Smoked, Not Grilled
It’s Australia Day
when Jess Pryles skypes in from Texas. It’s quite coincidental, given
Australia’s national day (whether you agree with what it represents or not) is
traditionally given over to all things beach, beer and BBQ – BBQing being what
Pryles is all about.
However, that’s
where the coincidence ends – for we’ve not arranged to chat on this particular
day about the Australian way of BBQing, far from it. This chat is focusing on
American BBQ, southern BBQ, Texas BBQ. “Yeah, we’re talking smoked, not
grilled, which is generally how Australians know BBQing to be,” she says with a
smile.
Pryles, an
Australian who’s been travelling to Austin for the past seven years and who now
resides there, is generally regarded as the
Antipodean authority on southern BBQ. She’s not a chef, nor a journalist, but
is someone whose love of all things smoked has evolved into a career. She
writes a highly-trafficked blog along with regular columns in a variety of
publications; she’s an accredited Central Texas BBQ Association and Kansas City
BBQ Society judge; she produces the annual Carnivores Ball; she’s the
co-founder of the Australasian BBQ Alliance – it’s fair to say she’s a fulltime
carnivore.
“It was as simple
as girl meets rib, girl falls in love with rib, you know that old story,” she
laughs on how her love affair with the smoking culture began. “It was really
when I visited Texas for the first time and got to try my first beef rib… it
was just like nothing else I’ve ever tasted. You know, it’s burnt but it’s not
burnt, it’s this amazing charred bark, then the super tender inside.
“I’d always loved
eating meat, but that awakened not just this love of BBQ, but a love for red
meat in general that I just wasn’t aware was always there.”
BBQ and smoking
culture has, in the past six or seven years, taken on a life of its own, spreading
from its traditional homeland in the south of the US to all parts of the world.
Indeed, low ‘n’ slow BBQ has become almost painfully hip – it’s not uncommon at
any of the many BBQ-related events around the country these days to be inundated
by crowds of hillbilly-chic; check shirts and beards and trucker caps.
“I think there are
a few reasons [why southern BBQ has taken off], first and foremost because it
tastes great,” Pryles opines. “The second reason I think, is the craft element
of it. Because the type of BBQ that has become popular, and it’s important to
note the difference here, there are some joints in America that effectively use
something similar to ovens… but the guys who have become legendary, Aaron
Franklin for example, they all use manual, wood-fired, non-technical smokers,
it’s really a craft – the meat is turned by hand, they’re dirty, they’re
smokey.”
“So just like we
got into craft beer, or craft beard lotion or whatever, it’s just caring more
about smaller businesses producing items with more care by hand,” she adds.
The rise in
popularity over the past decade or so of things like craft beer, farmer’s
markets, and even things like vinyl and folk music, harken to people’s need to
simplify, to go back to things that originally, were about care and love,
things which offer comfort in their downhome-ness – it seems, as Pryles notes,
it was only a matter of time before smoking culture became a part of that list.
Australia itself,
despite its traditional way of BBQing, has taken to the US version with a
fervor. The Australasian BBQ Alliance, which only a few years ago was curating
a small handful of events around the country, this year has over twenty on its
books, testament to the culinary method’s growth.
Next cab off the events
rank is the inaugural Meatstock, running in Sydney in mid-February. Billed as
‘The Music & Meat Festival’, Meatstock is essentially a one-stop shop for
anyone looking to get their fix of the variety of smoked meats that comprise
this culinary canon – brisket, ribs, pulled pork, sausage. Add to that a
cracking lineup of bands all based in the ‘raucous roots’ category, and you’ve
got a weekend even the most casual of carnivores would embrace.
“[Meatstock]
founder Jay Beaumont, who’s also my co-founder of the Australasian BBQ
Alliance, he’s just a meat fan who allowed himself to dream big, he founded BBQ
Wars in Port Macquarie, which is the biggest event on the Australian calendar,”
Pryles explains. “He’s a really great operator with a really great passion, and
he wanted to bring that which we love to the biggest cities.”
“I think it’s
really impressive that he’s made [Meatstock] about everything as well,” she
goes on. “Celebrating the butchers too, the produce, the meat, the type of
music that seems to be the soundtrack to the whole thing.”
Meatstock is, to
employ an overused term, epic. We’re talking BBQ Wars (essentially an amateur
BBQ-off); Beard Wars (15 amateur barbers, chosen via Instagram, going
head-to-head onstage); Butcher Wars (59 butchers who have a set amount of time
to break down half a saddle of pork and half a lamb – Pryles is a judge for
this particular War), along with an Expo showcasing the best in the culture’s accompaniments
– smokers, dry rubs, hot sauces, meat producers, clothing. Plus there’ll be
enough smoked meat, cold beer and American bourbon to satisfy everyone. Epic
indeed.
“People really
fall in love with the culture of it,” Pryles says. “When you walk through and
you see the teams… sitting around, having a laugh, the competition is in pretty
good spirit.”
“And it’s one of
the few culinary competitions that you’re able to enter as an amateur,” she
goes on, referencing the BBQ Wars aspect. “Unless you’re a CSA baker knocking
out lamingtons for the Royal Show, there’s nothing else really. I mean, Masterchef is the closest as far as
turning amateurs into chefs – these are guys who are just enthusiasts, most of
them don’t have a BBQ restaurant, most of them are just backyard cooks. And
they’re really proud of what they do.”
The size and
popularity of events like Meatstock are testament again to the popularity of
this culinary art, although it remains to be seen if it sticks around outside
of its native Carolinas, Texas, Memphis and Kansas, whether or not it’s just a
fad, albeit a reasonably long-running one.
“I definitely
think it’s permanent,” Pryles asserts. “I think the fad exists at the
restaurant level, and not so much restaurants opening up, but places that are
suddenly adding a BBQ element to their menu, or places that suddenly use
brisket, even though it may not be BBQ’d, because somehow they think brisket is
a magical word.”
“So I think that
that will eventually drop off, just like you don’t see as many cupcakes in
cafes anymore,” she adds with a laugh. “Certainly I think, though, we’re only
starting to see the popularity as far as backyard cooks being into it.”
As we finish up
our interview, that quintessential smell of charring sausages drifts from next
door’s Australia Day party through my office window, and I can’t help but hope
this is true – Aussie BBQing is one thing, but low ‘n’ slow smoked meat,
US-style, well that’s just something else.
Samuel J. Fell
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