THOMPSON: Why barbecue is not outdoor cooking on a grill | iNFOnews

July 29, 2024 – 12:00 p.m.

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Summer is the time to cool off by the pool or lake, drink refreshing beverages and have a barbecue.

I’m not talking about outdoor cooking on a grill, which is what most Canadians think of when barbecue is mentioned. In the United States, it’s something you eat, a noun, not a verb. In the Deep South, it’s almost always pork – pulled or sliced ​​pork ribs, shoulder or brisket. In Texas, it’s almost always beef – ribs or brisket.

Ask a hundred people to describe what makes a good barbecue, and you might get just as many different answers. Barbecue, also known as barbeque, barbicue, barbique, bar-b-cue, bar-b-que, bar-bq, BBQ, and countless other unintentional misspellings, is found all across North America.

And yes, you can have barbecued chicken or sausage (notice that’s an adjective here)…but in the South and Texas, if you ask someone, “Would you like barbecue?” In their mind’s eye, they see ribs (pork or beef), pulled pork, or brisket…and at a big event…all of the above.

Every region of America—in fact, all 50 states—has barbecue, but make no mistake…there’s more bad barbecue than good. You won’t find me looking for barbecue in Montana or New Hampshire or even Kentucky (more or less a Southern state) because too many people insist on taking something simple—meat cooked slowly with smoke—and making it something different.

First of all, most barbecue is prepared in a real pit smoker. Whether it’s pork or beef, there will always be what’s called a smoke ring… an eight to ten millimeter layer of pink meat under a nice crust. If you’re cooking at home, barbecue can be done in a good oven… and few people can tell the difference.

The truth is, barbecue is as imprecise a science/art/voodoo as you can find in culinary categories. I proved this 15 years ago when I traveled through 11 Southern and Midwestern states in as many days… eating nothing but barbecue… three meals a day… searching for the Holy Grail of barbecue.

Some states, like North Carolina, can’t even agree on what constitutes barbecue across the state. There’s the Eastern style, which uses the whole hog or, as they say, “everything but the grill,” which is seasoned after smoking with vinegar and pepper…no tomato sauce at all.

Next up, Western style, also called Piedmont or Lexington style, uses vinegar, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and other spices. Likewise, you’ll disagree about coleslaw, a standard side dish throughout the South, some use mayonnaise, some don’t. Some eat coleslaw on a barbecue pork sandwich… others… not so much. Barbecue is… well, complicated.

South Carolinians make tomato-based barbecue…but they also have a mustard-based sauce called Golden Carolina that many swear by…and I love it for a change of pace.

Georgians tend to eat barbecue with a sweet, sometimes spicy tomato sauce…often called Memphis style. In Alabama, you’ll find tomato-based sauces, both sweet and spicy, and, uniquely, a mayonnaise-based sauce.

If the South ever tries to rebel and secede from the Union, simply proclaiming one style of barbecue as the “official barbecue of the South” will put an end to that. No one agrees, even within a state, much less across 13 states.

That said, my family and friends in Canada love my version of the pulled pork sandwich…so much so that when you say pulled pork-pork sandwich in my house…that’s what you get.

I start with a seven-pound bone-in pork shoulder or butt. The bone adds flavor. I rub a mixture of coarse salt, pepper, brown sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and minced fresh garlic all over the pork…put it in a large zip-top plastic bag and let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After that, I add a cup of dark rum…and put it back in the refrigerator for another 24 hours.

I preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and roast the pork for 25 minutes uncovered to form a crust. Then I reduce the temperature to 225 degrees F, add another cup of dark rum and seal the pork tightly with foil and cook for six hours.

I use large forks to shred or shred the pork. The magic, according to my friends and family, comes from how I prepare the sandwich.

I pile the pulled pork onto freshly toasted brioche buns, add slices of Brie cheese, drizzle with homemade raspberry coulis, add a few hot peppers, a dollop of my Sweet Tomato BBQ Sauce or my South Carolina Golden Mustard BBQ Sauce. Then I finish with a huge fried onion ring and the other toasted bun.

The juxtaposition of flavors makes this pulled pork sandwich one of a kind. If you want a detailed recipe, email me at iwrite4aliving@gmail.com and try it on your family and friends.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and Florida. Over the course of his 40-plus year career, Don has been a journalist, speechwriter, and CEO of an advertising and public relations agency. A passionate and compassionate man, he enjoys the written word as much as he enjoys fine dining and wine.

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