I didn't want to hijack Mike's thread, so I started a new one. I
would be interested in anyone else's comments on the changes in
barbecue over the years.

On Aug 8, 9:29 am, mikel68 > wrote:

> He asked if i wanted to try it, I can't say I wasn't >hesitant. he brought it out, still pretty much whole, I >pulled a piece of the crust off and some inner meat, He >gets an "A". it was awesome. Just a very small section >in the center didn't pull. Damn he was proud, I told him,
> "my wife wants you to..."

I don't know why you would be hesitant unless you were thinking he did
a bad job altogether. It sounds like "rained out butt" method to me.
Good for you for trying it with an open mind.

A good unlerlying message here. Most folks do one thing or another
based on "common knowledge of the right way to do it" while they
actually just parroting what they have heard somewhere else. There
are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and in the early days of the internet
it was a hotbed of ideas and trials, some good and some bad.

I remember when I was introduced to charcoal in cooking. I thought
that was something that only lazy old men did on weekends. In my mind
as well as my friends, we saw charcoal guys as the old men with skinny
legs in pastel shorts and those funny fishing hat with charcoal in one
hand and lighter in the other going for the classic patio cooker.

Growing up in Texas, 30 - 35 years ago when I started barbecueing we
built a fire of oak started with tinder (no fluid we were all in
construction and had all the wood for tinder we wanted!), let it cook
down till it made a good bed of coals, then shoveled it into a large
pit or brick pit for barbecue. We kept the fire next to the pit going
all day and played horseshoes and drank while we were waiting for the
brisket, sausage and ribs to come off. We shoveled in a couple of
scoops of coals as needed when it looked like the fire was not up to
par. It was an all day affair every time, no doubt. Leftovers were
prized by all.

I never saw a plain flat of a brisket at the store. In the late 80s
when they became popular at the supermarket we used to laugh our butts
off at the thought of a "7 lb brisket". I wondered if that was about
the size of the brisket on my German Shepherd. BBQ for us was indeed
an all day affair with our big prized "packer cuts". Anyone else
remeber the time before cryovac?

Drowsy and tired, we would all meet up with big mugs of coffee and
start a fire and get the beer iced. Brisket went on the fire to be
seared, coated with salt and pepper as soon as possible. Then on the
pit for cooking. An hour or so before we were ready for lunch,
sausage went on and was eaten as a late lunch. Leftover sausage put
on the grill to stay warm, wrapped in foil. At about hour 10, on goes
the chicken in a far corner of the pit. Two hours later, everything
is done and serious eating begins.

I would not eat meat that had a "rub" on it. I would not eat meat
with sauce on it. I figured that these were cheats to hide bad bbq.
In my eyes the rub would make up for lack of time needed as an
investment to make a good brisket, and sauce would cover up badly
cooked ribs and chicken. I didn't like the taste of store bought
charcoal, and unless it was Royal Oak, I wouldn't eat meat "barbecued"
over charcoal instead of 100% wood coals. The diesel taste was too
much for me.

And when someone would say that turned out good bbq in an afternoon, I
always hoped they were talking about chicken or sausage, which in
Texas are considered appetizers and are usually grilled.

While for the most part I still think that is true, I do use rubs on
butts and pork ribs now, and plain salt and tons of pepper on beef
ribs. Changing with the times, I guess. I am too lazy to make a fire
to keep the coals at hand, and most of my old friends are much more
comfortable watching football in the a/c on Sunday than they are
cooking big hunks of meat.

Except for pork bb ribs and spares, I always cook my meats at higher
temps, and always have. BBQing a 16 lb packer brisket at 300 - 325
will still put out a product that will squirt juice, and you can eat
it the same day (although still a long one) you bbq it. I never foil
(unless it is to keep something warm or keep away unwanted critters)
anything or let is rest for hours as part of a cooking procedure.

Now I cook on one of two smokers, and occasionally grill a burger or
some fish. I will have to say that although the end product isn't
that much better, it is more consistent with the use of
thermometers. Easier to keep up with, too. With the consistency of
smoking in mind, I now use some charcoal with homemade lump added,
probably half and half. Surprisingly, that has averaged out to about
100 - 125 lbs of charcoal a year mixed in with the lump over the last
15 years or so.

I still do it the right way with all wood on occasion, but just can't
seem to find the time to do it that way, and it doesn't seem to taste
the same from a WSM as it did from a brick pit or a pit built by a
welder buddy.

Well, the times are indeed changing. Until I found this group a while
back and read a ton of posts, I never knew people were spraying meat
with apple juices or mixtures, using cinnamon in rubs, coating meats
with sugary stuff (*sniff* I prefer turbinado sugar in my rubs) and
using lump made (not homemade) from furniture tailings. I actually
didn't think that many people were using rubs... not on barbecue. The
big thing now seems to be "I serve sauce on the side, but it is rarely
needed". Sauce? Fruit juice glaze?

Some of the newer style of bbq is good stuff, and I certainly have
modified my recipes and techniques over the years. I am not a
professional, it is just something I like to do, and it seems like 30
years ago everyone was doing it the old way. No one I knew barbecued
on something that came from a home improvement store.

Thinking about it now as I write this, I wonder if I miss the
barbecue or all the processes involved. It was an activity I really
looked forward to when we could all get together. But I haven't
played horsehoes in years, much less with a beer in my hand with
little pieces of ice on the can.

Robert