"Only smoking is proper barbecuing." Discuss

[CyderPig]

Pardon me for putting my oar in, but I thought the name BBQ was derived from the original name Buccaneer or Buccanye?
In the West Indies groups of crack shot sailors used to travel the little islands shooting and smoking the wild goats over Allspice wood, which they then salted and sold to other sailors for long maritime voyages.

Cheers
Cyderpig

[keith157]

Sorry long before that 1514 to be exact a Spaniard noted the Tahini Indians were cooking on a raised platform over an open fire on what they called a barbacoa. Also the French in Tahiti had a term for cooking a whole pig from whiskers to tail or "barbe aux que"

[Steve]

Here comes my 2p.

I have owned several types of pit, kettle BBQ's and I own a single gas BBQ. I have cooked on all without wood with the exception of the pellet smoker that I used to own.

When cooking indirect, there is rarely a time when I have a need to cook without wood. I have an oven that is perfectly capable of holding a low temperature, I also have a stand alone slow cooker. If I want to slow cook without smoke, I just use these tools.

If I need extra capacity, I have the option of using a pit as an outdoor oven without wood. It does affect the flavour but only subtly.

To be honest I don't care too much what people call "proper" BBQ. Opinions vary wildly and I respect those opinions as long as people can justify them and don't just spin out a load of BS claiming to be BBQ experts/evangelists.

Now when it comes to competitive BBQ we're talking a whole different animal. There are clearly two paths. Firstly there is the gourmet grilling such as Ready Steady Q and Laverstoke where you are talking about a cooking competition using BBQ's. These are open in terms of style, use of smoke, flavour profiles etc.

When you consider Low 'n' Slow style competitions, these are an American concept so guess what, they are based on the American definition of BBQ. This being the slow cooked, smoky meat feasts we all know and love. There are expectations involved in judging this type of food, the meat will be soft and succulent, it will have certain flavour notes, one of which being smoke. This would be the expectation in an American competition where BBQ is considered as food cooked over wood.

But just a note for you, MiM 2011 a team placed with jerk chicken that had no discernable taste of smoke. Pit Masters round 1 2010 We won chicken with an entry that had no smoke on it (we forgot ).

[The Social Smokers]

When you consider Low 'n' Slow style competitions, these are an American concept so guess what, they are based on the American definition of BBQ. This being the slow cooked, smoky meat feasts we all know and love. There are expectations involved in judging this type of food, the meat will be soft and succulent, it will have certain flavour notes, one of which being smoke. This would be the expectation in an American competition where BBQ is considered as food cooked over wood.

This was the point I was trying to get across. At the end of the day, you can cook whatever you want on a BBQ and however you want. However, when cooking US style BBQ such as low n slow ribs, pork and brisket, to not use smoke would just be weird to me. It would not be authentic in terms of flavour. If i wanted to do Korean style beef ribs then maybe I wouldn't use smoke because it's not the flavour profile that would suit that dish.

At the end of the day, our main interest is US BBQ, we are a US style BBQ team who enter US style BBQ comps. It's the US style of BBQ and flavours that inspired us to buy smokers. Cooking low and slow and using smoke every time we BBQ does not demonstrate a lack of skills, it's just one area we want to perfect so that we can excel in competitions. We could probably cook anything else we wanted to, but we don't have any desire to because our favourite food is the US flavour profile with the use of smoke.


So my closing statement would be:

If you want to cook authentic native dishes, it's a good idea to stick to native cooking methods and ingredients if you wish to achieve an authentic dish experience.

[Pecker]

Sorry long before that 1514 to be exact a Spaniard noted the Tahini Indians were cooking on a raised platform over an open fire on what they called a barbacoa.

That's right, they cooked whole animals in open pits.

Steve W, what you have to bear in mind is the ethos of the BBBQS is to get more people interested in BBQ Competitions and competing. The rules for these comps and the judging is KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) compatible.

And rule 6 of the KCBS Rules and Regulations 2012 says:

6) Fires shall be of wood, wood pellets or charcoal. Gas
and electric heat sources shall not be permitted for cooking
or holding. Propane or electric is permitted as fire starters,
provided that the competition meat is not in/on the cooking
device. Electrical accessories such as spits, augers, forced draft
are permitted. No open pits or holes are permitted, except at
the election of the contest organizer. Fires shall not be built
on the ground.

Oh, the irony.

The Americans clearly have a distinguished, long and illustrious history of barbecuing.

As long as we merely try to copy them we'll never have one of our own.

We are a country with a long tradition of producing some of the finest, quality ingredients in the world. Our beef and lamb are second to none, and sought by chefs across the globe. Our history of roasting cuts of meat over open fires and spits is the most celebrated on the planet.

Wouldn't it be great if the British BBQ Society could in some way encourage the development and/or rediscovery of our barbecuing heritage - one that goes back to before Europeans ever discovered the Americas. I just think pretending we're all from Kansas will not help us invent a truly British BBQ.

How about a competition containing only traditional British ingredients and/or produce?

Steve W

[Pecker]

But just a note for you, MiM 2011 a team placed with jerk chicken that had no discernable taste of smoke. Pit Masters round 1 2010 We won chicken with an entry that had no smoke on it (we forgot ).

Cheers Steve, I'm learning a lot here.

Great to hear of a team winning with jerk chicken, largely because it's one of my favourite dishes.

Steve W

[Pecker]

Cooking low and slow and using smoke every time we BBQ does not demonstrate a lack of skills...

My bad, I'll try again.

It fails to demonstrate the full and wide range of skills, which everyone who barbecues should seek to have.

This is nothing against cookiong with smoke low 'n' slow. If people limited their techniques to just grilling, I'd say the same.

Barbecue is a big, wide world of wonderful flavours and different techniques. It'd be great if we could celebrate them all equally.

Steve W

[RobinC]

I'm increasingly struggling to understand what point you are trying to make. I don't think we're all pretending we're from Kansas. Think most people are agreed on what you cook on your BBQs in your backyard is completely up to you. You seem to be ignorning that point and getting hung up on the use of smoke.

The competition circuit is different as I believe that one of its stated of the aims of the BBBQs was to try to get British teams placing higher up in the key American competitions than they have done historically - to do that you have to have a similar type of competition. If you don't like that then that's fine, don't engage with it.

Lets be blunt. The state of British BBQ is pretty poor. You have people who in a Kitchen are possibly reasonable cooks but stick them outside with a grill and they start doing criminal things to sausages and burgers using fuel that is soaked in all kinds of crap. The IQBN/BBBQs through its competitions is showing to people that BBQs can be better than that. Likewise Weber with its Weber Experience roadshow and Grill Academy. Plus you've got the Taste Of events, Laverstock farm etc. etc. Not all of these things revolve around American BBQ but if all that happened to British BBQ was that it got Americanised it would be in a damn site better shape than it is now.

[Chris__M]

Who has ever seen 'smoked burgers' in a shop?

My regular cook is for a group of folk (anything between 5 and 15 people) who come round to me to play board games once every couple of months. Sometimes it is just burgers and bangers, but if I have time, I'll do something special for them.

One time, I was expecting some new people to the group, and I didn't want to be outside cooking when I should be inside greeting and getting to know people. So I put a load of burgers on a slowish smoke in my pellet grill.

Ever since, the request from everyone is "you *are* going to smoke the burgers again, aren't you?" Definitely a hit.

[Pecker]

I'm increasingly struggling to understand what point you are trying to make. I don't think we're all pretending we're from Kansas. Think most people are agreed on what you cook on your BBQs in your backyard is completely up to you. You seem to be ignorning that point and getting hung up on the use of smoke.

The competition circuit is different as I believe that one of its stated of the aims of the BBBQs was to try to get British teams placing higher up in the key American competitions than they have done historically - to do that you have to have a similar type of competition. If you don't like that then that's fine, don't engage with it.

Lets be blunt. The state of British BBQ is pretty poor. You have people who in a Kitchen are possibly reasonable cooks but stick them outside with a grill and they start doing criminal things to sausages and burgers using fuel that is soaked in all kinds of crap. The IQBN/BBBQs through its competitions is showing to people that BBQs can be better than that. Likewise Weber with its Weber Experience roadshow and Grill Academy. Plus you've got the Taste Of events, Laverstock farm etc. etc. Not all of these things revolve around American BBQ but if all that happened to British BBQ was that it got Americanised it would be in a damn site better shape than it is now.

Hi Robin. From your earlier replies I think you'ver pretty much got my point, and I think we largely agree - sorry if I've over-complicated it.

I agree thart, if we could just swap what we have now for the standard of American barbecues, we'd be immediately better off - no question about that.

But I think we'd become culturally impoverished in ther longer term.

We really should aim higher than just thinking that we should copy America. I know that's not what you're suggesting, but I really think it's a danger.

Steve W