BBQ Tourist Ryan Cooper, Founder of The Smoke Sheet

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH.

[00:00:09] In a barbecue world that's full of options from the best places to eat to the equipment to use and the method you really ought

[00:00:20] To try it helps to have a tour guide to lead you toward the best of the best

[00:00:25] Someone who has been there before and who can help you understand what to expect

[00:00:29] Today we have that tour guide Ryan Cooper is the

[00:00:33] Barbecue tourist your guide to the best pit stops in America

[00:00:37] And he's a great resource for news and information events and backyard cooking

[00:00:42] Especially as this summer season of smoking really gets fired up Ryan welcome to The Low and Slow Barbecue Show

[00:00:48] Thank you. Thank you for having me

[00:00:50] Yeah excited to get you here on the show where you had a chance to meet in person at John G's

[00:00:56] Back in March, and I'm really looking forward to talking with you first

[00:01:00] I want to just hit it from the top and the most important thing let everybody know what is the barbecue tourist?

[00:01:06] Well, the barbecue tourist is really my my handle on social media

[00:01:12] Kind of a story when I first started this out and we can talk about that

[00:01:17] I wanted to be the barbecue traveler, but that was that handle was already taken on on

[00:01:23] Social media so I had to go with the second best which was barbecue tourists

[00:01:28] Cool and so and how did you get started on this journey? And what's it really all about?

[00:01:34] So, you know that's not

[00:01:37] necessarily a straightforward

[00:01:39] answer but I

[00:01:41] Was born in Kansas City and so kind of grew up around Kansas City style barbecue

[00:01:46] my whole life and of course I grilled and and

[00:01:51] smoked meat in college and stuff like that and when I got my my first house when I moved to Omaha, Nebraska

[00:01:57] I I really you know

[00:02:00] started getting serious about smoking meat and cooking at home and

[00:02:05] I saw some YouTube videos about all these different styles of barbecue and in other places and so around

[00:02:12] 2016 I started traveling to different places one of the first spots I went to was

[00:02:18] Pegleg Porker in in Nashville

[00:02:22] just to see what what barbecue is like in other places and then then

[00:02:28] 2018 is when I actually started barbecue tourist and

[00:02:33] Decided yeah, this is my thing. This is what I want to do

[00:02:36] I want to travel around the country and really experience all the different kinds of barbecue and

[00:02:42] See what things are like all across America

[00:02:46] Yeah, and I'm sure you found out that there's there's quite a bit of diversity around right? I sure did. Yeah, that's for

[00:02:53] That's for sure

[00:02:54] So it's in that time since either 2016 or 2018

[00:02:59] How many barbecue restaurants could you estimate that you've visited in that time? I

[00:03:04] Could not even begin to tell you it's hundreds. I

[00:03:08] Mean, I went just on one trip to Memphis over three days. I went

[00:03:14] To 14 barbecue places

[00:03:17] So that's just one one spot one little blip on the on the radar

[00:03:24] So I've just been to hundreds. I I stopped counting a long time ago

[00:03:28] Yeah, so, you know apart from trying out the different varieties, you know

[00:03:32] What are you hoping to accomplish in your barbecue tourist adventure?

[00:03:36] Well, I don't know. I just I really just want to experience as much as I can I want to

[00:03:44] try as many spots as I can and

[00:03:48] Really understand barbecue and all its different, you know

[00:03:53] characteristics and

[00:03:56] Hi, you know, I just enjoy it so much. I love it. I love the people and of course the food is great, too

[00:04:04] Yeah, so you mentioned that you know

[00:04:07] You were in Memphis and you went to 15 some odd different locations in a place like Memphis or Kansas City or maybe even Omaha

[00:04:14] Where there's there's a whole bunch of barbecue options. How do you decide where to visit?

[00:04:20] Well, you know, I do a lot of research

[00:04:23] ahead of time I read as much as I can I talk to friends and and

[00:04:27] people I know in the industry, of course and read as much as I can but

[00:04:31] logistics really sort of

[00:04:33] Makes a lot of the decisions for you. You know, I experienced that most recently when we visited

[00:04:40] your your neck of the woods in the Carolinas and just you know certain spots are only open on certain days and and

[00:04:49] Maybe they sell out before dinner time. So a lot of times those kind of logistical

[00:04:57] Those logistics really make the decision for you it's sort of things fall into place more easily

[00:05:03] Of course, I have a list of

[00:05:05] You know the bucket list of barbecue spots that I still haven't been to all across the country

[00:05:11] I keep adding to them

[00:05:13] I knock a few off but then I add 10 more on there too

[00:05:17] So those will always kind of rise to the top and I got to knock a couple of those off

[00:05:23] On that most recent trip to the Carolinas, which was good

[00:05:27] But yeah, it's it's it is it can be challenging

[00:05:31] Especially since you want to do so much you want to go

[00:05:34] To so many you want to go to every place and you want to try everything that they have, you know, so

[00:05:40] But it's just not realistic to do that so you have to make some tough choices you have to decide okay

[00:05:46] this is my priority on this trip and so

[00:05:50] It can be a challenge, but it's it's a it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it

[00:05:56] Sure, so you've been all around you mentioned a lot of hot spots for barbecue

[00:06:00] Are there any parts of the country that you haven't been to yet that you still want to get to and try?

[00:06:05] In terms of classic of barbecue regions, no, I've pretty much been to all of those

[00:06:11] but as far as up and coming kind of areas where there might be new and emerging scenes in barbecue, I

[00:06:20] Would say California is a place obviously I've been to California but not for barbecue

[00:06:25] And I haven't gotten to experience a lot of the

[00:06:29] Kind of newer spots that have opened up there. I haven't really experienced traditional

[00:06:34] Santa Maria style California barbecue either so I would say that that that would really be

[00:06:41] kind of the

[00:06:42] Major spot for me that I would like to try

[00:06:45] I would also say there there are some spots up in the northeast

[00:06:51] In New York and Boston that probably are really great

[00:06:56] my my partner

[00:06:58] Partner in crime Sean lives in New York City. So he covers a lot of that

[00:07:02] So I kind of I've neglected that since he sort of is in that area, but

[00:07:10] I've I've certainly gotten to visit lots of spots in in Texas Kansas City, you know Memphis

[00:07:17] And the Carolinas a little bit as well

[00:07:21] Cool. So and we'll get to Sean in the smoke sheet here in just a couple minutes to talk a little bit more about

[00:07:25] That but but of all the places that you've visited and I know you can't pick just one restaurant

[00:07:30] That's the best one you've been to hundreds and everybody's a little bit different. Everybody's good at something

[00:07:35] But is there a style of barbecue that you like whether it's Carolina or Kansas City or you know what they do in Texas

[00:07:42] Is there a variety or style that you like the most?

[00:07:44] There's really not I mean that sort of kind of goes against what what I am about and what got me into this whole

[00:07:51] thing

[00:07:52] And honestly, it kind of annoys me when people and I just dealt with it just yesterday

[00:07:59] I think something, you know somebody we posted some list on the best places in Kansas City and someone says

[00:08:05] You know Texas barbecue beats all this stuff and it's like

[00:08:09] ridiculous to say that of course

[00:08:11] I'm not one of those people. That's like my style is the best and all the other styles suck

[00:08:16] I think that's weird. I

[00:08:19] can't imagine eating one style and one style only of barbecue and

[00:08:25] You know, I think there are good characteristics about every

[00:08:29] Single style there is I grew up obviously with Kansas City barbecue. So that has the special place for me

[00:08:36] If I were forced absolutely gunned ahead forced to choose a style

[00:08:42] I would say I

[00:08:44] tend to enjoy Texas style barbecue

[00:08:48] significantly, but having said that I I like all the different styles

[00:08:53] I like being able to experience all these different regions and the diversity that that there really is in this country

[00:08:59] Yeah, that's great. There's good barbecue and bad barbecue

[00:09:02] But it may not be good or bad based on the type of style it is. It's just different. That's right

[00:09:07] That's exactly right. So you go to a barbecue restaurant or 12 on one of these trips after you visit the restaurant

[00:09:14] What happens next? What do you do with all that?

[00:09:17] well, I mean I

[00:09:21] Typically I write about it. I also post about things on social media quite a lot

[00:09:26] I

[00:09:28] When I started this journey, this is I'm kind of backtracking a little bit

[00:09:32] But my initial goal with creating barbecue tourists, I wanted to create a web app or something that people could have for barbecue

[00:09:41] I got on a detour a little bit and never really kind of did that but that was my initial goal

[00:09:47] So I actually make maps for the National Park Service professionally. That's my my day job

[00:09:54] okay, so I wanted to do something like that for barbecue almost have like a

[00:09:58] Web map that showed you all the best spots for for barbecue all across the country. And so

[00:10:03] When I first started out, that's kind of what I did

[00:10:06] I really you know created maps of where you could go what the different styles were like things like that

[00:10:12] But since then now I I'm more right about barbecue and I do social media

[00:10:19] About barbecue. That's a good segue into the smoke sheet

[00:10:22] Tell me a little bit about that and and how did you get hooked up with your friend Sean?

[00:10:26] This this in New York City, but kind of originally from your part of the world. Yeah, so this is kind of interesting

[00:10:33] On my first trip outside at the Kansas City area for barbecue

[00:10:37] I went to Texas and one of the most famous spots in Texas is snows barbecue

[00:10:43] the famous tootsie is the pit master there and I

[00:10:48] literally I I had heard about it on YouTube or something like that

[00:10:52] But I really didn't know anything about snows or Texas barbecue. I just heard you're supposed to get there early

[00:10:59] So I showed up at 8 in the morning

[00:11:01] I didn't know that there would be a long line or anything like that

[00:11:06] but I showed up at 8 in the morning and

[00:11:08] Lo and behold, there's this guy standing right in front of me in line and I'm there by myself

[00:11:13] I'm just standing there

[00:11:14] There's this guy right in front of me talking about barbecue and he seems to know as much as I do

[00:11:19] And and love it just as much as I do and it ended up being Sean

[00:11:23] And as we're talking we find we found out he was also from Kansas City

[00:11:28] He also went to the University of Missouri same as me and

[00:11:32] So we had a lot in common and we we ended up, you know, you go to these restaurants

[00:11:37] You want to try everything and here I was a solo traveler

[00:11:40] So me and Sean and one of his friends and some other traveler from Canada

[00:11:45] We all just kind of made friends and in line and we said hey

[00:11:49] Let's just order everything and share it and so that's what we did

[00:11:52] And so after that trip and actually the next day I saw Sean at another barbecue restaurant

[00:11:57] So I was like, okay, this guy has good taste in restaurants

[00:12:01] and say after that, you know

[00:12:03] He and I kept in touch and everything and we ended up meeting a few months later in Kansas City

[00:12:10] At a restaurant there and he proposed the idea. Hey, let's do a newsletter

[00:12:15] he's a journalist his background is in journalism and

[00:12:20] He wanted to kind of do something with that

[00:12:23] And he said what do you think of that? And I said, yeah, that sounds wonderful

[00:12:27] I would love to write about barbecue

[00:12:30] and so we ended up launching the smoke sheet in

[00:12:33] 2018 just a few months after I I started barbecue tourist and the smoke sheet is a weekly

[00:12:41] publication

[00:12:42] Dedicated to barbecue and grilling life fire cooking and it's an online publication

[00:12:48] We we write original content. We share some news headlines major news

[00:12:53] We share media recommendations recipes and then we have an events list for all the biggest best festivals and competitions

[00:13:00] Across the country and so it's a weekly kind of

[00:13:07] Publication about barbecue from a national perspective so we're not focused on you know, Kansas City or one place

[00:13:15] We're looking at everything across the country

[00:13:19] Okay, and how many of those additions have you put out and what kind of following have you started to build there with?

[00:13:24] The smoke sheet so we've we've actually published every week since we've launched

[00:13:29] So we're about to I mean we have I don't think we've missed a week

[00:13:35] We're about to publish our 300th issue come out here pretty soon. So it's it's it's a weekend week out kind of thing

[00:13:45] We've kind of built up our our

[00:13:48] Subscriber list slowly over the years, but it's been steady for several years now

[00:13:53] So we do have thousands of subscribers which is nice and and we have a pretty decent

[00:14:00] Following on social media as well, you know

[00:14:03] I have a good size following on barbecue tourists and and those people

[00:14:09] A lot of those people follow the smoke sheet as well and Sean has his own

[00:14:14] NY NYC BBQ

[00:14:17] social media

[00:14:19] So we have people that you know

[00:14:21] It's published every week and people get it and subscribe to their their email or some people, you know

[00:14:28] They consume it through social media. They might they might not want to read everything top to bottom every week

[00:14:34] They might just care about

[00:14:37] You know Carolina barbecue and when we do a story on that or they might care about a particular story or a competition

[00:14:44] or something so

[00:14:46] You know, we have a diversity of readers

[00:14:50] for the publication

[00:14:55] Okay. Yeah great to know and

[00:14:57] Had an opportunity to be part of the smoke sheet a little while back and appreciate you guys

[00:15:02] Allow me to have a little bit of space there to tell the story about the Carolina barbecue festival

[00:15:06] Yeah, thank you

[00:15:07] Yeah, do you feel like you guys have gotten where you want to be with smoke sheet or are you are there more goals?

[00:15:13] to accomplish

[00:15:14] You know actually

[00:15:16] Funny that you mentioned that art I think in terms of as I said, we've had a steady subscriber base for the last couple years

[00:15:26] So we've accomplished a lot of those goals that we set out

[00:15:30] With but one of our major goals is to kind of incorporate more voices

[00:15:36] In the future. So we've had a lot more guest writers the past few years and we were fortunate to have you

[00:15:42] Right. We would love to have you write some more. It was wonderful

[00:15:46] We've been partnering with monk from the barbecue bros. Yeah, also another Carolina

[00:15:51] writer and

[00:15:53] John Tanner from John Tanner's barbecue blog and some other people so we've had several guests

[00:15:59] Contributors and we're hoping to incorporate more, you know

[00:16:02] I I love writing about barbecue, but I'm sure people would like to hear from other people as well. So

[00:16:11] That's one of our major goals I think with the smoke sheet sure

[00:16:15] Just like barbecue variety is the spice of life. So get a few different voices in there. Yeah, nice idea

[00:16:21] so I want to kind of get into what we call the the family jewels or barbican secret time here and talk a little

[00:16:26] bit about you and who you are and you know

[00:16:28] You mentioned that you work with the National Park Service and you draw some maps as part of that's your job creating map

[00:16:34] How well does that really kind of flow into?

[00:16:37] You know your ability to travel all over the country and try out all these barbecue places

[00:16:42] Well it used to it well, I mean it it flows very well I think that

[00:16:48] Naturally was a good fit for this

[00:16:50] I was you know interested in travel and I got to do a lot of that with my job previously that sort of

[00:16:57] Went hand-in-hand with the barbecue thing was you know

[00:17:01] I would go travel along the trail or whatever for work

[00:17:04] And then I would look for something to do off time and often that was going and visiting barbecue places

[00:17:10] and so

[00:17:12] Yeah, those go hand-in-hand

[00:17:15] Together my background in in this professionally is cultural geography. So I'm really interested in how you know

[00:17:23] Cultures are different and in different places across the country and that really goes hand-in-hand with with barbecue and barbecue styles and

[00:17:31] different regions

[00:17:32] Definitely and that gives you a great perspective and I guess a probably a better

[00:17:36] Appreciation for how these cultures are different even in there, you know kind of small nuanced ways. Yeah, that's right

[00:17:43] So only tell me about your cooking side now

[00:17:46] I follow the barbecue tourists it's not just you going out and and and reviewing and seeing these other restaurants

[00:17:53] What are you doing on the cooking side? And how do you enjoy doing that stuff?

[00:17:57] Well, so as I said earlier, I I always enjoyed cooking. That's really kind of what got me into this

[00:18:03] I I wanted to to travel these different places to understand kind of what the differences were so I could take it home and and

[00:18:12] Implement it in the backyard. And so I've always enjoyed grilling and everything

[00:18:18] But not really serious about that even before I started barbecue tourists and everything. So yeah, I I cook all the time

[00:18:25] I'm cooking right now

[00:18:26] I was I threw some ribs on the smoker five minutes before I got on this call with you

[00:18:32] I am always cooking barbecue pretty much almost every day or

[00:18:38] Pretty close to that and I enjoy it. Wow. What do you enjoy about it? And really the barbecue life in general?

[00:18:46] So for cooking wise the thing that I enjoy the most is really it's it's kind of

[00:18:53] slowing things down

[00:18:55] being outside smelling that smoke getting time to relax and

[00:19:02] Catch up on podcasts and just kind of look look at the sky enjoy nature enjoy being outside and

[00:19:12] Just kind of slowing life down a little bit, you know relaxing and thinking and sitting out by the smoker

[00:19:18] That's my happy place. I'm about five feet away from it right now even I yeah, that's really what I enjoy

[00:19:25] The most I mean the food is wonderful as well, but

[00:19:29] I

[00:19:31] enjoy

[00:19:32] Sitting outside and cooking much more than I do

[00:19:37] Standing in the kitchen and cooking for instance. Yeah, you enjoy the low and slow part of it. Absolutely

[00:19:43] Pick into some more secrets for you. Maybe this is my own personal interest

[00:19:47] But you know

[00:19:48] What do you feel like is the secret to grow in that huge?

[00:19:51] Following for the barbecue tourist and and as you say that thousands of subscribers for the smoke sheet. How do you get a big audience?

[00:19:57] Well

[00:19:58] So my goal when I was standing the line at at

[00:20:02] Snow's barbecue. I had 27 followers on Instagram

[00:20:07] and I thought if I could get even a thousand people to follow me I would be that would be success for me is

[00:20:13] what I thought and

[00:20:16] so I

[00:20:18] worked really hard to to get to that thousand followers and I

[00:20:22] Did that by being consistent? I you know, I posted all the time

[00:20:27] and

[00:20:27] I also the other thing that I wanted to do

[00:20:32] was to

[00:20:33] Put a little bit of myself in there, you know put my face out there a little bit. I

[00:20:40] Saw a lot of accounts that were really beautiful photos of food and I thought that was kind of boring

[00:20:46] You know, like there's only so much that I can really

[00:20:49] Do with that I I felt that people wanted

[00:20:54] Someone to connect with a little bit more and so I tried to be

[00:20:59] You know putting my my face out there

[00:21:01] I tried to go out as I said and travel around and meet people in person and

[00:21:06] Just make a connection with people and I think that that has been the key

[00:21:11] to to growing as much as I have and

[00:21:17] It's been a quite a crazy journey, but really just a lot of fun

[00:21:22] Yeah, and you and I talked a little bit offline or I guess online about this the algorithm is always changing in Instagram or Facebook

[00:21:30] Wherever it is, you know, how do you you know adjust to or do you even try to adjust to comply with what they're doing?

[00:21:37] Do you adjust your strategy at all or do you just keep doing what you're doing and putting yourself out there?

[00:21:42] You know in terms of growing I think I'm at a point now where that that stuff

[00:21:49] Shouldn't matter to me as much and so I think I'm kind of at the point where I don't want to constantly change to

[00:21:57] Fit the algorithm. I'm just going to enjoy this and

[00:22:01] If my following shrinks a little that's fine

[00:22:05] You know, that's that's just the way it is. It is kind of frustrating

[00:22:09] You know, you put a lot of yourself into this put a lot of I put now six years into this

[00:22:13] so obviously I would love to continue growing and

[00:22:17] Doing things but it's it's a lot of work, you know

[00:22:21] It's not just all fun and games and and so you've got a kind of balance. There's other I have other interests

[00:22:29] I have other priorities as well. I have a family I have

[00:22:32] Friends and other things that I want to do so it's hard just to put everything into

[00:22:38] into barbecue and and

[00:22:41] social media

[00:22:43] That's a good segue into my next question and it's you know, you go to

[00:22:48] Memphis and you go to 15 barbecue restaurants or you come to the Carolinas

[00:22:52] And I know y'all went to a handful of them here some of the best places we've got around here

[00:22:57] Brian do you ever get tired of barbecue? Oh my gosh, so I do

[00:23:02] But this is I was just thinking about this like it's it's only for a couple of days

[00:23:07] You know, and I often I experience this when I go to Texas

[00:23:11] I'll hit all these barbecue spots and it's really heavy brisket beef ribs and stuff and I just you know

[00:23:19] After going to so many places I get kind of sick of it

[00:23:22] But it's only for about a day or two and then I'm I'm I get that itch to have barbecue again

[00:23:28] So I probably eat barbecue, you know five

[00:23:32] Plus days out of the week no matter what even when I'm not traveling

[00:23:37] Yeah, I don't get as sick of barbecue as most people that's for sure. What about your family?

[00:23:44] Do they get sick of barbecue? Are you dragging them on for the ride to I am and they they are not

[00:23:51] Honestly, they are not barbecue lovers at all. So that is a challenge

[00:23:55] Yeah, my wife and son do not really like barbecue. Thankfully my dad who lives in the same

[00:24:02] Community as we do he he's a big barbecue guy and he's like me

[00:24:05] He really doesn't get sick sick of barbecue much even I could cook every day and he'll still eat it and doesn't complain

[00:24:14] So thankfully I have him to sort of share all this with but yeah, the family gets pretty tired of barbecue. That's for sure

[00:24:22] All right. I want to talk about your secret recipe and I've seen a little bit of stuff like this

[00:24:26] But you definitely got your own original spin on it

[00:24:29] so you've called them boink balls and I'm gonna get all the

[00:24:32] Instructions and the ingredients up there on the web and on the blog here as your podcast goes live

[00:24:38] So we don't need to go there

[00:24:39] But but tell me a little bit about why you chose this particular recipe and and what sets it apart for maybe some other

[00:24:45] Things out in the world. So I chose this just because I haven't shared it before

[00:24:49] It was some it was a kind of a recipe that I haven't put out there

[00:24:53] And I chose it also because it uses bison and bison are you know kind of a thing

[00:25:01] Nebraska's has known for a little bit being a plain state and

[00:25:06] So I I use the central Nebraska Buffalo Company bison ground bison in this recipe

[00:25:13] And so yeah, I just chose it for that reason and also because you know

[00:25:18] We've got Memorial Days coming up and people are often there

[00:25:22] They're gathering with family and friends and want lots of little appetizer type things and this is one of those kind of recipes

[00:25:30] So kind of a mix of bison meat pork and then wrapped in bacon and smoked

[00:25:35] I thought it would be perfect for that. Yeah, perfect for a summer barbecue summer cookout to bring as a side

[00:25:42] You know you bring your dish to the potluck. That's a great choice as I'm preparing it

[00:25:47] Is there anything that I really need to kind of keep in mind when I'm doing it to make sure that nothing goes wrong

[00:25:53] So the one major thing and I learned this the hard way of course is when you're forming those meatballs

[00:25:59] This is true of any meatball. Don't don't worry about kind of overdoing it in terms of

[00:26:06] You know making the meatball just kind of put put the meat together

[00:26:11] Form the ball and and be done with it if you kind of overwork it

[00:26:14] It's gonna get really mushy and kind of not actually goes against what you would think but it doesn't hold together very well

[00:26:23] Okay, well again all the ingredients and the specifics

[00:26:26] I'll include them on the blog at low slow BBQ show calm and so you get all the information and thanks for sharing some great

[00:26:32] Pictures will get those over there too. So folks listening check out low slow BBQ show calm

[00:26:37] I do want to ask you before we get off here

[00:26:39] I know sponsorship has been a part of your a part of your world and you've

[00:26:43] Incorporated it into the barbecue tourists. How did you how did that piece take off for you?

[00:26:47] And do you have any regrets about the way that has gone?

[00:26:50] So

[00:26:52] Yeah, that was also another surprising and interesting part of this whole thing is you know

[00:26:58] When I wanted to grow this barbecue tourist social media at first

[00:27:03] I I would contact companies and really try to

[00:27:06] Try to get

[00:27:08] Sponsorships or things like that and didn't have a lot of success. So I just said okay

[00:27:13] I'm just gonna do my own thing

[00:27:14] I'm just gonna do what I like to do and that's exactly what I did and lo and behold

[00:27:19] After you do that then all the companies who want to work with you, which is nice

[00:27:24] so yeah, and just connecting with like-minded kind of creators and

[00:27:30] I got to give a shout out to my friend why who's a talented photographer

[00:27:35] Once she and I started working together about four years ago sponsors

[00:27:40] Really really wanted to kind of get on board with barbecue tourists and everything like that

[00:27:46] As far as regrets, you know, I think

[00:27:49] early on when you're starting out and you you just want to work with anybody and so you're just so eager to

[00:27:57] Get out there and to start doing things and I think

[00:28:01] You know, I would recommend to people I'm not saying this is necessarily regret

[00:28:06] But I would recommend that people be a little more

[00:28:09] Discerning you don't have to work with every single person that approaches you or every single company or whatever

[00:28:14] You know really think that what how does this work with me and what I'm trying to do and is this a good fit?

[00:28:22] I think otherwise you're sometimes it can be a little frustrating. It can be a little

[00:28:29] You know challenging to work with just any old brand that comes your way

[00:28:34] So I anybody that's trying to do things like that on social media

[00:28:39] Just really give it some thought and be discerning about who you work with because you're gonna be tied to them for a while

[00:28:46] That's good advice. So we're kind of getting to the end of our time and I'm gonna throw you a curveball here Ryan

[00:28:50] But I know you're gonna be ready for it

[00:28:52] We haven't been through the low and slow showdown in a while in a few episodes

[00:28:56] So I've just got some quick one word question and answer for you

[00:28:59] I want to share your opinion in a quick way. Hopefully won't get you too far off track

[00:29:04] So right out of the gate do you want to cook over gas pellets charcoal or wood?

[00:29:10] wood

[00:29:12] What is your favorite wood pecan?

[00:29:16] Why pecan?

[00:29:18] Do I have to answer with one word? No, no Oh pecan is

[00:29:23] It's just very versatile to me. You can use it with pork chicken or beef

[00:29:29] Okay, so

[00:29:31] Do you want pork beef or chicken beef

[00:29:37] What is the best state in these United States for barbecue understanding we've got the caveats before but you've got a gun and

[00:29:43] You got to pick one state. I gotta say Texas to me. That's the that's the spot for barbecue. It just is

[00:29:51] Understand, but this is a North Carolina or a Carolina podcast

[00:29:55] So I'm gonna make you pick which is better North Carolina or South Carolina North for sure

[00:30:01] What is the best North Carolina style Eastern or Western? Oh

[00:30:07] Man that's hard. I got I'm gonna be controversial here and say Eastern

[00:30:14] That's okay, that's just an opinion it happens to be the wrong one, but that's an opinion, okay

[00:30:19] So on the meat before you cook do you rub it or do you do it naked?

[00:30:25] Rub yeah, definitely rub. Do you want sauce? Is it better with or without?

[00:30:31] You know, this will be a controversial one, too, but I'm from Kansas City. So I always I like sauce and

[00:30:37] Do you want it sweet or do you want it spicy?

[00:30:40] Who both but if I had to choose I would say sweet

[00:30:45] This is the big one Ryan is barbecue a verb or a noun

[00:30:51] It's it's both but it's a noun

[00:30:54] And that my friends is the lowdown from the barbecue tourist Ryan Cooper

[00:31:00] Thanks for so much for us. Thanks so much for joining us today, right? Yeah. Thank you so much

[00:31:05] This was a lot of fun

[00:31:06] You've been listening to the low and slow barbecue show on the mesh TV network a podcast

[00:31:11] Be sure to visit us online at low slow BBQ show calm

[00:31:15] That's where you'll find the blog and you can hear other podcast episodes featuring the Carolina's great pitmasters and others

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[00:31:31] Every Tuesday morning before sunrise special. Thanks again Ryan

[00:31:36] Thanks for joining us the barbecue tourist and one of the producers of the smoke sheet

[00:31:40] Thank you. Thanks as well to our producer Andrew moose and the whole team at the mesh dot TV network a podcast most especially

[00:31:48] Thank you for listening to the low and slow barbecue show

[00:31:51] Remember for the best barbecue and the best barbecue podcast make it low and slow

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