a song of smoke and fire: james beard award-winning texas barbecue boss aaron franklin talks steak - the best charcoal bbq

Song of smoke and fire: James Beard Award
The winning Texas BBQ owner, Alan Franklin, has a deep belief in what delicious meat is and how to use fire properly to prepare meat, and he turns his attention to topics that every omnivore can appreciate
Franklin traced the quality of the steak back to the varieties and feeding methods of steer cattle;
Temperament is the gentleness he insists on, and then he and his colleagues
By Jordan McKay
All the pros and cons of every conceivable cut.
His favorite grill is a vintage device called PK Grill, which he specializes in for "Franklin steak: Dry-aged Live-
Send pure beef to step-by-
Instructions for welding your own super robot
Charged steak cooker for "mixed hibaachi.
Franklin stopped at the salon studio to talk about his new book.
Watch our "salon talk" episode here or read the conversation below.
This transcript has been edited a little for clarity and length.
I thought I knew a lot about meat, but I didn't. I don't either.
It was written by Jordan. [laughs]
You told him very clearly because there are so many things here.
You go from what a good cow is, to how to plant a good cow, and then you take the cow apart for us and tell us how to cook it.
There are so many details here that you think you will know everything because it's just fire and meat.
Yes, at the end of the day it's still like hot and meat.
It's salt and pepper.
Same as the Texas barbecue in central Czech Republic.
It's salt, pepper, fire, and meat, but you can make anything complicated as you like.
You season the steak four hours before cooking, right, depending on the type of steak.
Actually, I kind of like 30-
Hour range, somewhere there, but, yes, I mean these things can become nerds like you think.
If you delve into where a cow comes from, what it eats, it has growth hormone, or it eats peas, or is eating four --
If you marinate something with your child's tears or unicorn's blood, or something else, close the leaves.
You can dive as much as you like, and that's what we learned in the book.
Let's study all kinds of cattle in depth.
You spend quite a bit of time on Wagyu, and I want to talk about what Wagyu is, not what.
From Japan, there is a cool history.
It is difficult for these administrators to come to the United States.
There are some paperwork and one of them will slip away and they will split into different varieties.
Really, it's kind of like something that makes people think of heavy marble patterns.
In fact, it is not one of my favorite varieties.
The fat content is great, the acid content inside is high, it is easy to melt and the taste is good, but I think they lack beekeeping like Angus or some older cattle.
Many people talk about things like cows.
At the end of the day, you do what you have.
What is your preference? I'm a huge fan of Angus.
That's what we used at Franklin's barbecue.
What we do there is the top Angus, really, in America, that's what everyone is used.
At the age of 80, there was certified Angus, something like marketing promotion, but, really, I think for a quality animal that can properly develop fat, I went with Angus. the muscles are very good and strong.
They are easy to buy and not expensive.
There are a few other things like Akaushi and the Wagyu stuff the steak River Farm says, but, yes, I think Angus is normal.
Most people eat steak when they eat 18-month-
Less old.
Usually 18 months is standard, and it changes a lot.
If you go to a butcher's shop, you go to a nice pants shop, like, oh, this is from this farm, I know this farmer.
The name of the cow is Bertha. She was great.
She is very temperamental.
This will be the best steak you 've ever had, or maybe a non-breed steak
A piece of meat on a foam platter in the supermarket.
In this book you talk about the best steering steak you will find is from a Spanish cow, I think oldOh, 22, or something crazy. Jordan, the co-
The author of this book, we also wrote the first book together. one of his best life experiences was hanging out on the edge of a mountain in Spain, and a cow, this guy slaughter a cow every week, a month or anywhere else, but they are old cows and just eat flowers that grow between cracks and rocks etc.
Clover and unicorn. Baby tears. All that stuff. Baby tears.
It's a cool thing.
With the barbecue, you have the region.
You have different firewood, you have different firewood, you have beef in Texas, you have pigs in Carolina, things like that.
I think the same is true of steak.
According to your position in the world, they eat different things, they have different climates, they have different varieties, they have different uses, different muscle structures, they have evolved into these different things and you will find it special when you go to Spain, but it doesn't necessarily mean you have to find this in the US, like getting what you get and then learning how to cook it.
Yes, there are various regional producers.
We have a list of things you can receive mail order, Internet access, shipping.
This is a very cool cow.
They have a lot.
Creekstone is a good supplier of Angus.
If you have enough money and you really want it, you can.
I was lucky to live in Central Texas so we had a lot of good farms there.
You can run errands and get one from everyone, in fact, you really can.
Great.
I think it's pretty good.
Also, the variety is great compared to the variety and other things.
It's like you shouldn't be stuck in one thing.
I think the old cow is one of the best beef I 've ever had, just because it's an older animal that tastes good and you have time to exercise muscle, fat, maybe not some type of fat that some people want.
It was neat and then able to look at a piece of meat and say, "Oh, I need to cook this hot and fast," or "I need to ease it down.
I want to add salt to it overnight, or "I want to smoke and then grill later" just to know what you're looking at, and it's a cool thing, I think.
How do I get an old cow? It's hard not to know where you're going to mess it up.
In Brooklyn, Brooklyn.
I mean, I'm sure you have some great Butcher's here.
I'll go to the local butcher and I'll say, "Hey, where do you get this, oh, it's neat and tidy," they'll have favorites and they'll change all the time.
I mean, one week you might get a good piece of meat, the next week might be really thin, maybe they didn't harvest it on time, maybe it was cold outside. You never know.
This is a moving target.
So, you have a steering wheel, you have all kinds of options, all kinds of ages, etc, but you have to take it apart in order to get the steak.
In this book, you talk about two different approaches, and several different steaks that are accepted in the United States.
Yes, ribeye, New York, filet, sirloin.
Then you have the meat from the butcher's and people don't associate it with the steak.
That's what I like.
They are a great value, yes, they are usually cheaper.
Bavette is probably one of my favorite steaks, just on the texture.
Here, it is called a flap steak or flat meat here in the United States.
It is a firewood in France.
Or something like rack steak is really great, small iron and the like, but you can talk to your butcher.
You know your butcher.
They also always come up with new cuts.
Because you have so many muscles in the animal, it depends on whether you have found a seam or not, whether you have crossed it a bit and found something.
This is the so-called seam cut. Yes, this is the style of the massacre.
It's here right now, but it's been gone for a while.
I don't know, is this the right way to think about itAh?
I think it depends on where people learn.
The massacre has developed a lot over the years.
I once slaughtered a cow and made a cut of the United States. it was very interesting, and then the other side was cut.
Do you have a band saw with zipper and zipper?
For the cuts in the United States, yes, almost so.
I did it at the slaughterhouse and it did it very quickly.
The other half was a friend of mine, Guy Arno, who was trained in seam cutting and took a long time.
Yes, it's labor-intensive.
The knife is very big.
Let go and put it in and really cut things, I think it's a more traditional way, of course.
I think that with the industrialized, 50 and 60 years old stuff in the United States, this makes it possible for us to cook cattle bris or ribeyes only when boxed meat starts to appear, which is also a side effect, as you can see, you have 14 steaks, 12 steaks, etc, just zip up on the saw and they're all one-inch thick.
It doesn't matter where the muscles are and where the bones are, it's an old world practice that goes back to these smaller butcher shops.
This is definitely the craft of slaughter.
One of the most exciting moments was when we cut a steak called spider steak.
I was excited to learn that the muscles let the cow defecate when it was released, so it was hardworking muscle.
It's a bit bitter on the back.
It was always tight but it was a big steak and I had to say that I was excited because of the story behind it.
I bet it's a serious one. worked muscle.
Yes, I'm in the field with a cow. Check, please.
Yes, but it's really cool.
There are steak shops that are really hard to find these different little steaks.
Super charming.
I thought I was going to the steakhouse like "something I 've never been to" and it was very exciting. . .
"It's not typical for anything you find in the store.
I think it's really cool.
Since we took a cow apart, we cooked it.
There is a whole section in the book that explains the flow chart you created.
Yes, we hope it's like your own adventure BBQ Book.
My inspiration is kind of nostalgic, like when I went to the steak house in my 80 s, things like steak and beer, nail fonts like signs, like, "Man, the result is really good.
"If you can only cook in it, what steak should you cook in it, scorch and put in ovenNot everyone has a grill and a huge one like we do in Texas
With this book, all we're trying to do is pick like the basic steak there, like five steaks, and then we try to pick the best way to cook five.
This could be one in three. tip;
It could be like a big tomahawk steak, and if it's dry and aging, you might bake it and finish it in the oven, something like that, or like a steak house style or a strip with a grill or all of these things like vents.
I think, normally, like in a kitchenette, it also depends on how well your hood works.
Or, if you have a big fan, a suction fan, a window or something.
Yes, I don't know.
Then you suck off the grease.
We have to cook outside.
Yes, I feel like a small steak and obviously you can put it in the pan, but I think it's definitely the best way to cook filet steak and a lot of people kind of like it, "Ah, filet's steak is too fat.
"I really enjoyed the filet steak that was cooked well.
Fat doesn't necessarily mean it's like a delicious steak.
It can run in two directions.
You're like fat under the skin.
A lot of people are saying that I have such a big ribeye, it has a layer of fat on it anyway, but it may not be graded well.
It may not have Inter. muscular fat.
It may have a marble pattern.
The way all these things are cooked is a little different, but, yes, a well
The mud filet steak is cooked in a pot with a little butter. Ah, it's delicious. Super good.
So the fat is not equal to the taste, right, I'm going to give it a little bit more detail, but for another reason it's really a delicious and better steak, and that's absolute.
This is another reason because it can lubricate the meat fiber.
You don't want a piece of leather.
It's nice to have some marble patterns there. Right.
The point of the book is that if you put the meat in your mouth, it doesn't taste as good as a steak.
No, different flavors stick to fat and different flavors stick to protein and other things.
Yes, you should always pick the best marble meat according to the rule of thumb.
No one cuts well and always says, "Oh, I'm a ribeye.
"It's like a little open.
Maybe ribeyes doesn't look so good if you go to the market, you'll look like "Oh man.
"You want to recognize a piece of meat in the supermarket, in the butcher's shop, in the whole food or anywhere, and say," Oh, there is a good marble pattern.
"Even if you don't know what it's called, you can look at it and hope that after reading the book, or hope that you know, like," Okay, so it's thin, it has a certain texture and it will shrink like this.
I want to do that, "No matter what the name is, hopefully it's cheap too, we just know how to cook it and how to deal with different things.
This is the content of the book "Choose Your Own Adventure", like, "Well, I know how to cook a large piece of meat.
I know how to handle things.
If I have a group of friends coming over, I can do it a few hours in advance and let them go out and pick them up on the grill for a while, or I can make some small steaks in the frying pan, I can cook a little bit, I can start in the oven and I can finish them in the oven.
"We have a few different techniques to guide you not to have to stick to every time like New York Avenue.
Get something that looks good.
You guys recommend PK GrillI to enjoy PK GrillI if you really need a barbecue.
Can you briefly introduce the history of PK Grill 1958? It was somewhere there, 57 years and 58 years.
They made it in Little Rock, Arkansas.
They are made of aluminum and I feel like I 've been buying a grill all these years, and two years later, because I'm very bad with the grill cleaning, the bottom will rust. Me, too.
You're done baking, like, "Ah, let's eat," and then you drink some beer and then you go to bed.
You didn't clean it up until a week later, like, "Ah man, I should have done that.
"They're made of aluminum so it won't rust, which is cool.
Very good heat conduction.
They are made domestically so you can call the company and say, "Hey, I need some grates.
I need to change my legs . "
They will ship it out.
Great.
It's aluminum, but it's also square.
I really like the shape, I always have post oak since working at the grill, which we cook there with native white oak in central Texas.
Because it's square, I like that you can split it up.
You can put a small piece of wood in it, put your coal, there is a very hot place, there is a cool place.
You can put a log like this, there is always a safe area to go.
Because if you cook in a restaurant and find your hot spot, you will find that there are different hot spots there, so you know that you may want to have a good steak, maybe you want it to settle down and let the inside Continue to cook a bit, or maybe you want to do it another way, start slowly and finish quickly.
You lose heat when the coal goes out naturally, so this gives you a real hot spot and you will move around.
The formation you just said is called. .
That's what Jordan calls it. . .
Jordan called it Franklin formation.
Franklin Formation
To be honest, I will accept this honor.
I think this is my name.
Yes, and your formation, so it's a white oak or whatever you have.
I mean, it depends on where you live.
Wood, then charcoal, then a blank spot, maybe not a blank spot.
You can pick up the coal.
I guess it depends on what you are doing or how many rooms you need. Okay. Yeah, I mean . . .
I know there is some kind of different temperature, which is the part of the wood that I think is different temperature.
I really don't want steak.
I have been working around the smoke and meat, like some cigarettes, the persistence of fat is a little different, the taste and the burning temperature are different, things like this, but I do like to eat some light steak or smoke on some lighter steak.
I don't have to do that, but bring, it's like a thinner steak.
Some smoke really comes out, but you're just a little bit like a wisp of smoke with some extra flavor inside.
I prefer to use charcoal anyway.
I usually use natural wood charcoal or a bouquet.
In fact, this is an important difference, because people who are not pure are a little confused and they are sexy to some extent.
It's the chemical inside.
That thing didn't taste very good to me.
This is an experiment we do in the book, like burning wood, burning coal directly, shoveling coal off, it takes a lot of fuel, it takes a few hours
No one really has time, but the taste is really better.
You can really see how clean the heat source is, not all the natural coal balls, or even the incomplete natural ones.
Wood is very helpful in this regard.
It just gives it more flavor and it gives you a safe place to go.
What about charcoal? it's actually just Cowboy Charcoal that burns wood. it's not rendered into a bouquet, and it's very light.
Pick up a bag of things you think will weigh 50 pounds. . .
Like an empty milk box.
I like these things very much.
The only problem is that it's just a personal preference, everyone has their preferences, they burn hot and fast, but with a bouquet, you will have the same burning time as them so you know mentally how much heat you have and how much it takes.
You know when to light another charcoal chimney to prepare for the second round.
You have some big pieces of charcoal that will take a long time;
This piece burned so fast that it fell to the side of the stove.
"Franklin steak" is great because it will take care of you if you just fall down on Earth and have never done a steak before, but there are also some gear heads here, for example, the cooked steak you made yourself, I don't know if it will go into an area, and the main cut number.
Yes, 103 and 104, it's like a numbering system for a country.
It's more of an industry standard like you have a 103 long bone outlet and I don't know half of it.
I don't order something like this. Like a 123A.
They should know if you go to the butcher's.
It doesn't matter, but if you're going to do something of your age, it's like when you're in your 103 S, I think it might be in your 107 s, and I'm going to look at a manual.
It's been a while.
Those are like big original cuts, or like original cuts, we have long bones.
Something like fl stone.
You threw it in the car.
That's what you want to dry, like the whole waist and something like that.
Which part of the steak the cow makes comes from you, showing the whole map in the book of the cow and in different types of steak cuts.
They come from all over the world.
You're like Sharon here. tips down here.
Bull bris is here if you are the firstcut, second-
Cut the cow bris, anyway, the second cut, the first cut, this is actually the rib.
Below is the source of the short ribs, the plate ribs.
Chuck ribs is all four bones, crap, crap.
That rib rises when you enter ribeyes.
Everything about Marquis is in the back, and the ribs and batons are generally on top.
There are two buds inside, which are the source of the fish fillet, and if it is a different cut, it is over.
Chuck, iron from here.
There's not much coming out of the cow loin.
Like the place where higher, more front is the place where better things usually appear.
It's a bit like the less muscle work.
Bris, the cow, weighs 80% of the cow.
They are really hard and that's why it should be cooked forever.
On the other hand, the Tenderloin has little effect.
Unless the cow is doing yoga, then the tenderloin really works!
Yes, it's stretched, it's another thing.
In the next book.
Yes, but you don't need to cook too much because it doesn't do much work.
Ribeyes won't do a lot of work.
In this regard, it depends on how you slaughter it.
You only have a specific set of muscles that work on each cow and you can get your T-
The bones are here and they will have a little filet steak there.
There are about nine steaks, right? every steak depends on how you slaughter it.
It depends entirely on what the market wants, as well on brisket.
You can kill a little higher.
If ground beef is a little less than bris on the market, then this is definitely the same.
You can get T-
Bone, you can get ribeyes.
If you go long
Bone Tomahawk steak, which means you won't get ribs here because you have to lose that piece of meat for the sake of the steak.
You have to make some decisions.
All in all, this is all the slaughter.
Just make a big decision.
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