Barbecue Blog

North Americans have a special affinity with spring, because this is the time when they prepare some of the most delicious barbecue rib recipes. The meat is definitely tasty, but the history of barbecue recipes is equally interesting. Before Civil War, the barbecue was introduced in the pig-pickin’s feast. This feast was common in the Southern States. Not only a whole pig was cooked, but it was eaten by a number of people who joined the feast.

Smoking which is a term commonly used for barbecue recipes was first used 6000 years ago. This was considered as a safe way to cook the meat. The meat was generally cooked in low heat so that all the bacteria were dead. In Australia, the term barbecue is replaced by Barbie that almost became iconic when it appeared in the tourism brochures of Australia. There is doubt about the origin of the word barbecue. There are some who feel that it originated from ‘barbacoa’, an American-Indian word which means wood. The wood is used to cook food. There are some who love the European connection and feel that it came from French ‘de barbe a queue’ which simply means ‘whiskers to tail’. Now when you enjoy the lovely barbecue rib recipes, you can think of these fun facts.

Brisket which is hard meat taken from the chest of the cow has to be cooked for 12 hours so that the meat becomes tender and juicy. If you want to visit the barbecue capitals, you have to visit Missouri, North Carolina, Kansas City, and Lexington.

In the late 1800’s when the cowboys had nothing to eat other than Brisket which was nothing more than hard beef meat, they had to think of ways of improvising on the food. Cattle barons were more interested on their profits than the welfare of the cowboys, so they had to learn to survive. Soon they knew that if the brisket was cooked for 5-7 hours, it would make the flesh tender. But there was a trick to these early barbecue recipes. The brisket was to be cooked in low heat.

It was a well-hidden trade secret for years. And that is why Texas became the undisputed maker of some of the best barbecue recipes all over the world. Later chefs made other improvisations. The meat was cooked in a smoker so that meat was cooked slowly. However the taste was undeniably the best. If you are in a hurry, you can always cook the Brisket. It can be cooked in 200 degrees in the oven. After it is done partially, it can be transferred to the smoker where the slow heat would give the flesh their tenderness.

Some of the early cooks loved to cook the meat in a grill. A grill can be used to cook beef, pork and chicken and either charcoal or gas was used as fuel. After the meat was grilled, a thick coat of barbecue sauce was applied which would make the meat tastier. There is one thing that should be remembered while cooking barbecued chicken recipes. Generally the outside gets burned even before the inside of the chicken is cooked properly. In order to avoid this, only a little amount of black pepper and salt should be used for seasoning. The black pepper and salt should be ground. Once the chicken gets the grill marks, it must be removed immediately from the grill and sauce should be applied.