Let's talk BBQ!

[Ken]

Historically BBQ is a method of making cheap, tough cuts of meat palatable. Like brisket, ribs, and pork butt.

That is why so many traditional BBQ joints are modest affairs on the poor side of town or the wrong side of the tracks. Because they are making do with and making the best of cheap difficult ingredients. Also why so many BBQ places are traditionally popular in poor Black communities. It's about making do with less.

There is no need to BBQ if you are cooking up expensive cuts like prime rib, filet mignon, porterhouse steak, etc. In fact you wouldn't want to BBQ those cuts, you just sear them and serve them rare or medium rare and let the flavor of the meat come out. Even with pork you don't generally BBQ the expensive tender cuts like pork chops, pork tenderloin, etc. You just cook them up simpler and quicker.

So at some level BBQ should really be a modest and plain Anabaptist sort of food prep because you are making do with the most modest meats not the fancy ones. Of course if you need a $10,000 competition grill to BBQ then you miss the whole point.

[MaxPC]

My wife scored some spare ribs at a great price. Got them in the oven pretty early on. It appears that most Americans have a take on what good BBQ should be. I never was a big griller but have done some wild things over wood fires and the conventional kitchen oven.

Post up your favorite tricks and/or recipes!

The method I have been using as of late with ribs: I use a dry rub. Nothing fancy, but I've been using one called Sweet & Smokey. Put the ribs in a shallow baking sheet and add some apple juice. Just a sprinkle. Bake uncovered in a 425* pre-heated oven for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on how much of a dark "bark" or desire.

Remove from the oven, lower the temp to 325* and tent the ribs in foil. Bake another few hours. Around an hour before serving, knock the temp back to 225*. Typically, about a half hour prior to serving I brush the entire thing in sauce (lately Stubb's original) and pit back in the oven uncovered. Most tasteful and pull-off-the-bone I have eaten to this day.

Forgive my ignorance but why change the temperature throughout the process? Why not just one low temperature?

[Neto]

BBQ means something different everywhere you go. With Brazilian churasco the only 'treatment' the meat gets before hand is to roll it in something more or less like rock salt, but marketed there as Churasco Salt. The other big difference is that a very large chunk of meat is put on a spit and positioned well above the fire. The temperature is controlled by having a can of water in the middle of the charcoal (those nasty briquetes aren't available there at all). Then the meat is taken off of the fire from time to time and the outer part cut off, then it is salted again and it goes back on the fire.

My only experiences with barbaqueing was at my paternal grandparents, when the California relatives were there as well. Then we would usually go back in the pasture by the creek, and picnic out there. Dad never barbaqued anything.

I like meat well done, although I HAVE also eaten beef completely raw, right out of the marinate stuff. (I did it to freak out my wife, who likes the blood still oozing out of her stakes.) Back when we still burned in the wood stove here in the house, and my wife was gone over lunch time, I would get out a Polish sausage and "grill" it in the wood stove. I don't care to have catchup or BBQ sauce slathered all over my hamburgers, either. Put that on later if you want it. Good quality meat doesn't need all of that "help". (I also like how the Banawa roast their meat, real slow on a rack made of saplings, high above a mildly hot fire. This process takes two or three days. And, fried cubed tapir fat cannot be beat. Some types of meat aren't good anyway but roasted over an open fire, like paca. Never put paca meat in a pressure cooker.....)

There. Maybe that will stir the pot....

[steve-in-kville]

Forgive my ignorance but why change the temperature throughout the process? Why not just one low temperature?

The uncovered 425* puts a "bark" on the outside which keep the inside moist. The covered 325* is the actual cooking taking place. The uncovered at the end is basically getting the sauce to soak in a bit and not dry the meat out. Not sure where I picked up that method but it works.

[MaxPC]

Forgive my ignorance but why change the temperature throughout the process? Why not just one low temperature?

The uncovered 425* puts a "bark" on the outside which keep the inside moist. The covered 325* is the actual cooking taking place. The uncovered at the end is basically getting the sauce to soak in a bit and not dry the meat out. Not sure where I picked up that method but it works.

It seems you have it locked into a precise science. It sounds delicious.

[steve-in-kville]

Forgive my ignorance but why change the temperature throughout the process? Why not just one low temperature?

The uncovered 425* puts a "bark" on the outside which keep the inside moist. The covered 325* is the actual cooking taking place. The uncovered at the end is basically getting the sauce to soak in a bit and not dry the meat out. Not sure where I picked up that method but it works.

It seems you have it locked into a precise science. It sounds delicious.

A lot of my cooking is half art, half science. I've taken conventional recipes and converted them into crockpot recipes. I've pressure canned some interesting things over the years, mostly out of need. Had many failures, but the wins make it all worth it!

[MaxPC]

The uncovered 425* puts a "bark" on the outside which keep the inside moist. The covered 325* is the actual cooking taking place. The uncovered at the end is basically getting the sauce to soak in a bit and not dry the meat out. Not sure where I picked up that method but it works.

It seems you have it locked into a precise science. It sounds delicious.

A lot of my cooking is half art, half science. I've taken conventional recipes and converted them into crockpot recipes. I've pressure canned some interesting things over the years, mostly out of need. Had many failures, but the wins make it all worth it!

Practice makes perfect.