Let's talk BBQ

Cafe Society
61

Not an option.

62

If you are doing smaller cuts or chicken or such, just use smoke packets. Soak your wood chips in water overnight, then wrap in foil. Poke some holes in the top. Turn on one side of your grill and place the packet on that side. Put you chicken on the other. Close the lid and fiddle with it until the temp. is right and the packet is emitting smoke. Drink a few beers. Then toss the packet and finish the bird in the grill if needed.

I’ve done all sorts of poultry and appetizers using that method. Easy clean up too.

63

I’m going to have to disagree with you there. It’s all about the technique, not the tool used. I have a bullet-style smoker that produces great BBQ, but some of my best BBQ has been done on a kettle grill. Including this magnificent brisket I cooked last June:

64

That’s a hard no for me. Barbecue does not require barbecue sauce. At all. In fact, your barbecue better be good enough to eat without sauce, or you done effed up. The cooking method defines barbecue, though there are gray areas where grilling and barbecuing start to overlap.

You put barbecue sauce on a grilled chicken, that does not make it a “barbecue” chicken suddenly. That’s a grilled chicken with barbecue sauce.

65

^^What he said. Putting BBQ sauce on it is admitting flaws in either the meat, the technique or the moral precepts of the cook.

66

Me too. Sauce does not define barbecue.

67

Okay, I’ll be more specific: If you use the grill and configure it for slow-cooking or smoking, then you might be producing barbecue. However, if you use the grill as a grill, you don’t get barbecue. You get grilled food.

Crazy talk. Barbecue has nothing to do with sauce. You can put sauce or not, but that has nothing to do with whether it’s barbecue.

68

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just isn’t BBQ.

69

Of course not.

70

Pecan Lodge in Dallas is out of this world. I was skeptical, since so much of the bbq around here is lackluster, but they know what they’re doing for sure.

I haven’t had Smitty’s yet; Kreuz Market was pretty solid though.

KC barbecue is… ok. It’s kind of like a lesser version of Texas-style barbecue IMO. They’re big on sauce.

The barbecue I had in Alabama (Mike & Ed’s in Auburn about 12 years ago) was unexciting to say the least. Dull, unsmoky pulled pork on a sandwich with my choice of sauce.

The major sin for most bbq places is (IMO) that they don’t smoke their meat enough. The smoke should be a major flavor component in its own right, not just a sort of supporting player.

71

We do agree on this. If your meat requires sauce to taste good or to even have flavor at all, you done screwed up.

72

Call me a heretic then, because I like sauce just fine. When I’m eating brisket I put a small puddle on the plate and put a dab on some forkfuls when I want it and just smoky goodness when I don’t.

Pulled pork it’s a little tougher, especially when it’s in a sandwich.

73

There’s a place near me, where the barbecue chicken is so good that adding any sauce actually detracts from the flavor.

74

So do I…but as my choice, not the cooks. Meat that comes already sauced makes me a suspicious bastard.

75

Ah. Yes, on that point we agree.

76

I do love me some venison. Next time I stumble into a joint that serves ostrich, I shall definitely have some, on your recommendation. Thanks. Now, explain how ostrich is so much cheaper than beef where you are – a dearth of cattle? an obscene overabundance of O birds? Or do you have to import both and the boid is the better value?

77

My understanding in many nations (MrD will answer for SA of course) is that it’s not that beef is so expensive, is that it’s unusually cheap in North America.

During my trip in Israel, areas that didn’t cater to prior US residents, beef wasn’t really on the menu. Even in the stores that catered to the above, its was easily twice the cost I would expect in the US, while lamb (and interestingly turkey) was much more common and less expensive.

And considering much North American beef is produced locally or coming from South America, it does have certain savings inherent in terms of transportation costs.

I’m sure that South Africa has it’s own additional wrinkles, but figured the above likely applies as well.

As for the cost of Ostrich, I know what I had was farmed in the US, and even knew someone who was looking into it as a business decades ago. Apparently though, dealing with the birds is a PITA and as of right now, not very high demand.

For more information in the USA. Again, even with current beef prices, it’s $20-30 per pound depending on cut, so not yet a bargain for me at least.

78

Ostriches are native here, and thrive on land that isn’t necessarily great for cattle. Plus I think export of ostrich meat was curtailed a few years back because of avian flu concerns, so the local market grew quite a bit.

That, and beef is the prestige meat here, over say pork or lamb.

79

An Irish housemate once thanked me for barbecuing hamburgers (on our charcoal grill where they were cooked in just a few minutes). Apparently, to her, the device itself was a barbecue and anything cooked on it was therefore barbecued.

I’m more aligned with you.

I’m not too picky about styles or seasoning. I appreciate the variety. I’m partial to mustard sauces but I’ve never had them in their native habitat.

Apparently this map is no longer accurate:

80

Thanks for the info, MrD. Next time I’m in your neck of the woods, we need to get us a couple big bags of White Castle ostrich burgers, my treat. :smile: