| Barbecue is one of those crazy words that means | | | | The low-temperature, indirect heat helps prevent the |
| different things to different folk. On one hand, fast | | | | meat from drying out, keeping it juicy. The long, slow |
| food restaurants claim anything with BBQ sauce | | | | cooking time breaks down the collagen in the meat, |
| smeared on it is barbecue. On the other hand, | | | | making even the tougher cuts of meat nice and |
| hard-core backyard barbecuers (who tend to be a | | | | tender for easy eating. What most folks don't realize |
| real particular bunch) think only a particular cut of | | | | (including some hard-core barbecuers themselves) is |
| meat with a particular sauce cooked in a particular | | | | that the marinade, ribs, bastes, and sauces of |
| way over a particular wood counts as barbecue. | | | | barbecue cooking are all designed toward this |
| Smoking and grilling just confuse things more, are | | | | ultimate goal of tender and juicy meat. Marinades |
| they different from barbecuing, or different types of | | | | almost always include an acidic base ingredient, such |
| barbeque? | | | | as vinegar, lemon juice (or some other citric acid), |
| Well, this article will try to clear all this up for you, | | | | wine, or even beer. During the long, multi-hour soak, |
| describing just what exactly barbeque means. There's | | | | these acids tenderize the meat by breaking down |
| a bit of an argument over whether "barbecue" is a | | | | the tissue, making it more tender and allowing the |
| noun (a type of food) or a verb (a method of | | | | meat to absorb more moisture for a juicer end |
| cooking). Personally, I'd argue that it is both, a | | | | product when barbecue. The rib almost always |
| cooking style AND a type of food (that, contrary to | | | | contains a healthy dose of salt, which draws the |
| popular belief, does not necessarily include BBQ | | | | meat juices to the surface and prevents it from |
| sauce). True barbeque cooking requires four things. | | | | drying out. The basting BBQ sauces, usually applied in |
| First a barbecue almost always cooks meat (with | | | | the later stages of cooking, frequently contain some |
| some exception, like corn on the cob or potatoes). | | | | form of sugar (brown sugar, molasses, or honey), |
| Second, it is generally cooked outdoors (but we'll | | | | which caramelizes around the meat from the heat |
| make an exception for restaurants that build special | | | | and seals in the juices (olive and other oils produces |
| indoor cookers). Third, meat cooked over a live fire, | | | | the same effect). |
| not in an oven or on a stove. Fourth, real, true | | | | Even the barbecue sauces (which in the United |
| barbecue is cooked slowly with indirect heat at a low | | | | States are either tomato or vinegar based) both |
| temperature. | | | | contain acids that continue to break down the meat, |
| It's for this reason that grilling is not barbeque (and all | | | | keeping it tender and moist even while being eaten. |
| you suburbanite grillers are free to slap me with your | | | | A final distinctive element of barbecue meat is a |
| spatulas for saying that). In grilling, meat is cooked | | | | smoky flavor. Cooking over a live fire allows the |
| quickly (in minutes) over direct heat at a high | | | | meat to absorb the smoke from burning wood. Even |
| temperature (5000F or over). In barbecue, meat is | | | | when cooking over charcoal briquettes or gas instead |
| cooked slowly (in hours) in indirect heat at a low | | | | of wood, the meat still gains at least a hint of that |
| temperature (between 2000F and 2500F). Smoking | | | | indefinable charbroil taste. Smoking, of course, is a |
| counts as BBQ, it meets all the requirements listed | | | | specialized form of barbecue that purposefully tries |
| above but is a specialized type that includes aromatic | | | | to emphasize the smoky flavor. So that's what |
| smoke to flavor the meat. Now, you may ask (and | | | | barbeque is, meat cooked low and slow until it's |
| rightly so) how the end result of barbecue meat is | | | | tender and juicy. Different cultures in different |
| different from, say, oven-roasted or pan-seared | | | | countries have their own homegrown barbeque |
| meat. The answer is that barbeque meat is | | | | tastes and traditions, but we'll describe those in the |
| extremely tender and juicy. | | | | next article. |