The Hampton Smoker

More Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue News!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue got one step closer to opening up yesterday! Final inspections are underway, the gas should be on in a few days and the health department and other officials SHOULD give us the green light to open up to the public very soon! Of course that news will be shared with everyone as soon as it is final.

The owner of Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue, Bill Fletcher, was on CBS Morning News talking about tailgating yesterday. The segment rocked! You should watch it.

In the meantime, we will keep the fires lit.

Forget to Remember to Forget: Opening a BBQ Joint

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:59:00 +0000

Dry-Rubbed Babyback Ribs and Pork Belly with My Red Hook Red Sauce @ Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue.

Well, Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue is coming closer and closer to opening. Right now we are finishing off last minute aesthetic touches (a missing piece of stainless steel here, a coat of stain there), and any big nagging mechanical issues while simultaneously interviewing potential staff, sourcing ingredients, creating the paperwork that will be the backbone of the Back of House operations, writing-testing-re-testing recipes and drilling into the ingredients in each recipe and whether there are two similar ingredients that can become just one compromise ingredient that works for both recipes. From a cost perspective, maybe you don't need granulated onion and onion powder, for instance.

In some cases recipes were tested at home and we want to be sure they work in the, currently-bare-bones kitchen in which we are working.

Fire-Suppression Inspection should be tomorrow. Once that passes we should be able to get gas turned on to run the stove, oven and grill....From there, we are a hop-skip to the health department and all lights switching to "GO!". Unfortunately, what can be written in a few sentences, will most likely take weeks to happen.

I foresee a late-september opening becoming an early-October opening....

Beginning to See The Light: A Bar's Eye View o' Barbecue!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:38:00 +0000

A little peak from the bartop perspective looking in on the open kitchen and all of the action at Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue....Opening this fall in New York City!

Baaaaaah-bee-cuuuuuuuuuue!

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue
433 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
http://www.fletchersbklyn.com
http://www.facebook.com/FletchersBKLYN
I'm Beginning To See The Light by The Ink Spots on Grooveshark

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Hola, my people! I am, in my role as Executive Chef and Pitmaster, in the final stages of getting Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue open @ 433 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215. The owner is Bill Fletcher, a bbq savant with a design and advertising background. Our menu will focus on humane, sustainable meats cooked with traditional American BBQ philosophy injected with the brash flavors of Brooklyn! Come say howdy!

Cure for Pain: Maple Smoked Ham + other news!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Home-Cured Maple Smoked Ham

A few days in a brine of maple syrup, sea salt, white pepper, garlic powder, Cure #1, thyme, sage and tap water. A quick rinse and dry, then a bath in some cool maple smoke, raising the temperature at the end about 50 degrees to give a little color.

Here's the outside of the ham
FRUGALDAD.COM named us one of the top BBQ sites on the web! How cool is that! Thanks, Frugal Dad!

FRUGAL DAD WINNER
TOP FOOD BLOG

It actually helps to be an idiot: Cookbook writing and other news

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Image from http://www.zagats.com

Hello-

I can't imagine anyone ever comes to visit anymore, but that's okay. Me talk pretty one day.

So, what's it like to be a cookbook author according to the New York Times? The secret is: "It actually helps to be an idiot".

I'm sure that's not true for all, I have met many of them and they were articulate and interesting. I've also read some really wonderful food writing, but this article is a really fascinating peek into that world-- and makes you realize that food bloggers really have de-pantsed the side of the industry that was merely churning out bulk-- considering that some of the best bloggers combine cooking talent, writing and breathtaking photography.

Yet more on the state of cookbooks in contemporary publishing from The Boston Globe. They make the argument that “Cookbooks are not about recipes anymore,’’ but come closer to memoirs with recipes and full-color glossy photos. The recipes are replete with techniques and ingredients that push the culinary edge so far that they are too involved or to difficult to source for most home cooks to ever even attempt to recreate them. This seems an additional result of pressure from the online foodie community to me, as well.

Lastly on more earthy topics, the folks at Zagats have put together a list of 14 favorite 'off the radar' burgers. Some of my favorites aren't on here, but that means the wait for a table won't be as long....

Recently I cooked barbeque outside for the first time in a loooong time. I made ribs. They were yummy, smoked over apple, maple and hickory.

Milk Is Bad For You

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:10:00 +0000

A little electrocution: Smoke power

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:32:00 +0000

This tune from the Cleveland pop guru, Bill Fox, manages to capture the melancholy I tend to feel like so many of his songs are capable of doing.

I haven't mentioned the power of smoke and bbq to transform the spirit recently. But the mere smell of a clean hickory fire with the faint whiff of spice and meat causes an actual physical response in the hungry. The mouth waters, the senses heighten, the need for action is transmitted through the spinal column from the brain. There've been studies.

I haven found it within myself to be able to preach the truth about the 'que in the longest of times, but I tell you I am a believer. I have seen bbq redeem lives, give second chances, create and destroy legends. There is destruction in the past, but with destruction always comes the possibility of hope.

I give you Ricky and Zach Parker of Scott's-Parker's Barbecue, Lexington, TN.

Don't be Cruel: BBQ Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:12:00 +0000

Barbecue is cruel?! Did I say that?! I Think I did, actually....and I stand by it.

The Devil In Me: RUB BBQ East Meadow Open Today!!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:09:00 +0000

This just in: RUB BBQ 2367 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, NY

Read About It In Newsday!

"Last week, RUB’s pitmaster Matt Fisher began firing up the smokers at RUB’s new location in East Meadow. Friends and family were served over the weekend and tonight at 5, RUB opens for business. “The pits are burning great,” reports Fisher. “Everything tastes just like in the city.”"

New RUB BBQ East Meadow, NY: Ooh-la-la!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:26:00 +0000

Wow...so, is this thing on?? It has been a while, no?

Ok, so, I am now the pitmaster of RUB BBQ in East Meadow, NY and Kitchen Manager/pitmaster in the flagship restaurant in Chelsea. I am thrilled to be a part of this organization and to have been able to cook alongside such fantastic chefs as Scott Smith and Paul Kirk and learn from them as well as the team of butchers, cooks and managers that the owner, Andrew Fischel, has assembled.

So, what next? Well, the new restaurant will be open in a matter of days, and then things will settle back down to normal. Meanwhile, there has been a little press involving yours truly recently in the form of:

An interview on Kingsford's Grilling.com website about urban grilling/queing and....

A piece on Page Six (the gossip pages!) in the New York Post that mentioned me....

I give you Ronnie Lane singing a song made more famous by Rod Stewart.

Thomas Keller: Show Me The Money!

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:11:00 +0000

Thomas Keller talks about the economics of the food industry and the need to pay a fair, deserved price for goods and services in order to maintain a high standard for products and producers, whether they are farmers or cooks.

Star chef: Pay people what they're worth

New York (CNN) -- When chef Thomas Keller heard about the quality of seafood from a supplier in Maine, he wrote to the company's owner.

"Would you sell me lobsters," Keller recalled asking.

The answer was no.

"She wasn't interested in selling me lobsters because she didn't know who I was and what my standards are."

It took Keller two years to get his first shipment of lobsters from Ingrid Bengis, a Fulbright scholar who has had a career as a writer in addition to running her company, Ingrid Bengis Seafood.

Keller, who spoke at the TEDx East conference in New York earlier this month, talked about the network of suppliers he uses for his now acclaimed restaurants, including The French Laundry in Napa Valley and Per Se in New York -- the wild mushroom forager, the dentists who run a fruit farm, the banker who decided to raise lambs.

In an interview with CNN, Keller made the case for going to extraordinary lengths to get the best ingredients, for paying suppliers more and for paying restaurant staff well. He took issue with what he described as the economy's relentless drive for producing and selling goods more cheaply.

The formula has paid off for Keller, whose two leading restaurants have been recognized with the top ranking of three stars in the Michelin Guide. Of course, the food does not come at a bargain price. A nine-course prix fixe dinner at the French Laundry goes for $250.

A generation and a half ago, Keller said, the Department of Labor classified chefs as domestic help. Today being a chef is a profession, and for some, a route to celebrity status. In the public's mind, chefs are virtually superheroes, as Keller noted: "We go to the market in the morning...we cook it all, we don't eat we don't sleep, we barely breathe, we do everything, but that's not the case."

In reality, he said in the interview, it takes hundreds of dedicated people at restaurants and suppliers for a chef to be a success. Here's an edited transcript:

CNN: What are the secrets to success in your business?

Thomas Keller: Well there aren't really any secrets. I think, No. 1, it's creating relationships. That's very important. If you have a relationship with somebody you understand who they are, what they do, what their goals are. It's working together in a collaborative effort to elevate everybody.

No. 2, it's really about money, paying somebody what they're worth. We have a society today, especially in this country, which really kind of confuses me. -- when we want to have the very best and pay them the very least for it. Didn't your mother ever tell you -- you get what you pay for?

It is not my job to negotiate on price. It's my job to demand a high level of quality, and you have to work with somebody to raise that level of quality continuously. So we can have a better product and at the end of the day, pay them what it's worth. They need to be supported in so many ways, whether it's our fishermen or our farmers, our gardeners or our foragers.

CNN: Does it concern you that if you pay everybody what they're worth, your price hits the stratosphere?

Keller: In and of itself, yeah, does it concern me? It does and it doesn't. In one way we are supporting an amazing group of individuals who are working hard on changing the way things are done. Our lamber [Keith Martin] in Pennsylvania, for example, has established a protocol for the way his lambs are raised and fed. He has eight other farmers in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio who adopted his protocols.

He looks at the way he raises lambs in a holistic way. It is about the life of the animal, not the commodity it becomes after it's slaughtered. And typically the livestock industry looks at everything they do as a commodity, not an animal. So, we lose that connection with how to raise it.

I don't know how much Keith's lambs cost, I don't really get into that. I don't want to know. I just want to be able to support him and his quest to continue to really voice his concern and his vision about how to raise them, and hopefully that will change everybody. It has changed nine farmers so far, himself and eight of his co-workers, so it's great.

CNN: Does it concern you that you are dealing with the high-end, but maybe not having an impact on the mass market?

Keller: Yes and no. One way that we are able to accomplish dealing with more, I don't want to say masses, but certainly more people is that we were able to buy the entire lamb. And we'll use the luxury cuts, the rack and the saddle, at the French Laundry. But we'll use the legs at Bouchon and the shoulders at Ad Hoc.

So it affords us the ability to maintain a high level of standards for the product and utilize the entire animal. So The French Laundry is charging $250 for dinner, using Keith Martin's saddle of lamb. At Ad Hoc, it's $49 a dinner using Keith Martin's shoulder of lamb. It's the same animal, it's the same quality, just different economics.

CNN: In the world of food, are you encouraged by the trends that you see developing, the movement for more local foods?

Keller: Well, it's interesting because the generation before us, our parents and our grandparents, it was always local foods, right? I mean, it wasn't until really the refrigeration of boxed cars and the mobility to ship food around the country that changed the way we eat, changed what's available to us. My grandparents -- they all had a garden, they had fruit trees, they had most of the products around them.

The movement toward urban cultures and societies today has resulted in diminishing impact from local producers. You have to redefine local. To me, 15-20 years when I started thinking about local, local wasn't about geographical proximity. Local was about the quality of the product. My lobsters come from Maine, extraordinary lobsters; I get them every day in the restaurant.

It's really high quality products. You know they're right next door [to the supplier]. You're pulling it out of the ground or you're fishing it out of the sea right next to you.

Today, of course, you start to rethink what local means. This whole locavore movement, sustainability and all these different things, and we start to say, "OK, we are averse to using products that are being shipped across the country."

It's part of the [carbon] footprint, but I think about it in a different way because there has to be a balancing act. Someone like Keith Martin who I think is an extraordinarily important person, somebody who has a potential to have an impact on this industry, would be out of business if he had to survive on a local community of buyers. He wouldn't have been able to impact other farmers around him to embrace his protocol because they would have no market for their lamb.

Somebody like Ingrid Bengis in Maine who supplies us our lobsters works with the fishermen there. In Maine, they thrive because they are fishermen and they sell their wonderful fish around the country. I can name hundreds of people who really rely on not only local opportunities to sell their supplies but far-reaching ones, as well.

CNN: How do you combine that with a concern about sustainability?

Keller: Sustainability to me results in an industry that is able to re-establish itself over and over again without depleting from the earth, the air, things like that. I think the only problem with working with people like Ingrid or Keith is that carbon footprint that we've talked about. But I'm fine with knowing that I'm supporting somebody who is giving their community an extraordinary opportunity.

Sustainability is something we are always working toward. It's a really fine line because it is something that chefs really never thought about before. I mean our primary job is to get the best products we possibly could and serve them to you. Today there are so many people in the world that are vying for those ingredients, and there's only a certain amount of it.

So, we've depleted the world of good food. It's not because people don't recognize sustainability; people were hungry for bluefin tuna. There were so many of them that we just ate it all up. So really the answer is what? Fewer people. That's what I believe. How do you sustain a wild fish? Well, you have to stop fishing; you have to watch what you are taking out. How do you feed the demand for that fish? You don't.

CNN: If you could change American attitudes toward food in any way, how would you do it?

Keller: I think what I said earlier about them being willing to pay for products. To really support the farmers and fisherman. That's the one thing that I would really want them to do. It's a difficult thing to say because, especially in this time or any time, there are people out of work, people have budgets. It's a very difficult thing to say to somebody, "Go to the market and really speak with your pocketbook and demand better products and higher quality," so that's the only way we are going to get it.

What's happening in our marketplace today at a retail level is a direct result of chefs. Everything that you see in your grocery store today, in terms of the higher quality and more variety and more seasonality, is a result of what chefs have done in their restaurants.

Chefs have set the example that consumers follow. So I want arugula now, or I want to to see a short rib or whatever it is. It's being written about. What's being produced in restaurants, people see it and say I want to get them.

When I was a kid, how many varieties of lettuce did you see in the store? Iceberg lettuce! Now you have 12 different lettuces to choose from anywhere -- from arugula to endive to whatever. And it's because chefs have demanded those products in their restaurants.

CNN: You've been one of the pioneers in the inventive uses of vegetables.

Keller: You know vegetables are the one thing that elevates anything on the plate and are in and of themselves center-of-the-plate opportunities. When you talk about that center-of-the-plate product you used to think about it as proteins, but now it's vegetables, too. Our garden affords us the ability to really produce a large variety of vegetables and very seasonal.

CNN: And vegetables may be more sustainable ultimately than seafood or some of the other offerings?

Keller: It's about how they're farmed. I mean there are parts of California, our wonderful valley there that produces a lot of vegetables from probably some of the most toxic land in the world. You know, it just depends on how they are farmed. Are they sustainable? Certainly it's sustainable, it's sustainable in organic ways. But again, it's going to cost more money.

Here piggy, piggy....

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:47:00 +0000

Saturday, October 2, 2010, rain or shine
11:30am - 4:30pm
Governors Island
www.ilikepig.com

Tickets are limited and will sell out for this event. Please be sure to get yours in advance, they will not be for sale the day of.

On Saturday, October 2,
Governors Island (click for directions)
will be transformed into a pork-lover's paradise.
Welcome to Pig Island, a culinary festival featuring local food, NY State wines, Six Point Craft Ales, and live music -- it is guaranteed to be an amazing day out.

Twenty chefs from some of New York City’s finest
venues along with an impressive cast of food experts and personalities are expected to dazzle the crowd with their “whole hog know-how”. All participants will work with locally sourced ingredients, including whole pigs purchased directly from farms, such as Violet Hill Farm and The Piggery. The talent includes Sara Jenkins of Porchetta, Jacques Gautier from Palo Santo, “Chopped” champion Michael Jenkins from Butter Restaurant, along with other barbecue masters such as Hoppin’ John Taylor of Low Country cooking fame and Sam Barbieri with the award-winning Fuhgeddaboutit BBQ Team.

Under The Milky Way: Headfull of Helium

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Saltines, jell-o, broth, toast, water, iced tea, Gatorade....

Uggggh....still feeling super weak, woozy and nauseous. No interest in real solid food at all....

Sick to Move: Tears, tonics and tummies...

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:44:00 +0000

I am sick...sick....sick. I can't move, or can but refuse. The Wife put the laptop next to me this morning when she went to work, and I only just flipped it open. Everything hurts-- shooting pain down my arms and pulled muscle sting in my chest.

I hadn't felt quite right all day yesterday and then at 7pm, my body began rejecting the little bit of fuel that I had put in it during the day-- a blt, an orange juice and some coffee/water/energy drink...stuff was exiting my body anywhere it could-- all at the same time. Ultimately, even water with ice chips in it wouldn't even stay down. I was so dehydrated that my lips chapped instantly. This intense phase lasted 10 hours straight. If I managed to sleep, it was only brief spells punctuated with urgent dashes to the bathroom or for the bucket beside the bed.

I hate to be too graphic about this, but in several instances, there wasn't time to grab the bucket. Suffice to say that The Wife slept in another room. There were/are no comfortable positions-- everything is sore/achey/tender....I'm not too strong to cry...

Sad If I Lost It: The Why, The Where & The Wardrobe

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:22:00 +0000

Let me start by saying

and follow by apologizing for the paucity of posts in the last 2 months or so, but so on it goes. Happy new year to my hebraic brethren and while I'm at it, let me we wish the rest of my peoples well. I'm honored by your friendship. I'd be so sad if I lost it. Like Guided by Voices said on Mag Earwhig!

Smash it Up!: Tonight's Burger at RUB BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Photo (not tonight's burger): Nick Solares

This just in from Scottie Smith at RUB BBQ in New York City:

Tonight's burger: The Burnt End Burger

Freshly ground beef, chopped burnt ends, pepper jack cheese, pickles, onion, mustard...

Available from 6pm-9pm

RUB BBQ

208 West 23rd St

New York, NY 10011

212-524-4300

Green River: Today's Specialty Burger at RUB BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:44:00 +0000

Photo by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is NOT tonight's burger

Per A Hamburger Today:

Today's Special Burger at Rub BBQ: Pacific Northwestern Burger

Today's special burger at Rub BBQ is the Pacific Northwestern Burger ($7.50) topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and Thousand Island-type dressing. (They describe it as an In-N-Out-style burger, although In-N-Out isn't from the Pacific Northwest.) It will be available for dinner from 6 to 9 p.m. 208 West 23rd Street, New York NY 10011 (map); 212-524-4300

Wish I could be there, but I'll be at Fatty Cue, instead!

Picture at top Previous Burger cooked by the expert hand of Scott Smith at RUB

I'll wear it proudly: A good laugh

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:09:00 +0000

Read all about this tremendously gifted bullshit artist and watch him in action as he flails about with his yo-yo, then shows up for an appearance sans-string for his yo-yo. Is he that talented a faker, or is he truly cuckoo-- you be the judge.

A Quack-Quack Here: Home-Cured Duck Prosciutto

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:02:00 +0000

I followed the recipe in Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.
The basic (and total) recipe is to pack the breast in kosher salt for 24 hours and then rinse it, dry it, dust it with white pepper, then wrap it in cheesecloth and hang it in a cool (50-60 degree) and humid place for about 7 days. In Italy some people use caves for the Prosciutto. If you have access to one, go for it.

When done it will lose about 30% of the original weight and will be denser, but not like jerky. The color will be a deep rich crimson and when sliced quite thinly, will be a beautiful red. This was Magret Duck Breast from D'artagnan. Here's a photo of the finished product sliced. I wish I had a nice deli slicer at home....

Monday Morning: babyback ribs, you sure look fine

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:34:00 +0000

So, what does a bbq chef, a restaurant pitmaster do on his day off? I cook babyback ribs, that's what I do. It was just a beautiful clear day, not too warm and with a breeze. I sat in the window with a cold drink, up on the third floor, with a slight breeze touched with smoke.

I made a quick rub and threw these two racks on the bubba keg with a mixture of cowboy lump (not my favorite), hickory and cherry that I split and sawed down into 6" long sticks or so, about 1-2" thick. They took about 4 hours exactly.

Whatdya Know?: The Weight, the waiting, and the way

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:19:00 +0000

Another post in the same month!? That seems too unlikely, yet here it is.

Grillin' on the Bay is coming up real soon in Brooklyn and it is shaping up to be the best event yet. Even more backyarders and teams from local bbq joints are lining up to show each other which one rules the grill and smokes the competition. Still sponsored by RUB BBQ, sanctioned by NEBS, and bringing some new supporters along this year as well as more fun events for the whole family, it's sure to be a blast. This event is ALWAYS a fantastic time.

It's Monday which means RUB is doing the weekly burger night over on 23rd between 7th and 8th in New York City-- Scott Smith hand picks a secret blend of beautiful beef and grinds it up just moments before the patties get cooked, ensuring burger nirvana. Each week they cook one specialty burger along with their signature RUB Burger. Scottie brings his exceptional eye for detail and commitment to culinary gold to the burgers, just as he does the barbecue....

This Just In!: Myron Mixon with Craig Ferguson

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:10:00 +0000

Not As Dead As You Think: Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Care of Cell 44: Losing friends, life's grift

noreply@blogger.com (Backyard Chef) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:40:00 +0000

A Facebook post led to phone calls led to finding out that one of The Wife's childhood friends, a woman with whom she has had a long, complicated friendship, is on life support in an Albany hospital with lungs that apparently look like Swiss Cheese. She is Pneumonia ravaged and holding on by a thin ephemeral strand to her life here on Earth.

We are about to hop in the car and go to her side. Because of the ups and downs that come with any relationship, there is guilt, bittersweet relief, sadness and the irreversible loss of their tangibility, their 'themness' that will always be absent and silent.

I know it was not easy for her raising two young girls by herself and then years later another baby with an unfortunate father. I know she was, like most of us, crippled with self-doubt, fear, flagging willpower, and a thirst for self-destruction, but in the back of my mind, I always thought it would be different, that she would turn it all around and land square on her feet. Life is full of surprises.

The mighty Zombies perform "Care of Cell 44," from the epic Odessey and Oracle album just below. A sweet song from a mother to her son in jail. Beach Boys, Beatles and more in the mix with this stuff. The Zombies are so wonderful.