Barbecue Basics: Barbecue Regions, Meat Primal Cuts, and Wood Profiles

By Renee Shelton

Barbecue Basics: Barbecue Regions, Meat Primal Cuts, and Wood Profiles.
Everything you really need to know about beef and pork primal cuts, barbecue wood, U.S. barbecue regional highlights, and some really great recipes, too. Barbecue Basics is a bbq guide and cookbook detailing what is important in barbecue: the meat, the wood, and the regional sauce recipes that you can recreate at home.
The Basics
First of all, you’ll understand the difference between barbecue, grilling, and smoking, as well as the reason why low and slow cooking is so important in barbecue. You’ll know the difference between a barbecue sauce and a mop sauce, and what goes into a basic rub. You’ll also have an appreciation for bark and burnt ends (hint: they are all good things to eat). There’s food cooking charts for direct and indirect heat, and a quick reference meat cut glossary for over 80 different meat term and cut names.
The Meats
Barbecue Basics explains each primal cut for beef and pork, what beef quality grades are, and visually shows why marbling is so important in grading. A primal cut is the large section of meat from which the butcher creates all the steaks and roasts from. The IMPS numbers are listed for each one. Is it necessary to memorize each one? No, but identifying and understanding where a piece of meat comes from helps anyone properly cook a piece of meat (is it tender? is it tough? indirect or direct heat?).
The Wood
Barbecue wood provides both heat and smoke. And different wood gives different flavors to whatever it being barbecued. This guide shows what each of the major barbecue cooking woods look like, what types of foods go well with them, and which wood you should avoid at all time when it comes to cooking.
The Regions
This cookbook highlights 10 different barbecue regions across the U.S., and talks about what is important in each. You’ll get a bit of knowledge from these famous barbecue regions: North Carolina (Eastern and Lexington Piedmont-Style); South Carolina (Northwest Corner, Central, Pee Dee Region, Coastal); Kentucky (Monroe County Style); Memphis; Alabama; Kansas City; St. Louis; Oklahoma; Texas (West, Central, East, South); and Santa Maria, CA.
The Recipes
Barbecue Basics gives tested recipes for 11 regional and classic sauces everyone needs to have in their recipe file, 9 flavorful rubs for all meats and poultry, and 6 great marinades that will change any plain flank steak, pork loin, or chicken thigh into a meal worthy for barbecue royalty.
Barbecue Basics is heavy on barbecue knowledge with some really great recipes added for measure. It really is everything you need to know about beef and pork primal cuts, barbecue wood, classic U.S. barbecue regions, and some great recipes that you can make for your family and friends, too.
Share the barbecue love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Renee Shelton
• Release date: Jun 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463766200

Renee Shelton

Renee Shelton - Butcher, baker, bibliophile.

Book preview

I love barbecue. Not just cooking on a grill, but the whole backyard-flame-and-smoke encounter. I also enjoy the flavors that different wood smoke brings to barbecued foods. I wanted to learn more about wood and how barbecue is influenced regionally across the U.S. So I went digging.

Barbecue and grilling both are beloved pastimes, and to some a way of life. But don’t get barbecue confused with grilling – the words mean different things depending on how you use them.

If you look up both words in any dictionary, you’ll get something like this for a definition:

Barbecue:

Noun:

- A meal or gathering where food is cooked outdoors over a fire or hot coals. (We are having a barbecue.)

- A grill or portable frame that is used to cook food over an open fire or hot coals. (He fired up the barbecue.)

- The meal or food that has been cooked outdoors over fire or coals. (She made the best barbecue.)

Verb:

- To cook food, either on a rack or other device, over open flame or hot coals. (I barbecued ribs.)

Grill:

Noun:

- A metal frame used to cook food over an open fire. (The ribs are on the grill.)

Verb:

- To cooking using a grill. (Grill the steaks.)

And that’s just the cooking method. Some consider barbecue purely involving pork, while others use only beef.

This barbecue guide details what is important in barbecue with cooking methods, definitions, and of course, the meat.

Barbecue Basics is a cooking guide that you can use with your favorite cookbook that explains a little more about the wood you can use (and shouldn’t use) and the smoke produced from it. It gives readers a sample of the different barbecue regions across the country with classic regional sauces. And, most importantly, it gives a good primer on the primal cuts of beef and pork.

Good recipes are handy to have. But this guide will give you all the Barbecue Basics knowledge you’ll need for great barbecue.

Enjoy,

Renee Shelton

Barbecue Basics

Where does the name barbecue come from?

The word comes from barbacoa, a Spanish word traced to the Caribbean. Traditional barbacoa consists of large cuts of meat cooked over a hole in the ground. Mexican barbacoa includes beef, goat, or lamb meat. In the U.S., barbacoa uses beef, especially heads of cattle (where the prized cheek meat is) and every bit of the head is used including brains and tongue.

Modern day Barbacoa refers to any large cut of meat (beef, lamb, goat, etc.) which is slow cooked and well-seasoned. Barbacoa tacos are served with fresh corn tortillas, onions, cilantro, lime, and served with guacamole and salsa.

Barbecue Vs. Smoking Vs. Grilling

Both barbecue and grill cooking techniques cook meat over open heat, but barbecue involves low and slow cooking with the addition of actual wood smoke.

Barbecuing

Barbecue is cooking larger cuts of meat using indirect heat. A low heat source combined with a longer cooking time turns tougher cuts tender and juicy. Temperatures range from 200-250 degrees F. and the heat is maintained during the entire cooking time, often one hour per pound of raw meat.

Smoke from wood or wood chips impart flavor into the meat as it is barbecuing.

Smoking: Cold Smoking, Hot Smoking

Smoking meat can use either cold smoke or hot smoke. Smoking is the process of flavoring food via smoke produced by wood. Depending on the temperature of the smoke, the food may be simply flavored or actually cooked.

Cold smoking doesn’t cook the meat but gives it a definite smoke flavor. This method uses temperatures below 85 degrees F., which doesn’t cook the food. Because of this, cold smoked meat or seafood must be cooked or cured before smoking, or cooked after smoking bringing the temperature to 160 F before being served (over 165 degrees for poultry).

Hot smoking is a cooking method where the meat is heated or cooked slowly while using hot smoke to flavor. Meat and seafood that are hot smoked are typically brined or cured before smoking. Brining helps to not only flavor the meat, but the acid in the brine acts as a natural tenderizer. A dedicated smoker is generally preferred since the cooking temperature is better controlled.

Grilling

Grilling involves faster cooking at higher temperatures, and generally uses smaller cuts of meat. Foods are typically cooked using direct heat such as an open flame, at temperatures above 400 degrees. Charcoal, gas, or wood can all be used to heat the grill.

What is Low and Slow Cooking?

Low and slow is the hallmark of barbecue. It is cooking at lower temperatures using indirect heat. Because barbecue typically uses larger or tougher pieces of meat (whole hog, Boston butt, picnic shoulder, beef brisket), higher temperatures would overcook the meat in order to reach the proper internal cooking temperatures.

Longer cooking times at a lower heat also helps break down the tough fibers and connective tissues resulting in tender meat.

Sauces, Mops, Rubs, Seasonings

Mops and rubs give flavor to barbecued meat before or during cooking, and seasonings and sauces give flavor during cooking or after. Each barbecue region will have its own favorite flavors and sauces.

Sauces

Barbecue sauces are definitely regionally influenced, and can contain anything from ketchup to mustard, mayonnaise to vinegar, or even fruit juices. They can be sticky-sweet, zippy and thin, and spicy with a whole lot of kick. A good sauce can (heaven forbid) also save an otherwise unremarkable barbecued piece of meat.

Mop Sauces

Mop sauces are thin and acidic and are used only to baste meats, especially pork, as it slow cooks. Since most mops have little or no sugar, they can be used to baste all throughout the cooking time without fear it will burn. Mops are typically applied with a miniature version of a cotton mop since it soaks up the thinner sauces better than a standard bristle or silicone brush.

A typical recipe for a mop sauce can list ingredients as little as vinegar (white or cider vinegar), chili pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Spiced up versions contain things like spices or herbs, lemon peel, a bit of sweetener (sugar, maple syrup or honey), and melted butter or beef stock for richness and flavor.

If you want to use the same mop sauce for both basting and as a table sauce, reserve a portion of the mop sauce and keep it separate for table use when you first make it. Mop sauces for basting will inevitably have raw meat juices in it picked up during the mopping process.

Rubs

There are two kinds of rubs: dry rubs and wet rubs. Dry