Pitmaster T
Babbling Farker
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2011
- Location
- Texas
This may start out as a story about the PBC and Noah Glanville but it is not wholly a story about such.
It is a story about simplicity. I made a case quite a few years ago that simple rubs can zig when everyone else is zagging. Back then people were making a similar mistake, really two, when making their rubs. They wanted more flavor so they upped the spice component hoping to get better and more profound results, They instead had several problems. One was the flavor went down because the ratio of spice to carrier (salt) was out of whack - favoring the spice. The other was that they had a nasty spice crust they referred to as "bark" which was essentially a way to validate their shortcomings. The second problem was a climate in which people were trying to simulate an imagined bark with sugars... which they took care not to try and burn.... very difficult.
As hot and fast became more accepted a lot of those problems disappeared because you HAD to modify your rub or you would have crap. There became one set of rules for low and slow, another set of rules for Hot and fast.... and a whole bunch of people once hooked who simply said neither claim existed at all.
Enter Noah Glanville and his PBC. One of the reasons it worked was because of Noah's target temp. The PBC burns hot as it is set to naturally aspire. Somewhere along the line in this forum, probably as my old name, barbefunkoramaque, I wrote a piece about those old smokers like these:
If you go back, way back into the archive of this forum, when it was called Bandera Brothers???? I may be wrong, you can see a bunch of guys trying to slow these smokers down, modding them, tweaking them, in order to avoid that dreaded "flare up" when they were not looking... which never really did anything to the meat except make a lot of us buy a lot of electronic gadgetry to warn us the dreaded specter was licking our meat. The point was... these smokers were just fine as they were if you knew how to build a fire and realized your brisket was not ruined, but had not finished yet.
But I digress, and will several times until I get to my point, which I never am quite sure what it is until I am finished writing what I think.
You know I remember one time laughing at how simple Paul Kirk's rub was for brisket. Generally if you like a rub, you should pay attention to what the creator chooses to keep in balance rather than the small things. For Kirk that was Lawreys, Celery Salt, Onion Salt, and Garlic Salt all combined and balanced against sugar. Cool huh? You could even stop there if you wanted.
So, let's see, before I pull out the big gun and get to the point, I have to link you to a few more threads. Angelos BBQ. When I was growing up, aside from the time I got to attend one of my grandfather's Texas Electric picnics in Fort Worth hosted by the Jettons - after he died, BBQ was represented by Angleos BBQ on Camp Bowie.
I remember when I lived in Connecticut I was trying to nail their sauce and rub. I never was able to nail either until I remembered they opened originally in 1957 and essentially was a place were the beer was the coldest in the county and the BBQ was made to make you buy more beer. I had to specualte... what would a bar in Texas have to make or season BBQ with in 1957. Two things came to mind.... V-8 or Bloody Mary Mix for some portion of the sauce (which has carrots - which reduced pepper heat) and yes.... Lawreys Season Salt or Season All. There simply was not much else. Therefore, the more I relied on those components the more I got closer... until of course I nailed it. My favorite taste for a brisket sauce ends up being more like a tomato gravy, salty and tangy with little if any sweetness except to take the edge off the lemon's acidity.
So... now back to Noah and the PBC. I make a lot of jokes about the PBC in an effort to get people all pissy - which ends up helping a man I now call "friend." And he has earned that title. I didn't think much of the PBC when it came out and essentially said it was a small UDS. Then I bought one. Well, we all know what happened then.
In true Pitmaster T style that swings on the cusp of insanity I made a case it was special and made fun of its cult status in a series of films. Every time I do something or say something silly I get accused of splitting with the PBC or something. I can say it is officially a joke.... one I like to whip out as a sort of inside joke to all those brethren still around who saw it happen. There were fights, people leaving the forum, people taking pot shots both ways but oh well.
So I now get closer to the point. I wrote an article for smoke signals and insisted it be written in such a way that it accentuated the amazing ability of this smoker to be stuck in the back of a 1996 Sable, taken to the park, and with the skills of an idiot, make some of the most amazing chicken and ribs you could ever have.... almost instant mastery.
Part of that element was the BBQ rub, which Noah threw in, mostly because he wanted to include everything you needed to do it to it except the meat and matches when the box arrived.
I am getting lazier these days at making BBQ. I think the reason why is true mastery of the actual meat. The skills that last are the skills that are centered around the meat itself. We see a lot of people may too much attention to the rub, and not the meat and then post their failures here.
When Angloes made their BBQ at first the flavor profile was salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder MAYBE. Lawreys was innovative to use but eventually the world zigged and Angelos stayed the course. But in a world of zig and zag that steady course is a flavor profile that is now unique.
Many are using all sorts of rubs, enhanced with cherry, dehydrated sugars or honeys, pecan and what not and that represents what the judges want... for some... its the only thing that matters because you are there to win - not make statements. Although at times some wins are statements.
So... eventually I ran out of Noah's rub. I missed and never got to analyze why I liked it. I think for xmss one day I got a pair of gloves from him. I was in fact appreciative he thought of me. The "inside" joke was I would have rather had the rub as I was crazy about it. I wrote that as a joke on here in a thread on the forum and got a call from Noah.
Noah is Noah. The nicest guy who just wants to make you happy with his product and services.Someone had called him and told him they thought the comment was directed at his service because he got some order wrong.
To be clear there was never an order for gloves or rub so there never was a mix up. I was being silly.
So..... why am I glad I ran out? The other day I had ONE rack of ribs and I wanted to cook them. I had lost my PBC as I had placed it inside another UDS and forgot about it. I found it an thought I'd fire it up... I ma glad I did.
My son Jake was upset because when made my ham I didn't remember to let him help so he insisted on helping me with the ribs. He jumped up on the step ladder and I pulled out the Tri Level Rub stuff (Lawreys, Butt Glitter and Flea Powder).
At some point I walked away and when I returned he had liberally sprinkled and rubbed, then sprinkled and rubbed again, Lawreys.
My first inclination was to wash it off, pat dry and start again.... instead I said let's let it ride like that.l I knew the hanging of the ribs would help drip away some of the salt as it cooked.
It was eventually wrapped and cooked until it was done. My wife and I agreed it was the best ribs we had ever eaten.... right up there with Angelos.
I know this statement makes me vulnerable to "you musta had some bad bbq i your life" but the point is never underestimate the power of simplicity.
As I had my azz habded to me by my own son.... who could care less about BBQ other than doing it minute or two, I began to ponder on my MKT project.
Many of you know I am slowly starting a buisness that caters more than BBQ due to its cost. I am making a lot of things MUCH more simpler. I want to have SOME BBQ on the mobile kitchen but only a small portion of what I do. So... sprinkiling on an expensive and time comsuming and complicated rub is not in the cards. I will probably be using Lawreys, Pepper and maybe some TS for the ribs. What will be unique is the fact no one is using Lawrys I bet - solely.
So.... the point is.................try it just with Lawrys one day... or comment how you feel about Lawrys and Season-all.
It is a story about simplicity. I made a case quite a few years ago that simple rubs can zig when everyone else is zagging. Back then people were making a similar mistake, really two, when making their rubs. They wanted more flavor so they upped the spice component hoping to get better and more profound results, They instead had several problems. One was the flavor went down because the ratio of spice to carrier (salt) was out of whack - favoring the spice. The other was that they had a nasty spice crust they referred to as "bark" which was essentially a way to validate their shortcomings. The second problem was a climate in which people were trying to simulate an imagined bark with sugars... which they took care not to try and burn.... very difficult.
As hot and fast became more accepted a lot of those problems disappeared because you HAD to modify your rub or you would have crap. There became one set of rules for low and slow, another set of rules for Hot and fast.... and a whole bunch of people once hooked who simply said neither claim existed at all.
Enter Noah Glanville and his PBC. One of the reasons it worked was because of Noah's target temp. The PBC burns hot as it is set to naturally aspire. Somewhere along the line in this forum, probably as my old name, barbefunkoramaque, I wrote a piece about those old smokers like these:
If you go back, way back into the archive of this forum, when it was called Bandera Brothers???? I may be wrong, you can see a bunch of guys trying to slow these smokers down, modding them, tweaking them, in order to avoid that dreaded "flare up" when they were not looking... which never really did anything to the meat except make a lot of us buy a lot of electronic gadgetry to warn us the dreaded specter was licking our meat. The point was... these smokers were just fine as they were if you knew how to build a fire and realized your brisket was not ruined, but had not finished yet.
But I digress, and will several times until I get to my point, which I never am quite sure what it is until I am finished writing what I think.
You know I remember one time laughing at how simple Paul Kirk's rub was for brisket. Generally if you like a rub, you should pay attention to what the creator chooses to keep in balance rather than the small things. For Kirk that was Lawreys, Celery Salt, Onion Salt, and Garlic Salt all combined and balanced against sugar. Cool huh? You could even stop there if you wanted.
So, let's see, before I pull out the big gun and get to the point, I have to link you to a few more threads. Angelos BBQ. When I was growing up, aside from the time I got to attend one of my grandfather's Texas Electric picnics in Fort Worth hosted by the Jettons - after he died, BBQ was represented by Angleos BBQ on Camp Bowie.
I remember when I lived in Connecticut I was trying to nail their sauce and rub. I never was able to nail either until I remembered they opened originally in 1957 and essentially was a place were the beer was the coldest in the county and the BBQ was made to make you buy more beer. I had to specualte... what would a bar in Texas have to make or season BBQ with in 1957. Two things came to mind.... V-8 or Bloody Mary Mix for some portion of the sauce (which has carrots - which reduced pepper heat) and yes.... Lawreys Season Salt or Season All. There simply was not much else. Therefore, the more I relied on those components the more I got closer... until of course I nailed it. My favorite taste for a brisket sauce ends up being more like a tomato gravy, salty and tangy with little if any sweetness except to take the edge off the lemon's acidity.
So... now back to Noah and the PBC. I make a lot of jokes about the PBC in an effort to get people all pissy - which ends up helping a man I now call "friend." And he has earned that title. I didn't think much of the PBC when it came out and essentially said it was a small UDS. Then I bought one. Well, we all know what happened then.
In true Pitmaster T style that swings on the cusp of insanity I made a case it was special and made fun of its cult status in a series of films. Every time I do something or say something silly I get accused of splitting with the PBC or something. I can say it is officially a joke.... one I like to whip out as a sort of inside joke to all those brethren still around who saw it happen. There were fights, people leaving the forum, people taking pot shots both ways but oh well.
So I now get closer to the point. I wrote an article for smoke signals and insisted it be written in such a way that it accentuated the amazing ability of this smoker to be stuck in the back of a 1996 Sable, taken to the park, and with the skills of an idiot, make some of the most amazing chicken and ribs you could ever have.... almost instant mastery.
Part of that element was the BBQ rub, which Noah threw in, mostly because he wanted to include everything you needed to do it to it except the meat and matches when the box arrived.
I am getting lazier these days at making BBQ. I think the reason why is true mastery of the actual meat. The skills that last are the skills that are centered around the meat itself. We see a lot of people may too much attention to the rub, and not the meat and then post their failures here.
When Angloes made their BBQ at first the flavor profile was salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder MAYBE. Lawreys was innovative to use but eventually the world zigged and Angelos stayed the course. But in a world of zig and zag that steady course is a flavor profile that is now unique.
Many are using all sorts of rubs, enhanced with cherry, dehydrated sugars or honeys, pecan and what not and that represents what the judges want... for some... its the only thing that matters because you are there to win - not make statements. Although at times some wins are statements.
So... eventually I ran out of Noah's rub. I missed and never got to analyze why I liked it. I think for xmss one day I got a pair of gloves from him. I was in fact appreciative he thought of me. The "inside" joke was I would have rather had the rub as I was crazy about it. I wrote that as a joke on here in a thread on the forum and got a call from Noah.
Noah is Noah. The nicest guy who just wants to make you happy with his product and services.Someone had called him and told him they thought the comment was directed at his service because he got some order wrong.
To be clear there was never an order for gloves or rub so there never was a mix up. I was being silly.
So..... why am I glad I ran out? The other day I had ONE rack of ribs and I wanted to cook them. I had lost my PBC as I had placed it inside another UDS and forgot about it. I found it an thought I'd fire it up... I ma glad I did.
My son Jake was upset because when made my ham I didn't remember to let him help so he insisted on helping me with the ribs. He jumped up on the step ladder and I pulled out the Tri Level Rub stuff (Lawreys, Butt Glitter and Flea Powder).
At some point I walked away and when I returned he had liberally sprinkled and rubbed, then sprinkled and rubbed again, Lawreys.
My first inclination was to wash it off, pat dry and start again.... instead I said let's let it ride like that.l I knew the hanging of the ribs would help drip away some of the salt as it cooked.
It was eventually wrapped and cooked until it was done. My wife and I agreed it was the best ribs we had ever eaten.... right up there with Angelos.
I know this statement makes me vulnerable to "you musta had some bad bbq i your life" but the point is never underestimate the power of simplicity.
As I had my azz habded to me by my own son.... who could care less about BBQ other than doing it minute or two, I began to ponder on my MKT project.
Many of you know I am slowly starting a buisness that caters more than BBQ due to its cost. I am making a lot of things MUCH more simpler. I want to have SOME BBQ on the mobile kitchen but only a small portion of what I do. So... sprinkiling on an expensive and time comsuming and complicated rub is not in the cards. I will probably be using Lawreys, Pepper and maybe some TS for the ribs. What will be unique is the fact no one is using Lawrys I bet - solely.
So.... the point is.................try it just with Lawrys one day... or comment how you feel about Lawrys and Season-all.
