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Barbecue 101 A guide to Wicked
Good Barbecue Part II: The Fuel By Dan Gill By USDA definition,
barbecue is cooked slowly with wood or coals from wood – everything
else is Òfaux-cueÓ. It all started in the Americas with natives cooking and
drying meat on a platform of sticks, called a barbacoa, over or beside a low,
smoky fire. This (inefficient) method works fine, if you donÕt have anything
else to do for a day or two. The flavors from open-air smoking, though, are
remarkable: The best bluefish I have ever tasted were smoked all day on a
barbacoa (see photo). Shad-plankings were popular for the same reason –
when we still had plenty of shad. Wild game and fish have little excess fat
to drip on burning logs and cause flare-ups, but then Europeans introduced
fat pigs and cattle (see ÒThe Cremation of Ethyl A. PiggÓ
in the November - December issue of Pleasant Living).
The Author smoking
bluefish on a ÒbarbacoaÓ Colonists soon learned to
burn logs down to glowing coals, thereby reducing the danger of
conflagrations. They also abandoned the barbacoa and dug pits or trenches to
contain and focus the heat. These open pits were typically about two to three
feet deep. Sticks were placed across the top to support the meat and, later
on in the development, cardboard was laid over the meat to reduce ash
deposition and help retain heat and smoke. Traditional barbecue is therefore
made by burning wood down to coals in a separate firebox and sprinkling
ÒliveÓ coals under the meat, which is elevated about twenty inches above the
coals in an enclosed ÒpitÓ. This
method results in the legendary Òthin blue smokeÓ and subtle flavor
associated with true (and elusive) Eastern North Carolina barbecue. It also
requires a LOT of wood and a LOT of attention. There are still a few joints
that cook over live coals, such as Honey MonkÕs Lexington #1 in Lexington,
North Carolina, and CooperÕs in Llano, Texas. Modern wood-burning pits
are designed so that fat does not drip directly on the fire. Raw wood must be
used with care and burned fast enough, on a bed of hot coals, to keep the
smoke sweet and pleasant. Most barbecuists use charcoal for heat and add a
few chunks of raw, seasoned hardwood for the smoky barbecue flavor. Wood
should be dry and well seasoned to burn properly: Green wood produces harsh,
bitter smoke. Soaking wood in water is not necessary and affects the flavor
and moisture balance in a pit. The fire should be active for wood to burn
properly: Smoldering wood produces bitter smoke and creosote. Most hardwoods
are good for smoking; soft woods such as pine have too much resin and produce
tars and bitter smoke and should be avoided. Hardwoods have a range of
flavors and each species imparts its own characteristic taste to meats.
Listed in order from strong and harsh to light and sweet, popular hardwoods
include mesquite, hickory, pecan, oaks, ash, cherry, and apple. Charcoal is simply wood
burned to coals and then deprived of oxygen, or raw wood heated in a retort
until nothing is left but char (carbon). It burns hot and clean, with little
smoke and little ash. Once lit, it functions just like live coals and is the
best heat source for smokers and pits. Natural charcoal imparts little smoke
or flavor as most of the volatiles have been burned away. Good charcoal is
hard to find. Back in the Ô50s, when I was coming along and outdoor cooking
was getting popular, there was an old man, just up the road, who made hickory
charcoal the old-time way and sold it in burlap bags. Then, when I got
serious about barbecue and needed good, clean charcoal, I perfected a method
to make my own using fifty-five gallon drums as retorts. My arrangement was
environmentally sound because all of the volatiles and pollutants were burned
in the process. See how to make charcoal
at home Charcoal is generally
available in three distinct products: o In pure chunk form it is known as
lump charcoal. There are some residual characteristics from the parent wood
and lump charcoals vary considerably in heat, flavor, sparking and burn time.
Sparking charcoal is great for people who make fireworks and seek special
charcoals, such as grapevine, for colorful displays but sparking is not a
good thing for barbecue. o
Natural charcoal
briquettes are made from a paste of crushed charcoal and a vegetable binder,
such as wheat flour, and then pressed into a pillow shape. Briquettes are
uniform, easy to handle, relatively clean and burn at a predictable rate.
Unfortunately, natural briquettes are hard to find and are relatively
expensive. o Consumers are more likely to
encounter, and purchase, the cheaper, formulated briquettes found in grocery
and discount stores. These briquettes are usually made from a slurry of
carbonized sawdust, clay, limestone, sodium nitrate, anthracite coal and soft
coal. Some contain raw sawdust for smoke flavor, and paraffin or other
(petroleum) accelerants for quick lighting. Clay and limestone result in a
lot of ash, which blocks airflow and interferes with heat transfer requiring
frequent stirring to knock off surface ash. It can also become airborne and
settle on the surface of the meat. Coal has a characteristic odor when
burned, which can be detected in the barbecue – especially when unlit
briquettes are added during cooking. In some contests, this is an advantage
because the coal taste reminds inexperienced judges of home; experienced
tasters object. Supermarket briquettes may be suitable for open grilling, but
a barbecue pit is enclosed and meat is exposed to these adulterants for long
periods of time: You eat what you cook with. |
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Homemade
Natural Lump Charcoal |
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Charcoal, as used to make
barbecue, is primarily a source of consistent heat. Therefore, you are really
buying BTUs (British Thermal Units), a measure of heat content. Natural lump
and briquettes contain significantly more BTUs per pound and they burn
considerably longer than the commonly available and cheaper ÒformulatedÓ
briquettes. After much research, we have decided to use and sell the ÒWicked
GoodÓ brand of natural charcoal. Popular on the competition circuit, Wicked
Good is a high quality blend of five South American hardwood charcoals
selected for their long burn times, high BTUs per pound and low ash content.
All of the wood is grown on plantations and does not contribute (further) to
rain forest destruction. Their kilns are state-of-the-art: Pollutants
normally associated with charcoal production are captured and further
processed rather than being allowed to escape into the environment. The
producers also take charcoal-making one step beyond and remove most of the
remaining volatiles, thus eliminating sparking, a common and aggravating
problem with some natural charcoals. Independent tests indicate that Wicked
Good lump charcoal burns almost twice as long as the most popular manufactured
briquettes, producing about 40% more heat and leaving only 10% as much ash.
The Wicked Good all-natural briquettes stack up even better. Proving, once
again, that it Òalways pays to go first class.Ó Stop by ÒSomething DifferentÓ
for some wicked good charcoal, wicked good barbecue and wicked good company. Something Different Country Store and Deli
More Blurbs from a
Country Store
Published in Pleasant Living
magazine March – April 2007 Previous: Barbecue 101, Part I: The Pit
Next: Barbecue 101 Part III:
The Meat
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