Real American Barbecue

Just the thought of it makes my mouth water. If there ever was a poster child for the Slow Food Movement, I think that this cooking style could be it. What culinary alchemy do I speak of? Barbecue, of course. In this country, barbecue (also known as barbeque or BBQ) is defined as a method of cooking particularly tough or almost un-edible portions of a pig using low temperatures and hardwood smoke. The only possible addition to this definition would be the cooking of beef brisket, but that is a unique food item popular in Texas. As for traditional barbecue, this practice of cooking not only refers to the cooking medium, but has also come to be an event at which people gather and enjoy each others’ company while waiting for the pork to finish cooking.
What makes barbecuing such a unique cooking style is that instead of cooking meat to a specific temperature, you cook it to a particular doneness. For example, a traditional cut of meat for barbecue would be the pork shoulder (or Boston Butt, but no one seems to know why it’s called this. The “butt” refers to the “butt-end” of the shoulder, but as for “Boston”…) because it has a lot of connective tissue and a moderate amount of fat. As this meat is slowly heated over the course of 10 or 12 hours, the collagen in the connective tissue melts and turns into gelatin. As this gelatin is basted by the fat in the meat as it cooks, the meat now literally falls apart and the shoulder is easily shredded into edible chunks. The gelatin is also responsible for the satisfying “mouth-feel” that someone experiences as they eat the appropriately named “pulled pork”. No sauce is necessary when the pork provides its own!
The use of hardwood smoke is essential to the barbecue process, as well, because it not only provides the medium for the heat to transfer into the meat, but it also imparts its own unique flavor to the food that it is smoking. It is imperative that hardwood smoke be used, as any conifer or softwood tree releases pitch as it burns, and the resulting acrid smoke residue will destroy whatever food you are cooking. My personal favorite hardwood of choice is apple-wood, as I think it imparts a nice sweetness into the pork. Traditional “Pit Masters” use hickory, and this wood dishes-out a deep, heavy flavor into the meat. Mesquite wood is preferred by Texans for their brisket, and I’ve used pear and cherry-woods for adding special flavors to my pork.
Spice rubs are a hotly debated topic in the barbecue world, and with the exception of the question of whether to use sauce (and if so, what, kind…) nothing gets barbecue enthusiasts riled-up faster than what type of spice rub to use. By adding a mix of spices to a cut of meat, a person can seriously raise the flavor potential of an otherwise bland cut of pork, and the low temperature wood-smoke helps to create a type of “crust” around the meat as its fat begins to render off and mingle with the spices. This crust is affectionately known in the southern part of the United States as “Mr. Brown”. While every grocery store has dozens of spice rubs that they insist are the best for barbecue, the main ingredient is typically salt, and you pay through the nose for something that you can easily make at home for far less money. By using whole spices and grinding them as you need them, you not only save money, but the essential oils in the spices are protected from air until you release them through grinding. Once exposed to air, these spices quickly lose their flavor. As you are now in control of your spice rub, you can add as much heat (through chili’s or peppers) as you want, and as much salt as you want to create whatever flavor that you desire.
Low temperature (200 to about 225 degrees Fahrenheit) wood-smoke for barbecue can be achieved a number of ways. Traditionally, large logs of hardwood were set aflame and allowed to burn down to embers. The food (usually a whole pig) was then placed over the embers and allowed to cook over the smoldering embers. As this method is not very efficient, due to the large amounts of logs that would have to be carefully burned and tended (not to mention the possible exposure to rain or wind), new ways of harnessing the power of wood-smoke have been utilized. The Polynesians had the right idea with burying a whole pig with superheated rocks inside and around it to cook until it was tender. The Hawaiians still use a traditional imu pit for their kalua pig at luaus, and the packed earth around the pit helps retain heat and reflect it back into the meat. The only reason this isn’t considered barbecue (in an American sense) is that no smoke is involved in the cooking process. Modern pit-masters use a trench dug in the ground and lined with bricks or rocks, and then surround it somehow with more bricks or earth to protect it from the elements and offer a concentrated area for the smoke to rise and envelope the meat. Similar to a cob oven, heat is absorbed into the bricks and/or earth and radiated back into the food.
While this is the de facto standard for professional pit-masters in America, true barbecue can be achieved without retrofitting your entire backyard into a barbecue pit. Using a charcoal grill, for example, you can build a low-heat fire on one side of the grill, place soaked woodchips (so that they smolder instead of catch on fire) onto the coals, and place the meat on the other side of the grill. This method requires a lot of grill maintenance (refilling coals, replenishing wood chips, etc.) for the minimum of 10 hours required for cooking, so I prefer using an electric smoker. Looking very much like R2-D2 from the Star Wars films, my smoker allows me to place large chunks of wood into a metal dish that sits atop a modified hot plate. I can set my target temperature, place my food into the smoker, put the lid on, and only have to return every three hours or so to replenish the wood. This method yields incredibly tasty and tender barbecue, and its relatively low maintenance certainly makes life easier for me.
Barbecue is a commitment to time and taste. In our fast-food life of “commodified tastes”, it is nice to invest over half of a day into preparing a meal. This manner of cooking demands that I slow down and really think about what I am cooking, and I always feel a sense of pride whenever I bite into a pulled pork sandwich that I have made from scratch. This process puts me in touch with my food, and every time I make barbecued pork, it tastes a little different, adding to its appeal as a “slow food” in my diet. Because of the amount of work and time that goes into preparing this food, I rarely just cook it for only my wife and I. We will usually have a small group of family and friends over to celebrate life and enjoy each other’s company while we prepare and finally eat this pork. In this way, the food acts as a social connection, much in the same way as Steven Feld describes in his article, The Boy Who Became a Muni Bird. In this article, people of the Kaluli Tribe in Bosavi relate to each other over the food that they consume together. Likewise, I feel that our convening on my back patio with the scent of apple-wood in the air helps to join our relationship on a very primitive level, like cave people gathered around a fire sharing a meal. It is in this spirit that barbecue, both as a cooking method and as a social gathering, helps to bring people together in a sharing of something that we have in common and is essential to our survival: eating food.
Here is my recipe for pulled pork:

Real Barbecue Pulled Pork
Recipe by Dave Lamsek

1 five-pound boneless pork shoulder (Boston Butt)
For the brine:
2 quarts water
12 oz (by weight) pickling salt
2 Tb dark molasses
1 Tb honey
For the spice rub:
1 Tb toasted cumin seeds
1 Tb toasted fennel seeds
1 Tb toasted coriander
1/2 Tb black peppercorns
1 Tb chili powder
2 Tb onion powder
1 pinch cayenne
1tsp garlic powder
Apple-wood and a smoker or charcoal grill (propane releases water vapor when burned, so this prevents smoke from penetrating the meat, so no gas grills!)

Brining a large cut of meat helps it to retain moisture during a long cooking process. By the power of osmosis, the salt in the liquid is forced into the cells walls of the meat and keep internal moisture from leaving. Not only does this ensure moist meat, but it ups the flavor level, as well.
Assemble brine ingredients in a large container (large enough to fit the pork and all of the liquid. Whisk to dissolve the salt. Place the pork in the brine, and lay a bag full of ice cubes on top of it to keep it submerged. Place in refrigerator or a cool place (replacing the ice as necessary) for at least 8 hours. After 8 hours, discard brine, and pat the pork dry (do not rinse).
To toast spices, place in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until spices start to crackle. Remove from heat and cool before combining with the rest of the spices in a spice grinder (or old coffee grinder; don’t use your regular coffee grinder! Your coffee will be very spicy!).
Sift spices all over the pork, using one hand to pat the spice into the pork (“rub” is a bit of a misnomer…) making sure to cover the entire piece. Preheat your smoker (or prep your coals and hardwood) to 210 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the pork, fat side up (so it can self-baste) onto the grill rack; cover; replenish wood as necessary. After 10 hours, test for tenderness with a fork (it should shred away very easily with no resistance); continue cooking for up to another 2 hours if necessary. Remove from smoker, wrap in foil, and allow the meat to rest for about 30 minutes. Shred with a fork, and enjoy the fruits of your labor with the ones that you love!