When cooking barbecue, do you put the sauce on the meat and then cook it, or do you cook the meat and only put the sauce on when serving?
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Sauce on the meat then cook, then more sauce when it's on my plate.
It completely depends on the type of barbecue you're doing. The way I see it, find places in barbecue hotbeds that have been doing things the same way for decades and copy them. After all, if you lived outside of WNY it would make sense to copy Duffs when making wings, right?
If you're smoking an entire pig (or a very large chunk of one) then yes, you add sauce while it's cooking. Same goes for KC or STL style ribs. And yes, each of those three types of barbecue call for different types of sauce.
But if you're smoking some brisket you better not ruin that wonderful crust with sauce. And really, sauce isn't all that necessary at the table either if it's done right. Same goes for beef ribs, or any type of Texan barbecue for that matter.
Dry rub, then smoke over a low heat. Or, if you don't have a smoker (you should get a smoker) slow roast. Low heat means 200-250 degrees. Sauce is unnecessary if you are smoking your meat–the natural flavors and the smokiness are all you really need, and sauce is actually intended to compensate for poorly barbecued meat that has dried out.
I like barbecue sauce, but I put it on my french fries.
Heh. I love barbecue discussions. Everyone is so righteous about it – as if they were discussing The Bible or something. The "sauce isn't necessary" comments… that sounds extremely bizarre to me.
What Lynn said, though the stuff at the table depends on need.