It's time for Barbecue Nation with jt.

So fire up your grill, light the charcoal, and get your smoker cooking.

Now from the Turn It Go Burnett studios in Portland, here's jt, everybody.

Merry Christmas here on jt.

This is Barbecue Nation with Leanne, hall of famer.

And this week, as the usual on Christmas, meathead from AmazingRibs.com, also a hall of Famer, we welcome you and everybody up and down the line.

It is a spirited time of year, and I'll just go with that.

So this is where we all.

We usually get to the meat of the matter, if you will, at the top of the show.

And then we kind of very often.

I will warn you both, I did some extensive research on some Christmas trivia.

We got quizzes coming.

We got quizzes and.

And all of that, but it's kind of fun.

I. I learned some stuff that I had no idea.

Anyway, welcome, everybody, and welco you at home.

Biggest rib day of the year.

Really?

Yeah.

I would.

Fourth of July was big as rib day.

I'm talking about a whole roast.

Prime ribs.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

I do a prime rib for Christmas.

I do, too.

And now you have to get a third mortgage to get one.

Oh, God.

Oh, that reminds me.

I better get my.

You better order it.

Write it down.

I was in the.

We call it cash and carry here, but it's chef stores.

Okay.

And it's the distribution center, and you can.

Most anybody can go in there and do that.

And I was looking at a prime boneless rib roast, and it was $370.

And I went, oh, wow.

Okay.

And then.

And that's all trimmed and ready to go.

And then there's some with the lip on, and they're a little cheaper.

And as we talked.

We talked about this last week on last week's show, you know, you can do a strip loin roast, too, if you want there.

Yes.

So there.

And it's the same muscle, too.

Yeah.

Strip line is longitudinal muscle, which is the same muscle as in the rib primal.

May I suggest.

Yes.

That if you get choice instead of prime, you can save a big buck.

And that's a really tender cut.

If you cook it properly, nobody's going to complain.

And prime, as you know, we love prime, but that's just.

It's probably 25% more.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I was buying USDA prime for the family seven bone.

Yeah.

And it was always over 300 bucks.

Right.

And this year, I'm going to get a choice.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with you.

Yeah.

Not to be a tightwad about that, but most of these people that are sitting at my table won't know the difference.

I'm not being smart, Alec.

They just won't know the difference.

Well, first of all, this is not a, a meat tasting, all right?

It's a meal.

And the whole family's around the table and everybody's catching up on the news and what college are you kids off to this near and yada yada.

And so people aren't really paying attention.

They're not going, wow, this is, this is must be USDA prime.

It's really, really good.

And you know, they're just having a good time.

Right.

See, at my table, it is all about that.

They talk about the meat.

Well, of course they do.

I have, I have a brother in law whom I know is paying attention.

Yeah.

But I think everybody else.

No, you're right.

For the most part.

Everybody else is just happy that Uncle Meathead sprung for the meat.

We don't have to cook tonight.

Right.

Plus you don't have to pay for it.

Yeah, I think that's very important.

Even though it's the season of giving, you know, Uncle Meathead and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Leanne kind of go, okay, we're only going to give so much this year.

Our tidings to the family.

I do think, however, that because of the cost and you know, whoever's hosting the party, that it's a very nice gesture to bring a little host or hostess gift, whether it be a bottle of wine.

Just something of gratitude.

You know, when you're getting a lot.

Of money, when your name is Meathead, you don't get away with bringing a bottle of wine.

Yeah, I have to buy the whole seven bone prime rib.

Yeah, right.

And as, as Jeff said, it's, it's a mortgage, but what the hell, you know, it's once a year.

Yeah, once a year.

And it's my chance to let the family enjoy what I do for a living, so.

Oh, sure.

You want to talk about how we cook our roasts?

Yeah.

Do you?

How do we cook our roasts?

Who goes first?

You go first.

You go.

Oh, I go first.

Okay.

This I do.

I do it differently than you guys, I'm sure, because I go over the river and through the woods.

Dinner is at one of my wife's niece's house.

And so.

And with a big seven rib.

Seven bone prime rib.

What is that, maybe 18 inches long, four or five inches thick?

I forget what it weighs.

About 18 to 20 pounds.

Yeah.

Something.

Yeah, probably in that range.

Yeah, yeah.

So I begin, I take the bones off because the bones are a heat shield.

They block the energy from getting to the meat.

And if you leave them on it overcook, it can overcook on the, on the, on the side, away from the bones and undercook up against the bones.

And I want it evenly cooked all around.

So I take the bones off so the heat will enter from all sides and it'll be evenly cooked.

And then I put the bones in the freezer and that's a meal for the two of us.

I mean, there's a lot of meat in between those bones.

You can also throw them in in a pot and make a stock out of it.

And that's a really good idea too.

Then depending on how many people are coming, there's two muscles essentially in the big prime rib.

And by the way, it's called a prime rib because it's the rib primal.

These big sections of meat are called primals.

And it's not necessarily USDA grade prime.

It can be USDA grade choice or USDA grade prime, but it's called a prime rib.

There's two muscles on a prime rib.

One is the long tubular muscle that runs through the center and that's the longissimus.

And the other is sort of a C shaped muscle that wraps around it called the spinalis.

And if you're not familiar with the biology, it's okay.

You've noticed that there is this thick grain, grain of fat that runs between those two muscles.

So you can see that even on a ribeye steak.

You can see that fat layer between the two.

Best part, if it's not a huge crowd, I will peel that muscle off and it comes off.

It's about the size of a salmon fillet and it is the best muscle on the animal.

And I'll take that and I'll set that aside just for the wife and me because that's just fantastic.

And it has a nasty habit of getting overcooked and you don't want to overcook.

The best muscle on the animal.

Then because I'm going over river and through the woods, I cut it in half and put it into a bag, a plastic bag, and lower it into a tub of water so it pushes all the air out, zip it up and I sous vide them.

Sous vide is a way you heat the water to 130 degrees, which is perfect.

Medium rare.

The meat gets up to 130 and it can't overcook and you can leave it there.

For hours.

And it stays perfect, 130 degrees.

And so I've got it now at 130 degrees.

When it's time to go to the party, I just take the.

I do it in a.

In like a beer cooler.

I take the beer cooler and the sous vide heater and the meat over to my niece's house, plug it in and let it just stay at 1:30 until about half hour to 45 minutes before dinner.

And then I go out in the backyard with it and throw it on.

They have a nice new gas grill, which I got them and.

Thank you, Uncle Meathead.

Yeah.

Well, it was a sample that one of the companies sent us to test, and we get a lot of samples.

Max is our tester.

Right.

And we don't sell them, we give them away.

And so Tressa and her husband got this one and then I sear this not out of it.

So I got a great crust and perfect medium rare.

And then I slice it and serve it.

And so that's my technique.

There's some rub involved and other things like that.

What are you.

Actually you season it with?

There's always.

Excuse me.

Great debates.

If you look online.

And I've had people ask me this.

We all have.

Well, there's.

What do you like to season it with?

There's a bazillion rubs out there.

I mean, Leanne has a rub called pig powder, but it's kind of.

It really should be called all purpose rub because.

I agree.

I've used it on salmon, I haven't used it on beef.

We did make a commercial beef rub that was really good, but we've just discontinued it because we just can't compete with the several people that are.

But I still have inventory, so.

And there's a.

There's a couple of really good rub recipes on AmazingRibs.com for beef, you go heavy on black pepper and garlic and onion and the usual stuff.

And oh yeah, it's really nice.

So I try to get it in the 130 to 135 range.

If the sous vide is 130, then searing it takes it up to 135.

It's still gorgeous, tender, rosy colored, and I usually can get about 20 nice slices out of it.

Oh, yeah.

What time is it?

Dinner.

Right.

Yeah.

Because how about you guys?

What do you guys do?

Well, we've only got about a minute left here before we go to break, and I thought we'd pick this up on the other side, but I will tell you.

And one Thing I want to talk about when we come back after Leanne and I tell you what we do is I have people and I know you do too.

And I've seen it on the site that come in and say, well, I put it in the oven at 550 degrees for 10 minutes or whatever.

They all seem to vary.

And then I turn it off and I just let it sit there for 14 days and then it's perfect.

Okay.

And I, and you know, I say if it works for you, go ahead and do that.

But as somebody who does a lot of cooking and has for a long time, like the three of us here, I think there's better ways for me to do it than for one thing, you're tying up the oven for a long time.

And at a holiday meal, you need that oven is available in my book.

You need that oven as available as you can possibly get it.

High pie, twice baked potatoes, all that kind of stuff.

All right, we're going to take a break here on the Nation and be back with Leanne and Meathead in just a moment.

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Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.

I'm JT today we are with Ms. Whippin and Mr. Meathead from AmazingRibs.com and we're talking about your prime rib for Christmas.

The way I do it is I, I, I get them, I get them in their, you know, their vacuum pack, cryovac, whatever you want to call it.

Not trimmed when I get them because I like to trim my own stuff depending on the crowd and the time.

Sometimes I will follow your method and take the ribs off.

Sometimes I leave it on there.

Most of the time though, anymore I take them off because I'm greedy and I want those for the home, the home front meal later on.

You know, I love those big beef ribs like that.

But What I do is I'll take a gist bit of olive oil and my seasoning and put it all over the roast, and I throw it in the fridge the night before in a non fragrance.

You brought this up last week, Leanne.

And I think it's very important.

I didn't think to say that then, but these non fragrance, basically, they're garbage can liners.

Okay.

And I just do that, and I throw it in the fridge outside overnight.

It kind of makes like a little paste, you know, because it'll all firm up.

And then I check the seasoning, see if we're.

If I like where it's at, and then I will.

Last few years, I've been cooking them on one of my pellet grills and.

And do that because the crew that I get here mostly, they're kind of.

They like to see the big pieces.

And we talk about this at Thanksgiving every year.

Meathead spatchcocks his, which is phenomenal way to do it.

But my crews, like, they want to see the whole turkey brown, you know, sitting there, the Norman Rockwell thing.

Then they want to see the.

The big rib roast standing there.

That's just my house.

You can do it any way you want.

And it works.

Except I'm not big on that.

500 degrees, 20 minutes, whatever that is, turn off the oven and let it sit.

Cause like I said, you need the oven.

Mrs. Whippet, I'm scared to do that.

I've read about it.

I've heard people doing it.

I'm just scared it's too expensive cut of meat to fail.

So I haven't done it.

So I can't really attest to if it works or not.

I like to do reverse sear on mine.

Cause I want the ends to be nice, medium rare, kind of like the center.

So I'll put it on my pit Boss at like 225 degrees and just let it roll till it gets to an internal temperature of about 110, 100.

And then crank it up.

Well, take it off of there, obviously, and then crank it up and sear it till it gets to about 130, 135.

And rest, rest, rest.

I know it's hard for people to comprehend letting the meat rest and get cool, but it is so important to retain those juices.

Another thing is, I love the spinella, so I'm not gonna cut it off.

I love the bones.

I'm not gonna cut it off.

But it is always a challenge every year to slice that seven rib roast pieces, because the bone gets in the way.

And who gets the bone?

So it becomes.

You auction it off.

Especially.

Especially if the butcher left the chine in, and the chine is part of the backbone, and then you got to slice down, and you can't get through.

That chine right now you can get them tied together with the bone already, you know, with that part cut off.

So it does make it a little bit easier, but I opt for the leaving it all on there, and I season it.

It's just been a tradition in my family.

Lowry seasoned pepper.

Huge.

Lots of it.

Granulated garlic salt, lots of pepper, and a little bit of lowry seasoned salt.

And I just pack it on because that's a big piece of meat.

So you want to get as much spice on there as you can.

And do you coat the ends?

You put the seasoning on the ends?

Oh, yeah.

On the ends, for sure.

Because, you know, of course, I already know the two people at my table want the end pieces, and if I don't do that, I'll be crucified.

So.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You can't get it really on the.

Bones, underneath the bones.

It won't stick, but, yeah, you don't need it there anyway.

It's fine.

Yeah, of course, the ends, and it looks pretty like that too.

And that's one of the reasons I take the bones off, is that gives me more surface for.

Good idea.

And it's really important to.

I failed to mention I put salt on before it goes in the sous vide, because salt will go all the way down towards the center of the meat.

The other spices are too large.

They can't go past the surface, which is fine, because I want them on the surface.

So I got it.

I got.

I try to salt it, and I've used Lowry's, and there's salt in the rub, and you got to put that on early so it'll.

It'll penetrate.

You could do it the day before.

Yeah, because it moves slowly towards the center.

And I gotta agree with you, Leanne, if I wasn't going over a river and through the woods, Reverse here is absolutely the way to go.

Really simple concept.

Traditionally, chefs and cooks have seared or browned the meat first and then popped it in the oven to finish cooking.

Right.

And if you put your thinking cap on and understand the physics here, you've got this big old hunk of meat which is 75% water, and heat travels through it at a very slow rate.

If you.

If you sear it first, you're building up energy stored in the outer Layers, and it progresses towards the center, so you get a rainbow effect when you slice it open.

You see that it's beautiful, perfect rosy in the center.

But then it goes to tan and brown as you move along towards the edges.

But if you do what Leanne does and started at a low temperature and then bring it up to, say, 110, it's the same temperature all throughout.

You've got this gorgeous rosy color, bumper to bumper, edge to edge, and then you sear it.

And when you're searing it on a grill, I sear it with the lid open.

So all the energy is just hitting one.

One side and there.

And I rotated a quarter turn, four turns, and about 5, 10 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is to get that good crust.

And it doesn't, because when you turn it, the energy that's in that crust tends to bleed off into the atmosphere if the lids open, rather than go deep and change the color and the.

And the.

And the doneness inside.

So.

And in fact, I was going to say, if your audience or your guests, if you know that some of them like things well done and medium rare, go for it the traditional way, because that's what's going to happen.

You're going to get well and medium well on the edges, and then the.

Medium rare the two ends tend to get because heat's coming in from top and bottom, but it's also coming in from the edges.

So the two.

The two ends tend to cook more than the center.

So if you've got somebody who wants it medium, then the end cut should probably suit them.

I've been known, on occasion, there's people who say, I got to have it well done because I don't want to eat blood.

And you have to explain to them there's no blood in the meat, that the pink juices are water with a protein that's pink in it called myoglobin.

The blood's been all removed.

Blood from a cow is just like blood from a human.

It's very thick.

It's black, dark, dark red.

It's almost black.

Yeah.

And it coagulates.

This stuff doesn't.

It's watery.

It's not blood.

And so stop worrying about it being blood and eat it medium.

At the.

At the.

At the very worst, medium is in the 140, 145 range.

You get up to 155, and it's gray edge to edge, and it's dry and flavorless and tough.

Right.

Just like somebody I know.

Not on this show, though.

We're gonna take a break and we'll be back in a minute on Barbecue Nation with Leanne and Meathead.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to the nation Barbecue Nation.

Yeah, I do have a frog in my throat today because the atmospheric river has changed here in the Northwest.

We've Noah's Ark is going to be in the backyard in about a minute and a half here, and we get that a lot.

Of course, we're only 90 miles from the ocean, so.

So it's not cold enough to snow.

Not yet.

No.

This is what, this is a typical winter, though, here, even though it's officially not winter for another, what, 10 days, 12 days, you get in those mid to low 40s, up to maybe 4,950, and it's just gray and rainy.

And then once in a while the sun peeks out and everybody dies for cover because they don't know what's going on when they see the sun here in the Northwest, you know, and, yeah, that's a typical winter.

And then about in January, it'll start getting cooler, get down in the 30s.

We'll have an occasional thing like that.

But we're, we're getting, we're getting snowed.

We had 12 inches last week, followed by another 3 inches.

And we're going to get about an inch today.

And over the next couple of days, we're going to get another two or three inches.

So I think we may be looking at a white Christmas.

It's still 15 days in advance, but it's been and it's lovely.

The snow hasn't gotten gray and black yet, you know.

And Leanne, I know you're in Florida, but you've lived up in here.

You know what that's like.

That's disgusting.

It's slushy.

So, yeah, we're thinking we're gonna get a white Christmas.

Good for you.

Something we omitted.

Leanne, we talked about it in the last segment, but your pig powder, this is where you get the promote your pig powder.

Yes, pigpowder.com and new spicy pig powders.

I've been talking about it for a while, but it is coming out.

The labels kind of put us behind because we did some adjustments on that, but yeah, you can get on Amazon too.

So nice little Christmas stocking stuffer or a host gift.

And you can use it on best rub on the planet.

And you can use it on virtually almost anything because it's sweet with a little back heat.

Great on vegetables, seafood, french fries, even in your baked beans.

That is true.

I used it on some shrimp and rice.

You know, I haven't tried this, but I'll bet it'll work.

I use my pork rub, which is formulated a little differently.

It's got stuff in common, but I use it on popcorn.

Yeah.

There was actually a popcorn company in Chicago that had pig powder popcorn he was selling for a hot minute.

Yeah, it's a good idea.

Yeah.

I love it.

I love it.

All right.

We've talked about the primary roast, if you will.

So there are other cuts.

Some people.

Wait, go ahead.

Well, yeah, okay.

You did talk about your technique.

You went quick.

Yes, I've done.

I've also done in the past pork roast.

And I do it with the.

Like you said, it's a reverse seared, cooked that way.

I've done it with roasted red potatoes and kind of a burgundy sauce and.

This type of thing.

But there's other.

Chateaubriand is very nice.

Chateaubriand is very nice.

Chateaubriand, in case you're not clear, is the tenderloin.

And that is a different muscle than the prime rib, but it's a long tube and it's got a knob on one end and a little taper on the other end.

But if you cut the center section out, it's a cylinder.

A perfect cylinder.

Yep.

And it's fantastic.

And it cooks fairly quickly.

Basically, that's.

That's what the filet mignon is cut from.

And so it's like a.

An 8 inch tube of filet mignon.

And you can just sear that off in a hurry with some nice rub and.

Oh, my goodness, that's lovely.

Yeah, it's a little bit more expensive, but you don't have any waste.

And it's more for an elegant type plating, I would say.

Yeah.

And you can do beef Wellington, which I did a knockoff using the terrace Major, what they call petite Major now, made our version of it, but very simple.

Same thing.

Get a puff pastry sheet.

You can create it, little egg wash on top and all that, season it, put it in there.

And it's a wonderful meal and it is, again, very elegant.

Mm.

And that's what the, the royalty eats in London or wherever they happen to celebrate Christmas.

But.

Well, you mentioned pork roast.

Yes.

And I think that's a great alternative.

And it's a lot less expensive.

And it's the.

It's essentially the same cut as the beef prime rib.

It's not quite as big because pigs are smaller, but it can have the rib bones on it just like prime rib, or often the bones have been removed.

But the important tip here is, is don't cook it past 140 degrees Fahrenheit, ideally between 135 and 140.

Now it's a whole muscle, just like steak and beef.

And it's safe.

All the old cookbooks, old cookbooks, the ones that you still have from your parents, all say cooked pork to 170.

And at that temperature, it's cardbo.

But it was done that way because there were problems with parasites in pork.

Trichinosis, the most notable.

But modern commercial pork hasn't had trichinosis problems in years.

The only trichinosis cases that I'm aware of in the past few years have come from bear meat.

So make sure you cook your bear meat if you're going to have bear for dinner, but it'll be pink if you cook it to 135 to 140.

A light pink.

But it's just, if you've never had pork at 135 to 140, you've never had pork because it's just a whole different taste, extra experience.

It's so different than I grew up.

Just as you were saying there, you know, they.

Well, they really didn't use thermometers back then.

They kind of just looked at it and it was like, you know, you could take it out and nail two, two by fours to it and use it as a sled, you know, when it was done.

So.

And it's the world of difference when you do a pork roast like that.

And like you say, you get it in the 130, 135 or, you know, whatever you're comfortable with.

But it's still.

It's pink, it's beautiful, it's light, there's flavor in the meat.

Because I think, honestly, pork is one of the meats that if you.

Loses the flavor fastest if you overcook it.

That's what I think about pork.

That's just my thoughts.

But in my experiences that has done that.

So, you know, there's alternative to, to rib roast or prime rib like that.

Well, a lot of people still do turkey.

Yeah.

And I know some that do rack of lamb.

Rack of lamb.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, boy.

Now see, you got him fired up again.

Yeah.

You put me equidistance between a prime ribbon, a rack of lamb, and I'm going to die of starvation trying to decide which to eat.

We have seen you eat lamb.

Yeah, that's right.

We did.

We, we shared A shared lamb.

Yes.

Right out of Fort Worth a few years ago.

Yeah, yeah, right out of the skillet.

No forks needed.

You know, it was, it was, it was sight to behold, but it was wonderful.

Yeah, they can do that.

And also kind of lastly, I mean, you can do, you know, if you're for your ethnicity, some people do lasagna.

Some people of Asian descent use different, you know, different main dishes, if you will.

I'm fine with all of them, but I'm still pretty much a beef guy at Christmas.

That's.

And I, I know some people do.

Oh, gosh, I'm drawing a blank.

What do you call the pasta dish in a big pan?

Layers of pasta and ricotta.

Paella.

Pasta and ricotta.

Pasta.

Lasagna.

Lasagna.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We do lasagna the night before on Christmas Eve.

A lot of people have a back to back great dishes.

Yeah, well, I married into a large Chicago Italian American family and so they do seafood the night before.

Yep.

Oh, maybe you guys can help me.

There's a movie about an Italian family the night before Christmas and they're cooking the fish.

Does anybody remember the name of that movie?

No.

I'll do some googling and find it's marvelous.

Marvelous.

It's a family movie about family and fighting and they all have the fish.

It's somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I'd ask my wife.

She's on the phone though.

So.

Is it old?

Yeah, it was probably 30 years or more.

I'll google it.

I'll look it up.

Okay.

Okay, well, okay, so I'm going to throw this out there.

We, we tend to back off a little bit on appetizers, if you will, because my, my meal, my Christmas meal is the beef.

A Caesar salad, twice baked potato, and then I'll do a green vegetable like sweet peas or something like that, and a roll, and that's kind of the basic one.

And there's some, you know, garnish on the table, that type of thing.

But what I like to do is we're just doing like stuffed mushrooms.

And this year I'm also going to be doing some bacon wraps, gallops.

So there you go.

So you're doing the whole shindig, aren't you?

I'm doing the shindig deep.

Yeah.

Are you, are you, Leanne?

Doing the whole shindig?

I try to keep the app slate because I want them to go all in and just like be.

This is like greatest because our family.

Dinner, everybody brings a dish.

Oh, that's nice.

You know, I do the meat and somebody else brings the potatoes and somebody else does the biscuits and somebody else does the vegetables.

And typical Italian family, there's 100 desserts.

I was sure.

Oh, yeah.

I looked up the movie.

It's called Feast of the Seven Fishes.

And that's, it's the tradition that's Christmas Eve is called the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

And it's a movie about this Italian family in lower middle class Pennsylvania trying to pull off this dinner.

And it's just, it's just a lovely, heartwarming, funny.

And you'll identify with somebody in the movie called Feast of the Seven Fishes.

And we're all, we all watch Christmas movies and, you know, It's a Wonderful Life and stuff, but this is one that you shouldn't overlook.

Okay, you know what?

I don't have a trivia question about that.

Hi, Marvin.

But I will come up with something.

We're going to take a break, come back and wrap up the Christmas show with Meathead and Leanne right after this.

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Hey, everybody, it's jt.

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Welcome back to Barbecue Nation, our annual Christmas show with Meathead from AmazingRibs.com hall of Famer and Ms. Leanne whipping from Pig Powder and TV fame and fortune.

And the hall of Fame.

Take the fortune off of there.

Yeah, yeah.

We've talked about this before, but how many people have we had on the show over the years since you've been with me and say, I'd like to have my own TV show?

And we both look at them and go, why?

You know, I. I've been shocked.

I've been invited to be on a couple of shows, and I. I generally can't make it or don't do it for one reason or another, but I. I've learned that the talent on these shows, they don't get paid a lot.

No.

It's usually stipend, even pitmasters.

The later shows just stipend.

You didn't get paid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The producers make the money, especially in the reruns.

Networks.

Yeah, the networks in that.

Yeah, yeah.

I've been invited to go on some of these barbecue competition TV shows, and either I have a conflict of interest or I just say, no way, because I'll get my ass kicked.

Yeah.

Risky.

You can be a good cook, but it's risky.

Yeah, well, I got a reputation, you know, and if I go on one of these shows, it'll come out that I'm not as good as everybody as I tell everybody I am.

That that happened to me on the.

The Texas State Fair show.

I got suckered into doing.

Yeah.

86 my butt after the second episode, and that's another whole show.

Well, competition cooking is different than real cooking.

Now, Leanne knows this better than any of us.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

But she has not just not only competed, but she's won her share.

Yes.

Of competitions.

And she judges a lot.

It's a very different style of cooking.

If you ask a competition cook, if they cook at home the same way they do in a competition, they would answer, Leanne, no.

No, no.

Why?

Because you have to cook for the judge's palate.

And I know from taking the judging school, I know what they're looking for, and it's not what I would serve at home.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good barbecue, good smoke, spice, all that, but it's not what I prefer.

It's headed for the one bite versus the meal.

Well, that That I think is the secret is I've, I've.

I met a competition cook who seasoned his rib tops differently than the rib bottoms because the rib bottoms come in and touch with the tongue and the rib tops with the roof of the mouth.

That's actually kind of scientific and cool.

Yeah, well, in my show that I did, I'd been invited to do several.

And this is the only one I did.

And it was kind of a last minute thing.

But when I got there, this wasn't a barbecue show.

This was a state fair cooking show oriented.

And the producers, lo and behold, didn't tell me, but they had 86, if you will, Mike.

You had to send in, like, four recipes to do, and the first one, which I knew was a winner, they said, no, you wouldn't see that at the state fair.

And I said, yes, you would.

Oh, no.

And these guys are out in New York, and I love New York.

But the point is, is I said, I've been to an awful lot of state fairs in my life, and there's always one food stand that has this.

And they go, no, you didn't.

So anyway, they changed that, and then they changed my second recipe.

And they didn't just do it to me.

They did it to three or four other people.

And a lot of grumblings on that.

Show, but, well, it sets the tone and your attitude and you just.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I got in trouble for humming the Jeopardy.

Theme song we were waiting for.

Somebody's always on the clock, you know, five minutes, you got to do this or something like that.

So the lady next to me and I started going.

And the producers just went ballistic.

They came out, you can't do that.

We'll get sued and we'll.

All this stuff I said we're humming.

No.

Anyway, we've only got about five minutes left in the show.

And don't forget, we've got Meathead's favorite Christmas trivia quiz coming up in after hours.

And you know what?

Speaking of, don't blame me for your damn quizzes.

If you're looking for a good gift, get Meathead's new cookbook.

Yes.

It's awesome and it's a great gift.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Seriously, I'm very happy with it.

I'm very proud of it.

It's called the Meathead Method.

There it is.

Right?

Yeah.

Alton Brown said it was the only book on outdoor cookery you'll ever need, so I'm very pleased.

I agree with Alton.

Hey, another trivia point, Leanne.

I know you're in Florida.

Did you hear that Sunny Tillman died?

No, I did not.

You're familiar with Sunny's restaurants?

It's a chain primarily in Florida.

Right.

And Sunny Tillman, who found it at age 96, just died today or yesterday.

I forget.

I didn't know that.

And I. I have a short pioneer.

I have a short reminisce.

When I was in my early 20s, I worked at ABC Liquors, which is a chain of stores in Florida.

I was the assistant manager of the store in Gainesville, where I was going to the University of Florida.

And we had not only a liquor store, but a bar attached to the back.

And of course, we would bring the alcohol back to the bar.

And every Thursday, some old guy.

Not old guy.

Some guy would come in with a pickup truck and a big old beer cooler full of ribs wrapped in aluminum foil and sell them to the patrons in the bar.

And I would buy them.

They were just fantastic.

It was my first exposure to real barbecue.

Turned out that was Sunny Tillman, isn't that later went on to start a restaurant and then a chain of restaurants.

And Sonny is the guy who first introduced me.

Real barbecue.

That's awesome.

I love that story.

Yeah, and we had.

A couple years ago, we had the ex football.

Pro football.

Yes.

Florida State guy.

Yeah.

No, no, no, no.

University of Florida University.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

That's right.

We had him on the show.

Yeah, we had him on the show.

Really interesting guy.

Okay, we've got two minutes left, so each of you get a minute.

Okay.

Favorite side.

At Christmas, Leanne, go.

Favorite side.

I like the green beans that we make with bacon, onions and mushrooms.

Delicious.

Is that it?

I mean, just that.

Oh, and.

And the sweet potatoes with the praline topping.

No marshmallows.

No marshmallows.

Like I told you at Thanksgiving, I make it.

And popovers.

Half, half and half popovers with honey butter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now you're talking.

Popovers.

Meathead.

Very elegant, very sidey, very easy.

Favorite side.

Oh, well, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna redefine side.

It's the pie.

I agree.

The pie.

I just came for the pie.

I'm a pie guy.

I like cake, but pie is my.

And, yeah, we like pie.

And there's usually pies.

They're lovely desserts.

Everything on the table is good.

Everybody in my wife's family, they're all Italian Americans.

They all know how to cook.

They all take pride in their cooking.

There's just a lot of great food.

And I'm glad that I contribute my share.

Okay.

A question on the pie.

For the appropriate pies.

Where is the deciding point between whipped cream, not Cool Whip, but actually homemade whipped cream, and ice cream?

How do you decide?

Ooh.

So I give both options because I like ice cream on certain pies, and I like whipped cream on certain pies, and I think people feel the same way.

So I have both available.

And then that is the question.

What do you want on top of your pie?

Our gang usually takes vanilla ice cream, and I don't believe I've seen whipped cream offered.

And I have to emphasize what Jeff was saying earlier.

The difference between Cool Whip and even real whipped cream.

What's the Ready Whip, which is real whipped cream?

There's a real flavor and texture difference between that and making your own whipped cream.

And it's easy to do.

You buy whole cream or whipping cream, dump it in your.

In a bowl, and get the blender and just beat it until it's stiff and it's.

And throw in some sugar, and it's just delicious.

And it's.

It's a much better flavor and texture for making whipped cream.

But my wife baked some apple pie for Thanksgiving, and we had a bunch left over, and we didn't have any whipped cream around the house, and I put a dollop of sour cream on it.

And I'll tell you, sour cream's really good on apple pie.

Yeah, that would be really good on apple pie.

And she.

She puts vanilla yogurt on.

Huh.

How about you, Jeff?

I'm both.

We offer both.

I make my.

I buy heavy whipping cream, sugar, couple drops of pure vanilla in it.

Oh, yeah.

I make it very thick, so it's not quite butter, but it's very thick.

So it will stay.

Or we do.

We've got some great ice cream out here, and so we'll do Tillamook or Umpqua, one of those brands here, and, you know, you kind of get torn.

If it's a fruit pie, mostly it's whipped cream.

If it's a nut pie, it can go either way.

So.

Like that.

Anyway, we got to get out of here.

We're over, and I don't want him.

David.

Have another stroke.

Meathead.

I hope you and Lou have a wonderful Christmas.

Thank you, I'm sure.

And Leanne, you and John and the girls and the grandkids down there have a great Christmas.

And you, Jeff, and all your listeners.

And your cats and my cats around here somewhere.

And your devoted listeners who have learned so much from you over the years.

Yeah.

Oh, my God, that's wonderful.

Remember our motto here.

Turn it, don't burn it.

Remember what Christmas is for.

Family, friends, sharing meals, and give a little thanks once in a while.

Until then, we'll see you next time.

Take care, everybody.

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