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Bring on more summertime barbecue!

Summer entertaining sizzles when serious barbecue folks step up to the grill and/or smoker.

Whether it's chicken, pork, or beef, a little heat plus a lot of smoke means flavor to savor, says James F. “Sonny” Ashford, a member of the Greater Omaha Barbecue Society.

This Bellevue resident is a sanctioned judge and contest representative of the Kansas City Barbecue Society. He tours the country judging and overseeing the best barbecue competition teams, but he concedes that barbecue isn't rocket science.

“The key to good smoked meat is to cook it slowly at a low temperature,” he says. “You'll hear ‘low' and ‘slow' at barbecue competitions all the time.”

Ashford makes a clear distinction between grills and smokers. “A grill is something you find in nearly every backyard. A smoker will have an offset chamber and the ability to give off smoke and heat,” he explains.

Grills come in kettle and commercial varieties with charcoal, propane or natural gas options. Dan Gould, owner of Outdoor Kitchen and Patio in Omaha, further classifies a gas grill as essentially intended for quick cooking.

The Big Green Egg, a smoker and grill in one, is a 25-year-old hybrid that uses lump charcoal.

“It's more functional that a regular grill,” says Gould. “Some customers put their food on it in the morning when they leave for work, and it's done when they come home in the evening. And you can still get it to 750 degrees to sear a steak.”

Ashford offers a twist to the gas grill for backyard grill masters: Use the grill as a smoker. The keys here are to keep the heat on one side and the meat on the other side, place a tinderbox with woodchips above the heat source, and keep the meat moist.

Once the cooking method is chosen, meat, rub, smoke flavor, and sauce take the stage. The best meats for smoking, according to Ashford, are chicken thighs and drums, beef and pork ribs (remove membrane on the underside before cooking), pork butts and shoulders or picnic cuts, and beef brisket.

Rubs are built from personal taste preferences.

“A rub can be salt and pepper or any combination of salt, brown sugar, black pepper, red pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder,” he says. “Try some that are sold in stores, or build your own; taste it to see what combinations you like.”

He liberally applies rub to the meat, wraps the meat in plastic, and then refrigerates for an hour before cooking. Some people soak or inject the meat with marinade. Ashford says a good bark, the term for the dark crust that results from the rub, smoking, and slow cooking process, can have incredible flavor alone.

“The same goes for barbecue sauce. If the meat is seasoned correctly, you just don't need sauce,” he says.

Keeping the meat moist is as important as selecting the flavors and cooking apparatus.

Grill humidifiers, such as the Moistly Grilled Cast Iron Grill Humidifier from Sur La Table, can be filled with water, beer, or fruit juice. Spritzing the meat with juice every 30 to 60 minutes also works well. If personal preference includes barbecue sauce, Ashford says to mop the meat with sauce at similar intervals in place of spritzing.

Cooking times vary depending on the meat and its weight. “Like anyone out there, we use a meat thermometer so we know when the meat is medium or rare,” says Ashford. “Smoked meat will have a red color to it. If the juices run clear, then it's done. If the juices run red, it's not done.”

Nothing beats seeing and tasting, so Ashford encourages grill masters at every level to attend one of the area's many barbecue competitions.

Barbecue competition is serious business — some really good cooks do this nearly every weekend to gain their titles, says Ashford.

“It's like anything else. If you show an interest and talk to people, people will answer your questions,” he says. “Whether it's a backyard barbecue or a competition, it's truly a family event.”

Be a grill master

Chicken, 3-5 hours

Wood: mesquite, hickory, apple, peach

Pork (shoulder or butt, 5-7 lbs.), 7-8 hours

Wood: mesquite, hickory, apple, peach

Pork (ribs), 3-5 hours

Wood: mesquite, hickory, apple, peach

Beef (brisket, 5-7 lbs.), 7-8 hours

Wood: mesquite, hickory, oak

*Soak woodchips in water or juice for 30 minutes before placing in the tinderbox and then on the grill.

Coming Events

July 17-18:

Red, White, and Que in Bellevue

August 20-21:

19th Annual BBQ Championship of Nebraska in La Platte

September 24-25:

River City Roundup in Omaha

Information: www.gobs.org.