What are your Barbecue Traditions?

I am in the process of developing a program for a culinary network that I belong to about different types of barbecue and the traditions that revolve around them. It would be an enormous help if members here would write in about their barbecue memories and traditions are. I am not looking for recipes here or grilling instructions! I am looking to hear about what your favorite barbecued meats are and how they relate to holiday and entertaining traditions. How is barbecue affected by locale? What's the favorite sauce? When do have a barbecue? What are the side dishes served along with the barbecue? What do you drink? Who is invited? What do they wear? How does the day and/or evening progress and end? Have these traditions changed since moving to another place?
Thanks for your help and I look forward to reading all the replies!

[Live_to_cook]

Hold on a sec F&F. When you say "barbecue" do you mean an outdoor get together usually accompanied by grilling food (i.e. hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.)?

Or do you mean barbecue, as the specific technique of applying smoky, low heat to cuts of meat, fish or fowl over extended periods of time (i.e. Texas brisket, Carolina pulled pork, Memphis ribs, etc.)

Here's the problem with using the term interchangably: You *can* barbecue AT a barbecue, sure. But all too often I arrive at a barbecue only to find grilled meats, etc., and not a scrap of barbecue to be found.

Thanks for bringing up that distinction LTC. I am talking about the real Barbecue tradition of slow cooking meats over low, smoky heat for long periods of time-not hot dogs, chicken breasts, hamburgers and the like. My tendency is to think this is a more-or-less southern style of cooking and eating, the Hawaiian luau is the only exception that springs to mind. I am interested in the techniques (not recipes!), sauce styles and the social environment and atmosphere that accompanies BBQ food events.
Also how these traditions may have changed if folks have moved from their original locale. I hope to develop and interesting program with some good background material from all my friends here.

[Live_to_cook]

You work for a culinary network? Which one, the Food Channel?

Well if it's barbecue-the-cooking-style you're talking about I'm afraid I can't be much help traditionwise. I'm the first in my family to barbecue, and usually do it for friends or parties because of the time involved.

Usually prep up the product the night before, let the rub-coated ribs sit overnight. Then I get up quite early in the morning, because it'll take at least six hours. I light the fires, get the cookers lined up, etc. Shovel the snow if it's winter.

The social part, for me, doesn't come for another four or five hours. Then people start showing up and asking for a peek inside the kettles.

Of course, you have to look at them like they just asked to shoot your dog, because opening the cooker for no good reason is a senseless waste of heat, smoke and time. Which just goes to show you the kind of people I'm dealing with.

Meantime you can make the BBQ sauce (applied only after cooking, not during) and other sides. You can also drink beer at hours that would otherwise foreshadow a stay in rehab (or vacation in New Orleans, take your pick).

I am developing this bbq program for an alliance of culinary professionals here in NY. At this point I am gathering information about the bbq tradition in the US.
What kinds of sides do you make LTC? do you only bbq ribs? What time of year do you have your bbq? any holidays involved?
I agree about checking under the kettle---Leave the darn thing alone!

[Wambly]

Texas bbq --
sides: coleslaw, potato salad (mustard and mayo base), bbq beans (pintos with bbq sauce), green beans with bacon and onion, fried okra, corn on the cob, corn bread or rolls, cobblers, plenty of cold beer.

Beef brisket is the meat of choice .. packers cut.
Baby backs if doing ribs, although beef ribs are perfectly acceptable. Back in the pre Tony Roma days I think it was mainly beef ribs.
Chicken can also be used. I par cook it before putting it in the smoker due to folks thinking the pink "smoke ring" is undercooked meat.

Smoker : preferably a true smoker .. fire box with a smoke cabinet on the side..

Mesquite wood for fuel .. can mix in some charcoal if need be but pure wood is much more flavorful. DO NOT use a petroleum based starter.

Season with a rub and into the smoke box for a good 8 to 10 hours or more. Sauce in the last 20 to 30 min of cooking if you want. Some use a 'mop' while cooking .. shouldn't need it with the fat cap still on the meat.
When done there should be a crisp dark, almost black, exterior. When cut there should be a pink 1/4" (or so) ring just under the crust colored by the smoke.

Sauce: Texas style sauce is heavy in tomato, somewhat of a tomato sweet and sour. I like to use peaches in mine.
There have been several bbq shows on PBS. In their review of sauces they came to the conclusion that the farther south you went the sweeter the sauce due to proximity to the Caribbean sugar fields.

No holiday needed for a bbq .. is usually a backyard shorts and t-shirt type affair on the weekend.


[This message has been edited by Wambly (edited 01-17-2001).]

Believe it or not, the following makes a very good BBQ sauce:


Jack’s Secret Recipe Bar-B-Que. Sauce

2 18 oz. bottles of Kraft Original BBQ Sauce

1 18 oz. bottle of K C Masterpiece Original BBQ Sauce

1 18 oz. bottle of Bullseye Original BBQ Sauce

1 to 3 tbls. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

This combination smooths out the rough edges of each of these individual sauces.

This makes 72 oz. of sauce which is enough for several large BBQ sessions.

Mix the sauces together in a large pot. Add one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce at a time, tasting after each tablespoon to adjust to your individual taste. I prefer 3 tablespoons. Use what you need and store the rest in a large jug in the refrigerator.


What makes a uniquely Memphis Style BBQ sauce is the tamarind flavor. Tamarind is what give Worcestershire sauce its "Woost".

EATING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

[Live_to_cook]

Usual sides include potato salad, corn bread, roasted corn with red pepper butter, and some sort of veggie entree, last time was a crostini with goat cheese, roasted portobello and grilled red pepper.

I do pork ribs, beef ribs, pork shoulder, pork loin, half chickens, beer butt chicken, butterflied leg of lamb and whole beef sirloins. Not all at the same time, I haven't the room in the kettles.

I also smoke salmon. I've been meaning to do beef brisket but the planets haven't lined up yet.

The one sure BBQ date at my house is Labor Day. A party in memory of our wedding anniversary (Sept. 6), and also my bid to continue my wife's silence about what she (still) feels was a flawed wedding reception.

Hey, some people don't even need an excuse.

I only BBQ for a crowd, party, get-together, it's not worth the work otherwise.

F&F:
Can you travel to research this or is it a library job?

If you're travelling I can suggest places in Knoxville, Houston, Kansas City, and Lockhart, TX. If it's a library canvass, you can get lots of info from the many BBQ sites on the web.
One fun place to start is
www.hogsauce.com
It purports to offer old family recipes from a bunch of Tennessee stump-jumping hillbillies. It happens to be one of the most sophisticated web-merchandising sites I have ever seen. I think they also have links
to others of the thousands of BBQ sites.

You might also look at files of "Chili Pepper" Magazine which does BBQ specials from time to time.

We attended the Terlingua, TX International Chili Cook-Off last November (observers, not cooks) and observed many BBQ circuit participants who also came to do their thing. We were especially interested in one who had a BBQ smoker in the form of a 12-foot long armadillo. It's an awesome concoction of assorted sections of drill and well piping which is complete in every lifelike detail. The head is the firebox, the upraised tail is the chimney, and the, er.. Clintonesque appendage is the grease drain. I could send you pictures and the operator's number if you think this would be useful in your research. We watched the owner prepare 14 full racks of ribs in one batch, and it works really well.

Have fun.

Mike

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travelling gourmand

[This message has been edited by MikeLM (edited 01-18-2001).]

Wow, Mike! That sounds like quite a contraption. It would certainly be all the talk if we used one of those at our bbqs. Thank you for all the info guys it was very useful. Now I have to distill it all into some sort of form that can fit into a 1 1/2 hour presentation that these Yankees will understand---not a small feat.
Thanks again.

BBQ memories, from about mid may until september my family has a BBQ or just makes dinner outside two or three times a week, because the temperature is is usually about 29 - 44 deg. Celsius and we don't have AC in the house. We always have way to much food (There's five of us and we can usually feed 8-10). we always have the whatever steaks are on sale that day at the butcher shop, Chuck and Cross Rib are good cheap cuts. we have lots of salads and roasted potatos. A tasty meat glaze/ dipping sauce is one part honey, two parts heinz 57 sauce.

[Isa]

Foodnfoto


In the paper this morning there was a small article about a BBQ competion next frday. It's on A&E at 9:00 PM.

[shroomgirl]

Southern Louisiana.. couchon d lait (pig pick'n) all day beer fest where a whole hog is cooked slowly for a multitude of hours and it's normally handled by males who do drink beer for breakfast "cause it's a party"
boudin, slaw, cracklins, no sauce, lots of beer or tea, potato salad and that's all I remember. Casual dress large volumes of folks 25+

Now we have farmers that have solstice parties in St. Louis area that again roast a whole pig in a BBQ and have potluck for the rest of the food, again beer is consumed but not quite the volume as in La. there's dancing and singing around a bon fire and it's a way for the farmers to say thanks to their friends and neighbors. I've seen salads, cheeses, dried fruit, breads (nothing exceptional most from the grocery), asst standard church potluck foods... wine in a box and beer in a can. Casual and usually in Dec. when it is really cold.
Sept and Oct are also farm days.
St. Louis is pork steak capital of the US this is a shoulder cut into 1/2" slices grilled and slathered in Mauls BBQ sauce.
eaten with slaw, potato salad, baked beans and bread....Budweiser (St. Louis remember)
Apparently there is more pork consumed in St. Louis over Memorial Day than the rest of the US amazing.....We are seriously Mid-West pork town.
I'm going to roast a whole lamb over a spit for two different food group picnics this summer, nice change from the pig.
Memphis has pork BBQ, slaw, BBQ beans and rolls. Slaw is on the chopped pork sandwich. Beans usually have some chopped meat in them. Again Beer.
Louisiana also has crab, shrimp and crawfish boils that are similar to BBQs in that they are big social events that almost everyone participates in.

[Papa]

Dear foodnfoto:

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share with you one of the most wonderful memories from my childhood.

Easter is the most important Greek religious holiday and it falls in the beginning of Spring.

My family and I always celebrated Easter with
relatives, friends and strangers whom we encountered during our traditional Easter countryside barbecue. The preparations on Easter day began at 06:00 in the morning with the men digging a deep hole in the
ground, filling it with vine branches and setting them on fire. Then they took turns rotating the lamb carcass over the fire and basting it with the sauce every ten minutes.

The women in our family shared in this labor of love by preparing several dishes the previous day. On Easter Sunday they set blankets on the fresh grass and arranged the plates on the blanket in anticipation of the feast.

We, the children, played around the olive trees in the surrounding poppy fields.

Your request braught back some wonderful memories to me. Thank you.