Page 44 - Barbecue News April 2020 Issue

bbq product
Duck Fat Spray —
a new BBQ/Steak
game changer?
Raymond Cato catoraymond40@ gmail.com
Ask any SCA (Steak Cook-off
Association) cook about the
benefits of CornHusker
Kitchens Duck Fat Spray and
they can tell you. It is relatively
new to most of us. Does it hold
a place in competition BBQ as
it does to SCA competition?
How about use away from all of
the competitions? Is it some-
thing home cooks and back-
yard enthusiasts could find
using for their own family?
How about the foodservice in-
dustry? Is the general public ready to accept such a unique product? I will try to answer some of these questions in a full review of the canned wonder that we now know as Cornhusker Kitchen’s Duck Fat Spray.
The world of competition BBQ can be somewhat daunting when trying to find out flavor secrets or winning tech- niques. You must take a lot of stuff with a grain of salt be- cause many competitors aren't willing to hand over their secrets, and with all the time and money invested — who could blame them? I will say that more than a few of the nation’s top pit masters have admitted to using Duck Fat
Spray as a binder to hold rub on and produce a distinct bark, to crisp chicken skin, or to cre- ate a different depth of flavor. I had to try for myself, so I did a practice cook with chicken thighs and wings. I wanted to see if paired with higher heat (300°-325°on the thighs and 350°-400° on the wings) a crisp, bite through skin, could be achieved so the dreaded fat scraping could be avoided. The results were positive, after
trimming the thighs to a somewhat uniform shape, I sprayed the meat under the skin before applying my rub, then wrapped the skin back onto the thigh and sprayed once again before applying a rub. I also sprayed the chicken wings before applying any rub. I achieved the perfect bite without scraping any fat from the skin and while the thighs weren't as crispy as I thought they would be the wings crisped up rather nicely. I couldn’t stop with chicken so I decided to try a practice cook with ribs. I used St. Louis cut ribs and sprayed the ribs before applying any rub much like some use the mustard slather. I then smoked at 250° for 2.5 hours and instead of butter, I sprayed the duck fat onto the foil and proceeded to add the usual brown sugar, honey, and rub combination. Ribs were wrapped for another hour then unwrapped for 30 minutes. The bark produced on the ribs was a
little
darker
than pre-
ferred but
I believe
this can
be reme-
died with
a differ-
ent rub or
by wrap-
ping
BarbecueNews.com - 44
APRIL 2020