You're going to make mistakes in barbecue cooking, especially in the

beginning. If you aren't making mistakes then you're not trying new

things and experimenting.  Experimenting is a big part of the

barbeque adventure and making mistakes is that they can lead to some

wonderful discoveries.

The way I see it though in order to be able to enjoy your mistakes and

experimentation you need to be confident enough in some of your skills

so that you will feel free to experiment.  So I want to go

over ten mistakes that lots of folks do when barbeque cooking,

especially when they first start out.  

Some of this information are things from my own experiences, a lot of

it is things I've learned from smarter chefs than myself, but getting

all that knowledge in one place can be difficult.  So I hope

this helps you out.  

1. You Can't Put A Microwave in a Smoke House.

If you want fast food, go order take out. Great barbeque takes time,

love and patience. Slow is the key. Cooking at low temperatures for a

long amount of time is what makes meat just fall off the bone.

The prep work you do before you even take the meat to the heat, makes

it less likely that you will be distracted when the meat needs your

attention. This in turn allows you to focus on  keeping the

meat tender and give it your unique touch of flavor. Use your prep time

to help you deliver a superior product.

So figure out how much time you need before you even think of cooking.

What seasoning or sauce will you be using. Which sides do you plan on

serving? Think ahead and get everything you need ready before

you start cooking.

2. Overcoming the Learning Curve

There's lots of variables and nuances that come with barbecue.

Eventually much of what you will be doing will become second

nature to you.  But in the beginning you will need to keep

track of what you are doing and keep practicing again and again in

order to get good.   So its better to take your time

slowly making small changes in your recipes and processes. Remember you

can fake something when you go fast, but the end results will suffer.

3. Using Wood Before Its Time

Cooking over wood, gives your meats some of the flavors and subtle

notes that you enjoy.  As the smoke rises from the wood chips

or chunks of hickory, oak etc. permeating its way into the meat. Thats

one of the reasons why you want to cook low and slow giving

the  smoke the time to get into every bite of

goodness.  In order to get the best possible smoke into your

meat, you need to use wood that has been aged properly, other wise you

will get bad tasting flavors and textures.

Freshly cut wood (green) can blacken meat, because there is lots of

moisture inside freshly cut wood. Moisture in wood creates a lot of

smoke and leads to oversmoking  which overpowers the meats

natural flavor, making it taste bitter. Remember that smoking wood

chips or chunks provide flavor not heat so you don’t want to burn

them.  Let your wood chips/chunks soak in cool water for an

hour or so, this keeps them moist enough to slowly release smoke.

4. Out of the Fridge and Into the Fire.

You need to control the temperature levels of your meat and your

smoker. Temperature can be a benefit or a hinderance. For example, if

you put meat onto the grate straight out of the refrigerator adds lots

of cold air into your smoker, which leads to creosote in the charcoal

condensing and floating up with the smoke into your meat. This will add

flavor and texture that you

don't want to eat.

To combat this, let your meat come to room temperature for about an

hour, before you start cooking. But don't let the meat get too warn

because then it becomes a feeding ground for bacteria.

5. Come on Baby Light my Lighter Fluid?

Using lighter fluid will add an terribly acidic flavor to your food. If

you’d prefer tasting the sweet apple wood flavor of the wood mixed with

the peppery bite of your rub, then forget about using lighter

fluid.  Besides starting a fire the way I'm about to show you

will save you money and make your food taste better.

Go to the hardware store and buy your self a chimney starter. Then get

some charcoal (without lighter fluid), some paper, a spray can of

canola or olive oil, and a match.  Spay the paper with the oil

and then stuff the paper under the chimney starter.  The oil

will cause a wick effect, allowing the paper to burn longer. Put the

charcoal into the top of the chimney and light the oil soaked paper.

Wait till the coals start to show white ash before you move them into

your smoker.  Refill the chimney and light a second batch of

charcoal so that you can increase the heat of your smoker when the

temperature drops. It's better to put in hot coals into a fire so that

heat isn't used up trying to start the coals.

6. Slow and steady Wins the Race

A steady temperature will be best for your cut of meat, and bring the

most flavor.  When temperatures fluctuate the meat will cook

unevenly and maybe even dry out your meat. So control is everything.

Its much easier to add heat than to reduce it.  So start off

with less charcoal and slowly add more charcoal as you need

it.   

Use a good thermometer that you can read from outside the smoker

because you need to keep the smoker lid or door closed as much as

possible.  Keep your eye on the temperature with a good

thermometer, and keep the lid on your smoker as much as possible. Once

you have hit your ideal temperature according to the recipe, make sure

you keep the temperate at that level, more heat is just going to dry

out your product and may even burn it.

7. Getting Too Saucy Too Soon

Most sauces that you use when cooking barbecue will have sugar and

tomatoes both have low heat tolerance and a good a mount of sugar.

These two main ingredients of barbecue sauces are what create that

delicious black cracking coating. You need to wait until the meat is

almost finished cooking and then apply your sauces on each side. Let

the sauce cook for just a minute or two

on each side.

8. Believing your Eyes Instead of Your numbers

Barbecue and smoked meats cook differently than other meats, as an

example pork and poultry will pink as they cook. You don't get the

white color telling you the meat is done. So you need to determine the

meats internal temperature to know that it is done cooking.

9. Punching Holes into the Meat

You've worked a lot to get your meat to this point. Unfortunately so

many novices will end up ruining it all because they stab the meat with

pokers to move them out of the smokers.  This causes all the

delicious and precious juices inside the meat to leak out, which can

dry out the meat.  Anytime you need to move the meat make sure

you use tongs or some other way that doesn't

pierce the meat.    

10. Not Letting the Meat Enough Rest Time

Ok we are almost there you can almost taste the barbecue, you are about

ready to start pulling at it now.  But hold on, if you cut

into the meat now you will leak out those juices you've been trying to

keep in.  The meat’s juices move to the areas with least heat.

So if you cut the meat they will run out of the meat as quickly as

possible. Instead, let the meat rest after you take it off the heat,

give the juices  a chance reabsorb into the proteins. Cut into

the meat after it is well-rested and you'll find some of the most

tender

juiciest meats you've ever enjoyed.

I hope following these simple tips and techniques will give you the

confidence to experiment and try different things to bring your

barbecue to the next level.