Darkavich's Daily Ramblings

Before I can talk about BBQ, it’s important to have a common frame of reference. Many people (American’s mostly) think barbeque is a cookout with hamburgers, hotdogs, bratwurst, chicken or fish cooked on an open flame in the back yard. While this is yummy eats, it’s not barbeque. This is known as grilling. BBQ and Grilling are often confused because they both involve cooking meat on an open flame and generally are cooked outside on the patio.

So what is BBQ? Traditional BBQ (or barbeque) is the process of cooking a piece of meat in a closed cooker/pit at a very low temperature (usually between 225 and 270 degrees F) for a long time. This is known as the low-and-slow method. In general, the meat is cooked over indirect heat. Indirect cooking is when the source of the heat (the fire) is away from the meat. The design of your cooker (known as a pit) will determine where the fire placement lives. Some pits will have a fire box off to the side while others will have them at the bottom with a heat deflector above (usually a water pan).

Most pits also allow for the burning of wood to add smoke (more about this in a future post). It is very important that you understand the limitations of your pit. Do not burn the wrong fuel in your pit. A good example is not to burn charcoal in a propane/gas grill. This can result in unwanted and dangerous reactions. One of my friends did this and the glass exploded because of the tremendous heat that charcoal generates.

So you are asking yourself (I hope) if BBQ is just the style of cooking low and slow, why are there so many different types of BBQ? The different styles of BBQ describe the unique style of the region. These are some of the well known styles:

• Eastern North Carolina –  Mostly pork butt or whole hog chopped or pulled. Uses hickory smoke mixed with spicy vinegar BBQ sauce.
• Western North Carolina – Mostly pork butt mixed with a tomato based vinegar sauce.
• Texas – Beef brisket smoked with oak or mesquite. NO sauce required.
• Kansas City – This is the traditional style of BBQ that everyone thinks of when you mention BBQ. This includes beef/pork ribs with sweet sauce. Sauce is KING with Kansas City BBQ.
• Memphis – Ribs and shredded pork are the staples of Memphis BBQ. The origin of the question: “Wet or Dry?” And no, they are not talking about the weather. They want to know if you want your ribs sauced or only with dry rub. Shredded pork is generally mixed with the sauce.

Which BBQ style is best? Well I know one thing, this is a religious war question. In my opinion, all BBQ styles are good. Everyone has their own favorite style. I can’t really answer this question for anybody but myself. I will say, I have my preference, but I like ALL styles. The only thing I can say from personal experience is that I prefer my coleslaw as a side dish, not a topper 😉

So now when you go into a restaurant, you should now know what they mean when they say they are a Kansas City, Texas or Memphis BBQ joint. One thing to be aware of is that any food that isn’t cooked low and slow is not really BBQ. There are several places in San Diego that advertise they make BBQ, but their entire process flies in the face of low and slow to get product out the door fast. While many people like the food, it’s not traditional BBQ. (More on this in future posts).

Source references:

http://pnwba.com/whatisbbq_page.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue
http://bbq.about.com/b/2012/04/11/what-is-your-fuel-of-choice.htm

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 12th, 2012 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Items in the Pensieve. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.