BARBECUE AS A SPORT: TIPS FROM THE PIT


Here, you will find Frequently Asked Questions about the recreational sport of barbecue and Super Smoker BBQ recipes!

Grilling vs. Smoking. A lot of people don't understand the difference between grilling and smoking. Sometimes, even folks at Super Smokers BBQ mistakenly refer to smokers as grills. Hey, it's a barbecue thing.

Grilling is cooking directly over a flame with high heat. A blue flame on a gas grill is an example. Grilling is what you do with a hamburger, a steak, or pork chop, by placing it directly over a hot flame. You do this to quickly seal in the juices of the cut you are cooking. Grilling allows the backyard chef to have a finished product in minutes.

Smoking is cooking with indirect heat at a low temperature, such as 250 degrees.
For example, if you cook a pork roast away from a fire with a low temperature, that's smoking. Build a fire on one side of your pit, smoker, or kettle, and draft your smoke to the side where your meat is placed. It will render the fat slowly. Smoke can get into the fat and season the meat before it renders away. Smoking usually takes hours.

There are a few exceptions, such as pork chops and chicken breasts. Chicken breasts can be smoked in an hour or less. Pork chops vary, depending on the thickness of the cut. Try smoking a pork chop that has been dry rubbed with a good blend (like the one below) for 20 minutes. Hit it with a good fog of smoke and indirect heat. Then finish it by grilling directly over your fire. This is a good way to discover how to blend smoking and grilling.

Dry Rubs. A dry rub is a blend of spices that is designed to compliment and enhance the flavor of a particular cut of meat. At Super Smokers BBQ, we recommend putting a dry rub on meats before putting them on the smoker. Most meats are best if you apply the dry rub the night before. (Fish is usually best if dry-rubbed 30 minutes to two hours before the smoking or grilling process). This allows the resins and oils in the spices to marry with the chemistry of the meat. Some people call this dry marinating.In the smoking process, as fat renders and melts away, the rub will carry some of the flavors of the spices into the meat and that will please your taste buds!

Here is a photo of Steven Raichlen, author of the best-selling cookbook series "Barbecue Bible", as he pauses for lunch at Super Smokers BBQ.. He was in the St. Louis area to promote his book "Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades". Terry Black (left) and Skip Steele (right) contributed a sauce recipe featured on page 147 of that book. At this meeting, Steven decided to join the Super Smokers BBQ Competition Team that cooks for the World Title at Memphis In May. For more information on the books, see www.barbecuebible.com.

Top