jwtseng
is one Smokin' Farker
Thanks to daninnewjersey and ShadowDriver for opening my eyes up to South African braai a few months back...
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230704
Wonderful photos and a delicious-reading ingredients list left my mouth watering. I actually made up a batch of this "braai sout" back in May and sort of forgot about it through a busy June/July. But with the Shortrib Master TD going on, I figured it was high time to eschew the standard SPOG treatment and bring out the BRAAI!
Here's what I started out with from my local Safeway...
It was a nice rack. I feel bad because the first rack the butcher presented to me took about 10 minutes to appear. As soon as I saw it, I knew why. He had completely trimmed off all the visible fat...down to the bone in one spot. My disappointment was obvious, and he offered to bring me the above untrimmed rack.
Next I doused it in Worcestershire and packed the braai salt on...
Man the stuff smells good, but it was also making my nose itch and eyes water a bit because of the chiles in it.
I was cooking some other stuff that day, but I knew these shortribs were going to be the first on and the last off the pit. My goal was to take my time and let all that fat render off as slowly as possible and really meld with the braai salt. Here's a shot of everybody on the pit...
I spritzed with pickle juice every 45 minutes or so to keep the surface moist and to encourage adhesion of the little smoke particles in the air. And after about 4 hours it looked like it was ready to wrap and finish rendering. Here's the package after 4 hours of wrapping. Even without peeking inside, it's obvious how much fat has rendered out of the ribs and soaked through this double butcher paper wrap...
Opening the package up, the exotic smell of the braai sout hit me instantly and I knew this was something special. Completely married with the rendered fat now, the noxious bite of the chiles was gone and transformed into a wholly different scent. My mind was already thinking about what next to try this seasoning on!
The whole slab of meat quivered like jello. I pulled out the electric knife to cut it because I knew a regular knife would just shred it....so tender! Here's the obligatory cut shot to see the fat rendered out and the smoke ring yada yada...
But this is what I'd really been waiting to do for the entire preceding 8 hours...
Boy this braai sout did not disappoint on these shortribs...It's spicy, but not in the burn the barn down kind of way. I'd say it's more of a "fruity" kind of spice, but not so in your face as Jamaican jerk seasoning, which also has sort of a fruity heat in my mind. The braai sout is a bit of a pain to make with the blending and dehydrating and then grinding...but I'd say make a big batch every once in a while and enjoy it. Big thumbs up from me!
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230704
Wonderful photos and a delicious-reading ingredients list left my mouth watering. I actually made up a batch of this "braai sout" back in May and sort of forgot about it through a busy June/July. But with the Shortrib Master TD going on, I figured it was high time to eschew the standard SPOG treatment and bring out the BRAAI!
Here's what I started out with from my local Safeway...
It was a nice rack. I feel bad because the first rack the butcher presented to me took about 10 minutes to appear. As soon as I saw it, I knew why. He had completely trimmed off all the visible fat...down to the bone in one spot. My disappointment was obvious, and he offered to bring me the above untrimmed rack.
Next I doused it in Worcestershire and packed the braai salt on...
Man the stuff smells good, but it was also making my nose itch and eyes water a bit because of the chiles in it.
I was cooking some other stuff that day, but I knew these shortribs were going to be the first on and the last off the pit. My goal was to take my time and let all that fat render off as slowly as possible and really meld with the braai salt. Here's a shot of everybody on the pit...
I spritzed with pickle juice every 45 minutes or so to keep the surface moist and to encourage adhesion of the little smoke particles in the air. And after about 4 hours it looked like it was ready to wrap and finish rendering. Here's the package after 4 hours of wrapping. Even without peeking inside, it's obvious how much fat has rendered out of the ribs and soaked through this double butcher paper wrap...
Opening the package up, the exotic smell of the braai sout hit me instantly and I knew this was something special. Completely married with the rendered fat now, the noxious bite of the chiles was gone and transformed into a wholly different scent. My mind was already thinking about what next to try this seasoning on!
The whole slab of meat quivered like jello. I pulled out the electric knife to cut it because I knew a regular knife would just shred it....so tender! Here's the obligatory cut shot to see the fat rendered out and the smoke ring yada yada...
But this is what I'd really been waiting to do for the entire preceding 8 hours...
Boy this braai sout did not disappoint on these shortribs...It's spicy, but not in the burn the barn down kind of way. I'd say it's more of a "fruity" kind of spice, but not so in your face as Jamaican jerk seasoning, which also has sort of a fruity heat in my mind. The braai sout is a bit of a pain to make with the blending and dehydrating and then grinding...but I'd say make a big batch every once in a while and enjoy it. Big thumbs up from me!
