At some point in our civilization, people determined that meat and fire went hand in hand. Cooking has become a way to preserve meat, add flavor and improve its tenderness characteristics. At some point it was discovered that the smoke from the fire made its own special contribution to this process. Over time, methods were developed to combine meat with fire to cook it. Thus began the endless search for the best device or process for cooking/smoking meat.
From a barbecue perspective, we hear the term “pit” used to describe the equipment used for cooking. We even use “pitmaster” rather than “restaurateur” or “chef” for those who cook barbecue for a living.
The “pit” probably originated from the process of digging holes or trenches in the ground to light a fire, then placing the meat on some sort of rack to hold it over the fire or even wrapping the meat in something like burlap and bury the meat. meat on the embers to let it cook for several hours before uncovering it to eat it.
Two examples of such preparation are “Barbecoa de cabeza” where beef heads are prepared this way for tacos and Hawaiian-style luaus where whole pigs are cooked. Eventually people began to build brick, concrete block, or metal structures above ground with a lid or cover to simplify the process where the fire would be built at the bottom and the meat would be placed on grates above to allow for “low, slow fire”. » process that we associate with barbecue preparation. Restaurants advertising “pit barbecue” often cook this way to further signify the old style of preparation, and “pit” has become an umbrella term to describe a wide range of cooking equipment used by professionals and amateurs alike. of the kitchen.
Modified by design
There’s something about barbecue that brings out the creative artisan and entrepreneurial spirit in everyone. Old barrels, large pipe cuts, and decommissioned propane tanks can find new life as grills. Most barbecue restaurants we visit have some form of offset smoker. This is often a large propane tank (250, 500, or 1,000 gallons) arranged vertically with doors cut out and mounted on top, a fire box added to one end to hold burning wood to create heat and smoke, and a chimney placed at the end. the opposite end to allow a draw. This type of appliance is often called a “stick burner” because it uses whole or split logs of oak, hickory, mesquite, pecan, or whatever is popular or available as a source of heat and smoke.
There is much debate about how big the firebox should be, as well as the appropriate location and diameter of the chimney to allow the smoker to achieve the best performance. There are versions of this system called “reverse flow” where the firebox and chimney are located at the same end of the smoker with a series of baffles and plates located inside the smoker, forcing out the heat and smoke to travel greater distances to ensure better heat and smoke distribution.
Our “Pit Design and Maintenance” panels at Barbecue Summer Camp and Camp Brisket spend a lot of time answering questions about what is the “best” pit to own and how to get the most out of each one. Our panelists often include those making the latest, in-demand custom pits, with wait times from order to completion often exceeding a year.
Some barbecue restaurants use a rotisserie-style cooker where products are loaded onto racks that rotate in the oven, ensuring more even cooking and the ability for cooking juices to continually baste onto the products below. Many of these ovens have hearths located outside the main cooking chambers where wood can be added to provide the appropriate heat for temperature and smoke for flavor. The rotisserie style of cooking has become very popular with chicken and many supermarkets and clubs have in-house rotisseries preparing chickens for the takeaway market. Rotisserie kits are available for many types of grills and smokers and are frequently used to cook whole chickens. However, special rotisserie accessories feature rotating trays that are perfect for smoking racks of ribs.
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The consumer cook
The consumer market for barbecue smokers has skyrocketed. Smaller versions of offset smokers are common and, in some parts of the country, are sold in supermarkets or large travel centers.
Weber offers several versions of the Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker designed to use charcoal as fuel with the addition of wood chunks or mini logs for smoke flavor. Kamado-style grills, such as the Big Green Egg and Kamado Joe, have thick, insulated ceramic walls to help retain heat. These grills are extremely versatile. Kamado grills provide indirect heat cooking for low and slow smoking of chicken, ribs and roasts, as well as direct heat cooking for hot and fast cooking of steaks, burgers and pizza. Ceramic kamado grills are expensive, especially if you add accessories, but they also last longer than many other types of grills.
One of the newest additions to the barbecue equipment market is the pellet smoker. Traeger led the way in this market and today other companies are competing in this space. These devices use compressed wood pellets that are loaded into a hopper where a thermostatically regulated auger feeds them to a combustion chamber where the pellets burn to produce heat and smoke. This is the ultimate “set it and forget it” cooker. It even has Wi-Fi options that make remote control and monitoring easy. A review of web pages associated with pellet smokers shows different models designed for all budgets and provides recipes and advice from some top professional/celebrity barbecue influencers.
A trip to any hardware or home improvement center reveals the wide availability of not only the variety of grills/smokers, but also the number of accessories needed to make everyone’s backyard barbecue adventure a dream come true. In addition, the different fuels and the wide variety of sauces and seasonings also give the consumer ideas on how best to prepare the products.
Many decisions need to be made regarding equipment and accessories. Then all that’s missing is that special cut of meat, ready to be magically transformed using the equipment, so everyone can enjoy the fruits of the “pitmaster”.
