What Does BBQ Mean To You?

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

What does barbeque mean to you?

I'll be cooking two butts for Christmas, and that got me thinking.

The word is a noun, a verb and an adjective. Everybody knows what it is, but not many agree about it.

Where I live, if you drive a couple of hours the BBQ changes, and everybody claims to be doing it the "right" way.

I'll go first... Here's the actual right way:


First, the pit, it places the fire right under the meat, somewhere between grilling and slow cooking.

This not my pit, but it looks like mine.




Secondly, you have to use wood, not charcoal... (Charcoal is for grilling, not BBQ.) Pecan wood is best, Oak will do. Maybe you use dry wood at first to get the fire going, but fresh wet wood makes good BBQ.

This is not my wood, but it looks like mine.




Third, seasoning, the right way is to put the meat on the pit unseasoned. Then take a spray bottle with:

25% salt
25% lemon juice
50% vinegar

You spray the meat as it cooks. The spray dripping off the meat is also used to control the fire... and produce steam, which is important to the crust on the meat.

Cook until done... If you don't know when that is, I can't help you.


Lastly, sauce, I won't cover sauce here, we don't have time for that... But I will say that yall are all doing it wrong, judging by the sauce available in stores.


- Funkenhouser, Pitmaster Extraordinaire.

 

[AcesAndEights]

I agree that BBQ is not grilling. Hate getting invited to a “BBQ” and get handed a hot dog and chips. Call it a “cookout” or something. Don’t be misleading me!

Beyond that however, I’m all for whatever kind of BBQ there is. I like it all. The methods, the rubs, the sauces, there isn’t much I don’t like about low and slow smoked meats.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

To my mind, "barbecue" could be just a cookout with whatever meat, but BBQ (occasionally pronounced "bibby kyew") is exclusively the slower-cooked delicious pit meats and the associated sauces/seasonings.

Got myself a bottle of Alabama White sauce from Mission BBQ a few weeks ago and I've been putting it on everything.

Pizza. On sandwiches instead of Mayo. Dip for fries.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

To my mind, "barbecue" could be just a cookout with whatever meat, but BBQ (occasionally pronounced "bibby kyew") is exclusively the slower-cooked delicious pit meats and the associated sauces/seasonings.

Got myself a bottle of Alabama White sauce from Mission BBQ a few weeks ago and I've been putting it on everything.

Pizza. On sandwiches instead of Mayo. Dip for fries.

If you ever drive through Alabama, stop in Decatur, at the Big Bob Gibsons and try their bbq chicken in white sause. It is amazing.

Yeh, to me, I like all of the regional styles. Not really crazy about just a vinegar based sauce as a condiment, but the meat is good cooked in it.

Mine is the barrel style with side smoke box, but I’ve had just about all style grills, except those egg things. At the river, on 4th of July, my family will dig a pit in the ground and smoke a whole pig.

In college, we used to used one similar to Funk’s picture.

But, I will not say no to a barbecue. As long as your idea of bbq is smoked meat.

 

[huntertrw]

What Does BBQ Mean To You?​

Just this, the best I've ever found.

 

[pappymac]

What does barbeque mean to you?

I'll be cooking two butts for Christmas, and that got me thinking.

The word is a noun, a verb and an adjective. Everybody knows what it is, but not many agree about it.

Where I live, if you drive a couple of hours the BBQ changes, and everybody claims to be doing it the "right" way.

I'll go first... Here's the actual right way:


First, the pit, it places the fire right under the meat, somewhere between grilling and slow cooking.

This not my pit, but it looks like mine.
View attachment 357582



Secondly, you have to use wood, not charcoal... (Charcoal is for grilling, not BBQ.) Pecan wood is best, Oak will do. Maybe you use dry wood at first to get the fire going, but fresh wet wood makes good BBQ.

This is not my wood, but it looks like mine.
View attachment 357583



Third, seasoning, the right way is to put the meat on the pit unseasoned. Then take a spray bottle with:

25% salt
25% lemon juice
50% vinegar

You spray the meat as it cooks. The spray dripping off the meat is also used to control the fire... and produce steam, which is important to the crust on the meat.

Cook until done... If you don't know when that is, I can't help you.


Lastly, sauce, I won't cover sauce here, we don't have time for that... But I will say that yall are all doing it wrong, judging by the sauce available in stores.


- Funkenhouser, Pitmaster Extraordinaire.

You pretty much described the BBQ I grew up with in SE Texas back in the 60s. For awhile we lived just behind a BBQ shop attached to a gas station and my Dad became friends with the owner. When my Dad was home (he was a towboat pilot/captain) he had permission to use the pit on Sundays when the shop was closed. Using the pit meant getting up at 4:00 am, building the wood fire in the pit and keep adding wood until the coals were ready for adding the meat a couple of hours later.

 

[huntertrw]

I'll be cooking two butts for Christmas...

I hope that you have a big grill!

 

[PapaCoolDown]

For me it depends on how barbecue is used in the sentence. Going to a barbecue means burgers, dogs, and sides. Having some barbecue means slow smoked meat that is so tender it should be a religion. Sausage goes with vinegar sauces. Pork goes with sweet sauce. And beef should never be sauced.
Today is pig wings with my own rub. Using plum wood pellets in the Louisiana Grills vertical smoker. Water bath of 1/2 apple juice and 1/2 water. Sprayed every 30 minutes with 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 water. Smoking 1 cup of lard that will get poured on the meat when it is wrapped in butcher paper for the last 45 minutes. 3.5 to 4 hours total.

 

[doug535]

The end result is all that matters to me. The 2 owners at a place I used to work at did competition BBQ all over the USA and had several awards (The American Royal, Jack Daniel's etc...) Low, slow and indirect smoke/heat. There are people doing high temp, fast smoking now, that are also winning competitions. So, end results are what matters.

 

[anotherbob]

nothing more then some guy is going to brag about his meat even if the stuff is raw and gross. But there is also a chance it's going to be insanely good. But the guy is going to tell you he's got the best meat ever despite how clearly not true that should be to any carnivore.
So kind of like me on a first date. Also known as a last date.

 

[DesertDan]

Unfortunately, not mine.

 

[brian64]

I'll be cooking two butts for Christmas, and that got me thinking.

My vote for forum sentence of the year.

 

[hakchuma]

Smoked meat- -dry rubbed only. No sauce. Growing up in my household, sauce, especially sweet sauce on smoked meat was and still is blasphemous and illegal.

 

[warren]

BBQ? A regional term for sure. But, whatever the meat, whatever the region, whatever the cooking style, it'll most likely tickle the palate be it Jamaica, North Carolina, Arkansas, Brazil or even Georgia the country.

 

[LotusEater]

Growing up in Western Canada we grilled steaks and everything else on what I thought was a BBQ. Twenty years ago I moved to Kansas City and realized what I thought was a BBQ was actually a gas grill and that BBQ is actually a style of food slow cooked over a wood or charcoal and wood fire. KC burnt ends being the epitome of BBQ goodness.

 

[sardonicus87]

Barbecue to me isn't any specific style, but barbecue and grilling are NOT the same thing. Barbecue is specifically indirect wood-smoked... anything else is grilling.

I don't care how much Baby Ray's bbq sauce you slathered on those drumsticks, you're cooking on coals with no wood smoke, it's grilling. You can't just slap barbecue sauce on something on the grill and call it barbecue. Just because it's cooked on a grill, doesn't mean it's barbecue. If it's not smoked with wood smoke, it's not barbecue.

That said, I prefer dry-rub no matter what kind of meat it is, and I prefer fruit woods like apple and cherry. Not a fan at all of mesquite or oak.

 

[jpberg]

To me it was always just whatever was on the grill.
Then I got on forums and met people from states who lost the civil war and needed something to be proud of.
So now I nod my head and act like there’s a difference in barbecue sauce.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Smoke, fire, and time with meat cooked low and slow.

For me, an all purpose salt and pepper rub is essential, other rubs are players, and every sauce has a purpose, but isn't necessary.

I really got into smoking meat this summer, until the shelves in my garage fell down. The garage got redesigned and my smoker was trapped inside the mess. Once spring comes, I'll fire up the smoker again.

 

[brian64]

What does barbeque mean to you?

I'll be cooking two butts for Christmas, and that got me thinking.

The word is a noun, a verb and an adjective. Everybody knows what it is, but not many agree about it.

Where I live, if you drive a couple of hours the BBQ changes, and everybody claims to be doing it the "right" way.

I'll go first... Here's the actual right way:


First, the pit, it places the fire right under the meat, somewhere between grilling and slow cooking.

This not my pit, but it looks like mine.
View attachment 357582



Secondly, you have to use wood, not charcoal... (Charcoal is for grilling, not BBQ.) Pecan wood is best, Oak will do. Maybe you use dry wood at first to get the fire going, but fresh wet wood makes good BBQ.

This is not my wood, but it looks like mine.
View attachment 357583



Third, seasoning, the right way is to put the meat on the pit unseasoned. Then take a spray bottle with:

25% salt
25% lemon juice
50% vinegar

You spray the meat as it cooks. The spray dripping off the meat is also used to control the fire... and produce steam, which is important to the crust on the meat.

Cook until done... If you don't know when that is, I can't help you.


Lastly, sauce, I won't cover sauce here, we don't have time for that... But I will say that yall are all doing it wrong, judging by the sauce available in stores.


- Funkenhouser, Pitmaster Extraordinaire.

All of that is actually very impressive. I'm just really lazy when it comes to food prep in general, and have little BBQ skill or knowledge to speak of. But I can definitely see where everything you're describing would make quite a difference.

 

[JackOrion]

I’m of the traditional school. Low and slow is BBQ. Hot and fast is grilling. You don’t BBQ hotdogs, burgers, fish…… you grill them. You can Smoke them, and that’s a process of its own. Unless you’re cold smoking smaller cuts will get to done temps quickly at 225-250 typical smoking temps.
BBQ is anything that takes at least an hour at 225-250 degrees. Which brings to focus the size of what you’re cooking. 20 lbs of butt on my BGE without wrapping will take around 20 hours to get to the finished temp of 203. That’s BBQ.
As far as popular culture is concerned, a BBQ is any gathering around an outdoor cooking device that entails preparing food for any number of festive occasions. I usually disagree with popular culture on most issues. This is definitely one of them.