Ever since I first laid eyes on a Santa Maria style grill via the Internet, I’ve wanted to see one in person. The long, rectangular open air grill with the suspension grill surface that can be raised and lowered using a wheeled lever (or pulley depending on the grill) during the process of a cook is fascinating to me. However, finding a grill like that outside of the central coastal region of California, where Santa Maria is located, is a tough find.
Fast forward to present time when I was given the opportunity to visit the region and attend a BBQ Bootcamp at the Alisal Guest Ranch to learn about Santa Maria style grilling. I jumped at the opportunity and counted down the days til my trip. This was my chance to see these grills in action, learn from the experts in the area, and oh yeah, have an excuse to visit Southern California again!
Remember how I said I was going to a ranch In Southern California? Did you think that area was too crowded to have space for a ranch? You’re not alone if you did. While LA and the surrounding cities are one big urban/suburban sprawl that goes for miles on end, there’s a side to Southern California that you don’t see on the TV and movies. There are smaller coastal communities and even wide open spaces where ranches and wineries are aplenty. Simply take the 101 North, drive along that beautiful coast line, and once you get to Santa Barbara and north of it you are in for an experience you wouldn’t expect.
The Alisal Guest Ranch, which hosts this BBQ Bootcamp, is located in the quaint, Danish town of Solvang. While most people who are familiar with the town know it for all of the Danish themed shops and excellent Danish food, one needs only to drive a mile or two away from the town center to experience the rolling hills and vast spaces the area has to offer. This ranch is only two miles away from the city center yet feels like you’ve taken a journey far out yonder. The ranch style guest rooms have that authentic rustic feel, from the brick fireplaces to the exposed wood beams on the ceiling, and not to mention no TVs in the room to encourage getting outside and spending time together. I could go on about the history and amenities (really, I could because I just deleted another long paragraph about it), but let’s get into the experience, shall we?
All of our classes were outside on the property with four Santa Maria style grills, an XL Big Green Egg, and a large cylinder smoker with a rotating grill. The Santa Maria grills were all fueled with red oak wood. Have you ever burned or smoked with red oak before? The smell is intoxicating. And that’s what the whole place smelled like. You could say I was drunk on BBQ.
Anyway, our first class was taught by Chef Anthony Endy and Frank Ostini, owner of the Hitching Post II restaurant in Los Alamos, CA (his restaurant and winery gained international attention when it was featured in the movie Sideways). One of the things Frank said that stood out to me was the method of flipping steaks more than once. If you’re like me, you’ve been taught to only flip meat once. Frank said he flips more than once because the beading juices on the surface that start to show on top of the meat are juices leaving the meat and drying it out. Flipping the meat over more than once, according to him, keeps more juices locked in.
Chef Anthony Endy, executive chef at the Alisal Guest Ranch, prepares some Wagyu tri-tip from Snake River Farms. These massive cuts of tri-tip were SIX POUNDS EACH! To put that in perspective, the average size of a tri-tip is between 1.5-2 lbs. These cuts of meat were rubbed with Santa Maria seasoning and a homemade chimichurri.
What exactly is Santa Maria seasoning? It mostly consists of kosher salt, garlic powder, black pepper, and dried parsley. I’ve been using it for a few years now and love it! If you’re looking to get a bottle of your own, companies like Susie Q’s sell it online.
If you want to cook smaller items like veggies, shrimp, scallops, etc. on the grill it’s best to use a cookie sheet with small holes in the bottom to let that red oak heat and smoke flow through while not seeing your food fall through the grates and onto the ashes.
We were offered some of the local fare of beers, wines (reds and rosés) and mixed drinks. The award-winning beers from the nearby brewery Firestone Walker featured the popular blonde ale 805 Beer, among other selections. If I drank then I’m sure it would’ve been pleasing to my tastebuds.
With that said, that night we were fed with tri-tip, filet mignon, bacon-wrapped scallops, chicken wings with Alabama white sauce, shrimp, and halibut. All of which were cooked on the Santa Maria style grills. All were cooked to perfection. There were also some veggies, but they weren’t important enough to remember. I was here for the friggin’ barbecue!
The next day was the only full day of the event and it was packed with some fun classes. To start off, we learned about blending spices and were provided with a table featuring over a dozen different spices to blend.
We weren’t told what to do, but advised that most rubs consist of 40 percent kosher salt. With that knowledge, I grabbed a bowl and mixed about nine different spices together and made my own rub. I mixed kosher salt, ground black pepper, Hungarian paprika, ground cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, brown sugar, ancho chili pepper flakes, and ground mustard. I may have annoyed the chefs conducting the class because I kept asking them to sample my blend and see what I needed to make it better. Overall, I think I did a decent job. Can’t wait to try it on food when I get home!
Next, we had a class on sausage making. I’ve been intrigued by this for quite some time now and was excited to learn the process. To keep from getting too deep in the woods here, just know that ground up pork shoulder was the main ingredient, that the number associated with the casing is the size in millimeters, poke small holes in the casing while pushing meat into it to help the flow and keep air bubbles from forming, and to twist every six inches for bun-sized links…or down twist at all and make a five pound sausage wheel. The sausage was grilled up soon after and we were eating them within minutes.
To finish up the morning, we had Chef Clark Staub from Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos, CA come and teach us about cooking with a wood-fired oven. This was mainly about pizzas and flatbreads. Very, very delicious, eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-your-head pizzas and flatbreads. Chef Staub, who just might be Stephen Colbert’s doppelgänger, reminded me that quality, local ingredients matter and can taste amazing.
After a relaxing break of sitting in the shade and enjoying the breeze (and charging my phone), we had the last class of the day: desserts. Chef Valerie from the LA-based bakery Valerie Confections taught us how to make caramel in a Dutch oven on the grill. Since it was on a ceramic grill, which I love to use, she definitely had my attention. Did you know that caramel is basically melted sugar and butter? No wonder why it’s so good! We also learned how to make bread pudding and cook it in a cast iron bundt pan, drizzling the caramel on top. I’m not a bread pudding fan, but I was a fan of this.
Dinnertime was epic time! We had smoked beef ribs and smoked salmon (both over red oak), locally caught lobster, tomahawk ribeyes, chicken, quail, and oysters.
Once again there were sides, but all I remember was that there was salad. Seriously, I wish you, the reader (yeah you), could’ve been here to help me eat all of this. I almost felt guilty that I couldn’t eat seconds or thirds because I loaded my plate with samples of everything. I even tried oysters for the first time. Always been nervous to eat them because they are all slimy and remind me of little snot-filled cups. I braved it and it wasn’t bad. Just wish I knew to separate that muscle from the shell.
The last day was a morning event. I took a horseback ride across the hills on the ranch and had breakfast at this old adobe out in the middle of nowhere. Haven’t ridden a horse in years and my butt sure felt it. Totally worth the experience, though.
We were treated to a great spread of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, and pastries. All you can eat and a pancake as large as Captain America’s shield. Ron Swanson would’ve been jealous.
We had another class from Chef Valerie on making jam in a Dutch oven. Seriously, all of this dessert making in Dutch ovens has inspired me to get into that style of cooking. I’m planning on expanding my horizons and work on making some killer sides and desserts to complete my barbecue meals.
I was seriously bummed to leave the ranch. It was a nice escape from civilization and was had a relaxing, laid back feel the entire time I was there. It was the most chill schedule I’ve participated in and they gave you time to relax and enjoy the experience. I’d love to return someday. In the meantime, I’m not going to wash my clothes just so I can have that smell of red oak smoke there to take me back.
