Unless you are already deeply into the scene, it’s likely that you might not even realize that barbequing, smoking, and grilling have separate meanings. In truth, they do all seem to imply similar methods of cooking, and a lot of restaurants will sometimes use them interchangeably. However, there are a number of key differences between barbequing, smoking, and grilling. To make it a little clearer, we’ll describe each method of cooking in a little more detail. You’ll quickly see that there are major differences between the three of them.
What Does Grilling Mean?
Grilling is perhaps the broadest umbrella term out of the three. The definition of grilling is simply cooking food over a hot fire, usually one fueled by gas or charcoal. To grill something is to cook it very quickly and at a very high temperature. Grilling is the method to use for smaller cuts of meat because you don’t want the meat cooking too long, leading to losing its juices and then drying out. Steaks and very tender cuts like ribeye and skirt steak do very well when grilled. You can also grill more delicate food like fish or poultry, but this requires a little more finesse. Grilling encompasses cooking anything over a hot fire, including rarer grill items like fruit or gourds.
What Does Barbequing Mean?
Perhaps the biggest difference between barbequing, smoking, and grilling is in how much time you spend cooking the food. For instance, barbequing involves much more time than simple grilling. However, it doesn’t take as much time as smoking something, which we’ll get to in a moment. Barbequing is also different from grilling in that the cuts of meat you barbeque are usually much larger than the meat you grill. Whole racks of ribs, brisket, pork shoulders—these are the kinds of items you want to barbeque. To barbeque something, you’ll also want the fire to be a little less hot than you would if you wanted to grill something.
What Does Smoking Mean?
As we said, time is a major factor between smoking, grilling, and barbequing. Smoking is the longest method of cooking by far. Using chunks of various wood types that are set to smolder slowly, the smoke from the wood infuses into the meat itself. Smoking requires much less heat than the other two methods and, as a result, takes much longer. You can literally smoke meat for days depending on what you want to eat.
If you’ve been on the lookout for a meat seasoning company that knows grilling, barbequing, and smoking like the back of its hand, we’d like to welcome you to Williams Food Co. Our store has everything you need to make anything you put on your grill taste its absolute best.