Shownotes
This podcast episode delves into the intricate nuances of barbecue, as we engage in a conversation with the esteemed J.R. Love Houston. The discussion is punctuated by a series of thought-provoking inquiries that prompt reflections on culinary preferences and personal experiences in the realm of barbecue. With insights into the artistry of brisket preparation and the diverse flavors of wild game, J.R. shares his culinary journey and the lessons imparted by his late stepfather, a pivotal figure in his culinary education. Furthermore, we explore the whims of barbecue standards and the candid frustrations that accompany the art of judging barbecue dishes. As we traverse through anecdotes and preferences, we invite our audience to reflect on their own culinary experiences while embracing the jovial spirit of barbecue culture.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
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 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, Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Welcome to After Hours, everybody, here on the Nation.
Speaker A:I'm J.T.
Speaker A:along with Ms.
Speaker A:Whippen.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:The pig powder queen and hall of Famer right there.
Speaker A:And today we got J.R.
Speaker A:love Jr this is the part of the show where we ask you some kind of different questions, if you will.
Speaker A:Nothing rude, but maybe scratch your head a little bit.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:I'll start with some of the easy ones.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What's your favorite color?
Speaker A:Lifesaver.
Speaker C:Wait, this is new.
Speaker A:This is new.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Green.
Speaker A:Attaboy.
Speaker A:That green and red.
Speaker A:You got to do the green.
Speaker B:Green line.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:If you're driving by yourself in your truck or your car, what's the first song you want to hear on the radio?
Speaker B:Back in black.
Speaker B:Ac dc yes.
Speaker C:Good answer.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:Very good answer.
Speaker A:I like.
Speaker A:Yeah, I love acdc.
Speaker B:Hell, that's a pretty good driving song.
Speaker A:That's pretty good driving song.
Speaker A:Also, I think Bon Jovi movies Wanted Dead or Alive is a good driving song.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Here's one of the.
Speaker A:The more notable questions.
Speaker A:So you tried and true.
Speaker A:If you could cook for and then dine with a historical figure, who would it be and what would be on the menu?
Speaker B:Well, I cheated and listened to some of the other podcasts, and I know my answer to this question.
Speaker A:That's okay.
Speaker B:It'd be John.
Speaker B:Be John Wayne and.
Speaker B:And Ronald Reagan.
Speaker B:I think that'd be a hell of a conversation.
Speaker B:I would cook a kind of a mixed wild game.
Speaker B:I would do.
Speaker B:I do brisket.
Speaker B:I would do some elk backstrap tenderloin.
Speaker B:I do ribeye in the sky, Samuel Crane and braised quail.
Speaker A:Love quail.
Speaker A:Absolutely love.
Speaker B:Oh, and I.
Speaker B:Fried pheasant is probably my newest, favorite thing I eat.
Speaker C:That's interesting.
Speaker B:Chicken fried pheasant.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's absolutely the best you could.
Speaker B:It's the best, best way to cook pheasant I've ever found.
Speaker B:Huh.
Speaker A:You remember what the first thing was?
Speaker A:You ever barbecued, grilled, or smoked?
Speaker A:And I mean protein, not inhaled.
Speaker B:I'm not gonna own up to that.
Speaker B:So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:I think I mentioned it in the other.
Speaker B:In the prior show, my.
Speaker B:My stepfather had me cooking out at the Houston Rodeo when I was 10 years old.
Speaker B:And he won the brisket.
Speaker B:He won the over.
Speaker B:They won the overall.
Speaker B:They were the Hernia Hill boys.
Speaker B:Great, great name.
Speaker B:They're older guys.
Speaker B:They all went to A and M together, class of 58 or something like that.
Speaker B:And they cooked brisket.
Speaker B:And he did it completely different from how we do it today.
Speaker B:It was a wet mop with a marinade of apple, of apple cider vinegar, one large chopped yellow onion, and one stick of butter, all melted.
Speaker B:And you mop that over and over on a Weber grill, mind you.
Speaker B:And that onion would caramelize into this black, beautiful bark, and the.
Speaker B:The vinegar would permanent permeate the meat.
Speaker B:And the butter just.
Speaker B:I mean, it was.
Speaker B:I still do it that way at home.
Speaker B:I think it's the best brisket ever, but you wouldn't win a competition with it anymore.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker A:So, Junior, if you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Speaker B:Oh, eagle.
Speaker B:I want to.
Speaker B:I want to fly.
Speaker A:You want to fly?
Speaker A:Okay, I can get that.
Speaker A:If.
Speaker A:If you could erase one mistake, just one from your past, what would it be and why?
Speaker B:I might let Andy Black answer that.
Speaker A:One.
Speaker C:Defer.
Speaker B:One mistake.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's been so many.
Speaker B:I do regret selling my law firm.
Speaker B:I do miss practicing law.
Speaker B:But it was.
Speaker B:It was a family decision.
Speaker B:It was a decision that it made.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It made good sense at the time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, it's.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:It's not regrettable.
Speaker B:I do miss it, though.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:If you could work with one of your barbecue heroes, if you have one, who would it be?
Speaker B:Well, I hate to.
Speaker B:I mean, he's not one of y'alls, and you don't know.
Speaker B:He is my stepdad.
Speaker B:I mean, I missed.
Speaker B:He passed away this past year, and he taught me how to cook.
Speaker B:He really did.
Speaker B:And there you go a lot.
Speaker A:Okay, so if Leanne made you supreme ruler of barbecue for a week, what would you decree as supreme ruler of barbecue?
Speaker B:Ah, only Texas rub brisket, Texas red chili, which has no beans.
Speaker B:I get real upset about the chicken, how that's all judged now.
Speaker B:There's got to be a better standard.
Speaker B:I don't know what.
Speaker B:What it is, but the chicken.
Speaker B:That one recently looked like an orange dog toy.
Speaker B:I don't know what the hell it was.
Speaker C:An orange dog toy.
Speaker B:It had an orange neon glow to it, and it won.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:It looked like a dog chew toy.
Speaker B:I was like, what the hell is that?
Speaker B:So I don't know.
Speaker B:A little more uniform chicken standard.
Speaker B:So that's be my decrease.
Speaker A:Okay, that's fair enough.
Speaker A:I Like that.
Speaker A:Would you describe yourself as corn fed or grass fed?
Speaker B:Corn fed.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:Attaboy.
Speaker B:I don't think I've had a salad in about two months.
Speaker A:So what's one thing you miss about your 20s are junior?
Speaker B:My knees.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I got new ones, though.
Speaker B:I do too.
Speaker B:I have both new ones.
Speaker B:They're, they're great.
Speaker B:But I, I, I miss my old body.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think mine went along the wayside with yours.
Speaker A:It's in a ditch somewhere in Amarillo.
Speaker B:Absolutely Absolute.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's one thing that really pisses you off when you go to the grocery store?
Speaker B:People that don't know what they're looking for.
Speaker B:People are just shuffling around the damn place, you know, I'm in and out in 10 minutes.
Speaker B:I know exactly what I want.
Speaker B:I know where it is.
Speaker B:Get out of my way.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker B:Never, never go, Never go hungry.
Speaker B:Never go shopping hungry.
Speaker A:No, that's.
Speaker C:It's a big mistake.
Speaker B:Big mistake.
Speaker A:I'm living proof of that.
Speaker A:So it just like that.
Speaker A:Dire Straits.
Speaker A:George Straight.
Speaker A:Or I'm going to change this one because it used to say AC DC and now I'm going to say Alice Cooper.
Speaker B:George Strait.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:He's the king, then Alice Cooper.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:Boxers or boxers or briefs?
Speaker B:Commando.
Speaker A:Yeah, boy.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker C:First one we've had.
Speaker A:Made you stop material.
Speaker B:Like you said, everything's bigger in Texas, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:She's blushing.
Speaker A:I can see it from here.
Speaker A:I'm 3, 000 miles away and her little cheeks are all pink there.
Speaker A:Have you ever.
Speaker A:What's the worst thing you ever smoked?
Speaker A:I mean, there's like one of the.
Speaker A:This base question is, have you ever smoked a penguin?
Speaker A:But you don't really have penguins in Texas.
Speaker A:Except maybe armadillo.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah, I would say that it was armadillo.
Speaker C:Tell me something.
Speaker C:Did you have to take the shell off of it?
Speaker C:Take a little armadillo bowl and turn it on its back.
Speaker B:Cooked it in the shell?
Speaker B:It was armadillo in the half shell.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Did you gut it first?
Speaker B:Yeah, we gutted it and they kind of picked the meat out of the shell.
Speaker B:It was gross.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:There's no amount of sauce that would fix that.
Speaker B:There was a lot of beer involved there.
Speaker A:There would have to be with me.
Speaker A:It happened.
Speaker B:And afterwards.
Speaker A:So there'd have to be some single malt scotch in there too.
Speaker A:For me.
Speaker B:There was some whiskey involved.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's your favorite movie, Junior?
Speaker B:Blazing Saddles.
Speaker B:I literally have the poster on My wall over here in my office.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker A:Somebody go back and get a pot full of dimes, whatever that was.
Speaker A:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker A:Sweatshirts or formal wear?
Speaker B:Not a sweatshirt guy.
Speaker B:Not really a big T shirt guy, but I'm not really a formal wear guy.
Speaker B:I'm kind of what I'm wearing right now, you know, button down shirt or golf shirt?
Speaker A:Yeah, I like it.
Speaker A:Last question for you here is because I know you got to get out of here, but you're in Texas, so this really applies.
Speaker A:What would your last meal be on death row?
Speaker A:You don't have to worry about calories or nothing.
Speaker B:I would like a bone in Wagyu, Tomahawk, medium rare, french fries, cream spinach and elote corn.
Speaker C:Very well balanced.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker B:And a piece of key lime pie.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:I was wondering about what.
Speaker A:You're going to clean that up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:J.R.
Speaker A:lowe from Houston, the Cowboy Yacht Club and friend.
Speaker A:Now you're our friend.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:It's been a great, great pleasure.
Speaker B:It was fun, guys.
Speaker B:I really appreciate it.
Speaker C:Very enlightening.
Speaker C:Everything that you said that you've done along the way in so many years, it's something I want to experience.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:Well, we gotta go down there, come.
Speaker B:Next year and bring your podcast.
Speaker B:We'll do it.
Speaker A:Yeah, we should do that.
Speaker B:We'll do it from the yacht club.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I was gonna ask you before we go.
Speaker A:You've got a golf trophy behind you.
Speaker B:I've got a couple of them actually, around here.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I used to be a golfer.
Speaker B:Me, actually, and Andy and I were on the golf team in.
Speaker B:In high school.
Speaker B:And I've.
Speaker B:I've reconstructed my shoulder three times.
Speaker B:So I'm not as good as I used to be, but you're like the.
Speaker C:Bionic man between your knees and your shoulder.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Had 30 surgeries, so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Holy God.
Speaker A:That's a.
Speaker A:That's a new record.
Speaker A:I think it might be.
Speaker B:I've had 18 knee surgeries, three shoulder reconstructions, back operation, neck, and some other stuff.
Speaker C:Did you play football?
Speaker B:I did, yeah.
Speaker C:That's usually the culprit.
Speaker B:That was a human blocking dummy.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker A:All right, Junior, that's going to wrap it up for us, folks for after hours this week.
Speaker A:You can find all our podcasts and our shows after they get off the radio as usual.
Speaker A:They're out there somewhere.
Speaker A:You don't have to look too far.
Speaker A:So for jr, Leanne and myself, I'd like to thank you for listening.
Speaker A:We'll be back next week with another show.
Speaker A:Until then, go out, have some fun, cook some barbecue.
Speaker A:And remember our motto, turn it, don't burn it.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
