UK vs USA BBQ (1 Viewer)

[AccessBlaster]

The brisket is the gold standard of BBQ in my humble opinion.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

You can barbecue almost anything. For instance, one can put shrimp on the barbie, and there is such a thing as BBQ'd alligator tail. My wife has a GREAT pulled-pork recipe that involves BBQ sauces. So when considering what to grill, don't leave out chicken, pork, and various other popular staples of cooking.

 

[AccessBlaster]

You can barbecue almost anything. For instance, one can put shrimp on the barbie, and there is such a thing as BBQ'd alligator tail.

A buddy I worked with invited me over for a BBQ a couple of weeks ago, gator was on the menu. I did not go but they also had a whole hog and chicken. I've had hog before but not gator. Keep in mind this is California haha.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I'm not sure about eating "Gator"

Why?

I worked with a guy from Wexford, a small coastal fishing village in Ireland. (He knew about eating fish)

He told me not to eat flat fish like Place because they are bottom feeders.

It just seems to me that I don't know what Gators eat! I assume they eat a lot of rubbish, in other words they are not fussy about what they eat, so indirectly you are eating the same crap they eat.

No idea if it's true, but I would like to find out before I put a morsel in my mouth!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

UG - Gators are not flat-fish and are not bottom feeders. True, they eat other animals, but predominantly, they eat fish and any mammals that come down to the edge of the bayou for a drink. They REALLY like nutria (and given the pestiferous nature of nutria, we are GLAD they like them.) "Eating other animals" is no biggie. If you eat tuna fish, particularly blue-fin tuna, they are carnivores who eat small squid, haddock, and other smaller fish. And if you get shark steak (which I have had; it is very good) then you KNOW you are chowing down on an apex carnivore.

The only thing to be really careful about with eating alligator is that there is a biological "thing" in animals called the "silverskin" - a membrane layer of sorts. It is imperative to remove this because (as the Cajuns down here in south Louisiana will tell you) it makes the gator meat extremely bitter if you cook with that membrane still in place. The edible parts of the gator are the jowls, shoulders, hips, and tail. The back and belly don't actually have enough meat to make it worth while. The tail meat is based on four long, lean muscles that run parallel to each other. I have eaten fried alligator tail and find it tasty. Some people grill it and when they do, they compare it to veal. Because alligators are semi-protected, they are seasonal. At least here in Cajun country, you can only hunt alligators during September. There IS such a thing as "farm-raised" gator that can be harvested at any time but they tend to be smaller.

One last point: Alligators are reptiles which are close to birds on the evolutionary scale. So just like large snakes, some people will say that gators "taste like chicken."

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

some people will say that gators "taste like Chicken!

Why am I not surprised!

 

[AccessBlaster]

We are going to Nashville in the fall, can't wait to sample the food and drink!

 

[Isaac]

We once ate octopus in Mexico, one of us got a bit ill afterwards - but I don't blame the food nor cook; it's all in what you are used to, and probably had mostly to do with that in our case.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Probably the agua

 

[The_Doc_Man]

AB, you will love Nashville if you like barbecue. There, you will find restaurants that give you the choice of tomato, honey, or vinegar-based wet sauces, and many of them have multiple dry rubs. Some of the downtown eateries give you a choice of meat, 3 veggies from a list of 8 or 9 options, bread, and iced tea for a fixed price. (Or at least they used to.)

 

[AccessBlaster]

AB, you will love Nashville if you like barbecue. There, you will find restaurants that give you the choice of tomato, honey, or vinegar-based wet sauces, and many of them have multiple dry rubs. Some of the downtown eateries give you a choice of meat, 3 veggies from a list of 8 or 9 options, bread, and iced tea for a fixed price. (Or at least they used to.)

If it's really nice we might move.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you like gently hilly country with lots of deciduous trees, you could do worse than Tennessee. They DO have snow, though.

 

[pbaldy]

give you the choice of tomato, honey, or vinegar-based wet sauces

We visited North Carolina when my daughter was stationed there. I like BBQ and my wife loves it, but neither of us cared for the vinegar-based sauces that seemed common there. People raved about the places we went, but we weren't fans.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Gotta admit, I wasn't a fan of the tomato-based BBQ sauce or the vinegar one either. The honey-based sauce was good, but I found a honey-vinegar combo that was intriguingly good.

 

[Isaac]

A brother of mine who has moved for work a number of times spent a couple years in suburban Nashville and we had a great visit there - gently falling snow was included during our visit, a real treat for any Arizonan. (Though not foreign to us since we grew up in WI).

Certainly a beautiful place, indeed

 

[AccessBlaster]

I hear the peeps are real friendly there.

 

[AccessBlaster]

While not BBQ this piece of meat will make you salivate

 

[conception_native_0123]

This is gator? Hmmmm.... Looks delicious. I think.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Adam, in that condition it probably isn't that appetizing, but then neither is a whole turkey before you gut it. That tail cooks down really well, though. There is a dish in south Louisiana called alligator sauce piquante - Cajun for "alligator meat in spicy sauce" - that can be served over rice. I have eaten fried alligator tail, alligator sausage, and I have sampled the alligator sauce piquante. All of them were good. Of course, it helps if your chef actually knows what to do with them. I recall at least one gumbo with alligator sausage to go with the wild hog sausage. Now THAT was a really meaty, tasty gumbo.

 

[conception_native_0123]

well i was only just partially kidding richard. I'm sure it is good when getting it to the right stage. did I tell you that I've been to New Orleans before? I've had some of the dishes down there. They weren't too bad, actually.