Something different

[Guest]

I live in the south and everybody bar-b-q's. Every kind of cooker, smoker, pit you can think of. The wood I see mostly is oak, some may use hickory, pecan or fruit woods.
I live about 10 miles from the "Big Pig Jig" (Ga. state chanpionship bar-b-q cook off) and have eaten many pounds of meat from many different teams.
My honest opinion! It all tastes about the same.

I just bought a new WSM and cooked butts and ribs this past weekend. Meat was great. But it still tasted just the same.

I'm hoping that some of you guys know a trick or two, maybe west Texas style, or West coast or New England. Something different.
Thanks

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Hi KB!

I have cooked at the BigPigJig several times in the past.

Keep in mind, many of the teams use the same techniques....injecting and foiling. The only difference is the spices and sauce they use.

Plus, pork is pork, so any flavor differences are due to the spices/injections a team uses. If none of the teams injected, you would be sampling pretty much the same pork.

Both competition circuits(MIM and KCBS) are leaning toward "sweetness", so that may make the meats taste similar.

Not sure what you are looking for in BBQ, but a pork butt is almost impossible to flavor the inside meat. That is why many teams inject. Therefore, I can see why you would think all the meat tastes the same. Not much you can do except change your injecting recipe.

Same goes for whole hog, very hard to flavor, hence the move to injecting and also the same flavor profile.

Ribs are very easy to flavor and the secret is in the spice mixture. Try something without the sweet flavors.

I would suggest you try using different spice mixtures or different injecting recipes.

This board is especially good at presenting very different ideas on BBQ. Jeff Lowe has several recipes that are very different from the "traditional" Q....he even smokes eel!

Check out the Recipe section and do some searches.

You should also experiment with different cuts of meat....MIM only cooks pork, so try some beef.... brisket and chuck roast and tri-tip. Chicken and sausage are also BBQ meats so play around with them.

I stick pretty much with "traditional" Q so may not be any help with recipes.

 

[Guest]

More of what Stogie said. Basically, experiment with different flavors you like. (Keep a log book so that you can remember exactly what you liked.) Suggestion: If you're finding that everything you've had tastes alike, and they were sweet, switch from sweet to spicy. Or shift from one base (mustard, vinegar, tomato, dry), to another. Start looking at the vast assortment of chili types which are out there. Or, start chasing flavor mixes of other cultures; Mexican, Korean, Japanese, whatever.
It's Barbeque!!!! It's supposed to be fun! If it all tastes the same......go do something different. Who knows? You might become rich and famous!


--Ken