BS: How do you Bar-B-Que

Subject: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que?
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:47 PM

Just finished a Fourth of July cremation of sausages, chicken and a steak. The steak survived pretty well but the sausages crunched. Seamus rarely complains (Remember the Creamed Onions Incident) and was grateful for all the snacks tossed his way.

Any expert advice? Or shall I simply stick to burgers and hot dogs?

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:48 PM

HA HA Jacqui. I beat you to it!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Leadfingers
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:11 PM

SINS - Its like Good Comedy - ALL a question of Timing ! And I am sure Seamus didnt mind at all !

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: jacqui.c
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:14 PM

I wasn't going to say a thing - I'm all too aware of my own culinary disasters!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: gnu
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:28 PM

Sausages. The key is to boil them first. Cook them. Then, high rack, low heat and juuuuust brown them.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Peace
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:28 PM

Gnu aced it in one.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 05:17 PM

That's not barbecue, folks--that's grilling. The former involves lengthy cooking at low temperatures (generally with smoke present), while the latter is cooking directly over a bed of coals or an open flame.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 05:18 PM

We've had long and heated (sorry about that!) discussions here at Mudcat about just what barbecue is. It sounds like you're talking about the prospect of grilling meat over coals or open flames. Is that correct? Are you also discussing the most important feature of it, the SAUCE?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 05:20 PM

It helps to poach or parboil the sausages in half beer. They keep more of their flavor. Do not puncture. Drop sausages in boiling water, and take out when the fat starts to liquify, says my B B Q cookbook (Four-five minutes). Then grill over medium low.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: curmudgeon
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 05:21 PM

For quick cooking meats, steaks, burgers, dogs, boiled sausages, boiled chicken, lay a bed of hot coals in the unit and broil accordingly.

For meats that require longer cooking times, put a foil pan in the middle of the lower rack, arrange hot coals on either side. Put the flesh over the drip pan and cook for a longer time.

I'll give you the full course at the David Jones house concert -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 07:21 PM

what about chicken?

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: EBarnacle
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 07:34 PM

It sounds as though we are ready for the great sausage debate--to split or not to split. Not splitting them makes the sausage sweeter but all of that sweetness is from fat. Splitting them removes the fat and makes them a bit dryer. It also makes it easier to cook the sausage through without burning.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Bugsy
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 07:54 PM

is obviously a US BBQ thread, because in Australia the women are not allowed by law to be within 5 metres of a Barby plate.

My suggestion, hand Seamus the utensils and tell him "It's the man's job".

Now I'll duck for cover>

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:15 PM

Ahhhhhh, Sins, if you really want the real deal step over to tweedsblues and ask the question... Blues folks is serious about BBQ so ya' better bring heat with ya' but, hey...

Now I ain't gonna get into no food fight here 'bout BBQ other than to just make a couple comments... Good BBQ is cooked, not grilled... The you add yer sauces... Okay to baste a little with 'um but not smathering the crud outta the meat...

And, oh yeah, there's twe major styles of BBQ sauces... In North Carolina it's vinegar based and in Memphis, Tn, it's tomato based...

I run into a roadside BBQ, Pig Daddy (pigdaddysbbq.com) round Ruckersville, Va. and he has a sausce that I swaer is a combination of the two... I like Memphis and the P-Vine likes NC so we generally end up in a big food fight when it comes to BBQ but we both liked his sauce...

That's all I'm sayin'...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:17 PM

I don't think he has his testicles anymore, plus you might as well just let him gobble all the food. Jaccqui, you think you can train your dog how to BBQ?

Listen, Bugsy (my neigbor's Aussie Shepherd's name.), Those of us without menfolk handy have to make due. Luckily, SINSULL has pulled off a great male cook troll and curmudgeon has volunteered for the next house concert. Nice job, Mary!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: JennyO
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:18 PM

That's not barbecue, folks--that's grilling.

That's exactly what barbeque is for folks in Oz, so it all depends on what neck of the woods you come from. We're happy to cremate any kind of dead animal - or even vegeburgers - on the gas BBQ. A lot of our BBQs come with hoods now, but ours is just a 4 burner with a hotplate and a grillplate.

I gather barbeque is something different in the US - or at least some parts of it - more the way Dick describes.

Our barbeques at Earlwood are a bit famous around here actually. We have BBQs and sessions with lots of people. We've had a few visiting Mudcatters here from time to time too. We even had a comet party in January. We 'arranged' to have Comet McNaught appear so folks could watch it from the backyard. That's going to be rather hard to top!

I'll be interested to find out more about what other folks do. What about the UK? What is your definition of barbeque?

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:23 PM

Bobert is correct--you put a little sauce on the meat to start the flavor and pick up a little smoke and keep it moist if the meat is lean, but adding it to the plate with the meat is best. I like a nice sliced brisket sandwich with sauce, onion, and pickles. If it doesn't have sauce, it is grilled, not barbecue.

(Ducks and runs for cover)

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:25 PM

Favorite BBQ sauce: 'Texas Best'. I can't find it around here anymore - WAAAA!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: JennyO
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:50 PM

Bugsy, I know it's traditional in Oz for the menfolk to gather round the barbie and sink a tinny or two, but it doesn't always happen that way here. My brother likes being the cook, but seeing as he is only visiting from France on average once every 5 years, he doesn't get the opportunity too often. By the way, he had to really hunt around to find a BBQ for his place in Paris. Gas BBQs are not very common over there.

When we have great bunches of people, which is the norm at our barbeques, everybody cooks their own so that it's done the way they like it. In fact in general, John always lets me cook the meat for any meal because I like it a lot more rare than he does. He usually does veges and salads. Works for us!

I like the idea of the sauces. We sometimes marinate our meat before we cook it, but there is always the ubiquitous tomato sauce and barbeque sauce on the table for people to put on their snags (sausages), and I usually cook a big pot of whole potatoes to go with the meat. People bring salads and dessert things to share.

As well as meat, chicken, sausages and vegeburgers, sometimes we might cook a piece of fish with herbs/butter or whatever wrapped in foil, usually onion rings, sometimes veges like peppers, eggplant - anything you can think of really.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 09:43 PM

What's this "upper rack" an' "lower rack" stuff? Listen, this is how real country people grill or barbecue or whatever ya wanna call it:

Take a shovel an' dig a little hole. Situate three or four bricks on end around th' perimeter of th' hole. Put some sticks in th' hole an' set 'em on fire. When th' sticks ain't burnin' a whole lot any more, stick a ol' regrigerator shelf or somethin' on top of th' bricks t' keep th' meat outta th' fire. Put th' meat on it an' go play banjo fer a while. Come back an' stick th' meat with a fork ever now an' then. When th' meat don't bleed no more, eat it.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:38 PM

Ugh!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Janie
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:41 PM

Here in the south (USA) bar-b-que is cooked on a grill, or in a pit, but it always involves a tomato or vinegar-based sauce. the meat may be marinated in the sauce, basted with the sauce, or both. but it is the use of bar b que sauce that makes it a bar-b-que (ever been to a pig-pickin;?) Without the bar-b-que sauce, it is grilling.

Here in the southern part of heaven (North Carolina Piedmont) pulled pork bbq is king. At it's best it is tart and sassy, tender and moist, but not wet. At cook-offs and festival fundraisers, it is definitely a male ritual. The guys stay up all night, tending the pit or the smoker, drinking (if allowed) and telling yarns.

My California cousins, damn Yankees like that transplant Mainiac, Sinsull, and other poor souls who can't be blamed for the accident of having been born elsewhere, call the act of cooking anything on an outdoor grill bar-b-queing. Hell, they even call the damn grill a bar-b-que.

Lord, they no not what they do. Please forgive them their sins.

Janie:^)

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:51 PM

I know what good Bar-B-Que is and love it. That said a Bar-B-Que in Maine involves cooking meat over charcoal or on a gas grill. When motivated, I cook a steak or a hamburger for myself but I have never been enamored of sweating profusely and singing my eyelashes to produce something better left in an oven.
But now that Tom has offered, all Bar-B-Queing chores will be left in his manly hands at the lobster boil.
heh heh

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: mrdux
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:25 AM

Jeri --

Texas Best had been my favorite too. BUT.... it was bought up by Marzetti's a couple years ago and they even changed the recipe (upping the high-fructose corn syrup). Marzetti's recently (last fall) announced that Texas Best will no longer be made -- when the stores run out, that's it. My stores just did, and I'm down to my last half-bottle. I just read, however, that it will be available again in the future: the family that started Texas Best over 30 years ago is planning on bringing it back. You can email them at [e-mail] for an update.

michael

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:42 AM

Georgia barbeque, pit or grilled pork, cooked very slow and smoked over hardwood, always used a mustard-based sauce. My wife (a Georgian) says tomato-based sauce is Yankee, but she says that about a lot of food she doen't like.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 01:56 AM

Janie, I was hoping someone would come along and describe that North Carolina version. I read a great essay years ago that described the differences around the U.S. We get that "pulled" sort (here it is called chopped brisket and it has sauce mixed into the meat. This is served on a bun as a sandwich. Tasty!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: GUEST,patty o'dawes
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 09:53 AM

We don't BBQ in Ireland as the rain drowns the food.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: goatfell
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 10:06 AM

don't burn food, and just cook what you can, unlike they do in Australia, it's always the men that hang around bbq's and yet it's the women that do all the work. I'm from Scotland and we have BBQ's as well but not very often

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: GUEST,Braai man
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 10:15 AM

Come to South Africa to see how it's done properly!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Bee
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 11:41 AM

We keep the enormous (new one this summer: they get bigger every time the Man gets a new one) propane barbecue thing on the deck, and use it rain or shine all summer to cook almost all meat. We seldom parboil, except for chicken bits. The thing has a rotissary grilling flamer on the back, so we do roasts and chickens on it as well.

Every time I light it I expect it to blow up - I've never been comfortable with propane.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: curmudgeon
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:23 PM

First, to clear up any misconceptions, I offered tuition not servitude. However, if you want to do a real barbecue with the lobster boil, I will assist in the preparation, but I won't do grilling.

Some other observations. As Dick said, you can't barbecue with a gas grill. They're only glroified outdoor gas stoves. But it can be done with a charcoal grill.

The day or at least the night before you're going to cook, prepare a blend of peppers, herbs and spices and rub it thoroughly into the piece of flesh to be cooked. Wrap it all up and refigerate it for at least 12 hours.

Next day, an hour before starting the fire, throw a couple of h andsful of wood chips into a bucket of water. Light the charcaol, about 36 briquets   . When glowing and gray, put half on either side of a rectangular foil pan, the bottom of which should have a small quantity of liquid - water, beer, wine, cider. This helps to keep the meat from drying out.. Drain the wood chips and toss some on top of th coals. Center the meat over the drip pan and put the cover on. Aside from adding anothe dozen hot coals and more wood chips evry hour, leave it alone till its cooked - 4 - 5 hours for whole chickens, 5 to 6 hours for beef and pork. If you must add sauce, do so only for the last half hour of cooking as it will otherwise burn. Better to put sauce on the cooked and cut/shredded meat.

I have a sauce recipe that uses both the vinegar and tomato base, but I'd like to know more about that mustard based one -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:43 PM

Like curmudgeon, both rub and sauce are important. Recipes coming.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:47 PM

Anyone else ever tried to barbeque a nut and rice rissole?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:50 PM

I haven't heard of them being Bar-B-que'd; but I have known them to to grilled.

Nut and rice loaf; actually, sliced and grilled.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 01:34 PM

There are as many recipes for sauces and rubs as there are people who make their own, but the recipes for rub and sauce at this site are good, and are a base from which to vary. (Some insist on using dry Keen's Mustard rather than prepared. More 'pepper' is used than I like, but my tolerance is low).
The pork is cooked on a closed barbecue, very slow, 225-250 F, hardwood-smoked. The recipe gives a detailed explanation with pictures.

http://southchild.com/?p=415
Pork Barbecue

The following is an all-purpose recipe from "White Trash Cooking":

BOSIE'S BARBECUE SAUCE

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 lemons
1 cup vinegar*
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 large onion, chopped
3 strips bacon
2 tablespoons Worcester Sauce (optional)
1 cup water
Pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash liquid smoke (optional)

* Use a wine vinegar.
Fry bacon until deep gold. Add onions and finish frying until they start getting brown. Add garlic and everything elso in the recipe and bring to a boil. Turn fire down and simmer until sauce thickens.
Use on any meat for barbecueing.
Rub meat all over with brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 02:36 PM

So Tom has crapped out of Bar-B-Queing at the lobster boil. heh heh

There will be a grill, hot dog, burgers, and steaks. Cook your own.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 03:16 PM

And of course one can wrap almost anything in foil (add a little moisture) and toss it on the barbie. (Which is a grill.)

That rice loaf-- chill first and pack tight. But polenta, chili mac..... try it as is or try it in foil.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: curmudgeon
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 03:41 PM

Thanks, Q! That's precisely the recipe I've been looking for -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 04:47 PM

Stupid question, I am sure, but how do you keep a charcoal fire at 225-250 degrees?

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: curmudgeon
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 04:57 PM

The charcoal itself will be much hotter, but by using the indirect method, as explained and illustrated, the heat in the unit will maintain a lower temperature, allowing for long slow cooking - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 05:32 PM

SINSULL, the pictures at that site are good- as well as the recipes. Lotsa other recipes there, some very good, but the organization by date is cumbersome.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 11:14 PM

Sins -- is there a date for the great Lobster Bake yet? It will be good to see folks at David Jones's concert -- it feels like a long time since singing.......

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: EBarnacle
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:01 PM

Janie, DamYankee is one word.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:11 PM

EBarnacle- incorrect spelling!! damyankee. Never capitalized.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:35 PM

The Southchild description of low-temperature barbecuing also applies to some fish grilling. Salmon are often grilled on an oiled grill, marinated, the coals raked to each side of the barbecue as shown and very slow cooking proceeds at medium to low heat with the lid closed, perhaps 20-30 minutes- Nothing worse than overcooked fish!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Deckman
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:35 PM

Silly Stilly ... I've always found that copius amounts of vodka helps. NOT FOR THE COOK, you understand, but for the hungry guests! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:52 PM

In Greece, barbecues are mainly over charcoal, ideally adding some vine branches too for flavour.
My impression is that in the US, barbecuing is all about sauces - to a Greek that is suspicious, the meat shout taste good without any sauce to cover the flavours.
In Australia, now there they know how to do things. When I first visited my son there, after he emigrated, he suggested a barbie but apologised because "he only had a small one"; it was the size of Albert Hall! And he's really learned to barbecue all kinds of meat well, hat off to him. It seems to me that in Australia barbecue is all about the meat. And that's how it should be.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:56 PM

Mrdux, thanks for the information on Texas Best. I found the sauce on-line, but I would have been disappointed if I bought it and it tasted like everything else. I liked it because it was tangy and smoky, not sweet. There are sweet sauces that are ok, but the old Texas Best was out of this world.

However, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven (with my taste buds intact) when I tasted a pulled pork sammich from Mr Sippy. Cecil (Mr Sippy) is a really good bluegrass musician, too!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 07:35 PM

Put a bee on the bar and then take your pool cue and...

Subject: RE: BS: How do you Bar-B-Que
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 09:30 PM

This afternoon a barbecue fire on a balcony set an apartment-condo building afire about four blocks from me. 110 people now without a home. Seems to occur often.

Barbecues on balconies of buildings housing more than one family should be banned.