It all began innocently enough. The internet has time and time again proven to be a wealth of information anytime I have a question and this time proved to be no different. I should have been paying better attention and come to the realization as to what I was in for when a quick Google search for “competition BBQ” yielded well over 3 million results. Now the question was, where to begin.
I began reading and reading and searching and reading some more which only led to more questions. I was amazed at the complete and total diversity that could be found from such a small inquiry. The amount of information was endless. There were the types of smokers and cookers used, the ingredients to the countless numbers of rubs, sauces, mops, bases, injections, and let’s not forget the many different spellings that can be associated with it, (i.e., Barbecue, Barbeque, Barbeq, BBQ, BBCue, Q), etc., etc., etc….. and don't even get me started on the whole wood vs. gas vs. charcoal vs. pellet debate, it is worse than the Dodge, Chevy, Ford debate. It went on and on. So much so that I figured it probably wouldn’t even be worth it to continue. From all accounts it appeared that to even be a good “Backyard Bum” as I liken myself to would take thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.
I continued to pour over the information and little by little began to whittle down the basics. There are many sites that are more of a clearing house for the information that can be deemed all things barbecue so I began to focus more on the grass roots versions of sites that were loaded with input from many and had the forums that contained huge numbers of posts and replies.
Searching through these sites and threads became an interesting adventure in itself. Once I got to a point where some of this information began to make sense I took a page from my wife’s philosophy and started with what I could find about the history. Foregoing a lesson on whether it came from an ancient people from somewhere in South America or wherever, it was interesting to find out about the beginnings of what has been deemed on more than one occasion as North American barbecue. As always there are differences of opinions as to the actual origins but the consensus is that it may have really been developed around the Carolina’s or that part of the South.
More research brought forth the many varying styles of cooking, some of which are separated by nothing more than an old dirt road or fence line. One thing I found most intriguing is that North Carolina has two distinct styles just by itself between the East and West, (it’s funny to hear it described as Eastern North Carolina and Western North Carolina Barbecue even on the websites of restaurants that are no more than a couple miles apart).
For the most part while I was delving into the where and what was what, it was clear that there are just a few “recognized” styles that just about anyone involved will accept or recognize, (North Carolina; both East and West, Memphis style, Kansas City and Texas plus a few others).
Once I got more comfortable with the information I began thinking of what style I would want to incorporate into what I was doing. I already considered myself an accomplished outdoor cook, both with charcoal or gas on a grill and of course with a Dutch Oven, (no self respecting native Utahn would be caught dead without at least 2 Dutch Ovens in their arsenal, hell, it’s even recognized as our state cooking pot). What I was looking for was a style that I could embrace and easily tweak that would not be a huge change from the ingredients or tastes that I was accustomed to. First things first though, I had to figure out how to get rolling….And what the hell I was going to get started with…
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