Hicks BBQ opened just last year in Belleville, IL.  I became aware of the place after one the BBQ shops in St. Louis recommended their sauce and told me about the restaraunt.  Funny how the place is within 10 mins of the house & I didn't even know it was there.

The place is in a newer building, but on the outside it sure looks like a BBQ joint complete with a big off-set smoker in the parking lot and a front porch full of tables.  As I said, their sauce had been recommended to me.  I bought a bottle and enjoyed the heck out of it, so I stepped up to the counter to order with hopeful anticipation. 

They had a great lunch special consisting of a pulled pork or chicken sandwich, 1 side, and a drink for just $7 including tax.  So I ordered up the pulled pork lunch special and dejectedly found a seat when I found out they didn't have sweet tea.  The place was half full when I sat down but it was completely full by the time I left.

When they brought out my lunch, I was impressed by the generous portions.  I was pleased to see they had their own sauce on the table, but surprised to see bottles of Sweet Baby Rays as well.  Oh well, I was only interested in Hicks' own concoction so I hit the sandwich with some sauce and dug in.

The pulled pork was good, but not great.  They had applied a generous sprinkling of BBQ rub on the sandwich that provided a little flavor, but overall I didn't taste much smoke or bark in the pork.  In fact, I'd call it chopped pork rather than pulled pork.

There's an extensive menu there that I need to work through and the ribs looked good.  I'll provide updates on my next trip when I try the brisket or the ribs.  Overall, I'm super pleased to see a new joint opening up and you can bet I'll go back. 

By the way, if you get a chance to try their sauce I highly recommend it.

Here's my final report card for Hicks Bar-B-Que Company:

• BBQ - B
• Side Dishes - B
• Atmosphere - A
• Value - A
• Overall – B+

Cheers,
Braddog

It so happened that I was there to buy some Bad Byron's Butt Ruband as I spoke with her about the big feed that I was doing and how I was cooking on a Big Green Egg, she excitedly let me know that they were about to become a retailer for Big Green Egg.

I casually mentioned that when they got their first units in, I'd be happy to help them put on a demonstration cook if they were interested.  She seemed very interested in the idea and took my name and contact info.  Since I never heard anything more from them, I assumed that they had decided not to take me up on my offer. 

However, out of the blue, clear sky I got a message on my recorder Saturday evening.  It turns out that they would like to do a demo cook and they've asked me to participate.  I'll get more details later this week, but i'm pretty excited to help evangelize the merits of the Big Green Egg.  After all, it IS the World's Best Smoker and Grill!  =)

Cheers,
Braddog

This year, I decided on brisket.  I hadn't yet used my home made Magic Dust on brisket, so I trimmed up a couple of flats and liberally applied the rub that Mike Mills uses at 17th Street Bar & Grill.

Everything began just fine, but I ran into a snag when I awoke to find my cooker was only running about 160 degrees.  I didn't waste any time trying to fan the fire and get it restoked.  Instead, I disassembled the cooking setup and relit with my MAPP Torch .  I figure I saved a half an hour by going this route rather than waiting for the fire to rekindle via increased air flow.

Turns out, the overall cooking time was longer than I had planned due to this little problem.  And, we didn't have brisket until sometime around the second caution flag.  However, the Magic Dust was very tasty on the brisket and I was pleased with the overall results. 

My only regret is that since the brisket ran late, I caught a lot of grief from my guests.  But it sure didn't stop anyone from putting away the BBQ.

Cheers,
Braddog

When that happens, I run two cookers or do multiple cooks and hold & reheat the meat.  I don't care for the time that this takes and I also don't care for reheated BBQ.  So I'm on the hunt for my next cooker that will give me greater capacity.

To be honest, I'm also thinking of taking it up a notch and trying my hand at competition BBQ.  That adds the need for more flexibility & portability, so I'll need to keep those things in mind as I consider my next move also.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to seriously ponder the merits of the next category of cookers from a capacity perspective.  I figure they breakdown into the following categories:

• Pellet Poopers - These are pellet cookers from the likes of Traeger , Country Smokers, MAK, etc.
• Cabinet Style cookers - charcoal or wood fired cookers from folks like Backwoods, Stumps, Spicewine etc.
• Off-set Stick burners - I really don't think this type of cooker fits me the best, but Klose, Jambo and others make some really nice off-set cookers.

I'd like to get some first hand cooking time with some of the different cookers, so I'll be looking for a way to do that in addition to my research of the various products.  Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted on my research, but in the meatntime if you have any first hand experience of your own that you'd like to share, drop me a comment below.

Cheers,
Braddog

I've documented the differences of cooking head to head on the Bubba Keg vs. the Big Green Egg, because they cook completely different from one another but both turn out some really good BBQ.

Imagine the surprise of all the early adopters of the Bubba Keg when we discovered that the company had decided that the brand was too narrowly focused and that in order to appeal to a larger crowd, they would be changing the name of the cooker to the "Big Steel Keg ". 

I'm surprised that they would abandon the brand that they've built around the cooker and their other Bubba Keg products (insulated mugs and drink holders) that are shaped like beer kegs.  But I guess I can understand that "bubba" could be a turn off to some folks.

They've also made some enhancements to the product to help it maintain low temps better.  While I certainly can't fault the comapny for improving the product, I am disappointed that the company apparently doesn't intend to provide a way to retrofit these enhancements to the first generation products.  The thing about this that really annoys me is that most of the enhancements were learned on the backs of the first generation users and their experience. 

Come on In-Zone, at least make the new vents and damper controls available for the Bubba Keg Grill owners to purchase.  I think you owe that to the community.

Cheers,
Braddog

I had all of the ingredients in my cupboard, so I figured it was time that I kept with one of my New Year's resolutions and tried something different.  When I got the rub together, I compared it with the little bit of store bought Magic Dust that I had left.  It looks, smells, and tastes pretty darned closed to the commercial version.

It's on the pork butts now.  I'll be firing the smoker this evening and will report back on the end results.

Cheers,

Braddog

Here is my list of resolutions for 2010:

- Branch out a little more with my cooking. I've gotten pretty good at the traditional BBQ fare ( if I do say so myself), but I really need to experiment more with injecting, brining, etc.

- find someone to contribute to the "Barrel" side of things. My co-conspirator retired from writing and he was the homebrewer.

- Attend more competitions Or preferrably assist a team at a competition this year. I've begun to wonder if I have what it takes to compete.

- And my favorite personal goal, acquire a cabinet style cooker (i.e. Stumps, Backwoods or the like).

So feel free to hold me accountable to these goals as I'm serious about each of them, especially the part about getting a new cooker.

Cheers,
Braddog

Chuck Roast - Before & After

With ~60 people attending this years luncheon and gag gift exchange, I spent a couple of days pondering what would be best.  I try to be sensitive to the fact that some folks don't eat pork, some don't eat red meat, and still others are vegetarians.  While I can't help the last group, I can accommodate aversions to pork & red meat.  I also have to consider the quantity and the fact that I don't have a catering rig to cook for dozens of folks.  So planning is pretty important.

20lbs of pulled beefI landed on pulled beef & turkey for the meal.  I considered that my method for pulled beef makes a pretty inexpensive chuck roast go a long way.  Then I decided that I'd do a couple of boneless turkey breasts for the folks who are avoiding red meat.  So I spent the day Wednesday doing the chuck roasts, pulled them, and refrigerated them overnight for lunch on Thursday.  On Thursday morning, I got up at 4:45am and started the Big Green Egg.  I had 3 boneless turkey breasts.  Two of those, I hit with a creole seasoning and the third I just used salt & pepper.

The turkey was done ~9:15am, so I wrapped it and placed it in a cooler for the trip to the office.  The beef, I put in an 18 qt. roaster with a can of Coke and some modified Sweet Baby Ray's.  The team provided buns, paper products, deserts and all of the sides. 

We had a great lunch with very little BBQ left over.  So the team is either afraid to tell the boss that the BBQ is no good, or they really do enjoy it.  I'm going with the latter!  =)

Cheers,

Braddog

But I've come to a conclusion about what grills cost. You see, before I stepped up to a quality grill/smoker I went through my share of gas grills. I bought cheap units from big box stores as well as stainless steel units from higher end shops.

When I spent $100 on a grill, it would last about a year before it was falling apart and needed to be replaced. When I spent $500 on a stainless steel grill, it lasted about five years before the cost of replacement burners and parts were more than it was worth. See what I'm getting at? Gas grills have an annual cost of ownership of about $100 and it really doesn't matter how much money you spend.

Sure, I've got approximately $800 invested in my large Big Green Egg. But it seems like this grill is going to have a much lower cost of ownership as I believe it's useful life will be much greater than any gas grill I've ever owned.

Of course if you factor in how much more cooking I do now vs. before, my meat costs have gone way up! =)

Cheers,
Braddog

So imagine my surprise when my brother began to describe his method for grilling burgers, chicken breasts, etc. with an indirect setup on his Big Green Egg. Apparently, he leaves the platesetter in place, brings the temp up to 350 degrees or more, and cooks indirect.

Now I suppose you could argue that this is like cooking in an oven, but it's a method that I need to investigate.

Anyone else ever do any "indirect grilling"? Leave a comment an let me know.

Cheers,
Braddog