BBQ Society

Essential Tips For The Perfect BBQ Cookout

It won’t be long before school’s out and the summer holidays are approaching. My kids are already packing the RV, we’re not even going for another two weeks but I can’t dampen their spirits.

I’ve still got a good few days left of work so I can’t afford to let myself go yet but just as I see the excitement in the kids’ eyes I know that I’ll be the same once I get the portable grill out of the garage.

I love to camp in Europe not just because of the freedom to go anywhere but also because of the myriad of interesting people that I meet on the way. Walk around the campsite anytime after 1.00pm and you’ll start to see the smoke rising as the families gather for a lunchtime cookout. Provided I prefix my introduction with a polite “Bon Appetite” or “Buen Provecho” I can usually get to have a recce, see what’s cooking and how they’re doing it and the best bit of course is when the complement is returned and they come over to see what I’m cooking.

There has been many a time when these friendly exchanges become more competitive and a small portion of whatever has been cooked is brought over to my pitch for sampling. Of course I have to reciprocate! Neither party can speak the other’s lingo so the international language of Europe is once again food – and barbecue food to boot.

What better way to pick up some free smoker recipes than wandering around the campsite? It’s also fascinating to see just how simple some of the flavorings are.

In Italy for example, meat (generally beef or lamb) is liberally sprinkled with salt and pepper, cooked on the grill until pink and then served up with a traditional balsamic vinaigrette and lemons.

The meat should only be seasoned on one side and don’t be tempted to turn it too frequently. You want the meat to cook at a good temperature to mobilize the natural sugars and if you turn it too frequently the meat simply doesn’t get up to temperature. Likewise the seasoning “protects” the meat so again one side not seasoned will get up to a higher temperature and so bring out more of the natural flavor.

For the balsamic vinaigrette it’s just 4 parts extra virgin olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar, give it a good stir (to create and emulsion) and drizzle over the sliced meat. It’s so simple but so effective.

Another variation of simple traditional food that’s great for the barbecue grill is Greek style. Diced lamb or pork in a marinade bowl with olive oil, the juice of one lemon and a sprinkling of dried oregano, leave it for an hour and then thread onto skewers. Ten minutes on the grill and pop it into a pita bread with salad and tzaziki.

For the Tzaziki:
· 1 medium cucumber peeled and finely chopped
· 225ml or ½ pint yoghurt
· 2 cloves crushed garlic
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 1 teaspoon vinegar
· ½ teaspoon salt

Just mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate for at least an hour to let the flavors come together.

Simple flavors, fresh meats and the job's done. The European camping tour really has produced some fantastic BBQ Recipes and I hope that this year will be no exception.

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On The Texas Barbecue Trail

Among polite society, a few subjects are invariably touchy, threatening to flare into heated debate. Politics. Religion.

And don't forget to add one more topic to that list if you’re in Texas: barbecue.

Whether you spell it barbecue, barbeque, bar-b-que, or just bbq, one thing's for sure: barbecue is more than just a meal, it's a mantra.

At last count, Texas boasted over 1,300 barbecue joints, ranging from side-of-the-road greasehouses with slamming screen doors to sit-down restaurants with beautiful vistas, air conditioning and even (gasp) wine lists. The business of barbecue rings up over a half-billion dollars annually, a cobweb of commerce that connects an otherwise diverse, sprawling state with a common mission: Go forth and seek out good barbecue.

Although you can find good barbecue throughout the South, the Texas variety is different from that in other barbecue capitals. Texas barbecue means beef brisket, basted meats, and tomato-based sauce, or sometimes no sauce at all. The selection varies from pit to pit but in most tradition reigns.

In each region, divided by hundreds of miles, the local barbecue is influenced by other culinary cultures, from Southern to Tex-Mex to Southwest. Cabrito or barbecued goat is often served in the western portion of the state while pork or lamb is a more common offering in East Texas. Cooking styles vary as well. Out on the West Texas plains, barbecue is usually cooked over a slow fire of mesquite wood while in Southern and Central Texas pecan and oak are more common. Farther east, barbecue pits are stoked with hickory. Throughout the state, meals are served with sides of cole slaw, pinto beans, and spongy white bread, often on plates of butcher paper. Dessert, if found at all, is usually a scoop of banana pudding with a dose of vanilla wafers.

Unlike Kansas City and Memphis, Texas has no clearly defined capital of ‘que. But Texas does have what’s sometimes nicknamed the “barbecue belt,” a smoky swath that runs through the central part of the state and includes:

Llano: On the westernmost edge of the barbecue belt lies the community of Llano. What makes Llano unique among the central Texas barbecue towns is its cooking style. Most pit masters in this town rely on indirect barbecuing. In a firebox, wood burns down to coals, then it's transferred to the main section of the pit beneath the meat to impart a delicate smoky taste subtler than ordinary smoking. Don’t miss Cooper's Old Time Pit Barbecue. From its huge rectangular pits located by the front door to the dining room lined with loaves of white bread and jars of jalapeño peppers, this is the real deal.

Taylor: Taylor calls itself "The Barbecue Capital of the World,” home of two legendary barbecue joints separated only by a parking lot and small road at their locations on Second Street. Louis Mueller's is housed in one of the most authentic barbecue joints in Texas, with an old-fashioned screen door, smoke-covered walls, and giant fans that provide the only cool breeze on a hot summer day. Next door, Rudy Mikeska's serves its equally fine offerings in a more citified atmosphere. During his lifetime, Rudy Mikeska was the dean of Texas pitmasters. If there was a political function to be held, Rudy Mikeska and his barbecue specialties were there.

Elgin: In Texas, the town of Elgin is synonymous with sausage. The small community, located about 25 miles east of Austin, produces the sausage sold by many barbecue joints through the state. The best known of Elgin's smokin' stops is the Southside Market, probably one of the most recognized names in Texas barbecue lore. In business since 1882, the market is known for its Elgin hot sausage, sometimes known as Elgin Hot Guts.

Lockhart: Twenty-three miles south of Austin lies another "Barbecue Capital of Texas," Lockhart. The test of a real Texan is to know the correct pronunciation of the town’s Kreuz Market. No, don't say "Cruise." It's "Krites," rhyming with "lights." Also in town, don’t miss Smitty’s, housed in the building where the original Kreuz Market was located, and Black's BBQ, which claims to be the oldest barbecue house in Texas continuously owned by the same family. Since 1932 the Black family has been firing up these brick pits every day for lunch and dinner.

Luling: Located east of Austin, Luling is the land of oil wells. No longer a boomtown, today the barbecue restaurants are the ones producing black gold. The best known spot in town is the City Market, a no-frills smoky meat market, with ambiance replaced by plenty of local atmosphere.

About the Author - Paris Permenter and John Bigley are the authors of Texas Barbecue and numerous other books on Texas travel as well as the editors of TexasTripper.com, an online travel guide to the Lone Star State.

The Barbecue Experience

If you read the title and immediately opened the file thinking that this cooking method was included in the outdoor activities section by mistake, don't be surprised if we tell you that preparing your Sunday's barbecue festivity is actually a great outdoor activity!

Part of the U.S. outdoor living for decades, barbecue (also known as barbeque, Barbie, or abbreviated BBQ) has evolved from a method of cooking food, most frequently meat, to a social gathering and a great opportunity to exercise a variety of outdoor activities. If you have been present, even once to an outdoor barbecue extravaganza, you are familiar with the scenes. Kids running around, men over the heat and the hot gases of a fire, smoking food served on plastic plates, hot coals of charcoal ready to spread the scent of cooked food around, women preparing the dinner table and running back and forth to the kitchen or utensils area, people discussing, laughing, relaxing. What more could one ask for? Probably nothing, but the fact still remains that when people are asked to state their favorite outdoor activity, they seem reluctant to say "barbecue" since it is actually based on food preparation and does not necessarily involve any type of exercise. Well, one stop feeling guilty of barbecue. Especially if you come from the Southern or Midwest U.S. States, you should be proud of participating in one of the most important social outdoor activities of our time.

Since the heating process is not direct, barbecue is different from grilling, which is almost always a fast process over high heat. Barbecue experts strongly support that since the process used is always slow -indirect heat and/or hot smoke are applied to cook the food- the outcome of a proper barbecue is apparently tasteful and healthier. Instead of smoking the food and directly heating it to the level required for it to be cooked, barbecue's slower method breaks down the collagen in meat and tenderize tougher cuts for easier eating.

Today, the phrase "let's throw a barbecue" is used to refer to a casual event, usually outdoors or with an outdoor theme. College students organize barbecue parties frequently using any type of excuse; from announcing an event, like their college football team's victory to celebrating the end of those dreadful exam periods. Families organize barbecue events to invite friends, bond with distant family members and socialize in general. During these barbecue occasions, two important facts occur that facilitate the outdoor experience. First, people attend a familiar outdoor activity, which can only make them feel relaxed and enjoy the great weather and the company around, and second, exactly because a large number of people gather at a specific location and have to stay there for a certain amount of time (while the food is cooking), other outdoor activities are usually surface. For example, how many times have you been invited to play a friendly Frisbee match while waiting for the meat to be properly cooked? Well, you can see now my point. Regardless of the original purpose of one's visit to a barbecue place, the barbecue outdoor experience can become one of those times you nostalgically remember during the winter weekends. Having fun and eating fresh is always a good excuse to get involved with a barbecue event. Remember to add some exercise to these fun times and you can now have it all except that annoying guilt part!

About the Author - Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Outdoors, Recreation, and Family

BBQ Grilling Versus Smoking - The Great Debate

We all have heard about barbecuing, but we are unaware of the real tricks in it. Barbecuing is also a form of art. To a person who is new to this art may get confused, because cooking meat in an open fire is a really tricky method. In order to get a really good and delicious bbq dish, one must have a lot of patience.Barbecuing can be done in two methods: through grilling and smoking. Grilling is the quickest method of cooking meat over a direct source of dry heat, whereas, smoking is a slow process, where the food is kept at a particular distance from the fire. Now let us take the two separately, to know the real processing.

BBQ Grilling

Grilling is of two types: direct and indirect. But before going into the details,let me tell you that there are three varieties of grills: charcoal grill, gas grill and electric grill. Charcoal grills are relatively inexpensive when compared to the other two. Now we'll go back to the types of cooking. Direct method is a high heat method and is used for cooking relatively small pieces of food. Steaks, chops, chicken breasts,etc are some of the typical foods that can be grilled directly. In indirect method, as the name suggests, the food is kept to the side of the heat source. It is somewhat like baking a cake or such type of foods.Now we will move on to smoking.

BBQ Smoking

Smoking is the finest way to cook food,even though it takes time. If grilling is best for cooking smaller pieces, smoking is best for cooking larger pieces. Roasts, ham, ribs, brisket, etc are some of the foods that can be smoked. One must maintain a steady temperature, to come up with a deliciously smoked food. The normal,suited temperature for smoking is between 200-225 degrees. If you cook the meat until it's 165 degrees in the middle, it would make the meat more tastier,as the smoke flavour gets deep into it.For basic bbq smoking, you can use the regular grill. The only thing that one must be aware while smoking is, the selection of right type of wood.Because, each wood is different in its own way. So we have to experiment with all sorts of wood to find out which one is the best. Smokers may vary in shapes and sizes.There are smokers running in gas and charcoal.But the heat coming from any type of smoker is a cooler one,which is why it takes a lot of time to smoke.

Now to end with it, barbecuing has to undergo one more process, that's topping it with sauce.In fact it is the topmost ingredient, which one can't omit while barbecuing.Types of sauce varies according to the region. If vinegar-base sauce is typical in Southern United States, tomato-base sauce is typical in Western United States. The best time to apply sauce is during the last stage of cooking. ie, when you are sure that the meat is well cooked,because,sugar is one of the main ingredients in barbecue sauces and it tends to burn easily. So you must cook the meat before you burn the sugar.

About the Author - Chris McCarthy,the owner of the InsaneChicken website, and a bbq enthusiast. He had started this website, because of his intense love for bbq sauce. So checkout for more varieties of bbq sauces at Insanechicken.com

BBQ Safety Tips

When it comes to barbecuing, what could be more fun than whipping up sumptuous food on the grill in the company of family and friends? The thing of course is finding the right place for grilling and barbecuing. One favorite spot among true barbecue aficionados would be their very own backyard or outdoor kitchen with their own brick barbecue pit. Actually, any outdoor area is a potential spot for a barbecue but truth be known, the best places for a barbecue are the safest ones.

Choose a location for your BBQ grill that is away from trees, leaves, brush and overhanging limbs. Do not setup your gill in a high traffic area where someone may accidentally brush up against the hot grill.

When barbecuing in your backyard, be sure that you're 5 to 10 feet away from your house or any material that can potentially catch fire. Also, be sure the grill is stable and is away from children or pets that may bump into it. It would also be a good idea to have a water supply nearby like a garden hose.

If you live in an apartment building with a balcony or rooftop or any other outdoor space, be sure to consult with your building administrator (or in some instances, your local fire department) regarding specific restrictions. Generally, using charcoal and gas grills indoors or anywhere above the first storey is prohibited so you may want to consider electric grills instead for your barbecuing efforts.

Another great place to barbecue is in a campsite. Camping is such an exciting way to experience the great outdoors and barbecuing food over a campfire is definitely one of those practical yet cozy things you can do. Just be sure that you are at least 15 feet away from your tent and other camping gears.

Protect yourself by using the correct BBQ utensils such as oven mitts, thongs and a good spatula. Avoid wearing loose clothing while near the grill.

Always leave the lid to a gas grill open when lighting the fire so the gas does not build up under the cover. If the fire does not initially start, turn off the gas, leave the lid open and wait for at lest five minutes before trying again.

It is always a good idea to give your grill a checkup before using for the first time of the season and always store your tanks outside in a upright position where the temperature will never go over 125 degrees.

Of course, it's not just the atmosphere of being outdoors that can make a barbecue fun and special. It's also in the delicious barbecue dishes that you share with your loved ones. To make it all the more special, try a variety of BBQ rubs, marinades, salsas and BBQ sauce to capture the true taste of great outdoor barbecuing.

About the Author - Chris McCarthy is the owner of InsaneChicken's Hot Sauce & BBQ Sauce Catalog. Visit InsaneChicken.com for a wide variety of BBQ Rubs, BBQ Sauce and Hot Sauce.