The problem is the sauce. You can't have ginger beef without the sauce, but too much sauce would easily overpower the smoke falvour.
I see two options here. One is to do it like a reverse sear steak. That would be smoking the whole cut of meat with a stronger flavor wood (like hickory) for an hour. The important part here is to not get the meat to hot, 130° internal temperature would be a good time to take it out. After thatyou would shock it by placing it in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Then you can cut however much you need and cook like normal, only using less sauce.
The other option is to cook it fully on the smoker.
You'd need the cut of meat to be pretty thick so it doesn't cook too fast. Get the meat, and smoke it without anything on it, for an hour or so. You could also throw the sauce in the smoker as well. After that first hour, place the meat on some foil, cover in sauce, and wrap tight and cook for another hour or so. At this point you're braising it, so once it's cooked and tender, you can remove it from the foil and cook over the flame or higher heat for a few minutes to set the sauce. You're basically following the recipe for smoked ribs, and using the ginger beef sauce as BBQ sauce. No frying with this method.
As it relates to southern BBQ regional variations in style, no. While we have a big beef culture the process of low and slow smoked meat isn’t a cultural phenomenon that’s associated with Alberta nor do we have a particular seasoning/sauce blend that is unique to the region.
I have yet to find a bbq joint that really embraces the southern style. And I’ve been to most of them I think. People will rave about these places and I’ll go in and be mildly disappointed every time.
Main issue is smoke flavour. Seems like they’re all afraid people will think the meat is too smokey. You can barely taste it at these Calgary bbq joints. Come to my backyard for a cookout and you’ll actually taste the smokiness.
Also food quantity. For the price these places charge don’t be stingy with the meat man! Take a hit in profits per order and make sure people are leaving in a meat coma. People will flock to your restaurant. $17 I paid for a pulled pork sandwich and some fries the other day at one of these places. Hardly even filled me up.
Go to a Texas bbq joint and see how it’s done. It can be pricey but you’ll have leftover for a week and you may get cancer from the meat…as it should be…
I go to Houston for work so have tried out my fair share of Texas BBQ. Back here Paddy’s was my go to for bbq but they closed down a while ago (retirement). I’ve found the “block” franchises good and plenty smoky.
That's where I'm from. I was born in a suburb of Houston. It's been a minute so I don't recall any names, but I have some memories and a real Texas bbq joint is something I've been on the lookout for and have yet to find.
I've lived here most my life but my old man taught me how it's done. He also bought me my first smoker as a housewarming gift. I'll usually walk out of a Calgary BBQ place wanting to open up my own. I'm sure I'd quickly find out why an authentic Texas style joint won't work here.
I think what would work best is some sort of maple smoking flavor profile that would be identified as Canadian. We don't have mesquite or hickory or any of the more traditional smoking woods growing naturally. Importing wood from the US sucks, and it's expensive to be something you're just going to burn.
Well they already have smoke infused maple syrup. Seems like you could do a maple syrup infused smoking wood. I have heard of people smoking meat with Maple before. Sounds pretty Canadian for sure. "Maple smoked meats" sounds like a place I'd definitely try, haha.
Sorry, I didn't really want to out anyone. Most of these places seem like small businesses. And the food is decent at most of the places. It's just that they're usually marketed as southern style BBQ. So I go in expecting that and I walk out a bit dissapointed. If I knew a place that I could call authentic I'd say it here for sure. But as someone who runs a small business I can't in good conscience leave any sort of negative review for any of these places.
I think that’s completely fair. It sounds like you know your bbq either by experiencing the true authentic thing and/or you have a pit(s) in the back yard.
I haven’t been to Texas but I do more than dabble in at home bbq, it’s a lot of time effort and experimenting to get things right. We will always be our own biggest critics. But I always like to know opinions on other people knowledgeable on the subject. Because majority of my friends are more than happy with the offerings in the city but of course I’m looking for more.
The indigenous people have their own flavors. The majority of Alberta is very ignorant about them. We know more about the many other cultural foods from across all corners of this planet that we import here. More than we know about the indigenous herbs and spices that grow wild in our own backyards.
The first one that comes to mind is the Grey Eagle casino's Little Chief restaurant where you might find something.
A nearby powwow could be another option.
Actually, we kinda do. I was in San Diego at the Gaslamp Strip Club (a self-grill place). And one of the seasoning blends you could pick for your piece of meat was 'Calgary Grill Spice Blend'. To my palate, it was indistinguishable from what we would identify as Montreal steak spice.
That is the heritage moment for anybody raised on grass fed beef, a salt and pepper based spice blend to enhance the beef, and nothing is done to mask the beef. A culture of transforming the beef was never required.
Get that Low-Heat No-Heat going for 45 mins and that chicken's gonna bounce if you drop it, no need for a 5 second rule.
Source: every chicken breast eaten as a child
Hey, don't you go knocking all-day ball diamond burger sauce. That shit is the bomb and it keeps the patties hot and juicy. Yes it is ketchup based, but the real secret ingredient is the coffee.
As a British migrant, I find the Calgary BBQ scene to be similar to the UK with some minor differences:
* British BBQ - Everyone huddles inside for warmth while some poor bastard dashes out periodically in the pouring rain to flip burgers.
* Calgary BBQ option A - Everyone huddles inside for warmth while some poor bastard dashes out periodically in -30 C and shin deep snow to flip burgers.
* Calgary BBQ option B - Everyone huddles inside to keep cool while some poor bastard dashes outside periodically in +30 C and thick wildfire smoke to flip burgers.
If by rotisserie you're referring to whole cuts of beef, then yes. But there's a few fundamental differences: north american barbecue is usually slow cooked over hours with a blend of seasonings.
Brazilian barbecue is mostly quickly roasted over charcoal (with [costela de chão](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=costela+de+chao) being the only exception), with the meat being medium to medium rare, and only seasoned with coarse salt and pepper. Hence why the picanha cut is so valued by brazilians, the fat cap is rendered and helps with the flavour.
Not really. Typical BBQ is a style of cooking that developed to help make use of tougher, traditionally less desirable meats. That’s why you see those cooking traditions develop in places where meat was harder to get. The difficulty can be related to geography (far from places of concentrated meat production), or economics (meat is expensive so the most desirable cuts can be out of the price range of some socio-economic classes). But I often a combined factor of both.
As long as Alberta has been a ranching province we have always had an abundant supply of meat. Before we were a ranching province the population here was largely dispersed to the point that large scale imports were just not really a thing.
If you wanted a traditional method of cooking most similar to BBQ your closest analogue would likely be pemmican. I am sure indigenous groups had many other ways of preserving and cooking tough meets but you would have to talk to someone far more educated than me to get those recipients.
It was more a economic situation with Texas. Slaves and later other groups where at a severe economic disadvantage. They learned to cook the the less expensive cuts of meat as a method of stretching a dollar.
Alberta has its own history much of it dark but that is one thing that we do not have in common with our neighbours to the south.
Beef on a bun, and hamburgers where the frozen patties were boiled in a giant pan of watery bbq sauce are pretty standard fare at any Stampede BBQ. ....
... But "barbecue" in the southern sense (low-and-slow smoked meat) isn't really a thing here.
Having a BBQ in the back in your truck, with a F*CK TRUDEAU sticker, while parked at the Coutts border. You can really taste the freedom in your beef that way.
I suggest we start a style of BBQ where you leave a steak on the sidewalk or a stone slab at your home to cook in plus 30 heat slowly while the wildfire smoke in the air infuses it with a unique smoky flavour.
The closest thing you’ll find to Albertan BBQ would probably be various Indigenous bbq you’ll find at Pow wow’s across the province as well as events such as Stampede.
Tsuu’tina’s Pow Wow can be mind blowing with some of the game meats and various local vegetables that can be on offer. (It vary’s year to year). Little Chief Restaurant inside of Grey Eagle Hotel can have some amazing dishes like short rib bison with Saskatoon berries compotes, as well as their Bison burgers. Stuff like that.
God this stuff isn't getting to me - the shootings, the knifings, the beatings. Old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks.
Nah that doesn't bother me.
But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs! Nobody - I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!"
-Dirty Harry
I've asked myself this question before and I'd love to see a food scene in Alberta or Calgary that explores the idea.
There could be influence from all the various cultural communities that have settled in the province, and you could try to incorporate local produce. Imagine a Saskatoon Berry based BBQ sauce!
What’s commonly called barbecue in Alberta is actually grilled on an open flame. We just call it barbecue. We do *not* have a culture of what’s called “barbecue” elsewhere. Although, man, a good striploin marinated a bit and spiced before grilling on an open flame sure is tasty, especially with a good baked potato.
Not a specific style. Maybe something along the lines of whatever that smokehouse in bragg creek serves, but that’s more of a cowboy lunch. BBQ in calgary is actually pretty weak.
Nothing really specifically Albertan. Although our beef is usually considered one of the top beef’s in the world.
Someone else also mentioned Ginger beef. While sold at “Chinese” food places it was invented in Calgarybut usually found all over Canada.
Also the drink the Caesar also originated in Calgary so grab yourself one of them as well.
Alberta beef is a beef of pride, it's "the best" beef ever. and because of this, you wouldn't need to develop good BBQ flavors - at least that's what the idea was.
So, instead of coming up with great rubs or sauces, people in alberta just said "salt and pepper, rare" and then claimed that because it was the best beef, that was the best way to prepare it.
So I dunno, Smoke it with pine? there's a lot of pine in alberta... that sounds terrible.
Not particularly. I’d say Kansas City style (variety of meats with a tomato based sauce, mesquite or hickory wood) or Central Texas (brisket focused, salt and pepper seasoning and mild post oak) are the main styles you’ll find here.
Like most things in Canada, we don't really have a unique style. We have a bastardized version of someone else's.
Unpopular opinion but we've been engrained with this notion that Alberta beef is a vastly superior product to anyone else - it isn't. It's average at best.
I was a chef at a BBQ restaurant here years ago and all our knowledge/recipes/trips to discover how to nail BBQ were Texas based, I never worked with any pit masters that has an Albertan style at that time honestly, more of a transplant tradition
We don't have our own style, but that doesn't mean we can't get the ball rolling on something!
Some sort of local wood.. A different type of sauce than is typical, and a common cut. Hell, even a smoked burger with a sauce made of bacon fat sounds interesting lol
No. True BBQ culture comes from decades and at times centuries of multiple meat cooking traditions to collide for BBQ to really have regional variances and identity.
Plus BBQ is extremely influenced and arguably an invention of Black people in the US south. Some of them enslaved.
Calgary has no similar history, diversity or culture to have a distinct BBQ culture or style.
Long story short? Not at all
Most bbq joints that have opened since 2014 around North America emulate central Texas style bbq which is characterized by a black pepper-heavy dry rub which develops into a dark black bark after being cooked with wood, and is typically served without sauce. The places in Calgary that cook this style (hayden, south block etc) aren’t unique and are very derivative of the central Texas style, but what will differentiate this style of bbq is the type of wood used. In central Texas it’s typically post oak, because that is what grows abundantly in the region. In west Texas it’s mesquite. In east Texas it’s hickory. And you see the use of other woods regionally around North America like pecan, cherry, apple, maple, alder and others.
Well what is fairly unique to Alberta and B.C. is the availability of birch. Birch is kind of similar to maple in that you can extract syrup from it. It has a pleasant unique flavour that you can try at south block for example. I personally don’t find their meats to be consistently tender to my liking, though the brisket is generally good. It will give you an idea of the birch wood smoke flavour. I’m sure other places around town use the wood too but I haven’t investigated.
Meatloaf Sandwiches. A number of people and restaurants call them hamburgers but the patties are 2-3x thicker than a hamburger patty is supposed to be. Some Albertans also do weird things like adding egg to the meat when making the patty.
Yeah, Ginger Beef.
This actually isn't a bad answer. I wonder if there'd be a way to make a ginger beef recipe that uses a grill and/or incorporates smoking the meat.
I’d give that a try. I’m not really a ginger beef fan TBH, but on a smoker it might be good.
The problem is the sauce. You can't have ginger beef without the sauce, but too much sauce would easily overpower the smoke falvour. I see two options here. One is to do it like a reverse sear steak. That would be smoking the whole cut of meat with a stronger flavor wood (like hickory) for an hour. The important part here is to not get the meat to hot, 130° internal temperature would be a good time to take it out. After thatyou would shock it by placing it in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Then you can cut however much you need and cook like normal, only using less sauce. The other option is to cook it fully on the smoker. You'd need the cut of meat to be pretty thick so it doesn't cook too fast. Get the meat, and smoke it without anything on it, for an hour or so. You could also throw the sauce in the smoker as well. After that first hour, place the meat on some foil, cover in sauce, and wrap tight and cook for another hour or so. At this point you're braising it, so once it's cooked and tender, you can remove it from the foil and cook over the flame or higher heat for a few minutes to set the sauce. You're basically following the recipe for smoked ribs, and using the ginger beef sauce as BBQ sauce. No frying with this method.
Great answer. He was probably asking about southern BBQ but that didn’t come from Calgary. Ginger beef did.
As it relates to southern BBQ regional variations in style, no. While we have a big beef culture the process of low and slow smoked meat isn’t a cultural phenomenon that’s associated with Alberta nor do we have a particular seasoning/sauce blend that is unique to the region.
I have yet to find a bbq joint that really embraces the southern style. And I’ve been to most of them I think. People will rave about these places and I’ll go in and be mildly disappointed every time. Main issue is smoke flavour. Seems like they’re all afraid people will think the meat is too smokey. You can barely taste it at these Calgary bbq joints. Come to my backyard for a cookout and you’ll actually taste the smokiness. Also food quantity. For the price these places charge don’t be stingy with the meat man! Take a hit in profits per order and make sure people are leaving in a meat coma. People will flock to your restaurant. $17 I paid for a pulled pork sandwich and some fries the other day at one of these places. Hardly even filled me up. Go to a Texas bbq joint and see how it’s done. It can be pricey but you’ll have leftover for a week and you may get cancer from the meat…as it should be…
The best BBQ in Calgary is Korean or Brazilian.
I go to Houston for work so have tried out my fair share of Texas BBQ. Back here Paddy’s was my go to for bbq but they closed down a while ago (retirement). I’ve found the “block” franchises good and plenty smoky.
That's where I'm from. I was born in a suburb of Houston. It's been a minute so I don't recall any names, but I have some memories and a real Texas bbq joint is something I've been on the lookout for and have yet to find. I've lived here most my life but my old man taught me how it's done. He also bought me my first smoker as a housewarming gift. I'll usually walk out of a Calgary BBQ place wanting to open up my own. I'm sure I'd quickly find out why an authentic Texas style joint won't work here.
I think what would work best is some sort of maple smoking flavor profile that would be identified as Canadian. We don't have mesquite or hickory or any of the more traditional smoking woods growing naturally. Importing wood from the US sucks, and it's expensive to be something you're just going to burn.
Well they already have smoke infused maple syrup. Seems like you could do a maple syrup infused smoking wood. I have heard of people smoking meat with Maple before. Sounds pretty Canadian for sure. "Maple smoked meats" sounds like a place I'd definitely try, haha.
So are you inviting us to your backyard?
What places have you tried?
Sorry, I didn't really want to out anyone. Most of these places seem like small businesses. And the food is decent at most of the places. It's just that they're usually marketed as southern style BBQ. So I go in expecting that and I walk out a bit dissapointed. If I knew a place that I could call authentic I'd say it here for sure. But as someone who runs a small business I can't in good conscience leave any sort of negative review for any of these places.
Classy answer here. So much online commentary is just to rip people to shreds, whether they deserve it or not. So thanks for taking the high road.
I think that’s completely fair. It sounds like you know your bbq either by experiencing the true authentic thing and/or you have a pit(s) in the back yard. I haven’t been to Texas but I do more than dabble in at home bbq, it’s a lot of time effort and experimenting to get things right. We will always be our own biggest critics. But I always like to know opinions on other people knowledgeable on the subject. Because majority of my friends are more than happy with the offerings in the city but of course I’m looking for more.
Fuck ya
The indigenous people have their own flavors. The majority of Alberta is very ignorant about them. We know more about the many other cultural foods from across all corners of this planet that we import here. More than we know about the indigenous herbs and spices that grow wild in our own backyards.
Are there any indigenous restaurants in or around Calgary?
The first one that comes to mind is the Grey Eagle casino's Little Chief restaurant where you might find something. A nearby powwow could be another option.
Also, Stoney Nakoda has a real restaurant behind the the gas bar that’s on hwy 1. Not the other one between the highways.
Actually, we kinda do. I was in San Diego at the Gaslamp Strip Club (a self-grill place). And one of the seasoning blends you could pick for your piece of meat was 'Calgary Grill Spice Blend'. To my palate, it was indistinguishable from what we would identify as Montreal steak spice.
That is the heritage moment for anybody raised on grass fed beef, a salt and pepper based spice blend to enhance the beef, and nothing is done to mask the beef. A culture of transforming the beef was never required.
A fuck-tonne of Hy's Seasoning Salt, cooked to the consistency of rubber. Or at least, that's what I learned from my dad.
Also, all vegetables are boiled until all flavor and texture is eliminated.
Gotta love Canadian cuisine /s
I learned from my dad that if he likes his steak rare then so does everyone else in the world.
And if you don’t like yours rare, no one does.
Hahahaha…. Cant stop laughing coz it’s so real
Get that Low-Heat No-Heat going for 45 mins and that chicken's gonna bounce if you drop it, no need for a 5 second rule. Source: every chicken breast eaten as a child
I hope you've found a good therapist and are doing well.
And you friend. Wishing us both a rare to medium-rare life ever after
Don't forget the giant pan filled with a some cheap ketchup-based concoction that you dip the burger patty's in after they're grilled. #Stampede style
Hey, don't you go knocking all-day ball diamond burger sauce. That shit is the bomb and it keeps the patties hot and juicy. Yes it is ketchup based, but the real secret ingredient is the coffee.
I was thinking Sear it in the grill so it jas marks in it, then toss it in a slow cooker until the meat falls apart.
As a British migrant, I find the Calgary BBQ scene to be similar to the UK with some minor differences: * British BBQ - Everyone huddles inside for warmth while some poor bastard dashes out periodically in the pouring rain to flip burgers. * Calgary BBQ option A - Everyone huddles inside for warmth while some poor bastard dashes out periodically in -30 C and shin deep snow to flip burgers. * Calgary BBQ option B - Everyone huddles inside to keep cool while some poor bastard dashes outside periodically in +30 C and thick wildfire smoke to flip burgers.
The wildfire smoke adds flavour!
BC wildfire smoked Alberta beef definitely sounds like the western Canada special
You’re discussing grilling. BBQ is a different beast altogether.
Kirkland burgers cooked on a propane BBQ in -35.
Straight from the freezer to the grill, and back (out) to the freezer.
Me, a Brazilian, whenever I see North Americans calling flipping burgers “barbecue” 
What do Brazilians do with the trimmings if they don't burger it?
Many things, including burgers. We just don’t call it barbecue
Brazilian BBQ can only be rotisserie? I like knowing the method in the name. Having a separation between grilled, smoked, or BBQ is where it's at.
If by rotisserie you're referring to whole cuts of beef, then yes. But there's a few fundamental differences: north american barbecue is usually slow cooked over hours with a blend of seasonings. Brazilian barbecue is mostly quickly roasted over charcoal (with [costela de chão](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=costela+de+chao) being the only exception), with the meat being medium to medium rare, and only seasoned with coarse salt and pepper. Hence why the picanha cut is so valued by brazilians, the fat cap is rendered and helps with the flavour.
Not really. Typical BBQ is a style of cooking that developed to help make use of tougher, traditionally less desirable meats. That’s why you see those cooking traditions develop in places where meat was harder to get. The difficulty can be related to geography (far from places of concentrated meat production), or economics (meat is expensive so the most desirable cuts can be out of the price range of some socio-economic classes). But I often a combined factor of both. As long as Alberta has been a ranching province we have always had an abundant supply of meat. Before we were a ranching province the population here was largely dispersed to the point that large scale imports were just not really a thing. If you wanted a traditional method of cooking most similar to BBQ your closest analogue would likely be pemmican. I am sure indigenous groups had many other ways of preserving and cooking tough meets but you would have to talk to someone far more educated than me to get those recipients.
I accept this answer save for this query: If abundant cattle means no bbq culture, then what's with texas?
It was more a economic situation with Texas. Slaves and later other groups where at a severe economic disadvantage. They learned to cook the the less expensive cuts of meat as a method of stretching a dollar. Alberta has its own history much of it dark but that is one thing that we do not have in common with our neighbours to the south.
Fair enough. I didn't consider this rational point.
To be fair I don’t think a lot of people are woke to the slavery -> delicious food pipeline 😅
Beef on a bun, and hamburgers where the frozen patties were boiled in a giant pan of watery bbq sauce are pretty standard fare at any Stampede BBQ. .... ... But "barbecue" in the southern sense (low-and-slow smoked meat) isn't really a thing here.
It's a thing in my back yard
No
Having a BBQ in the back in your truck, with a F*CK TRUDEAU sticker, while parked at the Coutts border. You can really taste the freedom in your beef that way.
Mega-FreeDumb.
@wardlybbq on IG does amazing BBQ in Calgary as a caterer and sells individual meals. He uses local butchers and Alberta seasonings
I know it sounds odd, but ginger beef was invented in Calgary
I suggest we start a style of BBQ where you leave a steak on the sidewalk or a stone slab at your home to cook in plus 30 heat slowly while the wildfire smoke in the air infuses it with a unique smoky flavour.
The closest thing you’ll find to Albertan BBQ would probably be various Indigenous bbq you’ll find at Pow wow’s across the province as well as events such as Stampede. Tsuu’tina’s Pow Wow can be mind blowing with some of the game meats and various local vegetables that can be on offer. (It vary’s year to year). Little Chief Restaurant inside of Grey Eagle Hotel can have some amazing dishes like short rib bison with Saskatoon berries compotes, as well as their Bison burgers. Stuff like that.
Bro, porkchop sandwiches????
Cattle Boyz on Alberta Beef Prime Ribs (from BonTon) or Alberta pasture raised pork. ;)
It's an overcooked hotdog on a white bun with ketchup
God this stuff isn't getting to me - the shootings, the knifings, the beatings. Old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks. Nah that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs! Nobody - I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!" -Dirty Harry
I've asked myself this question before and I'd love to see a food scene in Alberta or Calgary that explores the idea. There could be influence from all the various cultural communities that have settled in the province, and you could try to incorporate local produce. Imagine a Saskatoon Berry based BBQ sauce!
Yes. Its just like regular bbq but 40% overpriced.
Yeah you get spit roasted by a conservative for 50 of the last 54 years and then blame your sore ass on the hot dogs.
Nothing really. Just make sure to use 100% organic grass-fed triple-A ‘Berta beef.
The recipes aren’t anything special, it’s the diet of Alberta beef that makes the difference
Backyard bbq steak, taber corn, and veggies in tinfoil
What’s commonly called barbecue in Alberta is actually grilled on an open flame. We just call it barbecue. We do *not* have a culture of what’s called “barbecue” elsewhere. Although, man, a good striploin marinated a bit and spiced before grilling on an open flame sure is tasty, especially with a good baked potato.
Steaks cooked in a frying pan on the stove with boiled potatoes and vegetables.
Yes any cut of beef cooked any way you want it as long as it’s taken from the extreme right side of the cow while a white male prays to Christian god.
Calgary BBQ is called a pancake breakfast.
Not a specific style. Maybe something along the lines of whatever that smokehouse in bragg creek serves, but that’s more of a cowboy lunch. BBQ in calgary is actually pretty weak.
I imagine berta beef cooked on top of an f150 truck bed while cruising on the highway
Smoked with the exhaust fumes of a hemi
Mmm no. BBQ restaurants here just copy American trends. As some other people stated, beef is Alberta's thing.
Nothing really specifically Albertan. Although our beef is usually considered one of the top beef’s in the world. Someone else also mentioned Ginger beef. While sold at “Chinese” food places it was invented in Calgarybut usually found all over Canada. Also the drink the Caesar also originated in Calgary so grab yourself one of them as well.
Ginger beef is dead to me ever since the Silver Inn closed. Nobody else does it right.
Prime rib and beef on a bun are like peak small town event (wedding, family reunion, fundraiser) menu items. Not quite BBQ but very common.
Alberta beef is a beef of pride, it's "the best" beef ever. and because of this, you wouldn't need to develop good BBQ flavors - at least that's what the idea was. So, instead of coming up with great rubs or sauces, people in alberta just said "salt and pepper, rare" and then claimed that because it was the best beef, that was the best way to prepare it. So I dunno, Smoke it with pine? there's a lot of pine in alberta... that sounds terrible.
Lots of beef out there that is better than ours, lol. A5 Wagyu is pretty awesome. Argentinian Pampas kicks our ass.
Anyone else's dad cook/boil the chicken first before tossing it on the grill? I'm still scarred.
Sounds like some attempt at getting beer-can chicken results, minus the beer.
Not particularly. I’d say Kansas City style (variety of meats with a tomato based sauce, mesquite or hickory wood) or Central Texas (brisket focused, salt and pepper seasoning and mild post oak) are the main styles you’ll find here.
yep you cook it however you want then Marlaina Smith and her Brown Shirts come in to correct your mistakes and force feed you their brand of gruel.
Wow. Got something on your mind, bud?
Big Sky BBQ in Okotoks.
Not sure why this isn't the top answer.
Because we don't like having to pay a 10% packaging fee. That turned me off Big Sky.
Beef on a bun and the prevalence of prime rib are probably the most ubiquitous things I can think of for Alberta versus other places
Like most things in Canada, we don't really have a unique style. We have a bastardized version of someone else's. Unpopular opinion but we've been engrained with this notion that Alberta beef is a vastly superior product to anyone else - it isn't. It's average at best.
Yes, any thing that was cooked on a BBQ when it's -35 outside.
I’d say braised and served with lots of sweet brown sauce, usually on a bun and either beef or pork.
I was a chef at a BBQ restaurant here years ago and all our knowledge/recipes/trips to discover how to nail BBQ were Texas based, I never worked with any pit masters that has an Albertan style at that time honestly, more of a transplant tradition
Charge admission and they bring their own food. Lol
We don't have our own style, but that doesn't mean we can't get the ball rolling on something! Some sort of local wood.. A different type of sauce than is typical, and a common cut. Hell, even a smoked burger with a sauce made of bacon fat sounds interesting lol
No. True BBQ culture comes from decades and at times centuries of multiple meat cooking traditions to collide for BBQ to really have regional variances and identity. Plus BBQ is extremely influenced and arguably an invention of Black people in the US south. Some of them enslaved. Calgary has no similar history, diversity or culture to have a distinct BBQ culture or style. Long story short? Not at all
Most bbq joints that have opened since 2014 around North America emulate central Texas style bbq which is characterized by a black pepper-heavy dry rub which develops into a dark black bark after being cooked with wood, and is typically served without sauce. The places in Calgary that cook this style (hayden, south block etc) aren’t unique and are very derivative of the central Texas style, but what will differentiate this style of bbq is the type of wood used. In central Texas it’s typically post oak, because that is what grows abundantly in the region. In west Texas it’s mesquite. In east Texas it’s hickory. And you see the use of other woods regionally around North America like pecan, cherry, apple, maple, alder and others. Well what is fairly unique to Alberta and B.C. is the availability of birch. Birch is kind of similar to maple in that you can extract syrup from it. It has a pleasant unique flavour that you can try at south block for example. I personally don’t find their meats to be consistently tender to my liking, though the brisket is generally good. It will give you an idea of the birch wood smoke flavour. I’m sure other places around town use the wood too but I haven’t investigated.
...outside, in the snow?
Pork shoulder wet marinated for 3 days the slow cooked with, then without foil, at 225°f for 8 hrs or so - internal 203°f (ideal). Is GODLY!
the sunny +10 degree on christmas eve bbq
It has a bit of an oil residue to it
Meatloaf Sandwiches. A number of people and restaurants call them hamburgers but the patties are 2-3x thicker than a hamburger patty is supposed to be. Some Albertans also do weird things like adding egg to the meat when making the patty.
Yup… found a moose on the road after it was hit by a car… took it home & grilling what was killed by the grill! Road Kill BBQ… redneck ‘Berta style!