Backyard BBQ means different things to different people depending your cooking experience and knowledge of "grilling" versus "low and slow" cooking techniques.
For most folks, when they refer to BBQ they are referring to "grilling" at higher temperatures than what is normally used to cook low and slow. Here are some guidelines for reference:
- Low - 200 - 250*F (traditional bbq meats such as pulled pork, brisket, ribs, chicken)
- Medium - 250 - 300*F (hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, roasts)
- Hot - 300 - 400*F 9 (steaks, pork chops, kabobs)
- Too Hot - 401*F and up (not recommended)
You'll hear many of the so called cooking "experts" talking about searing a steak to "seal" the juices and you'll see many other of the supposed "experts" on television smothering meat in bbq sauce and the burn it on the fire resulting in meat that is raw in the middle with burnt bbq sauce charred on the outside. And, they pass this off as an acceptable bbq cooking technique.
I've seen it time and time again. People use too much charcoal, get it too hot and end up with burnt food.
Two things that should help your backyard cooking results:
1. Use a medium to hot fire for grilling, but never too hot.
2. Put the bbq sauce on the meat at the end of the cooking process.
3. Use a meat thermometer to monitor internal meat temperature.
4. Say no to low quality briquettes and use hardwood lump charcoal.
5. Never use lighter fluid to start your fire.
6. Don't set-up your cooker too close to the house. It might catch fire.
7. Don't be afraid to experiment.
8. Read everything about cooking bbq you can get your hands on.
9. Visit BBQ web sites devoted to the Art of BBQ (like this one).
10. Be very critical of the results and you're results will improve.
Check back often for more backyard tips.
How to Choose a BBQ Smoker
Generally speaking, barbecue refers to cooking with wood over a low heat in order to bring the internal temperature of the meat being cooked up to edible temperature slowly so as to avoid losing moisture (i.e. tenderness) from large cuts of meat. For example, cooking a 14 lb beef brisket using the hot and fast method will most likely leave you with meat that is burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Many barbecue cooks use indirect heat (i.e. fire source is offset from the cooking chamber) versus direct heat (i.e. first source is located in direct proximity to the cooking chamber) to help combat this issue. However, you can definitely cook low and slow using a direct-type cooker. You just modify your method a little bit.
Some examples of indirect-style barbecue cookers versus direct style barbecue cookers are the ever-popular "tank-style" cookers, such as those made by Ben Lang and David Kose; compared to the increasingly popular style of direct-style barbecue cookers like the Primo, Kamado and Big Green Egg, or simply BGE for short. There are many variations and options for cookers other than, these specific manufacturers. I'll be discussing various other cooker options throughout this series of articles, but let's move on for now.
For most folks, the choice of cookers is highly-dependent upon several factors including: 1) availability of wood and the cost of buying wood, versus availability of charcoal (lump or briquettes), 2) room for storing the cooker when not in use, 3) budget, 4) experience, and 5) personal preference, or some might call it "ego".
Someone living in an apartment might find it difficult to justify the purchase of a big offset cooker, not only due to a lack of wood supply, but also for a lack of inside storage space when the cooker is not being used. Offset cookers range in price from the typical $150-hardware store budget conscious variety, to the top-of-the-line pits manufacturered by Jamie Geer that can get real expensive, real fast. Typically, someone with a single-family home with a garage for storage, or a storage shed of some type, would be more likely to own an offset cooker versus someone living in an efficiency-sized apartment in the heart of a downtown metropolitan area.
The compact size of a BGE and ready availability of charcoal might suit someone living in an apartment better. Also, if portability is a consideration, the offset is less of an option, since it takes usually takes two or more people to comfortably move a small offset (without wheels), or even a vehicle to move some of the larger ones with wheels that can weigh upwards of 3,000 lbs.
Anyone can learn to cook some real fine bbq using any of the cookers mentioned above. The ever-popular "kettle" grill can turn-out some good 'que also, with some patience and understanding of proper fire control techiniques. I've eaten some excellent bbq made by cooking a whole hog using a chicken wire framed up with meatal rods and then perched on top of concrete blocks.
Some obvious advantages of using an offset smoker: 1) larger cooking area (generally speaking), 2) horizontal cooking surface and the ability to cook multiple meats at the same time, 3) bigger physical size creates a feeling of "machissimo", 4) "traditional" method keeps you highly involved in the cooking process because you have to constantly stoke the fire (some might also call this a disadvantage).
Advantages of the ceramic-type grills like the BGE, Primo, and Kamado: 1) easy to store, 2) ceramic construction holds heat very well, 3) ability to maintain higher temperatures allow use as a grill or smoker, 4) a little charcoal goes a long way, 5) with a little practice, temperature control requires very little effort/monitoring.
Which cooker you choose is really a matter of personal choice and largely a factor of one's individual personality.
How to Monitor Cooking Temperatures
A key to obtaining consistent bbq results from your efforts is how closely you monitor temperatures. You need to have the capability to monitor cooker temperature and internal meat temperature effectively during the cooking process.
Some cookers have built-in temperature gauges and others don't. A word of caution regarding manufacturer installed temperature gauges....depending on the location within the cooking chamber they may be misleading and your bbq results may suffer.
You need to monitor cooking temperatures in your cooker at, or very near, the cooking grate location. If the manufacturer installed the gauge more than a few inches above the cooking grate, the temperature you cook at may not necessarily be the temperature you are hoping for.
Temperatures in a cooker usually will be higher when taken at higher levels within the cooking chamber. Try to monitor temperatures on the cooking grate, or as near meat level as possible.
In my Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) smoker I use a 12-inch stem thermometer from a turkey fryer to monitor temperatures very near the cooking grate. It's cheap and it's easy, but most of all...I didn't have to drill holes in the cooker dome and risk cracking the coating on the cooker to install a gauge mounted in the dome lid. And for those that know me well, you can understand how painful it would be for me to "crack" the lid or "scratch" the finish.
From experience and prior measurement with a Taylor oven thermometer I know that the temperature on the bottom grate in this cooker averages about 20 degrees less than the temperatures on the top grate when I use the water pan, so if I'm cooking on both grates during a cook, I usually rotate the meat top to bottom about 1/2 way through the cooking process. This ensure that both cuts of meat finish at close to the same time. If using sand in the water pan, or if I leave the water pan empty altogether, the temperature might actually be hotter on the bottom grate than the top grate. It can vary from cooker to cooker and depends on a lot of factors, thus the importance of monitoring the temperatures closely.
It's also important that you monitor the internal meat temperature during the cooking process. As you can see in the picture above I use a digital unit purchased from a kitchen store. I have several of them made by various manufactuers including Polder, Taylor and Maverick.
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