bit of char—and would pass muster with anyone who hails from the Mississippi Delta.

Many of the ingredients you see here are common to dry-style rubs, but the key to capturing the authentic flavor of smoke and char lie in a few important additions.

First, deeply charred onions and garlic mimic the fly ash that's a tell-tale sign of true, pit-smoked meats, adding an earthy astringency to the bark of the rib. The backbone of the smoked flavor is a very special smoked salt called Bonfire that we discovered in Woodinville, Washington, of all places. How exactly it's made is a trade secret, but it involves slowly smoking sea salt over a blend of seven hardwoods. Finally, Pimentón de la Vera—traditional Spanish paprika smoked over white oak—provides a counterpoint of sweetness to the smoky flavor of the rub.

Apartment Rib Rub

If you're a longtime friend of ChefSteps, you probably remember that we sold packages of House Rub in our online shop for a few years. When we finally ran out of our supply last month, we made a decision: Rather than continuing to offer it pre-ground, pre-mixed, and pre-packaged for your enjoyment, we thought it would be more fitting with ChefSteps' mission (to help people to cook smarter) to empower you to make it at home. Sure, it's not rocket science. Maybe some of you figured out the recipe on your own. But it is our baby. And babies are meant to be shared. (What?)

This recipe is the result of over four years of continuous refinement. It balances sweet and salty from crisp grains of turbinado sugar and sea salt, with a gentle burst of heat from flecks of red chili. The blended spices emphasize floral and citrus qualities of coriander seed, warm pungency of black pepper, and the lively pine-needle fragrance of juniper berry. For best results, we recommend being kind of a psycho about it: Grind each spice individually, and to uniform size, in order to balance the release of tastes and aromas.

You'll probably choose to add an ingredient, or take one away, or grind it differently, or add more coriander. Hey, our house rub is your house rub. That's what cooking is all about. Have at it.

House Rub 01

A great rib rub isn't easy to create, but we're pretty confident with this one. A skilled pitmaster anticipates how a rub will react with the meat and smoke over hours of low-and-slow cooking in order to achieve a flavor that balances salty, sweet, savory, and spicy. Our dry-style rib rub blends the trinity of brown sugar, salt, and paprika together with traditional aromatic spices. After hours enveloped by a humid smoky haze, the rub has transformed [our ribs](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/dry-style-baby-back-ribs) into something remarkable: The meat is succulent and tender; the bark is chewy and mahogany-colored; and the flavor complements—but doesn't overwhelm—the meat.

Rib Rub

In Texas, beef barbecue is king. And many purists discourage sauce—in the central part of Texas most barbecue joints don't even put it out. The pitmasters of Eastern Texas are more permissive with the use of sauce on their 'cue, but it still ain't no gloppy red sauce. Beef barbecue, in all its succulent flavor and smoky goodness, calls for something simpler. Something that will coat and complement the meat, not mask it. 

Some of the best pitmasters dab a thin, sticky mop onto the meat as it smokes, improving the bark’s texture and deepening the color, with the added bonus of an extra flavor kick that doesn’t overwhelm the natural beef flavor. With plenty of whiskey and some extra spices, our tangy, tomato-based glaze adds deep character and a touch of sweetness to any beef barbecue.

NOTE: This recipe was designed as a mopping glaze. If you plan to serve it on the plate as a sauce—a dip for ribs, say, or a spread for sandwiches—we suggest using less whiskey. Twenty-five percent of the total amount called for here should be about right. (So, if you're following the yield below, about [g 20]). Otherwise it will taste very, very boozy. Then again, if very, very boozy is your thing, go ahead and use the full amount. We're not the boss of you.

Sweet and Sticky BBQ Glaze

Deep in the heart of South Carolina, between Columbia and Charleston, where German immigrants settled in the 18th century, there is a pocket of barbecue connoisseurs who prefer pork with yellow mustard sauce. These South Carolinians can thank their German heritage for that: Pairing pork and mustard is an age-old Bavarian tradition that has stood the test of time. 

Our Carolina Gold is sweet and tangy, with a bit of heat. We use pungent Dijon (because the French know their mustard) instead of the traditional turmeric-heavy yellow stuff. Otherwise, the recipe is simple. It's delicious on a pulled pork sandwich, or slathered over our [barbecue baby backs](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/dry-style-baby-back-ribs). Hell, it's delicious on damn near _everything_ made of pork (hot dog, anyone?), so just make a big batch and keep it on hand for your next pig feast.

Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce

Rubs & Sauces

Coleslaw dressed in mayonnaise is often a withering disappointment. Crude chunks of cabbage tend to drown in a lackluster, yellowy ooze, making for a sloppy side dish with little in the way of flavor. But with a few modifications, even mayonnaise-dressed coleslaw can easily be elevated to something special.

There's no big secret; no special ingredient or clever technique. Instead, our recipe for this classic dish is all about attention to detail. Fresh, crisp Savoy cabbage and Walla Walla sweet onion should be finely sliced (or chopped, if you wish), then lightly salted to soften. Add grated carrot and rehydrated raisins for sweetness and contrasting textures. A bit of freshly grated horseradish adds heat and pungency to complement the cabbage and onions. Last, shortly before serving, the salad is lightly dressed with brightly acidic, savory mayonnaise.

The roots of this recipe can be traced back to 18th century Dutch immigrants, in the American colony of New Amsterdam (today, New York). At the time, the inclusion of mayonnaise—a sauce that had only recently been invented—made it a modernist dish of its day. For those curious what older versions of coleslaw would have been like before the invention of an emulsified sauce like mayonnaise, look at our vinegar-based [red cabbage coleslaw](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/red-coleslaw), which has its roots in Roman times.

Creamy Coleslaw

As a mixer for bangin’ rum cocktails or a beverage that will make you say “ahh,” fresh-made cola is an easy way to impress guests at your next dinner party. This is a simple and straightforward application for your whipping siphon, but it’s no less spectacular than a cryosicle. C’mon, who makes homemade soda? It doesn’t get much cooler than that. 

Our cola flavor includes six essential oils: nutmeg, orange, lemon, cinnamon, neroli, and coriander. A bit of cherry flavor adds an extra kick of sweetness. This cola has slightly higher acid than other varieties and is richer on the palate, making for a refreshing, well-balanced thirst quencher. 

To make the cola flavoring, combine the oils with Everclear. (Fair warning: Everclear is 190 proof and may cause unfortunate lapses in judgment upon consumption.) It’s easiest to make a large amount, but you’ll use only a tiny bit of flavoring per batch of cola—and thus only a trace amount of Everclear. 

The flavoring will last indefinitely when stored properly, so you can whip up a batch any time you need a liter of cola. <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6753fb4e41/super-troopers-liter-of-cola">Even if it’s for a cop.</a>

Cherry Cola

Honey butter has slowly disappeared from store shelves over the last few decades, but mention the words “honey” and  “butter” to people over a certain age and you’ll often get smiles and wistful looks as they remember eating it as a childhood treat.

In a different era, when preserving and canning foods were more than just trendy things to do, adding honey to butter was a useful trick that would preserve butter for longer than salting alone. 

There is no shortage of recipes for honey butter, but not all are created equal. This recipe yields a rich, spreadable butter that strikes just the right balance between sweet and salty. We can’t recommend it enough as the finishing touch for our [cornbread](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/rich-and-moist-cornbread).

Honey Butter

When you make [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-beef-short-ribs Beef Short Ribs] or [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-chicken Smokerless Smoked Chicken] as mean as ours, it’s easy to see why plain ol’ potato salad is rarely the star of the barbecue show. Here, however, **we treat spuds like the leading ladies they are**, dressing them with a supporting cast of delicious condiments, eggs, and irresistible crunchy stuff.

It starts with cooking baby Yukon Gold potatoes sous vide to highlight their firm texture. From there, we use some our favorite homemade fridge items, including [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/japanese-kewpie-style-mayo Japanese (Kewpie-Style) Mayo] and a pickled trifecta of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pickled-mustard-seed mustard seeds], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pickled-onions onions], and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/dill-pickled-cucumber cucumbers]—all stuff that can be made days ahead of time.

Along with the yin and yang of creamy mayo and crisp pickled ingredients, this dish is big on texture. We amp it up even more by adding hard-boiled eggs, plus blanched celery for snappy bite. With those dense, creamy potatoes setting the stage, every ingredient adds something to the party, creating what we humbly think is the perfect side dish for barbecue.

Potato Salad

There’s nothing quite like warm, soft rolls right out of the oven, or the mouthwatering aroma of freshly baked sweet bread. This recipe was inspired by King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread, which has been a fixture of island life since the 1950s. We wanted to create a version you can make at home. After all, the deep citrus notes in sweet bread resonate especially well when it’s served fresh. Ours are deliciously supple throughout, with a tender, golden-brown crust and a distinct fresh-baked flavor that you just can’t get out of a package.

The tale of this light-textured and subtly sweet bread dates back much further than King’s and takes us to the other side of the world. Portuguese sweet bread is the prototype: yeast-risen; made from flour, milk, eggs and honey; and perfumed with a touch of lemon zest. Historically, this was an expensive bread, reserved for Catholic holidays like Christmas and Easter. So how did a festive bread from Portugal travel across two oceans to reach a Polynesian archipelago in the center of the Pacific Ocean? Supply and demand. 

Hawaiian sugar plantations had an insatiable need for fieldworkers, and in the mid-nineteenth century, Portugal’s dismal economy drove families to emigrate in search of better futures. When a fungal blight struck the vineyards of Madeira in the 1850s, the Hawaiian government was only too happy to pay for the agricultural fieldworkers to make the six-month ocean voyage in exchange for at least a year of work in the sugar fields. 

It wasn’t long before Portuguese immigrants quickly swapped honey for sugar in their traditional sweet bread. And with sugar plentiful on the islands, this bread quickly became an everyday treat. Sweet bread wasn’t the only lasting import that came with the Portuguese: they also brought the ukulele. This four-stringed instrument became just as popular as sweet bread and created the musical soundtrack synonymous with living the sweet life in paradise.

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

For a richer version of our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/buttermilk-biscuits Buttermilk Biscuits], we replaced the buttermilk with heavy cream. This decreases the hydration ratio and increases the fat, which makes for a biscuit that’s still delicate, slightly more dense, and much more moist.

We cut our biscuits into rectangles so no dough is wasted. As they bake, the biscuits grow into each other, which protects them from case-hardening: the surface won’t become hard too quickly for moisture to escape. 

If you prefer round biscuits, simply roll out the dough, skip the freezing step, and use floured round cutters to shape the biscuits.

Rich as F*¢k Biscuits

Red coleslaw is common to the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where it's better known as "slaw." In that region, sliced cabbage is lightly salted to soften it, and then dressed with cider vinegar to give the salad a fresh, mouth-watering flavor. Our version includes finely sliced sweet onion and [pickled mustard seeds](https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pickled-mustard-seed) to complement the pungency of the cabbage. Grated carrots add sweetness and balance the tart acidic dressing. And don’t leave out the celery seeds; they add a distinct aroma that completes the dish.

The slaw itself is quick and easy to prepare, but the difference between good and great is taking care to finely slice the onions and cabbage—a mandoline is an invaluable tool for this—and then serving the coleslaw after it's had time to soften, but while it still has a pleasant crunch.

Red Coleslaw

Today, most people prepare baked beans with a can opener. That’s too bad, because the savory-sweet flavor and deep reddish-brown color of Boston baked beans can be so much better than anything you’ll get out of a can. In the era before canning (a nineteenth-century invention), this dish was made by slowly simmering navy beans together with salt pork, brown sugar, and molasses.

We’ve developed our recipe for baked beans to leverage the speed of pressure-cooking without sacrificing flavor. Tomato paste and worcestershire sauce provide a potent umami taste. Brown sugar and molasses add sweetness that isn’t cloying. Cider vinegar added at the end balances the flavor profile.

It’s important not to add vinegar until the end so as to maintain the mixture’s pH balance throughout the cooking process. Because tomato paste is slightly acidic, we add a bit of baking soda at the beginning to elevate the pH and thus accelerate the Maillard reaction, which is responsible for baked beans’ deep flavor and color. This is what allows us to churn out perfect baked beans in less than an hour. Adding vinegar during the cooking step would lower the pH and hinder the process. So when the beans are done, add the cider vinegar to complete the classic tangy, sweet-and-savory taste of baked beans.

Baked Beans

What do we love the most about cornbread? That lovely, golden-brown exterior combined with the **crumbly-yet-still-moist interior**? The little puff of steam that escapes when you break a piece apart? The gentle sweetness of the corn? It’s too tough to call, really, so this recipe amplifies all of those qualities to create something extraordinary and ready to be slathered with butter. 

Cornbread can be broken into northern and southern styles; southern-style is a lovely thing in its own right—savory, with a moist crumb and crispy crust—while ours is an almost brownielike riff on the sweeter northern style. To make it, we rely on a clever selection of ingredients. The keys are frozen corn (because freezing corn as soon as it’s picked keeps its sugars from converting into starches), cream for moisture, and isomalt, a sugar alcohol that’s not too sweet. Grandma might wrinkle her nose at that last one, but it keeps the cornbread incredibly tender.

We also use tiny loaf pans, which, along with being incredibly cute, create more surface area, allowing for more contrast between the exterior and interior in every bite. (Cupcake tins will work well too.) Finally, we use a thermometer to check the cornbread’s internal temperature at the end of baking. If Grandma wrinkles her nose at that, just tell her it’s a twenty-first-century cake tester. Then ask her to quit hogging the butter.

Rich and Moist Cornbread

Everything Else

Barbecue Discussion

More Resources

Everyone loves good barbecue. Slowly cooking tough cuts of meat for long periods of time in dry, smoky environments creates tender, succulent meat and some of the most robust and earthy flavors around. But unless you’re a pro, making good smoked meats at home can leave you feeling a little like Goldilocks struggling to find that *just right* result.

Traditional barbecue at home requires a significant commitment of time and space to build that perfect smoky environment and hover around, tending to the fire and checking on the meat. A lot can go wrong in the 12 to 24 hours it takes to make really great barbecued meats. Instead of trying to get the perfect interior and exterior texture and max flavor all in one (very) long step, we dismantled the process to perfect each aspect of delicious barbecue. 

We begin by building flavor with a dry cure. This seasons the meat and slowly transforms into a pseudo-brine as the meat cooks, contributing to the final texture as well. 

If low and slow is great for barbecue, wait until you try sous vide—it’s really low and really slow. Cooking tough cuts to precision with sous vide unlocks the collagen and gelatin goodness that makes traditional barbecue succulent and tender.

For the perfect exterior texture (the beloved “bark” of barbecue), we layer a flavorful dry rub and a spritz of a magical grilling elixir before finishing the meat on the grill. The liquid elixir hydrates the cure, helping it to caramelize and speed up the transformation into a crispy crust. This maximizes the short time spent on the grill, ensuring the meat stays tender and juicy. 

We even found a way to achieve that pink smoke ring—the hallmark of truly good barbecue—without hours and hours in a smoker. 

This is Modernist BBQ.

The Ultimate Guide to Modernist BBQ

The perfect barbecue pork shoulder—succulent, shreddable meat; dark, glassy crust; a smoky flavor; and that hallmark pink smoke ring—is achieved by hours and hours of low and slow cooking with lots of woodsmoke. 

Though it’s a fun and flavorful project, traditional smoked barbecue can be challenging to do at home. It requires a lot of active time and attention to tend the coals and the woodsmoke. And it’s not as easy as it looks to find that sweet smoke spot where you infuse the right amount of flavor—it’s often too smoky or not smoky enough. 

So we turned our attention from the smoker to sous vide, experimenting with making great [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/amazing-ribs-with-meathead-part-ii-exploring-indoor-barbecue barbecue indoors]. First we developed this [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-pork-shoulder smokerless smoked pork shoulder]. This recipe begins with a 24-hour submerged brine. We love brining, but we know it can be challenging to give up that much space in your refrigerator. 

Using our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-tough-cuts-grilling Modernist BBQ] method, we replace the long brine with a dry cure. This infuses the meat with flavor and transforms into a pseudo-brine as moisture is drawn out of the meat—this hydrates the cure, helping to disperse all that flavor around the meat as it cooks. 

Cooking low and slow with sous vide allows the collagen and connective tissue to break down, transforming this tough cut into meat that’s tender and juicy. We build more layers of flavor and texture with a dry rub and finish the pork on the grill for an extra hit of smoke and a crispy crust. 

And yes, we’ve even found a way to achieve that telltale pink smoke ring—without smoke. 

Get your [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/slider-buns slider buns] and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/slider-buns coleslaw] ready, and let’s make some modernist pulled pork.

The Ultimate Modernist BBQ Pork Shoulder

Extras

We’ve tackled Texas-style barbecue brisket before. We’ve developed two indoor recipes that get you as close as you can get to the real thing without a smoker, using both [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-brisket sous vide] and a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oven-barbecue-brisket low-temperature oven]. But we’ve never done the real deal smoked brisket—until now.

To get it right, we turned to pro pitmaster Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ, who honed his craft for years at some of the top barbecue spots in Central Texas. Joe lives, breathes, and dreams about barbecue. He walked us through every detailed step of the brisket process: [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-brisket-timeline how to plan the cook], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-trim-brisket-bbq how to trim brisket], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-wrap-bbq-brisket how to wrap it], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-slice-bbq-brisket how to slice it]. And, of course, how to smoke the dang thing!

Best of all? He showed us how to make pro-level brisket with a regular old charcoal grill. No offset smoker required. This is the best brisket you’ll ever have. We guarantee it.

Ultimate Texas-Style Barbecue Brisket

[link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket Smoking a Texas-style brisket] takes time—a lot of time—and patience.

Transforming the oddly shaped cut of meat with two distinct muscle groups and tons of connective tissue and intramuscular fat so that it can be cleanly sliced, with each slice consisting of tender, juicy meat surrounded by a distinct ring of bark, is a careful balancing act of time, temperature, and moisture levels. 

And even when you’ve accomplished that perfectly, serving it to your family and friends at a reasonable hour requires serious scheduling skills. There’s no point in making the perfect brisket if you make everyone wait around until 11 p.m. to eat it!

Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ helped us create this smoked brisket timeline to give you all the information you need to know to serve your perfectly smoked brisket at its peak, at whatever time works for you.

Plotting the Barbecue Brisket Timeline

Trimming a brisket properly is the first step in making a great [link ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket barbecue brisket]. 

Trimming helps the brisket cook more evenly, producing even bark formation; golden, rendered fat; and juicy meat. The goal for barbecue pros is to produce a smoked brisket that’s cooked in a way that every single slice will satisfy discerning paying customers.

So, if you want to serve competition-worthy brisket, start by trimming your brisket like a pro.

How to Trim Brisket Like a Pro

Wrapping is one of the key techniques for making great barbecue brisket. 

The wrap can be used for two purposes: to help rest a finished brisket or to help finish cooking a brisket that needs a little help getting to the “memory foam” tenderness we’re looking for in the flat before pulling it off the smoker to rest.

For resting, the wrap ensures that every part of the oddly shaped cut of meat cools at a similar rate, so all those hours you spent smoking the brisket don’t go to waste. As a cooking finishing move, the wrap allows you to [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-brisket-timeline bump up the temperature of the smoker in the final stages of tenderization] without drying it out or burning the bark.

We asked pitmaster Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to demonstrate three techniques: two butcher paper methods—a beginner and a pro-level wrap—and a new-school “foil boat” method.

How to Wrap Barbecue Brisket Like a Pro

Once you’ve [link how-to-trim-brisket-bbq trimmed], seasoned, smoked, [link how-to-wrap-bbq-brisket wrapped], and rested your [link ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket barbecue brisket], it’s time to slice it.

Just like every other technique associated with producing Texas-style barbecue brisket, the method for slicing it up is tailor-made to the preparation, designed to minimize waste and ensure that every slice that comes off the brisket has structural integrity and is surrounded by a continuous layer of undamaged bark.

We asked Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to show us how it’s done. Grab your serrated bread knife and your perfectly cooked brisket, and let’s get into it.

How to Slice Barbecue Brisket Like a Pro

There comes a moment in every meat lover’s life when it’s time to push the barbecue skills to the next level. Maybe you’ve mastered your smoker but you’re looking for a way to save time without sacrificing flavor or texture. Maybe you’ve only just invested in a smoker and need inspiration for how to work with it. Or maybe you’re a total barbecue beginner—a wide-eyed neophyte who has only dreamed of unwrapping a rack of ribs and pondering the possibilities. Wherever you are, you’re about to go further. Because here at ChefSteps, we are unabashedly obsessed with all things barbecue—and stoked to share what we know. Our founders scoured the country to study regional styles, bringing the best tips, techniques, recipes, and religious experiences back to ChefSteps. And don’t think you need a smoker to get going. Our Apartment Ribs—an excellent starter technique—offer an opportunity to cook up a smoky rack in even the tiniest of urban kitchenettes. How do we do it? The same way we do everything—by understanding the science behind the smoke. Get started by exploring the 20+ recipes we’ve assembled here. From meats, to sauces, to sides, to sodas, they’ll take your backyard parties to a whole other level. And for the meat nerds among us, get ready to go deeper: We provide detailed directions for controlling your smoker. We’ll show you how to select the best wood for the job. We’ll debunk common myths and offer clever tricks for barbecue success. (Hint: Ice is involved in one of them.) We’ll advocate combining sous vide cooking with smoking and describe how it can save you hours of time while yielding consistently killer results. (Heretical? Definitely. Try it, however, and we’re convinced you’ll become a convert.) We’ll tell you what to read, where to eat, and how to learn even more—all to add to an ever-growing legion of bonafide barbecue freaks with a serious passion for smoked meat. As always, feel free to ask questions in the discussion section. As you may have noticed, it doesn’t take much to get us talking barbecue.

Cook smarter with ChefSteps classes.

Buy this class à la carte or unlock access to all classes with a Studio Pass subscription.

Already a Studio Pass member? Sign in