Jun07Connections

Power Style Wellness Connections

Better Barbecue
By Kimberly Crum • Photos by Ewa Wojtkowska

My exploration into the world of barbecue began with three questions: What constitutes
great barbecue? Is there good quality smoked meat in our area? Can you smoke meats
on a backyard grill?

When I think about barbecue, I see mounds of meat piled on paper plates. I feel the
stickiness of spareribs that makes freshly licked fingers adhere to the napkin. I taste the
tangy sweet sauce infused into tender meat.

Barbecue is one of the finest food creations to emerge from the Old South. Pork’s high-
fat content enables the cook to take full advantage of the meat’s savory flavor, which is
improved by smoking slowly with pungent woods.

For some hints on quality and cooking methods, I consulted an amateur chef who is
passionate about barbecue — not burgers on the grill, but spare ribs and pork shoulder
basted and smoked for four to 14 hours in a cooker the size of a PT Cruiser. Jim Garts
is the only person I know who will talk to me for hours about barbecue; he is my brother.

As a charter member of a Memphis-based championship barbecue team — the
Hogaholics, Jim traveled to six to eight competitions annually for 21 years. “We were
Grand Champions five or six times, and placed in 50 competitions.”

Garts eagerly offers the following taste tips: “You should be able to taste the flavor of
the pork and the wood in the meat, and a little bit of the vinegar from the basting sauce.
The meat on ribs should be so tender it falls off the bone. It should melt in your mouth.”
Smoked white meats, pork and chicken, will appear pink from the smoke. Memphis chefs
use a rub of spices before cooking, and a vinegar (and tomato) basting sauce to “break
down” the meat and keep it moist.

Knowing something about what barbecue should taste like, I embarked on an eating
adventure, visiting three restaurants that have received positive reviews:
Famous Dave’s, Ole Hickory Pit, and Bootleg BBQ.

Though a national chain, Famous Dave’s is serious about barbecue judging from the
trophies in the lobby. Dave’s gets my vote for its tender pulled pork and lively
atmosphere, which features an ironic décor that combines North Country snow shoes
and Beale Street blues. The pulled pork is tender without adding sauce. Our perky
server, “Famous Jamie,” gave us a tasting tour of the bottled sauces on the table:
Georgia Mustard; Rich and Sassy, Sweet and Zesty, Texas Pit; and Devil’s Spit.
You’ll know Ole Hickory Pit by the happy pig on its rooftop. The motto on the Hickory Pit’
s menu is “Tender as Your Mother’s Heart.” It should also say, “Reliable as my Father’s
Smoker.” The owner Kenny Rampage, both chef and server at his restaurant, uses the
same concrete block and steel smokers his father Murvin built 56 years ago. He is
eager to show-off the smokers, as well as the piles of hickory wood stored out-back. Ole
Hickory Pit gets my vote for superlative smoked chicken, so tender it falls apart on your
fork just before it melts in your mouth. No need to chew. Rampage explains that the
chicken is smoked four hours until it is “slicker than a hound’s tooth.”

At the Bootleg Barbecue, I settle at an outdoor picnic table so I can enjoy the soothing
music of whirring cars and chirping birds. Bootleg is an authentic roadside barbecue
joint on south Bardstown Road, whose smokers out back take up as much room as the
Formica tables in the indoor restaurant. Bootleg gets my vote for the best ribs I’ve eaten
since Memphis. The meaty ribs are prepped with a rub and basted to a superb
tenderness. And the pork falls off the bone as I lift it off my Styrofoam plate.

To my final question, “Can you do barbecue on your backyard grill?” my amateur chef’s
answer is an enthusiastic “Yes.” He might add a cautionary note: Cooking ribs or
shoulder on the grill requires time, patience, and beer.

Try This At Home! Barbecue Spareribs…
• Use a medium to large charcoal grill (Jim Garts recommends Weber).
• Bank lump charcoal on one side of the grill. Your fire will be on one side of the grill;
your meat on the other.
• Soak hickory wood chips in water for a couple of hours. Sprinkle wood chips lightly
over coals. The moisture keeps wood from burning too quickly and makes them smoke
“like a son-of-a-gun.”
• Prepare ribs: Use a knife to remove the membrane from the inside of the ribs. Then,
apply a rub of spices (grocery shelves feature a variety of rubs if you don’t want to
make your own).
• Put your ribs on a rib rack, sold by Weber grill. This allows you to smoke a lot of ribs
at once.
• Baste ribs every 45 minutes to an hour with a vinegar-based sauce. You may mix your
rub spice mixture with a little vinegar and water. Basting ingredients should NOT contain
sugar.
• Add hickory chips as needed. Though wet, they will burn eventually.
• Smoke your ribs for four hours and serve with traditional sides: baked beans, slaw,
corn bread, green beans.

Recipe information is compliments of my brother, Jim Garts, and is supplemented by an
article Best Odds Ribs by Derrick Riches at http://bbq.about.com/cs/ribs/a/aa022804a.
htm.According to The Cambridge World History of Food, “the pig is one of the glories of
animal domestication.” Seventy-five percent of the animal is edible. And the remainder
can be made into items such as soaps and paintbrush bristles. The Cambridge World
History also describes pigs as “nimble and resourceful.” The early settlers of the
Colonies let their hogs loose in nearby forests where the animals foraged for chestnuts
and vegetation. The settlers would recapture the animals; the subsequent hog roast
was a community celebration. Later, plantation owners in the Southern colonies saved
the choice parts of the hog for themselves and gave the less desirable parts, the
shoulder and ribs, to the slaves. From these “pig pickings” modern pork barbecue
evolved. (The History of Barbecue in the South at http://xroads.virginia.edu)

Writer Kimberly Crum can be reached at (kimcrum@iamtodayswoman.com).