I recently had a chance to visit the Catskill mountains just north of New York City this past weekend on a short vacation. During some downtime, I was perusing my host’s bookshelves and ran across a book by Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (a BBQ joint local to NY) that caught my eye. I began flipping through it and found a few tidbits that surprised/interested me.
One of those tidbits was the suggestion to “cook individually”. Each slab of ribs, each shoulder, and even each burger, should be prepped and cooked as an individual. They are each unique, and will reach the point of “doneness” at different times. As a cook, one should respect that uniqueness and prepare accordingly.
Some of the factors that affect the “uniqueness” of a piece of meat: thickness, fat content, placement in the smoker/grill, bone in/out, volume of meat relative to the smoker, methods of marinating, etc.
When we cook ribs, for example, we will try and “group” the slabs so that the thicker ones are on the same rack, and we check these groups of ribs throughout the cooking process. But, it happens when one slab within a group finishes up quicker or more slowly than another. We haven’t done a good job at cooking individually, and thus our final product may not be as good as it could be.
Cooking individually will take a little more time, but it is probably well worth the effort if you want a more consistent piece of meat.
