WEBVTT - A Lip-Smacking Look at Barbecue 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.080 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.160 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant with Jerry. We're eating 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:22.639 barbecue style. Actually it's not true. This is I'm just 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:24.800 gonna fess up. We don't have any barbecue in front 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:31.960 of listening. It sucks. Yeah, you're right, Uh, vegetarians and 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.760 vegans may not be interested in this one. It's still interesting. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.200 I would never encourage someone to tune out, but um, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.920 I have I do all the time. Do you sure 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.720 some jerk rights? And it's like, oh, how sounds like 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:47.520 you're still going on Caney all the time, Like, don't 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.760 go listen to something else? Pal okay, I see what 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.840 you mean. I mean before we record a podcast. On 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.280 the podcast, as we record a podcast at the beginning 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.600 of the oh gotcha, I don't say like, hey, you 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.120 might not want to listen to this, but um, yeah, 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.720 you might not want to listen to this. But I 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.640 imagine if a vegan saw how Barbecue Works probably be like, yeah, 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.360 we'll just wait. Yeah, they're probably not going to fall 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.080 for it, wait for the Tofu episode, which we owe them. 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.000 Now after doing this one I had fried tofu and 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:27.000 uh Chicago, No no, no. In Toronto at our recent 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:29.440 show there it was. It was one of those sushi 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.120 places where they bring you out a little piece of 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:36.840 fried tofu. Yeah. Oh man, I can't believe I'm blanking, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.480 but yes, I know what you mean. Is that like 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.160 a there's your name for it, like the custom of 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.800 it or no, the dish the piece of fried tofu 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:46.800 with a little maybe Ponzi sauce on it and some 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.720 scaions delicious. This one was okay, but it was that 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.000 it was one of the worst sushi meals I've ever 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:58.760 had in my life. I just chose wrong, like bad 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.040 sushi or bad rest, bad everything I walked in And 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.960 it's hard to tell because no, no, no, I won't 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:09.480 name it. I don't even remember that. No no, that's 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:14.040 the name of the dish. Oh yeah. Um. Like in 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.079 l A, some of the best sushi are these strip 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.600 mall holes in the wall. Sometimes sometimes it's not the case, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.720 though sometimes it is though, Like literally, some of the 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.440 best sushi that you don't have to go to some 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:32.919 fancy place and spend four are these you know, small 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:38.079 family run run by Japanese people. Um. This one in Toronto. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.320 I looked up afterward and they were like, oh, it's 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.920 one of those. Apparently Toronto has a lot of Chinese 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:48.520 run sushi places which get knocked on Yelp and by reviewers, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.079 and um. You could also make the case that um 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:59.160 places that serve sushi and Thai food knocked on as well. Yeah. 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.519 I don't usually order sushi, but at a Thai restaurant, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.000 if I go to a tie place, I want a 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.000 good tie dish. Sure you want like a curry, put 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.200 some peanuts in there or something there some peanuts on there. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.080 But anyway, I chose wrong, and this was a hole 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:12.680 in the wall place. So when I walked in, my 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.000 instinct was like, oh no, but I thought no, no, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.400 no Los Angeles, Hollywood. Really good stuff at the holes 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:23.920 in the wall, not the case bad fish, bad taste. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.600 What was just it skive to me? And like if 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.840 you're skiveed eating sushi, yeah that's put down the chopsticks 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.600 and just ask for the check, maybe spit up into 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.080 your nap walk away. Anyway, I don't know why I 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.080 went off on that. What we're talking about barbecue, all right, Yeah, 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.400 we're talking barbecue. Barbecue. This one made me hungry, dude, 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.920 same here. Um. One of the things that I really 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.560 opened my eyes about though, was the idea that like 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.560 people think of barbecue as about as American as it gets, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.280 even though Australians have their own word for the bobby 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.080 and that pretty good. And it turns out there's barbecue 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.680 like all around the world. But when you think of barbecue, 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.840 especially like barbecued pork with barbecue sauce on like two 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.360 slices of plain old Dixie Girl white bread, that's about 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.440 as American as it gets. So not just American like 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:22.320 Southern American barbecue. There's actually a strip of land known 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.600 as the barbecue Belt in the United States basically goes 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:31.320 from Virginia down into the southeast and then over across 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.360 Kansas and then into Texas. That's the barbecue Belt in 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:39.560 the US. Correct, But barbecue is now every city in 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.520 the country tries to do their their own hand at barbecue. 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:45.919 Like I mean, if you go to New York City, 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.160 you can go eat at a barbecue joint. Uh, and 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:50.920 they're trying to do it. You know that they're trying 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.960 to Yeah, which is fine, they're but they're trying to 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.320 not co opt because that sounds like it's like shady 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.039 or something. But you know, you go to New York 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.200 now and you can get like you can go to 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.000 and get fried chicken and biscuits and barbecue and all 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.320 these people that are like, come to New York City 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.279 and eat this good old southern home cooking. Have you 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.320 eaten a Fatty Queue in New York that's very good 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.359 barbecue for New York joint? Yeah, And I just I 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.200 don't do that because when I'm in New York, why 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.119 would I get what I is literally surrounding me here. 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.120 I want to go to New York and I want 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.719 to go get go to the Mama Fuco or something. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.480 I don't have that here. It's steam bun while you 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.080 can get steam buns here. Yeah. But I mean, you 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:37.560 can make the case that you should be going to 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.360 Korea for steam buns. But it is true. And there's 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.320 nothing wrong with if somebody opening a good barbecue joint 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.560 outside of the barbecue belt, it's just for it. In 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:51.560 the barbecue belt, they don't even think about it. It's 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.560 just part of the fabric of life. But I guarantee 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:56.880 you if you go to San Francisco to a barbecue joint. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:58.760 You're not going to be the same. It's going to 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.200 be different. They'll like a Chinese sushi place. There you go. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.760 That's the point of my story. So UM. The point 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.919 ultimately is that when you think of America having a 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.240 barbecue belt, you think a barbecue as profoundly American. Sure, 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.279 but it turns out that since you were talking about 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:25.520 cultural appropriation, UM, that the European settlers who came to 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:31.000 the New World um actually appropriated. They got the idea 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.520 for a barbecue from the indigenous groups they encountered there, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.680 and specifically, to start from what I understand, the whole 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:44.920 thing started on Hispaniola, where Columbus first landed Um with 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:50.680 the Tano Indians. Yeah, I mean cooking. I guess if 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.200 you want to talk barbecue, there's a couple of ways 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:58.880 to approach it. There is the noun barbecue, which here 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:00.919 in the South in America we think of is like 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.960 you said, pulled pork, maybe brisket, smoked wings, and then 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.119 side dishes like cold slaw, baked beans, mac and cheese, 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:13.680 brunswick ste man so good. Maybe if you're getting a 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.560 little wild, maybe like collared greens or fried okra and 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:21.520 monkey eyes that sort of starts to there's a bit 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.160 of an overlap between Southern meat and three cooking and barbecue, 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.040 especially when it comes to the sides um, and I 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.840 think all that actually grow to church picnics originally. Yeah, 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.240 I did some good eating growing up at my church 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:37.720 and meet and three for those of you that don't 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:42.160 understand in other countries, that means um, a little small 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.200 family run restaurant, usually in the South, that you get 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.560 to meat and then three sides, generally served on like 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.880 a cafeteria tray. And we're talking stuff like fried pork 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:57.560 chops or fried chicken, or chicken, fried chicken, chicken, fried chicken, chicken, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.680 fried steak, chicken, fried steak, steak, fried chicken, fried steak, 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:06.480 fried chicken, fried monkey eyes, and then all these various 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.480 sides will be the three. But there's a little bit 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.080 over that lap with barbecue. But barbecue, the distinction is 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.960 you're talking about meats that are cooked over a low heat, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.120 generally over a long long period of time. Yeah, hours 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.360 and hours, hours and hours. We'll get in it all 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.240 the subtleties of this, but that's what barbecue really is, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.240 right and normally, if you really if you're a purist um. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.360 You're it's specifically pig. Anything else outside of pig is 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.280 not barbecue, whether it's chickens, sausage, whether it's shrimp, whether 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.920 it's brisket. If it's not pig, it's not barbecue. Say 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.720 a substantial portion of barbecue enthusiasts. Yeah, I say you 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.840 can just take that and uh then run away with it. 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:55.679 Take that, take that pig and shove it. Well, the 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.840 reason it's actually that that whole thing kind of is 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.120 the crux that is found in a nine Esquire article 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.400 called My Pig Beats Your Cow, which basically argues that 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.400 if it's not pig, it's not barbecue. And the reason 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.520 that that would be the cases because barbecue is it 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.600 came out of the American South as far back as 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:23.319 the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the stuff that 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.400 they were originally cooking was pig. And the reason why 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.000 they were cooking pig was because that's what they had 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.280 available to them. And there was a specific reason for 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.640 cooking pig, like you said, low and slow, very long 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.240 time over a lowish heat. It's because the pigs that 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.800 they were originally cooking were had been turned out to 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.200 feed fend for themselves out in the woods. Because if 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.719 you are running low on food, because you know you're 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.560 a colonist to a new place where you have no 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.360 idea what you're doing. You one thing you can do 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:58.839 with pigs and say, just go out in the woods 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:00.760 and eat some truffles and then will come kill you 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.600 later and eat you. Well. As they're doing that, they're 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.440 becoming like kind of like wood ready and like their leaner. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.960 Their meat is tougher, there's less fat. So to cook 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.440 that kind of food and make it tender, you have 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:16.680 to cook it over low heat for a very long time. 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.320 And that's where barbecuing pig in the South originally came from. 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.480 That's the origin of barbecue. Yeah. And what's so cool 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.760 to me is um from the oranges, oranges from the origins, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.839 whether or not it's uh. I think. In two thousand seven, 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:37.480 Israeli archaeologists found um a two hundred thousand year old 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:44.439 evidence of barbecuing, essentially barbecuing wild cattle and gazelle. Whether 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.720 it's that or Hispaniola like you were talking about, or 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:54.920 in the fifteen hundreds uh in Spain, Um or the 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.520 earliest native Americans. What's so cool to me is that 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:05.040 they learned they first learned cooked meat good, and then 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:09.360 they learned, oh, but very slow cooked heat meat over 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:13.560 low heat better. Yeah, you know, like early early on 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.280 they found evidence that and these recipes that they cooked 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.720 slow and low, they actually learned the subtle difference between 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.319 this is charred meat, it will sustain me, it's it 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.120 will last a little bit longer and preserve it. And 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.480 they learned the subtleties that no, it's tender and juicy 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.280 and delicious, but do it this way. Yeah, it's just 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.400 amazing to me. Yeah, and again we've known it for 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.720 hundreds of thousands of years at least. There's actually a 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.760 theory that says that the intelligence explosion in humans came 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:50.360 about from cooking our food, especially meat, because it requires 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.200 less energy to digest, which meant we could take a 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.840 lot of that digestive energy and directed upward to our brains, 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.720 and so our brains got bigger, and hence we got 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.400 smarter things to cooking our food. Yeah, and there's something 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.760 to uh, And they talk about this in the beginning 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:12.120 of our article here um being the antithesis of fast food. 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:16.120 There's something about investing, something about getting up at three 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.439 in the morning to put your your meat on your 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.360 smoker so you can have it ready by midday, and 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:28.320 tending to it every hour and checking that thermometer and 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.360 the whole time that's starting at three am, um or 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.839 continuing from two am. Yeah, that's that makes sometimes for 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.560 a messy barbecue. But there's just something to that. I 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:40.360 think it's I think that's one of the big draws 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.920 for people. Is it is Uh. It's not something you 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.560 slap on the grill and served fifteen minutes later. It's 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.800 nuanced and and that's how you build that flavor. Uh. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.320 And it's an investment in time and you can have 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.160 the conversations around that fire. And this one writer put it, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.840 really Robert Moss, to trace the history of barbecue is 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.080 to trace the very threat of American history. And there's 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.200 been books written about it, not just recipes, but about 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:14.160 it as a cultural staple in this country. Really really neat. Well, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:41.480 I'm I'm hungry. You want to take a break? So hungry? 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:48.080 M alright, So we're back, man. I mean that was delicious. 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.680 That's the sound of me flicking sauce off my fingers. Yeah, 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:56.640 we uh took one of Jerry's legs barbecue, Arie do lean, 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.800 she would make good barbecue. Well, no, that's why you 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:03.520 want a barbecue slowing. So Um, like you said, there's 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.080 evidence of us barbecuing is back as far back as 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:11.880 two hundred thousand years the ancient Greeks um really advanced barbecuing, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:16.360 which sure, it's really just it's a sub type of 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.640 of roasting meat. And it's not like if you're like, 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.120 well wait a minute, people have been like creating this forever. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.680 How can you say barbecuing as American. It's kind of 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.080 like ketchup, Like remember Ketchup, where you think of Ketchup 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.840 as American, but it actually has its origins and a 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.400 Chinese fish sauce. This is very similar. But like barbecuing 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.720 wouldn't have come about had humans not been doing this 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.440 for two hundred thousand years already. This is just a 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.760 kind of a nuanced version of it, right. Um. So 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.760 around the world people roast meat in various ways, like, 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.840 for example, um, in medieval England they found evidence they 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:58.360 actually have a taxidermy um sample of of this breed 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.560 of dog called the turnspit, and um no, no, it 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.840 was really cute. So this small dogs they look kind 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.160 of dock Sundy were bred to run on treadmills or 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:15.120 little hamster wheels too. That was connected by a chain 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.200 to the spit. So it turned this huge piece of 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.040 meat in the fire. Dog though they were small dogs, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.400 but they were stout. Oh they were turning the huge dog. Yeah, 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.320 they're like better him than me. Um, And that was 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.640 in medieval England. Well, you can make a really good 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.680 case that turning a hunk of meat on a spit 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:41.280 very slowly off an indirect flame that's barbecuing. But it's 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.160 not barbecue because it didn't come out of the American 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:51.240 South cooking pork specifically. But um, the lot of people 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:52.880 from the south and west of England ended up in 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.480 the American South, and that's kind of one of the 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.440 ways that it started to grow there. Yeah, so let's 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:03.280 let's just quit billy dallying de Soto. Well, first Columbus 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.680 shows up encounters the Tano Indians on Hispaniola, who are 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:13.440 would have been related to um, the Haitians and the 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.880 Dominicans today. Uh, and I believe people in Puerto Rico 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.960 to um. So the Tano Indians had this method of 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.480 cooking meat where they used green wood like fresh saplings, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.320 so that it wouldn't catch fire and therefore wouldn't char 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:34.480 the meat either, and they cooked meat like probably goats 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.320 or something like that over this this low heat for 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.040 a very long time. So I think Columbus encountered it, 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.160 but definitely Hernando de Soto did as well when he 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:52.720 arrived in North America, and supposedly the first European attended 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:57.680 barbecue took place outside of what's today Tupelo, Mississippi, in 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.360 fifteen forty with De Soto, who is the guy who 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.800 brought pigs to the New World. Could have been my family. 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.719 So it was a roasted pig, Chuck's family, her Nando 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.600 de Soto, and the Chickasaw tribe who lived around there. Yeah, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.000 that was the first, the first barbecue in North America 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.760 featuring pig. Yeah. And as you'll see as we go, 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.560 barbecue is very social experience that has weaved its way 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:31.520 through churches and gatherings and civic groups and American politics, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.840 and we'll get into all that, but it's it's it's 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.080 not surprising that there's evidence of a group of people 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.040 getting together like any shared meal, but with barbecue, it's 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:45.000 just gonna be longer. Well, yeah, and supposedly that arose 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.720 out of the slaughtering of a pig was a big deal. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:51.440 You had a lot of meat on your hands. They 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.639 used everything from the snout to the tail of the pig, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.879 so you had a lot of stuff and it was 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.959 way more than your family was going to eat. So 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.439 it was an occasion for the whole community, or at 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.719 least all the neighbors, to be invited over to share 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:09.240 in this wonderful food. And that's where barbecues being a 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:14.000 social gathering came out of that. During the colonial era, Uh, 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.560 eating a pig was a very communal affair. Well, and 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.240 we've we've talked before about um I just kind of 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.680 remembered about fire, about the theories that language of all 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.720 because of fire, because for the first time, people gathered 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.840 round after the sun went down to talk about their day. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.240 So this is kind of along the same lines. Like 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.879 where you have a fire going, you're gonna have people 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.199 hanging out. There's some meat on a spit several feet up. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.480 You've got some tasty food. Can yourself a turnspit dog? 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.800 Uh yeah, because he wants to crank that thing. Turnspit dog. 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.640 That's what they were bred to do so Native Americans here, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.119 they kind of improve things over time. They eventually would 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.600 make these wooden frames that they would put the meat on. 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:04.800 And then in a man named Elsworth, his warrior, patented 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.840 the charcoal briquette, which started being mass produced about twenty 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.720 three years later. You didn't know by whom, Well, I 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.639 would imagine, uh uh, what's the big one now? Kingsford. 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:24.280 Kingsford was Henry Johnny match like. Kingsford was Henry Ford's 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.760 cousin in law. And Henry Ford was looking for a 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:32.040 way to use all of these stumps and sawdust that 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.359 was left over from the boards that were produced for 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.399 like the running boards and the dashboards for his model 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.280 T because he wanted he had all this waste and 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.240 he wanted to put it to good use. So he 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.720 started mass producing charcoal briquettes. Yeah, and we're talking about 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:51.760 wood briquettes. Yeah. Briquette is basically coal, tar, sawdust, sometimes 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.160 corn starch. That's like a that's a wood briquette. Yeah, 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.600 or now the wood briquettes. A lot of times it's 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.160 just real wood, like chunks of wood, like if you're 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.840 a real barbecue enthusiast. You're not gonna be buying these 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.000 submit briquettes. Sure you buy some of those, get some 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.040 open pit barbecue sauce, and you've done. Let's go back 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.760 to bed Um. Nineteen fifties. A man named George Stephen, 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.680 he's a metalworker. He got half attached some legs to 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.920 a half of a spherical nautical booie was the other 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.159 half of the lid. He said, I'm gonna call this 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.080 the Webber kettle grill. I don't know where he got 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.359 the name. I don't either. Did you notice there's a 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:39.000 webber grill restaurant in Chicago? Really, we saw it walking around. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.919 You know, they have a giant webber grill outside. It's amazing. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.359 I have a giant webber grill in my deck. So 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.520 I thought it was weird to point this out because 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.720 he was far from the first person to invent the 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:54.080 portable backyard grill. Oh really, yeah, been around for a 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.440 long time. Well maybe it was just the kettle Girl. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.560 He definitely invented the kettle girl, but he was. It's 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.359 just weird that they chose him to point out because 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.800 the backyard portable grill had been around a while. Well, 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.600 maybe it was. This article is underwritten by Weber maybe, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.320 and I just like Buzz marketed them as owning one Webber, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.680 I don't too whoa I know, right. So the smoke 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.160 is really I mean slow and low is what we're 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.440 talking about, temperature wise, And we'll get into the specifics 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:26.760 of that in a minute. But what you're really doing 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.600 is you're you're getting the smoke from whatever type of 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:34.320 wood or would briquette that you were using in the fire. Um. 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:36.760 And we're gonna talk about those flavors now. But my advice, 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.560 if you're new to this, you've never done it, go 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.719 out and get some different samples of these various woods. 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:44.960 And you don't even need to cook with them at first. 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:49.119 Just light them and smell the smoke and see what 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.159 you like, and then whatever you're drawn to use. That 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.560 good advice, But starting out, if you want to talk barbecue, Um, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.480 Hickory in the South was widely used, and most of 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.280 these regionally were used because that obviously was the wood 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.639 they had near there. So hickory was abundant in the South. 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:12.120 A little sweet, very rich, good for good for everything, 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:18.320 especially monkey guys mesquite uh Texas. Uh. This is where 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.640 you get the more mesquite flavor. And apparently the mesquite 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:24.680 would was sort of a nuisance. But in Texas they 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.080 got on the beef train obviously and said the stuff 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:33.080 mesquite wood is really good for beef. Yeah what else? Um, 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.440 apparently fruit wood is good for things like chicken and seafood. 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.480 Does think of bacon when I think apple would apple 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.240 would smoke bacon? Yeah, that's the thing. Um, But yeah, 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.280 I think that's good advice. Just whatever you like, it's 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.800 was what you should use. Yeah. And if you don't 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:55.000 have time to invest in a um would burning briquette, 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:58.480 like if you have a propane stove, Um, you can 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:00.680 always I know it's not gonna be is authentic. You 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:02.720 can always just cheep out and get a one of 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.040 those pans that you can keep the the wood on 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.720 and soak it and that'll that'll give you some extra flavor. 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:12.800 But it's not gonna be anything like you know, twelve 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:17.480 hours over a fire, right like a wood fire. You know. Now, 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.760 and if you're if you're starting to get the impression 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.439 that there's a certain level of purity, Yes, so the 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:27.120 idea of barbecuing, Yes, you you're absolutely correct, and I'm 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.919 not a purist. I'm an amateur. Like I don't have 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:35.760 a smoker at this point. So at this point maybe 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.280 Webber will send you. At some point I should I 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:42.040 should probably get one for free. Um. So one of 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:45.119 the other things that really distinguishes different types of barbecue, 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:49.159 especially regionally, is or even down to like the individual 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:53.639 chef or pit masters. We'll see they're called um although 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:57.520 I guess I just spoiled. That is how you get 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:01.480 the meat ready to cook. So there's there's really a 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.120 lot of differences in that you're you're getting the meat 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:06.560 ready to cook, and then what you do to the 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:09.400 meat afterward. Two is huge as well. But to get 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.239 it ready, there's one of two things you're gonna do 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:14.359 the meat. You're going to either hit it with a 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:16.520 dry rub or you're gonna hit it with a wet rub. 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:18.720 You're gonna do something ahead of time, and you're gonna 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:23.280 talk to it nicely sure while you spank and um 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.560 with the dry rub. In particular, supposedly there's four s 0:24:26.680 --> 0:24:30.560 is there is are you ready for this? Okay? Sweetness, 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:38.160 sugar or honey, typically savory like say, garlic, spices and herbs, 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:43.320 and spicy sensations like pepper or something or ginger. That's 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.880 way more ses than four, especially if you count all 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:52.000 the pluralization s. Yeah, have you ever made a rub? No? 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:56.120 Not really? You into this at all? To barbecue? No, 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:59.760 I I don't barbecue, but um into eating barbecue. You 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:02.280