The heat is on at Ribfest
Low and slow the key to good barbecue
Smoke is in the air. Cherry smoke. Apple smoke. Maybe even some pecan and maple. Or hickory. Yes, it’s Ribfest time and Galt Gardens is heating up with the fragrance of smoked pork and beef ribs.
Ribfest, featuring several booths selling a range of smoked and barbecued meats plus sides, opened Friday and runs through Monday.
Smoked meat, with its dark luscious bark and covered in thick flavourful sauce, is a carnivore’s delight and southern Albertans are turning up in droves to the downtown Lethbridge park to sample the best the vendors can create.
Smoking meat is more than just a job for those who do the barbecue circuit which has brought Ribfest participants thousands of kilometres from their eastern Canada homes.
It’s an art form that takes time and patience to master. And each meat master has his or her own secret tricks and special approaches that make their barbecue different.
“It’s a labour of love; nobody is going to pay you to work 24 hours a day doing this, said Brad McLeod of Big M’s Smokin’ Bones BBQ, a vendor whose mottos include “Grills Gone Wild” and “The Sauce Is The Boss.”
“I didn’t leave last night,” he said Saturday morning while preparing baked beans as other crew members fired up the grills to finish off the beef and pork ribs which slowly cooked in the smoker all night.
Slow and low is the key to a good barbecue, said McLeod and other vendors as they prepared to open for the day.
A slow smoke tenderizes meat to falloff-the-bone goodness, bringing out the best of a piece of pork, beef or chicken’s flavour.
Sauce is added after the fully cooked meat goes on a hot grill to create caramelization.
“Everybody has their own rub. It can be a salty rub or a sweet one. It all depends on what you want to do. We don’t let it marinate” but others might, he said.
Different woods bring out different flavours but fruit is preferred, he said.
“Any fruit wood is the the best,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by Leesah Fulton of Crazy Canuck Smokers, whose business is using black cherry among its woods.
With the long weekend in full swing, Crazy Canuck expected to sell between 600 and 700 racks of pork and beef on Saturday alone after cranking out about 270 on Friday.
Big M’s expects it will sell about 1,500 racks through the weekend before closing shop and heading to Medicine Hat for another festival next weekend.
While the quality of pork and chicken is pretty much the same across the country, Alberta’s beef stands above the rest, said both McLeod and Fulton.
And Alberta barbecue enthusiasts love their beef.
“Alberta beef is amazing — it’s the best in the world,” said McLeod.
“Even cutting it is easier,” added Fulton.
Five vendors are participating in this year’s Ribfest which also includes a beer garden and different competitions each day.
Some people were lining up early Saturday, including a group from Innisfail and Thunder Bay, Ont.
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