Shownotes
This podcast episode delves into the profound connection between culinary experiences and personal history, as our guest, Meathead from AmazingRibs.com, recounts his formative encounters with barbecue and other beloved dishes from his childhood. He shares vivid recollections of familial meals that ignited his passion for cooking, particularly his admiration for ribs, which he first discovered at a cherished Chinese restaurant. The conversation then transitions to the nuances of cooking techniques, particularly the importance of achieving high temperatures for optimal stir-frying, an art that Meathead has perfected through outdoor methods that mimic restaurant conditions. Furthermore, the dialogue explores the evolving landscape of food shows and the desire for more instructional content that fosters genuine culinary education. Ultimately, we reflect on the communal and nostalgic aspects of food, emphasizing its integral role in shaping our identities and memories.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- AmazingRibs.com
Mentioned in this episode:
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
Welcome to Barbecue Nation with JT and Leanne.
Speaker A:After Hours, the conversation that continued after.
Speaker B:The show was done.
Speaker A:Hey, everybody, it's jt and this is a special version of Barbecue Nation.
Speaker A:It is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to After Hours here on Barbecue Nation.
Speaker A:I'm JT this week with Meathead, my buddy Meathead from AmazingRibs.com.
Speaker A:see, I got the.com in there.
Speaker A:So I. I conjured up a couple of quick questions for you because, like.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, another one of your damn quizzes.
Speaker A:Yeah, sorta.
Speaker A:You said it yourself a couple, three years ago on this show.
Speaker A:You said a good interviewer will always know the answer before he asks the question.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that's true for the most part.
Speaker A:And I tried to do that, but these things I would not know.
Speaker A:So here you go.
Speaker A:Do you remember or have a favorite recipe or dish that as a kid growing up that you just.
Speaker A:That mom or dad fixed and you loved?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's how I really came to barbecue.
Speaker B:There were two of them.
Speaker B:About once a month, mom and dad would take us out, my sister and me out to dinner.
Speaker B:And, you know, we had a couple of favorite haunts, but my favorite was the Chinese restaurant, the Golden Dragon.
Speaker B:And the Golden Dragon did Chinese ribs.
Speaker B:And I fell in love with ribs.
Speaker B:Pork on a stick with, you know, it was a char siu hoisin flavored.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Sauce with sesame seeds and maybe some chopped scallions.
Speaker B:And I just fell in love with them.
Speaker B:And that's what prompted my love of ribs.
Speaker B:And I later, when I was in college, I went to the University of Florida, which is in Gainesville, not in Miami, which is.
Speaker B:Miami is a suburb of New York.
Speaker B:Gainesville is.
Speaker B:It's still part of the Deep South.
Speaker B:Gainesville is still horse country and farm country and rural.
Speaker B:And there I met Y.T.
Speaker B:parker, this marvelous old black man who had a barbecue joint.
Speaker B:And the white kids didn't go into that neighborhood.
Speaker B:And I went into that neighborhood because I fell in love with his ribs.
Speaker B:And he'd let me hang out at the Pit out back.
Speaker B:And the pit was just concrete blocks.
Speaker B:And he and two or three of his buddies and his buddies were usually drunk, were all sitting around out there grilling or smoking ribs.
Speaker B:And, man, I just fell in love with barbecue that way.
Speaker B:And the other thing, when I was a kid is one of the other restaurants we'd go to would be a pizza joint and I fell in love with pizza and fortunately I married an Italian American who makes great pizza.
Speaker B:And I've learned how to make pizza since.
Speaker B:And then one more, my dad, my dad would go out back and he had, I don't think it was a Weber kettle, but it was a knockoff.
Speaker B:And he would do flank steak and occasionally do beef ribs, but he would grill them, he wouldn't low and slow them.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And I just loved the flank steak.
Speaker B:And you know, he let me hang out with him at the grill, you know, maybe 10 years old and occasionally I think he'd let me have a sip of beer and that might have cemented my relationship with grilling.
Speaker B:And those were the flavors of my youth that really caught on.
Speaker B:And years later, dad was a food technology major at New York University and he learned food technology.
Speaker B:So it runs in my blood, the science and stuff.
Speaker B:And years later he opened a butcher shop and then years later he opened a restaurant.
Speaker B:So I've been, you know, hanging around with food all my life.
Speaker A:I wonder how many golden dragons, golden pagodas, you know, the restaurants there are around, around the country like that.
Speaker B:Oh God, that, that, that, that's worth googling.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's probably thousands of them.
Speaker A:Yeah, I know we've got some within a nine iron distance from here.
Speaker A:That where I live and, and that's it.
Speaker B:I still love Chinese food.
Speaker B:Chicago where I live has a major sized Chinatown and I think I've eaten in most of the restaurants and there's some great food down there.
Speaker A:I little secret.
Speaker A:It's not really a secret for anybody that knows me.
Speaker A:As much as we do barbecue and as much as I've done, you know, the cowboy cook and all the different things over the years and cooked all these things.
Speaker A:Chinese food is my go to, especially when I, when I'm all by myself.
Speaker A:My greatest fun thing in the world, meathead, is to go to my favorite Chinese restaurant which is about 20 miles north of us.
Speaker A:And back in the days when we actually had newspapers, real newspapers that were, had content in them, you know, I would get two newspapers, go sit in the bar, it was a well lit bar and have my lunch at the Chinese restaurant and read the newspapers.
Speaker A:And that was like heaven to me.
Speaker A:Sorry, whack my mic.
Speaker A:But that.
Speaker A:And we don't really have newspapers per se anymore that are.
Speaker A:I don't know how it is in Chicago with the trib and stuff if it's still big.
Speaker A:But out here the Oregonians like you.
Speaker B:Line, your Oregonian was a classic.
Speaker B:No, they, I wrote for The Trib for three years, a column about wine, and it's just a shadow of itself.
Speaker B:The Sun Times has actually gotten to be pretty good.
Speaker B:But if you like Chinese food, love it.
Speaker B:My new book, which I'm putting the finishing touches on, has a really great technique for cooking it at home.
Speaker B:One of the problems with cooking Chinese food is that you really, it really depends heavily on the use of a wok, right?
Speaker B:And there are some features to this bowl that make it an especially good cooking device.
Speaker B:And part of it is, is that the bottom of the bowl is right over the flame and it gets real hot.
Speaker B:But if you push the food up the sides, it's, it's not as hot and it cools.
Speaker B:So you can control temperature that way.
Speaker B:But your indoor oven rarely gets hot enough.
Speaker B:And, and, and you, and it really needs to be hot because if you take, say, slices of chicken or beef and put some oil in a wok and throw them in there and try to, what's called, stir fry them, right, the first thing that happens is the water bursts out.
Speaker B:And now you're steaming or broil or boiling the meat and you're not frying it.
Speaker B:And you don't get the same textures and flavors.
Speaker B:So to get the right textures and flavors, you need really, really high heat.
Speaker B:And you know how you get that with a charcoal chimney.
Speaker B:I do my Chinese cooking outdoors on my Weber kettle.
Speaker B:I take my charcoal chimney.
Speaker B:Now, for those of you who are not familiar with them, a charcoal chimney is, looks like a big oversized coffee can.
Speaker B:And you put charcoal in it and you, and you light the charcoal.
Speaker B:And that's how you start the charcoal for cooking on a charcoal grill.
Speaker B:But it also confines the charcoal into maybe a six inch diameter.
Speaker B:And if you fill that halfway, it's five or six layers of charcoal.
Speaker B:It's hot.
Speaker B:The top of that charcoal chimney is well over a thousand degrees.
Speaker B:That is Chinese restaurant temperature.
Speaker B:So I'll take my walk.
Speaker B:I'll start up the charcoal.
Speaker B:Kim Chin, get it, get it hot.
Speaker B:And put my wok on top of the charcoal chimney.
Speaker B:And all this I set on top of the Weber kettle because I want the ashes to be collected.
Speaker B:It's just a holder.
Speaker B:And I'll do my stir fry outdoors.
Speaker B:And I can do some really good stuff.
Speaker B:I can even do tofu on this thing.
Speaker B:It's, it's really a great way.
Speaker B:And I've, I go into great detail in my new book coming out this spring on how to do this.
Speaker A:Don't worry, we'll be talking about your book.
Speaker A:Maybe not in this show, but in upcoming shows.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Something that you made for Lou and she gave you a thumbs up on it.
Speaker A:That absolutely knocked her socks off.
Speaker A:Lou's meathead's wife.
Speaker B:She likes a lot of what I cook, but we're both really critical.
Speaker B:No really nice dish last night and it was really excellent.
Speaker B:And about a half hour later, it dawned on me because I was looking at some recipes.
Speaker B:She used spaghetti in the dish.
Speaker B:It was a chicken stir fry.
Speaker B:But it dawned on me that a wider noodle would have been better.
Speaker B:And so I told her and she, you're right.
Speaker B:You know, so we're constantly critiquing each other and I, I need this because I develop recipes.
Speaker B:I need somebody to say, try this or do that.
Speaker B:I, I think she likes, I, I, I think her all time favorite of my ribs.
Speaker B:She loves the pulled pork.
Speaker B:She's a big fan of brisket.
Speaker B:She loves your classic barbecue cannon.
Speaker B:But you know, she, my, oh, I do pastrami.
Speaker B:That's killer.
Speaker B:The recipe is on AmazingRibs.com I think she generally likes most, but I, I make a lot of mistakes.
Speaker B:I'm always experimenting and I have probably a 50, 50 record.
Speaker B:50% success and 50% failure.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so we have a big stack of order out menus sitting in the drawer.
Speaker B:Because, because if I'm trying something, what's something I just recently tried that failed miserably and I can't think right off the top of my head, but I, I'm, I constantly failing.
Speaker B:I'm constantly trying something.
Speaker B:And we sit down and we look at each other and say, get the Chinese restaurant menu.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker A:When, when I'm doing something for Belly and I'll be sitting there and I watch her and I go, how is everything?
Speaker A:I, I'm not fishing for a compliment.
Speaker A:I want an answer, you know, and she goes, oh, it's good.
Speaker A:And then, but when you take the plate away and you see what's left on the plate and all, and all the, the vegetables and the fruit and the potatoes or what, they're all gone.
Speaker A:But the actual main course is lightly picked over, then I know I either have some work to do or it's just not going to come back in.
Speaker B:The, in the, Yeah.
Speaker B:I gotta tell you, she's the better cook in this house.
Speaker B:And I'm not saying that to butter up because she's not listening.
Speaker B:She cooks, I would say, 75 or more of the meals, and it's usually improvisation.
Speaker B:She'd do great on these, you know, TV Shows where they, you, you open the box and there's a bunch of weird ingredients in there.
Speaker B:She'd do great because she can, she could just open the fridge and grab some leftovers here, some fresh stuff that here, walks out to the garden, grabs some vegetables, and then she whoops up a great meal.
Speaker B:She's constantly doing that.
Speaker B:Last night was a good example.
Speaker B:We went to theater the other day, and after theater, we went to a restaurant and I had half a chicken and I couldn't finish it.
Speaker B:So we brought home the chicken breast that was left over last night.
Speaker B:She chopped it up and she mixed up a cream sauce and there was some peas and some spaghetti and some other stuff, and it was just delicious.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, Maybe a linguini noodle on that.
Speaker B:Yeah, I wanted a fat noodle.
Speaker B:I wanted a, you know, stroganoff type noodle.
Speaker A:Stroganoff type.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker A:Which actually leads me to my last question.
Speaker A:It's kind of a new question in the after hours, what do you.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker A:Would you change, if anything, about food shows on television?
Speaker A:And it can be the barbecue show, it can be the dump and stir shows, whatever.
Speaker B:I, I, I'm so old.
Speaker B:I go back to when Food Network launched, and when they launched, it was great.
Speaker B:There was, it was an educational show.
Speaker B:David Rosengarten, right, did a wonderful show where he was, he showed you how to cook a dish and even Emeril, and I'm not a huge fan of Emeril.
Speaker B:He did the same thing.
Speaker B:Most of the shows on the Food Network were how to cook food shows.
Speaker B:And now they still have a bunch of them during daytime, but during prime time, you've got all these competitions, and there's some interesting ideas.
Speaker B:Some of these chefs have some interesting ideas and concepts and combinations, but you really don't get to learn how to cook a recipe from Beet Bobby Flay or from Iron Chef.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:So, you know, I would like to see more instructional cooking.
Speaker B:I want Brown.
Speaker B:Alton Brown and, and, and that, you know, the Alton Brown show is, is gone now.
Speaker B:I mean, you can get it in replays on YouTube, but out now is running competitions.
Speaker B:I guess that's what works for them.
Speaker B:And it's, it's too bad.
Speaker B:I know that they had me in to audition for a show and they loved it, but they, you know, they deep sixed it because I'm old and gray and they wanted somebody young with spiky hair.
Speaker A:Yep, I know that deal.
Speaker A:I went through that with Fox.
Speaker A:So, yeah, it's, and I Didn't have big enough boobs.
Speaker A:So, you know.
Speaker A:Anyway, bdad goldwyn from amazingribs.com Go there, get your information.
Speaker A:Also, if you're up for it and I recommend it, join the Pit Masters club there.
Speaker A:There's lots of good stuff there and there's reviews on different products, everything from grills to oven mitts to thermometers, whatever.
Speaker A:And there's a lot of recipes on there, too, that you can use.
Speaker A:So Meathead.
Speaker A:Thank you, my friend, as always.
Speaker A:I appreciate it.
Speaker B:It's always great hanging with you.
Speaker B:We have met face to face on a rare occasion and those were fun.
Speaker B:We need to do it more often.
Speaker A:We should.
Speaker A:By the way, how are the Bears doing this year?
Speaker A:It's only preseason, but, you know, how are the Bears?
Speaker B:We're very optimistic.
Speaker B:Of course we are.
Speaker B:Every year.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But the Bears got a new general manager a couple of years ago and he has proven to be very clever and smart and he managed to maneuver to get the number one draft pick, which is kid called Caleb Williams out of Southern Cal.
Speaker B:And he's the new quarterback and he is showing great promise.
Speaker B:I mean, in the second preseason game this week, he threw some really impressive passes.
Speaker B:Running against the grain, throwing on the back foot, 45 yards, hitting the guy in stride.
Speaker B:I mean, yard.
Speaker A:Touchdown.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he's also loaded up on a bunch of other positions that were weak with some other players and there's still weakness.
Speaker B:I. I think there'll be a playoff team.
Speaker B:How far they go, I don't know.
Speaker B:But there's unparalleled optimism, more than I've ever seen in Chicago.
Speaker B:So are you a Seahawks fan?
Speaker A:Not really.
Speaker B:You follow up pro team?
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, I. I follow.
Speaker A:I like Kansas City.
Speaker A:I do like to watch the Bears.
Speaker A:You know, I'm kind of a Detroit kind of guy just because growing up on Thanksgiving Day, Detroit always played on Thanksgiving.
Speaker A:And then I think that was the first pro game I ever saw was Detroit playing.
Speaker A:Playing the Browns or something.
Speaker A:So, yeah, there's a few of them.
Speaker A:I have my own thoughts about the, about the Hawks.
Speaker A:It's not that I dislike them.
Speaker A:I don't dislike them.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:They could have done better for a number of years, but they didn't.
Speaker A:So that's all.
Speaker A:I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker A:Anyway, good luck in Chicago.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:I will do that.
Speaker A:I will come back.
Speaker A:Won't be this fall, but next fall and I will come watch a Bears game with you and we can have a good week.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right, we got to get out of here.
Speaker A:I want to thank meathead again from AmazingRibs.com miss whipping will be back in a couple of weeks.
Speaker A:Until then, go out, have some fun, have a good Labor Day, and remember our motto here.
Speaker A:Turn it, don't burn it.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
