Moist Heat BBQ Class

Left to right: T-Bone, Andakin, Joe-Be-Wan, Skippy, Flamb-In-Law, Flamb Ed
Front: Troy

The first ever Moist Heat BBQ class took place yesterday and was a huge success! The weather was great (although a bit windy at times), the meat was smoky, and everyone had a great time. A big thanks to Bunzel’s Meat Market for providing us with all of our meat and also to Cranky Al’s for providing us with a much needed pot of coffee that helped wake everyone up at 8AM and got them ready to learn.

Preparation for the class had been going on for months but the real work started on Friday night when Andakin and Joe-Be-Wan started preparing for the class by putting on an 8lb. brisket on Andakin’s smoker and 4 pork shoulders in Joe-Be-Wan’s Backwoods Smoker. Wisconsin weather did not cooperate that night though and dropped Andakin’s fire temps down to 80 degrees in the middle of the night. No matter how hard Joe-Be-Wan tried, he was unable to get the temps back up and was forced to move the brisket over to his Backwoods. By 7:30 AM on Saturday, the shoulders were wrapped and resting in a cooler and the brisket was at 170 degrees and was transported back to the Chargriller to finish up.

Students began arrive just before 8 and right away started examining all of the smokers on hand. Flamb Ed’s Charbroil Santa Fe, T-Bone’s Weber kettle, Andakin’s Chargriller, and of course Joe-Be-Wan’s Backwoods Smoker.

Class began with a brief history of southern BBQ by Joe-Be-Wan. The much anticipated BBQ PowerPoint presentation was then given which outlined all of the different sauces from each region in the south as well as the different cuts of meat.

Joe-Be-Wan kept the class on a very strict schedule, making sure chimney starters of lump or briquettes were lit at the exact time needed and that the class transitioned smoothly from one cut of meat to the next. Preparation and smoking of pork shoulder, ribs, chicken, and even brisket was covered in the 6 hour class with a brief break in between eat cut for a sampling of the meat (the brisket and Memphis Dry Rub ribs got rave reviews). Each Moist Heat team member smoked something different on their smokers. T-Bone started a marinated and injected pork shoulder right at 9AM. Joe-Be-Wan prepped 6 racks of spare ribs and started them on his smoker at 10AM. Flamb Ed fired up his smoker at 11AM for the Memphis Dry Rub ribs. And chicken quarters were put on Andakin’s smoker at 1pm. Class ended at about 2PM and the students were sent home to pick up their families and side dishes for the 5PM dinner.

The families started arriving back at Joe-Be-Wan’s house around 5PM to the sight and smell of a true southern cookout. Hickory smoke filled the air from the spare ribs that were still going on the Backwoods and the table started to fill with all of the authentic southern side dishes that everyone had brought. Corn bread, baked beans, sweet potato casserole, coleslaw, and corn on the cob were just some of the dishes that complimented the perfectly smoked spare ribs, dry rub baby back ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and chicken. As they say down south, the food was so good “your tongue will beat your brains out gettin’ to it!” The night ended with Joe-Be-Wan still smoking meat on his Backwoods to prepare for the Moist Heat BBQ Fundraiser that is taking place next Saturday.

The Moist Heat Team wants to thank everyone for attending the class and hope you all came away with an appreciation for the time and dedication it can take to prepare true southern BBQ.