Backyard BBQ Recipes for Summer Success

[00:00:00] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH.

[00:00:12] The summer smoking season is fast approaching. Are you ready for a weekend barbecue? You're

[00:00:19] going to need the right meat, the right sides and the right recipe for the world's best

[00:00:25] barbecue sauce. Do not forget dessert. Welcome to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show where we've

[00:00:31] got you covered for everything you need to host a barbecue party. Let's get cooking.

[00:00:37] First, heads up. There's a new blog on Low Slow BBQ Show dot com. It features Jake Wood

[00:00:43] from Lawrence Barbecue in the Durham area. We talk a little bit about Jake's background.

[00:00:48] We dig into the getting piggy with it big event that's coming up. Talk about the

[00:00:52] other things he's got going on with Lawrence Food Company outside the barbecue. That's

[00:00:56] Leroy's Taco Shop as well as the Lagoon Bar, a place for leisure as they like to say. Check

[00:01:02] it all out at Low Slow BBQ Show dot com. Over at the blog you'll find loads of other

[00:01:08] information about all the pit masters from the Carolina Barbecue Festival and beyond.

[00:01:13] And today we're talking about some of the recipes you can find at the Low and Slow

[00:01:17] Blog. Those recipes begin with what you need for your backyard barbecue from backyard barbecue

[00:01:23] expert Jeff Osborne. He shares this secret so let's talk about Jeff's butt. And first

[00:01:30] of all, you want to start with a Boston butt. That's a pork shoulder about 8 to 10 pounds.

[00:01:35] You trim off the extra fat because a lot of times that cap up on the top is going

[00:01:39] to be too thick. You want to trim that down. Also, I like to put a nice crosshatch

[00:01:44] out of what's left on that fat cap. It gives you a nice look and it allows the smoke to get

[00:01:50] in there and help that fat cook down a little bit easier. Now let's talk about the rub.

[00:01:55] Once you've got your butt all trimmed up and ready to go on the smoker, you're going to

[00:01:59] want to rub it. Now what Jeff advises is a ratio of 6, 3, 2, 2, 1. Now that's how

[00:02:07] you want to measure all the quantities of the ingredients. And a meat smoking novice

[00:02:11] can prepare your backyard barbecue rub in any quantity. But for the sake of simplicity,

[00:02:17] I'm going to talk about measuring in cups. Yep, that's going to make you a big pile of

[00:02:21] barbecue rub. But let's put it in cups. So here's the Carolina Sweet Heat Rub.

[00:02:27] First, just start with 6 cups of brown sugar. 3 cups of fresh ground pepper. Now you

[00:02:33] want to use freshly ground pepper. It makes a huge difference. Those fresh peppercorns,

[00:02:38] put them into a coffee grinder. Don't use the fine grind. Use a coarser grind that

[00:02:43] really opens up that peppercorn much like coffee. You've got to open it up to brew it down good.

[00:02:49] You want to open up those peppercorns before you put it in the rub. Next,

[00:02:53] you're going to need 2 cups of kosher salt, 2 cups of garlic powder and 1 cup of cayenne pepper.

[00:02:59] Now you don't want to use all this on your butt at the first time. You'll have plenty

[00:03:04] leftover for next time. Or you can work in the ratios for your preferred quantities.

[00:03:09] Again, just a reminder, those ratios are 6, 3, 2, 2, 1. And if you missed all this,

[00:03:16] don't worry, it's all over at the blog, gloslobebeacueshow.com. Just look for the

[00:03:20] backyard barbecue expert. So next up, you've got your rub made. What do you do next? Well,

[00:03:26] you're going to rub your butt and then you let it sweat. Now for Jeff, our backyard barbecue

[00:03:31] expert, he puts his butt straight to the smoker after letting it get to room temperature and then

[00:03:37] sweat with that rub on there for about 15 or 20 minutes. Now me, I like to let it sweat for a while,

[00:03:43] that same 15 or 20 minutes. That's important because as the juices come out of the meat,

[00:03:49] it will soak all that salt back in through osmosis. That's how that flavor really gets

[00:03:54] down into the meat. So you let it sweat. And then I like to wrap it up in cellophane,

[00:03:58] put it in the fridge overnight and let it do its thing for several more hours. You want to get it out,

[00:04:04] unwrap it. I like to put another coat of rub on it and then let it sweat again while I'm getting the

[00:04:11] smoker going. Now usually it'll take me 15 to 20 minutes, maybe even longer to get that smoker going,

[00:04:17] but when you do that, that's letting those flavors all sweat. Again, the rub, the salt

[00:04:22] from the rub is getting into the meat and you're getting a nice crisp bark on the outside.

[00:04:26] It's not crisp, but it will be when you put it on the smoker. So you get your smoker started.

[00:04:31] I like to do it by filling a chimney with Kingsford charcoal. I fill up the base of that smoker with

[00:04:36] the charcoal. I add the wood chunks. Once I've got my chimney going and the fire burning,

[00:04:42] I like to put the charcoal right into the bottom of it. And again, the wood chunks,

[00:04:46] I prefer pecan because I got a bunch of trees in the yard. So I cut some limbs. I let them sit

[00:04:52] four or five, six months depending on the size of the limb. Let them get nice and seasoned up

[00:04:56] and then cut them into chunks. Then put those chunks into the smoker. You can do it easy way.

[00:05:01] Go to the grocery store, get you an apple bag or cherry bag or they've got pecan too. A lot of times

[00:05:07] with those, you want to let them soak for about 30 minutes in water before you put them into

[00:05:12] your fire. So you get your fire going, you get your wood on there. You let the smoke

[00:05:16] start going. Get your temperature of the smoker up to about 225, 230 degrees. Allow that smoke to get

[00:05:23] to a nice thin blue smoke. That's where you don't get too much acidic flavor into the meat. You're

[00:05:29] just getting that good smoke flavor. Your smokers up to the temperature, you get your butt into

[00:05:34] the smoke. Now I'm talking a lot about temperatures. A lot of times I like to use an internal

[00:05:40] temperature. That's the probe that goes into the butt and an ambient temperature that measures

[00:05:44] the temperature of the grill itself. So you have a good idea of what's going on in both places.

[00:05:49] Now my friend Jeff, our backyard barbecue expert, he likes to put his butt on late into the afternoon

[00:05:55] and then go to sleep on his meat. I've woke up to a cold fire and an uncertain butt temperature

[00:06:01] too many times to do that. I'll tell you, the last thing you want to do is wake up in the

[00:06:05] morning with a fire that's gone out and you don't know what's happened with your butt and how

[00:06:09] much it's cooked. So what I like to try to do is again, I start early. I wake up early in

[00:06:14] the morning, I put my butt onto the smoker and let it do its thing. Usually for a 10 pound butt

[00:06:21] that meat's going to be servable. That means you can eat it at about 10 to 12 hours of cooking.

[00:06:26] However, if you could keep it going for a few more hours until that temperature gets into about

[00:06:33] 190 to 205, you're really going to be at your best point. Again, that's going to take you

[00:06:38] probably several more hours and you may get into a couple of stall outs on it, but I promise

[00:06:42] if you get to 190 and above, that fat's going to render down into the meat. It's going to be

[00:06:48] super moist and it's going to be easy, easy to pull. It'll really just fall apart in your hands.

[00:06:52] Now one thing I also mentioned that Jeff suggests after about 10 hours, you can start

[00:06:57] mopping the meat. I'll give you the recipe for that mop here in just a minute, but

[00:07:01] you've already gotten the smoke in there, the heat's in there, you're just still cooking

[00:07:05] every 45 minutes or so. Hit that butt with a little bit of this mop recipe that I've

[00:07:10] got coming up. Once you've reached that 190 degree to 205 temperature on the inside,

[00:07:16] pull your butt off and let it rest. If you're planning to serve your butt later in the day,

[00:07:22] that precious pork, just let it sit out and rest probably for an hour or so. Some people,

[00:07:29] Jeff, he says set it for 15 and then it's ready to chop and pull. I'll let it sit a little

[00:07:33] bit longer. Now if you feel like you're going to use it the next day or you know several

[00:07:37] hours later, I always like to wrap it up in aluminum foil, then wrap it up in towels and

[00:07:42] then put the whole McGillie inside my Yeti Cooler and let it sit there and it will continue to cook

[00:07:48] inside that cooler. It'll stay nice and warm and I've done that for six or eight hours,

[00:07:52] pulled it out. The pork is just still warm. It falls apart in your hands and it's really

[00:07:57] nice and moist. So that's a good way to preserve it if you want to serve it a little bit later

[00:08:02] after you've cooked it. Let's talk about that sauce I mentioned too. This is Jeff's special recipe

[00:08:08] and it's an Eastern style vinegar sauce. The recipe is one gallon of apple cider vinegar,

[00:08:14] a half a stick of butter, and a half a cup of crushed red pepper flakes. Jeff likes to add

[00:08:20] Texas Pete to taste. Now so here's how you're going to cook this stuff up. You want to put

[00:08:24] all that vinegar in a pot, heat it up, put the butter in it and let it melt. Then you let

[00:08:30] it cool. You pour all that liquid back into your gallon apple cider jug and you're ready to go.

[00:08:36] You can put a little bit of that in your little container and use it for a mop, brush it onto

[00:08:41] the butt throughout the course of that cook. You know after it's been on there for 10 hours or so,

[00:08:45] you just put that mop on there every 45 minutes or so and then it's good to go. Then the leftover

[00:08:50] liquid vinegar, well that's the Eastern style vinegar sauce that folks down, these really

[00:08:55] love so much. That's your sauce offered on the side. Now I find a lot of times that pork is

[00:09:00] so good and flavorful you don't need sauce. Some people like it, it's up to you whether you want

[00:09:05] a sauce that or not. Now all the details about this is in the blog Low Slow BBQ Show dot com.

[00:09:10] Again just look for the backyard barbecue expert blog. Now I want to talk about my favorite sauce.

[00:09:16] You know that's the Eastern style. I used all those cooking methods that Jeff talks about,

[00:09:21] but I put my own barbecue sauce on that and that is the world's best barbecue sauce. In my

[00:09:26] opinion the Lexington style sauce. Also got that over at the blog Low Slow BBQ Show dot com.

[00:09:32] I've got my grandmother's recipe or my wife's grandmother's recipe. She's my grandmother too.

[00:09:37] She lived in Davidson County for many years. Of course everybody knows that's where Lexington's

[00:09:41] at. She's got close connection to the people and she's got the great recipe from the families

[00:09:46] that were making it so good at Lexington barbecue and barbecue center, speedies, all those places.

[00:09:51] I'm going to share that recipe with you now. First you've got a cup and a half of apple cider

[00:09:56] vinegar. Add to that a half a cup of water. You'll want to put 10 tablespoons of ketchup in there.

[00:10:02] That's right, this is the tomato part. 10 tablespoons of ketchup, one tablespoon of sugar.

[00:10:07] You add a half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Then this is the part that can be a little bit

[00:10:13] flexible depending on your preferences. Add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

[00:10:19] I like to go pretty heavy handed there. I like the flavor of it so I add more than a few dashes,

[00:10:23] but give it a good dose of that Worcestershire sauce. A pinch of crushed red hot pepper flakes. Now you

[00:10:28] know with the Eastern style they use a pretty good bit of those red pepper flakes. I like to put

[00:10:33] a pretty good pinch maybe a little bit more than a pinch. Again depends on how hot you want it.

[00:10:38] You add more if you like it extra spicy. Then you add that fresh ground pepper to taste.

[00:10:43] Again you want to grind that pepper up yourself. For me I use the pepper mill. It works just

[00:10:47] fine. Grind it in there, give it a good dose. You put all that stuff in your sauce pan. You cook it up

[00:10:54] until it simmers. Stir it real good until the sugar dissolves. Sometimes they use a whisk because you'll

[00:10:59] notice the tomato sauce kind of clumps up. That ketchup makes little clumps while you're cooking

[00:11:04] it. If you use a whisk or a fork to kind of stir it up it'll break that stuff up while the

[00:11:09] sugar is dissolving. Then you'll remove it from the heat. Let it stand and cool and you're

[00:11:14] ready to go. You can use that sauce as well if you want to make some red slaw or I'd just like to

[00:11:19] leave it on the side and apply it to the meat. Make it available as you serve it to your fans.

[00:11:24] One more sauce some people like is the Alabama White Sauce. I've got that recipe on the blog

[00:11:30] Low Slow BBQ Show dot com. We're not going to go into that today. Check it out if you want the

[00:11:35] white sauce recipe at Low Slow BBQ Show dot com. Okay we've talked about the butt. We've talked

[00:11:40] about our sauce. Now let's talk about sides. If you're going to have a backyard barbecue you need

[00:11:46] to have sides as well. I've got the recipe for Black Powder Smokehouse's Best Macaroni and Cheese.

[00:11:53] Yeah my man Big Brisket Keith Hennig he shared the details with us. We've got it over at the

[00:11:59] blog. I'm going to tell you how to do it right now. I've made this myself. It works

[00:12:03] fantastic. You take four cups of pasta make sure it's cooked cook that pasta

[00:12:09] four cups of it let it chill. You get two cups of cheese your favorite blend or add several of them.

[00:12:15] I like to get the shredded con you get them at the store they've got three cheddar mixes

[00:12:19] or a colby jack or just mix your favorite cheese blends in there you need two cups of it

[00:12:24] one cup of heavy cream one cup of evaporated milk and then you'll have salt and pepper to

[00:12:30] taste if you want to you can add a tablespoon of melted butter or a quarter cup of cracker or

[00:12:36] bread crumbs those are the ingredients you're going to need so here's the directions for it

[00:12:40] again all the stuff is over at the blog if i'm talking too fast you can get it there but let me

[00:12:44] just walk you through how we make it first you're going to mix that cold pasta again

[00:12:50] you've got the four cups of it chill it out mix the pasta your salt and pepper and your cup

[00:12:55] and a half of cheese all together in a greased casserole dish. Again this makes a lot of

[00:13:01] macaroni and cheese maybe you want to cut that recipe in half for me it all went in our big casserole

[00:13:07] dish you mix in the heavy cream and the evaporated milk into its own little container those two

[00:13:13] things in one container then pour it over your pasta then you take the rest of your cheese remember

[00:13:19] you just put a cup and a half of the cheese in there with the pasta you'll have about a half

[00:13:23] a cup of cheese left over you top the pasta with that remaining cheese cover the whole thing

[00:13:29] up in foil and bake it at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes after you've cooked it about that long

[00:13:36] take the foil the foil off you want to top it with your cracker crumbs and bake it till it's golden

[00:13:41] brown um i like to use the panko that panko breadcrumb mix work pretty well i put it on the top

[00:13:48] got a nice golden brown on the top man it was fantastic was so excited to serve that to ronald

[00:13:52] Simmons a man from master blend family farms when we had our big podcast over at the mesh

[00:13:58] network studios uh had a great buffet there and again black powder smokehouse's best macaroni

[00:14:05] and cheese really makes a great addition macaroni and cheese is everybody's favorite side show up

[00:14:10] to your backyard barbecue with this everybody's gonna love you if you show up with the dessert

[00:14:15] they're gonna love you even more let's talk about a dessert now i know banana pudding is

[00:14:21] everybody's favorite and everybody's got their own recipe for banana pudding but today i want to

[00:14:25] give you a recipe that i got from our friend hannah raskin she's the publisher of the food section

[00:14:31] she's won herself a couple of james beard awards for her journalism and food we had her on our july

[00:14:37] fourth episode in 2023 you can find that at low slow bbq show dot com but she also shared with me

[00:14:43] her recipe for benny wafers please go check hannah out she's at the food section dot com

[00:14:49] really got a great product there it's about food news she doesn't go down the recipe road she doesn't

[00:14:54] really necessarily go into a lot of reviews she's simply giving you a hard news angle at the food

[00:15:00] world i think you'll like it if you like food so talking about her she shared the benny wafers

[00:15:06] recipe and this you may know is a low country tradition it came from miss emily meggett's

[00:15:11] recipe if you don't know she's the matriarch of edisto south carolina and she wrote a book

[00:15:17] called gulligicci home cooking recipes from the matriarch of edisto it's got 123 recipes in it including

[00:15:24] this recipe for benny wafers so let me give you the ingredients and then we'll walk through how to do it

[00:15:30] you need a tablespoon of margarine or butter more if you need it the butter can be used to

[00:15:35] toast the benny seeds but it burns a little bit more easily than the margarine so you may want

[00:15:40] to go with a tablespoon of butter you need a cup of benny seeds those may be hard to find depending

[00:15:46] on where you shop for groceries i use sesame seeds still turned out pretty good you need a cup of sifted

[00:15:52] flour a half teaspoon of baking soda a half teaspoon of salt a half cup of unsalted butter at room

[00:15:59] temperature one half cup of sugar a quarter cup of packed light brown sugar one large egg beaten

[00:16:07] and a teaspoon of vanilla extract again all those ingredients are in the blog look for Hannah

[00:16:12] Raskin and the benny wafers it's at low slow barbecue show dot com low slow bbq show dot com

[00:16:19] let's talk about the ingredients and let me tell you friends i have never baked anything until i

[00:16:24] bake these cookies so i'm a novice 100 i was still able to step into the kitchen and it probably

[00:16:30] took me longer than the average bear but i was able to do it and they turned out great step

[00:16:36] pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees grease up two cookie sheets you want to melt a tablespoon of

[00:16:43] margarine and a cast iron skillet over medium heat and then add your benny seeds or sesame

[00:16:48] seeds depending on what you get you want to stir them around to get them good coat on

[00:16:52] good coat of butter on them add some more if you need to and toast those seeds stir frequently

[00:16:58] until they start to get fragrant and darken just a shade be careful do not burn the seeds

[00:17:04] that will ruin the flavor you want to make sure you get a nice toast on them but too much not too

[00:17:08] much scrape all that into a plate and let those seeds cool completely now go to your kitchen aid

[00:17:15] mixer or whatever blender that you've got you sift your flour you sift the baking soda and the

[00:17:21] salt all of it together in one big bowl we found that if you use one of those wire strainers

[00:17:26] if you don't have a sifter pour it all in there and shake it out it works pretty good to

[00:17:30] sift that flour baking soda and salt all together in your bowl now in a large bowl this is where you

[00:17:36] get your kitchen aid mixer you cream together the half cup of butter that that room temperature

[00:17:42] butter and the sugar until it's all combined and fluffy this is in your blender then you add

[00:17:49] gradually the egg and let it beat in there as well add the cooled toasted benny seeds and

[00:17:54] the vanilla and then you add your flour mixture into your blender if you're using a blender it works

[00:18:01] best you can use a hand mixer probably works as well I use the big fancy kitchen aid stand blender

[00:18:06] that my wife has it all worked well just add it all in there gradually get it good and blended

[00:18:12] up and you're going to get a nice thick dough out of all this drop rounded teaspoon fulls of

[00:18:17] the cookie dough at least two and a half inches apart on your cookie sheet now I say a teaspoon

[00:18:22] full you don't want to get them too big because it'll be hard to get them good and cooked all

[00:18:28] the way through the benny's or wafers are supposed to be nice and crispy very thin small little

[00:18:33] dollar sized round silver dollar size round so about a teaspoon full of the cookie dough

[00:18:39] onto your cookie sheets you're going to bake them for eight to ten minutes at most keep an eye

[00:18:44] on them watch until the they're golden brown around the edges then remove those wafers from

[00:18:49] the cookie sheet immediately place them on wax paper to cool and then repeat until all your

[00:18:55] dough is used up now you want to use a cooled cookie sheet every time you add it on there so

[00:19:01] I like to put all the dough that I've got and can possibly fit on the two cookie sheets get them

[00:19:07] in the oven get them cooking take them out then get two different cookie sheets so I don't

[00:19:11] have to wait around on them to cool and get them into the oven just kind of work that

[00:19:15] cycle like that again cook them until the edges are golden brown they'll be nice and thin and crispy

[00:19:20] man and they have such a wonderful taste you bring those to your backyard barbecue again

[00:19:25] you're going to be a hero so we've talked about your butt we've talked about your sides and

[00:19:29] we've talked about your dessert the three anchors for every successful backyard barbecue party

[00:19:35] use those things you're going to be a winner again all the details at low slow bbqshow.com

[00:19:42] now that we've shared kind of those secrets I want to hit another couple little quick news items

[00:19:46] before we wrap it up be sure and check out our friends at the smoke sheet their latest midweek

[00:19:52] edition features the barbecue bros coverage of the carolina barbecue festival our buddies monk

[00:19:58] and speedy share their favorite samples from the festival they give you the lowdown on what

[00:20:02] was their favorite pics they've got a lot of great photographs of those food items as well

[00:20:07] it's also that smoke sheet newsletter also has some hot links it's got a lot of national

[00:20:13] national barbecue news in it there's a recipe for smoked chicken bombs and check this out

[00:20:18] there's a video link to the mind of the chef episode and that's one of anthony bornean's

[00:20:24] tv projects mind of the chef so there's an episode that's focused on a low country barbecue

[00:20:32] they've got their own barbecue party they give you all the details in video form

[00:20:36] they talk about one chef makes a whole hall grows one chef makes savannah red rice and another

[00:20:42] makes a frog more stew if you need an alternate to the barbecue plan I've shared with you check out

[00:20:47] the smoke sheet if you can subscribe and they'll email it to you every wednesday and friday find

[00:20:52] out about that at bbqnewsletter.substack.com that is the smoke sheet check those guys out they

[00:20:59] do a great job couple upcoming carolina barbecue events i want to share with you

[00:21:04] the getting piggy with it is going to be may 18th through the 19th that's hosted by jake wood and his

[00:21:10] laurence barbecue bunch as well as trophy brewing and roley tickets are on sale now again that's

[00:21:16] going to benefit the frankie lemon school just look for the website for frankie lemon school and

[00:21:21] find the getting piggy with it event getting piggy with it also has an instagram page just

[00:21:25] remind you that's getting with no g at the end getting piggy with it and again tickets are on

[00:21:31] sale you'll want to hurry they're going quickly one other event is john g's jubilee it's at john g's

[00:21:37] in peachland that's going to be june 22nd they've still got tickets left check out john g's to get

[00:21:42] tickets that about wraps it up for this episode check us out next week we're dropping a new

[00:21:48] podcast around lunchtime on the east coast every thursday and we'll have more pit masters and

[00:21:54] barbysque stories news and recipes you've been listening to the low and slow barbecue show on

[00:22:00] the mesh dot tv network of podcast be sure to visit us online at low slow bbq show dot com we've

[00:22:07] got podcast and interviews with carolina pit masters and blogs that feature all the recipes

[00:22:11] we talked about as well as more recipes for your favorite backyard potluck party if you've

[00:22:18] got a show idea question or you want to explore becoming a promotional sponsor just shoot me an

[00:22:23] email that's low and slow barbecue show at gmail dot com low and slow barbecue show all one word

[00:22:31] at gmail dot com new sponsorship opportunities are now available as we continue to break monthly

[00:22:37] download records with the show every month for the past three months and if you like what you

[00:22:42] hear in the low and slow barbecue show please follow us on instagram at low and slow barbecue

[00:22:47] show please give us a five star rating and you'll help other people find our podcast as well

[00:22:53] special thanks to our producer andrew moose and the whole team at the mesh dot tv network of podcast

[00:22:59] most especially thank you for listening to the low and slow barbecue show remember for the best

[00:23:04] barbecue and the best barbecue podcast make it low and slow you've been listening to the mesh

[00:23:19] an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts sports to entertainment

[00:23:25] music to community all programs are available on the website as well as through itunes and youtube

[00:23:32] check us out online at the mesh dot tv discover other network shows and give us feedback on what

[00:23:39] you just heard