Looks like we could have a flame (or should that be smoke 
) war ahead. Pork is fine, but vinegar? Real men use honey.
A lot of pre-made sauces (ie: kraft,hunts,etc.) are vinegar based and should be applied to the meat before cooking. Actually the vinegar acts as a tenderizer and should be used like you would a marinade. Other sauces with a honey base, brown sugar, AND even tomato based sauces for example, are more flavor enhancing sauces and will burn. They should be used as the meat is nearly done or after taking it off the pit.
Again, it depends on the type of meat and the method of cooking to choose which is best. A lot of people just marinate the meat with straight vinegar or avinegar based italian dressing before cooking it and then rub it down with the seasonings they prefer when putting it on the pit.
When the meat is near completion a little sauce for flavor may be added or applied on the side. No need for the vinegar based sauce at this point.
I’ll usually make a vinegar based marinade and let the meat soak for awhile in the fridge. Then I’ll make a rub with my own blend of spices.
Afterwards, I’ll make a chipotle sauce w/honey base to brush on or at least serve on the side.
AND you have GOT to keep an eye on what you’re cooking. (I hate to see folks just lost when they’re cooking. Forget about their food. Then come dragging out some burnt dried out shit with so much sauce you can’t taste anything else.)
You’d hafta try some to really appreciate what I’m saying. I love the look on peoples faces when they taste MY… BB-Q.
I’ll often get a… Oh my God…how did you do this?
and that’s the answer they usually get too.
w/ love and patience and LOTS of practice. 
What t-keela said.
Nothing’s worse than too much sauce while it’s cooking.
While cooking the meat and then dumping sauce on it can be good (depending on the meat and/or sauce), I don’t consider that to be BBQ.
As far as what a BBQ is, that’s cooking and eating BBQ, drinking beer, and throwing horseshoes or darts or whatever you can do while half drunk (or more).
Barbecue, to me, is pulled pork (either as a sandwich or a pile of it on a plate) or ribs and my family never “had a barbecue”… we “grilled out(side)”.
I much prefer the latter personally… barbecue’s nice ('specially ribs) but, in my opinion, you can’t beat grilled burgers and sausages. Except with grilled steaks.
I was born and raised in Tennessee, sandwiched between North Carolina and Memphis, two of the half dozen places in the US that loudly proclaim that their barbecue is the only real kind, by the way.
I think I lean more towards Memphis style, personally. Dry rubs are great.
<drool>
Carolina BBQ…
Lexington #1… slobber
<drool>
Damn, you people are making me hungry!
There’s a new BBQ cooking show on PBS nowadays, and I catch it fairly often. Seems lately they’ve been featuring a lot of my old stomping grounds in Kansas City (Gates, Arthur Bryant’s, Boardroom). I can’t wait to go back for Thanksgiving and try out some of the new places they showed.
But one thing that struck me, was how wonderful and unique each tradition is. I remember being a BBQ snob in college and a few years out - man was that obnoxious. People may think that their region’s BBQ is the best, but it’s just plain stupid to think that other traditions aren’t of value. Just like reading a great book for the first time, different BBQ traditions allow you an opportunity to re-experience great BBQ for the first time all over again.
What the Europeans (and Antipodeans) said.
Unfortunately, “BBQ” makes me think of “BBQ sauce” which is a vile abomination. Barbecued meat I like, but it should be put in a bap and covered in HP Sauce, not that “BBQ” nonsense.
You don’t barbeque in the winter in NZ? I grew up just west of Boston and we grill all year round. Especially if it’s snowing. Nothing like sizzling hot meat off the fire when all the world is white and cold. I’m not kidding. We use the grill all year round.
Could you explain to us yankees what the hell y’all are talking about? Specfically regarding “bap” and “HP sauce.”
I grew up in the southwest where grilling is somewhat more common than bobba-q but I can appreciate both.
A bap is a soft bread roll.
HP sauce is either the food of the Gods, or the runoff from Beelzebub’s own satanic herd, depending on personal preference.
I lived in Texas for ten years and North Carolina for another ten. I love Texas barbeque dearly. North Carolina barbeque … well … I learned to tolerate it … but it’s still real barbeque.
Real barbeque is alway slow-cooked over a smoky charcoal or wood fire. The meat is prepped in advance with a rub or marinade. Often there’s also a “mop sauce” that you baste the meat with while you’re cooking. The actual barbeque sauce itself is served on the side afterwards. The sauce is optional.
If you cook the meat fast, it’s not barbeque, it’s grilling. Even if you dump a bottle of K.C. Masterpiece on top … it’s still grilling.
If you cook the meat slow but don’t prep it with the right rub, you’re smoking or roasting … not barbequing.
Real barbeque done right is one of the most sublime ways of preparing meat. Spicy, smoky, tender, succulent … .
My personal favorite barbeque place is Goode Company Barbeque in Houston. Man, just thinking about it is enough to make me want to move back to Texas … .
Curiously HP does seem to make a “BBQ” sauce but what does the one you were referring to taste like?
Or a breast.
Hmmmm… Eating BBQ out of breasts…
OK, talk of Texas, NC, and Tennessee barbecue has got me drooling.
Can someone post or send me a recipe for the meat and the sauce? I need one that doesn’t have pre-prepared ingredients (other than simple stuff like ketchup and mustard), as I am likely not to be able to get them in Ireland.
Barbecue, to me, is mutton. Mutton soaked in a vinegar spice sauce, then cooked over a smoky hickory fire for 18 hours or so. Pork? Eh, that’s what you make do with when they run out of mutton. Beef is just something they keep around for out-of-towners who are so misguided as to think cows are suitable for barbecue.
Carolina barbecue is pulled pork with vinegar slaw on it served with hush puppies. It’s tasty, and I certainly wouldn’t say it wasn’t real barbecue. But it’s not and never will be what I think of when I hear the word barbecue.
Throwing burgers and dogs on the grill isn’t barbecue. It isn’t a a barbecue. It’s grilling, or cooking out, and gatherings where you cook out are cookouts. A barbecue is a plate of barbecue, but that’s something of an outdated usage.
What sort of recipe are you wanting, exactly, jjimm? Do you want Memphis-style ribs, Tennesee pork loin, Kansas City beef, North Carolina pulled pork, or something else? There are so many types of barbecue, and they’re all so distinctive, that there are approximately 17 trillion different recipes out there. We’ve got a really nice book called BBQ USA that’s roughly 700 pages of barbecue recipes. Pick a style, and I’ll be glad to send you a recipe. Or you can look for the book yourself.
Damn, now I need to go thaw out my last container of mutton. I knew I should have had Mom bring more when she visited.
Hehe if that’s what talking about it does to you, let’s see how you deal with actual pictures. Bwaaahahahaha
http://www.brothers-bbq.com/menu.html
Only about a 1/2 mile from where I am right now, they open in about 7 hours. What, you mean you don’t have a barbecue joint within 1/2 a mile?
What kind of meat? I like all of it but some days I crave pork spare ribs and nothing else will do…some days brisket…some days chicken.
But pork done right is damned hard to beat. I ate so much lamb growing up I don’t do much with it anymore but I’ll admit that it’s good. I can BBQ a deer or goat that’s outta this world BUT it takes a special touch.
How 'bout I just send you some BBQ already done and see what ya think?
Better yet, why don’t you plan on a visit and I’ll throw you a party?
I’ve got one planned already for next week. It’s my brother’s birthday and we’ve been planning it for several weeks. We BBQ several times a month as it is, so anytime you can make it would be a good time.
Anytime in the spring here is also good. The cookoffs will start in a few months, all you can eat and/or drink…no charge!
Sorry, I had no idea I had caused so much confusion. Standard HP sauce is what is known generically as “brown sauce”, or occasionally I have seen it called “chop sauce”. It tastes… well, like brown sauce. There’s nothing else like it. It’s not sweet like ketchup or BBQ sauce, which is why I like it. It is quite vinegary, but also sharp and slightly spicey. It does have a hint of fruity sweetness, but that is very much in the background. It is an essential component of any bacon or sausage sandwich. I put it on burgers, too, although many people seem to find that weird.