Pairing Barbecuing with a Cigar?

I’m not talking about pairing a cigar with the food but the act of barbecuing meat. To me, there’s no better excuse to kill time – and get out of honey-do projects – than to have a smoke or two or three while the meat smokes. But I’ve found that certain cigars fare better with smoking meats than others. And the type of meat also dictates what cigar works well.

It kind of makes sense because while the meat smokes, it gives off aromas and you can also taste the smoke. And if you’re smoking a cigar in the presence of your smoker, the aromas and flavors of the smoke from the grill and the aromas and flavors of the cigar will interact with each other. At least to me, this is a situation that demands pairing.

Even though we’re not pairing with a spirit or other type of beverage, I believe that smoking meat is just as valid for pairing because it affects both the olfactory and gustatory senses. In other words, just because it’s not a liquid doesn’t mean it can’t be paired.

I use my smoker a lot and of course I take advantage of the time I wait to have some cigars. And though I haven’t done a formal study on what goes well with different types of smoking meat, I have taken note on what I was in the mood for the last few times. I’ll share my thoughts in the table below.

Type of Meat	Type of Wood I Use	Cigar Pairing
Beef	Mesquite, Oak, or Hickory or a combination	Maduros. Bold, rich, and cigars that lean toward the savory rather than sweet. Beef is such a heavy meat and combined with the wood demands a cigar that can hold its own against the boldness of the smoke coming off the grill.
Pork Butt	Hickory, Pecan	This is kind of the Swiss Army Knife of smoking. But I will tend to smoke medium to medium+ cigars when I smoke pork butt. An Habano, Arapiraca, Mata Fina, or a light San Andrés maduro work great here!
Game Meat, Lamb, Goat	Hickory, Pecan, Fruit	These types of meat are gamey as is the smoke that comes off them. I’ve tended to smoke medium body, but complex cigars with game meat. My most recent experience was smoking a lamb and having an LADC Noblesse. What a combo!
Poultry	Pecan, Fruit	Habano or Corojo wrapper cigars. The pepper bite from these wrappers are a perfect foil for the light smoke.

Of course, none of this is set in stone and it’s all based on my palate. I tested this this morning by having two sticks. The first was a Curivari Sun Grown Maduro. Wow! That paired really well. As I write this post, I’m smoking a Trinidad Espiritu No. 3. It has a deep and rich flavor profile, but its San Andrés wrapper leans toward the sweet. It tastes good, but that pairing is not nearly as powerful as the Curivari pairing.

I love this hobby because unlike smoking cigarettes, it’s a luxury and not a habit. And the experience can be made so much more nuanced than just the simple act of smoking.