Best Cut of Meat
So, you’re new to barbequing, and you want to have the best barbeque ever for your family, so you can show off your newly-acquired skills. While having a good grill/smoker is important, you can have a good barbeque from a fire pit dug in your backyard – if you have the proper meat. What cuts are good for grilling, and what cuts are good for barbequing? There is a difference, you know; grilling is a relatively fast process, over charcoal or natural gas. Barbequing is a slow process, over wood, or over charcoal with wood chips for smoke. So, decide if you want to grill for your family or barbeque instead. Or, both – nothing to stop you from grilling a steak and barbequing ribs or brisket at the same time!
The Importance of Meat to Good Barbecue
Most people who eat barbeque will tell you it’s the sauce that makes it good. These people are wrong; it’s not the sauce, it’s the meat, and how well the meat is prepared. Good barbeque doesn’t need sauce at all – moist, smoky, and flavorful meat doesn’t need covering up with a sauce. However, the best barbeque chefs will have a sauce they’ve developed to serve at the table – in case you want an accompaniment with your meat.
Given that the meat is what makes barbeque good, you need to spend a little time at the meat counter of your favorite supermarket or, better yet, at a real meat market. You want either USDA Prime grade or Choice grade. It can be difficult to find Prime grade cuts at a supermarket, so if there’s no butcher or meat market available to you, you’ll have to go with Choice cuts.
The next thing to consider is the fat content of the meat. You want well-marbled meat for either grilling or barbequing. The marbling keeps the juice in the meat as it cooks, and the fat provides flavor. For those of you concerned about fat, the marbling melts out as the meat cooks; however, you should remove any extra fat from the meat after you cook it, not before.
Get cuts of meat even in thickness for grilling or barbequing. Grilling uneven cuts of meat gives you parts that are underdone and parts that are overdone.
If you can get aged meat, do so; aging tenderizes the meat, giving you a flavorful, tender cut. You can also store the meat in your refrigerator for a couple of days before cooking; this gives you a couple of days of cold aging.
Remember that grilling is not BBQ, you need to know what cuts of different meats you should buy for each purpose:
Meat cuts to Grill
You want Rib eyes, Strip steaks, Porterhouses, T-bones, and Sirloins for grilling. Meat cut from the tenderloin – Filet Mignon – is the best cut of meat, but it’s also the highest in price. Prime cuts are best, but choice cuts work as well.
Meat cuts for Barbecue
Barbeque is a slow process, so larger cuts of meat are in order. Briskets, Roasts, Boston butt roasts, Whole chickens, and Ribs are prime candidates. You will need a rub, either dry or wet, to prep the meat, and a leave-in meat thermometer, to tell you when the meat is done.
Grilling vs. Barbecuing
Grilling is an immediate process; it takes at best half-an-hour to forty-five minutes to grill a steak or a bunch of burgers. Barbequing is a long, slow process; you need wood or charcoal, and if you use charcoal, you need wood chips for smoke. Barbecuing large cuts of meat takes up to twelve hours, and barbequing large slabs of ribs can take from six to eight.
So, if you really want to impress your family, start barbequing the day before they’re due over at your house, and really knock their socks off with the quality of your barbequed meat. For those family members not into barbeque, have some steaks and burgers ready to grill when they get there. And, don’t forget the side dishes – baked beans, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, and iced tea are the perfect accoutrements to either barbequed or grilled meat. A really good barbeque sauce is also handy to have, for those who think barbeque is all about the sauce.
You can put on an impressive barbeque for friends and family, and become the barbeque impresario of your set!
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