- Jul 14, 2007
- 3
- 10
Hello folks,
greetings from an American living in Europe (Switzerland and Austria, to be specific). I started learning various smoking techniques a couple of years ago because there just isn't any real barbeque tradition over here -- they either cold-smoke stuff to be eaten cold (which is fine, they especially do really well by trout) or burn the hell out of wursts and pork chops directly over coals (which CAN be good if done properly, but...) So since I can't just pop over to the local pit for the real thing (and I'm from Maryland, so some of y'all will doubt I ever had the real thing), I've been working with indirect grilling on my Weber and experimenting with recipes from books, the web, friends back in the States, etc. to some good effect (Austrian grill jockeys have all read somewhere that Americans wildly over-smoke their meat -- then they taste what I've done and have to admit that they like it). Getting wood isn't really a problem -- you can get hickory chips at any hardware store that stocks Weber stuff, and chunks are available mail-order, most of the rest of the classic smoking woods grow over here, and I'm really fond of the local plum wood which is not quite as sweet as most fruit woods and makes a really nice all-purpose smoke.
The bigger problem is equipment -- Weber is about the only big US manufacturer who gets distributed over here (and you can forget the little ones), and the off-set smokers available are all poorly made and ridiculously over-priced OK Joe knock-offs. A Klose is on its way over the ocean to me now, and even though the shipping costs pretty much double the price of the thing, the weak US dollar and the fact that it's still better value for money than what I can get here do soften the blow a little.
Another problem is butcher related -- the cuts here are all different. In Austria, you can't get baby backs or a Boston butt unless you describe in detail what you want (with pictures, if you have them), and what an Austrian or Swiss butcher means by "spare ribs" is usually about half of a St. Louis cut -- and not always the same half. The quality of the meat is nearly always really high, though, and independent butchers and the ones at fancier grocery stores are really good and generally interested in working with you to get the cut you want.
So can anyone point me out to some good resources (web or books) where various cuts are described in butcher-style detail? Pictures would definitely help -- my German's good, but my culinary German's not that good, if you know what I mean.
Thanks!
greetings from an American living in Europe (Switzerland and Austria, to be specific). I started learning various smoking techniques a couple of years ago because there just isn't any real barbeque tradition over here -- they either cold-smoke stuff to be eaten cold (which is fine, they especially do really well by trout) or burn the hell out of wursts and pork chops directly over coals (which CAN be good if done properly, but...) So since I can't just pop over to the local pit for the real thing (and I'm from Maryland, so some of y'all will doubt I ever had the real thing), I've been working with indirect grilling on my Weber and experimenting with recipes from books, the web, friends back in the States, etc. to some good effect (Austrian grill jockeys have all read somewhere that Americans wildly over-smoke their meat -- then they taste what I've done and have to admit that they like it). Getting wood isn't really a problem -- you can get hickory chips at any hardware store that stocks Weber stuff, and chunks are available mail-order, most of the rest of the classic smoking woods grow over here, and I'm really fond of the local plum wood which is not quite as sweet as most fruit woods and makes a really nice all-purpose smoke.
The bigger problem is equipment -- Weber is about the only big US manufacturer who gets distributed over here (and you can forget the little ones), and the off-set smokers available are all poorly made and ridiculously over-priced OK Joe knock-offs. A Klose is on its way over the ocean to me now, and even though the shipping costs pretty much double the price of the thing, the weak US dollar and the fact that it's still better value for money than what I can get here do soften the blow a little.
Another problem is butcher related -- the cuts here are all different. In Austria, you can't get baby backs or a Boston butt unless you describe in detail what you want (with pictures, if you have them), and what an Austrian or Swiss butcher means by "spare ribs" is usually about half of a St. Louis cut -- and not always the same half. The quality of the meat is nearly always really high, though, and independent butchers and the ones at fancier grocery stores are really good and generally interested in working with you to get the cut you want.
So can anyone point me out to some good resources (web or books) where various cuts are described in butcher-style detail? Pictures would definitely help -- my German's good, but my culinary German's not that good, if you know what I mean.
Thanks!
