In this letter to Bob Hart, I encourage him to question whether what he is saying is fact or fiction. I’ve had no reply, so my suspicion is, he may not care. 

You may have realised in my previous post Bob Hart gets cranky at me, that Mr Hart didn’t really address many of the issues I’d brought up in regards to ‘Playing with fire’, an article printed widely throughout the Fairfax outlets. If Mr Hart is an educator, wouldn’t he want to impart correct and useful information? When I pointed out some of the flaws, rather than address the points, he chose to insult me. More than that, he has insulted his audience by not caring whether what he spruiks is indeed, fact or fiction.

Mr Hart,

May I start by thanking you for your time to respond to me. By all accounts, it appears you have a rather busy schedule, which makes me all the more grateful.

The point of my blog post and my seeking your response is simple; I believe there is a lot of myth and lore around barbecue and not all of it correct or helpful and I was hoping that you could shed some light onto why you think this may be the case.

I appreciate, sir, that you may have a refined palate. But I stand by my statement of non-plausibility. I don’t get down to Melbourne very often and I certainly wouldn’t invite myself upon you. However, my invitation is genuine. If you happened to be in Sydney at any time in the future, I invite you to participate with me in a double-blinded test, to see if we can indeed taste firelighters. Until that point we may only think we can taste them, or maybe not. If I am wrong I will happily eat both my words and our fouled steak.

Mr Hart, to suggest that using a thermometer to cook steaks is only for those in need of counselling, is a little unfair don’t you think? How many Australians get to their barbecue 2 or 3 times a year? I’d suggest the majority. These people don’t need counselling, they need good advice and assistance. The most reliable assistance a novice can have is a thermometer. With that one tool in hand they can serve you steak to your liking every single time, without practice. Time and heat are variable, but when a steak is at temperature…that’s consistent. And I believe consistency is what produces good barbecue.

In regards to smoking wood, I agree with you, that trying to smoke on a gas grill is more than a little defeatist. But if, like most Australians, that is what you have…that is what you have. I think we both agree you can’t put chips, soaked or not, onto a gas flame. I myself only cook on charcoal and use chunks. In regards to soaking chips though, what is it that you believe happens by adding wet chips to charcoal and how is that different to dry chips? I have done a bunch of tests on this. I mentioned in my post that I have tested that hickory does not soak up water and I think you agree(?). In weight, the difference was only about 1%. I have also tested putting small amounts of chips; dry, soaked and wrapped in foil, onto hot coals to see if there was a difference in smoke times. There were times on very hot coals that when I added dry chips, they burst into flames soon after adding them and therefore not much smoke. The same happened to the soaked chips, with the same amount of coals, not long after. The wrapped chips however, smouldered away producing smoke. It is not the application of water that produces more smoke, it’s being able to control the volatile compounds from igniting. If you’d like to see, I’d be happy to share this information with you. In any case, I mostly add wood at lower temperatures where dry chips smoulder just fine and I recommend people use chunks anyway. My belief is that soaking chips is barbecue lore, not based on anything factual and is an unnecessary waste of time.

I’ll admit, I thought the choice of including, as a rule, to always add a water pan had to be an editor’s decision. I specifically asked how steaks and chops could possibly fall under that ‘rule’ because of course, as you clarified, they are grilled. I hold the editor responsible for advising the public to always use a water pan.

In response to whether I think protein is another word for meat? My point was precisely that it’s not. Conversely, nor did I insinuate that wagyu is NOT protein! Merely to call meat…or cheese…or fish, protein does not do it justice. That aside my opinion of your barbecue definition is neither here nor there, it is only opinion, but mostly likely unfairly critical. I’m sure you can agree though, that once again the editor has got this wrong by labelling it a rule. You asked me to make sure I read things more carefully, Mr Hart. May I give the same advice to you.

On that point, you have criticised one of my recipes that uses chicken breast. You assume I don’t recommend people cook with thighs or Maryland. Well, of course I do! But this post was about boneless skinless chicken breast. If you had read the post at all you would have noted how awful I think poorly cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts can be. But some people like them and what I am offering are some tips to make them better for the rest of us. If you have not cooked a chicken breast that is moist and full of flavour, then that is on you.

Thank you again, Mr Hart, for taking the time to read this. I hope you can see that I am coming from a place of passion for good barbecue and I believe it can be the small details that make all the difference.

Kind Regards,

A thick skulled Sydneysider,

Tim Odom

I can’t bag out Bob Hart and the SMH for their awful advice and not provide a counterpoint. What I can tell you is this. If you follow these tips you will immediately cook better barbecue. Please note that they are not rules, just tips…. actually, there is one rule and only one rule, which I will share with you at the end.

1. Know your grill! You have to know where the hotspots are. If you have a Weber Kettle, it’s easy, right above the charcoal. But if you are like most Australians and use a gas grill, you need to know whether you have areas that are cooking hotter than the rest. The cheapest way to do this is to turn your grill on, lay out some white bread and then turn them over after a period of time. The burnt toast will tell you where you have hot spots and the fresh, soft slices will tell you where you are running a bit cool.

2. Keeping with the temperature theme; Invest in a good digital meat thermometer. Trying to cook pieces of meat by touch, time or its aura is ridiculous unless you have lots and lots of experience cooking a particular cut of meat on your particular grill. If that’s the case…you’re not reading my blog for tips. There is nothing worse than overcooked, tough steaks and nothing more potentially dangerous than undercooked chicken. You can solve this immediately with a thermometer.

3. Wrap wood chips, don’t soak them. Wrap tightly in a few layers of heavy duty aluminum foil. Punch a hole in the top and then place over the coals or the gas flame. When you starve wood of oxygen by wrapping like this you are prohibiting combustible gases from escaping rapidly, igniting your smoking chips and sending them up in flames.

4. My last tip is actually a rule. And like Mr Hart, is actually a quote. It’s the mantra of legend Steven Raichlen. ‘Keep it hot, keep it clean, keep it lubricated’. Follow this and you will prevent your food from sticking, have a hygienic cooking enivironment and have better tasting food.

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Read what prompted these tips in ’4 BBQ rules that suck’

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald there was a section called Playing With Fire. Labelled ‘Your smokin’ hot barbecue guide’, I checked it out to see what wisdom it was spruiking. We see that Bob Hart the owner and operator of the ‘Australian Barbecue Academy‘ has listed his ‘rules, tools and recipes’ for barbecue bliss. I read on and was both surprised and frustrated that ‘Barbecue Guru’ Bob Hart would be giving incorrect, out of context and plain bad advice via one of Australia’s leading media outlets. I don’t know Mr Hart, I have never met him. Perhaps his advice was butchered by an editor who doesn’t understand meat and fire. I would be thrilled if he told me this was the case and cleared this mess up. Mr Hart runs a successful and popular barbecue school which I’m sure has helped many novice barbecue cooks, but what was printed today was just awful.

Under the headline ‘A few rules’ are the worst offenders. Written are four rules, not tips, but rules for barbecuing.

1. Don’t use firelighters to light your charcoal because, despite claims to the contrary, you will taste them in your food. Use a chimney charcoal lighter (Heat Beads are an excellent choice) and fire up the charcoal with three or four sheets of newspaper or, if you have one, a gas flame or blowtorch.

I can’t understand how this is even plausible. I assume the concern is, the ‘taste’ of a firelighter, which is completely burnt by the way. Is somehow transferred to the charcoal…which also is being burnt, and will then be transferred to your food!? I call bullshit. And I challenge Mr Hart to a double blinded test to prove this. I’ll bring the firelighters, charcoal and steaks. Mr Hart, you can supply the beer. Besides, if you hate, or are concerned about the smell of the white wax-like blocks, there are firelighters made of 40% sawdust and 60%wax. They are much easier and safer than a blowtorch.

2. If using a kettle, place a few unlit briquettes or chunks of charcoal in each of the side baskets and top them with the lit charcoal. Ensure you have positioned a large foil tray of water between the charcoal baskets. Replace the lid and let the fire settle and the temperature rise.

I don’t understand how this can be a rule! A pan of water in a kettle is fantastic if you are trying to manage low temperatures. The water absorbs an amount of the heat which allows for easier temperature control using the air vents. But to suggest this as a rule for say, steaks or chops, seems ridiculous to me.

3. Always use wet hickory chips or chunks when you cook over charcoal: add them (just before the food) to your fire or fire baskets. Let the smoke begin to rise before placing the food on the grill.

Nope. Wrong. Soaking woods chips does very little. Hardwood like Hickory does not easily absorb water. Does your hardwood deck feel like a wet sponge after rain? No. In the testing I’ve done, hickory chips soaked overnight have only absorbed 1% of their initial weight in water. This is then quickly evaporated off the surface before the wood chips start smoking. Maybe what Mr Hart is seeing is not more smoke, but a little steam at the start of the burn.

4. And finally, whether you settle on a gas grill or a retro charcoal-powered device, remember, ”Barbecue is the enlightened application of heat, smoke, spices and ingenuity to protein, fruit and vegetables … outdoors” – or so someone once said. Hang on: I think it was me.

Oh good. The last rule is a quote. Must be knowledge packed to be our final takeaway! Nope it’s a definition of barbecue. And not even a good one! Or catchy! I hate referring to meat as protein. It suggests there is nothing else of value to it except the macro nutrient. Besides, the best burgers should be 20-30% fat. Wagyu, the most revered of beef is fatty. The macro nutrient bit is then ditched immediately for ‘fruits and vegetables’ anyway! Who gave this awful non-rule? Hang on; it was you Bob.

This is Part One. Click to read 4 BBQ tips that will make you a better cook

I can finally let the cat out of the bag! Smokey O’s BBQ will be at the brand spanking new Rouse Hill Organic Food and Farmers Markets!

We will be serving Pulled Pork, which is smoked for 12 hours over red gum and then pulled…in truth, it’s more like pushed. By the time the pork shoulder has finished cooking it is practically quivering, begging to fall apart! We’ll serve it with a house barbecue sauce to bring some heat and some sweet, and a crunchy apple coleslaw, all on a soft white roll.

We’ll also serve up some slow smoked baby back ribs that will pull right off the bone and will be glazed in a sticky sweet heat barbecue sauce.

I’d really love to see you down there supporting our local markets and if you spot us, please come and say ‘Hi’