January 10, 2026 • 42 mins
The paramount focus of this podcast episode is the intricate relationship between cooking and community, particularly within the realm of barbecue. I engage with John Bowlsby, known as Spinnaker, from AmazingRibs.com, who elaborates on his journey through the world of barbecue and the importance of fostering a welcoming environment for both novices and seasoned enthusiasts alike. We explore the scientific principles underpinning effective barbecue techniques, emphasizing the necessity of precision in culinary practices, especially when it comes to meat curing. Furthermore, our discourse highlights the significance of utilizing resources that encourage learning and sharing, thereby enhancing the collective knowledge of the barbecue community. Throughout our conversation, we delve into various cooking methodologies, illustrating how the art of barbecue transcends mere food preparation to become an enriching communal experience.
Links referenced in this episode:
- amazingribs.com
- oregon dungeness.org
- barbequenationjt.com
- thecowboycook.com
- gunterwilhelm.com
- heritagesteel.us
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- AmazingRibs.com
- Kia
- Heritage Steel
- Gunter Wilhelm Knives
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:46):
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt so fire up your grill, light
the charcoal, and get yoursmoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It GoBurnett studios in Portland, here's
jt.
This is an encore.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation,Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with Camaro,Dave, and Commander Chris.
Coming to you from our Turn ItDon't Burn it studios in.
I won't say downtown Portlandanymore, because I don't have the
(01:07):
studio down there anymore.
We're on the south side of thecity where there's no treachery going
on.
This portion of BarbecueNation, brought to you in part by
Painted Hills Natural Beef.
The beef, our beef, grown theway nature intended.
And also, we're gonna betalking a little bit about AmazingRibs.com
today, so I'll throw those inkind of gratuitously, if you will.
(01:31):
We're talking with Today withJohn Bolsby Spinnaker, and we're
gonna find out how he got thathandled just very shortly in our
tunes today.
We went way back in the recordmachine and got Dave Clark five.
So I'm sure John probablywasn't even born then.
And I was like, one.
So, anyway, John, welcome.
(01:52):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah.
So on Amazing Ribs, you areknown as Spinnaker.
Okay, spill the beans.
No pun intended.
On how you got that handle.
It was.
I'm a pretty big Tom Clancyfan, actually.
This is kind of a.
Interesting story.
(02:12):
Sure.
He's kind of a reoccurringcharacter in some of the.
Some of the Tom Clancy novels.
And I just.
I kind of wanted a name thatwas associated with kind of online
stuff and everything like that.
And that's kind of what thischaracter is in these novels.
(02:34):
And when I first started atAmazing Ribs, I was like, oh, this
would be kind of a cool handle.
And then, you know, I didn'treally think of anything being barbecue
related.
And then as I got more andmore involved in the site, you know,
I was like, should I changethe name to make something more barbecue
oriented?
And then I kind of got to thepoint where I was like, well, if
(02:55):
I change it, then people aregoing to realize who I am and all
that kind of stuff.
And so I just kind of, like,stuck with it.
And so it's not really relatedto barbecue anyway.
And I frequently get sailingquestions because I know it's a.
It's a sale, like, on sailing boats.
Right now I'm in Minnesota,which is pretty much geographically
(03:16):
as far away from an ocean asyou can Get.
So I'm not a sailor oranything like that, so.
But it's just.
It's just something from.
From these novels, and there'sreally no barbecue connection to
it or anything like that.
But I just got so far into theweeds that I was like, you know what?
Just.
It's not worth changing.
People know who I am.
(03:37):
Yeah, just go with it.
Just go.
Well, you're up there in theEdmund Fitzgerald country on the
lake.
Yeah, yeah.
Right now I'm right on Lake Superior.
And it's beautiful day todayup here and colors are changing and
it's a great spot to be.
Are you doing a little fishingor what are you doing?
(03:57):
Yeah, we're doing.
Went out fishing this earlythis morning, and then I think this
afternoon we're gonna get outand do some.
Do some grouse hunting.
Oh, excellent.
Yeah, it should be a.
Should be a great day for it.
Cheers to the season.
Yes.
Yeah, I kind of miss that.
I know we're not talking aboutbarbecue, folks, but you're just
gonna have to bear with us.
(04:17):
But I used to do a lot of hunting.
My brother was a much biggerfisherman than I was, but I would
go fish once in a while.
But I was a big hunter, and sothis time of year, you know, I was.
We were always huntingantelope, which was a little earlier.
Late, late part of summer.
And then regular deer seasonwould be about right now, and then
(04:37):
we would have some of theafter seasons, and then we would
have elk after that going into November.
So every once in a while Iwalk by in my shop where I've got
a pile of my old.
Couple of tubs and some chestsand stuff with all my old hunting
gear in it.
And I think, man, I should goout and do that again.
Yeah.
(04:58):
So how did you get hooked upwith amazing ribs?
I got started pretty close toone that when the forum went on,
went live.
So the original website hadbeen up for quite a long time.
And, you know, being that Iwas always so into barbecue, ever
(05:20):
since I was a little kid, youknow, I really loved live fire cooking
and all this stuff.
I always just kind of feltlike something was.
Something was missing.
And it was just, you know,every cookbook that I found out there
was.
So, you know, it was kind ofall over the place, you know, one.
One book and tell you this,one book could tell you that.
And a lot of it was kind offound was a lot of wives tales and
(05:42):
myths and stuff like that.
And then I didn't know, youknow, which.
What was right and what waswrong, I just couldn't get a consistent
product.
And so, you know, I begangoing online and trying to find recipes,
and then I found amazing ribs.
And what really drew me to itor kept me coming back was, you know,
it's based on the science ofcooking, which is now it's, you know,
(06:06):
it's very prevalent with.
Especially with, you know,books like the Food Lab and stuff
like that, where, you know,it's not just about, you know, here's
a recipe.
You know, this is why, youknow, this is why the food cooks
like this.
This is why you use this, ortemperature, different types of cookers,
stuff like that.
And so I found that, you know,using a few of Meathead's recipes
(06:30):
and technique, techniques andstuff, that I got a really good foundation.
And I felt like I could prettymuch cook barbecue on anything.
Sure.
And so I, you know, I keptcoming back the site, back to the
site, and.
And then I kind of felt anobligation to support it because
they were doing so much for meand stuff like that.
(06:51):
And then I got roped into theforum and kind of getting on there
and talking with people.
And, you know, one thing aboutour forum is it's just a.
It's just a great group ofpeople, and, you know, people are,
for the most part, very low key.
And it's more just aboutdiscussion around food and techniques
and stuff like that, which is.
(07:13):
Which is what I want, youknow, and there's so many other forums
out there that are talkingabout so many other things, whether
it be politics or religion.
And, you know, that stuff justkind of muddies the water.
And so I found, you know, Ifound this great online community
and, you know, it really,really helped improve my cooking
(07:33):
and my understanding of howeverything works.
And, you know, and then oneday, Meathead just kind of shot me
an email and was like, hey,would you like to, you know, start,
you know, helping us out onthe site with moderating, you know,
answering some onlinequestions on our.
On the free side of thewebsite and stuff like that.
So ever.
(07:54):
I've been doing that since 2016.
And so ever since then, it's.
Yeah, it's just been.
It's been a really great experience.
And I really found thatteaching other people stuff about
cooking, too, has taught memore about it than anything.
You know, I continue to learnall the time, and it's.
(08:15):
Yeah, it's been great.
I just.
I really like it.
I love the people I'm working with.
And again, the people on ourforum are just, you know, it's a
great collection of people.
Yeah, it really is.
And one thing, one of thesuccesses of Amazing Ribs is that.
And I guess I can say we,because I'm part of it in a kind
of an ancillary sense, butthere's no politics.
(08:38):
Yeah.
If you go off the rails,you're probably going to get deleted.
And if you do it too much,you'll probably get booted, you know,
and it's.
It's there.
We're there to do one thing,and that's talk about cooking and
food and barbecue and, youknow, all the good things.
And like you said, I foundthat I learn a lot.
(08:59):
Not always.
It's not always what not todo, it's what to do.
And then you get otherpeople's take on it a little, you
know, their.
Their perspective.
And I think it's been.
That's been really goodbecause when I sat in on the one
Fireside Chat, or whatever weare calling them, you know, there
(09:23):
was a whole group of us inthere, excuse me, and you can hear
people's explanations of whatthey were doing.
And the questions that weanswered were.
They weren't raw, basic, butthey were basic enough that then
they'd say, well, what about this?
Or what about this?
Or I read this somewhere likethat, and I think it was a really
(09:44):
good resource for people.
A huge resource for people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, I think one ofthe main things that we really try
to do is, you know, make it a.
An open and welcomingenvironment where, you know, you
have some other sites that,you know, if.
If you come in with a questionthat, you know, someone perceive
(10:05):
as elementary, it's, you know,sometimes you get answers like, you
know, how do you not know this?
Like, you have no idea how to cook.
Or like, you know, our thingis we just want more people to get
into the world of barbecuing.
Sure.
And we realize that noteveryone is.
Not everyone's been doing ittheir whole life.
Some people, you know, theyinherited a charcoal grill from their
grandpa's house, you know, orsomething like that.
(10:27):
Right.
I've got this grill now, and Ineed to figure out how to do it.
And though, I mean, those arethe people that I personally like
working with the most because,you know, we were all there at one
time, you know, and, yeah, youknow, if you.
If you can.
If you can help someone, youknow, find out how awesome it is
to do barbecue and how, like,you know, relatively easy it can
(10:49):
be, you know, it's.
It's really rewarding.
It's it's, it's really cool.
You know, it doesn't alwayshave to be, you know, cooking a whole
hog on a, on a huge pit and.
Right.
Pulling a fire.
And you know, especially now,I mean, there's so many ways you
can do, you can make barbecueand make good barbecue.
Yeah, well, and I like it too,John, that, that there's no wrong
(11:14):
answers.
There's answers anddiscussions that might need a little
bit of correction.
But most, most of thequestions and the convo back between
people, the moderators andpeople asking questions and stuff,
even if it's very elementarylike you were talking about just
moments ago, or if it's kindof higher level, it's all welcome,
(11:35):
it's all good and you will,and you will get some answers out
of there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's, I mean that'sthe thing is like, you know, you
have, you know, you have somepeople that really have no experience
at all and you know, you don'twant to have them come in and, you
know, talk to people that are,you know, way more advanced but won't
(11:55):
give them the time of day totry to help them along and try to
give them, you know, try toshare their knowledge a little bit,
you know.
Sure, yeah.
You know, that just, that justturns people away and that's obviously
certainly not what we want.
Right.
So we're going to take a breakhere on Barbecue Nation.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby, I E A K, A whatever
those letters are.
Spinnaker from AmazingRibs.comand we'll be back in just a minute.
(12:19):
Please stay with us.
It's the Kia season of newtradition sales event at Weston Kia.
Choose from over a thousandvehicles like a new Kia Sportage
Soul Telluride or K5 gas,electric or hybrid.
Oregon's all time leader inKia sales 1994-2025 Western Kia sold
more new Kias than any otherKia dealer in Oregon.
Reported by Kia Corp.
(12:44):
Hey everybody, it's Jeff here.
I want to tell you aboutsomething really cool.
Heritage steel cookware.
I just got mine.
I do a lot of cooking and it'sgot five ply construction, stay cool
handles.
It's titanium strengthened.
It's got all the great stuff.
Just go to HeritageSteel usand find out more.
You'll love it, I guarantee it.
(13:12):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to BarbecueNation here on the Sun Radio Network
would like to give you acouple little bits of news here or
information.
Our website very simple isbarbecue nation jt.com barbecue nation
jt.com if you want to emailus, you can do it from that website.
Or if you want to get to mekind of more directly, it's info
(13:35):
atthecowboycook.com we're alsoon Facebook, Twitter, 17 podcast
platforms.
When the show's done airing onthe radio network.
And so we got all kinds of stuff.
Also, I'd like to thank thefolks, Kel Phelpson and his crew
down there at NationalBarbecue News.
Been working with them.
We're doing some giveawayswith them, so pay attention.
(13:58):
I'll be posting.
When the show airs, I'll beposting a question that will be worth
a couple of free subscriptionsto National Barbecue News.
Anyway, we're talking withJohn Bolsby, I. E Spinnaker from
Amazing Ribs.
You're big into cast iron.
And.
And was that something thatkind of was also ingrained in you
(14:20):
as growing up, doing thecamping and hunting and fishing and
stuff, or was that somethingthat came a little later?
Yeah, I mean, I used to, Imean, my, my uncle's got a farm just
outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
And so, you know, we used todo a lot of, you know, hog cooks
(14:41):
and stuff like that down there.
And, you know, my grandmawould always be there and she was
always cooking with, cookingwith cast iron.
And that's kind of how Ioriginally got into using it.
And then, of course, you know,doing a lot of camping and fishing
and stuff, you know, cast ironwas always, always around.
(15:03):
And I, I mean, I really justlove live fire cooking.
And there's nothing better tocook with, right, with liver than
cast iron.
And so, you know, I'd always,I'd always kind of had my pan when
I was a kid, and that was kindof what I would make my breakfast
on and do that kind of stuffat home.
And.
(15:23):
And then as I got a littleolder, I actually got into kind of
going into some old farmhousesand estate sales around my uncle's
farm.
And I would find, you know,these really old cast iron vintage
pieces.
And then I kind of got intorestoring those and then ultimately
(15:43):
collecting and stuff like that.
And so now I've got, I mean,probably close, close to 200 riddles
and all kinds, all kinds ofstuff that had been restored.
And so, you know, and I havea, I have a very strong interest
in history and stuff like that.
And so I kind of, I kind offound that I could tie, you know,
(16:07):
my interest in history withcooking and stuff like that.
And, you know, using a, usinga Pan that was originally cast in
the 1920s or 30s that's kindof been resurrected and, you know,
you can cook with it again.
It's something that's prettycool and it just kind of adds.
Adds a little bit more.
More fun to, to the cook andstuff like that.
(16:28):
So, so here's.
I still, I mean, I have acouple of, I have a couple of steel
pans at home, but for the mostpart, the only thing I used to cook
on is cast iron, so.
Sure, yeah.
So, John, here's a questionfor you.
And I know that if you go onthe Internet, you can find a bazillion
(16:48):
different answers, literally.
But if somebody goes to anestate sale and they find, you know,
a 12 inch pan or whatever itis, it doesn't matter.
And you talk about restoringthem, what's the best way to clean
off the rust and the dirt andre season the pan?
(17:11):
Because we're going to.
You're now officially thebarbecue nation cast iron expert.
Okay, so what's the best way?
I know how we do it.
That works fine for us.
It's probably very similar, ifnot exactly the same way you do it.
But I get asked that questiona lot, truly, during the year and
sometimes when you, you know,it takes a little work, not too much
(17:33):
and that.
But I want to, I want to hearyour take on that, please.
Yeah.
So, I mean, it depends on thecondition of the pan.
You know, if, if you have somethat have been sitting for a really
long time and there's a lot ofreally heavy rust on them.
The, I mean, the best way todo it is through a electrolysis bath,
(18:00):
which kind of sounds daunting,I know, but it's really, it's really
pretty simple.
So you can take, you know, Iusually use a, like a 25 gallon plastic
trash can and I'll fill thatwith water.
And then you use like 20 miltea detergent.
Right.
(18:20):
So sodium carbonate.
And you do about 1 cup pergallon, the ratio, and then you mix
that up and then you hang thepan down in the water and you use
a, like a manual batterycharger and you actually, you hook,
(18:41):
hook the positive end to thepan and then you can put an anode
in the water.
So that would be a piece oflike sheet metal.
So you could use, you know, goto your local hardware store and
just get a small piece ofsteel or you can reuse rebar or something
like that and plug the chargerin and it'll actually, I mean, it,
(19:02):
it pulls the rust right offthe pan.
So you can have the rust, theold seasoning, anything else that's
on the pan and it will, it'llpull it all off.
Typically I leave them in forabout 24 hours and it's amazing what
you can, what you can do.
I mean, you can take a panthat you thought there would be no
chance that it would ever comeback, but I mean, you really, that's,
(19:27):
that's if you have a panthat's really, really rusted up.
Sure.
But I mean, other than that,like, if you have one that's not
quite as bad, just heavy dutyoven cleaner with, you know, you
got to make, check the labeland make sure it's got caustic in
it so that it'll eat through,you know, any of the proteins that
are on there.
Right.
Take care of the rust.
And then I just spray thoseand then put them in like a, a plastic
(19:51):
trash bag and just let themsit for a few days and then rinse.
And most of the time that'spretty much all you need.
And then as far as likeactually the restoration part of
re seasoning, you know, I'llrun the pans that are cold water,
use a, like a scotch pad andjust scrub and try to get them as
(20:14):
clean as possible.
Try to get all the residue off.
And then I, towards the end,you want to use cold water because
if you're using hot water andyou're drying the pan, you're going
to get flash rust on the pan.
And then as far as like addingthe oil, I like to use flax oil just
(20:35):
because it's high, you know,it's high in omega 3s, which is,
which is really good forcreating that base seasoning layer.
We're going to take anotherbreak here on Barbecue Nation.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby I E Spinnaker from Amazing
Ribs.
Stay with us.
This, we've got more greatstuff coming your way.
(21:04):
Hey, everybody, it's JT and Ihave eaten.
If you've ever looked at me,you know that.
But I have eaten seafood allover the world and I can tell you
there's no place better thanhere in Oregon and our Dungeness
crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
go to oregondungeness.org findout how to cook it, how to catch
it, where to buy it, and thesustainability of what they're doing
(21:27):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
This is non core.
Hey, welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm J.T.
we'd like to thank the folksat Painted Hills Natural Beef and
also the folks at GunterWilhelm Knives.
Painting Painted Hills, ofcourse, is great beef that you can
(21:50):
be confident in serving yourfriends and family and consistency
in their flavor and textureand everything that's Painted Hills
Natural Beef.
And also, like I said, GunnarWilhelm back there, I was fortunate
a few months ago to get someGunter Wilhelm knives.
And I love them.
So you can check themout@gunter wilhelm.com We've got
John Bolsby with us fromAmazingRibs.com right now.
(22:14):
John's taking a break from hishard day of fishing and hunting up
on Lake Superior to talk with us.
And I'm grateful for that.
I, you know, we were talkingabout cast iron and kind of cleaning
and seasoning and that what happens.
Because I've seen this happenpersonally, and I will not take responsibility
(22:38):
for it because somebody elsewas trying to help me.
But when they, but when youget too much oil on the pan and like
you said before, it getssticky, can you just go wash that
off and kind of put a lightcoating back on and rebake it or
what are you gonna do?
Yeah, I mean it.
Well, first I will say thatif, if the pan gets sticky, there's
(23:00):
two things.
It's either you have too muchoil or not enough heat.
So if you have a pan, youknow, if you're taking a pan out
after, know you're doingaround a seasoning in the pan, it's,
you know, that's sticky.
Yeah, you can really, youknow, up your oven temperature and
let it bake for longer.
And that'll.
It'll bake that stuff out.
(23:20):
Okay.
It's gonna take, it's justgonna take longer.
But if, you know, if you don'twant to go that route, you can put
it back into, you know, put itback into your sink, use a pretty
coarse pad.
And I'll use.
A lot of times, I'll usereally, really coarse kosher salt
(23:43):
and put it in there and scrubthe pan.
Then you can give it a rinse,and that should take most of it off.
But if, I mean, if you're, ifyou're to a point where there's a
lot, where it's really, reallysticky, I will put it out on my.
I'll put it out on my grilland crank the grill up and just bake
the stickiness right off.
There you go.
Maybe not a great thing to doin the house because it can get a
(24:04):
little smoky.
A little.
Which is why, which is whyit's Perfect to do outside.
Sure, yeah.
You know, people run into thatsometimes and the main cause is you're
just using too little heat ortoo much oil.
There you go.
The other thing too, I wantedto ask you was there's a big push
today on, you know, Dutchovens, but if you go to one of your
(24:28):
kitchen stores, they're notthe Dutch ovens that you and I think
about, which are cast iron.
Okay.
These are enamel coated MarthaStewart, Rachel Ray specials like
that.
So what's the difference incare and then also what's the difference
in cooking with those.
(24:50):
As far as care?
I mean, the main advantage ofhaving like an enamel coated or porcelain
coated cast iron is cleanup.
Like they don't, they, I mean,they claim that they don't stick
as much, so they'retechnically easier to clean.
But if your cast iron is nonstick, like you're using it correctly,
(25:12):
that's not really an issue.
That shouldn't really be an issue.
But, but as far as cookingdifferences, I mean, the one disadvantage
I find with enamel coated castiron is you're not a supposed, you're
not supposed to use it overopen fire or on the grill.
Especially on a grill becauseof the chips.
(25:33):
You know, once that chiphappens, it's just, you know, it's
just like any paint job, it'sjust going to keep and keep, keep
cracking and stuff like that.
And so.
But I mean the main sellingpoint behind those, other than they're,
I mean, they're beautifulpieces of cookware is they're supposed
to be easier to clean.
But as far as I'm concerned, Ifind them to be a little bit limited
(25:55):
in the fact that, you know,you can't use them.
You're not supposed to usethem over by a fire or on the grill.
I know people do.
And I mean, I've got, youknow, I've got some like Crusade,
you know, enamel coated.
Sure.
Pork coated Dutch ovens.
And they're awesome.
I mean, they're great.
But I primarily use them in myoven and stuff like that.
Right.
But you know, as a live firecook, I try to stay away from them
(26:17):
just because, you know, that'snot, they're not really meant for
the, for the outdoors, butfor, you know, if we're in the kitchen
and stuff, they're great,they're nice.
It's kind of funny, when Istarted cooking on TV and they, they
said, oh, are you gonna do allDutch oven cooking?
I said no.
They said, why not?
I said, because I don't knowof anybody that can build a campfire
(26:38):
in their apartment inManhattan, you know.
Right.
So it doesn't work out very well.
And they kind of looked at melike I was goofy, which I am at times.
Excuse me.
But I think, you know, peoplegot to understand the difference
there because a lot of people,when they envision that, they envision
(27:00):
Julia Child making her, youknow, beef bouillon and all that.
Well, you can do that too.
In the, in cast iron over afire, It's a little, A little tougher.
I mean, it's got to payattention a little more.
I would argue more, but yeah, yeah.
It is more fun.
Yeah, but you can do that.
(27:21):
I know this, that when we usedto go packing on the horses and stuff
when I was a kid and it was avery long day, you know, and you
got there, and especially ifthe weather had turned, which it
did more than once in mylittle packing career, that it.
All of a sudden it was pouringdown rain or sleet.
There was nothing like a castiron skillet with some fried potatoes
(27:46):
and onions in it.
When you got just reallywarmed you up and got you going.
Absolutely, yeah.
Good animal fat in there.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
So when.
When.
When you say you cook overlight fire, what, what, if you will,
style, do you like, do youlike stickwood?
(28:08):
You like charcoal?
You being.
I, I like, I like any variation.
I mean, I do a lot, I do a loton my Kamados.
So, yeah, I use a charcoal and.
But I also have, you know, Ihave a, I have a stick burning smoker,
so I use logs and stuff forthat, which I really love.
(28:29):
I mean, if I'm trying to, iftime is not an issue, you know, I've
got a. I've got a Saturdayblocked off where I just kind of
want to sit back, relax at home.
Like, I just love firing thatthing up.
And I really like cooking,cooking with that, but I also love,
like, you know, campfire cooking.
You know, I do a lot ofbackpacking and stuff in Montana
(28:54):
and northern Minnesota and stuff.
And you know, I just love, Ilove being the camp cook and cooking
over.
Cooking over live fire,whether it be with cast iron or,
you know, typically if I'mbackpacking, you know, I'm using
like a carbon steel pan orsomething like that.
Sure.
To shed a little bit of weight.
Yeah, yeah, that's important.
(29:16):
But I mean, between cast ironand carbon steel, they're.
They're fairly similar.
You just, you know, carbonsteel pan gets hotter quicker, so
you just have to kind of becareful there.
But, but yeah, I mean, I likeall kinds of open fire cooking.
You know, it's.
I mean, I actually started.
The first smoker I ever hadwas actually an electric smoker and
(29:39):
I didn't last long.
I just didn't find it to bevery fun.
You know, I just like, this isjust not, you know, I, it was an
economy or an economicdecision to buy that one and you
know, it just, it didn't havethe same, the same lure to me as
being able to kind of playaround with the fire and stuff like
that.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I've got a.
And sorry folks, you'relistening because you've heard me
(30:01):
say this dozens of times, butI've, I've still got a offset stick
smoker that I bought for 150bucks back in the early 90s.
I still got, it still works.
It's not really photogenicanymore, you might say, but it still
works.
And I, and I smoked some fishand stuff on it still and it works
(30:24):
really good.
So are you a.
Do you like to do the cavemanstyle stuff?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I'll just, I mean yougot to use, you got to use lump to
do it, you know, just because,you know, Kingsford, albeit it's
a great, you know, Kingsford'sa great charcoal but binder.
So there's a lot of, there's alot of ash.
(30:45):
So you want to use a good, agood clean lump.
And you know what I like to dois I'll cook it.
I'll, you know, get the lumpfired up really hot and like that.
And then in my Kamados, I havethe, I have a basket that holds the
charcoal and you know, I'llput my grill gloves on and give that
(31:06):
basket a shake just to get anyexcess ash that's on those coals.
Yeah.
Knock through and then I'lljust throw the steak right on.
And it's, it's awesome.
I mean, it's kind of, I mean,and it's a fun discussion piece with
people that are over becausethey're like, I can't believe you're
doing that.
I'm like, just, just wait,wait to try it because it's awesome.
(31:27):
You know, I figured out, I, Ifigured out, John, why I, I have
a semi aversion to that andthat makes no sense.
But I finally figured it out acouple of days ago when I thought
about it, doing this.
I mean, really, I have noproblem with it.
I'm just not a big fan of itbecause it brings back childhood
(31:49):
memories like my s' moresfalling into the fire.
And you can't fish one ofthose out and eat it.
No, that's.
You're done on that deal.
Right.
You know, and we used to catchcrawdads in the crick and we, and
we'd get a pot of water and,you know, get them boiling and put
(32:10):
some pickling seasoning inthem or whatever you wanted and do
that.
And a couple of times thelittle great that we had collapsed
and all my crawdads, you know,died in vain, you might say.
Right.
So I think maybe that's it.
Maybe I have to get a littletherapy to overcome that.
You know, I don't, I don'tknow for sure.
(32:33):
But, and I will say this, Ihave seen people do that and they
have not taken the care thatyou just described as far as shaking
out the excess ash and stuffand then doing it that way.
They just kind of throw it in there.
That's important to do.
(32:54):
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby Spinnaker from Amazing
Ribs and talk some more abouthis cooking styles and techniques
right after this on Barbecue Nation.
It's the Kia season of newtradition sales event at Weston Kia.
Choose from over a thousandvehicles like a new Kia Sportage,
Soul Telluride or K5 gas,electric or hybrid.
(33:15):
Oregon's all time leader inKia sales.
1994-2025 Weston Kia sold morenew Kias than any other Kia dealer
in Oregon.
Reported by Kia Corp.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
I want to tell you about theHammerstahl knives.
Hammerstahl combines Germansteel with beautiful and functioning
(33:38):
designs.
They're part of the Heritagesteel which also does their pots
and pans.
So go to heritagesteel USCheck out the Hammer Stall knives.
If you're really into cooking.
I think you're really going tolike them.
(33:58):
This is an encore.
Hey, welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm J.T.
we're talking with John Bolsby today.
Spinnaker from AmazingRibs.coma couple of things, John.
What's the kind of either theweirdest or the hardest question
that you think you've had todeal with on Amazing Ribs?
I kind of caught you off guardon that one.
(34:20):
I'm sorry, but.
Oh, man.
Oh, geez.
I would say the one of theweirder ones that we've had was a
guy from this was and I don'tknow how many years ago now, probably
five years ago, maybe a guywas asking about smoking moose Ribs.
(34:42):
Okay.
I mean, I, obviously, I hadnever thought about that.
But the main, the main thingwas how gigantic the rack was.
Right.
He hadn't, it didn't appearthat he had like, even really cut
him down that much.
And I would say that I wasjust like, I don't even, I don't
(35:02):
even know where to start onthis one.
Yeah.
You know, I would say thatthat would be like the, the oddest
thing that I've had someoneask how to smoke.
And I honestly, I wouldimagine that would be fairly straightforward.
But, but I would say most of the.
Most.
Some of the more difficultquestions revolve around curing meats.
(35:23):
Sure.
It's because you have to, Imean, you have to make sure that
your calculations are correctand stuff like that.
And, you know, everyone hasdifferent variables.
So, you know, some stuff, somepeople are curing stuff bone in,
or they're using a differentsize container or they're using,
you know, different ingredients.
They want to add stuff or takestuff out or stuff like that.
(35:46):
So.
And with something that needsto be very exact in order to be safe,
I find that those are usuallythe most challenging stuff with curing.
But we have a couple of reallygood resources on our website that
thoroughly explains curing.
We have a calculator on therethat you can put in, you know, your
(36:09):
liquid measurements, theweight of the meat you're cooking,
the thickness, all that kindof stuff.
It'll give you a completereadout of the exact amounts of nitrates
you need to put in there andstuff like that to make sure that
you're being safe.
So we try to make it as easyas we can for people, but, you know,
it's one of those things wherewe want people to be safe and do
(36:29):
it correctly.
And so, I mean, it's not thatit's that challenging, but it's,
you know, it's something thatyou want to make sure you get right.
So.
Oh, yeah, you know, but I was.
Going to tell you, I smoked anumber of times deer ribs, and they
were.
Okay.
You just got to remember whenyou're doing that, at least from
(36:49):
my perspective, is there's nota lot of fat in venison, you know.
Yeah.
So they can, yeah, they canturn into bone in jerky really quick.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And this, this gentleman thatwrote into our site too, had a.
Had the picture of the rack ofribs, of the moose ribs that he was
(37:10):
smoking.
I mean, it was, it was comicaljust, just to look at him, you know,
and I'm just like, I, I Thinkyour main issue is going to be finding
something big enough to cookthose in.
Absolutely.
But I was going to say, Idon't know if you saw this, but a
few months ago the picture wasmaking the rounds on different social
media platforms and there wasa guy and he had this huge cooker.
(37:37):
It was an old oil drum, I meanlike an in ground oil drum thing,
but it was a bigger than I hadever really seen before.
And there was this big kind ofskinned carcass on there and it was
a camel.
And he actually put that wholecamel in that cooker and I don't
know what he was 12 hours or16 hours or something like that.
(37:58):
And it came out.
Now I've eaten camel, I'vebeen in the Middle East, I've eaten
camel.
Wasn't my fave, I'll just putit that way.
But a little chewy.
Yeah.
Flavor wasn't that bad, but itwas just a little chewy.
And, and when I first lookedat that, I thought, is he doing a
whole elk or something or whatin the hell is a buffalo?
(38:18):
And then I read further and itwas a camel.
And, and yeah, he had justlike removed the legs and it was
on this rack and everythingelse was skin and you could see the
hump and everything else.
And he just kept the hump on it.
Huh?
He kept the hump on it and heput it right in there and he smoked
it.
(38:39):
And I don't know how it turned out.
I mean, it looked good fromthe pictures, but I was like that.
You got to have some realconfidence in yourself, in what you're
doing.
I mean, I'd love to try it.
It would be awesome.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I just, I was so oddbecause it did look like maybe a,
(39:01):
a buffalo or an elk or something.
Just because of the way youcouldn't really tell.
But I wouldn't.
All the work it takes to likehunt an elk and bring it down.
First of all, you never bringthem down whole like that if, you
know.
And secondly, I, I wouldn'tsmoke the whole elk because there's
so many really good parts to it.
But that's a different storythat, you know, you'd want your steaks
(39:24):
and things.
But anyway, that was just kindof the one of the weirdest things
I had seen as far as smokinglike that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We haven't had anyone askabout camel before, but you never
know.
Hey.
Hey.
You know.
Yeah, I was.
(39:44):
There's, you know, of coursewe still have wild camels.
Not too many of them.
But around the southwestdesert and you go to Australia, you
know, there's a few of thosestill roaming around out there.
So, of course, when you getover in Africa and, you know, up
in the desert areas there,northern Africa and Middle east,
there's camels there.
So.
(40:05):
Yeah, they're.
They're eating them for a long time.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
I don't know.
I just.
It just makes you scratch yourhead is the only thing I can say.
Yeah.
Hey, I'll try anything once, right?
Yeah.
I would think the toughestpart of that, that would be monitoring.
Monitoring the temperature andkeeping it consistent on a.
(40:27):
On a cooker that big and.
Yeah, you know, I mean, thatwould be.
Well, you just.
On an animal that big, you'dhave such different.
I mean, the meats are going tocook at such different rates across
the animal that I think thatyou have to be very skilled to do
it.
Right.
Yeah, that would let me out.
I mean, I'm.
I feel I'm fairly skilled atthings, but doing something that
(40:50):
big would be kind of weird.
Anyway, John's going to stickaround for the after hours, which
you can hear on, of course,the podcast version of this.
But if somebody has a questionfor you directly on Amazing Ribs,
can they get a hold of you?
Yeah, yeah.
So they can.
If they're a member of ourforum, you know, they can.
(41:11):
They can just look my name upin the search bar and they can, you
know, send me a direct message.
Sure.
Which is very easy to do.
Or they can.
They can always emailme@spinnakermazingribs.com and, you
(41:32):
know, I've got.
I've always got my email withme and stuff like that.
Sure.
You know, I always try to.
I always try to get back tothose as quickly as possible.
And then, you know, we alsohave comments on all of our recipes
and techniques and stuff likethat on our main site, which is the
free side of the site.
You know, you can.
People can write questions inthere, and then either myself or
(41:56):
a few of my other colleagueson there can jump in and answer those
questions, too.
But I mean, if anyone hasdirect questions, I mean, your listeners
are more than free to email medirectly@spinnakeramazingribs.com John.
Thanks for being with us onthis show and look forward to talking
to you in just a coupleminutes on the after hour.
Yeah, thank you very much at.
(42:17):
I really appreciate it.
No worries.
We'll be back with moreBarbecue Nation after this.
Barbecue Nation is produced byjtsd LLC Productions in association
with Envision Networks andSalem Media Group.
All rights reserved.
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt so fire up your grill, light
the charcoal, and get yoursmoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It GoBurnett studios in Portland, here's
jt.
This is an encore.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation,Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with Camaro,Dave, and Commander Chris.
Coming to you from our Turn ItDon't Burn it studios in.
I won't say downtown Portlandanymore, because I don't have the
(01:07):
studio down there anymore.
We're on the south side of thecity where there's no treachery going
on.
This portion of BarbecueNation, brought to you in part by
Painted Hills Natural Beef.
The beef, our beef, grown theway nature intended.
And also, we're gonna betalking a little bit about AmazingRibs.com
today, so I'll throw those inkind of gratuitously, if you will.
(01:31):
We're talking with Today withJohn Bolsby Spinnaker, and we're
gonna find out how he got thathandled just very shortly in our
tunes today.
We went way back in the recordmachine and got Dave Clark five.
So I'm sure John probablywasn't even born then.
And I was like, one.
So, anyway, John, welcome.
(01:52):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah.
So on Amazing Ribs, you areknown as Spinnaker.
Okay, spill the beans.
No pun intended.
On how you got that handle.
It was.
I'm a pretty big Tom Clancyfan, actually.
This is kind of a.
Interesting story.
(02:12):
Sure.
He's kind of a reoccurringcharacter in some of the.
Some of the Tom Clancy novels.
And I just.
I kind of wanted a name thatwas associated with kind of online
stuff and everything like that.
And that's kind of what thischaracter is in these novels.
(02:34):
And when I first started atAmazing Ribs, I was like, oh, this
would be kind of a cool handle.
And then, you know, I didn'treally think of anything being barbecue
related.
And then as I got more andmore involved in the site, you know,
I was like, should I changethe name to make something more barbecue
oriented?
And then I kind of got to thepoint where I was like, well, if
(02:55):
I change it, then people aregoing to realize who I am and all
that kind of stuff.
And so I just kind of, like,stuck with it.
And so it's not really relatedto barbecue anyway.
And I frequently get sailingquestions because I know it's a.
It's a sale, like, on sailing boats.
Right now I'm in Minnesota,which is pretty much geographically
(03:16):
as far away from an ocean asyou can Get.
So I'm not a sailor oranything like that, so.
But it's just.
It's just something from.
From these novels, and there'sreally no barbecue connection to
it or anything like that.
But I just got so far into theweeds that I was like, you know what?
Just.
It's not worth changing.
People know who I am.
(03:37):
Yeah, just go with it.
Just go.
Well, you're up there in theEdmund Fitzgerald country on the
lake.
Yeah, yeah.
Right now I'm right on Lake Superior.
And it's beautiful day todayup here and colors are changing and
it's a great spot to be.
Are you doing a little fishingor what are you doing?
(03:57):
Yeah, we're doing.
Went out fishing this earlythis morning, and then I think this
afternoon we're gonna get outand do some.
Do some grouse hunting.
Oh, excellent.
Yeah, it should be a.
Should be a great day for it.
Cheers to the season.
Yes.
Yeah, I kind of miss that.
I know we're not talking aboutbarbecue, folks, but you're just
gonna have to bear with us.
(04:17):
But I used to do a lot of hunting.
My brother was a much biggerfisherman than I was, but I would
go fish once in a while.
But I was a big hunter, and sothis time of year, you know, I was.
We were always huntingantelope, which was a little earlier.
Late, late part of summer.
And then regular deer seasonwould be about right now, and then
(04:37):
we would have some of theafter seasons, and then we would
have elk after that going into November.
So every once in a while Iwalk by in my shop where I've got
a pile of my old.
Couple of tubs and some chestsand stuff with all my old hunting
gear in it.
And I think, man, I should goout and do that again.
Yeah.
(04:58):
So how did you get hooked upwith amazing ribs?
I got started pretty close toone that when the forum went on,
went live.
So the original website hadbeen up for quite a long time.
And, you know, being that Iwas always so into barbecue, ever
(05:20):
since I was a little kid, youknow, I really loved live fire cooking
and all this stuff.
I always just kind of feltlike something was.
Something was missing.
And it was just, you know,every cookbook that I found out there
was.
So, you know, it was kind ofall over the place, you know, one.
One book and tell you this,one book could tell you that.
And a lot of it was kind offound was a lot of wives tales and
(05:42):
myths and stuff like that.
And then I didn't know, youknow, which.
What was right and what waswrong, I just couldn't get a consistent
product.
And so, you know, I begangoing online and trying to find recipes,
and then I found amazing ribs.
And what really drew me to itor kept me coming back was, you know,
it's based on the science ofcooking, which is now it's, you know,
(06:06):
it's very prevalent with.
Especially with, you know,books like the Food Lab and stuff
like that, where, you know,it's not just about, you know, here's
a recipe.
You know, this is why, youknow, this is why the food cooks
like this.
This is why you use this, ortemperature, different types of cookers,
stuff like that.
And so I found that, you know,using a few of Meathead's recipes
(06:30):
and technique, techniques andstuff, that I got a really good foundation.
And I felt like I could prettymuch cook barbecue on anything.
Sure.
And so I, you know, I keptcoming back the site, back to the
site, and.
And then I kind of felt anobligation to support it because
they were doing so much for meand stuff like that.
(06:51):
And then I got roped into theforum and kind of getting on there
and talking with people.
And, you know, one thing aboutour forum is it's just a.
It's just a great group ofpeople, and, you know, people are,
for the most part, very low key.
And it's more just aboutdiscussion around food and techniques
and stuff like that, which is.
(07:13):
Which is what I want, youknow, and there's so many other forums
out there that are talkingabout so many other things, whether
it be politics or religion.
And, you know, that stuff justkind of muddies the water.
And so I found, you know, Ifound this great online community
and, you know, it really,really helped improve my cooking
(07:33):
and my understanding of howeverything works.
And, you know, and then oneday, Meathead just kind of shot me
an email and was like, hey,would you like to, you know, start,
you know, helping us out onthe site with moderating, you know,
answering some onlinequestions on our.
On the free side of thewebsite and stuff like that.
So ever.
(07:54):
I've been doing that since 2016.
And so ever since then, it's.
Yeah, it's just been.
It's been a really great experience.
And I really found thatteaching other people stuff about
cooking, too, has taught memore about it than anything.
You know, I continue to learnall the time, and it's.
(08:15):
Yeah, it's been great.
I just.
I really like it.
I love the people I'm working with.
And again, the people on ourforum are just, you know, it's a
great collection of people.
Yeah, it really is.
And one thing, one of thesuccesses of Amazing Ribs is that.
And I guess I can say we,because I'm part of it in a kind
of an ancillary sense, butthere's no politics.
(08:38):
Yeah.
If you go off the rails,you're probably going to get deleted.
And if you do it too much,you'll probably get booted, you know,
and it's.
It's there.
We're there to do one thing,and that's talk about cooking and
food and barbecue and, youknow, all the good things.
And like you said, I foundthat I learn a lot.
(08:59):
Not always.
It's not always what not todo, it's what to do.
And then you get otherpeople's take on it a little, you
know, their.
Their perspective.
And I think it's been.
That's been really goodbecause when I sat in on the one
Fireside Chat, or whatever weare calling them, you know, there
(09:23):
was a whole group of us inthere, excuse me, and you can hear
people's explanations of whatthey were doing.
And the questions that weanswered were.
They weren't raw, basic, butthey were basic enough that then
they'd say, well, what about this?
Or what about this?
Or I read this somewhere likethat, and I think it was a really
(09:44):
good resource for people.
A huge resource for people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, I think one ofthe main things that we really try
to do is, you know, make it a.
An open and welcomingenvironment where, you know, you
have some other sites that,you know, if.
If you come in with a questionthat, you know, someone perceive
(10:05):
as elementary, it's, you know,sometimes you get answers like, you
know, how do you not know this?
Like, you have no idea how to cook.
Or like, you know, our thingis we just want more people to get
into the world of barbecuing.
Sure.
And we realize that noteveryone is.
Not everyone's been doing ittheir whole life.
Some people, you know, theyinherited a charcoal grill from their
grandpa's house, you know, orsomething like that.
(10:27):
Right.
I've got this grill now, and Ineed to figure out how to do it.
And though, I mean, those arethe people that I personally like
working with the most because,you know, we were all there at one
time, you know, and, yeah, youknow, if you.
If you can.
If you can help someone, youknow, find out how awesome it is
to do barbecue and how, like,you know, relatively easy it can
(10:49):
be, you know, it's.
It's really rewarding.
It's it's, it's really cool.
You know, it doesn't alwayshave to be, you know, cooking a whole
hog on a, on a huge pit and.
Right.
Pulling a fire.
And you know, especially now,I mean, there's so many ways you
can do, you can make barbecueand make good barbecue.
Yeah, well, and I like it too,John, that, that there's no wrong
(11:14):
answers.
There's answers anddiscussions that might need a little
bit of correction.
But most, most of thequestions and the convo back between
people, the moderators andpeople asking questions and stuff,
even if it's very elementarylike you were talking about just
moments ago, or if it's kindof higher level, it's all welcome,
(11:35):
it's all good and you will,and you will get some answers out
of there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's, I mean that'sthe thing is like, you know, you
have, you know, you have somepeople that really have no experience
at all and you know, you don'twant to have them come in and, you
know, talk to people that are,you know, way more advanced but won't
(11:55):
give them the time of day totry to help them along and try to
give them, you know, try toshare their knowledge a little bit,
you know.
Sure, yeah.
You know, that just, that justturns people away and that's obviously
certainly not what we want.
Right.
So we're going to take a breakhere on Barbecue Nation.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby, I E A K, A whatever
those letters are.
Spinnaker from AmazingRibs.comand we'll be back in just a minute.
(12:19):
Please stay with us.
It's the Kia season of newtradition sales event at Weston Kia.
Choose from over a thousandvehicles like a new Kia Sportage
Soul Telluride or K5 gas,electric or hybrid.
Oregon's all time leader inKia sales 1994-2025 Western Kia sold
more new Kias than any otherKia dealer in Oregon.
Reported by Kia Corp.
(12:44):
Hey everybody, it's Jeff here.
I want to tell you aboutsomething really cool.
Heritage steel cookware.
I just got mine.
I do a lot of cooking and it'sgot five ply construction, stay cool
handles.
It's titanium strengthened.
It's got all the great stuff.
Just go to HeritageSteel usand find out more.
You'll love it, I guarantee it.
(13:12):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to BarbecueNation here on the Sun Radio Network
would like to give you acouple little bits of news here or
information.
Our website very simple isbarbecue nation jt.com barbecue nation
jt.com if you want to emailus, you can do it from that website.
Or if you want to get to mekind of more directly, it's info
(13:35):
atthecowboycook.com we're alsoon Facebook, Twitter, 17 podcast
platforms.
When the show's done airing onthe radio network.
And so we got all kinds of stuff.
Also, I'd like to thank thefolks, Kel Phelpson and his crew
down there at NationalBarbecue News.
Been working with them.
We're doing some giveawayswith them, so pay attention.
(13:58):
I'll be posting.
When the show airs, I'll beposting a question that will be worth
a couple of free subscriptionsto National Barbecue News.
Anyway, we're talking withJohn Bolsby, I. E Spinnaker from
Amazing Ribs.
You're big into cast iron.
And.
And was that something thatkind of was also ingrained in you
(14:20):
as growing up, doing thecamping and hunting and fishing and
stuff, or was that somethingthat came a little later?
Yeah, I mean, I used to, Imean, my, my uncle's got a farm just
outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
And so, you know, we used todo a lot of, you know, hog cooks
(14:41):
and stuff like that down there.
And, you know, my grandmawould always be there and she was
always cooking with, cookingwith cast iron.
And that's kind of how Ioriginally got into using it.
And then, of course, you know,doing a lot of camping and fishing
and stuff, you know, cast ironwas always, always around.
(15:03):
And I, I mean, I really justlove live fire cooking.
And there's nothing better tocook with, right, with liver than
cast iron.
And so, you know, I'd always,I'd always kind of had my pan when
I was a kid, and that was kindof what I would make my breakfast
on and do that kind of stuffat home.
And.
(15:23):
And then as I got a littleolder, I actually got into kind of
going into some old farmhousesand estate sales around my uncle's
farm.
And I would find, you know,these really old cast iron vintage
pieces.
And then I kind of got intorestoring those and then ultimately
(15:43):
collecting and stuff like that.
And so now I've got, I mean,probably close, close to 200 riddles
and all kinds, all kinds ofstuff that had been restored.
And so, you know, and I havea, I have a very strong interest
in history and stuff like that.
And so I kind of, I kind offound that I could tie, you know,
(16:07):
my interest in history withcooking and stuff like that.
And, you know, using a, usinga Pan that was originally cast in
the 1920s or 30s that's kindof been resurrected and, you know,
you can cook with it again.
It's something that's prettycool and it just kind of adds.
Adds a little bit more.
More fun to, to the cook andstuff like that.
(16:28):
So, so here's.
I still, I mean, I have acouple of, I have a couple of steel
pans at home, but for the mostpart, the only thing I used to cook
on is cast iron, so.
Sure, yeah.
So, John, here's a questionfor you.
And I know that if you go onthe Internet, you can find a bazillion
(16:48):
different answers, literally.
But if somebody goes to anestate sale and they find, you know,
a 12 inch pan or whatever itis, it doesn't matter.
And you talk about restoringthem, what's the best way to clean
off the rust and the dirt andre season the pan?
(17:11):
Because we're going to.
You're now officially thebarbecue nation cast iron expert.
Okay, so what's the best way?
I know how we do it.
That works fine for us.
It's probably very similar, ifnot exactly the same way you do it.
But I get asked that questiona lot, truly, during the year and
sometimes when you, you know,it takes a little work, not too much
(17:33):
and that.
But I want to, I want to hearyour take on that, please.
Yeah.
So, I mean, it depends on thecondition of the pan.
You know, if, if you have somethat have been sitting for a really
long time and there's a lot ofreally heavy rust on them.
The, I mean, the best way todo it is through a electrolysis bath,
(18:00):
which kind of sounds daunting,I know, but it's really, it's really
pretty simple.
So you can take, you know, Iusually use a, like a 25 gallon plastic
trash can and I'll fill thatwith water.
And then you use like 20 miltea detergent.
Right.
(18:20):
So sodium carbonate.
And you do about 1 cup pergallon, the ratio, and then you mix
that up and then you hang thepan down in the water and you use
a, like a manual batterycharger and you actually, you hook,
(18:41):
hook the positive end to thepan and then you can put an anode
in the water.
So that would be a piece oflike sheet metal.
So you could use, you know, goto your local hardware store and
just get a small piece ofsteel or you can reuse rebar or something
like that and plug the chargerin and it'll actually, I mean, it,
(19:02):
it pulls the rust right offthe pan.
So you can have the rust, theold seasoning, anything else that's
on the pan and it will, it'llpull it all off.
Typically I leave them in forabout 24 hours and it's amazing what
you can, what you can do.
I mean, you can take a panthat you thought there would be no
chance that it would ever comeback, but I mean, you really, that's,
(19:27):
that's if you have a panthat's really, really rusted up.
Sure.
But I mean, other than that,like, if you have one that's not
quite as bad, just heavy dutyoven cleaner with, you know, you
got to make, check the labeland make sure it's got caustic in
it so that it'll eat through,you know, any of the proteins that
are on there.
Right.
Take care of the rust.
And then I just spray thoseand then put them in like a, a plastic
(19:51):
trash bag and just let themsit for a few days and then rinse.
And most of the time that'spretty much all you need.
And then as far as likeactually the restoration part of
re seasoning, you know, I'llrun the pans that are cold water,
use a, like a scotch pad andjust scrub and try to get them as
(20:14):
clean as possible.
Try to get all the residue off.
And then I, towards the end,you want to use cold water because
if you're using hot water andyou're drying the pan, you're going
to get flash rust on the pan.
And then as far as like addingthe oil, I like to use flax oil just
(20:35):
because it's high, you know,it's high in omega 3s, which is,
which is really good forcreating that base seasoning layer.
We're going to take anotherbreak here on Barbecue Nation.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby I E Spinnaker from Amazing
Ribs.
Stay with us.
This, we've got more greatstuff coming your way.
(21:04):
Hey, everybody, it's JT and Ihave eaten.
If you've ever looked at me,you know that.
But I have eaten seafood allover the world and I can tell you
there's no place better thanhere in Oregon and our Dungeness
crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
go to oregondungeness.org findout how to cook it, how to catch
it, where to buy it, and thesustainability of what they're doing
(21:27):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
This is non core.
Hey, welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm J.T.
we'd like to thank the folksat Painted Hills Natural Beef and
also the folks at GunterWilhelm Knives.
Painting Painted Hills, ofcourse, is great beef that you can
(21:50):
be confident in serving yourfriends and family and consistency
in their flavor and textureand everything that's Painted Hills
Natural Beef.
And also, like I said, GunnarWilhelm back there, I was fortunate
a few months ago to get someGunter Wilhelm knives.
And I love them.
So you can check themout@gunter wilhelm.com We've got
John Bolsby with us fromAmazingRibs.com right now.
(22:14):
John's taking a break from hishard day of fishing and hunting up
on Lake Superior to talk with us.
And I'm grateful for that.
I, you know, we were talkingabout cast iron and kind of cleaning
and seasoning and that what happens.
Because I've seen this happenpersonally, and I will not take responsibility
(22:38):
for it because somebody elsewas trying to help me.
But when they, but when youget too much oil on the pan and like
you said before, it getssticky, can you just go wash that
off and kind of put a lightcoating back on and rebake it or
what are you gonna do?
Yeah, I mean it.
Well, first I will say thatif, if the pan gets sticky, there's
(23:00):
two things.
It's either you have too muchoil or not enough heat.
So if you have a pan, youknow, if you're taking a pan out
after, know you're doingaround a seasoning in the pan, it's,
you know, that's sticky.
Yeah, you can really, youknow, up your oven temperature and
let it bake for longer.
And that'll.
It'll bake that stuff out.
(23:20):
Okay.
It's gonna take, it's justgonna take longer.
But if, you know, if you don'twant to go that route, you can put
it back into, you know, put itback into your sink, use a pretty
coarse pad.
And I'll use.
A lot of times, I'll usereally, really coarse kosher salt
(23:43):
and put it in there and scrubthe pan.
Then you can give it a rinse,and that should take most of it off.
But if, I mean, if you're, ifyou're to a point where there's a
lot, where it's really, reallysticky, I will put it out on my.
I'll put it out on my grilland crank the grill up and just bake
the stickiness right off.
There you go.
Maybe not a great thing to doin the house because it can get a
(24:04):
little smoky.
A little.
Which is why, which is whyit's Perfect to do outside.
Sure, yeah.
You know, people run into thatsometimes and the main cause is you're
just using too little heat ortoo much oil.
There you go.
The other thing too, I wantedto ask you was there's a big push
today on, you know, Dutchovens, but if you go to one of your
(24:28):
kitchen stores, they're notthe Dutch ovens that you and I think
about, which are cast iron.
Okay.
These are enamel coated MarthaStewart, Rachel Ray specials like
that.
So what's the difference incare and then also what's the difference
in cooking with those.
(24:50):
As far as care?
I mean, the main advantage ofhaving like an enamel coated or porcelain
coated cast iron is cleanup.
Like they don't, they, I mean,they claim that they don't stick
as much, so they'retechnically easier to clean.
But if your cast iron is nonstick, like you're using it correctly,
(25:12):
that's not really an issue.
That shouldn't really be an issue.
But, but as far as cookingdifferences, I mean, the one disadvantage
I find with enamel coated castiron is you're not a supposed, you're
not supposed to use it overopen fire or on the grill.
Especially on a grill becauseof the chips.
(25:33):
You know, once that chiphappens, it's just, you know, it's
just like any paint job, it'sjust going to keep and keep, keep
cracking and stuff like that.
And so.
But I mean the main sellingpoint behind those, other than they're,
I mean, they're beautifulpieces of cookware is they're supposed
to be easier to clean.
But as far as I'm concerned, Ifind them to be a little bit limited
(25:55):
in the fact that, you know,you can't use them.
You're not supposed to usethem over by a fire or on the grill.
I know people do.
And I mean, I've got, youknow, I've got some like Crusade,
you know, enamel coated.
Sure.
Pork coated Dutch ovens.
And they're awesome.
I mean, they're great.
But I primarily use them in myoven and stuff like that.
Right.
But you know, as a live firecook, I try to stay away from them
(26:17):
just because, you know, that'snot, they're not really meant for
the, for the outdoors, butfor, you know, if we're in the kitchen
and stuff, they're great,they're nice.
It's kind of funny, when Istarted cooking on TV and they, they
said, oh, are you gonna do allDutch oven cooking?
I said no.
They said, why not?
I said, because I don't knowof anybody that can build a campfire
(26:38):
in their apartment inManhattan, you know.
Right.
So it doesn't work out very well.
And they kind of looked at melike I was goofy, which I am at times.
Excuse me.
But I think, you know, peoplegot to understand the difference
there because a lot of people,when they envision that, they envision
(27:00):
Julia Child making her, youknow, beef bouillon and all that.
Well, you can do that too.
In the, in cast iron over afire, It's a little, A little tougher.
I mean, it's got to payattention a little more.
I would argue more, but yeah, yeah.
It is more fun.
Yeah, but you can do that.
(27:21):
I know this, that when we usedto go packing on the horses and stuff
when I was a kid and it was avery long day, you know, and you
got there, and especially ifthe weather had turned, which it
did more than once in mylittle packing career, that it.
All of a sudden it was pouringdown rain or sleet.
There was nothing like a castiron skillet with some fried potatoes
(27:46):
and onions in it.
When you got just reallywarmed you up and got you going.
Absolutely, yeah.
Good animal fat in there.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
So when.
When.
When you say you cook overlight fire, what, what, if you will,
style, do you like, do youlike stickwood?
(28:08):
You like charcoal?
You being.
I, I like, I like any variation.
I mean, I do a lot, I do a loton my Kamados.
So, yeah, I use a charcoal and.
But I also have, you know, Ihave a, I have a stick burning smoker,
so I use logs and stuff forthat, which I really love.
(28:29):
I mean, if I'm trying to, iftime is not an issue, you know, I've
got a. I've got a Saturdayblocked off where I just kind of
want to sit back, relax at home.
Like, I just love firing thatthing up.
And I really like cooking,cooking with that, but I also love,
like, you know, campfire cooking.
You know, I do a lot ofbackpacking and stuff in Montana
(28:54):
and northern Minnesota and stuff.
And you know, I just love, Ilove being the camp cook and cooking
over.
Cooking over live fire,whether it be with cast iron or,
you know, typically if I'mbackpacking, you know, I'm using
like a carbon steel pan orsomething like that.
Sure.
To shed a little bit of weight.
Yeah, yeah, that's important.
(29:16):
But I mean, between cast ironand carbon steel, they're.
They're fairly similar.
You just, you know, carbonsteel pan gets hotter quicker, so
you just have to kind of becareful there.
But, but yeah, I mean, I likeall kinds of open fire cooking.
You know, it's.
I mean, I actually started.
The first smoker I ever hadwas actually an electric smoker and
(29:39):
I didn't last long.
I just didn't find it to bevery fun.
You know, I just like, this isjust not, you know, I, it was an
economy or an economicdecision to buy that one and you
know, it just, it didn't havethe same, the same lure to me as
being able to kind of playaround with the fire and stuff like
that.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I've got a.
And sorry folks, you'relistening because you've heard me
(30:01):
say this dozens of times, butI've, I've still got a offset stick
smoker that I bought for 150bucks back in the early 90s.
I still got, it still works.
It's not really photogenicanymore, you might say, but it still
works.
And I, and I smoked some fishand stuff on it still and it works
(30:24):
really good.
So are you a.
Do you like to do the cavemanstyle stuff?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I'll just, I mean yougot to use, you got to use lump to
do it, you know, just because,you know, Kingsford, albeit it's
a great, you know, Kingsford'sa great charcoal but binder.
So there's a lot of, there's alot of ash.
(30:45):
So you want to use a good, agood clean lump.
And you know what I like to dois I'll cook it.
I'll, you know, get the lumpfired up really hot and like that.
And then in my Kamados, I havethe, I have a basket that holds the
charcoal and you know, I'llput my grill gloves on and give that
(31:06):
basket a shake just to get anyexcess ash that's on those coals.
Yeah.
Knock through and then I'lljust throw the steak right on.
And it's, it's awesome.
I mean, it's kind of, I mean,and it's a fun discussion piece with
people that are over becausethey're like, I can't believe you're
doing that.
I'm like, just, just wait,wait to try it because it's awesome.
(31:27):
You know, I figured out, I, Ifigured out, John, why I, I have
a semi aversion to that andthat makes no sense.
But I finally figured it out acouple of days ago when I thought
about it, doing this.
I mean, really, I have noproblem with it.
I'm just not a big fan of itbecause it brings back childhood
(31:49):
memories like my s' moresfalling into the fire.
And you can't fish one ofthose out and eat it.
No, that's.
You're done on that deal.
Right.
You know, and we used to catchcrawdads in the crick and we, and
we'd get a pot of water and,you know, get them boiling and put
(32:10):
some pickling seasoning inthem or whatever you wanted and do
that.
And a couple of times thelittle great that we had collapsed
and all my crawdads, you know,died in vain, you might say.
Right.
So I think maybe that's it.
Maybe I have to get a littletherapy to overcome that.
You know, I don't, I don'tknow for sure.
(32:33):
But, and I will say this, Ihave seen people do that and they
have not taken the care thatyou just described as far as shaking
out the excess ash and stuffand then doing it that way.
They just kind of throw it in there.
That's important to do.
(32:54):
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withJohn Bolsby Spinnaker from Amazing
Ribs and talk some more abouthis cooking styles and techniques
right after this on Barbecue Nation.
It's the Kia season of newtradition sales event at Weston Kia.
Choose from over a thousandvehicles like a new Kia Sportage,
Soul Telluride or K5 gas,electric or hybrid.
(33:15):
Oregon's all time leader inKia sales.
1994-2025 Weston Kia sold morenew Kias than any other Kia dealer
in Oregon.
Reported by Kia Corp.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
I want to tell you about theHammerstahl knives.
Hammerstahl combines Germansteel with beautiful and functioning
(33:38):
designs.
They're part of the Heritagesteel which also does their pots
and pans.
So go to heritagesteel USCheck out the Hammer Stall knives.
If you're really into cooking.
I think you're really going tolike them.
(33:58):
This is an encore.
Hey, welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm J.T.
we're talking with John Bolsby today.
Spinnaker from AmazingRibs.coma couple of things, John.
What's the kind of either theweirdest or the hardest question
that you think you've had todeal with on Amazing Ribs?
I kind of caught you off guardon that one.
(34:20):
I'm sorry, but.
Oh, man.
Oh, geez.
I would say the one of theweirder ones that we've had was a
guy from this was and I don'tknow how many years ago now, probably
five years ago, maybe a guywas asking about smoking moose Ribs.
(34:42):
Okay.
I mean, I, obviously, I hadnever thought about that.
But the main, the main thingwas how gigantic the rack was.
Right.
He hadn't, it didn't appearthat he had like, even really cut
him down that much.
And I would say that I wasjust like, I don't even, I don't
(35:02):
even know where to start onthis one.
Yeah.
You know, I would say thatthat would be like the, the oddest
thing that I've had someoneask how to smoke.
And I honestly, I wouldimagine that would be fairly straightforward.
But, but I would say most of the.
Most.
Some of the more difficultquestions revolve around curing meats.
(35:23):
Sure.
It's because you have to, Imean, you have to make sure that
your calculations are correctand stuff like that.
And, you know, everyone hasdifferent variables.
So, you know, some stuff, somepeople are curing stuff bone in,
or they're using a differentsize container or they're using,
you know, different ingredients.
They want to add stuff or takestuff out or stuff like that.
(35:46):
So.
And with something that needsto be very exact in order to be safe,
I find that those are usuallythe most challenging stuff with curing.
But we have a couple of reallygood resources on our website that
thoroughly explains curing.
We have a calculator on therethat you can put in, you know, your
(36:09):
liquid measurements, theweight of the meat you're cooking,
the thickness, all that kindof stuff.
It'll give you a completereadout of the exact amounts of nitrates
you need to put in there andstuff like that to make sure that
you're being safe.
So we try to make it as easyas we can for people, but, you know,
it's one of those things wherewe want people to be safe and do
(36:29):
it correctly.
And so, I mean, it's not thatit's that challenging, but it's,
you know, it's something thatyou want to make sure you get right.
So.
Oh, yeah, you know, but I was.
Going to tell you, I smoked anumber of times deer ribs, and they
were.
Okay.
You just got to remember whenyou're doing that, at least from
(36:49):
my perspective, is there's nota lot of fat in venison, you know.
Yeah.
So they can, yeah, they canturn into bone in jerky really quick.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And this, this gentleman thatwrote into our site too, had a.
Had the picture of the rack ofribs, of the moose ribs that he was
(37:10):
smoking.
I mean, it was, it was comicaljust, just to look at him, you know,
and I'm just like, I, I Thinkyour main issue is going to be finding
something big enough to cookthose in.
Absolutely.
But I was going to say, Idon't know if you saw this, but a
few months ago the picture wasmaking the rounds on different social
media platforms and there wasa guy and he had this huge cooker.
(37:37):
It was an old oil drum, I meanlike an in ground oil drum thing,
but it was a bigger than I hadever really seen before.
And there was this big kind ofskinned carcass on there and it was
a camel.
And he actually put that wholecamel in that cooker and I don't
know what he was 12 hours or16 hours or something like that.
(37:58):
And it came out.
Now I've eaten camel, I'vebeen in the Middle East, I've eaten
camel.
Wasn't my fave, I'll just putit that way.
But a little chewy.
Yeah.
Flavor wasn't that bad, but itwas just a little chewy.
And, and when I first lookedat that, I thought, is he doing a
whole elk or something or whatin the hell is a buffalo?
(38:18):
And then I read further and itwas a camel.
And, and yeah, he had justlike removed the legs and it was
on this rack and everythingelse was skin and you could see the
hump and everything else.
And he just kept the hump on it.
Huh?
He kept the hump on it and heput it right in there and he smoked
it.
(38:39):
And I don't know how it turned out.
I mean, it looked good fromthe pictures, but I was like that.
You got to have some realconfidence in yourself, in what you're
doing.
I mean, I'd love to try it.
It would be awesome.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I just, I was so oddbecause it did look like maybe a,
(39:01):
a buffalo or an elk or something.
Just because of the way youcouldn't really tell.
But I wouldn't.
All the work it takes to likehunt an elk and bring it down.
First of all, you never bringthem down whole like that if, you
know.
And secondly, I, I wouldn'tsmoke the whole elk because there's
so many really good parts to it.
But that's a different storythat, you know, you'd want your steaks
(39:24):
and things.
But anyway, that was just kindof the one of the weirdest things
I had seen as far as smokinglike that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We haven't had anyone askabout camel before, but you never
know.
Hey.
Hey.
You know.
Yeah, I was.
(39:44):
There's, you know, of coursewe still have wild camels.
Not too many of them.
But around the southwestdesert and you go to Australia, you
know, there's a few of thosestill roaming around out there.
So, of course, when you getover in Africa and, you know, up
in the desert areas there,northern Africa and Middle east,
there's camels there.
So.
(40:05):
Yeah, they're.
They're eating them for a long time.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
I don't know.
I just.
It just makes you scratch yourhead is the only thing I can say.
Yeah.
Hey, I'll try anything once, right?
Yeah.
I would think the toughestpart of that, that would be monitoring.
Monitoring the temperature andkeeping it consistent on a.
(40:27):
On a cooker that big and.
Yeah, you know, I mean, thatwould be.
Well, you just.
On an animal that big, you'dhave such different.
I mean, the meats are going tocook at such different rates across
the animal that I think thatyou have to be very skilled to do
it.
Right.
Yeah, that would let me out.
I mean, I'm.
I feel I'm fairly skilled atthings, but doing something that
(40:50):
big would be kind of weird.
Anyway, John's going to stickaround for the after hours, which
you can hear on, of course,the podcast version of this.
But if somebody has a questionfor you directly on Amazing Ribs,
can they get a hold of you?
Yeah, yeah.
So they can.
If they're a member of ourforum, you know, they can.
(41:11):
They can just look my name upin the search bar and they can, you
know, send me a direct message.
Sure.
Which is very easy to do.
Or they can.
They can always emailme@spinnakermazingribs.com and, you
(41:32):
know, I've got.
I've always got my email withme and stuff like that.
Sure.
You know, I always try to.
I always try to get back tothose as quickly as possible.
And then, you know, we alsohave comments on all of our recipes
and techniques and stuff likethat on our main site, which is the
free side of the site.
You know, you can.
People can write questions inthere, and then either myself or
(41:56):
a few of my other colleagueson there can jump in and answer those
questions, too.
But I mean, if anyone hasdirect questions, I mean, your listeners
are more than free to email medirectly@spinnakeramazingribs.com John.
Thanks for being with us onthis show and look forward to talking
to you in just a coupleminutes on the after hour.
Yeah, thank you very much at.
(42:17):
I really appreciate it.
No worries.
We'll be back with moreBarbecue Nation after this.
Barbecue Nation is produced byjtsd LLC Productions in association
with Envision Networks andSalem Media Group.
All rights reserved.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!