August 30, 2025 • 46 mins
This podcast episode elucidates the intricate nuances of grilling as we approach Labor Day, emphasizing the imperative of mastering foundational techniques to enhance one’s culinary prowess. We are joined by the esteemed Meathead from AmazingRibs.com, who shares invaluable insights on effectively utilizing a digital thermometer and employing two-zone cooking as essential methodologies for achieving optimal results. The dialogue further traverses the significance of seasoning, specifically the unparalleled role of salt in amplifying flavors while preserving moisture within various meats. As we prepare for the convivial gatherings typical of this holiday, we also explore diverse grilling inspirations, ranging from classic barbecue fare to innovative vegetable and fruit dishes, ensuring that all listeners are equipped to elevate their grilling game. Join us as we delve into these topics, offering practical advice designed to enrich any Labor Day celebration.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- AmazingRibs.com
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission
- Heritage Steel
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt.
So fire up your grill, light the.
Charcoal, and get your smoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It, Don'tBurn it studios in Portland, here's
jt.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm jt.
My co host, hall of famerLeanne Whippen is out on special
assignment this week.
(00:32):
So she's missing out on thisshow because guess who's back.
Yep.
Meathead from AmazingRibs.coma fellow hall of famer.
There's.
And we're going to be talkingabout Labor Day.
Maybe some dishes, someseasoning, some tips, upping your
grill game for the holiday.
First, we'd like to thank thefolks at Painted Hills Natural Beef,
beef the way nature intended,and also the Oregon Dungeness crab
commission.
(00:53):
From seed to plate, if you'venever had Dungeness crab from the
west coast, and I'll sayOregon's is better, of course I would,
but try some.
You know, you can order itonline and you be the judge, but
Oregon Dungeness crab is great stuff.
Well, like I said, he's back.
Our good friend, my good palmeathead from AmazingRibs.com.
(01:14):
how are you there, man?
Oh, you're breaking my hearttalking about dungeness crab.
About 20 years ago, I had somesoft shell crab in Florida and I,
I got my, my throat startedcontracting and, oh, a couple of
weeks later I had anotherbatch and I got some welts in my
(01:37):
mouth and learned right thenand have since defined that I have
an allergy to crab, shrimp,lobster and crawfish.
And, you know, I mean, Icontemplated suicide.
If I can't eat crab, I mean,there's not much reason to live.
You know, it was, it was aterrible disappointment.
But, and Dungeness, I,whenever I hit the west coast, that
(02:00):
was like the first meal.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I'd love to ordersome of that.
And you know, you wanted totalk about Labor Day.
I mean, gosh, you know, some,some, some soft shell crabs on the
grill.
Oh, my goodness.
Shrimp on the grill, lobsteron the.
Grill, oysters, the wholeworks there.
Oh, man.
(02:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Well, then I won't tell youthat I got it two TV segments to
film next week and I justordered three pounds of crab.
So I won't tell me that.
I won't tell you that.
Anyway, we' big Labor Daycoming up for a lot of people that
marks the end of summer.
Kitties are going back to school.
(02:40):
You know, parents, parents geta Breather.
So the kids have already goneback to school where I am.
Yeah, they started this weekor some of them started last week.
It's just crazy.
It used to be for me.
I don't know about you.
We, we came back after Labor Day.
Right.
I'm in the Chicago suburbs andthey're back in school already.
(03:03):
It's crazy.
Yeah, we like you.
It was usually like September5th or 6th, whatever the calendar
day was.
Right after Labor Day.
Right after Labor Day.
Yeah.
And it was a short weekbecause it was always Tuesday through
Friday.
And you know, we, we did kindof look forward to that a bit.
But yeah, they've.
Some of them around here in,in the Portland city proper have
(03:26):
gone back.
Others, they, they kind ofstagger them.
I think more will come backthis week, next week, and then the
week after that.
Everybody's back.
So anyway, I want to talkabout some grilling ideas for Labor
Day.
I was looking around and doingsome research and stuff like usual
(03:46):
when we do this, there's a lotof great recipes out there, but I
want to start again.
We always do this when you'reon the show and people love it.
We got to give them some basics.
If they're first timelisteners or something, when they're
going to hit the grill and ifthey're going to, you know, even
if they're doing steaks ordogs or brats or chicken, we got
(04:07):
to give them a few tips andthen, and then we'll dive into some
special stuff.
So there's a couple of basictechniques and skills that everybody
needs to learn right off the bat.
And the first one is, is youneed a digital thermometer that you
cook with a thermometer, not a clock.
(04:28):
Throw a steak on the grill andcook for four minutes on one side
is a recipe for disasterbecause it, the thickness of the
steak determines how long ittakes to cook.
Right.
And medium rare steak is 130to 135 degrees in the center.
Not a penny more, not a penny less.
So you need that digital thermometer.
(04:49):
Otherwise you're going to bestanding at the head of the table
going, I'm kind of, kind ofgot away from me.
I'm sorry.
And your expensive steaks aregoing to be overcooked.
Yeah, but you'll neverovercook with a good digital thermometer.
And I say digital.
There's a bunch of dialthermometers out there on the market.
They're not accurate, they'renot reliable.
The digitals are accurate.
They are reliable.
(05:09):
You can Get a really goodinstant read that'll give you precise,
accurate number in fiveseconds or less.
And they're all over in thehardware and grocery stores and online
Amazon, we have onAmazingRibs.com a electrical engineer
who tests thermometers andrates them.
(05:29):
So if you want to see thehighest rated ones, come to AmazingRibs.com
and look up the thermometer ratings.
I mean, the top of the linesrun a hundred dollars plus, but you
can get a really nice one for20 bucks or so, right?
That's the first thing you need.
The second thing you need todo is you need to learn two zone
cooking.
Now, a lot of folks still pourthe charcoal in or turn the gas burners
(05:54):
all the way up on all the burners.
And that's, that's a mistake.
Cooking is all abouttemperature control.
So you need to be able tocontrol the temperature.
What you want to do is youwant to have a hot zone and a non
hot zone.
And that means you turn on oneburner or two burners and leave one
or two burners off.
Or you push all the charcoalto one side, not two sides, as some
(06:19):
manuals show you, but pushthem all to one side.
Now you've got a hot side, andif you cook on that hot side, you're
cooking with infraredradiation, and that is really intense
energy, and that's what brownsthe steak.
What's what makes chickenskins crispy.
But if you cook on the otherside, you can cooking with convection
(06:40):
airflow because it's notdirectly over the heat, not directly
over the flames or the coals.
And so it cooks more gently,it cooks slower.
And you need, and we got guys,particularly guys, you got to dial
it back.
You're cooking too hot, you'recooking too fast.
You don't want to cook it asfast as you can.
I mean, how many times have wegone to picnics where the chicken
(07:02):
is black on the outside andraw in the center?
Raw chickens, a health hazard.
So you want to hook yourchicken on the indirect side, away
from the flame, warm it gentlyuntil it gets up to about 150 degrees.
Then you move it over thedirect side and crisp that skin.
Get it done at about 160 degrees.
(07:25):
And now you've got safe andtender and juicy center and crispy
exterior.
So digital thermometer twozone cooking.
I mean, there's a lot of otherscience and techniques on my website
and in my book, but if you canlearn those two techniques, you're
way ahead of the game.
Oh, absolutely.
(07:46):
And I would.
And I would submit that ifyou're new to the barbecue slash
grilling slash smoking game,whatever you want to call, whatever
method you're using, I wouldsay don't try to show off.
If this is your first bigbash, stick with dogs, burgers, something
(08:06):
simple.
If you're confident you can goout there and cook nice big juicy
steaks or ribs or whatever, great.
But if you've not done itbefore, start a little slower.
And like Meathead just said,that way you're not standing at the
head of the table kind of witha hang dog face going, I'm sorry,
your steak is, you know,either burnt or still mooing out
(08:29):
there.
So that, that's my two centsfor it there.
Along those lines, too.
Don't try to do too much.
Even experienced guys, theysay, well, let's see, I'm gonna do
a brisket and I'm gonna do aturkey and I'm gonna do, you know,
simplify the menu.
You're not a Chineserestaurant with a hundred recipes
(08:50):
on the menu.
It's really tricky juggling.
Now, if you've got a smoker,then you can do brisket on a smoker
or ribs on a smoker.
And then if you've got agrill, you can do burgers and Brato
over there.
But juggling all that stuff,you know, especially all your buddies
are going to be hanging aroundwith a can of beer and they're going
to say, hey, it's time to flipthe stakes.
(09:11):
You know, supervising.
And just don't, don't try toshow off.
Don't try to do more than you can.
Keep it simple.
You know, chicken, just, youknow, just cook chicken.
You don't have to do chicken,hot dogs and hamburgers, right?
Just cook chicken or just cook hamburgers.
(09:31):
You don't need to do 16different entrees.
Well, and you touched on alittle few minutes ago.
And I think it's great advicewhen somebody told you, do, you know,
six minutes aside, get thatout of your brain.
Don't go there.
When you're thinking aboutcooking a steak or a pork chop or
whatever, don't do that.
(09:52):
Rely on your thermometer.
Like Meathead said, there'ssome great ones on the market for
under 30 bucks.
It's a nice Labor Day gift toyourself, if you will, to get that
out there.
But I think it's true becauseI was years and years ago, somebody
(10:12):
told me that when I was kindof first starting and I tried it
and it was a train wreck.
And so of Course, beef wasn't,you know, costing a third mortgage
in those days, and we raisedit ourselves, but still, I ruined
the meat because it not ruined it.
It just wasn't done for people.
And so.
And, you know, some peoplesay, well, I don't want to stick
a thermometer in there.
(10:33):
The juices will all run out.
They're not all going to run out.
At the most, there's a coupleof drops.
Maybe a quarter or a half ateaspoon comes out.
Let's take a filet mignon.
Typical Filet mignon is 8 ounces.
A steak is 75% water, sothat's 6 ounces of water.
If you lose half a teaspoon,you haven't lost anything at all.
(10:57):
It's hardly noticeable.
You can stab it with athermometer half a dozen times and
it's not going to dry it out.
Well, now, if you startcutting it open to look inside now,
you can be losing somesubstantial moisture.
And you can't always tell bythe color because the color changes
when it's exposed to oxygen.
And, you know, if you'recooking at night, the light bulb
(11:19):
that you're using,incandescent fluorescent LEDs, they're
different colors and so theycan be misleading.
The one and only way to knowif your food is ready is with a digital
thermometer.
On AmazingRibs.com, we have achart, a table, that gives you all
the correct times.
You can print it out.
(11:39):
Meathead and I are going tostep away for a minute and do a little
business on the air.
We will be back here on theNation in just a minute.
Don't go away.
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(12:00):
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Foreign.
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.
(12:20):
Stay cool.
Handles.
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It's got all the great stuff.
Just go to Heritagesteel USand find out more.
You'll love it.
I guarantee it.
(12:41):
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with Meatheadfrom Amazing Ribs.
Today, Ms. Whippen is on assignment.
She's taking care of somestuff down in Florida and up in the
South Carolina region this week.
She's cooking, doing that.
So she should be back here ina couple of weeks.
Also, some upcoming guestswe've got Amy Mills will be coming
(13:03):
up with us here in a couple weeks.
And next week, Jess Prileswill be on the show.
So, yeah, Jess, Jess is a lotof fun to talk to.
We have a.
Because every time I see her,I say fair dinkum, because I've been
to Australia a bunch of timesand, and she gets.
I know the incumbents then.
Yeah.
(13:24):
So anyway, we're talking aboutLabor Day here.
One of the things.
And I, and I saw you do thison another show.
I caught it.
And I think it was, it'sreasonable to bring up on this show
when you talk about seasoningand salt being the main seasoning
for most people.
It is for me and I thinkprobably for you on most dishes.
But when you're, when you'reseasoning your.
(13:47):
Let's start with steaks.
I'm a guy, I'll just tell youwhat I do.
And you already know thisabout me, but I bring them out, I
salt them, I let them sitthere for 20 minutes, a half hour,
whatever, and then I go putthem on the grill.
They're already salted.
And then I put the pepper orwhatever else.
I'm going to do it on there.
What, what are your thoughtson that?
(14:10):
Pre seasoning like that.
And then we're going to talkabout using other seasonings and
rubs like yours, that rightabove your right shoulder there on
other, other types of proteins.
We need to, we need to putsalt in a class all by itself.
Salt is unlike any other herband spice.
(14:32):
Salt is the magic rock.
And we've talked about thisbriefly before, but I'll, I'll repeat
gently and quickly.
Salt is two little atoms,sodium and chloride.
And when they get on meat,they get wet and they start to vibrate,
they get electrically charged.
It's called ionized.
And they move towards thecenter of the meat.
(14:53):
When they get there on theirway, they alter the shape of proteins.
Proteins are very large,complicated, twisted, mangled molecules.
And salt changes their shapesomewhat so that they can hold moisture
better.
So salt improves moisture retention.
The other thing salt does isit amplifies flavor without altering
(15:16):
it.
Garlic alters the flavor,gives it a garlicky taste.
Black pepper alters flavor.
All your herbs and spicesalter, alter the flavor, often for
the better.
But still, salt does not.
Salt just amplifies it and itimproves moisture retention.
And you don't need a lot.
You're.
If you're on a restricted saltdiet, you don't have to worry.
(15:39):
I use only Morton coarsekosher salt, but you can use any
salt.
All salt is sodium chloride,even these fancy exotic Hawaiian
black salt or Himalayan pink salt.
You might be able to taste,taste the difference if you taste
them straight, but it's very,very subtle.
(16:01):
And there's no way you cantaste the difference when you're
seasoning a meat or a chickenor something like that.
There's just no way.
So salt is important, and justuse a little tiny bit of it and it
will do the job.
My ratio is a half a teaspoonof sodium chloride or salt that.
(16:25):
Excuse me, Morton's coarsekosher salt per pound of meat, a
half a teaspoon.
If you're using table salt,it's more concentrated, so you want
to go to a quarter of ateaspoon per pound of meat.
And you, you use the saltbased on the weight of the meat because
it has to be distributedthroughout the meat.
(16:46):
For example, on a, a rib, arib slab.
If you sprinkle salt on a ribslab, it doesn't have to go very
far to get to the center, right?
I mean, rib slab is maybe atmost an inch thick, so it can travel
to the center a half inch way.
(17:07):
In just an hour or so, it'llbe at the center.
But if you do a pork butt,which is the shoulder muscle, not
the rear end.
But if you do a pork butt,which is five to seven pounds or
more, and it's a big roundbowling ball, it takes a long time
for the salt to get to the center.
Hours overnight is best, butyou need more salt because there's
(17:29):
a larger mass.
So you apply the salt based onthe weight.
The other thing is, is your,your spice rubs.
If you buy a spice rub, here'san example, one with my ugly face
on it.
If you buy a spice rub,chances are there's salt in it already.
(17:50):
Almost all of them have salt,and it's usually okay for stuff like
chicken and ribs.
But if you're doing a big,thick, fat piece of meat like pork
butt, you may need to add moresalt at the start based on the weight.
I have recipes onAmazingRibs.com for rubs that you
(18:10):
can make yourself a lotcheaper than buying mine in the store.
And they don't have salt inthem because I want you to apply
the salt and the Spicesseparately, because the black pepper,
the sugar, the thyme, therosemary, the molecules are way too
big to penetrate.
(18:31):
They may get into the littletiny pores and cracks and crevices
on the surface.
They may go a sixteenth of aninch or maybe even an eighth of an
inch down, but they're notgetting to the center like salt does.
Salt is the magic rock.
It gets all the way in.
Nothing else does.
So you apply the salt based onthe weight of the meat and then the
(18:52):
other spices on the surface area.
So the more surface area youhave, the more rub you need, and
you sprinkle it on.
Usually a rule of thumb iscover it nicely, but at least be
able to see the meat throughthe rub.
Don't cover it so that youcan't see the meat.
Right.
And away you go.
And I have recipes foreverything from fish rubs to pork
(19:14):
rubs to beef rubs.
All of that's onAmazingRibs.com and none of them
have salt, which is also handyif you are on a restricted salt diet.
But I show the math there.
There's so little salt in my.
My formula that it's notlikely to endanger your daily allotment.
Well, we've got about a minuteand a half here, but I want to ask
(19:36):
you, what about fat?
And I'm not talking about me personally.
I'm talking about you.
You get a nice ribeye, ormaybe you buy the, you know, the.
The whole rib and you cut yourown steaks, which I do.
You do like that.
And I live.
I leave a little extra fat onthe outside.
I happen to like it.
Okay.
(19:57):
Is that molecular process thesame on fat as it is on the meat
tissue?
Yeah.
If you like the taste of thefat, then leave it on there.
It'll cook and it'll get tasty.
And I, you know, I like alittle bit of it, but fat is oil.
Meat is 75% water.
Oil and water don't mix.
Right.
So that fat cap, the outsidelayers of fat, is not getting into
(20:22):
the meat.
It's not penetrating the meat.
It's not enhancing the flavoror in any way improving the taste
of the meat.
Now, if there is marbling,which is those little streaks of
fat within the muscle insidethe meat, that's a.
That's highly desirablebecause then that melts.
(20:45):
That's full of flavor.
It mixes in with the juicesand the meat and that you want.
But the surface fat, you buy apork butt.
I just bought two yesterdayfor doing some pulled pork.
There's a big old fat cap onOne side, a brisket, huge fat cap
on.
On one side.
(21:05):
You put your rub on top ofthat fat cap, and it's not going
to touch the muscle.
It's not going to touch the meat.
So you're not.
And the first thing you dowhen you serve meat with a lot of
fat on it is many people willjust cut it off and there goes your
rub.
So I recommend that you removeas much of the fat cap as possible.
Maybe leave a quarter or aneighth of an inch because during
(21:26):
cooking it will shrink andpeople will eat a very thin layer
of fat cap, but they won't eata thick layer of fat cap.
And fat does have a lot offlavor, but there's just no way that
the, you know, people are.
People all know the statementfat is flavor.
Fat within the meat is flavor.
Fat on top of the meat doesnothing for you.
(21:49):
No.
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withMeathead from Amazing Ribs here on
the Nation.
I'm glad you're with us todayand please stay with us.
We got a lot more coming yourway right after this.
(22:11):
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
(22:34):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm JT along with Meatheadfrom Amazing ribs dot com.
I left off the dot com lastsegment, but I always have faith
(22:57):
that Meathead will.
Will remedy the situation for me.
He does.
But I'm a radio guy, you know,we talk fast and think very little.
We'd like to thank the folks.
Like to thank the folks atPainter Hills.
I gotta clarify because I.
The reason I had asked you torefer to us as AmazingRib.com is
when people hear Amazing Ribs,they think I'm a restaurant and they
(23:18):
call me in the middle of thenight and ask if we still open and
do we deliver.
No, we're a website.
Amazing rib.
Dot com.
Yep.
Painter Hills beef, the waynature intended.
Oregon, Dungeness crab.
I think it's the best crab inthe world.
And I've eaten soft shells andI've eaten stuff all over the world.
And all of it's pretty good,but it's hard to beat Dungeness crab
(23:39):
from the West Coast.
We'll do that.
So we're talking with Meatheadfrom AmazingRibs.com today, and we're
talking about Labor Day stuffcoming up and upping your game a
little bit for the holiday.
What's your favorite thing tocook on Labor Day?
I mean, we've always talkedover the years.
You know, you've got Father'sDay and you've got 4th of July and
(23:59):
you've got Memorial Day andwe've kind of tied things in like
4th of July with ribs andothers with burgers and brats and
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,like that.
But what's your favorite thingto kind of.
That's an interesting point.
I mean, for Thanksgiving, wecook turkey for.
Right.
Fourth of July, I think ribsare required.
Father's Day, a steak,Mother's Day, maybe some chicken.
(24:24):
I don't have any specificfavorite for Labor Day other than
my neighbor across the streetwho plays a really great banjo and
he and his musician buddiesall get together on Labor Day and
we do a big cookout andeverybody brings a dish to pass.
(24:45):
And there's maybe 30, 40people there and they all bring instruments
except me.
And I bring the apron and wefire up the grill.
And I just stand there at the grill.
He, he's got two grills, a gasgrill and a charcoal grill.
And I cook.
Maybe I just got done warningpeople, don't try to do too much.
But I, I'm doing pork chops,flank steak, hamburgers, bratwurst,
(25:10):
chicken, all of it.
I've got them going on allburners and sweating like a pig,
usually on a hot day.
And the dish that I choose tobring is something I can prepare
in advance.
And I used to a smoked turkey,but it wasn't enough for this crowd.
They ran out of it in a hurry.
So now I'm doing pulled pork.
There you go.
And I, so I do you know thatthen I can start up the day before
(25:34):
or the night before overnightcook or early in the morning and
have it ready for a three o'clock party.
And everybody loves that.
So I'm doing pull pork frompork butts.
And I actually must confess, Icooked them yesterday for the, for
the Labor Day, I cooked themyesterday, I shredded them, I put
(25:57):
them in a vacuum sealed bag, Ifroze them.
And then on Labor Day with theparties at three or four, I'll put
them in a sous vide bath.
That is a Warm water bath atabout 145 or 150 and gently re therm
it is what they call it.
(26:18):
Bring them back to temperaturebut not too hot.
And it'll take a few hours toget them back up to temp.
And they'll be tender andjuicy and moist as if I just cooked
them.
No sauce on them yet.
I put them in a crock pot andmix in just a wee bit of sauce.
And then we serve buns and thesauce on the side.
(26:38):
And it's always a hit.
It's tender and juicy, andnobody knows I cooked it a week in
advance.
No, I'm with you on that.
One of the things I like to dofor Labor Day is we've.
You and I have talked andLeanne has talked on the show about
grilling vegetables and stuff,and it's a great time of year to
do that.
I also really like to grillfruit, and I like to make little
(27:01):
concoctions of fruit, kind offruit kebabs, if you will.
You know, you can, you cantake some pineapple or you can apples
or peaches or, you know, there's.
It's all coming in ripe now inthe fall, these fall fruits, the
pitted fruits and stuff like that.
And it's great to do.
I think pineapple on the grillis one of the best things ever on
(27:22):
the grill.
It's like candy.
I like it as well as I do asteak on the grill.
I mean, pineapple on the grill.
Pineapple itself, if it'sripe, is just marvelous.
But when you grill it, thesugar is caramelized.
It gets new flavors.
It's warm.
It's fantastic.
Peaches on the grill.
I'm pretty sure my website hasa really nice recipe for peaches
with a rum brown sugar sauceon top of vanilla ice cream.
(27:48):
And also I notice in thebackground you've got a picture of
a grilled sandwich.
And I. Grilled pound cake andpeaches on vanilla ice cream on grilled
pound cake.
Grilled peaches with this rum sauce.
Boy, that is ever good.
You can also grill peaches.
(28:09):
Excuse me.
And use one of those little,like if you go to Baskin and Robin's
little waffle bowls, you know,you can put it in there.
You can almost make like agrilled peach cobbler with fresh
ice cream on that.
Of course, it's.
It's very low fat with brownsugar and butter and all that, but.
(28:30):
All that.
But I, I saw something thismorning, though, that I really thought
was interesting.
They.
They created.
I don't know who did this.
I didn't follow it up.
I just saw it before we cameon the show.
But whoever did it made ahoney and balsamic fruit glaze on
that.
And I'm.
I'm gonna mess around withthat and see.
(28:51):
See if I like.
Sounds like a winner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The other thing I like to dois, is like I said, we're.
We're a lot of pitted fruitsup here, if you will, and pears.
And I like to take pears, cutthem in half, skin them, cut them
in half, remove the seeds and stuff.
And I'll put a little butter,brown sugar and cinnamon on it.
And you can.
You can make crumbles on thetop too, if you want, but.
(29:13):
But grill that and then serveit with ice cream.
So.
And it's quick, it's easy,it's not hard to do.
You can kind of whatever typeof flavorings you want.
If you want more brown sugaror less or more butter or no butter,
whatever, you can design it.
Your.
But it's a very simple thingto do.
Well, you're also, you know,we're talking about fruit, but you're
(29:34):
also deep into vegetable season.
And I have a really greatrecipe for eggplant parmesan on the
grill.
Now, normally you do eggplant.
You.
You dip it in egg, and thenyou dip it in breadcrumbs, and then
you fry it in a quarter inchof oil in a frying pan, and it just
soaks up all that oil, andthat's marvelous.
(29:57):
But what I'll do is I'll takethe eggplant and cut it either into
planks or into cross sectionsabout a half inch to 3/4 inch thick.
Give it a very light paint ofoil, sprinkle of salt, throw it on
the grill until it's gotten alittle golden and maybe a couple
of grill marks.
And then I'll put a big olddollop of thick tomato sauce on top.
(30:17):
And usually I make the tomatosauce from fresh tomatoes, which
come in around the same timeas the eggplant.
I take Roma tomatoes, whichare more meaty than juicy, Cut them
in half, grill them on oneside, flip them over, grill them
on the other side.
Once you've done that, theskin pops right off.
Grind it up, hook it down alittle bit in the pot so it's really
(30:38):
thick, add some oregano orsome thyme or some garlic, and make
a good tomato sauce out of it.
And then I scoop this tomatosauce on top of the eggplant, and
then I take a slice of freshMozzarella or, and.
Or a sprinkle of ParmigianoReggiano and put it on top and you've
got yourself a reallyexcellent eggplant parmesan with
(31:01):
a lot less oil than when youdo it indoors.
And it has all those marvelousflame roasted tomato and grilled
flavors.
I love that.
I really do love that it sounds.
But I want to ask you aboutyou making.
When you're reducing yourtomatoes like that, how long do you
(31:21):
do that?
It's.
It's.
If people don't know what he'stalking about, he's grilled him,
he's popped the skin off of those.
He's mushed them up, if you will.
Do you do it by hand?
You put them in a foodprocessor to, to grind them down
or throw.
Them in a pan, a saucepan.
Yeah.
And maybe mash them up with apotato masher or something.
Once they start bubbling andboiling, they, they break down pretty
(31:43):
quickly.
A potato mash, it doesn'tmatter if they got lumps in it.
Yeah, it tastes fine.
And you just, you know, kindof crunch it down or use a fork and
there's.
It depends on the breed of tomato.
Now, if you've got better boyand big boy tomatoes, which are baseball
size, there's a lot of liquidin them.
But if you've got Roma orMarzanos, which are kind of egg shaped,
(32:05):
there's much less juice inthere, there's more meat in there.
So they'll cook down.
Now, when we talk about cookdown, I think probably your audience
has an idea what we're doing.
Let's make sure they know whatwe're talking about.
Cooking down means you simmerfood until the water boils off and
that thickens and concentrates it.
So you take this tomato thatyou've smashed up and it's got a
(32:29):
lot of water in it.
It's very thin.
If you put it on a burner in apan and bring it up to about 190
so it's not boiling, it's simmering.
Radio will reduce until it's thick.
(32:49):
And then you can scoop it and,you know, thick like you want to
get it like ketchup or something.
Right.
And then you can scoop it ontop of these eggplant slices and
put your cheese on top andaway you go.
All kinds of things are goodby reduction.
You mentioned balsamic.
Most of the grocery storebalsamic has a lot of sugar in it.
(33:14):
And if you take that and pourit into a pan and again, you don't
want it to boil.
You want it to be a low simmer.
If you cook that until it getsthick, like a syrup, it's fantastic.
It's.
It's a bulk.
It's a sweet vinegar syrup,which is really great.
I.
People.
People put it on strawberries,on ice cream.
(33:34):
Mm.
And it's really great.
You drizzle it on fresh tomatoes.
Fantastic stuff.
So cooking down liquids isalways a cool technique.
It's also very good onBrussels sprouts.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, boy.
Absolutely.
Brussels sprouts with reduced balsamic.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It'll.
(33:54):
It'll make you smile, Iguarantee it.
We're going to take one morebreak in the show, and then Meathead
and I will be back on thenation to bring you more food information,
especially about.
About outdoor barbecuegrilling and smoking.
And I'm talking about smokingthe proteins, not smoking something
else.
Anyway, we'll be right back.
It's Labor Day, and we'recelebrating Weston's 50th anniversary.
(34:15):
$50 down on select new Kias.
50amonth for the 25 Kia EV6.
It's our 50th anniversary, andwe have more vehicles in stock and
ready to go than we've had in50 years.
Everyone wins at Weston.
Residual 31411 tax licenseinclude 10,000 miles per year, 650
security required.
Offer MT3125.
(34:37):
Hey, everybody, it's J.T.
you know, I talk about paintedhills all the time, and we always
say beef the way nature intended.
But it's more than that,because each bite of painted hills
will make your taste buds explode.
Put a big, bright smile onyour face, and whoever's at your
dinner table will have a big,bright smile on their face.
And you can thank me for that later.
Just go topaintedhillsbeef.com and find out
(35:00):
more.
You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
I want to tell you about theHammerstahl knives.
Hammerstahl combines Germansteel with beautiful and functioning
designs.
They're part of the Heritagesteel group, which also does their
pots and pans.
So go to heritagesteel US.
Check out the Hammer Stahl knives.
If you're really into cooking.
I think you're really gonnalike them.
(35:28):
Foreign.
Welcome back to the nation ofBarbecue Nation.
I'm JT Ms. Whipping is on theroad this week, but we've got meathead
from AmazingRibs.com and we'vebeen talking about Labor Day.
Upping your game a little bitfor Labor Day, and we touched on
(35:49):
Some seasoning and somefavorite dishes that he has, he likes
to do.
I like to do whatever you liketo do at home.
It's one thing I wanted toemphasize in this show, what, what
Meathead and I talk about andwhat our other guests talk about.
These are tried and truethings that we've done.
(36:11):
You're the master of your owngrill or smoker at home, so take
these as emphatically praising suggestions.
And if, you know, if you wantto burn your steak to 215 degrees,
don't call us, but it's your choice.
So anyway, there, there you go.
Well, I mean, no, taste isstill a matter of taste.
(36:34):
Absolutely.
There are good techniques.
There are techniques that workbetter than others.
You know, I, I, I, I, youknow, go on social media and people
talk about their favorite recipes.
I will offer suggestions onhow to improve it.
But do it your way, you know,I mean, if, if you like it your way,
(36:56):
don't let anybody intimidateyou into doing it another way.
Even if I tell you it's wrong.
Yeah, well, me dad, I'll tellyou, I grew up and when I grew up,
my, my dad was a quote unquotemeat and potatoes guy.
He was part of the greatestgeneration and all that stuff.
He liked his steaks pan fried.
That's how we grew up.
(37:17):
Cast iron, skillet, steak inthe skillet.
When I really started gettinginto cooking, I don't know, I was
12, 13, 14.
I started to broil the steaksand he wouldn't eat them.
Now.
They were medium rare to thebest of my ability.
We didn't have the goodthermometers and stuff back in the
Pleistocene era.
But what I'm saying is wetried to, I tried to make it grilled
(37:41):
because I was watching peopleon television, you know, picking
up stuff, reading books,whatever, but my dad wouldn't do
it.
He didn't like a medium rare.
He didn't want that piece ofmeat still bleeding and mowing, you
know, and it wasn't.
But I would always end up justif I was doing a grilling something
(38:03):
or broiling something, I haveto set it way down low, the rack
way down low and just make hisreally brown in the middle.
And then he would eat it so.
Well, you know, there's anawful lot of people who prefer their
steaks well done.
Yeah.
And well done is about 155 andit's gray or brown in the center.
(38:28):
And the reason I think thatmost of them want it that way is
they think all that pink Juiceis blood, right?
But it's not, it's not blood.
It's, it's, it's water.
Remember, steak of 75% water.
It's water that is tintedslightly pink by a protein in the
meat called myoglobin, andscientists call it myo water.
(38:50):
But if you think about it,animal blood, beef blood, chicken
blood, lamb blood and humanblood is pretty much the same.
It's all very, very dark red,almost black.
If you, I mean if you cutyourself and you look at the, the
blood coming out, it's reallydark red, it's black and it's thin,
thick and it coagulates,coagulates rapidly in the air.
(39:14):
And this stuff that comes outof your steak is thin, it's pink,
not red or black.
It's runny, it doesn't get thick.
It just sits there in thebottom of the plate.
And that's because it's water.
And so the pink juices thatcome out of a steak are not blood.
(39:35):
And every time you call itblood, somewhere in Indiana a teenager
becomes a vegan.
So we need to stop.
Anybody want blood on their steak?
It's not blood.
Don't say that, it's juice.
Just said you want juice onyour steak, fine, it's, it'll moisten
the meat, it's great.
(39:56):
But I think if we can overcomethe fear that we're eating blood
and even so, if you cook it todone, what happens to all that so
called blood?
It doesn't.
Is it absorbed by the meat?
Does it evaporate?
Well, I mean, you know, it'sstill, that juice is still not right.
(40:17):
Well, I'll tell you, I'm aheathen and we've talked about this
on the show, I think a coupletimes, but pull the steaks off the
grill, you put them on aplatter, you bring them in the house,
they dishing their food like this.
When I always, I'm always thelast guy to make my plate, if you
will, because I'll take thatblood off the steak plate and I pour
(40:38):
it on my baked potato becauseI love it.
It's, you know, it's veryseasoned, it's very tasty.
It's like that.
And I put some of that on mybaked potato.
Now some people havequestioned my parentage on that deal,
but I'll tell you, it's, it's,it's, it's very, very tasty.
And you know, it's not, it'snot blood.
(41:00):
I still to this day, with allthe people I invite and cook for
And I will still have peoplesay, I don't like all that bloody
red stuff on the.
On the planet.
It's.
It's not, you know.
But.
Well, we also.
I know the scientists there.
There is a branch of thescience is called food science, and
(41:22):
food scientists, particularlymeat scientists, are deeply involved
in research on food and meat,and they have equipment.
For example, I have a gadgetcalled the Warner Brachler machine.
The Warner Brachler machine isessentially a metal tooth.
It's an artificial tooth, andthey put a piece of meat under it,
and then they can applypressure to that tooth, and they
(41:45):
can measure precisely how muchpressure it takes to cut into the
steak.
And that's how they measure tenderness.
They also can measure juiciness.
And we know that tendernessand juiciness is optimal on a steak
in the 130 to 135 range, whichhappens to be medium rare.
(42:06):
So if you're going to take itwell done, you're taking IT up to
155.
It is by definition tougherand less juicy.
Yep.
Well, you cooked all the goodstuff out of it at the end there.
That's what I think.
Anyway, you said earlier youmade some pulled pork for your Labor
(42:28):
Day bash.
What else?
We got a couple minutes hereand we'll pick it.
We're going to do a shortafter hours today, not our usual
marathon, but.
What are you going to servewith that?
Well, I'm just bringing thepulled pork to this big old party
with 40 people, and there'sone guy who makes a great coleslaw.
(42:48):
I mean, we've been doing thisnow for, like 20 years, and everybody
has sort of settled upon thecrowd favorite.
And there's a little of everything.
There's salads, there'scoleslaw, there's potato salad, there's
cornbread.
There's just.
It's a huge spread.
There's 30 or 40 people, soeverybody brings something.
(43:10):
Oh, and the pies.
There happen to be some reallygood pie bakers in this crowd, my
wife included.
And Jeff, the host of theparty, is a great pie baker, and
he.
He's his girlfriend is a pie baker.
So there's just, you know,boy, you got to save room for pie.
And it's just a lot of fun.
And it.
And the music.
I mean, they all.
(43:30):
They all bring folding chairsand they sit in a circle.
If you can imagine 30 or 40musicians sitting in a circle.
And.
And they play a lot of folkmusic and country and hillbilly music,
and there's some old fashionedStringing instruments.
It's just a, it's just a hullablue.
(43:53):
It's a lot of fun.
And so I'm, I'm, I just bringthe pulled pork and then I stand
at the grill for about an hourand a half, uh, cooking up all the
meats and uh, then uh, we ringthe dinner bell and uh, we all sit
down and eat.
I'm going to send you a pairof spoons.
Spoons that you can play.
Spoons.
(44:14):
Oh, I, I play the radio.
That's my musical.
Yeah, that's your musical instrument.
I, I, it's, you know, peopleask, you know, I get interviewed
a lot and people ask if I haveany regrets.
And that's my biggest regretis that I gave up on both piano and
violin lessons as a kid.
(44:35):
I hated them.
I preferred sports, I played alot of sports.
I loved my sports careers.
But I wish I could play amusical instrument so I can join
these gangs.
You can hum.
Yeah.
Get a kazoo, sit on theoutskirts and enjoy it.
There's some great musiciansand some great voices.
(44:57):
There you go.
That's going to wrap it for.
What's this show again?
Oh yeah, Barbecue Nation this week.
Don't Forgetmeathead@amazingribs.com Go there.
If you're really want to geton your game, sign up for the Pit
Masters Club.
There's lots of stuff in the,in the Pitmasters Club there, but
(45:19):
there's, there's a lot of freeinformation, like 72, 000 pages of
free information.
And then there's another 72,000 pages in the pit Masters Club
and some of some of theinterviews and another show is in
there too so you can hear allkinds of good stuff.
But Meathead, thank you, Iappreciate it as always.
(45:39):
Always good to talk to you.
He and I are going to slipaway and do some after hours stuff
because both in Illinois andin Oregon certain things are legal.
But until that time, go out,have a good Labor Day party.
Good time.
And remember our motto here.
Turn it, don't burn it.
So for Ms. Whippen, Mr.Meathead and myself, take care everybody.
(46:02):
Barbecue Nation is prod byJTSD LLC Productions in association
with Salem Media Group.
All rights reserved.
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt.
So fire up your grill, light the.
Charcoal, and get your smoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It, Don'tBurn it studios in Portland, here's
jt.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm jt.
My co host, hall of famerLeanne Whippen is out on special
assignment this week.
(00:32):
So she's missing out on thisshow because guess who's back.
Yep.
Meathead from AmazingRibs.coma fellow hall of famer.
There's.
And we're going to be talkingabout Labor Day.
Maybe some dishes, someseasoning, some tips, upping your
grill game for the holiday.
First, we'd like to thank thefolks at Painted Hills Natural Beef,
beef the way nature intended,and also the Oregon Dungeness crab
commission.
(00:53):
From seed to plate, if you'venever had Dungeness crab from the
west coast, and I'll sayOregon's is better, of course I would,
but try some.
You know, you can order itonline and you be the judge, but
Oregon Dungeness crab is great stuff.
Well, like I said, he's back.
Our good friend, my good palmeathead from AmazingRibs.com.
(01:14):
how are you there, man?
Oh, you're breaking my hearttalking about dungeness crab.
About 20 years ago, I had somesoft shell crab in Florida and I,
I got my, my throat startedcontracting and, oh, a couple of
weeks later I had anotherbatch and I got some welts in my
(01:37):
mouth and learned right thenand have since defined that I have
an allergy to crab, shrimp,lobster and crawfish.
And, you know, I mean, Icontemplated suicide.
If I can't eat crab, I mean,there's not much reason to live.
You know, it was, it was aterrible disappointment.
But, and Dungeness, I,whenever I hit the west coast, that
(02:00):
was like the first meal.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I'd love to ordersome of that.
And you know, you wanted totalk about Labor Day.
I mean, gosh, you know, some,some, some soft shell crabs on the
grill.
Oh, my goodness.
Shrimp on the grill, lobsteron the.
Grill, oysters, the wholeworks there.
Oh, man.
(02:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Well, then I won't tell youthat I got it two TV segments to
film next week and I justordered three pounds of crab.
So I won't tell me that.
I won't tell you that.
Anyway, we' big Labor Daycoming up for a lot of people that
marks the end of summer.
Kitties are going back to school.
(02:40):
You know, parents, parents geta Breather.
So the kids have already goneback to school where I am.
Yeah, they started this weekor some of them started last week.
It's just crazy.
It used to be for me.
I don't know about you.
We, we came back after Labor Day.
Right.
I'm in the Chicago suburbs andthey're back in school already.
(03:03):
It's crazy.
Yeah, we like you.
It was usually like September5th or 6th, whatever the calendar
day was.
Right after Labor Day.
Right after Labor Day.
Yeah.
And it was a short weekbecause it was always Tuesday through
Friday.
And you know, we, we did kindof look forward to that a bit.
But yeah, they've.
Some of them around here in,in the Portland city proper have
(03:26):
gone back.
Others, they, they kind ofstagger them.
I think more will come backthis week, next week, and then the
week after that.
Everybody's back.
So anyway, I want to talkabout some grilling ideas for Labor
Day.
I was looking around and doingsome research and stuff like usual
(03:46):
when we do this, there's a lotof great recipes out there, but I
want to start again.
We always do this when you'reon the show and people love it.
We got to give them some basics.
If they're first timelisteners or something, when they're
going to hit the grill and ifthey're going to, you know, even
if they're doing steaks ordogs or brats or chicken, we got
(04:07):
to give them a few tips andthen, and then we'll dive into some
special stuff.
So there's a couple of basictechniques and skills that everybody
needs to learn right off the bat.
And the first one is, is youneed a digital thermometer that you
cook with a thermometer, not a clock.
(04:28):
Throw a steak on the grill andcook for four minutes on one side
is a recipe for disasterbecause it, the thickness of the
steak determines how long ittakes to cook.
Right.
And medium rare steak is 130to 135 degrees in the center.
Not a penny more, not a penny less.
So you need that digital thermometer.
(04:49):
Otherwise you're going to bestanding at the head of the table
going, I'm kind of, kind ofgot away from me.
I'm sorry.
And your expensive steaks aregoing to be overcooked.
Yeah, but you'll neverovercook with a good digital thermometer.
And I say digital.
There's a bunch of dialthermometers out there on the market.
They're not accurate, they'renot reliable.
The digitals are accurate.
They are reliable.
(05:09):
You can Get a really goodinstant read that'll give you precise,
accurate number in fiveseconds or less.
And they're all over in thehardware and grocery stores and online
Amazon, we have onAmazingRibs.com a electrical engineer
who tests thermometers andrates them.
(05:29):
So if you want to see thehighest rated ones, come to AmazingRibs.com
and look up the thermometer ratings.
I mean, the top of the linesrun a hundred dollars plus, but you
can get a really nice one for20 bucks or so, right?
That's the first thing you need.
The second thing you need todo is you need to learn two zone
cooking.
Now, a lot of folks still pourthe charcoal in or turn the gas burners
(05:54):
all the way up on all the burners.
And that's, that's a mistake.
Cooking is all abouttemperature control.
So you need to be able tocontrol the temperature.
What you want to do is youwant to have a hot zone and a non
hot zone.
And that means you turn on oneburner or two burners and leave one
or two burners off.
Or you push all the charcoalto one side, not two sides, as some
(06:19):
manuals show you, but pushthem all to one side.
Now you've got a hot side, andif you cook on that hot side, you're
cooking with infraredradiation, and that is really intense
energy, and that's what brownsthe steak.
What's what makes chickenskins crispy.
But if you cook on the otherside, you can cooking with convection
(06:40):
airflow because it's notdirectly over the heat, not directly
over the flames or the coals.
And so it cooks more gently,it cooks slower.
And you need, and we got guys,particularly guys, you got to dial
it back.
You're cooking too hot, you'recooking too fast.
You don't want to cook it asfast as you can.
I mean, how many times have wegone to picnics where the chicken
(07:02):
is black on the outside andraw in the center?
Raw chickens, a health hazard.
So you want to hook yourchicken on the indirect side, away
from the flame, warm it gentlyuntil it gets up to about 150 degrees.
Then you move it over thedirect side and crisp that skin.
Get it done at about 160 degrees.
(07:25):
And now you've got safe andtender and juicy center and crispy
exterior.
So digital thermometer twozone cooking.
I mean, there's a lot of otherscience and techniques on my website
and in my book, but if you canlearn those two techniques, you're
way ahead of the game.
Oh, absolutely.
(07:46):
And I would.
And I would submit that ifyou're new to the barbecue slash
grilling slash smoking game,whatever you want to call, whatever
method you're using, I wouldsay don't try to show off.
If this is your first bigbash, stick with dogs, burgers, something
(08:06):
simple.
If you're confident you can goout there and cook nice big juicy
steaks or ribs or whatever, great.
But if you've not done itbefore, start a little slower.
And like Meathead just said,that way you're not standing at the
head of the table kind of witha hang dog face going, I'm sorry,
your steak is, you know,either burnt or still mooing out
(08:29):
there.
So that, that's my two centsfor it there.
Along those lines, too.
Don't try to do too much.
Even experienced guys, theysay, well, let's see, I'm gonna do
a brisket and I'm gonna do aturkey and I'm gonna do, you know,
simplify the menu.
You're not a Chineserestaurant with a hundred recipes
(08:50):
on the menu.
It's really tricky juggling.
Now, if you've got a smoker,then you can do brisket on a smoker
or ribs on a smoker.
And then if you've got agrill, you can do burgers and Brato
over there.
But juggling all that stuff,you know, especially all your buddies
are going to be hanging aroundwith a can of beer and they're going
to say, hey, it's time to flipthe stakes.
(09:11):
You know, supervising.
And just don't, don't try toshow off.
Don't try to do more than you can.
Keep it simple.
You know, chicken, just, youknow, just cook chicken.
You don't have to do chicken,hot dogs and hamburgers, right?
Just cook chicken or just cook hamburgers.
(09:31):
You don't need to do 16different entrees.
Well, and you touched on alittle few minutes ago.
And I think it's great advicewhen somebody told you, do, you know,
six minutes aside, get thatout of your brain.
Don't go there.
When you're thinking aboutcooking a steak or a pork chop or
whatever, don't do that.
(09:52):
Rely on your thermometer.
Like Meathead said, there'ssome great ones on the market for
under 30 bucks.
It's a nice Labor Day gift toyourself, if you will, to get that
out there.
But I think it's true becauseI was years and years ago, somebody
(10:12):
told me that when I was kindof first starting and I tried it
and it was a train wreck.
And so of Course, beef wasn't,you know, costing a third mortgage
in those days, and we raisedit ourselves, but still, I ruined
the meat because it not ruined it.
It just wasn't done for people.
And so.
And, you know, some peoplesay, well, I don't want to stick
a thermometer in there.
(10:33):
The juices will all run out.
They're not all going to run out.
At the most, there's a coupleof drops.
Maybe a quarter or a half ateaspoon comes out.
Let's take a filet mignon.
Typical Filet mignon is 8 ounces.
A steak is 75% water, sothat's 6 ounces of water.
If you lose half a teaspoon,you haven't lost anything at all.
(10:57):
It's hardly noticeable.
You can stab it with athermometer half a dozen times and
it's not going to dry it out.
Well, now, if you startcutting it open to look inside now,
you can be losing somesubstantial moisture.
And you can't always tell bythe color because the color changes
when it's exposed to oxygen.
And, you know, if you'recooking at night, the light bulb
(11:19):
that you're using,incandescent fluorescent LEDs, they're
different colors and so theycan be misleading.
The one and only way to knowif your food is ready is with a digital
thermometer.
On AmazingRibs.com, we have achart, a table, that gives you all
the correct times.
You can print it out.
(11:39):
Meathead and I are going tostep away for a minute and do a little
business on the air.
We will be back here on theNation in just a minute.
Don't go away.
It's Labor Day and we'recelebrating Weston's 50th anniversary.
50 down on select new Kias.
50amonth for the 25 Kia EV6.
It's our 50th anniversary andwe have more vehicles in stock and
ready to go than we've had in50 years.
Everyone wins at West End.
Residual 31 for 1 1,000 milesper year.
(12:00):
650 security files required.
Offer NZ3 1, 2, 5.
Foreign.
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.
(12:20):
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.
(12:41):
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with Meatheadfrom Amazing Ribs.
Today, Ms. Whippen is on assignment.
She's taking care of somestuff down in Florida and up in the
South Carolina region this week.
She's cooking, doing that.
So she should be back here ina couple of weeks.
Also, some upcoming guestswe've got Amy Mills will be coming
(13:03):
up with us here in a couple weeks.
And next week, Jess Prileswill be on the show.
So, yeah, Jess, Jess is a lotof fun to talk to.
We have a.
Because every time I see her,I say fair dinkum, because I've been
to Australia a bunch of timesand, and she gets.
I know the incumbents then.
Yeah.
(13:24):
So anyway, we're talking aboutLabor Day here.
One of the things.
And I, and I saw you do thison another show.
I caught it.
And I think it was, it'sreasonable to bring up on this show
when you talk about seasoningand salt being the main seasoning
for most people.
It is for me and I thinkprobably for you on most dishes.
But when you're, when you'reseasoning your.
(13:47):
Let's start with steaks.
I'm a guy, I'll just tell youwhat I do.
And you already know thisabout me, but I bring them out, I
salt them, I let them sitthere for 20 minutes, a half hour,
whatever, and then I go putthem on the grill.
They're already salted.
And then I put the pepper orwhatever else.
I'm going to do it on there.
What, what are your thoughtson that?
(14:10):
Pre seasoning like that.
And then we're going to talkabout using other seasonings and
rubs like yours, that rightabove your right shoulder there on
other, other types of proteins.
We need to, we need to putsalt in a class all by itself.
Salt is unlike any other herband spice.
(14:32):
Salt is the magic rock.
And we've talked about thisbriefly before, but I'll, I'll repeat
gently and quickly.
Salt is two little atoms,sodium and chloride.
And when they get on meat,they get wet and they start to vibrate,
they get electrically charged.
It's called ionized.
And they move towards thecenter of the meat.
(14:53):
When they get there on theirway, they alter the shape of proteins.
Proteins are very large,complicated, twisted, mangled molecules.
And salt changes their shapesomewhat so that they can hold moisture
better.
So salt improves moisture retention.
The other thing salt does isit amplifies flavor without altering
(15:16):
it.
Garlic alters the flavor,gives it a garlicky taste.
Black pepper alters flavor.
All your herbs and spicesalter, alter the flavor, often for
the better.
But still, salt does not.
Salt just amplifies it and itimproves moisture retention.
And you don't need a lot.
You're.
If you're on a restricted saltdiet, you don't have to worry.
(15:39):
I use only Morton coarsekosher salt, but you can use any
salt.
All salt is sodium chloride,even these fancy exotic Hawaiian
black salt or Himalayan pink salt.
You might be able to taste,taste the difference if you taste
them straight, but it's very,very subtle.
(16:01):
And there's no way you cantaste the difference when you're
seasoning a meat or a chickenor something like that.
There's just no way.
So salt is important, and justuse a little tiny bit of it and it
will do the job.
My ratio is a half a teaspoonof sodium chloride or salt that.
(16:25):
Excuse me, Morton's coarsekosher salt per pound of meat, a
half a teaspoon.
If you're using table salt,it's more concentrated, so you want
to go to a quarter of ateaspoon per pound of meat.
And you, you use the saltbased on the weight of the meat because
it has to be distributedthroughout the meat.
(16:46):
For example, on a, a rib, arib slab.
If you sprinkle salt on a ribslab, it doesn't have to go very
far to get to the center, right?
I mean, rib slab is maybe atmost an inch thick, so it can travel
to the center a half inch way.
(17:07):
In just an hour or so, it'llbe at the center.
But if you do a pork butt,which is the shoulder muscle, not
the rear end.
But if you do a pork butt,which is five to seven pounds or
more, and it's a big roundbowling ball, it takes a long time
for the salt to get to the center.
Hours overnight is best, butyou need more salt because there's
(17:29):
a larger mass.
So you apply the salt based onthe weight.
The other thing is, is your,your spice rubs.
If you buy a spice rub, here'san example, one with my ugly face
on it.
If you buy a spice rub,chances are there's salt in it already.
(17:50):
Almost all of them have salt,and it's usually okay for stuff like
chicken and ribs.
But if you're doing a big,thick, fat piece of meat like pork
butt, you may need to add moresalt at the start based on the weight.
I have recipes onAmazingRibs.com for rubs that you
(18:10):
can make yourself a lotcheaper than buying mine in the store.
And they don't have salt inthem because I want you to apply
the salt and the Spicesseparately, because the black pepper,
the sugar, the thyme, therosemary, the molecules are way too
big to penetrate.
(18:31):
They may get into the littletiny pores and cracks and crevices
on the surface.
They may go a sixteenth of aninch or maybe even an eighth of an
inch down, but they're notgetting to the center like salt does.
Salt is the magic rock.
It gets all the way in.
Nothing else does.
So you apply the salt based onthe weight of the meat and then the
(18:52):
other spices on the surface area.
So the more surface area youhave, the more rub you need, and
you sprinkle it on.
Usually a rule of thumb iscover it nicely, but at least be
able to see the meat throughthe rub.
Don't cover it so that youcan't see the meat.
Right.
And away you go.
And I have recipes foreverything from fish rubs to pork
(19:14):
rubs to beef rubs.
All of that's onAmazingRibs.com and none of them
have salt, which is also handyif you are on a restricted salt diet.
But I show the math there.
There's so little salt in my.
My formula that it's notlikely to endanger your daily allotment.
Well, we've got about a minuteand a half here, but I want to ask
(19:36):
you, what about fat?
And I'm not talking about me personally.
I'm talking about you.
You get a nice ribeye, ormaybe you buy the, you know, the.
The whole rib and you cut yourown steaks, which I do.
You do like that.
And I live.
I leave a little extra fat onthe outside.
I happen to like it.
Okay.
(19:57):
Is that molecular process thesame on fat as it is on the meat
tissue?
Yeah.
If you like the taste of thefat, then leave it on there.
It'll cook and it'll get tasty.
And I, you know, I like alittle bit of it, but fat is oil.
Meat is 75% water.
Oil and water don't mix.
Right.
So that fat cap, the outsidelayers of fat, is not getting into
(20:22):
the meat.
It's not penetrating the meat.
It's not enhancing the flavoror in any way improving the taste
of the meat.
Now, if there is marbling,which is those little streaks of
fat within the muscle insidethe meat, that's a.
That's highly desirablebecause then that melts.
(20:45):
That's full of flavor.
It mixes in with the juicesand the meat and that you want.
But the surface fat, you buy apork butt.
I just bought two yesterdayfor doing some pulled pork.
There's a big old fat cap onOne side, a brisket, huge fat cap
on.
On one side.
(21:05):
You put your rub on top ofthat fat cap, and it's not going
to touch the muscle.
It's not going to touch the meat.
So you're not.
And the first thing you dowhen you serve meat with a lot of
fat on it is many people willjust cut it off and there goes your
rub.
So I recommend that you removeas much of the fat cap as possible.
Maybe leave a quarter or aneighth of an inch because during
(21:26):
cooking it will shrink andpeople will eat a very thin layer
of fat cap, but they won't eata thick layer of fat cap.
And fat does have a lot offlavor, but there's just no way that
the, you know, people are.
People all know the statementfat is flavor.
Fat within the meat is flavor.
Fat on top of the meat doesnothing for you.
(21:49):
No.
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withMeathead from Amazing Ribs here on
the Nation.
I'm glad you're with us todayand please stay with us.
We got a lot more coming yourway right after this.
(22:11):
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
(22:34):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm JT along with Meatheadfrom Amazing ribs dot com.
I left off the dot com lastsegment, but I always have faith
(22:57):
that Meathead will.
Will remedy the situation for me.
He does.
But I'm a radio guy, you know,we talk fast and think very little.
We'd like to thank the folks.
Like to thank the folks atPainter Hills.
I gotta clarify because I.
The reason I had asked you torefer to us as AmazingRib.com is
when people hear Amazing Ribs,they think I'm a restaurant and they
(23:18):
call me in the middle of thenight and ask if we still open and
do we deliver.
No, we're a website.
Amazing rib.
Dot com.
Yep.
Painter Hills beef, the waynature intended.
Oregon, Dungeness crab.
I think it's the best crab inthe world.
And I've eaten soft shells andI've eaten stuff all over the world.
And all of it's pretty good,but it's hard to beat Dungeness crab
(23:39):
from the West Coast.
We'll do that.
So we're talking with Meatheadfrom AmazingRibs.com today, and we're
talking about Labor Day stuffcoming up and upping your game a
little bit for the holiday.
What's your favorite thing tocook on Labor Day?
I mean, we've always talkedover the years.
You know, you've got Father'sDay and you've got 4th of July and
(23:59):
you've got Memorial Day andwe've kind of tied things in like
4th of July with ribs andothers with burgers and brats and
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,like that.
But what's your favorite thingto kind of.
That's an interesting point.
I mean, for Thanksgiving, wecook turkey for.
Right.
Fourth of July, I think ribsare required.
Father's Day, a steak,Mother's Day, maybe some chicken.
(24:24):
I don't have any specificfavorite for Labor Day other than
my neighbor across the streetwho plays a really great banjo and
he and his musician buddiesall get together on Labor Day and
we do a big cookout andeverybody brings a dish to pass.
(24:45):
And there's maybe 30, 40people there and they all bring instruments
except me.
And I bring the apron and wefire up the grill.
And I just stand there at the grill.
He, he's got two grills, a gasgrill and a charcoal grill.
And I cook.
Maybe I just got done warningpeople, don't try to do too much.
But I, I'm doing pork chops,flank steak, hamburgers, bratwurst,
(25:10):
chicken, all of it.
I've got them going on allburners and sweating like a pig,
usually on a hot day.
And the dish that I choose tobring is something I can prepare
in advance.
And I used to a smoked turkey,but it wasn't enough for this crowd.
They ran out of it in a hurry.
So now I'm doing pulled pork.
There you go.
And I, so I do you know thatthen I can start up the day before
(25:34):
or the night before overnightcook or early in the morning and
have it ready for a three o'clock party.
And everybody loves that.
So I'm doing pull pork frompork butts.
And I actually must confess, Icooked them yesterday for the, for
the Labor Day, I cooked themyesterday, I shredded them, I put
(25:57):
them in a vacuum sealed bag, Ifroze them.
And then on Labor Day with theparties at three or four, I'll put
them in a sous vide bath.
That is a Warm water bath atabout 145 or 150 and gently re therm
it is what they call it.
(26:18):
Bring them back to temperaturebut not too hot.
And it'll take a few hours toget them back up to temp.
And they'll be tender andjuicy and moist as if I just cooked
them.
No sauce on them yet.
I put them in a crock pot andmix in just a wee bit of sauce.
And then we serve buns and thesauce on the side.
(26:38):
And it's always a hit.
It's tender and juicy, andnobody knows I cooked it a week in
advance.
No, I'm with you on that.
One of the things I like to dofor Labor Day is we've.
You and I have talked andLeanne has talked on the show about
grilling vegetables and stuff,and it's a great time of year to
do that.
I also really like to grillfruit, and I like to make little
(27:01):
concoctions of fruit, kind offruit kebabs, if you will.
You know, you can, you cantake some pineapple or you can apples
or peaches or, you know, there's.
It's all coming in ripe now inthe fall, these fall fruits, the
pitted fruits and stuff like that.
And it's great to do.
I think pineapple on the grillis one of the best things ever on
(27:22):
the grill.
It's like candy.
I like it as well as I do asteak on the grill.
I mean, pineapple on the grill.
Pineapple itself, if it'sripe, is just marvelous.
But when you grill it, thesugar is caramelized.
It gets new flavors.
It's warm.
It's fantastic.
Peaches on the grill.
I'm pretty sure my website hasa really nice recipe for peaches
with a rum brown sugar sauceon top of vanilla ice cream.
(27:48):
And also I notice in thebackground you've got a picture of
a grilled sandwich.
And I. Grilled pound cake andpeaches on vanilla ice cream on grilled
pound cake.
Grilled peaches with this rum sauce.
Boy, that is ever good.
You can also grill peaches.
(28:09):
Excuse me.
And use one of those little,like if you go to Baskin and Robin's
little waffle bowls, you know,you can put it in there.
You can almost make like agrilled peach cobbler with fresh
ice cream on that.
Of course, it's.
It's very low fat with brownsugar and butter and all that, but.
(28:30):
All that.
But I, I saw something thismorning, though, that I really thought
was interesting.
They.
They created.
I don't know who did this.
I didn't follow it up.
I just saw it before we cameon the show.
But whoever did it made ahoney and balsamic fruit glaze on
that.
And I'm.
I'm gonna mess around withthat and see.
(28:51):
See if I like.
Sounds like a winner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The other thing I like to dois, is like I said, we're.
We're a lot of pitted fruitsup here, if you will, and pears.
And I like to take pears, cutthem in half, skin them, cut them
in half, remove the seeds and stuff.
And I'll put a little butter,brown sugar and cinnamon on it.
And you can.
You can make crumbles on thetop too, if you want, but.
(29:13):
But grill that and then serveit with ice cream.
So.
And it's quick, it's easy,it's not hard to do.
You can kind of whatever typeof flavorings you want.
If you want more brown sugaror less or more butter or no butter,
whatever, you can design it.
Your.
But it's a very simple thingto do.
Well, you're also, you know,we're talking about fruit, but you're
(29:34):
also deep into vegetable season.
And I have a really greatrecipe for eggplant parmesan on the
grill.
Now, normally you do eggplant.
You.
You dip it in egg, and thenyou dip it in breadcrumbs, and then
you fry it in a quarter inchof oil in a frying pan, and it just
soaks up all that oil, andthat's marvelous.
(29:57):
But what I'll do is I'll takethe eggplant and cut it either into
planks or into cross sectionsabout a half inch to 3/4 inch thick.
Give it a very light paint ofoil, sprinkle of salt, throw it on
the grill until it's gotten alittle golden and maybe a couple
of grill marks.
And then I'll put a big olddollop of thick tomato sauce on top.
(30:17):
And usually I make the tomatosauce from fresh tomatoes, which
come in around the same timeas the eggplant.
I take Roma tomatoes, whichare more meaty than juicy, Cut them
in half, grill them on oneside, flip them over, grill them
on the other side.
Once you've done that, theskin pops right off.
Grind it up, hook it down alittle bit in the pot so it's really
(30:38):
thick, add some oregano orsome thyme or some garlic, and make
a good tomato sauce out of it.
And then I scoop this tomatosauce on top of the eggplant, and
then I take a slice of freshMozzarella or, and.
Or a sprinkle of ParmigianoReggiano and put it on top and you've
got yourself a reallyexcellent eggplant parmesan with
(31:01):
a lot less oil than when youdo it indoors.
And it has all those marvelousflame roasted tomato and grilled
flavors.
I love that.
I really do love that it sounds.
But I want to ask you aboutyou making.
When you're reducing yourtomatoes like that, how long do you
(31:21):
do that?
It's.
It's.
If people don't know what he'stalking about, he's grilled him,
he's popped the skin off of those.
He's mushed them up, if you will.
Do you do it by hand?
You put them in a foodprocessor to, to grind them down
or throw.
Them in a pan, a saucepan.
Yeah.
And maybe mash them up with apotato masher or something.
Once they start bubbling andboiling, they, they break down pretty
(31:43):
quickly.
A potato mash, it doesn'tmatter if they got lumps in it.
Yeah, it tastes fine.
And you just, you know, kindof crunch it down or use a fork and
there's.
It depends on the breed of tomato.
Now, if you've got better boyand big boy tomatoes, which are baseball
size, there's a lot of liquidin them.
But if you've got Roma orMarzanos, which are kind of egg shaped,
(32:05):
there's much less juice inthere, there's more meat in there.
So they'll cook down.
Now, when we talk about cookdown, I think probably your audience
has an idea what we're doing.
Let's make sure they know whatwe're talking about.
Cooking down means you simmerfood until the water boils off and
that thickens and concentrates it.
So you take this tomato thatyou've smashed up and it's got a
(32:29):
lot of water in it.
It's very thin.
If you put it on a burner in apan and bring it up to about 190
so it's not boiling, it's simmering.
Radio will reduce until it's thick.
(32:49):
And then you can scoop it and,you know, thick like you want to
get it like ketchup or something.
Right.
And then you can scoop it ontop of these eggplant slices and
put your cheese on top andaway you go.
All kinds of things are goodby reduction.
You mentioned balsamic.
Most of the grocery storebalsamic has a lot of sugar in it.
(33:14):
And if you take that and pourit into a pan and again, you don't
want it to boil.
You want it to be a low simmer.
If you cook that until it getsthick, like a syrup, it's fantastic.
It's.
It's a bulk.
It's a sweet vinegar syrup,which is really great.
I.
People.
People put it on strawberries,on ice cream.
(33:34):
Mm.
And it's really great.
You drizzle it on fresh tomatoes.
Fantastic stuff.
So cooking down liquids isalways a cool technique.
It's also very good onBrussels sprouts.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, boy.
Absolutely.
Brussels sprouts with reduced balsamic.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It'll.
(33:54):
It'll make you smile, Iguarantee it.
We're going to take one morebreak in the show, and then Meathead
and I will be back on thenation to bring you more food information,
especially about.
About outdoor barbecuegrilling and smoking.
And I'm talking about smokingthe proteins, not smoking something
else.
Anyway, we'll be right back.
It's Labor Day, and we'recelebrating Weston's 50th anniversary.
(34:15):
$50 down on select new Kias.
50amonth for the 25 Kia EV6.
It's our 50th anniversary, andwe have more vehicles in stock and
ready to go than we've had in50 years.
Everyone wins at Weston.
Residual 31411 tax licenseinclude 10,000 miles per year, 650
security required.
Offer MT3125.
(34:37):
Hey, everybody, it's J.T.
you know, I talk about paintedhills all the time, and we always
say beef the way nature intended.
But it's more than that,because each bite of painted hills
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Put a big, bright smile onyour face, and whoever's at your
dinner table will have a big,bright smile on their face.
And you can thank me for that later.
Just go topaintedhillsbeef.com and find out
(35:00):
more.
You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
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Check out the Hammer Stahl knives.
If you're really into cooking.
I think you're really gonnalike them.
(35:28):
Foreign.
Welcome back to the nation ofBarbecue Nation.
I'm JT Ms. Whipping is on theroad this week, but we've got meathead
from AmazingRibs.com and we'vebeen talking about Labor Day.
Upping your game a little bitfor Labor Day, and we touched on
(35:49):
Some seasoning and somefavorite dishes that he has, he likes
to do.
I like to do whatever you liketo do at home.
It's one thing I wanted toemphasize in this show, what, what
Meathead and I talk about andwhat our other guests talk about.
These are tried and truethings that we've done.
(36:11):
You're the master of your owngrill or smoker at home, so take
these as emphatically praising suggestions.
And if, you know, if you wantto burn your steak to 215 degrees,
don't call us, but it's your choice.
So anyway, there, there you go.
Well, I mean, no, taste isstill a matter of taste.
(36:34):
Absolutely.
There are good techniques.
There are techniques that workbetter than others.
You know, I, I, I, I, youknow, go on social media and people
talk about their favorite recipes.
I will offer suggestions onhow to improve it.
But do it your way, you know,I mean, if, if you like it your way,
(36:56):
don't let anybody intimidateyou into doing it another way.
Even if I tell you it's wrong.
Yeah, well, me dad, I'll tellyou, I grew up and when I grew up,
my, my dad was a quote unquotemeat and potatoes guy.
He was part of the greatestgeneration and all that stuff.
He liked his steaks pan fried.
That's how we grew up.
(37:17):
Cast iron, skillet, steak inthe skillet.
When I really started gettinginto cooking, I don't know, I was
12, 13, 14.
I started to broil the steaksand he wouldn't eat them.
Now.
They were medium rare to thebest of my ability.
We didn't have the goodthermometers and stuff back in the
Pleistocene era.
But what I'm saying is wetried to, I tried to make it grilled
(37:41):
because I was watching peopleon television, you know, picking
up stuff, reading books,whatever, but my dad wouldn't do
it.
He didn't like a medium rare.
He didn't want that piece ofmeat still bleeding and mowing, you
know, and it wasn't.
But I would always end up justif I was doing a grilling something
(38:03):
or broiling something, I haveto set it way down low, the rack
way down low and just make hisreally brown in the middle.
And then he would eat it so.
Well, you know, there's anawful lot of people who prefer their
steaks well done.
Yeah.
And well done is about 155 andit's gray or brown in the center.
(38:28):
And the reason I think thatmost of them want it that way is
they think all that pink Juiceis blood, right?
But it's not, it's not blood.
It's, it's, it's water.
Remember, steak of 75% water.
It's water that is tintedslightly pink by a protein in the
meat called myoglobin, andscientists call it myo water.
(38:50):
But if you think about it,animal blood, beef blood, chicken
blood, lamb blood and humanblood is pretty much the same.
It's all very, very dark red,almost black.
If you, I mean if you cutyourself and you look at the, the
blood coming out, it's reallydark red, it's black and it's thin,
thick and it coagulates,coagulates rapidly in the air.
(39:14):
And this stuff that comes outof your steak is thin, it's pink,
not red or black.
It's runny, it doesn't get thick.
It just sits there in thebottom of the plate.
And that's because it's water.
And so the pink juices thatcome out of a steak are not blood.
(39:35):
And every time you call itblood, somewhere in Indiana a teenager
becomes a vegan.
So we need to stop.
Anybody want blood on their steak?
It's not blood.
Don't say that, it's juice.
Just said you want juice onyour steak, fine, it's, it'll moisten
the meat, it's great.
(39:56):
But I think if we can overcomethe fear that we're eating blood
and even so, if you cook it todone, what happens to all that so
called blood?
It doesn't.
Is it absorbed by the meat?
Does it evaporate?
Well, I mean, you know, it'sstill, that juice is still not right.
(40:17):
Well, I'll tell you, I'm aheathen and we've talked about this
on the show, I think a coupletimes, but pull the steaks off the
grill, you put them on aplatter, you bring them in the house,
they dishing their food like this.
When I always, I'm always thelast guy to make my plate, if you
will, because I'll take thatblood off the steak plate and I pour
(40:38):
it on my baked potato becauseI love it.
It's, you know, it's veryseasoned, it's very tasty.
It's like that.
And I put some of that on mybaked potato.
Now some people havequestioned my parentage on that deal,
but I'll tell you, it's, it's,it's, it's very, very tasty.
And you know, it's not, it'snot blood.
(41:00):
I still to this day, with allthe people I invite and cook for
And I will still have peoplesay, I don't like all that bloody
red stuff on the.
On the planet.
It's.
It's not, you know.
But.
Well, we also.
I know the scientists there.
There is a branch of thescience is called food science, and
(41:22):
food scientists, particularlymeat scientists, are deeply involved
in research on food and meat,and they have equipment.
For example, I have a gadgetcalled the Warner Brachler machine.
The Warner Brachler machine isessentially a metal tooth.
It's an artificial tooth, andthey put a piece of meat under it,
and then they can applypressure to that tooth, and they
(41:45):
can measure precisely how muchpressure it takes to cut into the
steak.
And that's how they measure tenderness.
They also can measure juiciness.
And we know that tendernessand juiciness is optimal on a steak
in the 130 to 135 range, whichhappens to be medium rare.
(42:06):
So if you're going to take itwell done, you're taking IT up to
155.
It is by definition tougherand less juicy.
Yep.
Well, you cooked all the goodstuff out of it at the end there.
That's what I think.
Anyway, you said earlier youmade some pulled pork for your Labor
(42:28):
Day bash.
What else?
We got a couple minutes hereand we'll pick it.
We're going to do a shortafter hours today, not our usual
marathon, but.
What are you going to servewith that?
Well, I'm just bringing thepulled pork to this big old party
with 40 people, and there'sone guy who makes a great coleslaw.
(42:48):
I mean, we've been doing thisnow for, like 20 years, and everybody
has sort of settled upon thecrowd favorite.
And there's a little of everything.
There's salads, there'scoleslaw, there's potato salad, there's
cornbread.
There's just.
It's a huge spread.
There's 30 or 40 people, soeverybody brings something.
(43:10):
Oh, and the pies.
There happen to be some reallygood pie bakers in this crowd, my
wife included.
And Jeff, the host of theparty, is a great pie baker, and
he.
He's his girlfriend is a pie baker.
So there's just, you know,boy, you got to save room for pie.
And it's just a lot of fun.
And it.
And the music.
I mean, they all.
(43:30):
They all bring folding chairsand they sit in a circle.
If you can imagine 30 or 40musicians sitting in a circle.
And.
And they play a lot of folkmusic and country and hillbilly music,
and there's some old fashionedStringing instruments.
It's just a, it's just a hullablue.
(43:53):
It's a lot of fun.
And so I'm, I'm, I just bringthe pulled pork and then I stand
at the grill for about an hourand a half, uh, cooking up all the
meats and uh, then uh, we ringthe dinner bell and uh, we all sit
down and eat.
I'm going to send you a pairof spoons.
Spoons that you can play.
Spoons.
(44:14):
Oh, I, I play the radio.
That's my musical.
Yeah, that's your musical instrument.
I, I, it's, you know, peopleask, you know, I get interviewed
a lot and people ask if I haveany regrets.
And that's my biggest regretis that I gave up on both piano and
violin lessons as a kid.
(44:35):
I hated them.
I preferred sports, I played alot of sports.
I loved my sports careers.
But I wish I could play amusical instrument so I can join
these gangs.
You can hum.
Yeah.
Get a kazoo, sit on theoutskirts and enjoy it.
There's some great musiciansand some great voices.
(44:57):
There you go.
That's going to wrap it for.
What's this show again?
Oh yeah, Barbecue Nation this week.
Don't Forgetmeathead@amazingribs.com Go there.
If you're really want to geton your game, sign up for the Pit
Masters Club.
There's lots of stuff in the,in the Pitmasters Club there, but
(45:19):
there's, there's a lot of freeinformation, like 72, 000 pages of
free information.
And then there's another 72,000 pages in the pit Masters Club
and some of some of theinterviews and another show is in
there too so you can hear allkinds of good stuff.
But Meathead, thank you, Iappreciate it as always.
(45:39):
Always good to talk to you.
He and I are going to slipaway and do some after hours stuff
because both in Illinois andin Oregon certain things are legal.
But until that time, go out,have a good Labor Day party.
Good time.
And remember our motto here.
Turn it, don't burn it.
So for Ms. Whippen, Mr.Meathead and myself, take care everybody.
(46:02):
Barbecue Nation is prod byJTSD LLC Productions in association
with Salem Media Group.
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