3 Tips For Better BBQ

  Are you frustrated with your at home BBQ experience? If you said yes, don't worry you're not alone. Many a brave soul has spent countless hours trying thousands of recipes in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Average Joe’s propane grill and the Pit Master’s double decker smoke pit. Although this is an unrealistic goal to strive for, don't give up yet! In this article we're going to give you 3 helpful tips that you can use to make your backyard BBQing skills bigger, bolder, and better, and make your cookouts the envy of the neighborhood..  

#1 Know Your Meat

    It doesn't matter what your cooking, the very first step to any great dish is high quality ingredients. Do you know what you're looking for when you walk through your local butcher’s selection? The first step in creating good BBQ is to choose Angus Beef! The quality of chicken and pork are not as easy to assess while shopping but lucky for you, Angus Beef is the industry standard in high quality meat and you will never regret making the switch! The next step in knowing your meat is being able to spot the perfect brisket. Good brisket is dependent upon a perfect fat-to-meat ratio. Fortunately, there is a simple test you can do to verify the quality of your brisket. Before purchasing, take your brisket and try to fold it in half. If you can touch the ends together without it starting to fold in half… it’s perfect!

#2 Use Good Wood

    We all know that real BBQ is different from just grilling. Real BBQ is the cooking of meat inside a pit through indirect smoke and heat which is provided by wood. But what kind of wood is best? This question is a heavily debated subject amongst pitmasters and will be until the end of time. Here at Firehouse BBQ we import high quality mesquite from the lower 48 in order to produce the best BBQ in Alaska! Although that's our personal preference there are plenty of acceptable options out there. BE CAREFUL THOUGH! In Alaska there is tendency by the locals to recommend locally grown Alder wood for BBQ. Alder is not an acceptable wood for BBQ according to the ABA (American BBQ Association)

#3 It’s All About That Smoke

  Once you have the right meat and the right wood the last step is to step back and let the smoke do the rest. The worst enemy of BBQ is impatience! Even with  a slab of high quality grass fed angus beef, and a pit full of imported wood, great BBQ can be ruined by being cooked to hot too fast. If you want to take your BBQ to the next level you need to learn to go LOW & SLOW!  You will be able to tell when it's done right by the ¼ to ⅜ smoke ring that will be present around the outer layers of the meat at the end of the 24 smoking process.

  Hopefully this article has inspired you to step up your next backyard BBQ. But if the time, effort, equipment, and expensive ingredients that go into great BBQ have left you concerned that you will never be able to pull it off yourself, DON'T FEAR! Firehouse BBQ in the Peninsula Center Mall has got you covered, with the best BBQ in Alaska. Stop in today and let us share our passion for BBQ with you and your family today!