butter during foiling?


 
T

Troy B

New member
Hello,

during a recent BBQ Pitmasters, Johnny Trigg said that squeezable butter was the greatest invention since sliced bread. (or something like that) He was using a yellow commercial bottle to squirt butter/margarine onto his ribs just before foiling them during his cooking process.

I went to our best grocery store for variety and all I could find was squeezable "I can't beleive its not..." which is 55% vegetable oil. If I tried Triggs method, does anyone here feel that true butter is necessary or that a margarine-like substance might cause issues during foiling?

Thanks for the ongoing advice.

Troy
 
I've been watching that show as well.

That stuff in the blue (and yellow )bottle is just Parkay Squeeze Margarine. The big guy, Moe Cason ----he used real butter on his ribs during the foiling process along with Coca Cola.

Using real butter seems unnecessary to me, as you're just trying to put some type of fat and flavor onto your ribs along with some steaming agent. Squeeze Margarine seems to be what Johnny Trigg and the rest are using.

Competition barbecue is ridiculous. It changes all the time. I remember when people made fun of you if you used foil on anything but brisket. Now foil is a given on anything but maybe shoulder.
 
Watching the show, and seeing folks at competitions, it seems like most cooks who use butter/margarine in their cooking use margerine. If you notice, Myron uses margarine for his chicken.

I've adopted a version of Myron's chicken cooking style and I used real butter. I don't feel like it adds anything to the cook, honestly. I prefer to just straight-up grill them. But maybe that's because I'm using butter and not margarine. ???

I think it's probably a degree of "whatever floats your boat," but then again Johnny Trigg places awfully high in ribs in most of his contests.
 
Yeah, as always, it comes down to.. just try it and see what you like. So far, I am enjoying the show and it is easy to adapt differnet techniques.
 
I'm enjoying the show. Part of the fun is trying to figure out which techniques or steps they do simply because of the limitations and demands of competition, and which they would do if they were cooking for themselves. I'm pretty sure that, in one of the episodes, I heard Johnny Trigg say that he doesn't particularly like his competition ribs, that he would cook them differently if he were cooking them for himself, and that he does it the way he does at competitions because that's what the judges want.
 
Typically, you would use squeeze margarine, honey and brown sugar when foiling.
I've tried squeeze margarine and Splenda, it works well. It does change the taste of the ribs, so I don't use it all the time.

Try it and see how you like it.

Bob
 
Troy,

My answer to you is; it depends. If you're competing, then you might try the margarine trick as it is implied that it delivers positive results. Judges at comps look for different flavor profiles than you or I may like. In comps it's about winning; not necessarily what tastes good to you.

If this is for personal consumption, then IMO, I would avoid both margarine and butter. Margarine is somewhat of a nasty product and I don't see the need or benefit to introduce more fat to a product that has plenty of fat in it.

Paul
 
Ive got 3 racks of st louis spares setup for tomorrow. I usally cut them in half for ease of handling and ease of foiling them.

I will actually be scientific and do some with and some without. Just need to somehow know which are which at the end of the cook.

Sometimes the fun is in the experimenting.
 
FWIW, we use I Can't Believe....Butter on our ribs for comps, I personally like the taste better than Parkay. But that's just me.......
 
Originally posted by Bob Mann:
Typically, you would use squeeze margarine, honey and brown sugar when foiling.
I've tried squeeze margarine and Splenda, it works well. It does change the taste of the ribs, so I don't use it all the time.

Try it and see how you like it.

Bob, does Splenda have a different taste than regular or brown sugar? how much do you use on spares and babybacks?

Bob
Click to expand...
 
Being on the judging end of things and not having cooked with margarine, I'm not sure what margarine/butter in the foil is supposed to achieve that a little brown sugar and apple juice alone doesn't.

I do know that we judges look to be wowed with one-bite. That often doesn't translate well to what you would cook at home.
 
Originally posted by Chris C:
Bob, does Splenda have a different taste than regular or brown sugar? how much do you use on spares and babybacks?
Click to expand...
To me, it tastes the same, it does not caramelize the same though.

My pork rib rub is:
8 parts Splenda
2 parts paprika
2 parts chile powder
1 part salt
1 part black pepper
1 part garlic powder
1 part onion powder
1 part mustard powder (optional)

Bob
 
Originally posted by Paul K:
Troy,

In comps it's about winning; not necessarily what tastes good to you.

Paul
Click to expand...

Makes you wonder what the point is. You have to turn in food that tastes good to someone else, how exactly do you do that?
 
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