subject: Do You Barbecue or Grill, what is the difference? [print this page] Do You Barbecue or Grill, what is the difference?
Here we are the feel of summer is in the air. What does that mean? For many of us it means time to start reading dinner recipes and barbeque. Nothing to me feels more like summer than a lazy afternoon and my barbeque.
Let me first say that I am talking about barbecuing not outdoor grilling. Some of you do not know the difference and believe that anytime someone cooks outside that they are barbecuing. You do not barbecue hot dogs and hamburgers you grill them. That is you add some seasons and toss them on the hot grill for about 10 minutes and then you are done. I just describe outdoor grilling.
Barbecuing is a well defined process that may start days before you begin to cook. If you are not well experienced with this then please follow a book on BBQ recipes. You need to select the meat, create a nice dry rub of herbs and seasons. Prep the meat with the rub and then wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Then there is the preparing the grill. Do you use charcoal, wood or both? Some may even season the wood as when you are barbecuing you look to add flavor from all sources and the smoke from the wood or charcoal is part of the unique barbecue taste.
Do you use sauce or marinade? Depending on what you are going to cook will define whether you create a special barbecue sauce or unique marinade. A marinade is used to add flavor to meat and also shall contain acids like citrus juice or soda that will help tenderize the meat as these acids breakdown the meat tissue. You marinade meat in the refrigerator for at least an hour but preferable overnight. You do not cook with marinade it is just used to prep the meat for flavor. Barbeque sauce starts out as a tomato sauce, from there it can go many different directions usually depending what region of the country you are in may determine what you will add to your sauce.
Now, you have your meat prepared. It was either marinated overnight or covered in a rub wrapped in plastic and refrigerated overnight. Guess what, it is now time to start the grill. Some people who are short on time and hate all the cleaning may go with a gas grill. That is fine, but the real professionals use charcoal or wood. This process of prepping the grill is very important. You are looking to achieve the right amount of heat. When barbecuing we are going top slowly cook the meat as the result should be a very tender meat that you can just peel off the bone and full of juices not dry. Too much heat too fast will prevent this from happening.
Now do not be one of the persons who start adding barbeque sauce the moment you put the meat on the grill. You need to let the meat cook for awhile. The meat needs to blend with the dry rub or marinade that it was bathing in the last 24 hours. Depending what barbeque style you are following you may not add barbeque sauce until the last 20 minutes of cooking. In fact some styles do not use sauce at all in the cooking process. The sauce is applied to the meat after words. By adding sauce while cooking it may burn and give you meat the black layer of crust. You may even just use the barbeque sauce as a dipping sauce. They are many ways to enjoy your food when barbecuing.
