The Very Best Of Barbecue
With guest host John Harwood.
Listen Here: The Very Best of Barbecue
From secret sauces and rubs to hickory and folklore, we will celebrate and sample the best barbeque in the land. Bring napkins!
When it comes to summer barbeque, regional rivalries run as strongly as they do between the Red Sox and the Yankees in baseball. In Texas, they worship the holy trinity of beef brisket, sausage and ribs. In Kansas City, they cook their ribs with a dry rub. In North Carolina, the flavoring is vinegar. However they season it, the masters share one command in common: cook it slow and smoky, always over indirect heat. We’ll talk with several of them – and better yet, we’ll taste. This hour, On Point: savoring the taste of summer.
– John Harwood
Guests
Steven Raichlen, writer, TV host and cooking instructor. Author of the “Barbecue Bible” cookbook series. Host of Project Smoke and Primal Grill. (@sraichlen)
Bryan King, co-owner of the 12 Bones Smokehouse in Ashevillle, NC. Co-author of “12 Bones Smokehouse: A Mountain BBQ Cookbook.” (@12bonesribs)
Shane Heavner, head chef at the 12 Bones Smokehouse in Ashevillle, NC. Co-author of “12 Bones Smokehouse: A Mountain BBQ Cookbook.” (@12bonesribs)
Kerry Bexley, owner of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, TX. (@snowsbbq)
Rob Magee, owner of Q39 In Kansas City, MO.
Zeninjor Enwemeka, digital reporter at WBUR. Kansas City native. (@zeninjor)
From The Reading List
Charlotte Observer: 12 Bones Smokehouse owners share their recipes – “As far as barbeque joints go, 12 Bones Smokehouse’s menu casts a wide net. True, the Asheville restaurant’s signature sauce has its foundation in Western North Carolina’s tomato-based tradition, but the restaurant also offers beef brisket, pulled chicken, and a monstrous bacon, bratwurst, and pulled pork sandwich named Hogzilla.”
TMBBQ: Kerry Bexley of Snow’s BBQ — ” I don’t want people to misunderstand. We’re not looking to grow, but when someone drives from Dallas and gets here at 11:00 and we’re sold out that’s tough to tell them. We want to increase the volume a little bit to accommodate that. We’re cooking what we can manage well right now and we aim to keep it at that. I could cook three times what I’m doing right now and we’d sell all of it for a while, but would I be able to still do that a few years from now? Probably not if the quality is no good. No matter what I do whether it’s barbeque or the rodeo or – if I don’t have time to do it right then I don’t have time to do it at all. You can sheer a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once.”
Kansas City Star: Kansas City is America’s Best For Barbecue — “Andrew Zimmern is a big fan of Kansas City barbeque. While in town last month to shoot an episode of his Travel Channel show ‘Bizarre Foods,’ Zimmern chowed down on burnt ends at Q39, Joe’s Kansas City and LC’s Bar-B-Q.Zimmern and his production team also shot segments for the meat-centric episode, which airs later this year, at the Local Pig in Westport. There, Zimmern dined on pig spleen prepared by chef/owner Alex Pope.’While on a break from shooting scenes at the Local Pig, Zimmern said that Kansas City’s barbeque scene keeps getting better. ‘For my taste, Kansas City was always the best barbeque city in America,’ Zimmern said.”
