My Fifty-eighth - Barbecue -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fifty-eighth  recipe for the new cookbook - Barbecue


I'm not even going to talk about which type of barbecue is best.  Because if you think the US political process is ugly, the barbecue debate is even worse.  So, I'll stick to BBQ as it relates to my experiences with pureeing meat.  Because after all, North Carolina BBQ is best . . . .

MOST IMPORTANT INFO
When is doubt, use a conical shaped sieve to strain the puree before pouring into a tube feeder.  You might want to travel with a tea strainer large enough to hold a cup or two of puree.

FAST COOK VS SLOW COOK
I define Fast Cook as meat that you measure cooking time in minutes, and Slow Cook as meat that you measure cooking time in hours.  For pureeing purposes, Slow Cooking is far superior.  The meat is soft enough that pureeing is pretty simple.  I have yet to meet a slow cook meat that doesn't puree well.

Fast Cooking tends to have charred pieces which make pureeing a little trickier, and may require longer pureeing times.  Although, my Vitamix can handle charred meat, my smaller travel blender has a little more difficulty.

Many times, I am at a friends house with a blender I have never used before, so there is a little panic over whether the pureeing process will work.  For tube feeders I recommend running the puree through a conical-shaped sieve to make sure all the larger pieces have been removed

BBQ SAUCE
There are plenty of times where it have taken grilled meat, and added the BBQ sauce to the blender instead of cooking the meat in the BBQ sauce.  Go light on the sauce the first time, until you are able to understand how your body responds to the sauce.  Remember even though your gill chef might slather the meat with sauce, typically there is little sauce left after cooking and getting it all over your fingers, face, and napkins . . .

BEEF STEAK
I tend to chose beef steaks with a lot of marbling because I am still very conscience of trying to add weight on a daily basis.  I typically cut my beef into 1" cubes before I place them into the blender to help the blender grind the meat into a puree.  I almost always add a starch to the puree.

GROUND MEAT
Ground beef, ground bison, ground turkey, ground chicken, ground pork, ground lamb, ground veggie - they all puree well.  My concern is always to make sure the meat it thoroughly cooked.

LEG OF LAMB
This is more of a forgotten meat at many cookout, but for those who cook lamb regularly - bless you.  This is an amazing puree.  Some markets now offer ground lamb kabobs as an option - DO IT!

CHICKEN BREAST
OK, this is the one that I typically pass on.  White Chicken meat tend to puree into a chalky paste which tends to be a very odd texture on the tongue.  If you are using a stomach tube, then there isn't an issue - you get plenty of protein but lack fat.  I would rather go Veggie Burger before breast meat - but that is how I roll . . .

CHICKEN THIGHS
This is one of the best options for chicken.  Plenty of meat that is easy to pull off the bone,  Nice and moist.  Enough fat to make the puree creamier than other chicken options

CHICKEN LEGS
WARNING!  I throw up a warning, because there is a pretty good chance that you will accidentally puree a piece of cartilage or bone.  I am too concerned that a piece might be too big for my "gravity feed bolus".  Kind of sucks all the fun out of a picnic.  If you are able to drink the puree, it kinda sucks to sip a lump of cartilage.

CHICKEN WINGS
A lot of work for little meat.  But if you miss peeling lobster, or smashing blue crabs, then it is worth getting your fingers messy pulling all the meat off chicken wings.  Yes, I throw Buffalo Wings into this section.  I typically cook up chicken thighs, and then add Buffalo Sauce to the blender.

CHICKEN SKIN
I add this as another subtitle because this might be an issue with a weaker blender.  some skin is too under-cooked and won't puree into small pieces; other are too over-cooked, and form charred chunks in the puree.  If you think you might have issues, pull out the conical shaped sieve and strain.

SHRIMP
Great option - be sure to look for left-over shells.  Don't dump a handful into the blender.  Inspect each piece before adding them.

FISH
They all work well - except the ones with bones.  Inspect each piece of fish for bones.  For mouth eater, your tongue might not be nibble enough to "fish-out" the bone once it is in your mouth.

PULLED MEAT
Best option of all - I love them all.

BEANS
Add any slow cooked beans, like baked beans, all perfect to add to your puree.
If you are going to use a bean salad, try to squish the beans with your fingers to test the hardness of beans.  There are a lot of people are trying to be "hip" by cooking the beans from fresh/dried stock that are WAY UNDER COOKED.

RICE
Rice or Rice and Beans are great starch for purees.  Once again test the rice before you puree them.  Although, most people know how to cook rice; there are those who might cook the rise the night before and then set the bowl out in the sun, where is dries up too much to puree easily.

BEER
I thought this might get your attention.  JEFF, HOW COULD BE BE ADVOCATING BEER!!!!!!! We are cooking here, people. I usually use O'Doul's® in my puree.  I found it funny that if you go to the O'Doul's website, you have to proof you re of proper drinking age.  The biggest issue with using a "beer" in a puree is that it tends to foams pretty badly, and it might take you a little while to wait until the foam calms down.

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