Pro Pitmaster

The Decline of Brisket

2011-12-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

The decline of Brisket. Ten years ago USDA was strictly a guide to marbling not flavor. Having cooked, taught and won coast to coast I've noticed a speedy decline in Brisket quality. Ten years ago a USDA Select grade IBP Brisket did take first place going against world champions and USDA prime. I sincerely doubt you could do that again. In spring 2010 Sam's in Texas had full packer Angus USDA choice briskets. Cooked side by side with a USDA select from Wally World the choice won hands down and the USDA select was bland. Spring 2011 and Sam's in Texas had Angus USDA Choice flats and USDA select packers. By Fall 2011 the flats are nondescript choice and the packers select. I can still find Angus USDA choice packers at Sam's in Washington state. Costco has tasty USDA choice brisket at every location that carries Brisket coast to coat. For those in who have access to Costco business center they have a better selection of meat. Wagyu has won for me but I'm not a fan. I prefer USDA prime or Cargill Sterling Silver. Full disclosure I have been a paid spokesperson for Cargill. I know one of the root causes of a lot of calls I get from my students about disappointing Brisket results can be traced to where they sourced their meat. HEB and most other grocery stores fail to impress me. That's my $0.02 IMNHO.

Marinated Flank Steak

2011-01-14T10:30:00.001-08:00

Marinated Flank Steak

The menu was Marinated Flank Steak grilled over charcoal with baby Dutch (Yukon gold) potatoes with butter & Cilantro and steamed veggie medley. I just used some fresh ground black pepper for a rub, as the marinade left a good coating of spices. I like Dr. Pepper but I've found that I can taste it on Beef. Coke will make the beef sweeter but for me anyway it is a 100% complimentary flavor that does not stand out like Dr. P. I slice the finished flank like I 'm making Fajitas.

For best results grill fast over a hot lump charcoal fire so almost black on the outside and pink on the inside. Grill with the lid off and watch your steak for the whole cooking time which should be around 10 minutes total. For Gas grill preheat for 15 minutes on high and cook on high. As always brush the grate clean before cooking and wipe with a paper towel soaked in cooking oil. Canola and Extra Virgin Olive oil being my choices.

Enjoy and 'Que on,

Konrad "Teddy Bear" Haskins

www.BBQInstitute.com

Beef Marinade (Experimental)
1 can (12 fl oz) Real Coke (Diet is very unhealthy when heated don't go there)
1 Tablespoon Oregano
1 Tablespoon Basil
2 Tablespoon Steak Seasoning
2 Tablespoon Granulated Garlic
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire
2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

2~3# flank in Zip Lock for 5+ hours.

Knowledge is the Secret™

2011-01-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Knowledge is the Secret™ is what we do at the BBQ Institute®

A question we get all the time is what style of BBQ do we teach. The answer is not what people expect, our style is great barbecue done right. We teach people the knowledge they need to cook great barbecue. Great barbecue is meat that is moist, tender and has great flavor before you optionally use sauce. Regional styles are the choice of wood, rubs and sauce. Once you understand the history and science behind choosing a piece of raw meat and turning it into great BBQ, the regional styles are a relatively minor change. Done right does not mean a rigid set of rules. One example of rigid rules is cooking temperatures. We know people who consistently win at the national level cooking at both low temperatures and high temperatures. The lowest temperature to use is dictated by food safety concerns. 225°f is a good rule of thumb for the limits of space here. The highest temperature is determined by your equipment and the quality of the meat. Our rule of thumb is the right highest temperature, is what your cooker won't burn the meat at. For some pellet cookers that can be as low as 275°f for brick pits with tall brick smokestacks that may be 400°f. To steal a political term we believe in outcome based barbecue, do your friends and loved ones, love it? That's what's important! Our goal is to share that knowledge with our students so they can consistently cook great barbecue.

BBQ Institute Website

2010-12-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas Prime Rib

Wanting to make sure I got the right piece of beef I visited both Cash & Carry (the one owned by Smart and Final) and Costco the day before the purchase. I ended up with a locally raised Angus Ribeye. I went boneless because with such a low finish temp the bones don't give up much. The bones also hamper the formation of crust and smoke penetration.

I used my deep smoking technique that I teach in the advanced class to get the smoke flavor all the way to the core without ever injecting, just using gentle natural smoke. As end cuts are popular I took the 15 pound Ribeye and cut it into three roasts using my tape measure to get the pieces fairly equal.

One of the roasts went to Tim of Tim's Seafood in Kirkland, WA. Tim's is for my money the best place to buy fish anywhere in the world. I delivered the roast on Christmas eve and pickup up a huge assortment of Seafood for my girlfriends Christmas eve Cioppino. An amazing wine and tomato based soup with all manner of seafood including Dungeness crab, scallops, colossal prawns and clams. My contribution was fresh Dutch oven Poolish Focaccia (from Vegan YumYum blog) and a classic artisan loaf. But I digress.

As with all the best Christmas dinners the guest list grew at the last minute and a large table of hungry diners gathered for the feast. Being that many present were from Oregon the Prime Rib was accompanied by Beaver brand hot horseradish from Oregon. The sides were steamed green beans with butter and toasted almond slivers, my version of dirty rice and BBQ cabbage. One young lady had the same reaction I did to the cabbage the first time I tried it. "I'll try a little." Well Jonathan made a convert of me and I did of her. It's easy to make and delicious.

I made everyone a fan of smoked prime rib. We put a serious hurt on the food and did not run out. Like I always say small portions are an area of lesser achievement for me.

For me Christmas dinner was what BBQ is all about. Sharing great food with friends and loved ones.

Wishing all a Smokin' New Year!

What is good BBQ and how would you describe a great meal.

2010-08-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm all for real food prepared with passion. I'm not a bigot about it. A friend was describing in apologetic tones how she baked some great ribs. I asked her were they tender, moist and have great flavor, yes she answered. Did you and the people you shared them with enjoy them, yes she answered. Then that is all that's important I replied. As a teacher and a competitor I'm all about education by putting amazing real BBQ in peoples mouthes. Not judging them because they enjoyed baked ribs.I'd rather let my 'que do the talking for me.

Brisket

2010-08-12T10:49:00.001-07:00

Back before I got serious about competitive BBQ James and Lola Rice of Hico Texas were winning and winning big. In 2002 I won Rookie of the year in the Pacific Northwest. My prize was to attend the Rice's KCBS BBQ school at a famous pit builder in Houston on February 1, 2003. The pit builder who can build good pits shall remain nameless for making his pits too complicated. BTW Another student at the class was Guy Fieri, we ended up cooking a fajitas dinner for everyone. That is where I learned to cook Brisket. It's also were I learned that a long list of famous Texas Pitmasters have a strong preference for KCBS. KCBS has a strong culture of education.

Here are my ALL my Brisket results since 2004. I don't cook many contests, I just win a lot.

3rd Brisket, BBQ Championship of Montana (Qualifier) 2010

3rd "Cruzin' to Colby" - Washington State Championship (Qualifier) 2004

5th Roc City Ribfest, NY State Championship (Qualifier) 2010 Ribs

5th Pike Place Market, WA State Championship (Qualifier) 2008

There are two secrets to Brisket knowing what you are doing and why. Listening to Julia and start with quality ingredients. I don't care what you do starting with inferior meat will give you inferior results. Choice or higher Angus is a good start.

'Que on,

Konrad "Teddy Bear" Haskins

Are you a Texan who wants to win BBQ contests?

2010-08-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not a Texan. I have judged a few categories at the big San Antonio Cook-off and I probably teach more classes in Texas than anyone else. I don't do a lot of KCBS style contests but the few I've cooked in this year, I've been very competitive see http://www.BBQHog.com . I have cooked next to and learned a great deal from legendary Texas Pitmasters at elite invitation only national KCBS events. There in is where Texan's need to pull in the reigns of Texas pride just long enough to admit that maybe the can learn from those KCBS cooks. Many of the tops KCBS cooks are Texans and many of them prefer KCBS to the home grown minor leagues.

Yes there are a few differences. The only garnish in the box is Texas Lettuce (foil). Sauce must be cooked on and a spritz bottle is not allowed. Chicken is always two half birds. I'm 100% for all of that. It's a meat contest and adding garnish and sauce at the end distracts from the meat which is what it's all about.

KCBS is the NASCAR of BBQ. It does many thing well. KCBS and it's clones (PNWBA and similar) give you a score sheet at the end of the event with all six judges scores for Appearance, Texture (Tenderness) and Taste. In Texas each judge only gives one score and it's not shared with competitors.

KCBS also has a very strong educational tradition. http://www.KCBS.us has a list of BBQ class. The top teams teach and they teach well enough that the students beat the masters on occasion. I'm not aware of any such tradition in Texas.

One of the things that turned around my Brisket in 2003 was taking a class from James and Lola Rice of Hico Texas. It was at the factory of a famous Houston pit builder. It was a KCBS class. I'll let you in on a little secret about KCBS master classes, the students include many Texans who are open to learning.

If you are a Texan who wants to learn here are your options. I will recommend my class www.BBQInstitute.com . It's not a competition class but my students do well at major contests in Texas. Get on the websites of major NATIONAL Texas cooking teams and see when and if the have a class coming up. It may only be once a year, expect it to involve travel, be expensive and sell out early. Look at KCBS TOY (Team Of Year) scores from the previous year and do the same thing for top teams not based in Texas. Judge a Contest in Texas and get a different viewpoint.

Good Luck,

Konrad "Teddy Bear" Haskins

I Have a dream to open a BBQ business...

2010-08-04T09:15:00.001-07:00

I do offer consulting for commercial operations. We are also planning a commercial class in the spring. Our day one class will be a prerequisite. If you are looking for one weekend one stop experience that will teach you what you need to know, sorry that does not exist. The successful operators from one employee to one million are always learning. My motto is stop learning learning and start dying. Mario Batali said if he ever says he knows "everything" please tattoo "A**hole" on his forehead. I apologize if you think I'm being rude. It's a subject I'm very passionate about.

50% of restaurants fail in 24 months and that numbers climbs to 90% in five years. It used to be enough that you had to be both a good business person and a good cook. Not anymore, now you also have to be web savvy (AOL does not count). I get frequent phone calls from people in the middle of a train wreck who tried to figure it out themselves or hired a Chef instead of a Pitmaster. Those same folks have also run out of money so that can't afford a consultant. Get an expert involved early, you can't afford not to. If your prospective consultant suggests boiling meat or using an Alto Sham, Run don't walk away.

I'd suggest reading the E_Myth, taking my one day class, entering some contests and getting as much experience as possible. Then take some more classes. Volunteer to help with feeding the troops and charity events. Don't be the cheapest, be the best.

On the subject of classes. There are a lot of competition classes around. I just took one of the best from Rod Gray. These classes are focussed on winning a KCBS event. If you want to cook in the backyard and maybe go on to a commercial venture my class has a lot more relevant information. To get the most out of a Competition class you should 100% know who: Rod, Scottie, Byron, Chris, Mike, Myron and Teddy Bear are.

Good Luck,

Konrad

It's official I've fallen off the wagon

2010-08-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

I was deep in the grips of addiction from 2002 to 2003. In 2004 I started on the road to recovery. There was a long dry spell with a very minor relapse in 2008. 2009 I was free from addiction. Then came 2010 and new paraphernalia came into my life. A little experimentation as part of my travels could do no harm? WRONG! Then came Rochester NY. I taught a successful sold out class. Then I made the mistake of entering a NEBS grilling contest. Anything goes, edible and inedible garnish is OK does not mean what it says. I got disqualified for garnish that had been used under the same rules to win two weeks prior. Those familiar with the situation called it pure BS. So the next day I went it to my first KCBS BBQ contest in seven years with a not very charitable attitude. Now don't get me wrong when it comes to BBQ I'm fiercely competitive and very proud of my product.

After the contest was over and before the results were announced I confessed to my long time BBQ buddy Jonathan. That I was worried that if I did well, how do I repeat a "don't give a s*** attitude" success.

Well it turns out my fears were not groundless. I took two fifth place finishes and reserve grand champion. One point behind grand champion and one point in front of the reigning world champions iQue.

This left me with a conflict. I had been trying to take the Rod Gray/Pellet Envy class all year but my schedule always conflicted. Then one day Rod announced on facebook a new date. I did not wait for him to put registration up on his website. I sent him my money via paypal based on the cost of the last class and told him if it was not enough I'd send more. This was all before Rochester. After such a good showing in Rochester was it worth spending well over a grand to Fly to KC and take a class when I still had "it" ? I went and it was worth every penny.

Then Jonathan called last night to "chat." He has taken several master classes as have I and we were comparing notes. He is an enabler as is Rod Gray. Then as I was surfing before going to bed I saw a forum posting that the Montana state championship had the magic 25 teams to be a qualifier to the two biggest events of the year. The date was open, it's this weekend and only a 500 mile drive from where I am. A quick note to the organizer Tim got a prompt reply. They would love to have the original two time champion back and they could get me a spot within 30 yards of the judging tent, as I'll be cooking solo this time.

This last minute impulsive addictive behavior is all the fault of Jonathan and Rod, I'm the victim here. As I tell my students BBQ is just as expenive an addiction as drugs, only legal. Maybe that's why I like Anthony Bourdain so much.

First KCBS Contest since 2003

2010-06-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Roc City Ribfest, Rochester, NY was my first KCBS contest since the American Royal and the Jack Daniel's world championship in 2003. I took 5th in Ribs and Brisket and Reserve Grand Champion (BBQHOG.com). The cooker was a brand new one week old Lang 84 fueled with Kingsford Original and Walmart wood chunks. Meat was a single package of each from Sam's club. The Brisket was a Big Angus from Sam's in Texas the rest from Buffalo NY Sam's bought after lunch at the Anchor Bar. Rub was BBQ Institute standard 4 ingredient rub made on Friday in front of the students used with a blend of grocery store BBQ sauces. Equipment was minimal as I flew in. Basically cooked solo, master judge candidate/student runner and Smokestack my Beagle for good luck. I was more than a little surprised to get called for RGC. I was one point behind GC and one point in front of reigning world champions iQue.

Dealing with wind, cold and snow.

2010-03-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

The first two days of spring in Texas were a freak of nature. They were the Saturday and Sunday of our class scheduled for Keller Texas. Friday was a warm sunny day as was Monday. The weekend was in the low 30's with wind chill in the 20's and periods of rain and snow. We did not cancel the class. We did move it from a park shelter in Keller to the Party Barn at the MD Resort to get out of the wind and rain and snow.

On Saturday all 25 students showed up for the sold out class. On Sunday 19 of 22 showed up. It was an amazing showing by the students as road conditions were slick and blocked by wrecks.

With so many students making the effort to show up the pressure was on to get 'er done. My weapon of choice to slay the cold was our Lang 48. I had spoken with Ben lang and he suggested lining the fire box floor with fire brisk to keep the heat in. Then I had bought some $2.50 Walmart towels and $1.99 generic vicegrips to clamp on the towels as corner weights. The final tool was an SUV parked close to the smoker as a wind block.

The fire was not super large just an average fire, mainly charcoal with wood for smoke. The vents were run wide open all day. Every time a chimney of charcoal was added, 4 coals were reserved to start the next chimney. That cycle of lighting chimneys was repeated non stop all day. A charcoal basket would have been a big help but unfortunately there was a shipping delay in getting the basket.

With an average fire the pit with the brick lined firebox would maintain 200f with the wind blowing across the pit sideways for maximum cooling affect. Using the SUV as a wind block brought the temps up to 250f. Covering the smoker box with weighted towels added another 50f to bring the cooker up to a very respectable 300f.

Cooking for friends on Monday with Sun and 70's had me closing the fire box air intakes by 75% with the same size fire to keep temps below 350f.

I had tried to buy a BBQ Guru smoker jacket for the 22" WSM before the last class, unfortunately they were not in stock yet. Using no water and Mesquite lump the WSM did make temperature but it was a struggle. The smoker jackets are now in stock and I'll be ordering one on Monday. Even in better weather it will make a single load of charcoal last a lot longer.

Having a plan and a "we don't have problems, we have solutions" attitude worked. Everything was finished early and came out tasting great. There has been a lot of positive emails and forum posting from students who had a good time and learned more than expected.

The problems of measuring Salt

2010-02-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

1 cup of salt, 2/3 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of salt are all exactly the same amount of salt. No I’ve not lost my mind. I’m illustrating a common problem in cookbooks. There is a famous barbecue recipe on the Internet called BRITU (Best Ribs In The Universe.) The most common complaint about this recipe is that it’s too salty. There are two causes for this. The first is a common rookie mistake of more rub is better. An incomplete recipe is the second problem. Back to the start let me fill in what so many cookbook authors do not. 1 cup of Diamond Crystal® Kosher salt, 2/3 cup of Morton’s® Kosher salt and ½ cup of common table salt are all exactly the same amount of salt by weight.

When a recipe was developed with one unit by volume of Diamond Crystal® Kosher salt and one unit of Table Salt is substituted the result is twice the amount by weight of salt originally intended. This is one of the advantages of weighing ingredients a far more common household practice outside North America.

The perception of Saltiness is a also compounded by tobacco and alcohol. You know your audience when your cooking for friends and family. Cook for BBQ judges and they may well have been smoking and drinking beer right before judging. As some will quickly defend themselves not during judging, but as I recently witnessed once again minutes before. This is why so many competition barbecue rubs (spice mixtures) substitute about 5% of the salt in the recipe with Accent® brand seasoning aka MSG.

Please let me know what bugs you about recipes in books and on the web?

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo BBQ 2010

2010-01-31T21:00:00.001-08:00

It was a cold winters day as the sun rose over Seaworld San Antonio . The site of one off the biggest cook-offs in the lone star state. Dawn as any experienced competitor knows is the calm before the storm. Sleep has not given way to game faces and the stress of turn in times has not kicked in yet. A few honest soles admitted that it had been a struggle to keep the pit temperatures up as the cooked through a freezing night.

Texas ingenuity was evident everywhere as home made pits far out numbered brand name smokers. As I texted my cooking buddy who was under a snow drift in Amarillo, this event looked like a propane tank graveyard. The air was thick with bitter sweet Oak smoke. Oak was preferred although some were cooking with Mesquite. Every once in awhile you could pick out the wonderful smell of beef brisket.

The signs of staying warm were visible everywhere from the fire pits to almost everyone wearing their warm hunting clothes.After the competition, the teams use their spaces for entertain friends and customers. Some take decorating the hospitality tents very seriously.Everything in Texas is Bigger, including this smoker that took up all the space on the 18 wheeler trailer it was built on.

This is what motivates every competitor.Congrats to The Burnt Bean Co.

Ramblings from the Road

2010-01-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

As a recovering procrastinator I say this without any malice or disrespect to anyone. Tis the season when not so young mens hearts turn to their love of rub, smoke and meat. Many sign up for a BBQ class and a few think about it and for lots of good reasons do nothing. The only problem is when I get the phone calls and emails because they waited too long and the class sold out. Our class limit is based on doing this since 2004 and training 1000's of pitmasters . The one time we failed to keep future dates on the website we end up with 28. That's just a tad more than is comfortable. This year I'm getting off my procrastination pork shoulder and finishing my "How To" book, so there will be a consolation offering available for those who waited too long.

The off set fire is from one of many brick smokers at Smitty's Market in Lockhart, Texas. One of the top five BBQ restaurants in the lone star state. My Texas trip is location scouting for classes and a place to live. The first order of business was to visit and judge at the big cook-ff in San Antonia. As I'm on the road my phone and email is busy with 'que fans booking spring BBQ classes, keep them coming it's what pays the bills. My inspiration to write the opening comments are strong feeling of Déjà vu. Being a fan of Hegel, learning from history and keeping students happy is high on my list.

One long convoluted Texas observation from the road. A novelist visited the restaurant. He was not a Texan but he had been there researching his new novel. He was kind enough to share what he had learned about Texas including the fact that "Lone Star" was the preferred beer in Texas. This is a common theme where visitors want to school the folks running a BBQ restaurant in Washington about Texas. Stereotyping and schooling is a slippery slope to go down. The second biggest and second most populous state in the USA is too diverse to stereotype. The folks you are schooling might just know a little more about the subject than you suspect.

A fellow partcipant at a Houston BBQ event in '03 made a special trip to get a me Shiner Bock so I'd know what good Texas beer tasted like. Today at a major gas station on the Interstate from San Antonio to Houston the only local beer was Shiner. At Smitty's "beer" was $2 (no Lone Star), Corona and Shiner were $2.50. Most of the folks I know from the great state prefer Shiner beer especially the Bock. Shiner is the "Texas Beer" sold at the restaurant in Monroe, WA and is loved by native Texan customers who have never request Lone Star.

It's the Pitmaster not the Pit

2010-01-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

It’s the Pitmaster not the pit.

The internet is full of people obsessed with specifications in the search for their new pride and joy. In high school in the 70’s the kids were fixated by the latest in fishing gear. Even then my attitude was the experienced fisherman would catch more fish with old kit than the indulged kid with all the latest bells and whistles. Not that I did not lust after the latest and greatest, I’m human.

Fast forward a quarter century. A good friend of mine is a very talented pitmaster. All he could afford starting out was the cheapest of the cheap bullet smokers. What he lacked in financial resources he more than made up for in cooking ability and determination. His focus and talent was rewarded as he started winning state championships. Those wins earned him invitations to the elite world championship cook-offs, the American Royal in Kansas City and the Jack Daniel’s in Lynchburg TN. He achieved these wins through hard work and not turning his back on those cheap beasts for a minute. When they got to hot he would put a 10# block of ice in the water pan. He constantly monitored the temperature and did whatever it took to keep the temp in the sweet spot.
The contest right before he got married I went around and took up a collection. As a wedding present, we his fellow competitors bought him a Weber Smoky Mountain. The Cadillac of bullet smokers. I doubt there has ever been an individual who has appreciated a new WSM more.

Great barbecue can and has been cooked on almost anything that will keep the meat in the neighborhood of the smoke and the heat. The talent of the Pitmaster reigns supreme. There are two reasons to buy or upgrade a smoker. Your new smoker should be easy to control so you can leave it alone unattended for hours. The other big reason to get a new or second smoker is people love good barbecue and you’ll always end up needing more capacity. One consideration before you part with your hard earned money is will spare parts still be available next year and ten years from now. Most every stainless wonder as you walk in to your membership warehouse in the spring fails this test. Weber® a family owned American business passes with flying colors.

In my best smokers under $400 blog post I covered the basics. If you want to spend more on a true smoker look at what the successful competition teams use. Anything the Amish would like will be more reliable than the eltro-mechanical wonders that some love.

The Kansas City Barbecue Society “Team of the Year” in 2009 has to change their team name. Even though they have considerable brand equity establish. Their old name was “Pellet Envy” referring to the wood pellet smokers they used to use. The problem is for the last two years almost every win for them has been earned with a classic Texas offset. Specifically a Jambo Pit by Jamie Geer of Fort Worth. Jamie does not build the biggest pits in Texas he builds the best. Rod Grey of Pellet Envy also teaches an excellent competition class. He does not have a bad word to say about pellet cookers (I do) but his actions speak louder than his words. But a word of caution I’d be willing to bet that if you go against Rod and swapped cookers with him, he would still win.

I was at the fabrication shop of a famous Houston pit builder many years ago. With me was a not famous yet Guy Fieri. A cowboy pulled in with one of this pit builders fine creations on a trailer in need of a fresh paint job. Turns out the cowboy won it the previous weekend when he bet his neighbor that he would place higher in the cook-off using his “inferior” 55 gallon drum smoker. The neighbor foolishly took the bet thinking his famous name smoker was superior. Again it was the Pitmaster reigning supreme.

This was back before the internet taught us how to make Ugly Drum Smokers. Now an internet search for UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker.) Will reveal how for $50 tp $100 you can build a fine smoking pit that will turn of a championship winning quality product. The conventional wisdom is it will take the average Pitmaster a year to learn a new cooker. So my advice is get smoking there is nothing like experience. Taking a class shortens the learning process, saves you money and makes spouses happier.

The whole reason for this post and the pit buying advice in it, is because I’m constantly asked about this subject.

‘Que on,

©2010 Konrad@KonradHaskins.com

New Graphics

2010-01-22T10:36:00.001-08:00

When BBQ teams need new graphics they often turn to Patrick Carlson of www.BBQLogos.com. Patrick has done work for many of my friends and he was easy to work with. The pencil sketch on the blog was part of the development for the new BBQ Hog logo.

Best Smoker under $400

2010-01-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

I recently looked at a buying guide of the best smokers under $400. The Weber Smokey Mountain, Big Brum Smoker (BDS) which is the commercial version of the DIY Ugly Drum Smoker (just search UDS BBQ) and Weber kettle are all excellent choices. If you are a handy person the UDS is your best bet. If you just want to buy it and be happy the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) is the one. The bigger 22" version is almost always better. On a budget a Weber Kettle from Craigslist will smoke well enough to win competitions for little or no money.

You really can stop reading right here. If you have a what about X question there are numerous web forums where fans will debate their choice. The above for the money are not only the best they are the ones that reliably produce results at contests. The WSM also has the best indie owners manual on the web in the Virtual Weber Bullet Website. The rest is like wet wood chips you just don't see them being used at invitation only world championship level barbecue contests.

Then we get to 110 Volt Smokers. Not to be confused with pellet cookers where the heat comes from the pellets. If the heat source is 110 Volts it's an inferior product period. If your buddy likes his Bradley or similar he does not know better. Yes they can cold smoke but a trash can can cold smoke. All you need to cold smoke (under 100f) is a $10 hot plate and a cast iron skillet to hold the wood (cover the skillet in foil and poke a toothpick size hole in the foil.) Then you need something to hold the cold smoke. A foil lined cardboard box will work. Unless the product is cured (made shelf stable) like cheese, cold smoking is dangerous. Cold smoking raw meat and fish will kill you. Yes that includes salmon which needs to be cured first to stop bacteria growing while cold smoking.

Since I mentioned pellet cooker they are normally out of this price range. They are electrical and mechanical and in my experience not as reliable as cooking with gas. You can cook some great ;que on a gas Weber.

The WSM, BDS and UDS will all cold smoke just fine. What the will also do is get to and hold 225f and higher much better than any 110 volt smoker ever will. I've owned more residential and commercial smokers than most people will own in a lifetime. The 110 volt electrical units do not have the heat energy to get to temp in a timely manner. Even if you pre-heat recovering when you add big hunks of cold meat is impaired.

If you're reading this to cook better 'que then I hope this advise will help you.

Competition BBQ, Warnings and Advice

2010-01-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

Before you read any further be warned. Winning trophies is fun and addictive. The only difference between competition BBQ and a hard drug addiction is that it's for now legal.

There are many kinds of barbecue competitions. There are many sanctioning bodies and each has their own style of running contests. The biggest sanctioning body is the Kansas City Barbecue Association aka KCBS. This is what I'm most familiar with. Contestant turn in a styrafoam box of barbecue with enough for six judges. It is double blind judged so the meat is judged on what's in the box not who cooked it. Presentation boxes can be garnished with lettuce and parsley and the meat can be sauced right before it is put in the box. The texture score is worth double appearance and taste is worth double texture. Many regional sanctioning bodies follow a similar format.

Texas being Texas the only garnish allowed is aluminum foil. Sauce must be cooked on not painted on when plating the box. If your first box does well then you prepare a second box for the final table. KCBS everything is decided with one run through judging and a computer coin toss to break ties.

Memphis in May is not only a contest but also a sanctioning body with many contests. The big difference judging is onsite and subjective. I doubt a Yankee or anyone without a southern drawl could win.

The current hit TV show TLC BBQ Pitmasters is following teams on the KCBS circuit. One of the Pimasters Harry Soo attended my Pitmaster class and an advanced competition BBQ class at the BBQ Institute . Chef Paul Petersen is finding out the hardway that there is a very strict formula to what constitutes acceptable competition barbecue. The fastest way to learn this yourself is to take a judging class and judge a contest.

The trick if God blessed you with a good palate is to be able to produce winning results consistently. Yes you need a very detailed packing list and Linda Hopkins of Smokin' Guns BBQ wrote the gold standard, it's on her website. Then you need a battle plan. You can use a legal pad or a spread sheet but you need to plan down to the minute. Then you need experience in how to handle problems. I've cooked and won in storms, heavy rain, blizzards and over 100f direct sunshine. Every one caused issues that needed to be addressed. My motto is I don't have problems I have solutions. Part of the solution is to allow time in your to the minute plan to address issues.

Then there is a luck factor. You can not make adjustments based on a bad day you need to look and see how your results are trending. Trying to do new things that are not in your repertoire are high risk gambles. I've played the high risk games and more often than not you loose. Then again you can on the rare occasion have spectacular luck. Feeling an entry sucked is a good sign of a drive to excellence. Those sucky entries often can and do win.

Enter the game at your own risk I warned you.

What makes a great pitmaster?

2010-01-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of good backyard pitmasters and sadly even more bad ones. In my book to be great means you put your 'que in a white styrafoam box and have it double blind judged to be the best. Competing is how you earn real braggin rights.

Even if you are sane enough to avoid the temptations of competition, comparative testing is what makes you great. Give a friend a rib and they will tell you it's great. Give them three different ribs and you'll get an honest stack racking. It will be biased by their preference for sweet or savory

It starts with God, if he did not bless you with a good palate you're screwed. Things should not all taste the same and all taste good, as you journey through life. Chef Thomas Keller wrote about distinct "food memories" in the French Laundry Cookbook. They are part of a cooks treasure trove.

Being one of the busiest BBQ instructors around I see a lot of students with different approaches. Being a good student is a necessary skill. The tell tale signs of good students is they are front and center participating and taking note.

A voracious appetite for knowledge is just something you are hard wired with or not. One of my favorite quotes is the internet is the greatest invention since the Gutenberg printing press. The new found media love affair with BBQ has been driven by a knowledge explosion fueled by the internet and cable TV. A good talent to have today is internet gold panning. The ability to see the gold in the mass of dirty muddy water that is the internet.

Learning through observing as you go through every day is just the mark of a great student. In BBQ there is a protectionist attitude toward blatant "shigging*." They may never admit it but I doubt any top pitmaster got where they are today without learning by keeping their eyes open.

To be great "good enough" is never good enough. If your not driven to do better you'll be good not great. Goals are part of that process. The cup at the top of this post is the Rookie of the Year trophy from the Pacific Northwest BBQ Association. Winning it was my goal in my first season.

Great pitmasters are anal about details. Mike Scrutchfield is credited with saying you could give ten teams identical everything including detailed instructions and you would get ten different tasting end products. There are a hundred steps and a hundred decisions to make in cooking 'que. How consistent and methodical you are with each step and the decisions you make like is that enough rub? All influence the final product. people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. Having a plan is essential.

Respect is essential to the process. You can have a fouled mouthed arrogant pitmaster but to be successful they respects every step of the process. This can be as anal as building your own pit, cutting down your exact favorite cut of wood once a year at the perfect time and spending the money to buy Wagyū Brisket. Which is not as expensive as the "exspurts" would have you believe. Using Wagyū beef is not essential. Knowing what it is and how to cook it (which is different) is the mark of a someone who cares about their 'que. I'm not confusing respect with blindly believing that there is only one way to cook great barbeque and every other approach is heresy.

A very nice and personable young man once came to to ask me about which chef school he should attend. There were a few problems with this high school seniors attitude in my opinion. He had researched chef schools but thought CIA did not have a west coast campus. Not that he needed to go there but he should have known it existed. He could not name one cook book at home or name one Chef. You know he failed the bonus questions of where is the French Laundry and who is the executive Chef? This poor soul is a perfect example of a lack of respect for cooking.

Another story is some customers tried to give the gift of a BBQ class to a relative and their response was "I should be teaching the class. " The thing is the good teachers are always in learning mode themselves.

Great pitmasters are competent in the kitchen beyond cooking meat. The great ones can prepare a cake from scratch and make a good souffle. It's part of respecting the process.

This is not stacked ranked you need the whole package

Good Palate
Good Student(learner) with a good memory
Voracious appetite for knowledge
Always be learning through observation
Always feel you can do better and be on a mission to do just that
Anal about details. Consistency comes from a repeatable methodical approach
Respect the process, the meat and cooking in general.
As competent in the kitchen as in the backyard
You don't have to like it, but you should be really good at cleaning. It's a symptom of respecting the process.

As much as it would be nice being polite and open minded are very optional. There are lots of successful examples of great pitmasters that prove how optional those two qualities are. This is my very personal opinionated and NOT humble view.

This post was inspired by a question posted on the internet many years ago by Bad Byron of www.ButtRub.com . While not a star of TLC's BBQ Pitmasters he is a true BBQ star and one of the nicest individuals you would ever want to meet.

*shigging (shig-ging) , 1. v. to enter a persons BBQ site with intent of stealing BBQ secrets in an effort to improve one's own BBQ score. 2. v. to position one's self to view the contents of the inside of a fellow competitors BBQ pit when it is opene

Learn Your Cooker for a buck

2010-01-12T23:46:00.001-08:00

The two pictures in this post are of my first two classes in Texas. The above was in Austin and the picture below was in Dallas. The common thread was I was cooking on these rented pits for the first time on the day of the class. Years later I own the pits we cook on in Texas and Washington.

The mission was to cook great BBQ in 8 hours, on pits I did not know how they cooked. To learn how the pits I cooked we baked biscuits in them. The "economy" kind, which when I check today were two Orange juice sized canisters for $1. I got the pits pre-heated, put on the biscuits and started checking after twenty minutes. The Austin pit was predictable with the hot spot being closest to the firebox, a large sweet spot in the middle and a cold spot at the far end.

The Dallas pit had a nice sweet spot on the top shelf in the horizontal section. The bottom shelf of the vertical was so cold that the biscuit dough did not crust over after 8 hours. It was a cold winters day in Dallas.

Taking the time to find out how these pits cooked enabled us to have successful classes on pits that were no longer strangers. This is the first step in learning your pit. Getting to know your pit well takes experience. Taking a good class will pay for itself in helping you avoid mistakes and purchasing your meat armed with knowledge. To really get to the next level takes experience and there is no better foundation for true confidence than experience.

Q' on,

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I did not take enough pictures in 2009. This is my favorite of sunrise over the Methow valley. I spent 10 days in a tent while getting my wilderness first responder certification. This is right next to North Cascades National Park. Which is one of the least visited and most beautiful NPs.

As I'm getting ready to move to Texas I was just poking around the internet seeing where folks I know live. Found this 2007 video . It shows an Austin firewood dealer, they mention at the end that he sells BBQ rubs. There is a little more to that story. Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook by Robb Walsh describes Harley Goerlitz in a little less modest terms. He for sure qualifies as a Texas legend. I've met and cooked next to Harley and he is a great guy. If you are logged into Amazon search the contents of this book for Harley and Winning. The news story is a wonderful reminder not to judge a book by its cover.

What is Real BBQ?

2009-12-29T23:27:00.000-08:00

For some folks the definistion of what is real BBQ can be very exact. Open or closed pit cooked pork. The fuel is coals created by burning hickory logs in a separate fire. Served with a vinegar sauce. Now that is great and done well it tastes heavenly but everything else is not fake BBQ.

My definition is very simple. Start with raw unadulterated meat. Poultry that has broth added is OK in my book, buying meat that the store marinated never tastes good in my not humble opinion. When your done the meat should be moist, tender and tasty and have great flavor before you put any sauce on it. Nothing wrong with sauce just that barbecue should taste great before you sauce it. The right time to sauce it is right at the end anyway, so taste it first. My test of a restaurant is to get the sauce on the side.

Some folks I know would tell the pitmaster that Santa Maria Tri-tip is not real BBQ, but only after they got their second plate. That is because it's cooked over an open grill not in a "real" pit. I'm not fussy what it about the cooker or the fuel as long as it tastes good. Charcoal lighter fluid, match light charcoal and soft (evergreen) wood never makes for good tasting BBQ.

The exclusive purist elite make a big fuss about the difference grilling and real BBQ (indirect pit cooking.) For me it's about the enjoying the company of friends and family while sharing a great tasting meal. If in this day of a frantic pace if your stopping long enough to prepare and enjoy a meal instead of buying it from the drive through be happy.

I'm lucky having had an Oupa (grandfather) who owned a farm which I got to visit as a kid. I've milked a cow by hand, held wiggly piglets getting their shots and been scared by geese while collecting eggs. I remember him cooking whole oxen and steers on a spit. The picture is of me on my Oupa's farm in South Africa. I'm the white kid. The picture is special to me as it is one of only three childhood picture I've seen of myself. It was taken by my father a professional photographer who passed away Thanksgiving day 2009.

That was back in the 60's in South Africa. After working at real jobs for a too long I became a successful competition pitmaster in 2002, professional pitmaster in 2003 and starting teaching BBQ classes in 2004. BBQ has been very good to me. I've won trophies and appeared on TV, Radio and been featured in everything from the Wall Street Journal to the Gothenburg (Sweden) Post's weekend magazine. My proudest achievement is with a lot of help feeding over 30,000 troops and their families. In 2008 the Washington State department of veterans affairs recognized me with their 2008 outstanding male (non-veteran) award. Of all my trophies that is the most special.

This blog is not about how to win contests or run a restaurant. My goal is to share my thoughts on what makes great backyard BBQ, because we need more great tasting Q in the world.