Shownotes
This episode delves into the intricacies of barbecue culture, emphasizing the notion that the enjoyment of barbecue often becomes overshadowed by the burdens of competition and professional obligations. Our esteemed guest, Susie Bullock, articulates a compelling vision for a "Barbecue is Fun Day," wherein individuals are encouraged to relinquish the pressures of performance and simply revel in the art of cooking for pleasure. Throughout our discourse, we traverse a variety of topics, ranging from personal anecdotes of early culinary experiences to the exploration of barbecue heroes and their influences. We also engage in a reflective dialogue about the importance of maintaining the joy in cooking amidst the rigors of the industry. Ultimately, this episode serves as an invitation to embrace the lighter, more joyous aspects of barbecue, fostering a community centered on shared experiences and culinary delight.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Paramore
- hey Grill
- Steven Raichlen
- hey Grill hey
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
This is Barbecue Nation After Hours.
Speaker A:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker A:Everybody, welcome to After Hours here on Barbecue Nation.
Speaker A:Staring at the screen across from me is Ms. Leanne Whippen, my radio co commander here.
Speaker A:And we've got Susie Bullock from hey, girl.
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker A:With us today.
Speaker A:Susie has not been tortured by us previously.
Speaker A:So this will be fun, and I don't know, I just think it's always fun.
Speaker B:What do they call that?
Speaker B:Fresh meat.
Speaker A:Fresh meat.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker A:Okay, okay, we'll start with some easy ones here.
Speaker A:Susie, if we put your skills to music, what would the music be?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B: Early: Speaker A:I don't even know what that is, but that's okay.
Speaker B:Oh,
Speaker A: , and I don't know what early: Speaker B:are, but that's like that.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's like rock and roll, but, like, fun.
Speaker A:I got it.
Speaker A:I always thought rock and roll was fun, at least from what I can.
Speaker A:From what I could remember.
Speaker A:Speaking of that, what is the best concert you've ever attended?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B: Speaking of early: Speaker B:There's this little band at the time called Paramore.
Speaker B:They've since exploded and done really amazing things, but we got to go see them in a tiny venue in Las Vegas.
Speaker B:And my husband and I have been dating for a while, and it was.
Speaker B:It was really fun.
Speaker B:One of our friends bands was playing as the opener, and.
Speaker C:Oh, that's.
Speaker B:It wasn't even a big concert, but it was a small venue, and it was a really cool experience.
Speaker A:Good for you.
Speaker A:So if you had the chance to cook for and then dine with a historical figure, who would that be?
Speaker A:They can be alive or gone, but who would it be?
Speaker A:And what would you cook for them?
Speaker A:What would be on your menu?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:Make you think so here's one of my life problems.
Speaker B:I am a person that lives in the future.
Speaker B:You could ask Todd a historical question, and he'd be like, oh, I totally know.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And it would be some general from World War II, and he would ask him about a very specific attack strategy that they went.
Speaker B:He's like.
Speaker B:He's a World War II buff.
Speaker B:I am like, I am the least historical person ever.
Speaker B:I don't know, maybe like, I'm.
Speaker B:I'm kind of.
Speaker B:If I have a period of history that I love, it would be like ancient Egyptian history.
Speaker B:So I would be like, let's.
Speaker B:Let's cook for Cleopatra, because I heard that she knows, like, seven different languages and led armies of hundreds of thousands of people, and I think that would be a fascinating meal.
Speaker B:And I would probably smoke her an entire crocodile because.
Speaker B:Denial, Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, good.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker C:That's great.
Speaker A:Tastes like chicken, though.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's okay.
Speaker A:If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Speaker A:And you can't say crocodile now because.
Speaker B:Oh, man.
Speaker B:I think my dream animal would be, like, a house cat, Like a really spoiled one.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Like, all I gotta do is find a patch of sunlight.
Speaker B:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I'm looking at Leanne laughing here.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Huh?
Speaker B:You want a cat?
Speaker B:We have two.
Speaker B:If I could replace one of my cats, that would be fantastic.
Speaker C:I'll do a swap.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:She.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:A.
Speaker A:One of Leanne's poor cats made the mistake of walking in across to one of the shows or something.
Speaker A:Show.
Speaker A:She re.
Speaker A:She repurp.
Speaker A:Repurposed him to another household.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:But he.
Speaker A:He was grumpy cat, though.
Speaker C:He was a grumpy cat.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, Susie, if you were declared, excuse me, supreme ruler of barbecue, for one wheat, what would you, as supreme ruler, decree that affected barbecue?
Speaker B:So one of my mottos is that barbecue is fun.
Speaker B:And one thing that I have noticed in the barbecue community, whether it's the competition circuit or the restaurant circuit, is it's hard work.
Speaker B:And especially as professionals, sometimes we get stuck in the hard work of it, and we forget why we loved it in the first place.
Speaker B:We forget that we really enjoyed barbecue at some point, and now it's become, you know, this thing of, like, extreme effort, and it can be a drag.
Speaker B:And when you do what you love, you know, people say you never work a day in your life, but sometimes the stuff you love becomes work.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:Anyway, so I would make a national decree that we have a barbecue is fun day, and everybody cooks something just for the heck of it.
Speaker B:That has nothing to do with making content or writing recipes or competing in a competition or serving people at a restaurant.
Speaker B:Like, you just cook what you want to cook, and you feed the people that you love, and we have a big fat dinner of awesome things that we cooked that day, and nobody judges anybody for anything.
Speaker B:And there's no scoring cards, and there's no view counts on videos, and we just eat.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:So on a scale of 1 to 10.
Speaker A:How much barbecue do you eat on a regular basis?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh, 10.
Speaker B:I feel like we had Todd's 40th birthday party this weekend, and we had our friend come in and cater with a barbec food truck, and people are like, aren't you sick of barbecue?
Speaker B:I'm like, not freaking yet.
Speaker B:Like, maybe someday.
Speaker B:But it's still something that we legitimately love eating other people's barbecue.
Speaker B:And I love cooking barbecue.
Speaker B:And, you know, we always joke that our kids cut their teeth on rib bones because they have.
Speaker B:And that's just, you know, it's a part of our family's, like, rotational menu.
Speaker B:We're always eating stuff that comes off.
Speaker B:Actually, I don't even know if I'm good at using an oven anymore, so if it's not coming off the grill, we're probably eating takeout.
Speaker A:Well, what would you say is your success to failure ratio when you are creating a new recipe or dish?
Speaker B:Oh, early days, I would say like 3 out of 10.
Speaker B:Success to failure.
Speaker B:It was rough.
Speaker B:Nowadays I feel like I'm more like a 9 out of 10.
Speaker B:Like I've just been cooking for so long now that I feel like.
Speaker B:And this is again, we said that's one of those things that you, you work on over time, and it's a skill you can develop.
Speaker B:I feel like it's a tooth you can sharpen the more you use it.
Speaker B:And so I feel like I. I'm about a 9 out of 10 right now where I can, I can bust out something new and have it turn out because I understand, you know, the basics of how it all works.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Okay, well, if you could work with and cook with one of your barbecue heroes besides me, who would it be?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:I want to cook whole hogs with Leanne instead of Again.
Speaker B:Again?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I feel like one of these days we need to get together and co cook a whole hog because last time we cooked whole hogs, it was against each other.
Speaker B:And I feel like we should cook whole hogs with each other.
Speaker C:That would be fun.
Speaker C:That would be fun.
Speaker B:Wouldn't that be so fun?
Speaker C:Yeah, but you're so far away and I'm so far away.
Speaker C:We're going to have to in the middle.
Speaker C:Maybe we'll go to Kansas City or something.
Speaker B:We will figure it out.
Speaker A:Do you remember the very first thing you ever grilled or smoked?
Speaker A:The very first thing.
Speaker B:So I grew up in a family where we did.
Speaker B:My dad had a grill on the back patio, so I'm sure there was Something.
Speaker B:Some night at home, he had me help, you know, cook burgers or hot dogs or whatever.
Speaker B:But the first thing that I remember cooking as an adult, I mean, maybe 17, barely 18, was in college.
Speaker B:And we really did buy a camp stove with a little twist on propane and.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Went to the store and picked out some.
Speaker B:I believe they were sirloins, because that was probably the most affordable, and it probably had no fat in it because I was a child of a weight watcher's mother who where, like, fat was the devil and the 90s, you weren't allowed to eat fat.
Speaker B:Everything fat was bad.
Speaker B:So I probably picked the least fatty cut of a sirloin that I could find and threw that on that little propane camp stove in the parking lot of our apartment in the dark.
Speaker B:And it did not.
Speaker B:It was not great.
Speaker B:It was not great.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Well, that's why I always liked Y2K, because right after Y2K came, like, all the Atkins diets, and they were centered around eating protein.
Speaker A:So I was like, yeah, you know, walk around with a, you know, thing of butter in your pocket or whatever.
Speaker B:That's why everything's all made up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:All the food trends are all made up.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker C:I agree.
Speaker A:What does a fantasy day for Susie look like?
Speaker A:What does it contain for activities?
Speaker A:And I'm talking about away from the computer and away from the grills.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I love a beach.
Speaker B:And so probably on a trip with my husband and kids somewhere warm and tropical.
Speaker B:We sleep in, go walk to a cute bakery and get some pastries, hang out by the beach and swim and snorkel.
Speaker B:And usually.
Speaker B:And this is.
Speaker B:We've had days like this, so I'm, like, reliving it in my brain.
Speaker B:But I love.
Speaker B:I actually love going to grocery stores when I'm on vacation.
Speaker B:Not even for work purposes, but I love seeing local ingredients and different ingredients and things that I can't get at home.
Speaker B:So usually I would buy something and take it back and cook it.
Speaker B:We stayed at, like, different.
Speaker B:We usually do, like, airbnbs are resorts that have, like, a grill outside.
Speaker B:I, like, look for it as a feature when we travel, because I still.
Speaker B:Even when we're traveling, I love cooking, and especially if I can have local ingredients or, you know, I live in a landlocked place.
Speaker B:So when we're traveling to the destinations that are oceanside, I love cooking fish, and I love finding fresh, local fish.
Speaker B:And so, you know, we'll probably fire up the grill in the evening and cook some dinner and play some card games.
Speaker B:And just hang out with the family.
Speaker A:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker A:Yeah, that Making me hungry.
Speaker A:Do you have a favorite barbecue book?
Speaker A:You did the flavor book.
Speaker A:You talked about that.
Speaker A:But I mean, yes, actual barbecue book.
Speaker A:Do you have a favorite one of those?
Speaker B:I think the first barbecue book that I.
Speaker B:So as I was learning about barbecue, there were a few books that were even, like, for sale.
Speaker B:Like, even the category of barbecue cookbook was really small when I first started.
Speaker B:Now there's like 8 million barbecue cookbooks, right?
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:But Steven Raichlen, one of the earlier writers about barbecue, had a book called the Barbecue Bible, Right.
Speaker B:And I didn't really know a lot about it, but my.
Speaker B:My oldest brother had a copy, and it was like one of the original copies that had, you know, sauce all over it.
Speaker B:My oldest brother's a great cook, and I was at his house, and I started flipping through this cookbook, and I was like, oh, barbecue cookbooks.
Speaker B:Like, this is so cool.
Speaker B:Very early on in my own barbecue journey.
Speaker B:And so that one was.
Speaker B:That one was a really fun one to flip through and read through.
Speaker B:And I've since met Steven several times.
Speaker B:I've been on his cooking shows.
Speaker B:So that was a really cool, like, first full circle experience to, you know, have that influence and impact my life.
Speaker B:I even took that sauce platter cookbook once to Stephen and had him sign it for my brother.
Speaker B:That was cool.
Speaker B:Really cool.
Speaker A:He's a good guy.
Speaker A:He's a good guy.
Speaker A:Is there one thing you want to do that you haven't done yet in barbecue?
Speaker B:Oh, man.
Speaker B:So we just put an order in for a 250 gallon offset smoker, and I've cooked on offsets before.
Speaker B:They've always been, like, backyard size.
Speaker B:Nothing like, of this volume.
Speaker B:So I'm really, really excited.
Speaker B:It's gonna take, like, six to nine months to actually be completed and get here.
Speaker B:But I'm really excited about learning the ropes of a larger offset cooker like that, because, like I said, I mean, most of my stuff is geared towards the backyard.
Speaker B:There's not really a lot of reason for me to have a smoker that size.
Speaker B:We don't own a catering company.
Speaker B:We don't own a restaurant.
Speaker B:But, like, Todd has wanted one for years, so that's what he's getting for Christmas this year.
Speaker B:We just, like I said, we just put our order in for it.
Speaker B:So it should be here in time for him to enjoy that for Christmas.
Speaker B:But that's something that we're really looking forward to learning how to manage the heat and the fire.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And to cook on that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Sweatshirts or formal wear?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:Sweatshirt.
Speaker A:Okay, well, there's a couple here that we normally do that I'm not going to ask you.
Speaker A:Dire Straits, acdc, or Billy Ray Cyrus.
Speaker B:Oh, acdc.
Speaker A:What is.
Speaker A:What is one thing you miss about your twenties, if any, if anything?
Speaker B:So I had my first baby four days before my 21st birthday.
Speaker B:So my 20s were spent with, like, a lot of diaper changes and spit up.
Speaker B:So if I miss anything, it's like tiny babies.
Speaker B:I love, like, early childhood, but I really did.
Speaker B:I loved early childhood with my, like, little littles, and I just.
Speaker B:I just totally.
Speaker B:I totally loved that phase of my life.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I probably miss my tiny babies now.
Speaker B:They're still adorable and fantastic, and I love them.
Speaker B:But my youngest is nine, so it's just a different.
Speaker B:The different phase of parenting.
Speaker B:But I loved when they were little.
Speaker A:But you don't have to wash your clothes as much these days.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Listen, I just spill as much barbecue sauce on them now as I did.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's better than the.
Speaker A:The baby stuff, you know, I know.
Speaker A:I loved.
Speaker A:I loved it when our daughter was level little, but sometimes, you know, I'd go get in the truck with somebody else.
Speaker A:They go, got a kid, don't you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh, A cheeseburger.
Speaker B:I love a good cheeseburger.
Speaker B:Like, a good cheeseburger, you know, like the right grind on the patty.
Speaker B:Simply seasoned, good slice.
Speaker B:And listen, I know this is controversial, but I love American cheese on a cheeseburger.
Speaker C:I do, too.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:Nothing wrong with that pickle, huh?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Fresh onions or grilled onions?
Speaker B:Oh, grilled onions.
Speaker B:Honestly, I'll take it either way.
Speaker B:But if it's death row, we're gonna go with the grilled onion.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I'm a fresh onion guy, but I will eat the grilled stuff.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's all good.
Speaker A:What's your favorite movie?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:I am not.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I'm not a big movie and TV person.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I read a lot, but I'm not a big, like, I'm not a big movie TV person.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's say that New groove, Emperor's New Groove, is one of my favorite movies.
Speaker B:And it's like a Disney movie.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But it's so good.
Speaker A:You ever seen that, Leanne?
Speaker A:I see.
Speaker A:I. I saw it 20 times.
Speaker A:Oh, it's got John Goodman in it.
Speaker A:And I can't think of the, the guy's name who does the voice of the original.
Speaker A:And he's one of Ben Stiller's buddies and a lot of fun, fun stuff.
Speaker A:Some night when you're halfway through a bottle of Chianti or something, fire that
Speaker B:up on your turn on an old Disney movie.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:Because you'll, you'll laugh your rear end off on that thing.
Speaker B:It's legitimately funny.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:I'm a child in my media consumption tape.
Speaker B:That's fine.
Speaker A:So, Susie, what do you want to do when and if you ever retire?
Speaker B:Oh, I, I love real estate.
Speaker B:My dad was in the real estate world when he was younger, and I am constantly looking at properties and investment properties and parcels and lots and houses.
Speaker B:And I would love to.
Speaker B:To spend a little bit of time, like, buying.
Speaker B:We want to own properties in, like, multiple places.
Speaker B:We love to travel.
Speaker B:We love to travel internationally.
Speaker B:And so we'd love to have the opportunity to have a few different kind of crash pads.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Over the place that we can bounce, you know, back and forth from between when we retire.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Well, you passed.
Speaker A:You passed the after hours.
Speaker B:I didn't know it was pass.
Speaker B:Fail.
Speaker A:Well, if we told people that, they probably wouldn't want to do it.
Speaker A:But one, one last question.
Speaker A:And all the things you've done and all the, you know, the different sauces competitions you've been to.
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker A:What, what is the dumbest thing you've ever seen with a.
Speaker A:Done with a grill or smoker?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:I'm trying to think.
Speaker B:I've seen people cooking.
Speaker B:It's not really a grill or a smoker, but the galvanized steel trash can.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That they're cooking in.
Speaker B:Because those are really, really bad for you, putting them on top of and around their food.
Speaker B:And that stresses me out.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Don't eat on galvanized steel.
Speaker B:And the shovels, too.
Speaker B:Like, there are shovels that you can cook on, but some people are cooking on, you know, metal that should not be cooked on because it, Metal does leach at a certain temperature.
Speaker B:That's how they mold it to be that specific shape.
Speaker B:And people don't think about what's.
Speaker B:What's getting in their food, so.
Speaker A:Well, I think about that.
Speaker A:I think the operative word there, Susie, is people don't think sometimes.
Speaker A:So I just.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Just my.
Speaker A:I'm the old wise one on this show, so I can say crap like that.
Speaker A:Anyway, Susie Bullock, again, how can people find you let it rip sure you
Speaker B:can follow on social media at hey Grill.
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker B:You can download the hey Grill.
Speaker B:Hey.
Speaker B:App in your Google Play store or the Apple App Store.
Speaker B:You just type in hey Grill.
Speaker B:Hey.
Speaker B:We also have an online barbecue school and community@the grillsquad.com where you get kind of an inside look into Susie's brain and I walk you through everything I know about barbecue and that I've learned over the past decade.
Speaker B:We have a line of rubs and sauces, award winners that are on heygrillhey.com.
Speaker B:you just click on the store on the top of our website and yeah, that's the best way to find us.
Speaker B:If you need recipe inspiration for anything, type in whatever you've got in your Google search bar and then just pop hey Grill hey behind it and I probably have a recipe for you.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us.
Speaker C:Very, very much.
Speaker B:Thanks for having me.
Speaker A:It was our pleasure.
Speaker A:And we, you are welcome back sometime whenever you want.
Speaker A:How's that?
Speaker B:It sounds like an open invitation that you're going to regret later.
Speaker C:Not at all.
Speaker A:Not at all.
Speaker A:Not at all.
Speaker A:Not at all.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker C:Because I, I, I, I, I like watching your journey and yeah, to have you back on, just to see, you know, where you're at, what more you've done.
Speaker C:It's, it' we want to share with the world, you know, your successes with, you know, you, Todd and your family.
Speaker C:So it's, it's fun for us.
Speaker B:Thanks.
Speaker A:Yes, it is.
Speaker B:I love being here.
Speaker A:That's going to wrap it up for after hours.
Speaker A:Thank you for being with us.
Speaker A:Remember our motto, turn it, don't burn it.
Speaker A:So for Ms. Leanne and myself, we hope you have a great week.
Speaker A:Go out and cook something and most importantly, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
