I graduated from Dartmouth in the 1990s so my info may be old. I also have taken several classes in both the sciences and humanities at public state schools such UC Berkeley, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and my local California State University. The main difference as many answers here have noted is not so much the materials, instructors or professors, but the students’ abilities. Rather than giving statistics which you can google, here are my personal undergraduate experiences.
college
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Texas A&M University offers a class on Texas Barbecue that teaches the history of BBQ, cooking methodology, flavorings and seasonings, and different types of BBQ.
Here are the topics covered in ANSC 117 each semester:
- Introduction, expectations, brief history of barbecue, food safety overview
- Cooking methodology: pits, kettles, water smokers, barrel smokers
- Types of fuel (charcoal brickettes, charcoal chunks, wood coals) and smoke (hickory, oak, pecan, mesquite)
- Adding flavoring: seasonings, marinades, rubs, sauces
- Pork: Southeastern-style pulled pork, Hawaiian-inspired pork loin
- Ribs, ribs, ribs: baby back versus St. Louis-style; Memphis-style (dry) versus Kansas City-style (wet); Asian-inspired rubs and sauces
- Chicken: smoking, cooking by rotisserie; whole or pieces
- Barbecuing lamb and goat
- Briskets: To wrap or not to wrap, that is the question!
- Smoking other cuts of beef: shoulder clods, sirloins, ribeyes, and tenderloins
- Cooking beef South American style: Brazil and Argentina
- Thanksgiving Turkey: brining recipes; smoking, frying, cooking by rotisserie
- Cooking whole pigs: Hawaiian, Cuban, Cajun
- Course wrap up