Low 'n' Slow: the Secret to True BBQ

In her chapter on fire from Consider the Fork, Bee Wilson writes: “There are signs that we miss fire and regret its absence from our lives.” She moves on to describe the gusto with which we Brits jump on the opportunity to light the barbecue as soon as a protracted period of sunshine threatens.

She’s right. We pounce on it, partly for the sheer novelty of cooking with a different medium, harnessing flame and smoke, often to poor effect. Usually it’s a rush job: cook enough food before the coals lose their heat, before the sun disappears. Capricious weather, poor technique, and lack of time conspiring against us.

But that ain’t BBQ; that’s grilling, more akin to the Antipodean way, where you do it quick before you develop instantaneous skin cancer. True BBQ is a much slower affair. It’s the Isaac Hayes to grilling’s Pendulum.  

It could be argued that Jon Finch and Ben Merrington co-founded Grillstock, the BBQ festival, precisely because of this perceived ineptitude, ‘disillusioned’ as they were ‘by the poor interpretation of BBQ in the UK.' But four years on from the first event, haven’t things changed? Isn’t the standard getting better?  

Finch has seen a definite trend: “The first Grillstock Festival took place in 2010. We struggled to scrape together ten teams for the first competition. Half of them were made up of friends and family that took part just to help us out. This year will see festivals six and seven for us and the competition places have been fully booked since last November.

“It’s not just the sheer interest and enthusiasm that we’ve seen explode, though. The quality of the food being turned in by the teams just gets better and better each year. I think UK BBQ is forging its own style and character now and it’s far more interesting than what’s happening in the US. Unlike traditional US BBQ competitions, we’re seeing guys taking their influences from all over the world and incorporating them into their dishes.”

Despite this mix of influences, there is something much more puritanical about American BBQ, with its distinct regional styles and fierce rivalries. And this is something Fire & Salt BBQ's Malachy O'Connor, a street food trader in the Northwest, touches on: "When we're talking about American BBQ, 'barbecue' is meat. You don't 'have a barbecue,' you 'make barbecue.' And the rules for making barbecue are slow cooking over indirect heat using wood smoke. Spice rubs, marinades, sauces and cooking times are all just dressing. It's the way you cook the meat that makes it barbecue."

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“True BBQ is all about time and patience” – Jon Finch

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But Karina Hitchen, director of Manchester's Southern 11, notes the difference that something like a sauce can make to the final product: “It's amazing how many different ways you can do pulled pork by just changing the wood you smoke it with and the sauce... whether you go for a North Carolina more vinegar-based BBQ sauce to contrast the sweetness of the pork or a classic Tennessee BBQ sauce to enhance the hickory flavours smoked into the meat.”

And Finch, for his part, emphasises the transformative effect that true BBQ, the low and slow kind, can have on meat. Take your humble brisket, pork butt (the shoulder, not the rear end!), or ribs, and make them into something almost unrecognisable: “The real art in BBQ is taking these unloved cuts of meat and turning them into something beautiful. True BBQ is all about time and patience. We want the fat and connective tissue to gently and gradually melt down leaving succulent, fall-apart meat that is packed with flavour.”

Though the three differ ever so slightly, the common denominator uniting these advocates and purveyors of BBQ is that they all travelled in the US before starting their respective businesses. An eagerness to learn the secrets, coupled with more affordable air fares, has meant entrepreneurs and wannabe BBQ experts can head to the States and learn from some of the finest pitmasters there are. The BBQ trend in the UK lies pretty squarely with street food traders, restaurants and festivals over the country who are, in some respect, propagating a culinary art. O’Connor also points out the influence TV programming has had, particularly the escapades of Adam Richman: “Man v Food also has done a lot for public recognition. The number of people who say to me ‘Oh yeah, I've seen this on Man v Food" is surprisingly high.’”

So, what can you do if you want to practice good BBQ? O'Connor has some sound advice: “You don't need fancy equipment. A £20 barbecue grill from the DIY shop can make barbecue that's as good as anything you can do with a £10,000 Fast Eddy smoker. My advice would be: get yourself a good fatty piece of meat (pork shoulder, brisket, meaty ribs); keep your smoker temperature at around 225F (108C); always give your meat at least 20 minutes to rest when it's come off the grill.” And if you want to try something a little left field too? “If you're looking to try something a little different on the smoker or grill this summer, try pies. Apple pies, cherry pies, and peach pies are all American classics. Slow smoke them at around 390F (200C) for about 45 mins,” says O’Connor.  

All that's left really is a good beer pairing. Steph Shuttleworth, Cicerone Beer Server-qualified manager at BrewDog, obliged: “There’s no point in us cooking up some of our fall-off-the-bone pork belly ribs and then swilling it down with tasteless fizzy stuff. We like to pair them with our mega hoppy Punk IPA. The hops you’ll find in Punk, such as Simcoe, pack a bitter pine punch which cuts straight through the fatty pork. Beer and food need to either contrast or complement each other so sometimes we like to go a little darker and indulge our meat. A rich, roasty Black IPA will go down a storm with a thick peppery smoked brisket.”

In a culture that's increasingly geared to saving our precious time, it’s perhaps no wonder that proper BBQ hasn’t caught on. But, who knows, with global warming going the way it is, and the trend for copying America, maybe we'll be a BBQ nation yet.