barbecue. They like to do it big in Texas, and they like big cuts of meat. Brisket is king, and beef ribs are the crown princes of barbecue there.
Texas barbecue is cooked low and slow, typically with a rub that consists of only salt and pepper and produces a product that is moist and juicy and melts in your mouth.
The ribs in Texas are different as well. They’re beef short ribs or plate ribs, and one rib can be over a pound of meat. Cooked in the same tradition as brisket with a salt-and-pepper rub, ribs have a mouthwatering flavor and texture that is uniquely Texas.
Other important players
Barbecue is a cultural phenomenon second only to apple pie or baseball. You don’t get more American than barbecue, and that comes in many different shapes and forms all around this great country. Barbecue’s popularity has spread across the United States; it’s not just the four premier regions anymore. Here are some examples:
Alabama: North Alabama has become a staple in the barbecue world, defined by the white sauce applied to a smoked chicken or turkey.Alabama white sauce was made famous by Big Bob Gibson in Decatur, Alabama. (I include his restaurant in my ten-best list in Chapter 20.) It has a mayonnaise base and is thinned with either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. The other ingredients include black pepper, maybe lemon juice, and sometimes sugar.You can find many variations on Alabama white sauce with various ingredients — check Chapter 13 for my recipe. Experiment on your own and see what stands out to you.
Georgia: Georgia now has its own barbecue community defined by a mixture of different styles. Texas, West Tennessee, and Kansas City styles are all present in the Georgia market.
Kentucky: Kentucky has its own unique take on barbecue — mutton defines Kentucky barbecue to a T. Simply put, mutton is lamb barbecue, and it’s unique to Kentucky.The lamb is slow-smoked just like a pork shoulder, a whole hog, or even a brisket, and it’s often pulled and coated with sauce. When Kentuckians have leftover mutton barbecue, they make burgoo, a stew made with mutton barbecue very much in the tradition of Brunswick stew, which was born out of South Carolina barbecue.
I could go on to name almost every state in the country and talk about the different styles of barbecue there. You find distinct barbecue styles from California to New York. People have the barbecue bug, and they’re coming up with their own spin on what was once a very narrowly defined American tradition. Generally, barbecue in states that aren’t defined by a particular region or a particular style are an amalgamation of multiple styles of barbecue.
The abundance of different styles of barbecue — more than you can count — gives the citizens of the United States the unique opportunity to try a new style in almost every state they visit. Barbecue, simply put, is a great American tradition no matter which way you slice it or pull it.
Applying Heat to Meat, Slowly
Barbecue is all about time and temperature. The low-and-slow cooking process gives the meat time to break down its internal structure and become tender. Consistency in your heat source and enough time are key elements to this formula.
Smoke + heat = magic
With barbecue, smoke and heat make the magic. In order to have both smoke and heat, you need wood. That wood can be in the form of coals you burn down in a pit and shovel under your piece of meat. It can be in whole logs you put in a pit. You can use carbonized wood, commonly called charcoal.
For your smoke source, you can use logs, chunks, or chips. These three sizes of wood are readily available at most hardware stores. Logs give you the slowest burn of the three, chunks are next, and chips burn fastest. What you use depends on the type of smoker or grill you have and the size constraints. None of the three is preferred — you just need to understand that they have differences.
The one sure thing is that if you don’t have heat and you don’t have smoke, you don’t have the great American tradition of barbecue.
Keeping it low and slow
Barbecue is not rocket science — no need to be intimidated. You may think you’ll never master the craft of barbecue, but it’s a very simple process.
You need to be aware of some key temperatures when you cook barbecue:
Cooking temperature: Traditional barbecue is typically cooked at a temperature between 190 and 250 degrees. A good middle-of-the-road temperature to aim for is 220 degrees.
Internal temperature of the meat: In order for your meat to be done, it needs to hit a specific temperature. That temperature varies according to the type of meat. Chapter 3 has a table with the desired internal temperature for each type of meat.
There’s a science to barbecue, and if you’re willing to study and understand the time and temperature techniques, you can make great Q!
Starting with Great Ingredients
As with any cooking, the better the ingredients you start with, the better the resulting food. If you start with the cheapest cut of meat, chances are, you’ll get just what you paid for. There are only so many ways that cooking can enhance meat. Try to start with the best meat you can afford.
Sourcing and choosing meat
When cooking great barbecue, start with a good cut of meat. You don’t have to be rich, and you don’t need a personal butcher. You do need to understand the basics of what you’re looking for.
With some forms of barbecue, meat selection is everything. A prime example of this is beef. When cooking great beef barbecue, top grades are extremely important. Waygu or prime produce a seriously superior barbecue to lower-grade cuts. For beef, it’s all about the marbling.
With any meat, ideally you want to find fresh cuts that haven’t been frozen. If all you can find is frozen, make sure that it was flash frozen, which preserves the integrity of the meat. This is especially true for seafood — you don’t want seafood that has any fishy smell to it.