What’s so hard about barbecue, you ask. If you ask, you probably haven’t tried it.
Any backyard Bobby Flay wannabe can fire up a grill. But for anyone who wants to really fire up the wood and smoke a slab of ribs into submission – and in a metro area known for it, who doesn’t? – there are endless ways and flavors to explore. And almost as many ways to end up with more ribbing than ribs.
With help from experts, we’ve put together ways barbecue rookies can really mess up. Our experts are Pam Gieseke and the members of the Blue Springs Barbeque Blaze-Off committee and Jeff Stith, who lives in Pleasant Hill, works in Independence and is with Big Creek BBQ, a yearly competitor in the Blaze-Off.
So, here is The Examiner’s Top 10 rookie barbecue mistakes.
10 Using too much lighter fluid to start your fire – it doesn’t enhance the flavor.
9 Using inappropriate garnish. Gieseke says that in competition, if you garnish your entry it must be either normal parsley or romaine lettuce, but not red-tipped lettuce. Anything else (like $50 bills, we wonder) would be considered inappropriate.
8 Using pine wood instead of oak. Yuck! Pine tar pork.
7 Parboiling your ribs or other meat. When you boil meat you drain the flavor away. And in competition, you’re not allowed to precook any meat. “It’s sort of a purist thing,” Stith says.
6 Eating your entry. Sort of puts you right out of contention, there, doesn’t it?
5 Not having sober team runners Who knows where they will end up!
4 Putting sauce on too early. When you do that, Stith says, you risk burning the sauce, especially if it’s tomato-based.
3 Basting too often. Stith says when you do that you destroy that nice crispy bark that the barbecue rub and the smoking create.
2 If you are the keeper of the fire, don’t go home to take a shower and forget to come back. (This actually happened!)
1 Peeking. Stith says it’s an axiom: “If you’re lookin’ you’re not cookin.” You need to keep a consistent temperature, and every time you open the smoker to take a look, the temperature can drop 100° in just 2 minutes. It takes longer for the temperature to get back up.
