What are you Smoking (BBQ)?

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
I made some Char Siu tonight. I normally cook it indirect on my Weber kettle with some sugar maple wood for smoke. This time I went direct to give it a nice char, no smoke. Also tweaked my marinade recipe, substituting candied ginger slices for grated, and agave syrup for the honey. Big improvement, imo.

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
my char siu sauce recipe involves 3 main things
-fermented red bean curd
-shaoxing wine
-5 spice

my five spice
is predominantly crushed white peppercorn and sichaun peppercorn,
with hints of anise, cloves, black pepper

Variations then will be:
dark soy
honey
rice vinegar

or
a more cornstarch base which would be
simple syrup,
cornstarch
soy sauce

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
my char siu sauce recipe involves 3 main things
-fermented red bean curd
-shaoxing wine
-5 spice

my five spice
is predominantly crushed white peppercorn and sichaun peppercorn,
with hints of anise, cloves, black pepper

Variations then will be:
dark soy
honey
rice vinegar

or
a more cornstarch base which would be
simple syrup,
cornstarch
soy sauce

have used red bean curd in the past to get the color (vs. red food dye some recipes call for which I have generally just left out)

Like the home-made 5-spice approach. I have tended to omit because store bought versions can have too much concentration of anise and cloves

For my marinade, I have generally used rice wine vinegar, ketchup (yup, ketchup), hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, honey and cane (or brown) sugar with white and black pepper (occasionally five spice)

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
my char siu sauce recipe involves 3 main things
-fermented red bean curd
-shaoxing wine
-5 spice

my five spice
is predominantly crushed white peppercorn and sichaun peppercorn,
with hints of anise, cloves, black pepper

Variations then will be:
dark soy
honey
rice vinegar

or
a more cornstarch base which would be
simple syrup,
cornstarch
soy sauce

have used red bean curd in the past to get the color (vs. red food dye some recipes call for which I have generally just left out)

Like the home-made 5-spice approach. I have tended to omit because store bought versions can have too much concentration of anise and cloves

For my marinade, I have generally used rice wine vinegar, ketchup (yup, ketchup), hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, honey and cane (or brown) sugar with white and black pepper (occasionally five spice)

let's just throw the kitchen sink at your pork!! =)

haha seriously if you're going to mix it up like that, i'd say save the trouble and just add some MSG and tomato paste!!!!

Crushed white peppercorn, in my opinion, is one of the best spices for pork. It's just awesome. like beef and back pepper, pork and white pepper.

Hoisin though is weird because you get all of the ingredients (minux maybe teh sweet potato starch) from the ingreident list you have.

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
I made some Char Siu tonight. I normally cook it indirect on my Weber kettle with some sugar maple wood for smoke. This time I went direct to give it a nice char, no smoke. Also tweaked my marinade recipe, substituting candied ginger slices for grated, and agave syrup for the honey. Big improvement, imo.

do you use Chinese five spice in your marinade?

Would be curious to get that recipe. I love making Char Siu and have experimented with a few different recipes in the past

I use very little five spice in mine. To me, a little goes a long way, and when I'm walking through our Chinatown district, I can smell the five spice out on the streets.

This may be a "kitchen sink" approach, but it comes the closest to the best I've had in a local Chinese restaurant known for their bbq.

Char Siu

1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. Yoshida's Gourmet sauce
1/2 c. mirin
1/2 c. Hoisin sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
4 T. maltose
1 T. agave syrup or honey
1 t. minced garlic
3-4 slices of candied ginger
1/8-1/2 t. Five Spice powder (depends on your taste)
1/2 t. sesame oil
1 t. red food coloring (I like it RED) but this is optional
1/2 pork loin, sliced into long 2-1/2" x 2-1/2 strips, or 4-6 pork tenderloin.

Recipe updated 5-28-16

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan till maltose dissolves. (You will need to heat it just to get the maltose off your spoon. It is insanely thick and sticky, almost like a malleable plastic, but don't substitute anything for it. It is the glue that adheres the sauce to the meat.)
If using pork loin, make sure to remove all silverskin from the meat. I remove the fat also, but that is a personal preference.
Cool, and pour over meat in large ziploc bag. Let rest in refrigerator overnight, or up to 3-4 days.
Makes about 2-1/4 cups.

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
I made some Char Siu tonight. I normally cook it indirect on my Weber kettle with some sugar maple wood for smoke. This time I went direct to give it a nice char, no smoke. Also tweaked my marinade recipe, substituting candied ginger slices for grated, and agave syrup for the honey. Big improvement, imo.

do you use Chinese five spice in your marinade?

Would be curious to get that recipe. I love making Char Siu and have experimented with a few different recipes in the past

I use very little five spice in mine. To me, a little goes a long way, and when I'm walking through our Chinatown district, I can smell the five spice out on the streets.

This may be a "kitchen sink" approach, but it comes the closest to the best I've had in a local Chinese restaurant known for their bbq.

Char Siu

1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. Yoshida's Gourmet sauce
1/2 c. mirin
1/2 c. Hoisin sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
4 T. maltose
1 T. agave syrup or honey
1 t. minced garlic
3-4 slices of candied ginger
1/8-1/2 t. Five Spice powder (depends on your taste)
1/2 t. sesame oil
1 t. red food coloring (I like it RED) but this is optional
1/2 pork loin, sliced into long 2-1/2" x 2-1/2 strips, or 4-6 pork tenderloin.

Recipe updated 5-28-16

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan till maltose dissolves. (You will need to heat it just to get the maltose off your spoon. It is insanely thick and sticky, almost like a malleable plastic, but don't substitute anything for it. It is the glue that adheres the sauce to the meat.)
If using pork loin, make sure to remove all silverskin from the meat. I remove the fat also, but that is a personal preference.
Cool, and pour over meat in large ziploc bag. Let rest in refrigerator overnight, or up to 3-4 days.
Makes about 2-1/4 cups.

Thanks . . . this is going to be dinner next Friday. Will report back.

Now just need to procure some maltose. Do you have any experience substituting corn syrup for the maltose?

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:
Maltose is a little different than corn syrup . . .

Maltose sugar is (wait for it) maltose. Corn syrup is fructose. But, your point is a good one. I think you could use corn syrup and decrease sugar in other components of the recipe because fructose is sweeter than maltose.

Molasses could work but would change the flavor profile of the sauce

anyway, I'm going to go the corn-syrup route and reduce brown sugar to 1/3 cup (totally random decrease but want to preserve the amount of corn syrup at original maltose amount for consistency purposes)

quote:

Originally posted by mneeley490:
It's certainly up to you what you put in it, but imo, the maltose is one of the principle ingredients in the dish. It is much, much thicker than honey, corn syrup, or molasses. It has the look and consistency of fiberglass resin; hard to believe it is edible at all, but I have had the best results using it.