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Nope...collagen/fat "liquifies" just fine when cooking meat at higher temps. So that is completely false information you are receiving.
EVERYTHING I've read says that collagen takes a fairly long time to break down. So, if you are cooking at a high temperature, by the time the collagen finishes breaking down, the meat will be overcooked.
The way I think of it is melting butter. Butter melts at a certain temperature, but if you throw a stick of butter onto a scalding hot pan, by the time the whole stick of butter melts, much of it will be burned. If you heat butter real slow, it will all melt without any burning.
Cook some ribs on the grill at 350 and in a smoker at 250 to the same finishing temperature and tell me there is no difference in the tenderness. If you say there is no difference, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
There's a reason folks ask me to cook BBQ for their events - quality and consistency of product. Over a period of twenty years I've figured-out what works best and what tastes best - in my rubs, sauces, and techniques. The number one rule in BBQing - "Don't rush the process," it'll be done when it's done.
It is certainly done when it's done. No matter if it takes 5 hours or 14 hours to cook the same butt. Believe me...it'll fall apart and is not overdone.
Over the course of my 35 years in cooking barbecue I've pretty much seen it all. That's why I know there's no wrong way to do it (as long as you're competent in what you're doing).
Pedro...I'm not talking about ribs. They aren't quite as flexible as other, fattier, pieces of meat. I can cook really good ribs, but they aren't the first thing that comes to my mind when I refer to barbecue. But I will say...there are quite a few very popular bbq restaurants that cook ribs in 3-4 hours over direct heat (some maybe in less time).
Original/classic barbecue in the US was (IS) cooked over direct heat...a heat that is so high that you have to flip the meat so the exposed side doesn't burn. I've seen whole hogs, WHOLE animals not tiny butts, be completely done in 6-8 hours. They are undoubtedly pull apart tender...that's why we call the meal in which you consume these animals Pig Pickings...because even Grandma or Aunt Hazel can waddle by the pig, grab a fork or pair of tongs, and pull whatever piece from the hog they want that day. The shoulders pull apart, the bacon (my favorite spot) pulls apart, the loins pull apart even though they are arguably the leanest part of the hog, and the hams pull apart. So no one can tell me high heat doesn't work...heck, it's the original cooking method. I've seen the pits dug in the dirt with small tree limbs laid over it to hold the hog...I've burned the logs down to coals to use as your fuel source...I've helped flip countless hogs at just the right time where the inside is golden, not burned, and still firm enough to be flipped (wait too long and it'll fall apart because it's too tender).
Then again, I've cooked butts for 16 hours using more modern indirect techniques...I've cooked brisket for 20+ hours (on purpose).
There is a technique for everything...and again I'll say there's no wrong method. But don't try to tell someone who's been there that their technique isn't right because you read otherwise.
I wasn't taught how to cook barbecue...I learned by paying attention to men who were cooking it in the early 20th century and did it their entire lives. Most of those men are no longer with us...and those that remain are in their 80s & 90s. I laugh when people say their techniques were wrong or that they won't work because they read on the internet that 225 was the optimum temperature for cooking barbecue.
Again, there is no wrong way...what works for one person can & will work for tens of thousands of others. But what works for one may not be the way someone else wants to cook...and that other person uses a method that also works for him/her as well as tens of thousands of other people.
Here is a pic of a pork butt cooked for 5-6 hours between 325-350. Draw your own conclusions about whether or not the meat is overcooked, if the collagen isn't broken down, if the meat isn't tender, or if the meat is dried out in any way...
There simply is no wrong way as long as the end result is acceptable.
Last edited by cape_fisherman; 02-26-2015 at 04:07 PM..
I have to do the same thing - I suppose I just like "fiddling" with my cookers.
My favorite is my vintage OK Joe offset - that thing requires more attention but it allows me to cook for large groups. I love slinging wood into the firebox.
Holy crap- I had one of those back in WV. I burned it out!
I've thought about getting a BGE, but the cost has been a real turn off for me. I just don't think I will gain anything over using my old Weber charcoal kettle and my Weber smokey mtn. smoker. Maybe I'm wrong.
I used to love my offset OK Joe smoker. Back then we had summer weekend BBQ parties and I'd have a dozen racks of ribs going at 4:00a.m. getting ready for the meat fest, lol.
I'm about 1" away from fabbing my own vertical offset smoker. Problem for me (I now live in Montana) is the utter non-supply of smoking wood..
Oh I remember that- I had their catalog. Is yours the one with a horizontal cooking chamber and then a vertical coming up off the end? The steel spoked wheels and the whole she-bang?
Oh I remember that- I had their catalog. Is yours the one with a horizontal cooking chamber and then a vertical coming up off the end? The steel spoked wheels and the whole she-bang?
Yep, but I have the horizontal cooking chamber and the firebox - no vertical chamber. You should see the neighbors when I'm cooking a batch of pork butts or ribs, it's like one of those Looney Tunes cartoons where the characters are levitated to the source of the aroma.
The BGE is perfect for BBQing chicken - I spatchcock the chickens or game hens and cook them low-and-slow with applewood chunks. I toss the hearts, livers, and gizzards on a piece of foil and cook them in the BGE too - they are great to give to folks walking by (those gizzards get nice and tender too).
Nope...smallish pigs around 100 or so pounds. They don't take long with 300+ degrees of direct heat.
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