Fat

Folks:
I think it's time to say a few words about fat. Fat is good. However, people behave as though fat is bad. People behave as if ANY fat is bad. But that is not correct.

Fat has some essential qualities for cooking barbecue and for the general enjoyment of food. Fat is necessary for the cooking of barbecue. Fat serves to baste and moisturize the meat during the cooking process. Fat is also necessary for flavor in meat (as with other things). Without fat there is no flavor. As the meat slowly heats in the barbecue pit, connecting tissues break down and tenderize, while the fat melts and gives it a wonderful juicy consistency and excellent flavor. When I buy my meat for Hog Wild Bar-B-Q I look for plenty of marbling and external fat; usually from the shoulder of the hog. After submitting this kind of meat to the smoke and heat, the result is a succulent, sweet piece of pork that cannot be matched!

Decades of marketing and propaganda by the Surgeon General's office and FDA have trained us to regard fat as unhealthy. We have so totally fallen for this schlock that we now willingly sacrifice flavor and enjoyment in favor of joyless, flavorless, ultra lean meat. Think I'm kidding? Just witness the growing popularity (especially among women) of the abominable "boneless, skinless chicken breast". Further, today's pork products are nearly 50% leaner than pork from just decades ago. The hand-wringers among us regard this as a good sign. The pork industry trumpets this fact to try to sell more pork. But ask anyone older than 50 and you'll hear that today's pork has virtually no flavor and is difficult to cook without drying it out.

I cannot tell you how many times customers have told me something like "Your chicken is so moist and tender. Every time I try to barbecue chicken it comes out too dry." I always ask "What cut of chicken did you use?" Inevitably the answer is "a boneless, skinless breast". First of all, the chicken breast is a naturally lean part of the chicken. What little fat it has is subcutaneous: under the skin. If the skin is removed, most of the fat comes with it. The result is an almost fatless hunk of meat. This may be fine for stir-fry, but it's a disaster in the barbecue pit. When submitted to the heat and smoke of a barbecue pit the skinless boneless chicken breast becomes a tasteless, dried out chunk of chicken jerky, unfit for human consumption. Sadly, this is how most people barbecue chicken, as well as pork loin, pork chops - even ribs.

Good, marbled, fatted meat is so hard to find. What can we do? If faced with grilling or barbecuing a lean piece of meat, there are options available to you. You can marinate it prior to cooking in an oily, acidic marinade (this adds some fat and breaks down some of the tissue), you can baste the meat frequently with a buttery, oily baste (careful of flare ups) or you can wrap the meat in foil and cook it in it's own (or your added) juices. Often these methods are just stop-gap measures. Removing the meat from the baste, uncovering or slicing the meat, and placing it on a serving tray all begin to initiate a drying process that seems to proceed rapidly, undoing all your efforts to moisturize. My advice: seek out fattier meat! It's out there! You just have to look hard. When you find it, buy it! And then enjoy it!

At Hog Wild Bar-B-Q we celebrate fat! We revel in it! It's what makes our barbecue so good! Although much of the fat "cooks off" in the barbecue process, much also remains. So don't be surprised if you get a little fat in your sandwich, or you have to pull a little fat off a rib bone. These are morsels of excellent flavor! Don't complain. Don't wring your hands. Slurp it up, roll it around in your mouth and savor it! If you can't enjoy a little fat, then a barbecue pit is not for you.

See you for lunch.