Beware of Bad Barbecue - How To Avoid Cooking Awful Smoked Meats

Warning--There is a lot of bad barbecue out there. Good people drying out ribs! Your neighbor burning another chicken! Here are a few tips so you can avoid bad barbecue.

• Get yourself a real barbecue smoker. If you want to make real smoke barbecue, you are going to need a real barbecue smoker. There are plenty of them available on-line or at your local big-box home improvement store. Even WalMart sells barbecue smokers. There are a few different types to choose from, and different fuels to burn, but they will all turn out good barbecue if used properly. Find a good resource book at the local library, or check out many of the e-books available on line to determine what type of smoker is right for you. You can find an inexpensive smoker for around $100 that will do the job, or you can get yourself a super-deluxe model for thousands of dollars if you need that! Bottom line, you can't smoke barbecue without a barbecue smoker.
• Learn to cook "Low and Slow." The secret to turning out excellent barbecue is to cook the meat in a smoker at a very low heat for a long time. This is what is referred to as "low and slow." Using this method, ribs will take about 4-5 hours, a pork shoulder will take 8-10 hours, a chicken will take about 2 hours and a beef brisket will take approximately 12-14 hours.
• Season your meat. All good barbecue is seasoned prior to cooking with what is call a "Spice Rub" or "Barbecue Rub" or most commonly, just a "Rub". This is a blend of spices that is liberally applied to the meat and "rubbed" into the meat, prior to cooking, usually a few hours before it goes into the smoker. There are as many barbecue spice rub recipes as there are people cooking barbecue! Find yourself a good barbecue book, or an e-book product for a recipe to help you get started with a good rub recipe that you can call your own.
• If using sauce, only apply at the very end of the cooking process. Many (most) barbecue pit-masters make their own sauce to slather on their meat. Like a barbecue rub, there are thousands of different recipes for barbecue sauces. Again, get yourself a good barbecue cookbook, or e-book for various barbecue sauce recipes. Experiment until you create what will become your own special blend. Most barbecue sauce contains a lot of sugar. Sugar burns easily when subjected to heat. If you do not want burnt barbecue, only apply the sauce during the last stage of the cooking process, when the fire is really low. Liberally brush on the sauce the last few minutes of cooking, serve some on the side with the meat, and serve up your barbecue.

By following these four simple tips, you can avoid serving and eating awful barbecue. Life is to short to subject yourself and friends to bad barbecue, when it is so easy to turn out the real deal, tender, moist and smokey.