“Barbecuing is a dance on a razor’s edge between grilling and burning.” Steve Raichlen
I hope you are prepared. In less than three days BBQ season officially opens across America.
Over at Slate David Plotz is on a noble quest to find the "greatest barbecue joints in America, an R.W. Apple-ian gut-stuffing to sample as much 'cue of as many different varieties as I could in a week, to try to figure why barbecue was so distinctly American and where you should go to eat the best meat in the world." What a rough job.
As he points out, many of us don't know the difference between grilling and barbecuing:
"What most Americans call barbecuing is not barbecuing. When you throw some charcoal on the Weber and sear some T-bones and burgers, you are "having a barbecue" but you are not "barbecuing." You are "grilling." When you grill, you cook fast over high, direct heat. But when you barbecue, you cook meat slowly, over low heat (as low as 170 degrees), and with smoke. Grilling is a transatlantic flight on the Concorde. Barbecuing is a cruise on the QE2. Grilling is a quickie on the kitchen table. Barbecue is tantric."
Amen and Ah-hem!
According to Celebrating BBQ there are four regional styles of BBQ in America: Carolina, known for its whole pork, shredded pork and hot-sour-vinegar-based sauce; Memphis, where smoky, sweet-hot ribs and pulled pork shoulder are "the real signature of Southern barbecue"; Texas, where savory beef brisket and pork rules the range; and Kansas City, whose hot, sticky, tomato-based sauce was the prototype for the bottled commercial sauces now found in supermarkets everywhere.
One of the simplest methods that yields great flavor is to use dry spice rubs which if you think about it is a dry marinade. Now there are as many rub blends as there are uses and grill meisters. Everyone has their signature rub it seems so the idea here is to experiment until you find a composition that pleases you. The mixture is worked over the outside of food which will encourage the formation a concentrated flavor.
Rubs are usually a dry combination of herbs and spices, although sometimes a little oil is added to moisten the mixture. As they are often massaged into the meat. Steve Raichlen, author and BBQ expert, says that a good rub "should certainly hit the basics--sweet, sour, salty and bitter." Generally speaking you can use rubs across all meats and poultry in varying, to your liking, degree, but here are a few parameters:
- Stick with earthier spices (red and black pepper, cumin, cinnamon) for meats and lighter ones (ginger, cardamom) for fish and chicken
- Rubs can be massaged on the meat or poultry just before grilling or for a more pronounced flavor leave the rub on longer and in the fridge until ready to grill
- Shirmp needs only 10-15 minutes; boneless chick and fish 30-45 depending on thickness; whole chickens 4 hours or overnight; steaks about 1-3 hours
If you are not feeling like rubbing it all together Tom Douglas has a line of very aromatic and exotic products called Rub with Love.
Pincho Powder
Excerpted from "Barbecue! Bible™ Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters & Glazes" (2000) the definitive cookbook on global grilling. Pinchos is the Spanish word for shish kebabs. You'll find the dish in bars in Spain and in Puerto Rico. Steve recommends using Spanish or Hungarian paprika. And accompanying it with sangria certainly wouldn't hurt.
1/2 teaspoon saffron
1/4 cup Spanish paprika
1/4 cup dried parsley
1/4 cup freeze-dried chives
2 tablespoons coarse salt (kosher or sea)
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons dried garlic flakes
2 teaspoons chili pepper flakes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons black pepper
Crumble the saffron between your fingers into a bowl. Whisk the remaining ingredients together. Place all the powders into something that you can gently crush together--a pestle is good. It needs to be a semi fine powder.To make the pinchos, sprinkle the powder on 1/2" - 1" cubes of pork, beef, lamb, or chicken in a mixing bowl. Add a little olive oil and marinate the cubes covered in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours. Skewer meats and grill over high heat, basting with olive oil.
Ya know, I used to have spices and herbs set aside for beef or pork or chicken or fish. As it happens from time to time, you run out of one base when you really need it. So, you end up using something blended for beef on chicken. The results have been amazingly good. That's when I started substituting chicken for beef in a traditional pot roast. Of course you don't have the same cooking times, but the chicken & red wine & bay come out luscious, rich and divine (all at the same time). Where you can get in to trouble is with Fish, it usually doesn't have enough backbone to pull it off. I said, USUALLY. There are fish that are fatty and strong enough to handle the bruising of the stronger spices. Yum.
Biggles
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | May 25, 2005 at 03:27 PM
Fish IS a challenge--I hear shark works well--not as easy to come by. My challenge this summer is to perfect R I B S...mmmmmm with a dry rub with a vinegar mop. DELISH...may need to do some field experimentation!
Posted by: Jeanne | May 25, 2005 at 03:51 PM
Speaking of fish being a challenge. The family and I just got back from a really nice visit with an old friend of mine and his girlfriend. She's pretty much a vegetarian, fish ... butter. That kind of stuff. The food she laid out was awesome, but what struck me was the Ahi (sp?) Tuna she bought. Olive oil, cracked pepper & fresh lemon juice over a mesquite fire. My 9 year old said, "Pops! Thanks for the pork !!!"
He was right. It was like the pork chops we do. Such a treat.
Biggles
Posted by: Dr. Biggles | May 29, 2005 at 09:01 PM