05. Barbecuing

Smoking on a grill begins to tread into the domain of barbecue, another culinary arena with its own techniques and traditions. As we mentioned earlier, grilling uses high, direct heat and barbecuing uses low, indirect heat. But the hallmarks of barbecue are billows of thick wood smoke and long cooking times—up to 24 hours in some cases. Here’s a quick look at barbecuing, which is mostly outside the scope of this grilling book.

Traditionally, barbecued foods are cooked in a pit or smoker with a separate (offset) firebox. With the heat in one chamber and the food in another, the food cooks by the relatively cool heat of smoke generated by the wood rather than by the radiant heat of burning coals. In the cooking chamber, the temperature remains very low (200° to 225°F) throughout the entire cooking time. This low temperature allows foods to cook very slowly without burning, which is a key factor in dissolving the tough connective tissue that surrounds the muscle fibers in relatively tough meats such as brisket and ribs. It simply takes time for these connective tissues to gradually dissolve and add moisture to the meat. If brisket, for instance, were cooked quickly over high heat, it would be leathery and unpalatable. But when barbecued low and slow, it becomes meltingly tender and succulent. Cooking slowly by the indirect heat of smoldering wood also infuses the meat with deep, smoky aromas.