Campaign for ‘Real’ Cue Or My Stickburner Rules!!

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/din...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...

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.

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.