“Beginning Barbeque: How To Cook Good”
By
Gordon Hubbell
Yes, I know the title has a grammatical error, but it’s catchy and I hope it got your attention. Now, let’s talk about cooking food well (perhaps that will appease the grammar police a tad) and I don’t mean “well done” in steak grilling parlance. This article is for beginning outdoor chefs but should contain an enjoyable memory jogger or two for more advanced practitioners as well.
If you are a beginner, I hope you read this before you light the fire. Here are some things I’ve learned over fifty years of (mostly outdoor) cooking:
On Cooking Good . . .Ten Comments of Cooking (mine, anyway
)
There can be exceptions to every rule and there are a few to the gems of wisdom below, but at least keep these in mind as you crawl up the ol’ learning curve:
1.
Moderation works well for both kinds of heat. This means that you’ll usually do better cooking over moderate “fire” than in a blast furnace. It also means that a little pepper or hot sauce is tangy but a lot might make you sweat and cry, thus offending some palates.
2.
Over beats under. I learned this from Tuffy Stone, the pitmaster. Basically, this means that something that is a little overdone is usually tastier than something that is a little underdone. The extremes of “raw” and “burned” still apply and are to be avoided, of course.
3.
Heat first, food second. Bring your cooker or grill up to your intended cooking temperature before you put the food on and let it stabilize. If you don’t, your results will be unpredictable and inconsistent. Allow time for cookers and grills to get to the temperature necessary to do the job. Barbeque is not fast food!
4.
If you’re lookin’ you aint cookin’. (pardon the grammar, again). Sage advice when using a smoker or a grill in covered mode. Open equals heat out. Closed equals heat in. Enough said.
5.
Cook first, sauce last. Most sauces contain sugars. Sugar burns easily. Avoid that rack of ribs in the grocer’s meat case that has the sauce already applied for it is destined to become charcoal. Sauces go on just before serving and should be subjected to only enough heat to get them stuck on and looking pretty.
6.
It’s done when it’s done. The best way to evaluate the degree of doneness is by internal temperature. Get a decent insertable thermometer. You can evaluate steaks and ribs by sense of touch but not most other meats. Going by time and/or temperature without an internal temperature measurement is asking for unintended results.
7.
Moderation is something you should overdo, at least at first. Just because your favorite rub or sauce is tangy and tasty doesn’t mean a lot of it will make for a dynamite meal. Sneak up on the right amount to use. You’ll likely be amazed at how little it takes.
8.
Go easy on the smoke. A little smoke tastes really good in most meat flavor profiles but a lot of it is nasty. An over-smoked chunk of critter can get that “creosote” touch in a hurry. Some liken it to tasting like charcoal lighter fluid. I think it is like licking a telephone pole. Whatever, if you’re belching smoke after eating the groceries, you’re over-smoking.
9.
Understand “Cheap”. Cheap eats shouldn’t be the goal of a barbeque cook. Within reason, get quality meats, seasonings, and cooking supplies. Cheap meat equals unknown results, but many “cheap cuts” are mighty good targets for cooking. Huh? Explanation: Chicken leg quarters (leg/thigh combos) for instance, are some of the cheapest meat in the store and can be cooked up mighty tastily, but don’t buy the cheap brand – it’ll often be all skin and fat.
10.
Please, please yourself. Unless you’re cooking in competition (that’s a whole ‘nuther article) follow your own taste buds. Just because somebody like me tells you what is “good” doesn’t mean it’s good to your palate or preferences. If you like fall-off-the-bone ribs soaked in sauce and smothered with smoke, there is no law against it.
On Recipes . . .I love to read recipes and I have my share of cookbooks but, particularly for outdoor cooking, I almost never follow them. For food with very critical parameters like breads, pastries and candies you’ll suffer tragic consequences if you ad lib and don’t stick to the directions, but for barbeque I think a recipe is more of a “concept” or a point of departure on which to launch then build your own edibles. That’s why a lot of my published recipes use the term “BASIC”. This means try it one time my way, but just to learn from it. Make changes and tweaks to fit your tastes and equipment the next time around.
Opinion: If you read a recipe and get a sense of its desired outcome, but automatically start thinking about ways to improve it or adapt it better to your tastes and situation, you’ve got the “cooking gene”. Let it rip! Give in to your impulses. God has blessed you with a valuable talent.
On Grills and Cookers . . .There is no ideal outdoor cooking appliance that will absolutely do it all, perfectly. There are, however, plenty of versatile cookers that will accomplish a broad range of cooking types and styles and many of them aren’t all that expensive. Fact: A skilled cook can turn out some fantastic chow using average, affordable equipment. Fact two: An inept cook can produce inedible results on a ten thousand dollar cooker. Ergo, the skill of the cook is far, far more important than the cost of the appliances.
It is more important to get yourself a grill or cooker of some kind and learn “how to cook good” on it than it is to agonize over selecting just the right one. Why? Barbeque recipes (I often prefer to call them “approaches”) are seldom to never absolutely tied to one brand or type of cooker. Some types will suit some approaches better than others but that’s one of the things that’s waiting for you to learn it! Just get cooking and learn as you go.
On Attitude . . .Relax! The ol’ creative juices flow best when not under pressure. Don’t be afraid you’ll make a mistake. I’ve eaten a lot of very tasty mistakes over the years and I’ve cooked a lot of stuff that had a mistake or two in or around it and nobody noticed! Even horrible failures lose their sting over time. I once found a gorgeous rack of fresh, never frozen baby back ribs and put them on my old Weber kettle (which can do great ribs). Then I got busy and forgot about them. They turned out a beautiful, shiny black color and sort of crumbled as I tried to take them out of the cooker. I laugh now. I didn’t, and ordered a pizza then. Time smoothes the bumps.
Finally, I think the greatest invention for the new barbeque cook is the on-line forum (Let’s Talk Barbeque, for example). It isn’t just fun, its access, almost instantly, to expertise and experience. Plus (use this to your advantage) – when you are successful you can post pictures and bask in glory BUT, you don’t ever have to post about your failures
Hub
