FoodSaver

I am a HUGE fan of FoodSaver systems.

It's a great way to deal with left-overs, but even better for the family chef.  Buy in bulk, season, rub, marinade, etc divide up your meats and cheeses and vacuum seal them in bags, jars, canisters, marinade, etc.

You can prep your foods, freeze, and use them later.  The marinades and rubs will set into the food during freezing and defrosting and are ready to go when you are.  You can even cook some foods in the vacuum bags in a crock pot or by boiling before opening them.

I go to Sam's Club and buy my meats in bulk, season or marinade or just portion them out, seal them and freeze and they last over a year, thaw in minutes or overnight, and taste as fresh as when they were bought at the store.

Smoke, grill, cook your foods, and THEN vacuum seal them for that fresh taste months later.  Just like Store-Bought, except you know what''s in it, and where its been.  Nothing better for someone on a strict diet.

Some models have a Marinade setting, when used with one of their marinade containers it will draw the air out, make the meat expand, taking on extra marinade, upon releasing it, it shrinks back down, trapping the liquid inside, then cycle again.  In 15 minutes you have something marinated better than overnight in a dish.  Run it twice, and you're sure to have a well marinaded meat.

Vegetables, cheeses, meats, herbs and spices, everything stores longer and fresher when using a vacuum system.

Wine Marinade

First of all, mix up my Basic Marinade.

Then, for beef, add 2 oz of Red Wine.

For Poultry, Pork, and Fish, add 2 oz of White Wine.

Pour into container and marinate overnight, unless you have a vacuum marinading system (which I highly recommend, within 15-30 minutes you can have a deep marinade and start grilling.)

Basic Marinade

This marinade is great for beef, pork, and poultry as a stand-alone marinade or a base (add more ingredients at your desire.)

1/2 cup Mike's Smokey Sweet BBQ Sauce (mix with or substitute with Mike's Hellfire for more heat.)
1/2 cup apple juice (best), or water (Ok)
1 tblsp Beef Base (I use Tone's brand, it looks like axle grease, but is made from beef and gluten free.)
2 tblsp Brown Sugar
1 tblsp course Black Pepper
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Salt (optional)

Mix well, warm enough on low temperature to dissolve the brown sugar.
Pour into container and marinate overnight, unless you have a vacuum marinading system (which I highly recommend, within 15-30 minutes you can have a deep marinade and start grilling.)

Bourbon Marinade

I've found that Mike's BBQ Sauce can help make a pretty wicked marinade.  It's a great way to get flavor and smoke on meats that will go on the gas grill, crock pot or oven.  Only YOU will know you didn't smoke it on a wood fired grill! ;)

I've found a bit of bourbon in a marinade or sauce goes very well with beef.  From burgers to tenderloins.  I even have a recipe for a bourbon sauce that I make from time to time to sell that can be used as a marinade itself or a sauce, although it's a bit thinner than my regular sauces.

Or you can marinade with this variation:

1/2 cup Mike's Smokey Sweet BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup water
1 oz shot of Bourbon
1 tblsp course Black Pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt (optional)

Mix well, pour into container and marinate overnight, unless you have a vacuum marinading system (which I highly recommend, within 15-30 minutes you can have a deep marinade and start grilling.)

I often make variations, substitution and changes to recipes.  One variation is to mix Mike's Smokey Sweet BBQ sauce with Mike's Hellfire sauce, percentages vary depending on your taste and how hot you like it, from 1% to 100%.

Contact Me

Just updated the site with a contact form so you can email me questions or order for BBQ sauce.

--Mike

ChefTap

To all of you Foodie’s out there, how do you keep track of your recipes?  Old food splattered books on a shelf, index cards and boxes, junk drawer full of papers and clippings, Instagram, Google, etc?

A couple of years ago I discovered a wonderful app that is available to you on Android, iOS, and from any web browser, so if you like cooking with your phone or tablet or laptop, they have you covered.  You can compose and enter your recipes from any device, upload multiple photos, create the most complex recipes like how to make the sauce, entrée and other components.

But WAIT!  There’s more!  ChefTap was actually designed to gather recipes.  As in, you give it the URL to the recipe you just found on cooking.com and it goes after it, strips away all the ads other nonsense, grabs a photo, ingredients, and instructions and loads it all into your library, along with a link back to where you found it.  I’ve found that it works great just about anywhere, but just in case you can review and correct any errors the program made, like omissions or additions of other commentary.  I’ve never had to do that though.

This amazing gem is created and supported by two people.  Kate and Shawn, both programmers, and foodies with a passion for both and supporting ChefTap.  I’ve contacted them a couple of times and always got almost immediate response back, we’ve even carried on a few lengthy email exchanges.  They listen to the users and go above and beyond to help them, like recently when I was having a minor problem and thought I could just delete all my recipes and force them to sync back in… and I lost everything.  Despite it being “after hours” on a Friday night, Shawn jumped in the server and recovered everything I’d just deleted.

By the way, did I mention this app would also make up and help you manage your shopping lists?  YUP!  Finally you can tag your recipes, compile a list of ingredients and take your phone to the store to get what you need.  I haven’t used it but once, but it looks to be very powerful and helpful.  It even helps you inventory and manage those “staple items” that you should have a running stock of, like flour, sugar, salt, etc.

I know you’re wondering by now how much this life-saving app will cost you.  Any tool worth having is worth paying a fair price for, and this one is no different, except you can get totally free version with some limitations.  All in all it’s still a fantastic app, even as a free version.  However, for the low, LOW price of $19.95 a year you will be supporting a great app and pair of people and have no limitations and that awesome priority support I mentioned.

Go on over to http://ChefTap.Com and look around their website at what all you can do, they even have videos to show you how the app works.

Keep on Grillin’ and Chillin!

--Mike

I'm Lovin It!

(I call it the MikeRib Sandwich)

So, I created this gem about 4 years ago after discovering I could make a rack of ribs that I could extract the bones from after cooking without the whole rack falling apart. This treat will feed several people, is great on "Game Day" or "Just Because."  It will take some time to prepare though so start early.  The center point in this is putting a whole rack of ribs in a sandwich using an entire French Loaf.  The toppings I show are just a few of many you can have fun with.  As long as the ribs and bread are right, the rest should just fall into place.

For the ribs, carefully prepare a rack of St Louis style ribs.  If at all possible get ribs marked as "Extra Meaty."  Peel off the membrane in the bony inside, very important!  Season them how you like.  I like to use either mustard or a Carolina style (mustard) BBQ sauce to lightly coat the ribs to create a "glue" for the rub, then add in your usualy seasonings such as salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, etc.  Wrap and chill them for a few hours to let the seasonings get it.

Grill or smoke the rack over low temps, like 250-275 over INDIRECT heat, such as from an offset smoker.  Watch the meat begin to recede from the ends of the bones and get tender, but NOT so tender the rack falls apart when you lift or move it.  This is the tricky part.  The shorter rib bones on the ends might start coming out on their own when moved, but the meat should still be firm for the most part.

Carefully take them off the grill and lay them out on a cutting board, meaty side down.  Using a small but sharp knife (like a paring knife) slice down the middle of the bones and gently pull them out of the meat, trying not to tear or break apart the rack.  This is where having extra meaty ribs pays off.

Once all the bones and cartilage are are removed, trim up the sides and ends so they won't extend too far over the width of the French bread, and removing any remaining bits of bone or cartilage.

Toast the French bread in your oven (Or on your grill!) with a light coating of butter.  Then add whatever dressings you want to use on the bread, such as Mayonaise, Miracle Whip, Mustard, BBQ Sauce, etc.  Also brush on a light coat of BBQ sauce directly on the ribs as well.

Begin building your sandwich to taste, a little lettuce...

Tomato...

Onion...

However you like it, there is no right or wrong!  Put it all together, cut into manageable pieces and enjoy immediately!