Foil Question

[Erik Snyder]

Is using foil still considered barbequing? As I read in Peace, Love, and Barbeque...One of the guys Mike interviews mentions foiling barbeque and the process not really authentic. I do kinda agree with this point. It is essentially steaming the product as I see it. I am a purist when it comes to cooking and I'd just l.ike to hear the wisdom out there regarding this issue. Thanks

 

[Doug D]

The BBQ wisdom of Mr. Jim Minion:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Purist do not like change, but the reality is there are very few purist out there. They learned a method that they call pure but for someone else something would make it otherwise.

Foil is a tool and should be thought of as such. Great BBQ is cooked without it and I can tell you that great BBQ is cooked using it. Learn the techniques and use them as needed.

Jim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I think as long as you're cooking indirect over a wood coal fired heat source, you're barbecuing authentically, but I don't think a relatively short period braising in foil to help achieve a particular result should be considered heresy.

 

[Dave from Denver]

Defining "barbecue" is nearly impossible. It's like what Supreme Court Justice Stewart wrote regarding obscenity:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [obscenity]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.
But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

I feel the same way regarding barbecue. Some will tell you it needs to be a stick-only fire. Some will tell you that the WSM isn't BBQ because it uses charcoal. Some will tell you that BBQ can't be made over 250 degrees farenheit. I'll tell you this: I know BBQ when I taste it.