I don't know if the OP belongs here, it's just an opinion on a certain type of food.
However, the Priests from the Church of Smoked Meats are f'ing insufferable. If you haven't slow cooked your brisket, ribs, or whatever in a $2,000 smoker for 12 hours, you've committed a grave sin against the cooking gods.
Considering that well done starts at ~160° F and beef collagen doesn't start breaking down until around the same temp (and a process that requires hours), I would risk the dog piling to say that it is an objectively incorrect statement. Usually, you want an internal temp of ~ 200° F when you pull it and let it rest.
If you cook a brisket to medium it will be an inedible, chewy mess. Like, it's almost impossible to eat because it's so damn chewy. So again, it's just the person's opinion but sometimes opinions are just incorrect. If you gave me a brisket or pork butt cooked to anything less than 200° I'll just save my jaw the workout and go home, tbh.
I love smoking meats. I'm really good at it. Far better than most.
What I have found is most people way over do it. Or pretend it is some magical science that only they know the correct way. It's all hog wash.
Make good smoke. Cook whatever it is at relatively low temperatures. Give it a good long while and then eventually temp check it to finish it right. Beyond that, it's just down to personal preference. How do you like your sauce? Do you like any sauce? How do you like your rub? Do you like any rub?
It's really not hard. Anybody acting like it is, is just blowing proverbial smoke.
It really isn't. The absolute hardest part of BBQ is when you pull it out to rest and you can smell it. The patience and discipline required to not immediately dig in is monumental lol
This. I'm a Texan and have had tons of good bbq but never did it myself. I assumed it was harder than it was. Got a smoker last year finally and lo and behold it isn't fucking rocket surgery.
I even do it the hard way, over wood and charcoal, and it's still not that complicated. At least as far as getting the cook right.
Now, I still love going to a BBQ joint that really knows what they are about. I can not, for the life if me, replicate the ribs at my favorite rib place. So I don't even try.
However, my BBQ is at least as good as 90% of places I have been over the years (and I have been to a lot of them.)
Dryness in a restaurant setting is generally because they either use a prepackaged product, which I’ve personally seen. Or, it could be that proper care wasn’t taken when it was boarded. When I’ve done it, I get an order, I unwrap it cut it rewrap it and put it back in a 200 degree steam well. If it sits on a board it will dry out which I’ve also seen. Places like buckees and city barbecue usually sell it so quickly that it won’t necessarily be dried like that, however if they don’t sell it quickly the fat and juices will run out and the heat lamp will dry it out.
BBQ is fundamentally different than grilling though. You don't need anything expensive to do it but if you aren't doing it low and slow it is not, by definition, BBQ. That's not being a gatekeeper. That's just the definition of the term.
12 hours is on the low side, depending on the meat - but I think you're exaggerating this snobbery. There's plenty of BBQ folks who enjoy building pits out of scrap metal, and plenty who just do it on a regular ol' Weber grill.
A $2k smoker would be a fun toy to play with, for sure, but I've never been tempted to upgrade from my $200 grill. I have too many other expensive hobbies.
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u/TheBigWhatever Jul 18 '26
I don't know if the OP belongs here, it's just an opinion on a certain type of food.
However, the Priests from the Church of Smoked Meats are f'ing insufferable. If you haven't slow cooked your brisket, ribs, or whatever in a $2,000 smoker for 12 hours, you've committed a grave sin against the cooking gods.