Please explain the differences.

[jerryl]

Noob questions.  Sorry If I missed it somewhere on the forums.

At one time, I thought I understood the differences, but reading this GREAT forum, I am now a bit unsure.

What is the difference between BBQ, Smoking and grilling?

What types of equipment do you use for each?

Example:

Making ribs on a Weber charcoal grill, indirect heat, 250F;  Is this griling or smoking?

 

[wtipton]

Greeting Jerryl,

So my understanding is that the definition of BBQ is low and slow, smoking is the process of adding smoke flavor to the food, there are 2 types of smoking, hot and cold. hot smoking is what you would use for ribs, pork butt, etc generally 200 to 250 degrees, cold smoking is how you would smoke cheese, fish, sausage etc. generally 100 to 150 degrees . Now grilling is Hot and fast, like you would cook steaks hamburgers ect. Ribs on your weber at 250 is bbqing and smoking. I hope this helps

William

 

[cliffcarter]

Noob questions.  Sorry If I misses it somewhere on the forums.

At one time, I thought I understood the differences, but reading this GREAT forum, I am now a bit unsure.

What is the difference between BBQ, Smoking and grilling?

What types of equipment do you use for each?

Example:

Making ribs on a Weber charcoal grill, indirect heat, 250F;  Is this griling or smoking?

IMHO it is BBQ because you are cooking at low temp. If the temp was 400°F and above it would be indirect grilling. Smoking is usually divided into hot and cold, hot being between 140°-180° and cold 90° and below. I do not do any hot or cold smoking, these temps are what I remember from reading on the forums. Check out the hot and cold smoking sections of SMF for more info.  BBQ temps are 225°- 350° and grilling 400° and above IMHO.

 

[daveomak]

Noob questions.  Sorry If I misses it somewhere on the forums.

At one time, I thought I understood the differences, but reading this GREAT forum, I am now a bit unsure.

What is the difference between BBQ, Smoking and grilling?

What types of equipment do you use for each?

Example:

Making ribs on a Weber charcoal grill, indirect heat, 250F;  Is this griling or smoking?

Jerry, morning and welcome to the forum.....  Glad you stopped in...  Definitions are weird....

Here is my take on it.... 

Grilling... over direct heat.. gas, wood, briquettes, electric etc...  High temps...  for a char like on steaks or veggies....

BBQ.... Cooking with a medium indirect heat... low and slow around 180-275.... smoke applied for flavor....

Smoking...  Ambient temps to 150 or so....  The art of applying smoke without cooking the food...  

All the above techniques can be applied to one piece of food....   Sausage for instance.... As long as a cure is used for safety,  Apply a cold smoke for hours for flavor.... raise the temp to cook to an IT (Internal Temp) of 140- 165 for more food safety... or throw on the grill to sear for that great char flavor....  

No matter what you call it, or the folks on TV call it, if you like it, and it tastes great... A home run !!!!!!!  It doesn't even have to be pretty enough for martha stewart....  Dave 

 

[jerryl]

Thanks Fellas.

PS:

Don't think I can post pictures yet . . .(Attachment button is not active

)

Made some chicken quarters yesterday to try a few recipe's . . .  tasted good.

It's a learning process . . .