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Beyond the Book
In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes info on barbecue styles in the United States and barbecue competitions. To get this Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type BBQ For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here
You can read the chapters of this book in any order you like. Each chapter stands alone in giving you the vital information you need for that topic. Feel free to bounce around and explore what particularly interests you at the moment. There is no particular right way to learn this information, but it’s all in here for your quick and easy reference.
If you’re a complete novice and just have an interest in barbecue, start with Chapter 4 on grills and smokers and decide how big or small you want to go. Then browse Chapter 3, the tools section, to make sure that you have what you need to get started.
For the amateur who already has a setup and has started experimenting, you may want to start with meat cuts to get a better understanding of what’s out there to choose from. The new cut you hadn’t heard of or didn’t know how to use may become your new favorite.
Jump around! Look for the areas where you feel you need improvement. The book is not linear — it’s a reference for you to keep near your smoker.
Finally, keep one very important thing in mind: Have fun! Barbecue is meant to bring people together. True members of the barbecue family understand that keeping secrets about methods or having arguments over techniques are counter to the core of barbecue. Enjoy the cook, and work to bring others into the world we love so much!
Part 1
Getting Started with Barbecue
IN THIS PART …
Dig into the history and methods of barbecue, including touring the various types of barbecue across the country.
Get into the particulars of cooking low and slow, which is the basis of cooking authentic barbecue. Putting meat on the grill at a low temperature for a long time — I’m talking hours, not minutes — is how you produce great barbecue.
Gather the necessary equipment, and tools that are just fun to have. You need a cooker, tongs, a thermometer, and some fuel to cook barbecue. You may also want a spray bottle, a basting brush or mop, and a grill screen. Find all the tools you need and discover others you just want.
Roll out the qualities of a great smoker or grill. Run through the types and formats of various cookers and decide on the one you want. Then make sure your choice has the quality to keep you cooking barbecue for many years to come.
Chapter 1
Taking a Closer Look at Barbecue
IN THIS CHAPTER
As long as humans have had fire, they’ve been cooking meat over an open flame and eating barbecue. Barbecue is the great equalizer. Politicians use barbecue to rally people to their causes, and barbecue has brought people together in social gatherings for well over 200 years. No matter your race, color, creed, or religion, you can gather with your family and friends around a table and enjoy a great meal of barbecue.
Barbecue Beginnings
Ah, how it all began. I guess you could say that the first time a cook put a piece of meat over a live fire, barbecue was born. No telling when that was.
Barbecue has many definitions and meanings all around the world. In the United States, barbecue is defined as meat cooked at a low temperature for a long period of time using wood or wood charcoal as the primary heat source. In many other parts of the world, it may be just grilling meat over wood either hot and fast or low and slow. In some areas, it may be stewing in a pot over wood coals. One thing that is a common trait is that wood or wood charcoal is always involved. In Australia, it may be iron wood; in California, fruit wood; in Tennessee, hickory.
The popularity of barbecue has swelled and retracted and swelled again. Fortunately, in recent years, a resurgence of artisanal barbecue has taken place, with folks doing it the old-fashioned way and new restaurants sprouting up all across the United States.
Barbecue in the United States and abroad
As far as modern-day barbecue is concerned, Christopher Columbus encountered it when he came to the new world in 1492. Indigenous people were cooking meats over an indirect heat source of green wood, which allowed the meat to cook without burning and to cook low and slow. The Spanish-speaking people refer to this as barbacoa — what we now refer to as barbecue.
This low-and-slow technique was also witnessed by Hernando de Soto when he was treated to a feast by the Chickasaw tribe near what is now Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1540. From there, the tradition made its way to the colonies, specifically Virginia and the Carolinas.
In other countries, barbacoa or barbecue is meat hung over a direct live fire or a live fire pit to cook.
No matter where you eat barbecue in the United States, what makes it barbecue is that the meat has been cooked over wood or wood charcoal for a long time at a low temperature.
From humble beginnings to art form
Barbecue was born from humble beginnings. Plantation owners took the best cuts of meat from the hog and left the toughest pieces of meat for the men and women they enslaved. The method of cooking these tough cuts at a low temperature for a long time — low and slow — helped take a very tough piece of meat and turn it into a tender delicacy.