BBQ done right...

[SGT Rock]

Just my opinion, but if I walk into a place and I see BBQ sandwich (or anything else claiming to be BBQ) and there isn't a smoker going out back - well they are just damn liars at that point. BBQ doesn't become that just because you throw some tangy ketchup on something like some McRibb crap. Real BBQ is how you prepare and cook - and when it is done correctly it is a religious experience to eat.

My favorite:

A nice rub on pork loin or some pork ribs. Then slow smoked in a box (not over the coals) with occasional basting of a vinegar/water with salt and pepper to draw some of that smoke flavor into the meat. Heat until the innards are a nice 190F.

Then for the pork, it falls apart when pulled and for the ribs - you can pull 'em apart off the slab or be "civilized" and cut them into each rib and eat. The dogs around then get the bones - the way God intended.

Fixins - slaw, bread, and maybe some chips. If you wanna get fancy some 'tater salad. But keep it simple, the meat is the meal.

You can't take the meat apart at some factory, press it into a form, then throw some "simulated grill marks" on the thing and call it BBQ.

[Hooch]

......A nice rub on pork loin or some pork ribs. Then slow smoked in a box (not over the coals) with occasional basting of a vinegar/water with salt and pepper to draw some of that smoke flavor into the meat. Heat until the innards are a nice 190F.

Then for the pork, it falls apart when pulled and for the ribs - you can pull 'em apart off the slab or be "civilized" and cut them into each rib and eat. The dogs around then get the bones - the way God intended.

Fixins - slaw, bread, and maybe some chips. If you wanna get fancy some 'tater salad. But keep it simple, the meat is the meal.

Ok, you're going to have to stop that. you're making me hungry, Rock.

[RITBlake]

bad experience on the trail you want to share w/ us Rock?

[SGT Rock]

Naw, it was just that the grit thread started spilling into the BBQ realm. I thought BBQ too important to have to be stuck inside another thread.

But as you mention it. When I was a PVT, I remember my first BBQ MRE meal. Beef, Diced, in BBQ sauce. I was actually offended someone had the nerve to call that crap BBQ.

[Survivor Dave]

Uh huh............

Rock, you've only been on Trail for a hundred or so miles. If you are "Jonesing" now that badly, I hope to hell they have smokers at all the shelters!

I think maybe if you ask a major Q chain nicely, they might sponsor you! Now that would be nirvana.......don't forget the Maker's Mark

SD

Just my opinion, but if I walk into a place and I see BBQ sandwich (or anything else claiming to be BBQ) and there isn't a smoker going out back - well they are just damn liars at that point. BBQ doesn't become that just because you throw some tangy ketchup on something like some McRibb crap. Real BBQ is how you prepare and cook - and when it is done correctly it is a religious experience to eat.

My favorite:

A nice rub on pork loin or some pork ribs. Then slow smoked in a box (not over the coals) with occasional basting of a vinegar/water with salt and pepper to draw some of that smoke flavor into the meat. Heat until the innards are a nice 190F.

Then for the pork, it falls apart when pulled and for the ribs - you can pull 'em apart off the slab or be "civilized" and cut them into each rib and eat. The dogs around then get the bones - the way God intended.

Fixins - slaw, bread, and maybe some chips. If you wanna get fancy some 'tater salad. But keep it simple, the meat is the meal.

You can't take the meat apart at some factory, press it into a form, then throw some "simulated grill marks" on the thing and call it BBQ.

[dixicritter]

He's got that hiker hunger going.... God help my grocery bill!

[Blue Jay]

WOW, usually it takes at least a few days for a thru to be obsessed by food.
By the time he gets out of Georgia he'll be wiping out supermarkets.

[Yahtzee]

SGT Rock, when you get up to NYC I'll take you out for some barbecue. Lots of southern transplants here and plenty to choose from. An old friend and I get together once a month at a new BBQ restaurant each time. Plenty of good. And just like down south, the best BBQ is found in the dingiest places.

[Cannibal]

I thought BBQ too important to have to be stuck inside another thread.

Amen Brother!

[D'Artagnan]

... And just like down south, the best BBQ is found in the dingiest places.

Ain't that the truth! There's a pit down the road a piece where in the summer there are fly strips, FLY STRIPS -- hand-to-God -- hanging from the ceiling. Best bbq around though.

[SGT Rock]

I love me some eatin'

[SGT Rock]

SGT Rock, when you get up to NYC I'll take you out for some barbecue. Lots of southern transplants here and plenty to choose from. An old friend and I get together once a month at a new BBQ restaurant each time. Plenty of good. And just like down south, the best BBQ is found in the dingiest places.

I agree. I'm glad to hear it to.

True story: when I was a recruiter in Wisconsin I got invited to a BBQ. The guy said I'm going to show you how to really BBQ. So I got to his house with the grill fired up, and some great looking sausage - I was anticipating some good food. Then he takes out a pan and puts it on the grill, the dang thing was so big I didn't see how he was going to get those sausages on the grill.

Then he fills the pan up with beer... What the?

Then when the beer is all warm and stale he throws the beautiful meat into the nasty flat beer. Once they boil up a while he pulls them off.

I almost cried.

Ain't that the truth! There's a pit down the road a piece where in the summer there are fly strips, FLY STRIPS -- hand-to-God -- hanging from the ceiling. Best bbq around though.

One of the best BBQ joints I ever ate at is a Texaco gas station outside Hattiesburg called Rosie's. I have dreams about that place.

[Rcarver]

BBQ good!

[Mags]

You gotta read this if you enjoy BBQ:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4827993

[hopefulhiker]

I agree with you Rock.. A lot of stuff passes for BBQ these days.. A friend who competes nationally showed me this site...

http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail.html

The best BBQ place I know of is Lexington BBQ in Lexington NC....

[Dances with Mice]

My dad was a BBQ'er of some local fame, just about every photo of him at a social gathering shows him beside a BBQ pit. Check out the photo on the right - "King of the Hill" isn't a cartoon, it's a documentary! Anyway, the point is, I grew up with 'que. Those photos were taken in the early '70's.

When I was in college some friends living off-campus invited me to a BBQ at their house. Knowing how much work there was in putting on a BBQ I offered to help. They said they didn't need any.

The day of the party I showed up with my mouth all set for BBQ. And all they did was grill burgers and hotdogs. It was good, you know, but I felt like they'd pulled a 'bait and switch' con job on me. So I was about 18 or 19 before I realized that some people call grilling on charcoal "barbecue". Later I'd learn that some would also call a lot worse stuff "barbecue".

Words have meanings, some should only be used reverently. I've been to bad Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants and way overpriced seafood restaurants but I've never really had bad BBQ from anyplace with a pit out back.

[Fiddleback]

The best BBQ I ever had came out of a converted hen house that had been moved to the side of the road in the Texas Hill Country...somewhere near Fredericksburg, I think. Ever since I've had this idea that BBQ quality is a function of the BBQ-ing facility...the nastier the better?

I recently took a step towards the Dark Side and bought a smoker...an electric smoker. That was quite a step for this former Texan but I took comfort in the fact that this particular smoker has been made in Texas for over 50 years. I also took comfort in that my first use of this Devil's machine produced the best pork ribs I've ever done. In my defense, the now annual fire restrictions we have in this area pretty much prohibit use of a 'real' smoker from mid-June to mid-September.

FB

[envirodiver]

I agree Rock if I go somewhere advertising BBQ and don't smell wood smoke, I know it's not going to be good.

BBQ is a food that is almost as discussed as footbal and is a source of town pride in many areas of the south.

To me BBQ is pork, beef is good for all you Texans, chicken rocks...but it ain't BBQ...it's got to be pig.

Best ribs are at Dreamland in Birmingham, AL. All you get is ribs and white bread. No sides except chips available. Corkey's in Memphis was awsome...haven't eaten there since they franchised them. The one in Nashville is good too. Rendevous in Memphis is good, but I like wet ribs better than the dry rub ribs they serve.

Dang I'm hungry.

[Dances with Mice]

Oops. Pictures? I thought they were in the last post.

[Wilson]

I,ll repeat what I said in the grits thread:

BBQ is a pork shoulder cooked all night on hickory coals. Basted Lexington style.
Everything else is more accurately called GRILLIN.

Actually, I like it all, even that stuff smothered in sweet sauce thats called bbq sauce.

I always laugh when on a tv show they're grilling hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, ect. and call it BBQ.

Only thing I would add to what Sgt. Rock said is hushpuppys...around here they're automatic.(to kinda quote what someone else said on the grits thread)