Turning a slab of meat into tender deliciousness: secrets of the low and slow cook

Editor's note: Goats and Soda usually covers stories about the Global South and sometimes looks at how life there holds lessons for all of us. In this story in the Weekly Dose of Wonder series, we look at a culinary technique that had the opposite trajectory: With roots in the Americas, it has spread out around the globe. It's the story of slow cooking meat via smoking. Senior editor Gisele Grayson, a slow-cooking aficionado, says the results are wonderful. Anyone who has had the privilege of tasting her slow-cooked chicken would agree 110%.

As I walk in in Washington, D.C. early on a Sunday morning, George Loving and Wendell Headley are seasoning 15 racks of St Louis-style ribs. They plan to smoke 30 of them (which comes from the shoulder, despite the name). Smoking means that they'll cook the meat at low temperatures for a long time – the "low and slow" cook many of us smokers relish –– with the meat not directly on top of the fire.