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View Full Version : Campaign for ‘Real’ Cue Or My Stickburner Rules!!


Stlsportster
09-28-2018, 07:15 AM
I know it’s not winter yet but my sister from Atlanta just sent me this article. Interesting read and interesting perspectives.

“At the pinnacle of the pitmaster’s art is barbecue cooked the traditional way, entirely with heat and smoke from burning hardwood or hardwood coals”

Also a great way to keep track of and honor the places still doing it old school.

https://www.atlantamagazine.com/dining-news/if-you-dont-exclusively-use-wood-to-smoke-your-meat-is-it-still-true-barbecue/

And here is the site for the guys running the project.

http://www.truecue.org

The Campaign for Real Barbecue exists:
1. to celebrate and to promote barbecue’s wood-cooking heritage,
2. to identify and to honor those who stay true to the traditions of their place and provide the benchmark for Real Barbecue, and
3. to educate eaters about the barbecue tradition and the difference between Real Barbecue and faux ‘cue.

So. What say you Brethren.. are propane and electric cookers really faux-que? What about pellets or charcoal...

smoke ninja
09-28-2018, 07:37 AM
I dont think of electric or propane as "real" bbq but that don't mean it cant ne good eats.

as for pellets they are 100% hardwood so we're good there

Smokedawg86
09-28-2018, 07:51 AM
I understand what they are saying, but "true to the traditions" is a bit hyperbolic. I mean where does it end? if your're not starting your fire with two sticks and cooking on the ground or underground, then you too have embraced relatively modern advancements in the art. That's not a dig at all.

I like good bbq; however it is made. Now as a personal aside, I enjoy the involvement of smoking on a pure wood pit. To me, the process is as equally as enjoyable as the outcome. But if you're busy as most of us are, set it and forget may be the only way to get home smoked goods at times and that definitely satisfies my taste when called upon.

We constantly search for what is the best, when in reality there is no universal best way to do anything. Only what's best for YOU. To me, the only traditional tenet is that people have historically heavily used what's available in their area/state/region/country.

Stlsportster
09-28-2018, 08:18 AM
I'm drawn to the ocean. In a primal way. There is a connection to the past somehow.

I'm also drawn to fire. Campfires, firepit nights, a wood burning fireplace. Stoking the fire, watching the flames, adding wood. I've done it since I was a kid. While everyone else was building s'mores and singing camp songs I was foraging in the woods for more dry fallen timber to keep the fire going. In a primal way.

Cooking over a campfire the food always tasted differently...could have been being outside all day, could have been the process...the involvement in the cooking. Find a long straight branch, skin it, skewer some meat. Find 2 branches with a Y...now you have a spit. Foil packs, cooking on a grate, mud potatoes. I've even cooked chicken on a rock in the middle of a fire.

Pellets are convenient. Gas assist works great for high volume restaurants.

Stickburning is primal.

qnbiker
09-28-2018, 10:49 AM
I think there is a certain snob appeal to stick burners, and there is nothing wrong with that; I'd like to be a stick burning snob. 30 years ago when I raced bicycles, you needed an all steel frame and sew up tubular tires; we looked down our noses at guys showing up on aluminum bikes and clincher tires. Those bikes were just as fast as ours, but we were "purists". I would love to have a big pile of wood in my back yard and cook on a Lang or Shirley, but space and time constraints won't allow that. I'm content to cook on a WSM using charcoal and wood chunks because it allows me to do it more often. People seem to like the results.


BTW, I have spent a lot of my life camping and cooking over camp fires. Nothing better.

W.I.T.W.A.G?
09-28-2018, 04:08 PM
My take is that I love stick burning and everything that comes with it but moreover, I love bbq and everything that comes with it. I sincerely could care less if you use gas/electric/pellets or sticks, I still want to talk que with you and if you’d like to know I’ll tell you my preferences. I'm not sure why anyone feels the need to separate it into categories. This guy uses wood this guy uses gas..etc. especially when it comes to restaurants. Let people try whatever they want to try and if they like it they'll go back. Unless you’re the one loading and unloading the pit every day you don’t get to call it “faux”. Can we just be BBQ guys? To me the whole TruCue thing comes across as a need for a group of guys to feel like they’re in the cool kids club and completely forgetting that they’re already in a pretty cool club called “BBQ” but they couldn’t leave it at that. You had good bbq, maybe it changed your life. Awesome. There’s no need to be a jerk about it.
Rant over. Go BBQ

Whisky
09-28-2018, 04:36 PM
The never ending debate....

Kind of similar to traditional bows vs compound. Or inline muzzleloaders vs traditional.

I can say with 100% certainty that I'm sick of elitist attitudes. But whatever floats your boat I guess!

16Adams
09-28-2018, 04:37 PM
The “cool kids” are eating Vegemite :twisted:

tom b
09-28-2018, 05:18 PM
I have a pellet grill and I have stick burners, to me it's all good....

Smoking Piney
09-28-2018, 05:23 PM
Old school pits were born out of the necessity of using what was on hand.

Today, we have LOTS of choices on everything related to BBQ. I don't begrudge the technology - I embrace it. Whatever you use to cook on is YOUR choice, and who am I to judge that?

I'm a guitar player, and that world is chock full of cork sniffers and preening, pompous elitists. I don't see this too much in the BBQ world. It's all about enjoying the journey and having fun to me. Whether you cook on a hole in the ground or a $15,000 custom cooker is an individual choice, and I will not pass judgement.

There's no "time honored right way". As long as you're getting the results you seek, it's all good. :-D

Edit: I just read the pledge from the True Cue site..............pure elitist garbage, and I see NO place for that here on the Brethren. I come here for the open minded comraderie and I've learned and shared a great deal. Please do not allow this level of preening snobbery to infect this forum.

azken
09-28-2018, 05:56 PM
I'm pretty simplistic..I want heat to cook my meat..could care less what the heat source is. IMO sucessful cooking lies in the creativeness/skill/hands of the person doing the cooking.

smoke ninja
09-28-2018, 06:06 PM
I have a pellet grill and I have stick burners, to me it's all good....

#metoo !?

I figure I'm working my way through all the various cooker types. said I'd never get a drum...built one. said I'd never get a gas cooker....love my wga, Blackstone and big easy. I said I would never get a pellet grill.....I actually own 2 until the traeger sells.

ill tell you what tho.....I'll never get a vertical insulated cabinet

Joshw
09-28-2018, 06:06 PM
I would say it depends on the person. I grew up, cooking, and eating food off of a stick burner. To this day, I have not cooked on anything that matches the flavor that you get off of one. So in my mind, stickburners are the kings of bbq. However, If I can get something that tastes almost as good, for 1/10 the work and time investment, and have bbq 4 times a week, instead once a month, I am in. But yeah, if I was going out to eat bbq, and they didn't have a wood pit, I would keep driving.

Stlsportster
09-28-2018, 07:01 PM
So here is my take. My father in law was a chef. Owned restaurants, catered, worked in corporate food services, cooked in the Army.

I ate a lot of meals with him over the years. Cooked a lot of meals with him and helped him cater a few times.

He loved to eat and to cook. Ate at Denny’s, loved Culver’s, and cheap chinese food.

But every once in a while we would go to a place to eat and he would be wowed. Impressed with the old school, from scratch, classic restaurant operation and techniques. Hand made beef Wellington or hand cut steaks or fresh made pasta... and he would fawn over the old school method.

Same thing at home. Grill burgers, use the microwave and toaster oven. And then he’d say...I wanna make [insert food item here]. And then it was on. Roux, bearnaise, confit, bechamel. Whole roasted tenderloins, salad dressing and cocktail sauce from scratch. And it was always amazing.

I can appreciate all bbq...not counting chain restaurants baked or boiled ribs... but the best bbq place in St Louis uses a gas assist Old Hickory. I don’t mind at all.

But. Every once in a while I get a place still using an all wood pit. And it’s different. Just enough.

I think it’s cool to collect a directory of the places still using just wood. But not in a snobby way. More as a way to honor the old school way.

Smoking Piney
09-28-2018, 07:09 PM
I think it’s cool to collect a directory of the places still using just wood. But not in a snobby way. More as a way to honor the old school way.

Honor old school? I'm OK with that.

I do, however, take umbrage at the pledge that this site posted. It's pure, unadulterated, preening snobbery......and I have ZERO time for that.

Dly4
09-28-2018, 07:10 PM
Seems very millennialish

PatAttack
09-28-2018, 07:19 PM
I could care less what people cook in or on.


If it's good...I'll eat it.:thumb:

Pig_Farmer
09-28-2018, 07:52 PM
#metoo !?

I figure I'm working my way through all the various cooker types. said I'd never get a drum...built one. said I'd never get a gas cooker....love my wga, Blackstone and big easy. I said I would never get a pellet grill.....I actually own 2 until the traeger sells.

ill tell you what tho.....I'll never get a vertical insulated cabinet
"Hello, Lone Star, how fast can you ship me a Mini Insulated Cabinet Smoker" :biggrin1:

Texas Hogger
09-28-2018, 08:53 PM
My personal opinion is that stick burners produce the best Q.
That doesn't mean that somebody else's opinion is any less valid.
Use what you want to use.
I prefer to grill over charcoal, but I get how gas is more convenient.
Which one is best is truly a matter of opinion.

West River BBQ
09-28-2018, 10:02 PM
I get great satisfaction from cooking food to the point where you get an OMG! reaction. It is quite an accomplishment that I am always chasing, whether it be in the kitchen, a campfire or smoker. Last week I spent all day feeding wood into my stick burner chasing the dream of a perfect temperature etc. It was heaven but I don't always have the time or desire for that and my pellet serves a purpose too. Good food and fun is where it's at for me and I can appreciate how people get there in different ways.

Bob C Cue
09-28-2018, 11:07 PM
I hope that as Brethren we can all agree that regardless of whether we cook with wood, lump, briquettes, pellets, pucks, wood chips or propane we are all doing our small part to help destroy the ozone layer and our planet.

pjtexas1
09-28-2018, 11:18 PM
ill tell you what tho.....I'll never get a vertical insulated cabinet

Yeah... those things are all garbage. I'll never own 1 either.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

bschoen
09-29-2018, 05:10 AM
As an adulterated preening snob, I take exception to that.

Now I need to find my axe and a flint. Go kill a pig, chop down a tree, dig a pit and smoke that oinker.

Damn beer better be cold.

16Adams
09-29-2018, 06:08 AM
Outstanding article. I sucked at stickburning. Neither me nor my liver enjoyed matching 2/1 beers sticks every 40-45 minutes. I sold my SB. I don’t regret it, but it was a fun cooker- with enough time-and beer. I Think an offset in a yard burping TBS is beautiful. I cook a lot-a lot. I watch a lot of bbq show/video/ read every author I can find, read and follow bbq editors- guessing pretty normal around here- kind of weird to people who eat out frequently. I have no plans to obtain another stick burner nor cook in a pit. Cheers to the Brethren that master and enjoy them, they’re a thing of beauty.

Currently my most used cooker is a small pellet machine. I don’t watch pellet videos. I don’t read on pellet cookers. I didn’t watch the pitmaster shows once pellet cookers were involved. To me there is nothing alluring nor romantic in my current lineup. (Although I do feel like Mel when using my Blackstone) Imho non wood/live coal cookers make excellent food, but boring TV. My #2 is a Primo Oval XL. Another excellent cooker, but not great TV.

I think this is a pretty cool project.

Nuco59
09-29-2018, 06:18 AM
If I had my druthers, I'd pick wood fired bbq every time. But I'm not so foolish as to believe (and swear a pledge) that the only "true que" comes from a wood fired pit.

Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start. Anthony Bourdain


Elitists clamping down on the definition of BBQ would not help in the peace process :grin:

16Adams
09-29-2018, 06:40 AM
I’ve read the article twice as well as Holy Smoke. I see nothing elitist about his project.
Traditionalism or Traditionalist but not Elitist nor Elitism.

Last night while I slept peaceful on clean sheets some older man or woman or young Turk stoked fires in a leather apron and steel toed redwings. Pitmasters commanding their fires and coals. . Dragging coals with a square shovels, stacking sticks just right in an offset. Adjusting heat and meat all night. Others, like me will shower-shave and will walk outside and punch a button or Lite a chimney of lump with a starter cube.

We will both arrive where we want to be. Good food. How we got there are different roads.

16Adams
09-29-2018, 06:46 AM
If I had my druthers, I'd pick wood fired bbq every time. But I'm not so foolish as to believe (and swear a pledge) that the only "true que" comes from a wood fired pit.

Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start. Anthony Bourdain


Elitists clamping down on the definition of BBQ would not help in the peace process :grin:

I’m currently going back and reading Bourdain ‘s books. They’re good.

Joe Black
09-29-2018, 11:15 AM
For those what claims that pellets is still wood, I disagree. Pallets is wood, pellets is scrap. If it ain't 12-16" long with bark on the outside and needs splittin, it ain't good for cooking.

Traditional, horizontal, offset, stick burnin, round, steel with fire on one end and smoke on the other. That's cookin 'cue. If it aint broke, don't mess with it.

That's the way we do it at our house.

Big George's BBQ
09-29-2018, 11:49 AM
Are use propane for a quick Cox when I get home from work. With my egg I like to use lump and Wood chunks I get pretty good cooks out of both. I can’t stay up all night anymore the long smokes of the stick burner. Plus my property has too many leaves and trees for that

dadsr4
09-29-2018, 12:07 PM
I wouldn't subscribe to the man's ideas. However, I cook on electric or propane in the kitchen, and would never have thought of it as barbecue. Pellet poopers and electric smokers do blur the lines some. I'm still pondering that. I'd eat the food, though. Had crockpot pulled pork at my mother-in-laws 90th birthday, wouldn't call it BBQ.

KingRanch450
09-29-2018, 12:14 PM
Love my stick burner but my pellet grill serves a great purpose as well

NYC ‘Que
09-29-2018, 12:46 PM
I’ve a Stumps Gravity feed. Really easy to cook on and produces excellent food with minimal effort. It’s actually too easy, that’s why I have an offset on order. I enjoy the art of cooking with fire. When I have the time, I’ll use the offset. When I don’t, I’ll use the Stumps. Will the offset produce better food? I doubt it but who knows. My primary purpose of getting one is to play with fire and to get closer to a really old way of cooking. So do what you like. As long as the food is good then nothing else matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LYU370
09-29-2018, 12:47 PM
Some of the worst BBQ I've ever had came out of a stick burner. I guess you could say it was pure crap.

That being said, some of the best BBQ I've had also came out of a stick burner. And a propane smoker (Ole Hickory) and a pellet burner (Cookshack FEC750).

Just because you think you're making "Real Que" doesn't necessarily mean it's any good. I think it was a Facebook group I'm a member of that was making fun of these guys a few years ago.