Pressure Cooker Barbecue

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.

Prepare the meat

• 1 kg chuck eye beef
• 33 cl pale or amber ale
• 33 cl water

1. Trim any thick outside fat and connective tissue. Divide into steak-size pieces, 2.5-4 cm thick. Depending on how the cut looks you can use one or more pieces per person. Season the meat using salt.
2. Heat the pressure cooker pot on medium-high temperature and brown the outside of the meat in vegetable oil.
3. Once nicely brown but not before the meat really starts cooking on the inside, cover the meat in the ale and water and make sure it’s above the minimum of the pressure vessel. Let the beer bubble off a little bit and put on the lid with the pressure valve at maximum pressure, heat up at high temperature and then reduce to the minimum while still keeping full pressure (usually a mid-low setting). Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Single malt barbecue glaze

• 1 dl chili sauce (Heinz)
• 15 ml tomato paste
• 15 ml single malt whisky (Laphroaig or Caol Ila)
• 15 ml apple cider vinegar
• 5 ml liquid smoke
• 5 ml granulated onion powder
• 30 ml raw (brown) sugar or muscovado sugar
• 2.5 ml Chinese soy
• 1 ml table salt
• 5 ml black pepper
• 1 pinch chili flakes
• 3 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 0.5 dl Sherry
• 0.5 dl beef juices

1. Mix all ingredients except for the Sherry in a small saucepan and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Transfer some to another container, this is the glaze that is used for finishing the meat.
2. Pour in the Sherry and beef juice (from the cooking liquid in the pressure cooker) and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Adjust salt, booziness and chili kick to taste. This is the sauce that can served with the dish.

Finishing the meat

1. Remove the meat from the pressure cooker and let it rest for 10 minutes under aluminum foil.
2. Brush the meat with the barbecue glaze and use a flame torch to caramelize the surface, working one area at a time until the sugar bubbles up and the edges becomes slightly colored.

Enjoy,

/Anders

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