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BBQ 101: An Introduction to Smoked Meat, part 1

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Elderberry:
ThermoBlog by Martin Earl

Barbecue is perhaps the iconic American form of cooking. We borrowed everything else, but the various regional styles of BBQ in America are ours. Today, the interest in BBQ is growing like never before, with local competitions springing up all over and slow-cooked, smoked meats making their way from hard-to-find back-woods shacks into manicured suburban neighborhoods. Americans love barbecue and are expressing that love by learning how to do it. If you’ve decided to learn the craft, or even if you have cooked a few butts in your day, you’ve probably come across the million blogs, forums, books, and magazines that are available to those that want to perform carnivorous alchemy, and you’ve likely been overwhelmed by it all. I know I was.

That is why we’re bringing you this BBQ 101 Guide. In this series, we’ll distill the basics of what you need to know about smoking meat, from smoker to sauce. In Part 1, we’ll go over the history and origins of barbecue as well as some of the major thermal processes, from smoke and combustion to collagen dissolution and smoke rings. So strap in, there’s a lot to cover!

Contents:

•   BBQ history

•   BBQ thermal principles

       o   Collagen in BBQ
       o   The stall
       o   BBQ temperatures
       o   Kinds of smoke
       o   What is the “smoke ring?”

•   BBQ thermometers

•   Smoker fuel types

       o   Stick burners
       o   Charcoal smokers
       o   Pellet smokers

•   Summary

What is BBQ?

First, there’s one thing we need to clear up: Grilling and barbecuing are two different things. I remember talking to a pitmaster from Tenessee who had moved to Utah and hearing about how his new neighbors had invited him over for a barbecue, for which he was very excited. On arrival, he and his wife looked at each other with disappointed chagrin as they surveyed the stacks of burgers and hotdogs and realized that the well-meaning neighbors meant a grilling party, not a barbecue. We’ve written a whole post on the topic of the distinction between grilling and BBQ, but for the sake of brevity, we can boil it down to one key difference: the cooking temperature.

Grilling is a high-heat cooking method, while BBQ is a lower heat method. If you’ve heard people talking about “low and slow” cooking, that is the heart of barbecue.

Where did BBQ come from? There is no straightforward answer to the question, and entire books on that history have been and still could be written on the subject because there are many cultural influences and historical twists in the origin and regionalization of American barbecue. The name “barbecue” comes through Spanish from the native Arawak barbacoa, meaning “a wooden frame on posts”—a reference to the drying and cooking of meats on a raised bed over hot charcoal. American barbecue most likely started with slaves brought from the Caribbean.

As the cooking method spread, it changed, morphing with local flavors and the availability of local ingredients. In regions across the American South and Midwest, sauces were created, regional favorites for cooking wood choice emerged, favorite meats became local standards, and rubs evolved as they moved not just from state to state but even city to city and kitchen to kitchen.

More: https://blog.thermoworks.com/bbq-grilling/bbq-101-an-introduction-to-smoked-meat/

Check out Part 2 and Part 3 of our BBQ 101.

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