We throw a new column on the grill for Labor Day
By the BBQ Dude
For the St. Louis American
This Labor Day weekend, barbecue grills will be fired up all over St. Louis and its sister cities and counties. North Side. South Side. East Side. Even out there in West County. All of St. Louis is fixing to be smoking.
In some parts of this beautiful country of ours, this weekend will be the last time folks’ grills see heavy duty until next Memorial Day. Yes, hard as it is to believe, in much of the country there is a barbecue season, just like there is a swimming season. Which means there is also a season of no barbecue.
Not here in STL. Rain, snow, sleet, 365 days of the year, we’re barbecuing. We might have to knock some ice off the grill in February for a little fire and ice, but barbecue is definitely an all-season sport around here.
And I am here to talk to you about it. All about it. Me, the BBQ Dude. I’m going to talk barbecue with you every so often here in the pages of the St. Louis American. I exist, I am a flesh and blood man, a friend of the paper who does not work for the paper. And, though that man can brag about barbecue like any brother, and eat your rib tips out from under you, no, I am not Virvus Jones.
Who I am must remain secret, so I can be truthful about local barbecue without making my friends upset with me or getting myself turned away from places that are worth my patronage (for certain dishes, anyway) but that need a little schooling. Because, believe the BBQ Dude, there are folks around here getting away with selling barbecue who need a little schooling. You know what I’m saying.
Let’s start here, first time out, with the three cuts of meat that define St. Louis barbecue, that put us where we are.
First is the pork steak. Everywhere else, when they barbecue they take the shoulder or butt of the pig and smoke it whole, then pull it, slice it or chop it. We cut it into pork steaks. You go to any other part of the country talking about pork steaks, and they’ll say, “What is that? A steak of pork? A pork chop?” No, it’s a pork steak. And it’s so St. Louis.
Second is the St. Louis-style ribs. We take the brisket bone of the rib and cut it off. So you get straight ribs, close to a baby back ribs. That way it’s easier to cook with; you don’t have to mess with the harder part when you are cooking your ribs. It knocks an hour or more off your smoking time.
Third is the rib tips. Once you cut the tip off the ribs, now you’ve got a good cut of meat. It’s a real tough piece of meat that needs eight to ten hours of cooking time. People tend to take the rib tip and throw it in sauce, let it stew and make it tender. Let the sauce steam it, then you don’t have to take the time to barbecue it.
The rib tip, I believe, is what got people around here soaking stuff in sauce. Just drowning their meat in sauce. Your ribs are done, and now you’ve got the tips. Do you smoke them for eight or ten hours, or just throw them in sauce?
Pretty soon people are throwing everything in the sauce – with the exception of the crispy snoot.
Now I got to talk about the fourth cut of St. Louis barbecue. I said there were three, but really there are four, and the fourth cut is what puts us where we are. Because, honestly, as much as we all might want to brag about our backyard barbecues, St. Louis is not a barbecue destination. Except, that is, for the fourth cut: the pig snoot.
The pig snoot puts us on the map. Period. The thing that puts us on the map is a good, crispy pig snoot. All of us can go in the backyard and make a pork steak, but the snoot is something you’ve got to have – a good, crispy snoot. Notice it’s a crispy snoot. Not a soggy snoot. You can’t drown it in no sauce.
And I say to all you Moslems, and all you that don’t eat pork, that you are missing out!
