NY Daily News - June 21, 2009

Take last Saturday's Jim Beam Terry Farrell Firehouse Cook-Off Competition - a fund-raiser for the Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund - where five teams of New York's Bravest turned on the heat in the hopes of supporting the cause and scoring the prestigious title of Champion Firehouse Pitmaster.

The winning recipe - the tangy-sweet ribs made by the volunteer department from Hicksville on Long Island - also earned tickets to a box seat at a summer Yankee game.

In the interest of fairness, however, it should be noted that the Hicksville team's lead cook is a professional chef. Dana Lamel trained at the Culinary Institute of America and works for celebrity chef Todd English in between fires. He's also not exactly on pins and needles to see Derek Jeter: "I'm a Mets fan," he admitted.

That didn't diminish his enthusiasm for the event, which was part of the Snapple Big Apple Barbecue in Madison Square Park. Lined up along E. 25th Street at the base of the Metropolitan Life North Building, each cookoff team was set up with a 5-foot charcoal grill, five racks of pork ribs and a bottle of Jim Beam, which the rules of the competition required in the sauce.

Any liquor leftovers didn't go to waste: "Want a sip?" asked Wantagh Fire Department team leader Dave Spencer, as his teammate Bill Bischoff grilled burgers during downtime and passed them out to his four competing teams: Engine Company 96/Ladder 54 from Soundview, in the Bronx; Rescue Unit 4 from Woodside, Queens; the Floral Park Fire Department in Queens; and two Long Island teams, from Hicksville and Wantagh.

"This is our first time doing this," said Spencer, whose team opted for a lighter tomato flavor in their sauce than the competition, "so we've been practicing about three weeks. We asked around a lot for recipes," he added. "My father-in-law sent me one from Florida, and we've been mixing and matching."

Other teams applied similarly scientific strategies: Frank Wakely decided to woo the judges panel - which included Frederick (Fred) Booker Noe 3rd, great-grandson of Jim Beam and a distiller at the company - by adjusting his regular recipe with the addition of the spirit maker's new Red Stag barbecue sauce. Wakely does most of the cooking at home in Queens for his wife, Lisa, and his two daughters, who were on hand to help him baste throughout the afternoon.

John Gubelli's Woodside-based team went with a tried-and-true brown sugar/molasses/ketchup combo he jokingly referred to as "grandma Gubelli's recipe." Meanwhile the team from the Bronx collected tips from the entire firehouse, settling on a secret sauce ingredient of Boylan's Root Beer.

"It adds a different sort of flavor," said team leader Matt Bland, sounding suspiciously like a Food Network star. "It helps to sweeten the ribs at the end."

And as the minutes to the judgment crept closer, the heat was on. Teams mopped on sauces and adjusted racks and coals in an attempt to keep their ribs from overcooking. Most of the competitors usually slowly smoke their ribs over low heat at home, but had to cook quickly over higher heat during the afternoon competition.

By the end of the event, the winning Hicksville team was both basting and drinking from their oversize 7-Eleven Big Gulp cups, in between fist pumps.

Most likely, they were following their chef's No. 1 rule for barbecue: "It's very important," said Lamel, "to have a beer while you're grilling."

SEVEN SIMPLE TIPS FOR REALLY DELICIOUS RIBS

1. Always remove the membrane at the back of the ribs, says Dana Lamel, or else they'll get tough and rubbery. One trick is to use a paper towel: Start on the small end with a sharp knife, then use your fingers wrapped in a paper towel - it helps reduce slipperiness - to pull off the membrane in one piece.

2. Put your rub on the ribs the night before, but take them out of the refrigerator about an hour before you cook to bring them closer to room temperature and help them cook evenly, says Lamel.

3. Use a smoker or a grill large enough to let you add wood chips and cook the ribs off to one side off the heat.

4. Watch the temperature on your fire carefully, and adjust the coals, the racks or the position of the ribs as needed to keep them cooking at around 250 degrees, says Lamel, who also recommends frequent mopping. "You don't want your ribs to dry out," he says. "It's a labor of love."

5. Try wrapping your ribs in foil after you apply the sauce for the last 40 minutes of cooking time. "It makes them nice and tender," says Lamel.

6. Your ultimate goal is to have ribs that are tender enough to be easily bitten off the bone, but don't fall completely apart from overcooking, says Lamel. "When you eat ribs, says Lamel, "you don't want all the meat to fall off onto your plate."

7. When you buy your ribs, be sure to find ones with plenty of meat on the bones, says Lamel. "Otherwise, what's the point of all that work?" Instructions

From firefighter and chef Dana Lamel, of the Hicksville Volunteer Fire Department.

Lamel has been working on this nicely spicy recipe for 15 years, he says, originally calling it Mo-Jack sauce, as he used Jack Daniels instead of Jim Beam. He likes to serve it with a creamy coleslaw to help cool the burn.

The night before you want to grill, remove the silvery membrane from the back of the ribs. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs. Cover and refrigerate.

Take the ribs out of the refrigerator about an hour before you want to start cooking them. Mix the ingredients for the sauce and then the mop and set aside.

Cook the ribs over indirect heat - you want a 250-degree fire - for about five hours, basting them with the mop every 45 minutes.

About an hour before they are done, apply the sauce, wrap them in foil and continue to cook till tender.