Myron Mixon's BBQ Rules: The Old-School Guide to Smoking Meat

By Myron Mixon and Kelly Alexander

The New York Times–bestselling author & star of Destination America’s BBQ Pitmasters offers essential old-school barbecue techniques & fifty classic recipes.

In barbecue, “old-school” means cooking on a homemade coal-fired masonry pit, where the first step is burning wood to make your own coals, followed by shoveling those coals beneath the meat and smoking that meat until it acquires the distinct flavor only true pit-smoking can infuse. With easy-to-follow, straightforward instruction, America’s pitmaster shows you how and also demonstrates methods for cooking on traditional gas and charcoal grills common in most backyards. The book is divided into four parts—Meat Helpers, The Hog, Birds, The Cow—and features recipes and methods, including:

• Pit Smoked Pulled Pork
• North Carolina Yella Mustard-Based Barbecue Sauce
• Prize-winning Brisket
• Smoked Baby Back Ribs
• Thick and Smoky T-Bone Steaks

Presenting step-by-step illustrations on building a pit, managing a fire, selecting meats for the pit and the best wood to burn in it, and more, Mixon offers all of the fundamental lessons to becoming a champion backyard pitmaster.

 

Filled with Mixon’s southern charm, personal stories, and never-before-shared methods, BBQ Rules is a down-home, accessible return to old-school pit smoked barbecue.

“When I’m out of my car, I’m a big fan of smoking BBQ. With Myron’s help, my friends and family get to enjoy the world’s best BBQ and all the credit goes to the advice Myron shares with you right in this book.” —Dale Earnhardt Jr.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori Chang
• Release date: Apr 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781613129456

Book preview

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RULES

Rule 1: Use the Right Wood

Rule 2: Build Yourself a Pit

Rule 3: Learn to Fire the Pit

Rule 4: Maintain Consistent Heat in the Pit

Rule 5: Choose Your Fire Wisely

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RULES

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RULE 1:

USE THE RIGHT WOOD

Now, when I say, Use the right wood, I’m referring to the process of choosing the type of wood you’ll use to smoke your meat, which is the very first step of cooking real pit-smoked barbecue. When I was a kid and it was time to get cooking, our first job was to pick the woods my dad liked, and the woods he liked were, number one, local, meaning whatever grew in south Georgia, and, number two, fresh and green. Jack liked to use a blend of hickory and oak for this style of cooking, and it had to be green, by which I mean young and flexible. Green wood is important because its moisture ensures that when you burn it down for coals, the coals are big and pop off easily. Think of it this way: With today’s type of barbecue technology, we all use seasoned wood, because when it cooks down it makes ash (and we find the smoky flavor from that ash desirable); but when we cook old school, we want the wood to burn down and make coals that will have to burn again, and for that process to work well you need to start with green