Santa Maria Valley, CA -Barbecue region?

[TAFKAP]

I've got a buddy that lived in Morro Bay for a while. He just moved back up there from LA and is now in Atascadero. I'll axe him how hip to CA BBQ he is.

 

[TAFKAP]

According to my buddy, "Santa Maria style" is nearly 100% beef. Most of that is a tri-tip roast. Salt, pepper, and some garlic are the main seasonings, and the meat is roasted over the flames of red oak. The temperature is in the neighborhood of 250�, and they control that by raising & lowering the rack upon which the roasts are skewered.

 

[BamaProud]

IMO barbeque is as much about the sauce and rub as it is about the cooking method. Low and Slow has to be the cooking method...but a sauce and rub are also essential. Cooking skewered meat (or even skewered/rubbed meat) is just grilling.

 

[TAFKAP]

According to my buddy, "Santa Maria style" is nearly 100% beef. Most of that is a tri-tip roast. Salt, pepper, and some garlic are the main seasonings, and the meat is roasted over the flames of red oak. The temperature is in the neighborhood of 250�, and they control that by raising & lowering the rack upon which the roasts are skewered.

So, its cowboy cookin' BBQ? That area used to be big in the cattle trade, so that makes sense.

Yes, that's what he called it.

And according to my buddy, their cows look like show cattle, not those little "rangy" ones they breed up in Texas. :D

 

[TAFKAP]

IMO barbeque is as much about the sauce and rub as it is about the cooking method. Low and Slow has to be the cooking method...but a sauce and rub are also essential. Cooking skewered meat (or even skewered/rubbed meat) is just grilling.

Yes, obviously, they are not smoking it, which, I would agree, is not the definition of barbecue. However, I would disagree about the sauce and rubs being as important. "Barbecue" is a cooking technique. Great barbecue is more than capable of standing alone. Sauce and rubs are just there to contribute a bit of enhancement. Great pitmasters focus on the smoking process, not the enhancements.

They claim the meat is "smoked" by the open fire. The goal is a flaming fire, so the meat is never "grilled" over smoldering coals. Open flame is key for this stuff.

 

[BamaProud]

IMO barbeque is as much about the sauce and rub as it is about the cooking method. Low and Slow has to be the cooking method...but a sauce and rub are also essential. Cooking skewered meat (or even skewered/rubbed meat) is just grilling.

Yes, obviously, they are not smoking it, which, I would agree, is not the definition of barbecue. However, I would disagree about the sauce and rubs being as important. "Barbecue" is a cooking technique. Great barbecue is more than capable of standing alone. Sauce and rubs are just there to contribute a bit of enhancement. Great pitmasters focus on the smoking process, not the enhancements.

BBQ is an endless debate with no clear cut answers or guidelines.

I will grant an exception to the dry BBQ's. It is popular in some areas. *I am not a fan but I know some folks like it. But I still contend a BBQ needs to have smoke(low and slow cooking) and at least one of the other 2 (sauce and/or rub).

*there is a reason most "dry BBQ" places have a sauce as an option :)

 

[BamaProud]

IMO barbeque is as much about the sauce and rub as it is about the cooking method. Low and Slow has to be the cooking method...but a sauce and rub are also essential. Cooking skewered meat (or even skewered/rubbed meat) is just grilling.

Yes, obviously, they are not smoking it, which, I would agree, is not the definition of barbecue. However, I would disagree about the sauce and rubs being as important. "Barbecue" is a cooking technique. Great barbecue is more than capable of standing alone. Sauce and rubs are just there to contribute a bit of enhancement. Great pitmasters focus on the smoking process, not the enhancements.

They claim the meat is "smoked" by the open fire. The goal is a flaming fire, so the meat is never "grilled" over smoldering coals. Open flame is key for this stuff.

I'd call that "roasting."

Prexactly :)

 

[DaveB]

I've been up and down that road a lot, never even heard of any barbecue. Locals would spot my LACounty tag and about run you out of town. The property that backs up east of the Hearst Castle grew some of the biggest Angus cattle I have ever seen.


If you cn get access to private land there is a ton of deer just east of Santa maria and Paso Robles. Piggies, too.