What Is BBQ?

To purists such as Ray Lampe (aka Dr. BBQ, a frequent champion on the barbecue-competition circuit and author of Dr. BBQ’s Big-Time Barbecue Cookbook), barbecue is “a method of cooking tougher cuts of meat very, very slowly at low temperatures (215ºF to 250ºF), with the heat source far away from the food,” or in other words, meat slow-cooked at very low temperatures in the dry indirect heat of wood coals.

To half the guys in America, on the other hand, “barbecue” is anything cooked outdoors, by whatever method, and certainly includes anything you cook on your outdoor grill.

Classic BBQ

In the most traditional sense, barbecue is the process of cooking meat in indirect heat at very low temperatures. This so-called "classic BBQ" accomplishes three important things:

The long exposure to low heat renders most of the fat out of the meat.

That same long exposure dissolves the collagens and connective tissues that make meat tough, so classic BBQ is fall-off-the-bone tender.

The exterior of the meat caramelizes, which produces an intensely flavorful crust or, as we like to say in BBQ circles, “bark.” (If “caramel” implies sugar to you, you’re exactly right. All meats contain natural sugars that darken, or “caramelize,” when heated, and that’s what makes up your BBQ’s bark.)

Since the meat cooks in low indirect heat, very little of the natural juices in the meat boil off. Classic BBQ is therefore tender and juicy, pink in color, and smoky in flavor, the precise flavor depending on what wood is used for the indirect heat that produces your smoke.

An important point to establish early in our discussion is that your average backyard BBQ grill is not particularly well-suited for classic BBQ. Unless you have a very large grill where you can isolate your heat at one end and let the meat roast in the comparatively cool temperatures at the other, what you’re doing on your backyard BBQ grill is not classic BBQ. (See What BBQ Is Not)

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