Thousands of years ago, sticks, stones and fire were all that man had to cook their recently-hunted carcass in a simple manner. This divine triumvirate of man, fire and food has always produced very delicious meals for men’s ancestors. Perhaps that is why barbeque have a certain appeal to them, as it arouses the inner cavemen in all people.
To cook your meat like a cavemen, here are three ways to do so.
1. Roasting
Roasting, on the other hand, is like grilling, without the grill. In this method, the meat is simply put a small distance from the heat source. They meat can be hung, placed, or even impaled on a large skewer by the fire.
As the food is not subject to direct heat, cooking time tends to be long. Depending on the size of the meat, the roasting process can take anywhere from two to five hours. As the heat slowly transfers from the source to the food, the meat is cooked slowly and more evenly. In the culinary trade, slow-roasting is a sure-fire way to render meat to fall-off-the-bone tenderness.
For this method, it can be as simple as setting up a fire spit out your backyard. Set up stands either of wood or metal where you can place the meat on. Having a rotating skewer allows for a more even cooking of the meat.
2. Smoking
To the uninitiated, smoking is process of cooking meat similar to roasting, but instead of the heat from a flame, it relies on the heat of a smoke. The smoke is generated by a fire fed by fuel such as coals, and more usually wood.
This smoke is flavoured depending on the fuel used. Certain fuel such as hickory, oak or guava wood, give the smoke great flavourful accents. This smoke would then impart the flavour on the meat during the cooking process.
Smoking meat tends to take anywhere from eight hours to almost an entire day. This incredible length of time allows the smoke to penetrate the meat and impart its flavour thoroughly.
Smoking will take a more experienced approach. The basic designs of smokers typically require only a vat where you store the meat, a shaft where the smoke can travel, and a pit where the fire goes. You can create your own smoker from simple wooden barrels, but if you need a larger smoker, farm buildings such as sheds make for great smoking vats.
3. Grilling
Grilling is simply cooking meat on top of a metal grill set above a fire. Through this method, the food is cooked slowly and thoroughly as the heat transfers and eventually spreads from the fire all over to the meat.
In grilling, the only contact surface between the food and heat is the metal grill. The beauty in this method is that while the meat is thoroughly cooked, visible from the charred surface, there will be dark grill marks the form just on the surface. This feature gives texture and flavour to the meat.
Cooking paleo-style is also a trendy diet regimen. Still, mind your manners; you can always cook the caveman way, but it doesn’t mean your behaviour should be, too!
