Cattle Drives and BBQ

Barbecue

Do you know what the word Barbecue means? It means to slow cook meat at a low temperature for a long period of time over wood or charcoal. Barbecue ribs or bbq rib racks are one of the many popular food to cook this way.

Barbecue or BBQ came to be in the late 1800’s during cattle drives. The cowboys were often fed the lesser cuts of prime beef like brisket which were tough and stringy and required six to seven hours of cooking to tenderize it. Thus the technique of barbecuing came to be.

Other types of barbecued meats were pork butt pork ribs, beef rib or wild meats. The BBQ was not invented in America, in fact the origin is unknown. It is believed Barbecue may have come from the Taino Indians or it may have originated with the French

The Indian word barbacoa means meat smoking apparatus and the French word Barbe a gueue means whiskers-to-tail. No one is sure of the correct meaning. All we know for sure it has taken Texas by storm for the last 200 years.

Did you know that in 1920 Henry Ford and Thomas Edison invented the charcoal briquette? Henry Ford had a lot of scrap wood and sawdust from his automobile plants that he needed to get rid of. He and Thomas Edison used the scraps to make the briquette then E G Kingsford bought the patent and added charcoal to the briquettes.

The Texas barbecue goes back to German butchers who settled in central Texas during the 1800’s. They added rubbed salt pepper and other spices on to the meat.

The meat was then cooked three feet from the pit. The pits were filled with oak, hickory pecan and mesquite which gave the meat a special distinctive taste and flavor.

Still today we do the same basic thing. We still use hickory in our pits and we still slow cook the meat over a long period of. In our modern world pit cooking has become an art form. Throughout the state of Texas there are large contests held to see who can produce the most delicious meat.

In addition to slow cooking beef, you can also cook pork, chicken, turkey, ham, and sausage. Besides the traditional BBQ there are a number of other sauces you can put on your meat such as hickory, sweet, and spicy to increase the flavor of the meat.

The barbecue is every man’s chance to reach greatness. He can magically turn every day cuts of meat into a fine dining cuisine. By applying spices and smoke to the meat you can be come a barbecue god. Even the wife can not compete on the grill with you! For she has not the time nor the patience to learn this age old tradition of men and the grill.

Smoke sauces have always played an important role in the cooking of the meat. Recipes are passed from father to son and grandfather to grandson.

These special sauces are the secrets which have caused the great BBQ cook off. Man has had more than a 100 years to refine the art of BBQ cooking.

No matter if it is smoked over hickory oak, pecan or mesquite and served on butcher paper or on a paper plate, the family secrets of the BBQ are a proud tradition.

Whether you are forty or seventy if you have an attachment to the BBQ Gods you will jump at the chance to show off your great skills at the family BBQ.

The Texan barbeque has no boundaries. Young or old, president of the company, diplomat, or rancher the barbeque is prepared with the very best family secrets hidden deep in the meat you cook ready to impress friends and family!