Posted by Scott in Flower Mound on January 18, 2000 at 10:38:45:
Just saw a picture of Paul Kirk on a Website holding a crutch made of aluminum Foil called a "Texas Crutch".
While I see this is as a humorous view/opinion of an often used Cooking Technique to tenderize cuts such as Brisket, I do not agree that anyt hing's a "crutch" if it's used to improve the end product.
Let me take Paul's Logic one step further:
"Because you are not digging a pit in the ground and burning logs down to embers, then throwing on meat and covering the whole thing up for a day, y ou are then using your manufactured welded BBQ pits as 'crutches'. Tuning your pits must also be seen as a 'crutch', I mean why not just use the oven?" What about adding a water pan in the smoker to catch the drippings and avoid the carcinogenic effect s of the fat burning. Is that a crutch too?
See what I mean?
IMHO, I don't think anything that improves the finished product, as long as you're using the basic principles of BBQ'ing (i.e., low and slow over smoke)can be looked down on or judged as poor form, can you?
What're your thoughts on this?
Scott in Flower Mound.