The Buffalo Barbecue Quest Academy Pop Quiz: 14 Questions, With the Real Answers

Welcome, class. Every January our page turns into the Buffalo Barbecue Quest Academy: one barbecue question a day for 31 days, posed by Professor Will Fry the Grillin' Guy, with four answers of which at least two are jokes. Answer in the comments, and the best student wins a prize at the end of the semester.

The reels always promise the real answer "tomorrow," and tomorrow is another question. So here they are, written down for the first time. Days 18 through 31, the ones from the second half of the course, with the answer and the reason behind it.

Grab a pencil.

Fire and fuel

Day 18: Should you soak your wood chips?

The options were yes, no, only when it is a full moon, and if you want.

Answer: no. Wet chips do not smoke, they steam, and they delay the real smoke until the water cooks off. Use dry chips in a foil pouch or, better, wood chunks, which burn slower and give cleaner smoke without any soaking.

Day 22: Which food prefers direct heat?

Steak, whole chicken, pork shoulder, or leftover Chinese food.

Answer: steak. Direct heat means right over the coals, and it is for things that cook fast and want a crust. Whole chicken and pork shoulder are indirect-heat food; they need time, and direct heat would char the outside long before the inside is done.

Day 24: What is the classic temperature for low and slow?

150, 225, Barry Manilow, or Turtle Tempo.

Answer: 225 degrees. That is the number a thousand brisket recipes are written around. It is low enough to melt collagen slowly and high enough to render fat and build bark. Some cooks run 250 or 275 to save time, and that works too, but 225 is the classic for a reason.

Meat

Day 19: How do you keep your hot dogs from bursting?

Low heat, medium heat, think of baseball, or don't touch them too much.

Answer: medium heat. A dog splits when the inside heats faster than the casing can stretch. Medium heat and a few turns get it hot through without the blowout. If you like the split, that is a choice, not a mistake.

Day 20: Which part of the brisket is fattier?

The flat, the point, the middle, or dance.

Answer: the point. It sits on top of the flat, carries more marbling and a thick seam of fat between the two, and is where burnt ends come from. The flat is leaner and slices cleaner. A whole packer gives you both.

Day 25: Which way should the fat cap face?

Up, down, sideways, or backwards.

Answer: it depends on where your heat comes from. On a pellet grill, a kamado, or anything with the fire underneath, fat cap down shields the meat. On an offset with heat rolling across the top, fat cap up. Will's official Academy answer was one of those two.

Day 27: Why do you inject large cuts of meat?

Adds moisture and flavor to the inside, looks cool, personal gains, or meats need a fix.

Answer: moisture and flavor on the inside. A rub only seasons the surface. On a pork shoulder or a brisket, an injection carries salt, broth, and flavor into the middle where the rub never reaches. Not required, but that is what it is for.

Day 28: When smoking a brisket, you should always...

A, leave the lid closed. B, leave the lid closed. C, leave the lid closed. D, the professor started laughing.

Answer: leave the lid closed. Every peek dumps heat and smoke and adds time to the cook. Trust the thermometer, not your eyes.

Tools and habits

Day 21: When should you clean your grill grates?

Before cooking, after cooking while it is still hot, tomorrow, or when guests complain.

Answer: after cooking, while it is still hot. Grease and stuck-on food come off a hot grate with a brush in thirty seconds. Cold, it is a chisel job. A quick scrape before the next cook is fine too, but the hot scrape is the habit that keeps a grate clean.

Day 26: Which tool is essential for barbecuing?

A thermometer, a guy named Chad, tongs, or a motivational playlist.

Answer: a thermometer. Will's three-things rule is tongs, a thermometer, and time, and if you can only have one, it is the thermometer. Doneness is a number, not a guess, and a probe is cheaper than a ruined brisket.

Day 29: What is the best salt for barbecue rubs?

Road salt, kosher salt, sea salt, or a salty ex.

Answer: kosher salt. The flakes are coarse, so they stick to meat and season evenly, and there is no iodine flavor. Sea salt works but is often too fine or too expensive for a rub. Road salt goes on the driveway.

Trivia and philosophy

Day 23: Where does the word barbecue come from?

Latin, the Caribbean word barbacoa, ancient Tartaria, or Will's great-great-great-grandfather's garage.

Answer: barbacoa. The Taíno people of the Caribbean cooked on a raised wooden frame over a fire, Spanish explorers wrote the word down, and it walked north through Mexico and the American South into every backyard you have ever eaten in.

Day 30: What do Scoville units measure?

The cooking temperature of a pepper, the amount of capsaicin, the acidity, or the size of one's courage.

Answer: capsaicin, the compound that makes a pepper hot. A jalapeño runs a few thousand units, a habanero a few hundred thousand, and the bottles on the top shelf of our hot sauce wall go a lot higher than that. The number on the label is this scale.

Day 31: What is the golden rule of barbecue?

Never trust a skinny pitmaster, have patience, always bring beers, or we don't talk about barbecue club.

Answer: have patience. Every other answer in this post is a version of it. Do not soak, do not peek, do not flip, do not cut early, do not guess.

Congratulations, Buffalo Barbecue Quest Academy. You've completed all 31 days of the Pop Quiz Challenge. If you'd like us to come back for another semester, let us know.Professor Will Fry, graduation day

Class dismissed

The Academy comes back every January, and the professor has already said he wants another semester. Until then, the study materials are on the shelf inside the McKinley Mall, and the office hours are Saturday tastings, 11 to 4.