Food tours for meat lovers: grill and barbecue

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Fire, fish and post oak

Cooking over fire is the oldest technique in the kitchen and still the hardest to get right. The fuel, the heat, the cut and the timing all change the result, and the cooks who do it best rarely write anything down. The tours on this page go to the grills and pits themselves, at the hour the fire is ready, with a host who knows the cook.

Europe comes first, on the Basque coast. The Basque Country: Pintxos, Cider Houses and Txakoli stops in Getaria, a fishing town west of San Sebastián, where the harbor grills cook whole turbot in a hinged basket over charcoal and serve it with little more than oil and garlic. The night before, a cider house in Astigarraga serves a bone-in rib steak, seared hard and shared at the table, after the cod omelette and before the Idiazabal.

In the United States the fire burns lower and longer. The Texas Barbecue Trail is five days: Austin pits and a pitmaster’s talk on post oak and the stall, three pit rooms in Lockhart, a ring of hot sausage in Luling and two nights in Fredericksburg. The Great American Barbecue Trail is ten days, flying from Kansas City to Memphis to Austin to compare sauced burnt ends, dry-rub ribs and salt-and-pepper brisket, with a pitmaster opening the smoker in each city.

Ane Etxeberria, a San Sebastián cook, hosts the Basque tour, and Cody Alvarez hosts both barbecue trails. Txakoli and cider are poured in Spain for guests 18 and over; the Austin brewery, the Hill Country wineries and the Kansas City distillery are for guests 21 and over, and every stop has a non-alcoholic choice.

These are meaty trips. Vegetarians can join the Basque tour comfortably, with the class and the pintxos bars, and should expect cheese, salad and peppers at the cider house. On the barbecue trails the sides are good, but you will spend whole days in rooms that smell of smoke and beef fat. Portions are tasting size, and most guests skip a meal a day by choice.