ragboy said:
My main BBQ rules are:
- No sauce on the meat while it cooks. (other than chicken)
- Slow slow slow cook/smoked.
- Gotta have spice.
- No sweet sauces (I don't care for KC BBQ).
- Always use wood or coal with wood chips. If you want to cook with gas, use your stove...
- Always have beer. (And absolutely no beer marinades, other than for the chef).
Amen, my brother, amen. I agree with almost all of your points. You, sir, are invited to any bar-b-que I have.
Here in Alabama there is the local bbq, mostly pork and chicken with spicy tomato based sauces, but I have a few personal preferences.
St Louis Ribs, homemade spice rub, with just a little light spray every now and then with a water/salt/vinegar/lemon juice solution to help 'em stay nice and moist *if needed* (if you do it right, you wont need it). Drop them on a moderately hot fire to sear the outside very briefly, then *slow* cook on a very smokey enclosed fire. The best way is to use one of those two-chamber smokers, you can start the fire and sear 'em on the lower firebox, then drop on a bunch of water-soaked hickory or mesquite, get it smokey, and hang 'em in the smoke box.
Chicken, do NOT remove the skin, and brine 'em the night before or the morning of with a water/lime juice/lemon juice/salt/sugar/garlic/whatever concoction. Take 'em out of the brine, rub 'em down with a spicy rub, then drop 'em on a fairly hot charcoal and wood grill fire and cook those bad boys. Spray 'em lightly every now and then if you're using cut-up chickens or breasts, but if using the whole chickens, you take a 3/4 full can of beer and stuff it in the cavity top-up and let it ride (Pierce calls it Beer-Butt chicken, and it's damn good).
Boston Butts, pork shoulder, or a good thick brisket or london broils (pretty much any really big roast-sized pork/beef): Inject with a garlic-based marinade, give 'em some spice rub, and toss them in the smoker for an hour per pound slooooow cook. Make sure to have a water pan in the smoker to give moisture to the smoke... keeps 'em moist and helps the smoke flavor penetrate all the way through.
Sausage. Mmmm... start with good SPICY sausage, preferrably hot Italian, Brats, Andouille, Keilbasa, or Boudin (bland sausage is a waste of time and meat, two things I dont tolerate), and cook over a wood and charcoal fire. Smoke 'em if you got the time. 'Nuff said.
Now sometimes I'll smoke a chicken or turkey as I would the pork butts/shoulder, or some other kind of nice sounding method just for a nice variety. Another thing I like to keep in mind is at the end of a big smoke-out with the big pork/beef I'll throw some fish (there's nothing like smoking to bring out the best flavors in fish) or chicken breasts on the smoker with a nice spicy-citrus or butter-dill glaze, because I hate to waste a good fire
. I find that if I toss on a couple pieces of dry quick-burning wood on that slow fire (when you're done with the big stuff) and heat it up, I can get a few extra things cooked in the ensuing hot smokey fire that dont take as long (15-20 minutes tops), and the entire fire burns itself out a lot quicker (meaning I don't have to worry about keeping an eye on it as long after I'm finished, which is good with kids and a dog).
Ones I havent done but have been to and like:
One southern tradition that I've grown to love, but have never actually done myself, is the deep-fried turkey. Yeah, it sounds weird, but you inject and spice rub a whole turkey, then the entire thing is dropped in a big boiler of peanut oil sitting on an outside cooker. It will literally change the way you think about turkey for the rest of your life.
A Cantonese or Thai bar-b-que is exciting, spicy as all hell, and fun also. When I was young I thought bar-b-que was a southern thing, but have learned that folks from all over the globe know their stuff also, and theirs may be different but can be just as good. I've even had jerk goat from a street vendor in Jamaica, spicy-as-hell rubbed meat cooked over a fire made of the wood from the tree that Allspice comes from, which is a GREAT flavoring agent. Even had the whole-pig-rubbed-in-salt, wrapped in palm fronds and dropped in a hot fire pit
But, as long as there is wood burning, meat on a grill/spit/freakin' flat rock over or in it, and beer, it's Bar-B-Que, and I'm all up for it. I once cooked bacon and eggs on a grill when I was drunk in college when the power was out, liked it, and lived to tell the tale
As far as sauces go, I like most of 'em but prefer the tangy/spicy to sweet. And if it's a sweet sauce, it better be spicy as hell also, or it's not gonna go on my bar-b-que. However, most of the time I cook I put out good sauces for those that prefer 'em, but I cook with the notion that if you *have* to have sauce with the meat, then you didnt cook the damn meat right
. That being said, I mostly go for sauce on a pulled-meat sandwich, but on ribs, chicken, and beef, I prefer to let the rub and the smoke stand for itself.
Note:
BTW, I've had that new-fangled white sauce here in Alabama, which has become popular in the last 10-15 years. That recipe posted above sounds about right for it, though the ones I like are a good bit spicier. It is very good on chicken, and makes a nice dressing for those low-carb folks that insist on putting that pulled pork in a salad and eating it. You will find it in quite a few places in Alabama these days, and it's worth a try.
Beer works - but get rid of that cheap American crap - watered down horse whizz! Grow some hair on your chest and pick something with some flavor for God's sake! A smooth red ale work well with Beef and a stout goes well with pork, a pale lauger works with chicken, but play around. Iced tea is however, the Queen's choice for accompanying BBQ (with lemonade right behind) t4ea should be sweet - lemonade tart (but not bitter). Do the southern thing and seve your tea with crumbled up corn bread in it. (Yep, you heard me) (see corn bread below)
