Bar B Q: Who's Got The Best?? And Don't Forget The Sauce

[Crux]

Bloke, you should season beef with salt (if you can) as it is important for moisture as the salt will draw moisture out and the the salt is absorbed and draws the moisture back in. You can skip the pepper though as it adds flavor but doesn't enhance the meat.

Hey Greg, I can't cook to save my life. The sole exception being a rare steak like in your picture and yes, I certainly season a steak with salt (and pepper) but only a few minutes prior to cooking it. I do like a little Hot English Mustard with it but that's it. I don't like any type of sauce on steak. :)

I should have said that it is important to salt the raw meat for this to occur, and if the meat is room temperature that another bonus. I few simple rules and you can cook like a chef. Like most things it's the technique that makes it great. :)

I like a little something on the side every once a awhile. As long as it enhances but doesn't mask the meat. I do love hot mustard so that's totally awesome. All of my pork BBQ is slathered with mustard before the rub as mustard is very important to the process and enhances the taste.

[JD Spydo]

Excuse me!!! Excuse me :confused: ??!! I'm just not getting this twisted, warped narrative at all. What on GOD's blue planet is wrong with someone flavoring food to a taste or flavor that they desire? I completely understand you guys who prefer your food with no sauces, condiments or any other enhancements or flavorings. But it just flat out confuses me as to why some of you think it's wrong to flavor your food to your own individual desired tastes. For instance I personally like my coffee straight black but I don't demean or degrade someone who likes cream & sugar in their coffee. I sure don't like it that way myself but I would never say what they do is wrong :confused: Come on Folks!!! People are different in many aspects of their lives :confused: :confused:

NEWS FLASH!!! not everybody likes the same flavors or the same methods of cooking for that matter. That's just being extremely narrow minded. :confused:

OK I'll admit that at one time I used to be just a bit narrow minded myself until a dear lady friend of mine about 15 years ago came over to my house and fixed the very first veggie pizza I ever ate. At first I thought the concept of making a pizza with veggies instead of the traditional meat and cheese toppings was ridiculous and about as out of place as putting hot fudge on asparagus :rolleyes: . But out of respect and courtesy I put my own pre-conceived notions aside and sat down and ate it with her and quickly discovered that a well cooked veggie pizza was actually pretty darn good to my surprise.

But to say that someone who likes steak sauce on a steak is some kind of pariah is just flat out not right at all IMO. The same goes with Bar BQ sauce. because as much steak sauce and Bar BQ sauce that is sold in this country in stores all across the nation more than proves that there are a lot of us who like the additional flavorings.

The concept is known as "variety" and almost every culinary food expert acknowledges it and accepts it. But to say that someone is essentially a reprobate because they like a food fixed differently than you is just flat out being totally indignant. I respect that you guys like it your way but that doesn't make it wrong for everyone to do it their own way :confused: There's a reason that A-1 steak sauce sells so well and that Bar BQ sauce is also a big seller in stores>> yeah it's because there are millions of us who like it that way

[Tdog]

I love B-Que oh so many ways, and always open to new versions. Bring it on. :D

[Bloke]

Excuse me!!! Excuse me :confused: ??!! ...

Hey Joe, hope you’re not grilling me mate because I only like hot mustard on my rare steak. :)

You’d have more chance of winning last week’s lottery here than finding a BBQ restaurant like you have over there. We can get ribs easy enough but they’re hit and miss and not BBQ’d like you describe.

The best ribs I get to eat, my daughter roasts in the oven and she makes the sauce from scratch herself. It’s a tad sweeter than I prefer but it’s how her husband likes it and still way better than the few places we can buy ribs locally.


I’d love to visit the US and try your local BBQ’s.

[TkoK83Spy]

Hahaha, Joe...it's not "wrong" to put A1 on a steak, I mean...it is called "A1 steak sauce"

Must be the way I was raised. When I was a teenager and my father started teaching me about grilling, he said if you have the right cut of meat and you add the right amount of spices/salt PRIOR to grilling that your steak should be juicy and be full flavored enough that a sauce is not needed. The sauce masks the taste of the meat that you just paid for. Granted, you could argue the same about the salt and spices...though they play a roll in drawing out the juices and flavors of the meat as Crux previously said. A big problem I've seen people make too, is they will take a steak right from the refrigerator and then throw it on the grill! I feel like I'm like :eek: :eek: when I see this happen, but will never say anything to the host/grill person.

I won't say I'm any kind of grill master, but I know that I've smoked some ribs and grilled steaks at cookouts have had some nice compliments on how things have turned out. I've also been to cookouts where the steak has been grilled on high heat the entire time, just get them done because there were many mouths to feed. I've also grabbed for the A1 a few times in those cases.

[Crux]

Excuse me!!! Excuse me :confused: ??!! I'm just not getting this twisted, warped narrative at all. What on GOD's blue planet is wrong with someone flavoring food to a taste or flavor that they desire?

Sorry, but you have to season your steak based on our group think. oh, and no pineapple on pizza. :p

[Crux]

The Para 3 of 24" BBQ smokers has finally arrived. Today I assembled this with my friend who is also going to buy one as well. After a lot of research I finally moved on from Traeger to Camp Chef. The options with this smoker are amazing and after a test firing it worked perfectly. I did notice a few areas that need improvement but at the same time they were easy to overcome them with low cost additions I had on hand.

We didn't fire up the sear box but I plan to do that tomorrow. It's advertised as up to 900 degrees but if it hits 800 I'll be happy. The sear box is on the right with the see-thru 22lb hopper on the left. The brand new Traegers have a blind 18lb hopper which is 2lbs below the standard bag of 20lbs of pellets so you always have an odd bag of leftover pellets. Why Traeger? Why?

Also the legs and rollers are soooo much better and far more stable than the Traeger, and the hopper lide is oversized so it act as a convenient surface while cooking. But what really takes the cake is the amazing clean out options. You who have been here know that's the worst part but the Camp Chef makes it so easy I feel like I went from the Samsung S5 to the S10, or the Apple i5 to the i12. Modification pics and amazing food pics to follow.

[JD Spydo]

The Para 3 of 24" BBQ smokers has finally arrived. Today I assembled this with my friend who is also going to buy one as well. After a lot of research I finally moved on from Traeger to Camp Chef. The options with this smoker are amazing and after a test firing it worked perfectly. I did notice a few areas that need improvement but at the same time they were easy to overcome them with low cost additions I had on hand.

Hey that is an impressive looking rig. Hey I'm curious as to which type of wood you all use in that part of the country for smoking? Are there a lot of hickory and white oak trees in that part of the country ( North Carolina)?? If not I would be curious as to which wood you all smoke with in that region. It was just about 2 years ago a friend of mine who was living in the Pacific Northwest part of the USA moved back here to Kansas City. He brought some canned smoked salmon for me to try out. It was truly delicious but it had a milder smoky taste than most of the hickory type Bar BQ we have here in Missouri.

He told me that some Native Americans up there in Washington State showed him how to smoke fish with "Alder Wood". I guess Alder is pretty common up there. He also said that there were a lot of apple orchards up there and they also used a lot of "Apple Wood" to smoke with as well. So I would be interested to know what you guys down there use to smoke with?

[Crux]

It's a pellet smoker and I use hickory, peach, cherry and mesquite mostly. I also have maple but it's so-so.

Sure, we have tons of hickory and oak and we use hickory wood for whole hog.

[JD Spydo]

That's another factor I would like to hear more about is which type of wood ( or other material for that matter) are you all using to smoke you meat with? Here in the central part of the USA where I live it seems that Hickory is king and most of the commercial Bar BQ joints use Hickory as well.

People from the great state of Texas all tell me that they use "Mesquite" to smoke with. Personally I like both Hickory and Mesquite as well as many other woods from fruit trees. I've been told by a couple of guys from the Pacific Northwest part of the USA that they use "Alder" wood to smoke their salmon and other fish with. I've had some Alder wood smoked salmon and it is great.

So when you all tell us about your Bar BQ you can also include which type of wood you smoke with.

[murphjd25]

I believe I do, but I’m a little biased :D :p

These are just a few of my very many different smoke sessions. You name it I've cooked it, but these are my three favorite meats to smoke, baby backs, brisket, and prime rib :) All done on my GMG Daniel Boon, Apple and Cherry pellets for the ribs, and Mesquite and Hickory for beef.

[JD Spydo]

I believe I do, but I’m a little biased :D :p

These are just a few of my very many different smoke sessions. You name it I've cooked it, but these are my three favorite meats to smoke, baby backs, brisket, and prime rib :) All done on my GMG Daniel Boon, Apple and Cherry pellets for the ribs, and Mesquite and Hickory for beef.

Well "Murph" those are some really impressive baby back ribs>> which is one of my favorites when doing my own "smoke/bar bq" work. It's interesting that you guys are using pellets to do your smoking/bar bqing with.

I'm old school when using the raw wood itself but I'm going to check out those pellets. There is so much available hickory here where I live along with wood off of several different types of fruit trees as well. Not saying the pellets are not good but on the other hand it's hard to beat what Mother Nature provides.

I'm going to talk to an old friend tomorrow that just bought one of those "Oklahoma Joe's" smokers that I think he paid over $2000 for.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Murph those look so delicious.

While I like that kind of BBQ, I also like the sandwich type with pulled pork or pulled chicken piled high and also with real authentic corn bread and potato salad and mac and cheese as sides. One of my grandest dreams is to eat barbequed lamb ribs in New Zealand and barbequed salt water crocodile in Australia.

[Crux]

I've eaten plenty of alligator and it never really tasted good to me but was popular where I lived. When I was younger I got in a faze where I wanted to eat all kinds of weird meats like ostrich, rattlesnake, grizzly bear etc. I got that out of my system so I think I'll stick to beef, pork and small birds.

[JD Spydo]

I've eaten plenty of alligator and it never really tasted good to me but was popular where I lived. When I was younger I got in a faze where I wanted to eat all kinds of weird meats like ostrich, rattlesnake, grizzly bear etc. I got that out of my system so I think I'll stick to beef, pork and small birds.

When visiting my relatives in Louisiana and Mississippi I would also get to dine on their exotic quisine. I actually loved the Alligator meat I got to eat. Frog Legs are truly a delicacy to me. But I don't just stop at the hind legs I learned how to dress out the entire frog and discovered there is a lot of really tasty meat on those critters. The times I've eaten rattlesnake I found it to taste similar to frog legs>> but the meat was really "stringy" and somewhat hard to chew up. But I wouldn't hesitate eating it again if I were in a survival situation.

I've never eaten Grizzly Bear but I have eaten Black Bear on a few occasions. I would think a big Grizzly would be tougher than shoe leather :rolleyes: :eek: / But I've eaten Moose, Caribou, Every species of deer here in North America, Ostrich ( which I thought was overrated :rolleyes: )>> but now I did like the "EMU" I got to eat a couple of years ago.

The bottom line I believe to getting good eating wild game is to go for the younger ones of the species. It's been years since I hunted deer for trophy racks>> For at least the past 15 years I've mainly been a food hunter. I love button bucks, very young does and across the spectrum of wild game I lean toward the younger animals. A few years back when I was checking in a deer a Missouri Dept of Conservation check station I got to talking to a guy who was admiring the 8 point buck I shot>> he had a really young doe and when I offered to trade him he went for it immediately. He bragged about how much more meat he got>> but all the meat I got was super tender and absolutely delicious.

[Crux]

Oh yeah, add deer and elk to my list. When I climbed in Denali I ate reindeer and was it was very good. :)

[Bloke]

Not American BBQ but better than average.

Everything marinated separately overnight with a little salt and pepper, a little lemon juice,a little vinegar, oregano and grated onion and basted as cooked with olive oil, lemon juice and oregano.

Two legs of lamb boned and diced (Sani Safe, Dexter Russell 5” swept back, flexible boning knife).

Rare and sweet.



My darling grandkiddies favourite, Lamb Cutlets again rare and sweet.



The rest of the lamb cutlets, chicken wings and sausages from the Croatian butcher ... good to eat! :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Wow Bloke you are amazing. Very appetizing bbq!

What do you like to have on the sides? Traditional American type stuff like potato salad and chili or other things?

[cabfrank]

Fantastic looking feast, I wish I was there to taste it. Also, very appropriate that you described the knife you used for prep.

[OldHoosier62]

I use a stick burner for everything at my place...that said, my ex-wife and daughter have a Camp Chef that I cook on when I'm there. It does an okay job in my opinion and my only piece of advice for folks thinking about pellet grills is to buy GOOD quality pellets. There are plenty of forums and FB pages about BBQ that you can check for the most highly regarded pellets...check them out, buy some small bags, try them and decide for yourself. Cheap pellets make lousy BBQ from my experience.