a [ brief ] history of smoking.

our focus has always been on slow-smoked meats, often taking non-primal cuts, and gently rendering the fats so the end product is both tender and unctuous. similarly,vegetables are coal roasted or lightly charred on the edges for added flavour and texture. 

the style of cooking we specialise in is slow-smoked barbecue [ low temperature, long cook time over indirect heat,  fire away from meat ], not to be confused with grilling [ high temperature, quick cook over direct heat, fire directly below meat ], this is synonymous with how barbecue was founded in the USa. whilst we grill some of our cuts,this is only to finish, the actual cooking is down purely in the barbecue smoker.

as history goes, the upper class took the prime cuts of meat, all quicker to cook, and tender when cooked to cuisson [ medium-rare etc ]. what was left is the non-prime cuts of meat for lower classes, often eastern european and black communities. these cuts become very tough unless cooked ‘low and slow’, breaking down the collagens. using the woods of the land, these communities discovered barbecue – the art of slow cooking. an act of patience, the meat is actually fully cooked about halfway into the cooking process, but the full process is purely to break down the muscle fibres into something tender and unctuous.

we could wax on about this, but many have done it already + far better than we could. here is our pick of in-depth reading on the subject of smoking:

‘the prophets of smoked meats: a journey through texas barbeque’ - daniel vaughn
’smoke lore: a history of barbecue in america’ - jim auchmutey
’black smoke: african americans and the united states of barbecue’ - adrien miller