Since visiting Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas back in April I've been trying to figure out how to make something that resembles barbecue at home. A Meat-Smoking Manifesto by Aaron Franklin and Jordan McKay gave a lot of insight into what it takes to make the world class, if not the best in the world, barbecue at Franklin Barbecue. But, living in an apartment has its challenges when it comes to smoking meat. As in, actually smoking meat in a smoker is a no-go.
The obvious method is to substitute the smoker with an oven, but there are other ways to both increase the precision and tune the end result. I've tried a number of alternative techniques, and a couple of cheats, to come up with a couple of methods that provide a reasonable substitute and can be used to cook "barbecue" dishes at home. The fastest and easiest of these is to use a pressure cooker to break down classic barbecue cuts from beef until it just holds itself together and then finish it with a barbecue glaze and flame torch to really bring in the smoke and some charred flavors.
This allows cheap cuts of meat to effectively work as a hybrid of steak and barbecue for plated dishes. One of our favorites is to pair chuck eye or short rib with potato puree, chimichurri, hot barbecue sauce and some fried onion (full recipe on nevergrowupmag.com). This combination provides a not so subtle combination of heat and sting from the sauces to contrast and complement the rich meat and potatoes.
I’ve used different ways to cook the meat for the mentioned recipe but what I usually end up doing is to bring out the trusted pressure cooker. The benefit is that it takes around one and a half hours from start to finish during which time the rest of the dish can be completed. I choose to use a mixture of ale and water in the pressure cooker, mostly so that I have to buy some nice beer I can finish while doing the rest but I pretend it brings more complexity to the meat as well. The liquid smoke, sugar and vinegar in the glaze is really important to give the meat the right character and slightly caramelized surface.
Enjoy,
/Anders
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