According to a well-known saying, a man lives not for eating, but eats
for living. However, food and its search have been the driving force of
human progress for a long time. Prehistoric people had to smelt metals
and to become proficient in the martial art for the purpose of
successful hunting. In the Middle Ages a royal cook had more
significance than a minister. Nowadays each product can be processed in
different ways, and every country, state or even city has its unique recipes. Thus,
when people in Kansas City say the word “barbecue” they
mean pork ribs
seasoned with thick tomato-based sauce. In Texas one refers to
slow-smoked beef brisket and light sauce. When California dwellers
invite somebody to barbecue, they have in mind grilled tri-tips. The
variety of barbecue
techniques is really impressive, as very as the multiplicity
of barbecue sauces.
Each variation requires its own barbecue equipment:
a grill or
a smoker,
a pan, barbecue pit,
sharp knives, gloves, cutting boards etc.
Apart from barbecue methods and devices, there are also barbecue
terminology which must be known by each barbecue-fan. For example, when
a barbecue chef mentions “larding”, it means that
the fat
will be cut off, put outside the meat, and the meat will be basted with
it while smoking. Larding is usually applied to lean meat.
All the barbecuers avoid such a harmful substance as
“creosote” – a gas formed in case wood is
burned in
an oxygen-starved environment. While evaporating, creosote condenses on
cool surfaces, such as walls of barbecue smoker or meat which gets a
disgusting bitter taste.
Never use such terms as “lazy-Q” or
“pseudo-Q”
in the presence of a confirmed barbecuer, as they will be treated like
the most serious insult. Despite the advertising, which offers
different easy-in-use barbecue devices, the guardians of barbecue
traditions mock at those who prefer electricity or gas to natural wood
and coals during the cooking process, and call them lazy-Q'ers. As for
“pseudo-Q”, it is used to characterize the meat
which was
boiled in water, grilled a little and served with a hot sauce,
pretending to be real barbecue. So, all experienced cooks avoid making
lazy-Q's or tasting pseudo-Q's, but do their best to get Mr. Brown
– that is they call an appetizing crust on the outside of
barbecue meat.
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