March 29, 2024 • 53 mins
On site at Northern Fire, the guys are trying to celebrate anniversaries while simultaneous having a cooking contest. "Zabuton-a-thon!" Happy 4th to Northern Fire, happy 2nd to Heavy Rotation...and in between, talking about phone apps for grills and how to cook the perfect wagyu steak!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hey there, it's Eric Nordquiz Nordofrom KFA and Sports Radio in Minneapolis.
Welcome to Hopson Hoggs and wherever youfound us, whether it's the free iHeartRadio
app, iTunes, Spotify, justappreciate you listening. It's about local beer,
local barbecue in one podcast and bigthanks as always my buddies in Northern
Fire Grilling and barbecue Supply. Aaron, John and Brad were in the mix
(00:24):
for this one, as well asKen from Heavy Rotation Brewing. And this
episode was weird, full of pausesand asides, but it was mostly about
a combo of celebrating anniversaries while simultaneouslyhaving a wag u steak cooking contest.
So let's listen. So what arewe drinking here? Ken? Well,
guys, unfortunately I don't bring anythingfor you today. I know, I
(00:47):
know, shame on me. Ohcool way to participate in the podcast.
I know the reason I didn't though, saving everything for next weekend? Why
next weekend? Next weekend is arenot our first but our second anniversary part,
so we need all the beer wecan have for Friday. Yeah,
Sunday, you know we got ahold. Is there an applause in this
(01:07):
button bar. I don't know somewhere, but is there it is? Thank
you for doing that. You'd befeeling pretty good if this was the crowd
next weekend. Oh, if that'sthe crowd, you know, we'll be
having a damn good time. Butyeah, so no beer, that's on
my end. But yeah, that'slooking forward to next weekend. So is
there any type of deal at HeavyRotation up in Brooklyn Park, Like,
(01:29):
is there a code word this weekor does it just go there for the
anniversary? Does this week go forthe anniversary? Right? Like we wanted
to come hang out Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We got all kinds of
stuff going on Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But the
main juiciest part is going to beprobably that Saturday night live music, all
day meat raffle. I know allthe people listening to that to do barbecue
(01:49):
stuff love free meat. So comeout get your hand on some meat.
Is that true? It's true thatbarbecue people love meat. Yeah, I
mean I think so. So youranniversary next weekend. It's two years in
the business, two years now,John, While technically you are not you
are not the owner of Northern Fire. But you have been in the fire
(02:12):
and on the ground with this placesince it opened. You guys just you
guys just celebrated kind of your fourthanniversary, is that right. We yeah,
yeah, we just passed our fourthon March third, and we're going
to be doing a celebration actually onApril twentieth, kind of a customer appreciation
day that day, four to twenty. Yes, we're going to be smoking
(02:37):
smoking meats. Yeah, okay,smoking meats, all right. I mean,
not that there's anything wrong with thethat other thing smoking. If you
got them two years in the brewerybusiness as an owner, multiple years prior
to that, what's that been,like, O's ups and downs. It's
awesome. It's it really is kindof fun, you know, with the
(02:57):
anniversary parties and everything like that.Every party you do, it's really cool
to kind of see the people thatyou've made friends with over the couple of
years and the regulars that show upto me a good time. I mean,
it's I can't tell it. Ican't say everything's been amazing because that
would be a lie. Can sayeverything's been crappy because that'd be a lie.
It's kind of right down the middle. Okay, well, let me
ask you about that because okay,yeah, and next we get it next
(03:17):
weekends the anniversary, and you wantpeople to go Okay, I understand that.
Okay, that part has been established. I like that part and I'm
excited to be there. When youdecided to open a brewery. Lots of
people think it'd be cool to owna brewery that think it'd be cool because
we're going to hang out and drinkbeer all day, drink beer, and
then just people are naturally going tocome in and droves and it's just going
(03:39):
to be that easy. Is thereanything about the last two years that opened
your eyes? Now, you know, via Uda pills in your experience prior
to It's not like you were newto the entire industry, but it means
a lot more when you're in chargeof the numbers, you know what I
mean? Yeah, I mean Iwould say that probably with every kind of
restaurant or bar or whatever, weekdaysthey're a son of a bitch, right,
(04:04):
Like that's just being honest, that'sjust pulling back the curtain. Weekdays
are the hardest thing to get peopleto come in and drink. You would
think that'd be the time that they'dwant to because it's like set a hell
of a day at work, goin, stop and have a beer.
No, So, if you everwant to support your local brewery, every
rotation brewing dot com or any bar, restaurant whatever going on the weekday,
you're encouraging people to drink during theweek. Drink seven days a week.
(04:27):
I don't you know. But ifyou responsibly responsible yeah, but if you're
gonna do it like honestly, likesupport those places during the week because you
might go in on a Friday Saturdayand it's packed, like, oh man,
this place must always be busy.Not the case. Right, going
on that Monday or that Tuesday,you got a better chance of sitting down
bus and with the bar attender anowner. I bar ten on Mondays right,
come in talk to me. Yeah, that's best hair in the blue
(04:51):
business. By the way, youknow this is not news to anybody.
I work unique hours. There's nothingbetter than posting up and do an happy
hour or something like that during theweek. And not everyone can do this.
I get it. I you know, I'm done. I can be
done at eleven fifty four am podcastto show you know, sometimes I do
(05:13):
that that FOD bit at six thirty. The pre recorded bit. Shouldn't have
told people it was pre recorded.I think people thought that I was actually
at the studio. Wah wah left. We can posted this out. I
had left and gone home and thenI came back at six thirty. I'd
offer you a couple of segments youmay have missed throughout the day FOD free
(05:33):
Irradio app. So there's nothing better. No, they're really hanging out in
a spot nobody's in there. You'rechilling, like you said, talking to
the bartender, solving the world's problems. Yeah, No, that's that's fantastic.
Like I said, sometimes sometimes youget an owner, just like coming
into Northern Fire, Right, you'regonna run into Aaron John. Right,
(05:54):
they're gonna take care of you.You come in when it's less busy,
always better. You got any questions, anything you need, It's going to
be a better experience for you.Lines are shorter now. Whether I'm norm
from cheers at Heavy Rotation or insome respects as we are here in the
back room in Northern Fire, I'mkind of norm from cheers at Northern Fire
(06:14):
as well, because I'll roll inhere around one pm. John's going to
be helping a customer, Aaron's doinghis thing, Brad's putting smokers together.
The whole thing. It's chaos,and I just want to ask a stupid
question about a pork butt or somethinglike that. So I've kind of evolved
into the norm from cheers here aswell. But John in the vein of
(06:36):
anniversaries, because that's a theme that'skind of taken over here before we get
to the a topic, and that'sme whooping Aeron's ass and a state competition
here, some wag us abatons thatare on the trigger as we speak.
Let's go right outside Northern Fire herein Minnetaka. Things that you've learned over
the course of four years, andit's not necessarily even about the barbecue business,
(06:58):
but in some ways being a specialretail shop you open up just before
the world ends with COVID, rightCOVID And you know some I bet you
know throughout doing this podcast, themore we talk to different people in the
barbecue business, everything about COVID's negativeexcept for the barbecue. Bas Except for
the barbecue business. It boomed.And that's one of the reasons why I'm
(07:19):
actually even working here because back inthose days, I was actually working for
a medical device company and just comingin here after my job there and helping
air and out builk smokers, rearrangingthe store every single day. And Aron's
picky, Well, no, misshe is, but we're just gonna edit
(07:42):
that out of the podcast now,I'll leave that one in there. Let's
come. But because of COVID,yeah, business ramped up huge and uh
he reached out to me and askedme if I would quit my normal job
and come work here and be hisloyal lieutenant. And yes, was it
the male stripper, right, iswhat you were doing before us? Well?
(08:03):
Medical device? Oh, medical devicemail stripper. That was way off.
Well, I mean with these daysit's not too it's it's not too
far away of a deviation, youknow, I mean, whatever you got
to do to sell something. Butthat's the thing is is you know,
like the you know another thing withCOVID. While the barbecue business was booming,
the only fans business was booming,right, And and that's people that
(08:24):
may have been in medical device sales. They could be nurses, they could
be account in school teachers, etcetera. Uh, it appears based on
some articles I've read that maybe thebest spot, the best thing to do
is to quit the school teaching jobbefore you get into only fans. H
Aaron, you want to talk,Get in here. What are you doing?
(08:46):
Come on here, somebody's got towork your zippers. Then, hey,
are your stakes on? Yet?We did talk about we are doing
a cookoff, right, Yeah,we are doing a cookoff. Yeah,
so I get that. That's whatthat just happened. So getting so getting
back to the lesson at hand,Well, I think he just forgot that
he had to put his stakes on. Well, it's clear. I think
(09:07):
as a matter of fact, I'mpretty sure that he assumed that Brad had
already put them on. Absolutely hedid. I'm surprised that he didn't make
Brad season them for him. Weare we sure we that he didn't.
I'm actually not completely sure. Sohere's what's going on is we're sitting at
Northern Fire celebrating anniversaries. As you'veheard, whether it was two years for
(09:28):
heavy rotation that's coming up this weekendMarch third, four years from Northern Fire
here in Minnetaka, anniversaries. Businessesbooming both on the hop side and on
the hog side. But Aaron.Aaron Bordage has cooked and won many barbecue
competitions over the course of time.And then there's me. We are having
(09:48):
a contest today. Zabatan steaks.I believe it's also referred to it's the
waggy version of the Denver cut,and it's cube like, it's very cubed.
I believe these are These are eightounce steaks. Is that accurate?
John? They are eight ounce supermarbleized. They are The Japanese translation of
a zabatan is a little pillow,a little pillow, and they look like
(10:13):
little pillows of delicious meat. Andthey're they're they're amazing, And so I
believe he's doing it. I'm reversesearing mine today. But the whole thing
is is, you know, Aaronlooks and probably rightly, so he looks
down on me. Okay, I'mlesser, and again from an experience standpoint,
from a cooking standpoint, totally agree. I'm gonna whoop his ass.
(10:33):
I can't wait. We definitely hope. So now anyone listening, this is
a blind taste test, so wehave no idea what myself, Ken and
Brad are going to be tasting.Who cooked what, and we have no
clue, and we're gonna see whowins this. Yeah, and so basically
we are out the right side tochoose your weapon. Aaron's got his yoder,
(10:56):
his Vikings themed the skull Yoder,skull Yoder. He actually is is
it named Dalvin? Did he nameit Dalvin? He did name it Delvin,
and then Delvin was gone the Dalvins. Yeah, Dalvin's not on the
team anymore. Yeah, so that'sI think that's not a great omen for
him. What if he could hecould name it Romo? Well, I
think you see the Vikings just signthe TikTok kicker John Parker Romo, so
(11:18):
he could call it Romo moving forward. I currently think he's in the court
system right now trying to rename itto JJ JJ. All right, and
trust me, after you guys tastemy steak, you're gonna want to kick
his out the door. I don'tknow. That was stupid. That was
on the fly. It was not. No, it's not very good.
Listen, they do. We doopen mic every Sunday at a heavy rotation,
(11:39):
so you should come check it out. Anybody that listens to nine to
New knows that when we get offscrip things get weird. Okay, and
that was just that was a smallthat was a dull, a boring example
of it. Oh, but theseavatarons, So I'm cooking them two twenty
five. I'm gonna get them justnorth of one twenty that I'm bringing the
grill grates out. So I'm gonnabring the steaks in. Pump the pump
the tragger up to five one hundred. Then we're going to see them on
(12:01):
both sides. I've been told there'sbutter on the premises? Is that accurate
the belief? So, okay,it's a little laid into the game to
not have butter. So I gotto figure that out. We'll go talk
to Sue. We'll talk to PopcornGal. Right, she has to have
butter in the porn it is Sue, right, Yeah, thank you.
(12:22):
Guys. Have a couple of placesright here that could get you butter.
The bakery, Oh in the spa. Spa, do you ever use cocoa
butter on steaks? Well, thattastes like today? Maybe a first blow
your mind? What's your favorite seasoningfor a steak? For me, it
is straight up just Livia's salt peppergarlic blend. That is the best out
(12:45):
there. It's actually a Minnesota companymade here in Saint Louis Park. Yep,
it is the best for beef.I put it on my eggs in
the morning and steaks at night andeverything else in between. Oh, it's
a universal season. It is absolutelyLivia's is awesome, and I you know,
I don't want to sway you becauseyou're one of the judges. I
use Livia Vivia's is the base.But then I mixed it up with something
(13:09):
Something's gonna throw you for a loop. But I swear to you, if
your taste buds are even on thesame planet as mine, you're gonna be
like, my god, Nordo,where did you come from here? This
is the most brilliant idea you've everhad in your life. It's absolutely a
game changer for stakes. Nobody believesme but me, and I can't wait
exactly what you gotta answer that.You gotta work a job second. Okay,
(13:30):
so on four to twenty, youguys need to have the aprons.
You gotta be yelling behind shit likethat, right, Like, if someone's
coming and you're grilling out there doingwhatever, make it a show. That's
what people want to see. Rightwhere the apron how many people are cooking
on on that day we have Iprefer to saying April twentieth versus four twenty
(13:50):
April twentieth, April twentieth, alsoknown as four twenty. We have probably
six or seven different teams that aregonna be out there cooking, and everyone
going to be cooking different things too, So it's not really a contest.
It's just kind of a celebration.It's a celebration. But there's also going
to be a people's choice award partof it too, to Okay, whatever
(14:11):
competition team cook the best thing whateverpeople like the best. Yeah, be
a old pork sandwich, or weknow what Aaron's cooking or whatever. No,
he hasn't revealed that yet. Ithink he's waiting to see what the
results from our time. I'm goingto intentionally vote for his to be second,
just so that we stay in linewith what's about to happen today.
(14:33):
Well, you know, he maybe planning on cooking zabatants that day.
How good would that be? Butif he loses to you today, he's
probably gonna have to come up witha different plan. Yeah, correct,
Or you know what I don't knowof yet. If I'm available that particular
day, I'd be happy to showup if I can, though, and
cook for him and give him somepointers. Yeah, correct, if he
(14:56):
just wants, you know, andI can write it down for him.
I'm very deep, you know.If I if I have to write something
down for like Pa, you know, I've learned how to put it into
his mind. I've learned how towrite the way PA would talk. That's
part of my relationship with him.And so similarly, I could write out
a very detailed I want to keepit simple, got to keep it real
(15:18):
simple, very simple. Yeah,but I could probably help him get through
that process. And really, youknow, I've been saying this for years.
It's all about just being in agood mood when you're cooking, and
you got to start from a baselineand do all of that. If you
want to keep it simple, ifyou got a competition thing like that,
words, you can make whatever youwant to make. Just do burgers.
(15:39):
Everyone loves a burger. Bring thepit boss out there. You know how
many people like, Yeah, thesteak was fine. I don't know if
that's good or I've never had thatkind of steak. I don't know if
that's supposed to be how it tastes. But a smash burger, everyone knows
what that is. And I knowyou guys got the class coming up in
May. I might have to comecheck it out for sure, But unbelievable,
like if I'm I'm doing a competitionwhere it's any like, bring whatever
(16:02):
you want, Yeah, keep yourtwenty five thirty dollars steaks. I got
some Smashbergers. Well, here's whatI'm gonna do is I'm gonna pause for
about forty five seconds because I'm gonnago check my stakes. All right.
So that was the first pause thatI had to take trying to do a
podcast cooking some steaks. Stuff todo both simultaneously, at least do them
well. So at any rate,both my stakes looking good. One was
(16:23):
at one oh three, the otherone was tempted at eighty nine, so
I had to do some maneuvering onthe trigger. Started to get a bit
suspicious of Erin because he's messing aroundnear my grill. Don't like that,
and I think he's trying to cheat. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind.
As a matter of fact, hewas trying to cheat. But continue
the conversation with Kenny and John.Here's what I'm worried about. Aaron's been
(16:44):
spending a lot of time out bymy grill. Do you think he's sabotaging
you? He's sabotaging your zabotins?Well, I'm not sure, but I
mean the alliteration was spot one.Can you do? Can you do a
templock on a grill to keep somebodyfrom messing with it? That's a great
question, because I love his Yodayoders are built like tanks. I kind
of want to just go and turnhis up to six hundred and walk away
(17:07):
for a little while and see whatSee how long it takes before he notices.
Definitely not a set it and forgetit then, because oh no,
and actually, where's my phone?Because I actually have the app for the
grill that you're using. The trigger. Yeah, it's on my phone,
so I can't even see what you'redoing right now. Apps on the grills.
What are you guys thoughts on that? I'd like, again, not
(17:30):
a grill guy, that's okay,but I think like, if you're gonna
be like, oh, yeah,I killed it on this. When I
did this, I did I hadto watch it for three hours, four
hours. I got up at sixam. I did all this shit.
Yeah, if you're just putting iton there, setting it on your phone,
sure you get an alert. Ohit's a little high. Maybe turn
it down. Yeah, I shouldturn it down. Are you really well?
(17:52):
Some people, some people might mightuse it more or be more attention
focused on it. I'll tell you. The only thing that I've ever used
it for is I'll just peek onit. Okay, same temp. Sure,
see where the pellets are at.I mean I've I've cooked ribs before
where I've just said it. Iwent to target and came back an hour
later or something like that. See, that's the best thing about the apps.
(18:15):
And if you're doing a longer cookit gives you the freedom to walk
away from what you're cooking. Sure, and it go to target or go
fishing or round a golf or whatever, and you can you can control it
from your phone see where you're at. Fair enough? And for longer cooks,
yeah, the app is awesome.Do they If you're doing shorter cooks,
(18:36):
I generally never look at the app. If we're talking competition cooking,
right, are you allowed to usean app? Or does it have to
be just fuel based. We canuse whatever you want in a competition.
You can't use whatever you want ina competition. Really, yeah, all
right, you know, I'm notI'm not saying I'm just do you think
there's peds? And well, Ithough i'd love to, I'd love to,
(18:59):
you know, as soon as Aaron. I don't know what Aaron's doing
other than other than trying to cheatright now, habitaze or sabotage. So
that's that's what I'm mildly worried about. But good. But I've read,
and again as a non competition guy, I've read a bunch on like various
ways that they can try and gamethe system from like a cosmetics standpoint,
that maybe the way they can makesomething look, maybe there's a little sauce
(19:22):
at the end, there's a littletrick something that they can do to hopefully
draw the eye and not the eyreof a judge red dye. But but
for me, I honestly the appthing. I think it's cool. I
would say that there is some gimmickto it. The convenience of pelic grills
in general is the fact that theythey they do you know, fluctuate tempts,
but really it's it's just an It'san oven with some smoke. So
(19:48):
you know what when I'm doing ifif I'm cooking, like, I don't
want an app for my anchor.So I have that anchor grill you were
asking about it, that that Michiganone that's sitting out here on the on
the sales floor. Absolute beauty.Yeah, and it's it's made by by
Paul down in the Lake Crystal area. Makes the whole thing, fabricates them
the whole thing himself. It's awesome. So I got that from Paul.
And it has the the external tempgauges on it and such, but I
(20:11):
will use uh. It's also Ibelieve it's my thermal works the signals bit
the signals and so the signals is. It's not in a wife. It's
not a bluetooth app, sure,but it's it's a physical unit that'll sit
next to the grill itself. Irun a probe that shows me the ambient
temp that's actually inside, because sometimesthat can deviate from your external thermometer gauges
(20:33):
or your thermostat gages on the outside. And then I just have this little
r F this little RF module thatconnects to the to the main bank and
I just hang out in my campingchair and drinkle ears in the garage.
So that's that's that's it. That'snot Yeah, that's the X the X
smoke or X two or X four. I think you have the X four.
(20:55):
Yeah. The signals does allow youif I could be a capability and
an app on your phone so youcan actually get more than a mile and
a quarter away from it. I'dprefer just to be if you're a mile,
if you're if you're smoking on anoffset and you're more than a mile
away from your smoker, it's areal fire, Dude, you're not doing
(21:15):
it right. No, no,no, I fire is going to go
out, dude. I'm street.I'm strictly just asking, like, do
you think that it almost especially incompetent I could see like doing it,
like if you're you're a busy guy, busy gal, like I gotta watch
the kids, I gotta do allthis. I'm gonna have to check the
app competition though. It seems likeit should be like you got to watch
this fire like you got it,like there is no because I think it
(21:36):
makes the playing field almost too.Even if everyone's using the same gear,
then it just I guess some peopleuse some people use pelle grills and competitions,
don't they. They mainly use itfor after the rap so once you
once you wrap it, you're nottaking on any smoke anymore anyways. And
it's just a constant heat, iswhat they're using it. But but,
but the difference, the difference betweenan offset and impellet smoker really is I'll
(22:02):
use this until the day I die. The smoking section and the non smoking
section at Perkins and Mancato at twoam. That is the difference between the
two. I think the app andthe word gimmick maybe is too strong.
But for the average person that isn'thardcore, that isn't doing the competitions,
like the Tragger app has a thousandrecipes on it and stuff like that,
(22:23):
Like you can get freaking lost inthe week. It's quick with different stuff
to use. And since we arereally obsessed with our phones. I mean
I picture it as a dad likeand you know, I caught myself my
kids are eight, annoyed with howmuch when we got these we got these
Amazon like these these for kids,these little tablets and then I was shocked
(22:45):
that they were glued to them likezombies. Like, why am I dumb?
I'm shocked? And then of course, what did I do? I
went to my phone to figure outhow much screen time is healthy? Oh,
that's right, we're all addicted.We all have too much screen time.
So I think in that vein though, it's like it's another thing that's
on your phone. I'm sitting onthe couch. Okay, okay, sweet,
(23:07):
I can put a timer on it, the whole thing. As a
matter of fact, you can shuther down. Yeah, if I could
turn the thing off. That getsme out, because I always think of
like grilling as being like I mightburn this chicken. I don't know.
We're sitting around, We've had acouple of beers. Should I flip it?
Should I not flip it? Yougot old Nordo and Johnson here going.
If it was me, i'd probablyturn it. If I was speaking
(23:30):
of that, I gotta go checkon my gotta go check on my steaks.
Here. Yeh, let's se whatwe got. And here's where we
paused again. Steaks were at onenineteen and one sixteen for me, I
pulled them, put the grill grateson the grill, pumped the trigger up
to five hundred degrees, did somereverse seing with butter. Then I let
him rest, then we cut himup, then we ate him up,
and we voted. A champion wascrowned. Kenny Well he ate and ran,
(23:52):
so Aaron and Brad hopped on themic and we talked about the process,
talked about who won, and reallywe just all enjoyed awesome wagu steaks.
How we did it is both Aaron, you and I, sir,
we both cooked two s abatans wagusteaks YEP. Earlier in the podcast before
you got here, I tried toexplain. I basically said, it's a
(24:14):
wag you denver cut YEP, andwe both went to the reverse seer option.
You on the yoder, me onthe tragger, you would live fire
me with the smoke. And nowwe've done the taste test, so to
play how closely we ended up withour finish, which is I know,
that's kind of nuts because you werea little paniccked to one point and I
(24:37):
thought I was behind, you wereahead, and why yeah, And it
just speaks to the difference. Soyou know, whether it's the Yoda and
it's the tragger. We were runningtechnically at the same temp right two twenty
five, Yeah, and I wasahead of you. I put him on
before you, and then I freakedout because one was at a different temp
than the other. So I wentsteak down. I went steak down to
(24:59):
the uh to the bottom there,and where's John going. Ah, we
have a customer, so John's soJohn's gonna do his thing. That's yet
one more thing I'm gonna edit outof the podcast. So you and I
are going at the same temp andtwo twenty five, and then I freak
out because they're at a different temp. So I got to go one down
(25:22):
closer to the heat. And thenI even I tried to reposition him.
I'm playing blind tetris here with awith a gorilla I haven't used before this
particular UH trigger. You're using theyoder and somehow you caught up with the
tank and then you were hitting youwere hitting me with the live fire.
I was so jealous over there.I love the tragger. The tragger kicks
ass. Ye. I'm looking overthere, I'm seeing flames, Like,
(25:44):
how did that happen? If Isee flames on the trigger, there's a
problem. But you that's like it'ssupposed to happen over on the yoda,
a two piece diffuser. It's prettycool. Yeah, So honestly, I
mean, in the end, Ithought you're seer on the trigger with the
grill grades. Uh, turned outpretty damn good. I mean I think
I think this seer was pretty closeto equal. So yeah, it was
(26:06):
pretty close to equal. I likedthe color on yours, whether it was
a live fire, we used differentseasonings. Of course, I like the
lookier steaks better than I like mine. So we are getting to that stage
where we're trying to find needless waysto compliment each other's work. In the
end, I thought all of thesteaks turned out fantastic. And the cool
(26:26):
thing about Zabatan's the cool thing aboutWagu is unless you really go over the
mark, Yeah, they're gonna tastefreaking Where did you call finished on yours?
And what was the temple for slicing? So one of mine was one
twenty eight, okay, that's whenwe brought it into rest, okay,
and then the other one was onetwenty four. That's when I brought it
(26:51):
into rest, all right, Andso I did not tempt them again,
I just waited. You threw acouple extra globs of butter on at the
extra while I always I always dothem. I always throw the button on
after the cook. We'll see that. And and so during the I do
it during a seer portion of it. Yeah, and so, but but
I just I didn't. I didn'ttemp problem again. I just waited for
(27:14):
for you to decide that you wouldrest it enough, and then we went
in and sliced. Yeah. SoI was like, I get kind of
religious about setting timers, and soI had it five minute timer. Oh
yeah, watch, by the way, you see me, I'm your digital
age, I'm analog. You're you'resetting timers for yourself your watch. And
it was just not saying anything moreconversation with that. It is. Yeah,
(27:36):
so the uh, what was yourfinal one thirty four? And it
was one thirty four and one thirtyfive. So and that that is my
prefers at the pull off or thatwas at the end of the the end,
right before we sliced, okay,after five minutes rest. But and
I would I would guess you're probablyI could imagine I could have been thirty
two. I don't know. Itlooks real close. I don't know if
my one twenty four gets north ofI bet you it was one thirty at
(27:59):
the map. Chime in, where'syour target finish stamp on your zabs.
I'm gonna be honest, Well,really I do not temp. So we
tell you we had this. Iknow we did. We did the all
chin nose. Yeah, yeah,I'll touch and feel, touch and field
where we uh it's a clean podcastor oh there's been a lot of that.
(28:26):
There's been a lot of weird stuffsaid before you showed up. So
okay, good, so we're inthat mix. So so yeah, I
guess I I didn't. I didn'tget as far now now to that end.
Though. The point is is ifwe were cooking maybe a non wag
you or a different kind of steak, we're talking about your one thirty four,
one thirty five, I'm probably onethirty two, one thirty ish.
Yeah, they looked real. You'renot. You're not cooking that hot.
(28:48):
Maybe with a non wagy steak,do you agree. I think you can
do the same thing. Like ifyou're cooking the commodity Rabbi, you probably
want to get it, you know, up to that you want to finish
it like one twenty six. Youdon't want to go if you want to
be medium rareish, you know,that's like but those you know, That's
the thing about these abatons is though, that that internal marbling. I think
(29:11):
you take them a little. Imean, we're only talking the difference of
six degrees, but six juries ofseparation maybe, but it can but it
can mean a lot. Yeah,I think I think that that that that
uh what I call beef butter,that marbling inside those abs. Yeah.
Once once that renders, that's whereall your flavor is and then they're just
so tender. It's like, Ilove that steak. It was it was
(29:34):
so good. And as you know, again we were talking about with it,
it's amazing we found a way tolike, God, what can we
do. We're gonna call it thecompetition and cook for as the avatons.
We're all like, okay, thoseare all awesome, yeah, correct.
Uh. The and and the funnything about it here is that you can
eat a steak of a different cutthat's twice the size and it's so rich.
(29:56):
It's so rich the way like it'sit's so filling at as it is.
And I was just man, itwas amazing. I think all four
kicked ass. That's where I sat. Yeah, yeah, knowing that you
know, used the executioner on it, and I was against that because that
in my world, that's a porkrub and I don't like sweet on beef.
But I will say it was tellme what, you know, it
(30:18):
was better than I thought. Theonly you know, if I could be
hyper critical, and this is hypercritical, I'm saying, it's like I
wasn't offended. I thought it tastedpretty good. I thought the the bark
was a little muddy, and Ithink that was the sugar in it.
But it's not like it was like, oh my god, that's terrible.
I was a bit, like Isaid, if I literally was interested in
(30:38):
what that was gonna taste like,and it was better than I thought that.
Did you do trail dusts on ittoo, or just just execution?
Just that's it. Yeah, that'skind of crazy. So that's that's a
really really good like pork rub thatwe saw a ton of. I love
that on pork chops. So thewhole thing, the whole thing started because
it is a pork rub. Yeah, well maybe not well but but and
(31:00):
it works for me, I absolutelyadore it. We'll hear from John,
We'll hear from brad Ken who didhave to leave. He got the taste
tests and he'll leave. We'll we'lloffer his his takes on it. Eventually
the whole thing started. So we'reup at meat Saus's cabin and you've been
kind enough to sell meats here thatI can buy and then I can go
(31:22):
up to the cabin with Yeah,so him burned down the cabin, so
we got all that burned down.The grill absolutely try but you know,
one time and just a little flamekiss on the awning of the garage outside
their house, Tomhawks, they werefine. So we uh, we've been
having beverages responsibly, of course,but for for long hours and cook racks
(31:45):
of ribs. Ribs were terrific.And then as the ribs, it's kind
of it's the conveyor belt system.So ribs are being done, they're being
cut, they're being eaten, everyone'sdrinking and being merry. Then we put
the steaks. So it's just Imean, it's way too much cooking,
but we love it. So let'sjust say maybe I started responsibly enjoying beverages
(32:07):
at about ten am. Let's saywe're cooking the steaks at about seven or
eight pm. I'm doing Cavin Matthewsstarted at eight am. But that's fine.
Okay, yeah, okay, it'slike the reverse fish story, I
suppose. So I was gonna sayyou started drinking a little too late.
No, I mixed up and Iput the wrong rub on it, and
(32:28):
then I loved it. That's thewhole thing. It was a total mistake.
So you did that on the onthe tomahawk. It was a total
mistake on one of the tomahawks,and it was unfreaking believable. And so
and that tomahawk, despite being mildlyit was kind of charbro a little bit.
I mean, there was some flamesand the works and everything. Yeah,
no big deal. It ended upbeing as good at like at the
(32:50):
time, again maybe being skewed bybeers, it was awesome. And so
then I tried it a couple oftimes at the house. I'm like,
this is pretty damn good and it'snot bad. So then I brought it
up to you a handful of times, and each time you tell me I'm
a freaking lunatic. Yeah, so, but that's why I do it,
And and there are other out there, and we'll get to the one that
I used on the other steak,because I do actually think that's better.
(33:13):
But in the end, I lovethe executioner on it. It's a pork
rub on beef. Totally get it. But who cares if the taste buds
love it? You know. Yeah? So, like I did a try
tip. I was at home screwingaround and Missy walks out and I'm I'm
putting Poilo caliente Gentriesio caliente, whichis an awesome like wing rub. I
(33:34):
was doing that on tri tip andshe was like, what are you doing?
And I'm like, trust me,it's gonna be awesome. So we
did try tip tacos with Poio andthat was absolutely just that sounds sweet,
Yeah, it was. It wasincredible cool. So just because it's made
for pork, just because it's madefor chicken, whatever, Man, if
you love it at your house,that's the that's the that's the game right
there. Rad, Where do youstand on this suite on beef? And
(33:57):
now me, can we get intoscoring? Well we can first, but
I want to because Brad's all aboutbeing honest here, apparently want to.
Yeah, So I hope he's notlying. You can you can love it,
you can hate it, Brad,just tell me what's up, brother.
I was pleasantly surprised. It wasgood on the beef. I could
tell right away what I was.Wasn't it the Unicorn of the four?
(34:21):
Like you could immediately tell it wasso different? But I knew it going
in what was on everything too?So that but it was good. I
was surprised, and sometimes you know, those those surprises that come at you,
just like I would never would havethought Jlopino on my steak would be
good. But there's a few rhubsthat have Holopino in it, and they
are really good on beef. Yeah, I was. I was conflicted today
(34:45):
because I was going to run theJolly Roger and I was like, I'm
just gonna dumb it down. Sowhat you what did you end up going
with? So I went with ExecutionerCattleman's Trail Dust, which has become kind
of a new favorite for me.That's that's the stuff that I I Yeah,
I loan to you go back.And it was funny because I was
(35:05):
looking for it. Where is ourtrail? My kids love it on burgers.
It has no heat, but ithas a ton of flavor. And
so for my kids that's perfect becausethey're they're just graduating. Like you know,
a spicy barbecue sauce is like hobbin her. It's like ghost peppers
to them right now. So they'reeight, you know, let's yeah,
pump the brakes, come on,grow up a little bit, let's let's
get it go on here. Yeah, but but they they love that trail
(35:30):
dust. Yeah, I suppose allthat cattlements their try tip is. I
like the it's it's a really prettyrub. It sets up nice. It's
got a large granular you know,garlic an onion, and it just looks
cool. I love that stuff.Yeah. Absolutely. So let's say I
suppose we we shall stop delaying.Uh, we will let we will let
(35:53):
John and Brad declare a winner,declare where it can stands. We know.
So we have three, which isgood because we're not gonna have a
tie. That's yeah, there's noway there's a tie, no way a
tie. And so so we willlet those two pick. We will we
will announce where Ken picked. Youwill pick, and then I will pick,
(36:13):
and then I'll announce who still isemployed. Yeah, you know,
and You know what's cool, though, is I'll edit that out of the
podcast too, So if it's neverheard, it never happened. If there's
any personal I are attached to this, no, they know better. Let's
uh, let's start with John.You can picture from your vantage point the
plate on the left the plane onthe right from my advantage point. Offer
(36:37):
your offer, your takes as theyas they are necessary. I'm also going
to throw this out to Brad.He needs us, so we're okay,
okay, we have some inside baseballthat might say otherwise, but we'll leave
that alone. So as far asmy vantage point, looking from the left
and the right, they were bothgoing. But you can't go wrong with
(37:00):
these Avaton steaks. I mean,I'm full as could be right now.
I barely can drink this heavy rotationbeer that I have in front of me
right now. That can didn't bring. But the one on the left had
very similar taste to both of thesteaks. That's your right hand you're waving
around, just so you know.The one on the right. I'm sorry,
(37:25):
Oh yeah, that's the way itworks, all right. Look at
the one on the left gave metwo completely different flavors, and that and
quite honestly, that's what I liked, is they weren't the same thing for
both of the steaks, so Ihave to go with the one that was
on the left. Okay, Brad, what do you think I'm going to
(37:47):
start out by saying, I ateall the remainder pieces that were elapsed,
so that plates. I cleaned them. So, by the way, can
you stop licking the place? Now? Where's bread? That's where bread was.
But if I have to pick,I am going to take the plate
that would have been on my right, which, like John was saying,
(38:12):
was a little bit more the I'llcall it. Both were neutral or more
neutral. I liked the executioner one. I felt like maybe, especially if
we're gonna get technical, they theywere a little salty for my take,
both both of the ones on theleft, but that's just okay. I'm
(38:35):
I had butts. They were thetail ends of them as well, so
I you know, maybe there wasextra seasoning on those compared to know there
was nor I cut mine off.If you went back in the kitchen and
ate them, didn't you? Itold you I cleaned them all up.
But that's that's just my take onit. Yeah, that's the one thing
I did kind of on purposes.I didn't leave that tail on which all
(38:59):
the seasoning is on, because I'mthe competition dork and I'm like, there's
those are either you're gonna love himor hate them, but all the slices
in the middle, I can controlhow much of that bark you're gonna get.
Yeah, I think it sounds likeit bit me in the ass because
no winds, Well, who areyou voting for me? I don't get
to vote. I cooked well theokay, so he voted for you?
(39:22):
You know that, right? Yeah? Okay, yeah, John, Okay,
yeah, so Ken, so cameraKen. Like the fact that I
use different flavors on each it reallycame down they were too salty. If
I yeah, that was it.That's it. Well, no you don't.
(39:43):
You don't have to. I don'thave to feel bad about Okay.
I wouldn't say you is too salty, but for Brad's taste, it was.
And that's the thing about all thiscooking is like it's all who gives
a ship? So I actually Iactually was going to one, and it's
not it's not just about uh,your steaks I thought were better than mine.
I liked the I like the flavorof them. I'm partial to that
(40:04):
executioner, Rob, you know,that's that's the weirdness. That's a unique
one of the group. Uh,yours were I I thought they were better
than mine, So so I wouldI win the taste test, I win
the people's choice award. That's becauseKen Ken voted. Ken voted for for
my plate as well. He did, actually yep, and he said something
similar to you, John, thatI used different flavors, which is cool,
(40:24):
but in the end, you didn'thave them seasoned differently though, right,
because I did two that were thesame. Did you want to Yeah,
I did two separate seasonings. Ohwell, I didn't know that.
Yeah I did. I did Executionera minute, I did Executioner on one
and then I did And that's whyyour season with Livia is on the other.
And that's why Ken was asking,are we voted on the plates or
(40:45):
on the stakes? Which one replay? Which one? Where were you?
I was seasoning two stakes with thesame thing, thinking we were gonna,
okay, all right, that's fine, next time, we'll establish rules rules.
But if you would have changed oneup on the other one, I
thought, I thought about it butI I really tried to dumb it down
(41:06):
because at home, I'm guilty ofreally being heavy handed with seasoning and I
was just trying to just kind ofcool your jets and don't go overboard.
And you know, but well,Ken's the only Ken's the only one of
the group I think that actually didn'tknow which play was witch correct. There's
no chance that you guys took abite out of either one of those and
(41:27):
didn't immediately know which one was which. I couldn't look at the seasonings on
mistake, I know who was usingone. Yeah, but so Ken's the
only impartial voter here, and wellyou know which way Ken went, So
yeah, I would I'm I'm Iwas really pleased, and you know,
happy that you're cooking on a pieceof equipment that you haven't cooked on before.
(41:49):
And you know, you started beforeI did, and in the end
we we finished almost identical. Ithink I was a little bit behind you
by a minute or two, maybenot by much, not by much.
And and I you know, wedon't cook head head a lot, but
you know, I feel like sincewe've met you, you've become like a
(42:12):
more hell I'm a hell of alot better than I was three years ago.
I don't think meaning us made youbetter. I'm just saying kind of
you know, how many times Ihave sat here we were talking about earlier.
I'm norm from cheers, asking youstupid ask questions. So I can
you get my I can't quite reach. Okay, you can do myself on
the back. You found your egosomewhere. I understand that. No,
(42:36):
But that's my point is is that'swhy I like learning from you guys,
even you know, just thinking aboutdifferent ways and not to handle the different
tempts at the steaks and just likeputting one down like stuff like that and
then not freaking out about it andjust like that's part of the bit.
You know, one was a lotthicker than the other one, and just
dealing with that. Yeah, Andbut I've learned about all of that and
it's helped me not freak out,you know. And and that's really the
(42:58):
biggest key, is like not beingmad about the product and learning how to
get to the finish line you cookwith better meat as well. That helps.
Yeah, But in the end,I think, you know, none
of those were not you know,ashamed to put that in front of the
family. No, hell no,oh no, I'd eat that all day.
No bread would, and honestly weall would because you can't go wrong
(43:22):
with the meat that we had.Yeah, it couldn't have been it couldn't
have been that salty bread. Imean you clean that up in a second.
So, like I said, hewas licking the plate to get no,
that's no, that's sweet. Butbut yeah that so that's uh.
I don't know, it's very anticlimacticin a way. All four were good.
Yeah, but it's too bad theaudience can't well, they can see
(43:45):
it on social I'm sure you'll putsomething out on Northern Fire. I'll put
out you know, hops and ogs. We'll talk to my guy some pictures
of the various products and such thatwe put out there that we cooked.
And we tried to tell people thisall the time, and it's the same
thing that just happened. You cando all three different steaks and they'll they'll
all be really good. And theyall basically he started at a different time,
(44:07):
he pulled them at different times theyended. I'd say, your attempts
were great. That everything is youknow, that's barbecue right there, like
nothing is ever going to be thesame. Every cook is going to be
slightly different. There's stuff that's similarfish words of wisdom from Brad. And
you know, the key thing aboutBrad is none of this happens without him
(44:29):
because he wasn't even really supposed tobe here today. And he's well correct,
but he gets he gets called into man the ship while we do
the while we do the cooking.Oh wait, who's gonna put the grills
out there? Well, that's Brad. Who's gonna put the pellets in there?
That's Brad, who's going to gethim set up and get him set
the temp No, that's Brad.Who's going to going to take Who's gonna
(44:54):
take Aaron steaks out of the fridge? I'm not did he out? He
took him out of the wrapping?Okay, I like I couldn't get my
hands dirty to do. I helpedboth of you. I technically helped.
It's true. It was. Itwas an even effort and in some ways
an even result. So that wasfun. Guys, Uh, what's the
(45:15):
what's the next thing that we shouldcook tomorrow? Up? Tomorrow? Well,
no, not tomorrow. You knowit's tough because you know, I
would love to say, let's youknow, and that and that gets to
be difficult and and really hard todo head to head. Well, you
do it in competitions every weekend,but uh two weeks yeah, not this
(45:40):
weekend, but next it's on theroad. I'm I'm terrified. I'm cooking
on a cooker I just got andI have no time to practice the giant
outlaws yep, yep. And Brad'sgot to put that on the trailer.
Next. Did you even get didyou get to use it? Because you
did the competition class? Did youget to use it? What do you
use for the No? No?No? Because that that was Kyle from
(46:00):
Hot Eddy's. He he's a drumcooker, so everything was cooked on drums,
just like he does. It washis class. See that that's something
I should have went to. AndI know you you cook on drums too,
Brad. And I've told you aboutthe Neapolitan tomahawk that I made.
I call it the Neapolitan because Ihad three different flavors associated with this absolute
wreck of a tomahawk that I wastedon a barrel. Uh, cooking on
(46:23):
the pit barrel? Yeah? Yeah? Did you hang it? Well?
I hung it and then I gotfreaked out about the temp. I'm like,
I don't know if this thing's gonnaget up. So then I recharged
the charcole oh yeah, and endedup just absolutely scorching the tip midway through
its medium rare ish. Yeah that'sthe and then the top side was perfect.
(46:45):
So learning positioning of the charcole inthere, I think I could have
been better understanding maybe how to maneuveror switch things up on it. Completely
screwed up one hundred dollars steak.The I think cowboys worked better those because
I've done that too when you geta tomahawks. So the difference between a
cowboy steak and tomahawk is the lengthof the bone R And if you don't
(47:08):
drill the hole for the hangar inthe right place, then you really can
get that basically in the fire andin the standard size especially is you can't
go too low because then you can'teven close the thing for bone so long,
So there is a limit to that. There's a there's a magic hour
in there where everything kind of fun. It is getting the Milwaukee drill out
(47:30):
and drilling through the bone before youput the hook on it. I was
like, I was expecting it tobe you know, blood and gore,
and it was like, okay,yeah, he just looked like super easy.
Is that where we're made of?That's all it takes. It's a
little freaked out, got soft bones. All right, we'll figure out.
(47:52):
We'll figure out something. And you'reright, it can't be a brisket.
Maybe it is. I can bringmy barrel. My barrel will travel.
There's no out about that. Anduh, and we'll find maybe it's a
try tipsy and can we do anwhat do you call it? On air
production meeting? On air production media. And so we've got this event coming
(48:13):
up on four twenty, so Apriltwentieth, gonna uh on air advertisement.
No, that's fine. We weactually we did talk about it earlier in
the podcast. We were we werejust for I'm paying for advertising, wrong
station. That is true, that'scorrect. Oh God, if only you
(48:35):
guys can see what's just happened.So, yeah, April twentieth, we're
gonna have all of our Barbie teamsout here cooking. And one thing I
was thinking about would be awesome forthe podcast. If you're available on April
twentieth, I know it's a holidayfor you, but have you come out
and basically we're gonna have all thesebarbecue teams. You could have a variety
pack of all these guys. SoKyle from Hot Daddy's episode of Team of
(48:58):
the Year Iowa Team of the Year, Brad's gonna be out there going well.
We think can be doing whatever Bradwants to be cooking. But Brad's
probably working the red We'll see whathappens. We're both running. Yeah,
(49:19):
well, no po Pork is gonnabe out running my at law or an
outlaw. I don't know if they'regonna bring theirs a run mine. Then
we got Phoenix Barbecue coming out greatpicking. This guy's coming out Hogline.
I think might make it, buthe might not. Dustin Reese from Omatana,
who am I forgetting PETTYQ? Wejust opened a barbecue restaurant over in
(49:40):
Roseville, so PETTYQ will be outhere. Well, dude, we got
to do almost a it's almost likeRadio Row, High Still Water, Minnesota.
Andy Brown will be out here.Let's do so Saturday the twentieth.
We can do dry guys like apodcast, like a podcast Radio Row,
and we'll just we'll just fine fiveminutes here, ten minutes there, whatever,
(50:02):
and at some point we'll just talkto all of them. That'd be
great, and I'll ask them allkinds of stupid questions and whatnot, and
we'll find ways to rip on youalong the way. And it's all funny
and it's automatic, and uh no, we'll have some fun. And in
the end where I get to eat, right, there's gonna be a lot.
Yeah, there's gonna be a lotof fair amount of food. Yeah.
And and we just found that itsounds like the guys from jim Bean.
We're gonna be out here doing somebourbon and maybe tequila samples. Yeah,
(50:27):
and Hopson Hawks. We're hoping toget you know, the whole mall
in on this. So Yoo donuts, popcorn, olive oil, the confectioners,
what about the spa, Yeah,yeah, they're invited get the procession
of the professional massages. Picture thatwe have the cairopractor next door and the
(50:47):
heating. Yeah, so you canget your neck cracked and then you can
get erupt on a little bit picturethat during the competition, what competition just
took a left here double entendre anda little innuendo for your podcast. Yeah,
you radio professionals wouldn't understand those kindsof things. It turns out the
(51:10):
contest just filled up a simple fromJaska. No my dingling. We heard
that today. I got no controlover such things. Okay, I am
but a producer, That's all Ido. You're a good one. We
appreciate you, Thank you very much. And you guys are awesome too.
And so whether it's Hops Hogs BBQvia x Hops Hogs bbq, uh and
(51:37):
of course Northern Fire BBQ, you'llcheck out some social at some point of
the zabatans we cooked. At somepoint I'm in on the next contest.
I want to do pekanya. I'venever done it. That's a pitrell adam
too correct. So I bring thebarrel and I beat you in a contest
for something I've never even cooked before. Rat, I need your help,
(51:59):
and then we'll we'll we'll see wherewe're at that or at least we'll just
enjoy a lot of great pecanya,which feels the most likely result. You
need more people to eat. Man. That was Hops and Hoggs felt like
a cast of a thousand. Iwas getting confused, trying to keep track
of who I was talking to.Aaron, John and Brad at Northern Fire.
Happy fourth anniversary to those guys andyou heard it. April twentieth.
(52:20):
It's a Saturday. You can headto Northern Fire not only get to see
the store, but also you getthe feast and you get to learn competition
teams on site celebrating and cooking abunch of amazing food. And then this
next weekend, Happy anniversary, thesecond one for Kennon Company at Heavy Rotation
Brewing in Brooklyn Park. Try tomake it out there and have a pint.
That's the Hops and Hogs Barbecue podcast. It's local beer, it's local
(52:43):
barbecue. You can follow us atHops Hogs BBQ via Twitter and of course
catch our podcast. Subscribe to it, whether it's via the free iHeartRadio app,
iTunes, Spotify, wherever you getthem, Come and get it Hops
and Hoggs. Thanks for listening.M
Hey there, it's Eric Nordquiz Nordofrom KFA and Sports Radio in Minneapolis.
Welcome to Hopson Hoggs and wherever youfound us, whether it's the free iHeartRadio
app, iTunes, Spotify, justappreciate you listening. It's about local beer,
local barbecue in one podcast and bigthanks as always my buddies in Northern
Fire Grilling and barbecue Supply. Aaron, John and Brad were in the mix
(00:24):
for this one, as well asKen from Heavy Rotation Brewing. And this
episode was weird, full of pausesand asides, but it was mostly about
a combo of celebrating anniversaries while simultaneouslyhaving a wag u steak cooking contest.
So let's listen. So what arewe drinking here? Ken? Well,
guys, unfortunately I don't bring anythingfor you today. I know, I
(00:47):
know, shame on me. Ohcool way to participate in the podcast.
I know the reason I didn't though, saving everything for next weekend? Why
next weekend? Next weekend is arenot our first but our second anniversary part,
so we need all the beer wecan have for Friday. Yeah,
Sunday, you know we got ahold. Is there an applause in this
(01:07):
button bar. I don't know somewhere, but is there it is? Thank
you for doing that. You'd befeeling pretty good if this was the crowd
next weekend. Oh, if that'sthe crowd, you know, we'll be
having a damn good time. Butyeah, so no beer, that's on
my end. But yeah, that'slooking forward to next weekend. So is
there any type of deal at HeavyRotation up in Brooklyn Park, Like,
(01:29):
is there a code word this weekor does it just go there for the
anniversary? Does this week go forthe anniversary? Right? Like we wanted
to come hang out Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We got all kinds of
stuff going on Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But the
main juiciest part is going to beprobably that Saturday night live music, all
day meat raffle. I know allthe people listening to that to do barbecue
(01:49):
stuff love free meat. So comeout get your hand on some meat.
Is that true? It's true thatbarbecue people love meat. Yeah, I
mean I think so. So youranniversary next weekend. It's two years in
the business, two years now,John, While technically you are not you
are not the owner of Northern Fire. But you have been in the fire
(02:12):
and on the ground with this placesince it opened. You guys just you
guys just celebrated kind of your fourthanniversary, is that right. We yeah,
yeah, we just passed our fourthon March third, and we're going
to be doing a celebration actually onApril twentieth, kind of a customer appreciation
day that day, four to twenty. Yes, we're going to be smoking
(02:37):
smoking meats. Yeah, okay,smoking meats, all right. I mean,
not that there's anything wrong with thethat other thing smoking. If you
got them two years in the brewerybusiness as an owner, multiple years prior
to that, what's that been,like, O's ups and downs. It's
awesome. It's it really is kindof fun, you know, with the
(02:57):
anniversary parties and everything like that.Every party you do, it's really cool
to kind of see the people thatyou've made friends with over the couple of
years and the regulars that show upto me a good time. I mean,
it's I can't tell it. Ican't say everything's been amazing because that
would be a lie. Can sayeverything's been crappy because that'd be a lie.
It's kind of right down the middle. Okay, well, let me
ask you about that because okay,yeah, and next we get it next
(03:17):
weekends the anniversary, and you wantpeople to go Okay, I understand that.
Okay, that part has been established. I like that part and I'm
excited to be there. When youdecided to open a brewery. Lots of
people think it'd be cool to owna brewery that think it'd be cool because
we're going to hang out and drinkbeer all day, drink beer, and
then just people are naturally going tocome in and droves and it's just going
(03:39):
to be that easy. Is thereanything about the last two years that opened
your eyes? Now, you know, via Uda pills in your experience prior
to It's not like you were newto the entire industry, but it means
a lot more when you're in chargeof the numbers, you know what I
mean? Yeah, I mean Iwould say that probably with every kind of
restaurant or bar or whatever, weekdaysthey're a son of a bitch, right,
(04:04):
Like that's just being honest, that'sjust pulling back the curtain. Weekdays
are the hardest thing to get peopleto come in and drink. You would
think that'd be the time that they'dwant to because it's like set a hell
of a day at work, goin, stop and have a beer.
No, So, if you everwant to support your local brewery, every
rotation brewing dot com or any bar, restaurant whatever going on the weekday,
you're encouraging people to drink during theweek. Drink seven days a week.
(04:27):
I don't you know. But ifyou responsibly responsible yeah, but if you're
gonna do it like honestly, likesupport those places during the week because you
might go in on a Friday Saturdayand it's packed, like, oh man,
this place must always be busy.Not the case. Right, going
on that Monday or that Tuesday,you got a better chance of sitting down
bus and with the bar attender anowner. I bar ten on Mondays right,
come in talk to me. Yeah, that's best hair in the blue
(04:51):
business. By the way, youknow this is not news to anybody.
I work unique hours. There's nothingbetter than posting up and do an happy
hour or something like that during theweek. And not everyone can do this.
I get it. I you know, I'm done. I can be
done at eleven fifty four am podcastto show you know, sometimes I do
(05:13):
that that FOD bit at six thirty. The pre recorded bit. Shouldn't have
told people it was pre recorded.I think people thought that I was actually
at the studio. Wah wah left. We can posted this out. I
had left and gone home and thenI came back at six thirty. I'd
offer you a couple of segments youmay have missed throughout the day FOD free
(05:33):
Irradio app. So there's nothing better. No, they're really hanging out in
a spot nobody's in there. You'rechilling, like you said, talking to
the bartender, solving the world's problems. Yeah, No, that's that's fantastic.
Like I said, sometimes sometimes youget an owner, just like coming
into Northern Fire, Right, you'regonna run into Aaron John. Right,
(05:54):
they're gonna take care of you.You come in when it's less busy,
always better. You got any questions, anything you need, It's going to
be a better experience for you.Lines are shorter now. Whether I'm norm
from cheers at Heavy Rotation or insome respects as we are here in the
back room in Northern Fire, I'mkind of norm from cheers at Northern Fire
(06:14):
as well, because I'll roll inhere around one pm. John's going to
be helping a customer, Aaron's doinghis thing, Brad's putting smokers together.
The whole thing. It's chaos,and I just want to ask a stupid
question about a pork butt or somethinglike that. So I've kind of evolved
into the norm from cheers here aswell. But John in the vein of
(06:36):
anniversaries, because that's a theme that'skind of taken over here before we get
to the a topic, and that'sme whooping Aeron's ass and a state competition
here, some wag us abatons thatare on the trigger as we speak.
Let's go right outside Northern Fire herein Minnetaka. Things that you've learned over
the course of four years, andit's not necessarily even about the barbecue business,
(06:58):
but in some ways being a specialretail shop you open up just before
the world ends with COVID, rightCOVID And you know some I bet you
know throughout doing this podcast, themore we talk to different people in the
barbecue business, everything about COVID's negativeexcept for the barbecue. Bas Except for
the barbecue business. It boomed.And that's one of the reasons why I'm
(07:19):
actually even working here because back inthose days, I was actually working for
a medical device company and just comingin here after my job there and helping
air and out builk smokers, rearrangingthe store every single day. And Aron's
picky, Well, no, misshe is, but we're just gonna edit
(07:42):
that out of the podcast now,I'll leave that one in there. Let's
come. But because of COVID,yeah, business ramped up huge and uh
he reached out to me and askedme if I would quit my normal job
and come work here and be hisloyal lieutenant. And yes, was it
the male stripper, right, iswhat you were doing before us? Well?
(08:03):
Medical device? Oh, medical devicemail stripper. That was way off.
Well, I mean with these daysit's not too it's it's not too
far away of a deviation, youknow, I mean, whatever you got
to do to sell something. Butthat's the thing is is you know,
like the you know another thing withCOVID. While the barbecue business was booming,
the only fans business was booming,right, And and that's people that
(08:24):
may have been in medical device sales. They could be nurses, they could
be account in school teachers, etcetera. Uh, it appears based on
some articles I've read that maybe thebest spot, the best thing to do
is to quit the school teaching jobbefore you get into only fans. H
Aaron, you want to talk,Get in here. What are you doing?
(08:46):
Come on here, somebody's got towork your zippers. Then, hey,
are your stakes on? Yet?We did talk about we are doing
a cookoff, right, Yeah,we are doing a cookoff. Yeah,
so I get that. That's whatthat just happened. So getting so getting
back to the lesson at hand,Well, I think he just forgot that
he had to put his stakes on. Well, it's clear. I think
(09:07):
as a matter of fact, I'mpretty sure that he assumed that Brad had
already put them on. Absolutely hedid. I'm surprised that he didn't make
Brad season them for him. Weare we sure we that he didn't.
I'm actually not completely sure. Sohere's what's going on is we're sitting at
Northern Fire celebrating anniversaries. As you'veheard, whether it was two years for
(09:28):
heavy rotation that's coming up this weekendMarch third, four years from Northern Fire
here in Minnetaka, anniversaries. Businessesbooming both on the hop side and on
the hog side. But Aaron.Aaron Bordage has cooked and won many barbecue
competitions over the course of time.And then there's me. We are having
(09:48):
a contest today. Zabatan steaks.I believe it's also referred to it's the
waggy version of the Denver cut,and it's cube like, it's very cubed.
I believe these are These are eightounce steaks. Is that accurate?
John? They are eight ounce supermarbleized. They are The Japanese translation of
a zabatan is a little pillow,a little pillow, and they look like
(10:13):
little pillows of delicious meat. Andthey're they're they're amazing, And so I
believe he's doing it. I'm reversesearing mine today. But the whole thing
is is, you know, Aaronlooks and probably rightly, so he looks
down on me. Okay, I'mlesser, and again from an experience standpoint,
from a cooking standpoint, totally agree. I'm gonna whoop his ass.
(10:33):
I can't wait. We definitely hope. So now anyone listening, this is
a blind taste test, so wehave no idea what myself, Ken and
Brad are going to be tasting.Who cooked what, and we have no
clue, and we're gonna see whowins this. Yeah, and so basically
we are out the right side tochoose your weapon. Aaron's got his yoder,
(10:56):
his Vikings themed the skull Yoder,skull Yoder. He actually is is
it named Dalvin? Did he nameit Dalvin? He did name it Delvin,
and then Delvin was gone the Dalvins. Yeah, Dalvin's not on the
team anymore. Yeah, so that'sI think that's not a great omen for
him. What if he could hecould name it Romo? Well, I
think you see the Vikings just signthe TikTok kicker John Parker Romo, so
(11:18):
he could call it Romo moving forward. I currently think he's in the court
system right now trying to rename itto JJ JJ. All right, and
trust me, after you guys tastemy steak, you're gonna want to kick
his out the door. I don'tknow. That was stupid. That was
on the fly. It was not. No, it's not very good.
Listen, they do. We doopen mic every Sunday at a heavy rotation,
(11:39):
so you should come check it out. Anybody that listens to nine to
New knows that when we get offscrip things get weird. Okay, and
that was just that was a smallthat was a dull, a boring example
of it. Oh, but theseavatarons, So I'm cooking them two twenty
five. I'm gonna get them justnorth of one twenty that I'm bringing the
grill grates out. So I'm gonnabring the steaks in. Pump the pump
the tragger up to five one hundred. Then we're going to see them on
(12:01):
both sides. I've been told there'sbutter on the premises? Is that accurate
the belief? So, okay,it's a little laid into the game to
not have butter. So I gotto figure that out. We'll go talk
to Sue. We'll talk to PopcornGal. Right, she has to have
butter in the porn it is Sue, right, Yeah, thank you.
(12:22):
Guys. Have a couple of placesright here that could get you butter.
The bakery, Oh in the spa. Spa, do you ever use cocoa
butter on steaks? Well, thattastes like today? Maybe a first blow
your mind? What's your favorite seasoningfor a steak? For me, it
is straight up just Livia's salt peppergarlic blend. That is the best out
(12:45):
there. It's actually a Minnesota companymade here in Saint Louis Park. Yep,
it is the best for beef.I put it on my eggs in
the morning and steaks at night andeverything else in between. Oh, it's
a universal season. It is absolutelyLivia's is awesome, and I you know,
I don't want to sway you becauseyou're one of the judges. I
use Livia Vivia's is the base.But then I mixed it up with something
(13:09):
Something's gonna throw you for a loop. But I swear to you, if
your taste buds are even on thesame planet as mine, you're gonna be
like, my god, Nordo,where did you come from here? This
is the most brilliant idea you've everhad in your life. It's absolutely a
game changer for stakes. Nobody believesme but me, and I can't wait
exactly what you gotta answer that.You gotta work a job second. Okay,
(13:30):
so on four to twenty, youguys need to have the aprons.
You gotta be yelling behind shit likethat, right, Like, if someone's
coming and you're grilling out there doingwhatever, make it a show. That's
what people want to see. Rightwhere the apron how many people are cooking
on on that day we have Iprefer to saying April twentieth versus four twenty
(13:50):
April twentieth, April twentieth, alsoknown as four twenty. We have probably
six or seven different teams that aregonna be out there cooking, and everyone
going to be cooking different things too, So it's not really a contest.
It's just kind of a celebration.It's a celebration. But there's also going
to be a people's choice award partof it too, to Okay, whatever
(14:11):
competition team cook the best thing whateverpeople like the best. Yeah, be
a old pork sandwich, or weknow what Aaron's cooking or whatever. No,
he hasn't revealed that yet. Ithink he's waiting to see what the
results from our time. I'm goingto intentionally vote for his to be second,
just so that we stay in linewith what's about to happen today.
(14:33):
Well, you know, he maybe planning on cooking zabatants that day.
How good would that be? Butif he loses to you today, he's
probably gonna have to come up witha different plan. Yeah, correct,
Or you know what I don't knowof yet. If I'm available that particular
day, I'd be happy to showup if I can, though, and
cook for him and give him somepointers. Yeah, correct, if he
(14:56):
just wants, you know, andI can write it down for him.
I'm very deep, you know.If I if I have to write something
down for like Pa, you know, I've learned how to put it into
his mind. I've learned how towrite the way PA would talk. That's
part of my relationship with him.And so similarly, I could write out
a very detailed I want to keepit simple, got to keep it real
(15:18):
simple, very simple. Yeah,but I could probably help him get through
that process. And really, youknow, I've been saying this for years.
It's all about just being in agood mood when you're cooking, and
you got to start from a baselineand do all of that. If you
want to keep it simple, ifyou got a competition thing like that,
words, you can make whatever youwant to make. Just do burgers.
(15:39):
Everyone loves a burger. Bring thepit boss out there. You know how
many people like, Yeah, thesteak was fine. I don't know if
that's good or I've never had thatkind of steak. I don't know if
that's supposed to be how it tastes. But a smash burger, everyone knows
what that is. And I knowyou guys got the class coming up in
May. I might have to comecheck it out for sure, But unbelievable,
like if I'm I'm doing a competitionwhere it's any like, bring whatever
(16:02):
you want, Yeah, keep yourtwenty five thirty dollars steaks. I got
some Smashbergers. Well, here's whatI'm gonna do is I'm gonna pause for
about forty five seconds because I'm gonnago check my stakes. All right.
So that was the first pause thatI had to take trying to do a
podcast cooking some steaks. Stuff todo both simultaneously, at least do them
well. So at any rate,both my stakes looking good. One was
(16:23):
at one oh three, the otherone was tempted at eighty nine, so
I had to do some maneuvering onthe trigger. Started to get a bit
suspicious of Erin because he's messing aroundnear my grill. Don't like that,
and I think he's trying to cheat. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind.
As a matter of fact, hewas trying to cheat. But continue
the conversation with Kenny and John.Here's what I'm worried about. Aaron's been
(16:44):
spending a lot of time out bymy grill. Do you think he's sabotaging
you? He's sabotaging your zabotins?Well, I'm not sure, but I
mean the alliteration was spot one.Can you do? Can you do a
templock on a grill to keep somebodyfrom messing with it? That's a great
question, because I love his Yodayoders are built like tanks. I kind
of want to just go and turnhis up to six hundred and walk away
(17:07):
for a little while and see whatSee how long it takes before he notices.
Definitely not a set it and forgetit then, because oh no,
and actually, where's my phone?Because I actually have the app for the
grill that you're using. The trigger. Yeah, it's on my phone,
so I can't even see what you'redoing right now. Apps on the grills.
What are you guys thoughts on that? I'd like, again, not
(17:30):
a grill guy, that's okay,but I think like, if you're gonna
be like, oh, yeah,I killed it on this. When I
did this, I did I hadto watch it for three hours, four
hours. I got up at sixam. I did all this shit.
Yeah, if you're just putting iton there, setting it on your phone,
sure you get an alert. Ohit's a little high. Maybe turn
it down. Yeah, I shouldturn it down. Are you really well?
(17:52):
Some people, some people might mightuse it more or be more attention
focused on it. I'll tell you. The only thing that I've ever used
it for is I'll just peek onit. Okay, same temp. Sure,
see where the pellets are at.I mean I've I've cooked ribs before
where I've just said it. Iwent to target and came back an hour
later or something like that. See, that's the best thing about the apps.
(18:15):
And if you're doing a longer cookit gives you the freedom to walk
away from what you're cooking. Sure, and it go to target or go
fishing or round a golf or whatever, and you can you can control it
from your phone see where you're at. Fair enough? And for longer cooks,
yeah, the app is awesome.Do they If you're doing shorter cooks,
(18:36):
I generally never look at the app. If we're talking competition cooking,
right, are you allowed to usean app? Or does it have to
be just fuel based. We canuse whatever you want in a competition.
You can't use whatever you want ina competition. Really, yeah, all
right, you know, I'm notI'm not saying I'm just do you think
there's peds? And well, Ithough i'd love to, I'd love to,
(18:59):
you know, as soon as Aaron. I don't know what Aaron's doing
other than other than trying to cheatright now, habitaze or sabotage. So
that's that's what I'm mildly worried about. But good. But I've read,
and again as a non competition guy, I've read a bunch on like various
ways that they can try and gamethe system from like a cosmetics standpoint,
that maybe the way they can makesomething look, maybe there's a little sauce
(19:22):
at the end, there's a littletrick something that they can do to hopefully
draw the eye and not the eyreof a judge red dye. But but
for me, I honestly the appthing. I think it's cool. I
would say that there is some gimmickto it. The convenience of pelic grills
in general is the fact that theythey they do you know, fluctuate tempts,
but really it's it's just an It'san oven with some smoke. So
(19:48):
you know what when I'm doing ifif I'm cooking, like, I don't
want an app for my anchor.So I have that anchor grill you were
asking about it, that that Michiganone that's sitting out here on the on
the sales floor. Absolute beauty.Yeah, and it's it's made by by
Paul down in the Lake Crystal area. Makes the whole thing, fabricates them
the whole thing himself. It's awesome. So I got that from Paul.
And it has the the external tempgauges on it and such, but I
(20:11):
will use uh. It's also Ibelieve it's my thermal works the signals bit
the signals and so the signals is. It's not in a wife. It's
not a bluetooth app, sure,but it's it's a physical unit that'll sit
next to the grill itself. Irun a probe that shows me the ambient
temp that's actually inside, because sometimesthat can deviate from your external thermometer gauges
(20:33):
or your thermostat gages on the outside. And then I just have this little
r F this little RF module thatconnects to the to the main bank and
I just hang out in my campingchair and drinkle ears in the garage.
So that's that's that's it. That'snot Yeah, that's the X the X
smoke or X two or X four. I think you have the X four.
(20:55):
Yeah. The signals does allow youif I could be a capability and
an app on your phone so youcan actually get more than a mile and
a quarter away from it. I'dprefer just to be if you're a mile,
if you're if you're smoking on anoffset and you're more than a mile
away from your smoker, it's areal fire, Dude, you're not doing
(21:15):
it right. No, no,no, I fire is going to go
out, dude. I'm street.I'm strictly just asking, like, do
you think that it almost especially incompetent I could see like doing it,
like if you're you're a busy guy, busy gal, like I gotta watch
the kids, I gotta do allthis. I'm gonna have to check the
app competition though. It seems likeit should be like you got to watch
this fire like you got it,like there is no because I think it
(21:36):
makes the playing field almost too.Even if everyone's using the same gear,
then it just I guess some peopleuse some people use pelle grills and competitions,
don't they. They mainly use itfor after the rap so once you
once you wrap it, you're nottaking on any smoke anymore anyways. And
it's just a constant heat, iswhat they're using it. But but,
but the difference, the difference betweenan offset and impellet smoker really is I'll
(22:02):
use this until the day I die. The smoking section and the non smoking
section at Perkins and Mancato at twoam. That is the difference between the
two. I think the app andthe word gimmick maybe is too strong.
But for the average person that isn'thardcore, that isn't doing the competitions,
like the Tragger app has a thousandrecipes on it and stuff like that,
(22:23):
Like you can get freaking lost inthe week. It's quick with different stuff
to use. And since we arereally obsessed with our phones. I mean
I picture it as a dad likeand you know, I caught myself my
kids are eight, annoyed with howmuch when we got these we got these
Amazon like these these for kids,these little tablets and then I was shocked
(22:45):
that they were glued to them likezombies. Like, why am I dumb?
I'm shocked? And then of course, what did I do? I
went to my phone to figure outhow much screen time is healthy? Oh,
that's right, we're all addicted.We all have too much screen time.
So I think in that vein though, it's like it's another thing that's
on your phone. I'm sitting onthe couch. Okay, okay, sweet,
(23:07):
I can put a timer on it, the whole thing. As a
matter of fact, you can shuther down. Yeah, if I could
turn the thing off. That getsme out, because I always think of
like grilling as being like I mightburn this chicken. I don't know.
We're sitting around, We've had acouple of beers. Should I flip it?
Should I not flip it? Yougot old Nordo and Johnson here going.
If it was me, i'd probablyturn it. If I was speaking
(23:30):
of that, I gotta go checkon my gotta go check on my steaks.
Here. Yeh, let's se whatwe got. And here's where we
paused again. Steaks were at onenineteen and one sixteen for me, I
pulled them, put the grill grateson the grill, pumped the trigger up
to five hundred degrees, did somereverse seing with butter. Then I let
him rest, then we cut himup, then we ate him up,
and we voted. A champion wascrowned. Kenny Well he ate and ran,
(23:52):
so Aaron and Brad hopped on themic and we talked about the process,
talked about who won, and reallywe just all enjoyed awesome wagu steaks.
How we did it is both Aaron, you and I, sir,
we both cooked two s abatans wagusteaks YEP. Earlier in the podcast before
you got here, I tried toexplain. I basically said, it's a
(24:14):
wag you denver cut YEP, andwe both went to the reverse seer option.
You on the yoder, me onthe tragger, you would live fire
me with the smoke. And nowwe've done the taste test, so to
play how closely we ended up withour finish, which is I know,
that's kind of nuts because you werea little paniccked to one point and I
(24:37):
thought I was behind, you wereahead, and why yeah, And it
just speaks to the difference. Soyou know, whether it's the Yoda and
it's the tragger. We were runningtechnically at the same temp right two twenty
five, Yeah, and I wasahead of you. I put him on
before you, and then I freakedout because one was at a different temp
than the other. So I wentsteak down. I went steak down to
(24:59):
the uh to the bottom there,and where's John going. Ah, we
have a customer, so John's soJohn's gonna do his thing. That's yet
one more thing I'm gonna edit outof the podcast. So you and I
are going at the same temp andtwo twenty five, and then I freak
out because they're at a different temp. So I got to go one down
(25:22):
closer to the heat. And thenI even I tried to reposition him.
I'm playing blind tetris here with awith a gorilla I haven't used before this
particular UH trigger. You're using theyoder and somehow you caught up with the
tank and then you were hitting youwere hitting me with the live fire.
I was so jealous over there.I love the tragger. The tragger kicks
ass. Ye. I'm looking overthere, I'm seeing flames, Like,
(25:44):
how did that happen? If Isee flames on the trigger, there's a
problem. But you that's like it'ssupposed to happen over on the yoda,
a two piece diffuser. It's prettycool. Yeah, So honestly, I
mean, in the end, Ithought you're seer on the trigger with the
grill grades. Uh, turned outpretty damn good. I mean I think
I think this seer was pretty closeto equal. So yeah, it was
(26:06):
pretty close to equal. I likedthe color on yours, whether it was
a live fire, we used differentseasonings. Of course, I like the
lookier steaks better than I like mine. So we are getting to that stage
where we're trying to find needless waysto compliment each other's work. In the
end, I thought all of thesteaks turned out fantastic. And the cool
(26:26):
thing about Zabatan's the cool thing aboutWagu is unless you really go over the
mark, Yeah, they're gonna tastefreaking Where did you call finished on yours?
And what was the temple for slicing? So one of mine was one
twenty eight, okay, that's whenwe brought it into rest, okay,
and then the other one was onetwenty four. That's when I brought it
(26:51):
into rest, all right, Andso I did not tempt them again,
I just waited. You threw acouple extra globs of butter on at the
extra while I always I always dothem. I always throw the button on
after the cook. We'll see that. And and so during the I do
it during a seer portion of it. Yeah, and so, but but
I just I didn't. I didn'ttemp problem again. I just waited for
(27:14):
for you to decide that you wouldrest it enough, and then we went
in and sliced. Yeah. SoI was like, I get kind of
religious about setting timers, and soI had it five minute timer. Oh
yeah, watch, by the way, you see me, I'm your digital
age, I'm analog. You're you'resetting timers for yourself your watch. And
it was just not saying anything moreconversation with that. It is. Yeah,
(27:36):
so the uh, what was yourfinal one thirty four? And it
was one thirty four and one thirtyfive. So and that that is my
prefers at the pull off or thatwas at the end of the the end,
right before we sliced, okay,after five minutes rest. But and
I would I would guess you're probablyI could imagine I could have been thirty
two. I don't know. Itlooks real close. I don't know if
my one twenty four gets north ofI bet you it was one thirty at
(27:59):
the map. Chime in, where'syour target finish stamp on your zabs.
I'm gonna be honest, Well,really I do not temp. So we
tell you we had this. Iknow we did. We did the all
chin nose. Yeah, yeah,I'll touch and feel, touch and field
where we uh it's a clean podcastor oh there's been a lot of that.
(28:26):
There's been a lot of weird stuffsaid before you showed up. So
okay, good, so we're inthat mix. So so yeah, I
guess I I didn't. I didn'tget as far now now to that end.
Though. The point is is ifwe were cooking maybe a non wag
you or a different kind of steak, we're talking about your one thirty four,
one thirty five, I'm probably onethirty two, one thirty ish.
Yeah, they looked real. You'renot. You're not cooking that hot.
(28:48):
Maybe with a non wagy steak,do you agree. I think you can
do the same thing. Like ifyou're cooking the commodity Rabbi, you probably
want to get it, you know, up to that you want to finish
it like one twenty six. Youdon't want to go if you want to
be medium rareish, you know,that's like but those you know, That's
the thing about these abatons is though, that that internal marbling. I think
(29:11):
you take them a little. Imean, we're only talking the difference of
six degrees, but six juries ofseparation maybe, but it can but it
can mean a lot. Yeah,I think I think that that that that
uh what I call beef butter,that marbling inside those abs. Yeah.
Once once that renders, that's whereall your flavor is and then they're just
so tender. It's like, Ilove that steak. It was it was
(29:34):
so good. And as you know, again we were talking about with it,
it's amazing we found a way tolike, God, what can we
do. We're gonna call it thecompetition and cook for as the avatons.
We're all like, okay, thoseare all awesome, yeah, correct.
Uh. The and and the funnything about it here is that you can
eat a steak of a different cutthat's twice the size and it's so rich.
(29:56):
It's so rich the way like it'sit's so filling at as it is.
And I was just man, itwas amazing. I think all four
kicked ass. That's where I sat. Yeah, yeah, knowing that you
know, used the executioner on it, and I was against that because that
in my world, that's a porkrub and I don't like sweet on beef.
But I will say it was tellme what, you know, it
(30:18):
was better than I thought. Theonly you know, if I could be
hyper critical, and this is hypercritical, I'm saying, it's like I
wasn't offended. I thought it tastedpretty good. I thought the the bark
was a little muddy, and Ithink that was the sugar in it.
But it's not like it was like, oh my god, that's terrible.
I was a bit, like Isaid, if I literally was interested in
(30:38):
what that was gonna taste like,and it was better than I thought that.
Did you do trail dusts on ittoo, or just just execution?
Just that's it. Yeah, that'skind of crazy. So that's that's a
really really good like pork rub thatwe saw a ton of. I love
that on pork chops. So thewhole thing, the whole thing started because
it is a pork rub. Yeah, well maybe not well but but and
(31:00):
it works for me, I absolutelyadore it. We'll hear from John,
We'll hear from brad Ken who didhave to leave. He got the taste
tests and he'll leave. We'll we'lloffer his his takes on it. Eventually
the whole thing started. So we'reup at meat Saus's cabin and you've been
kind enough to sell meats here thatI can buy and then I can go
(31:22):
up to the cabin with Yeah,so him burned down the cabin, so
we got all that burned down.The grill absolutely try but you know,
one time and just a little flamekiss on the awning of the garage outside
their house, Tomhawks, they werefine. So we uh, we've been
having beverages responsibly, of course,but for for long hours and cook racks
(31:45):
of ribs. Ribs were terrific.And then as the ribs, it's kind
of it's the conveyor belt system.So ribs are being done, they're being
cut, they're being eaten, everyone'sdrinking and being merry. Then we put
the steaks. So it's just Imean, it's way too much cooking,
but we love it. So let'sjust say maybe I started responsibly enjoying beverages
(32:07):
at about ten am. Let's saywe're cooking the steaks at about seven or
eight pm. I'm doing Cavin Matthewsstarted at eight am. But that's fine.
Okay, yeah, okay, it'slike the reverse fish story, I
suppose. So I was gonna sayyou started drinking a little too late.
No, I mixed up and Iput the wrong rub on it, and
(32:28):
then I loved it. That's thewhole thing. It was a total mistake.
So you did that on the onthe tomahawk. It was a total
mistake on one of the tomahawks,and it was unfreaking believable. And so
and that tomahawk, despite being mildlyit was kind of charbro a little bit.
I mean, there was some flamesand the works and everything. Yeah,
no big deal. It ended upbeing as good at like at the
(32:50):
time, again maybe being skewed bybeers, it was awesome. And so
then I tried it a couple oftimes at the house. I'm like,
this is pretty damn good and it'snot bad. So then I brought it
up to you a handful of times, and each time you tell me I'm
a freaking lunatic. Yeah, so, but that's why I do it,
And and there are other out there, and we'll get to the one that
I used on the other steak,because I do actually think that's better.
(33:13):
But in the end, I lovethe executioner on it. It's a pork
rub on beef. Totally get it. But who cares if the taste buds
love it? You know. Yeah? So, like I did a try
tip. I was at home screwingaround and Missy walks out and I'm I'm
putting Poilo caliente Gentriesio caliente, whichis an awesome like wing rub. I
(33:34):
was doing that on tri tip andshe was like, what are you doing?
And I'm like, trust me,it's gonna be awesome. So we
did try tip tacos with Poio andthat was absolutely just that sounds sweet,
Yeah, it was. It wasincredible cool. So just because it's made
for pork, just because it's madefor chicken, whatever, Man, if
you love it at your house,that's the that's the that's the game right
there. Rad, Where do youstand on this suite on beef? And
(33:57):
now me, can we get intoscoring? Well we can first, but
I want to because Brad's all aboutbeing honest here, apparently want to.
Yeah, So I hope he's notlying. You can you can love it,
you can hate it, Brad,just tell me what's up, brother.
I was pleasantly surprised. It wasgood on the beef. I could
tell right away what I was.Wasn't it the Unicorn of the four?
(34:21):
Like you could immediately tell it wasso different? But I knew it going
in what was on everything too?So that but it was good. I
was surprised, and sometimes you know, those those surprises that come at you,
just like I would never would havethought Jlopino on my steak would be
good. But there's a few rhubsthat have Holopino in it, and they
are really good on beef. Yeah, I was. I was conflicted today
(34:45):
because I was going to run theJolly Roger and I was like, I'm
just gonna dumb it down. Sowhat you what did you end up going
with? So I went with ExecutionerCattleman's Trail Dust, which has become kind
of a new favorite for me.That's that's the stuff that I I Yeah,
I loan to you go back.And it was funny because I was
(35:05):
looking for it. Where is ourtrail? My kids love it on burgers.
It has no heat, but ithas a ton of flavor. And
so for my kids that's perfect becausethey're they're just graduating. Like you know,
a spicy barbecue sauce is like hobbin her. It's like ghost peppers
to them right now. So they'reeight, you know, let's yeah,
pump the brakes, come on,grow up a little bit, let's let's
get it go on here. Yeah, but but they they love that trail
(35:30):
dust. Yeah, I suppose allthat cattlements their try tip is. I
like the it's it's a really prettyrub. It sets up nice. It's
got a large granular you know,garlic an onion, and it just looks
cool. I love that stuff.Yeah. Absolutely. So let's say I
suppose we we shall stop delaying.Uh, we will let we will let
(35:53):
John and Brad declare a winner,declare where it can stands. We know.
So we have three, which isgood because we're not gonna have a
tie. That's yeah, there's noway there's a tie, no way a
tie. And so so we willlet those two pick. We will we
will announce where Ken picked. Youwill pick, and then I will pick,
(36:13):
and then I'll announce who still isemployed. Yeah, you know,
and You know what's cool, though, is I'll edit that out of the
podcast too, So if it's neverheard, it never happened. If there's
any personal I are attached to this, no, they know better. Let's
uh, let's start with John.You can picture from your vantage point the
plate on the left the plane onthe right from my advantage point. Offer
(36:37):
your offer, your takes as theyas they are necessary. I'm also going
to throw this out to Brad.He needs us, so we're okay,
okay, we have some inside baseballthat might say otherwise, but we'll leave
that alone. So as far asmy vantage point, looking from the left
and the right, they were bothgoing. But you can't go wrong with
(37:00):
these Avaton steaks. I mean,I'm full as could be right now.
I barely can drink this heavy rotationbeer that I have in front of me
right now. That can didn't bring. But the one on the left had
very similar taste to both of thesteaks. That's your right hand you're waving
around, just so you know.The one on the right. I'm sorry,
(37:25):
Oh yeah, that's the way itworks, all right. Look at
the one on the left gave metwo completely different flavors, and that and
quite honestly, that's what I liked, is they weren't the same thing for
both of the steaks, so Ihave to go with the one that was
on the left. Okay, Brad, what do you think I'm going to
(37:47):
start out by saying, I ateall the remainder pieces that were elapsed,
so that plates. I cleaned them. So, by the way, can
you stop licking the place? Now? Where's bread? That's where bread was.
But if I have to pick,I am going to take the plate
that would have been on my right, which, like John was saying,
(38:12):
was a little bit more the I'llcall it. Both were neutral or more
neutral. I liked the executioner one. I felt like maybe, especially if
we're gonna get technical, they theywere a little salty for my take,
both both of the ones on theleft, but that's just okay. I'm
(38:35):
I had butts. They were thetail ends of them as well, so
I you know, maybe there wasextra seasoning on those compared to know there
was nor I cut mine off.If you went back in the kitchen and
ate them, didn't you? Itold you I cleaned them all up.
But that's that's just my take onit. Yeah, that's the one thing
I did kind of on purposes.I didn't leave that tail on which all
(38:59):
the seasoning is on, because I'mthe competition dork and I'm like, there's
those are either you're gonna love himor hate them, but all the slices
in the middle, I can controlhow much of that bark you're gonna get.
Yeah, I think it sounds likeit bit me in the ass because
no winds, Well, who areyou voting for me? I don't get
to vote. I cooked well theokay, so he voted for you?
(39:22):
You know that, right? Yeah? Okay, yeah, John, Okay,
yeah, so Ken, so cameraKen. Like the fact that I
use different flavors on each it reallycame down they were too salty. If
I yeah, that was it.That's it. Well, no you don't.
(39:43):
You don't have to. I don'thave to feel bad about Okay.
I wouldn't say you is too salty, but for Brad's taste, it was.
And that's the thing about all thiscooking is like it's all who gives
a ship? So I actually Iactually was going to one, and it's
not it's not just about uh,your steaks I thought were better than mine.
I liked the I like the flavorof them. I'm partial to that
(40:04):
executioner, Rob, you know,that's that's the weirdness. That's a unique
one of the group. Uh,yours were I I thought they were better
than mine, So so I wouldI win the taste test, I win
the people's choice award. That's becauseKen Ken voted. Ken voted for for
my plate as well. He did, actually yep, and he said something
similar to you, John, thatI used different flavors, which is cool,
(40:24):
but in the end, you didn'thave them seasoned differently though, right,
because I did two that were thesame. Did you want to Yeah,
I did two separate seasonings. Ohwell, I didn't know that.
Yeah I did. I did Executionera minute, I did Executioner on one
and then I did And that's whyyour season with Livia is on the other.
And that's why Ken was asking,are we voted on the plates or
(40:45):
on the stakes? Which one replay? Which one? Where were you?
I was seasoning two stakes with thesame thing, thinking we were gonna,
okay, all right, that's fine, next time, we'll establish rules rules.
But if you would have changed oneup on the other one, I
thought, I thought about it butI I really tried to dumb it down
(41:06):
because at home, I'm guilty ofreally being heavy handed with seasoning and I
was just trying to just kind ofcool your jets and don't go overboard.
And you know, but well,Ken's the only Ken's the only one of
the group I think that actually didn'tknow which play was witch correct. There's
no chance that you guys took abite out of either one of those and
(41:27):
didn't immediately know which one was which. I couldn't look at the seasonings on
mistake, I know who was usingone. Yeah, but so Ken's the
only impartial voter here, and wellyou know which way Ken went, So
yeah, I would I'm I'm Iwas really pleased, and you know,
happy that you're cooking on a pieceof equipment that you haven't cooked on before.
(41:49):
And you know, you started beforeI did, and in the end
we we finished almost identical. Ithink I was a little bit behind you
by a minute or two, maybenot by much, not by much.
And and I you know, wedon't cook head head a lot, but
you know, I feel like sincewe've met you, you've become like a
(42:12):
more hell I'm a hell of alot better than I was three years ago.
I don't think meaning us made youbetter. I'm just saying kind of
you know, how many times Ihave sat here we were talking about earlier.
I'm norm from cheers, asking youstupid ask questions. So I can
you get my I can't quite reach. Okay, you can do myself on
the back. You found your egosomewhere. I understand that. No,
(42:36):
But that's my point is is that'swhy I like learning from you guys,
even you know, just thinking aboutdifferent ways and not to handle the different
tempts at the steaks and just likeputting one down like stuff like that and
then not freaking out about it andjust like that's part of the bit.
You know, one was a lotthicker than the other one, and just
dealing with that. Yeah, Andbut I've learned about all of that and
it's helped me not freak out,you know. And and that's really the
(42:58):
biggest key, is like not beingmad about the product and learning how to
get to the finish line you cookwith better meat as well. That helps.
Yeah, But in the end,I think, you know, none
of those were not you know,ashamed to put that in front of the
family. No, hell no,oh no, I'd eat that all day.
No bread would, and honestly weall would because you can't go wrong
(43:22):
with the meat that we had.Yeah, it couldn't have been it couldn't
have been that salty bread. Imean you clean that up in a second.
So, like I said, hewas licking the plate to get no,
that's no, that's sweet. Butbut yeah that so that's uh.
I don't know, it's very anticlimacticin a way. All four were good.
Yeah, but it's too bad theaudience can't well, they can see
(43:45):
it on social I'm sure you'll putsomething out on Northern Fire. I'll put
out you know, hops and ogs. We'll talk to my guy some pictures
of the various products and such thatwe put out there that we cooked.
And we tried to tell people thisall the time, and it's the same
thing that just happened. You cando all three different steaks and they'll they'll
all be really good. And theyall basically he started at a different time,
(44:07):
he pulled them at different times theyended. I'd say, your attempts
were great. That everything is youknow, that's barbecue right there, like
nothing is ever going to be thesame. Every cook is going to be
slightly different. There's stuff that's similarfish words of wisdom from Brad. And
you know, the key thing aboutBrad is none of this happens without him
(44:29):
because he wasn't even really supposed tobe here today. And he's well correct,
but he gets he gets called into man the ship while we do
the while we do the cooking.Oh wait, who's gonna put the grills
out there? Well, that's Brad. Who's gonna put the pellets in there?
That's Brad, who's going to gethim set up and get him set
the temp No, that's Brad.Who's going to going to take Who's gonna
(44:54):
take Aaron steaks out of the fridge? I'm not did he out? He
took him out of the wrapping?Okay, I like I couldn't get my
hands dirty to do. I helpedboth of you. I technically helped.
It's true. It was. Itwas an even effort and in some ways
an even result. So that wasfun. Guys, Uh, what's the
(45:15):
what's the next thing that we shouldcook tomorrow? Up? Tomorrow? Well,
no, not tomorrow. You knowit's tough because you know, I
would love to say, let's youknow, and that and that gets to
be difficult and and really hard todo head to head. Well, you
do it in competitions every weekend,but uh two weeks yeah, not this
(45:40):
weekend, but next it's on theroad. I'm I'm terrified. I'm cooking
on a cooker I just got andI have no time to practice the giant
outlaws yep, yep. And Brad'sgot to put that on the trailer.
Next. Did you even get didyou get to use it? Because you
did the competition class? Did youget to use it? What do you
use for the No? No?No? Because that that was Kyle from
(46:00):
Hot Eddy's. He he's a drumcooker, so everything was cooked on drums,
just like he does. It washis class. See that that's something
I should have went to. AndI know you you cook on drums too,
Brad. And I've told you aboutthe Neapolitan tomahawk that I made.
I call it the Neapolitan because Ihad three different flavors associated with this absolute
wreck of a tomahawk that I wastedon a barrel. Uh, cooking on
(46:23):
the pit barrel? Yeah? Yeah? Did you hang it? Well?
I hung it and then I gotfreaked out about the temp. I'm like,
I don't know if this thing's gonnaget up. So then I recharged
the charcole oh yeah, and endedup just absolutely scorching the tip midway through
its medium rare ish. Yeah that'sthe and then the top side was perfect.
(46:45):
So learning positioning of the charcole inthere, I think I could have
been better understanding maybe how to maneuveror switch things up on it. Completely
screwed up one hundred dollars steak.The I think cowboys worked better those because
I've done that too when you geta tomahawks. So the difference between a
cowboy steak and tomahawk is the lengthof the bone R And if you don't
(47:08):
drill the hole for the hangar inthe right place, then you really can
get that basically in the fire andin the standard size especially is you can't
go too low because then you can'teven close the thing for bone so long,
So there is a limit to that. There's a there's a magic hour
in there where everything kind of fun. It is getting the Milwaukee drill out
(47:30):
and drilling through the bone before youput the hook on it. I was
like, I was expecting it tobe you know, blood and gore,
and it was like, okay,yeah, he just looked like super easy.
Is that where we're made of?That's all it takes. It's a
little freaked out, got soft bones. All right, we'll figure out.
(47:52):
We'll figure out something. And you'reright, it can't be a brisket.
Maybe it is. I can bringmy barrel. My barrel will travel.
There's no out about that. Anduh, and we'll find maybe it's a
try tipsy and can we do anwhat do you call it? On air
production meeting? On air production media. And so we've got this event coming
(48:13):
up on four twenty, so Apriltwentieth, gonna uh on air advertisement.
No, that's fine. We weactually we did talk about it earlier in
the podcast. We were we werejust for I'm paying for advertising, wrong
station. That is true, that'scorrect. Oh God, if only you
(48:35):
guys can see what's just happened.So, yeah, April twentieth, we're
gonna have all of our Barbie teamsout here cooking. And one thing I
was thinking about would be awesome forthe podcast. If you're available on April
twentieth, I know it's a holidayfor you, but have you come out
and basically we're gonna have all thesebarbecue teams. You could have a variety
pack of all these guys. SoKyle from Hot Daddy's episode of Team of
(48:58):
the Year Iowa Team of the Year, Brad's gonna be out there going well.
We think can be doing whatever Bradwants to be cooking. But Brad's
probably working the red We'll see whathappens. We're both running. Yeah,
(49:19):
well, no po Pork is gonnabe out running my at law or an
outlaw. I don't know if they'regonna bring theirs a run mine. Then
we got Phoenix Barbecue coming out greatpicking. This guy's coming out Hogline.
I think might make it, buthe might not. Dustin Reese from Omatana,
who am I forgetting PETTYQ? Wejust opened a barbecue restaurant over in
(49:40):
Roseville, so PETTYQ will be outhere. Well, dude, we got
to do almost a it's almost likeRadio Row, High Still Water, Minnesota.
Andy Brown will be out here.Let's do so Saturday the twentieth.
We can do dry guys like apodcast, like a podcast Radio Row,
and we'll just we'll just fine fiveminutes here, ten minutes there, whatever,
(50:02):
and at some point we'll just talkto all of them. That'd be
great, and I'll ask them allkinds of stupid questions and whatnot, and
we'll find ways to rip on youalong the way. And it's all funny
and it's automatic, and uh no, we'll have some fun. And in
the end where I get to eat, right, there's gonna be a lot.
Yeah, there's gonna be a lotof fair amount of food. Yeah.
And and we just found that itsounds like the guys from jim Bean.
We're gonna be out here doing somebourbon and maybe tequila samples. Yeah,
(50:27):
and Hopson Hawks. We're hoping toget you know, the whole mall
in on this. So Yoo donuts, popcorn, olive oil, the confectioners,
what about the spa, Yeah,yeah, they're invited get the procession
of the professional massages. Picture thatwe have the cairopractor next door and the
(50:47):
heating. Yeah, so you canget your neck cracked and then you can
get erupt on a little bit picturethat during the competition, what competition just
took a left here double entendre anda little innuendo for your podcast. Yeah,
you radio professionals wouldn't understand those kindsof things. It turns out the
(51:10):
contest just filled up a simple fromJaska. No my dingling. We heard
that today. I got no controlover such things. Okay, I am
but a producer, That's all Ido. You're a good one. We
appreciate you, Thank you very much. And you guys are awesome too.
And so whether it's Hops Hogs BBQvia x Hops Hogs bbq, uh and
(51:37):
of course Northern Fire BBQ, you'llcheck out some social at some point of
the zabatans we cooked. At somepoint I'm in on the next contest.
I want to do pekanya. I'venever done it. That's a pitrell adam
too correct. So I bring thebarrel and I beat you in a contest
for something I've never even cooked before. Rat, I need your help,
(51:59):
and then we'll we'll we'll see wherewe're at that or at least we'll just
enjoy a lot of great pecanya,which feels the most likely result. You
need more people to eat. Man. That was Hops and Hoggs felt like
a cast of a thousand. Iwas getting confused, trying to keep track
of who I was talking to.Aaron, John and Brad at Northern Fire.
Happy fourth anniversary to those guys andyou heard it. April twentieth.
(52:20):
It's a Saturday. You can headto Northern Fire not only get to see
the store, but also you getthe feast and you get to learn competition
teams on site celebrating and cooking abunch of amazing food. And then this
next weekend, Happy anniversary, thesecond one for Kennon Company at Heavy Rotation
Brewing in Brooklyn Park. Try tomake it out there and have a pint.
That's the Hops and Hogs Barbecue podcast. It's local beer, it's local
(52:43):
barbecue. You can follow us atHops Hogs BBQ via Twitter and of course
catch our podcast. Subscribe to it, whether it's via the free iHeartRadio app,
iTunes, Spotify, wherever you getthem, Come and get it Hops
and Hoggs. Thanks for listening.M
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