[00:00:00] Jeff Tracy: It's around the house. Those Weber kettles, number one, they're the number one selling barbecue in the world. They have been forever. Yep. If you start by using a Weber kettle, you're probably going to a, you know, adapt your skills faster, or learn your skills faster. Then you are on a 1 99 gas grill. Mm-hmm.

[00:00:26] Jeff Tracy: because you have to pay more attention with charcoal. Yeah. It's very simple, easy mistakes that people make. You know, they put in too much briquettes or they lump whatever they're using gets too hot. They let it burn down a little bit and then they think, okay, it's good. It's still hotter than hell in there.

[00:00:44] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , you know, uh, and they think, well now I can do this whole chicken or whatever, maybe the spatchcocked or something. A lot of times you end up on one. Pretty much crispy. Yeah. And the other side, it's still clucking when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is [00:01:00] a lot to know, but we've got you covered.

[00:01:02] Jeff Tracy: This is around the house. Welcome

[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: to Around the House Show. This is where we hope you get the most out of your home through education and information and a heck of a lot of fun. Like today, we have got Jeff Tracy here in the studio. JT, the Cowboy Cook from Barbecue Nation, grown at the green and uh, you might even seen him on a milk carton out there sometime in your life.

[00:01:26] Eric Goranson: welcome back to Around the House my friend.

[00:01:28] Jeff Tracy: Hey, good morning . Long time listener. First time caller.

[00:01:38] Eric Goranson: Oh, we're starting out that way already today, my friend. This is how it's

[00:01:42] Jeff Tracy: gonna go. Yeah, it's going to just go from here, right in the swirling water down. Yeah. Done. Exactly. But it's Friday. It's Friday. Yeah. St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Absolutely. It, uh, it

[00:01:57] Eric Goranson: is a, it is a day that even the Catholics could have some [00:02:00] meat today I see.

[00:02:00] Eric Goranson: On the dues, so Yeah.

[00:02:02] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. They, they, they finally got the cinder block after forehead from a couple weeks ago.

[00:02:08] Eric Goranson: It's all good. It's all good. Yeah. So today I wanted to talk, you know, it's, we're coming into spring, you know, we got the daylight back a little bit in the evenings, and, um, it is, For the amateurs barbecue season for you and I every day as barbecue season, but, uh, yeah, yeah.

[00:02:23] Eric Goranson: For many people, they start going, Hey, let's, let's dust that grill off and, and, uh, start getting going on stuff. And I thought wasn't not a great time to bring you in and, and have a chat about. You know, good habits of barbecue and, and for all the amateurs out there and even the experience stuff, there's always something from these that, uh, oh, that people can take away with.

[00:02:43] Eric Goranson: And, you know, I've noticed, we'll start at the basics here. I've noticed that if I go up to my local grocery store, and I'm not gonna hammer on any names, but we'll say it's the chain grocery store and I grab a a t-bone off the, off the rack and take it home. And I go, man, that was not amazing, [00:03:00] even though I get a decent grill.

[00:03:02] Eric Goranson: What's the, what's the secret? Of barbecue there when you're talking about things like meat,

[00:03:08] Jeff Tracy: well, you have, first of all, you have to, uh, ascertain if it's, uh, OSAs, or if it's actually Angus. Okay. Fair point. Because, because some of the chains don't. Mm-hmm. quite use the grade , uh, choice or prime. Sure. You know, you know, they, and they think because it does that, it's ready to go.

[00:03:29] Jeff Tracy: Uh, it's. , it's, uh, you want to check those labels, uh, check the marbling. Mm-hmm. , um, kind of, you know, you can, it's easier to check the mar marbling if you're actually buying it out of the case where the butcher has to reach in, grab it and show it to you. There we go. The stuff that's free packaged, you can't always see the marbling, and there's little tricks to that, that if it's getting a little age on it, they can trim it a little more and that, that, Grayish Brown goes away.

[00:03:57] Jeff Tracy: There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. But it, [00:04:00] that will go away and look bright red again. And all pretty, and everybody's good. Mm-hmm. , and then you cook it and, um, it, it tastes like a used waffle iron. Yeah. Not the waffle, the iron part, you know, it's just not really good. Yeah. It's just not good. So, um, you know, check the marble and check the meat.

[00:04:20] Jeff Tracy: Make sure you look on the, uh, on the package if you're buying pre-packaged stuff and it, and it says choice or prime. Mm-hmm. , um, you know, you don't want select. Or you don't want, uh, utility grade, you don't want prison food. You know, you want Yeah. Not except for human consumption, you

[00:04:37] Eric Goranson: know, .

[00:04:37] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. The dog walks by and goes, nah, I'm good.

[00:04:41] Jeff Tracy: Uh, you, you, uh, the institutional use

[00:04:43] Eric Goranson: only stamp, is that what you're talking about?

[00:04:45] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, So check those things. Also, you know, check your grill. Uh, the, the, the main thing Eric, is if you haven't fired up your grill, excuse me, all winner, [00:05:00] you should just take it for a test run. Don't even cook anything on it.

[00:05:03] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, just fire it up. Maybe you've got a few, uh, the fuzzies, you know, undetermined. Yeah. Undetermined biologics on there, . So you, you, uh, burn those off, clean it off really well, but make sure, like if it's a gas grill mm-hmm. , if it's got the same hotspots and cold spots as it did last year, if it's a charcoal grill, make sure the vents are cleaned and all that so you get a nice flow, you can shut it down if you're gonna do a, a, you know, a long-term cook, so to speak.

[00:05:34] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , if, if it's just a. A grill and spill on the plate and you know, open her up and let her fly. Yeah. But I think that's a couple of things that are really important to people because everybody's gotten pretty savvy about it. They've got covers on their grills. Mm-hmm. or smokers or pellet grills, what have you, like that, uh, those pellets, if they sat in there all winter, um, they [00:06:00] may be a little soggy.

[00:06:01] Jeff Tracy: They may gum up your auger. Uh, you don't really want that, you know, but you can. It's funny,

[00:06:06] Eric Goranson: I've noticed what's with some of these brands out there, and I'm just gonna say this. They build that whole, you know, basically they build the place where you're gonna put the pellets, where it goes into the auger, that hopper.

[00:06:17] Eric Goranson: Why do they put so many dang flat places in there so you can collect those things up? Why can't they just like make it a basic. That's what all goes in

[00:06:24] Jeff Tracy: there. You mean kind of like an old lager on a combine or something? Yeah. That's Anang Angular. Yeah. And all that. That's a good question. That's a good question.

[00:06:32] Jeff Tracy: Because those

[00:06:32] Eric Goranson: things is, they sit there all summer, all winter, and you gotta cover on it. And those things are just like one big sponge, right? Yeah. But the time, you know, you're not stopping moisture, you're just stopping the rain from coming in the top. But that thing's gonna soak everything up and get a gummy mess.

[00:06:48] Jeff Tracy: Yep, you got that. And, uh, the, the cookers that I know I'm not gonna use over the winter, I just burn 'em out. Yeah. Uh, of like the pellets. I just burn 'em out. The [00:07:00] charcoal, I, I burn that off, then let it cool. Maybe the next day clean it all out so it's ready to go. But I do this more than most normal people.

[00:07:09] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. So, um, but you wanna make sure those are clean and functioning. You wanna make sure that. You know, if you've got an electronic component to it, like an an auger mm-hmm. in Appellate Grill. Um, if you've got a digitized, cuz so much of it is digitized now, make sure all those little features are working.

[00:07:32] Jeff Tracy: Uh, and then you can buy a good piece of meat from Painter Hill's Natural Beef, I might add. But let's talk about, you

[00:07:38] Eric Goranson: want them for a minute, man. And, and this is something that. That I'm a meat snob. I'll be the first to say it. You know, for years, the best stuff I was getting was going to Costco and grabbing it there and grabbing

[00:07:49] Jeff Tracy: meat that, that's good meat

[00:07:50] Eric Goranson: there.

[00:07:50] Eric Goranson: That's decent meat and it's one place across the country. You can go in and get something decent there, right? As far as the chain goes, but, When you got me turned on to Painted Hills' Natural Beef, [00:08:00] and they're not paying me to say this, and actually right now, I don't even have any beef in the freezer, so I'm not even getting beef outta this.

[00:08:05] Eric Goranson: But I want say that's who I go

[00:08:06] Jeff Tracy: to. I, I, I got the hint. No, no, , I got the hint, .

[00:08:09] Eric Goranson: No, but seriously, I mean, I'm not getting paid to say this. This is not an infomercial for them by any means. But what I'm saying is, is that is the meat. And there's just no question. Yeah. I'm a tri-tip guy as you know. And uh, I'll be the first to say that's just my favorite.

[00:08:26] Eric Goranson: Yeah. My favorite kind of meat that I like throwing on. There's a lot of the things, I would much rather cook a tri-tip than do a brisket cuz of, to me it just tastes better and that's my opinion. Yeah.

[00:08:36] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. And it doesn't take as long. Yeah. I mean, you can do a tri-tip and. An hour, hour and a half, just depending on the size.

[00:08:45] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. You know that it's been trim, trimmed to brisket. You're gonna be a bit longer than that. Yeah. By, you know, the sundials gonna go the other direction by the end of the day when you're done with a, with a brisket. But, uh, yeah, the. [00:09:00] I think the tri-tip is very good. And how about this, um, they've never done this before, by the way.

[00:09:07] Jeff Tracy: My friends at Painted Hills, and again, this is not an infomercial, I'm just sharing information with you. Yeah. My friends at Painted Hills have made a special, uh, discount program. Woo. For my listeners. And now your listeners. Mm-hmm. , when you go to their online store, cuz they just revamped their online store.

[00:09:26] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, it looks good. All right. And you can. T-Bones and ribeyes and New Yorks and burgers, brisket and all that stuff. Yep. You can get a brisket there. Uh, but you type in B BQ Nation, just the letters B BQ Nation, and it'll take, uh, 15% off at the checkout. It's just a per pretty big

[00:09:47] Eric Goranson: hit. Yeah. And here's the cool thing is you're cutting the middle man out of it, sorry, grocery store.

[00:09:51] Eric Goranson: You know what I mean? You're buying from the, you're buying from the place where the cows came from. You're not, you know, you're not, you're not dealing with the 22 people that went between point A [00:10:00] and point B.

[00:10:00] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. The ones that always say they're not making any money. Sure. Uh, if you wanna believe that.

[00:10:05] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. But no, that's a. We've been around tonight, buddy . Uh, it's, it's really a cool thing though that they did that. So I would invite people to go online to, and I know you're gonna post some links and stuff. Oh yeah. Uh, to, uh, for Painted Hills to their online store. Pick something. , you know, apply the discount code.

[00:10:28] Jeff Tracy: Eric's going to show that to you again on the, on the postings. Oh, yeah. But it's B BQ Nation and enjoy it. Yeah. I, I've, I've eaten beef all over the world. Mm-hmm. . Okay. I have, I've, I've been very fortunate to travel and do different things, and I've eaten some very good beef and I've also eaten some beef that's not too sharp.

[00:10:49] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. And not just because I represent Painted Hills, it's, I like their product a lot. No question. Uh, a lot. I know some people are [00:11:00] like on the Wagyu bandwagon. If you like that, that's fine. I, I don't have a problem with it. It's not for me because the times I've eaten it, it just seems a little too fatty.

[00:11:11] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. a little too much marbling for me. Yeah. You know, so I see my mic stance and you wanna see my beautiful face here, there, yeah. Um, yeah. It's, it's so, and, and you will notice on the Pinard Hills website, they have Pinard Hills Prime, Pinard Hills Choice, and then they have grass fed. So you got three.

[00:11:31] Jeff Tracy: Uh, three top tier choices to pick

[00:11:33] Eric Goranson: from. So let's talk about that for a second, just on the, on the beef side of things. Yeah. Because I know we've got a lot of listeners right now going, all right, what's the difference? You know what I mean? What's the difference between grassfed and, and those two and, and what, what can you expect when you get one

[00:11:49] Jeff Tracy: of those?

[00:11:51] Jeff Tracy: When you are dealing with a prime or a choice, um, they've been finished out mm-hmm. in the feed lot. [00:12:00] They've been finished on grain. Yep. Their, their meat is very marbled, not so heavily marbled that you can't. Taste the beef and all you taste is the fat. Yeah. That's not the deal. It's very balanced like that.

[00:12:13] Jeff Tracy: And like I said, that's in prime and choice. Grassfed is not finished out in a feed lot. They are in a lot, but they only get like a hay based feed. Yeah. Every day like that. So they don't have the same degree of marbling. Mm-hmm. , they still, uh, and so they won't grade out at Prime. Yeah. It's, it's kind of hard to.

[00:12:36] Jeff Tracy: A grass-fed prime. Yeah. Because they'd have to feed that cow till they're, or that steer till he is, you know, like me, uh, can't walk by the water. Greenpeace is trying to push 'em in. Yeah. . So it would, they would, they would just be too big and they're not, uh, we could go on for an hour about what happens when they're in the lot and the daily amount that go through the [00:13:00] process.

[00:13:00] Jeff Tracy: Yep. And that, that there's actually steers that weigh too much. Absolutely. , we had that during the Covid thing. Mm-hmm. because they couldn't process as many as they needed. So those steers kept going to the back of the line. Mm-hmm. and going through the process again. Finally, you know, they, some of 'em were two or three months past when they're projected harvesting.

[00:13:20] Jeff Tracy: Yep. Like that. So they were bigger steers that actually presents. Logistics problems. Yeah. Sometimes they have to get so many, uh, most of the meat jumps through your grocery store now in a box. Yep. They're, they're precut, they're kind of rough cut and so they will get like a primal, the, the. Uh, rib roast.

[00:13:44] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , as we call it, prime rib. All right? Yep. And they'll get four of bows bone in and five of those without bones. Mm-hmm. in a box. All right. But if you get some steer that weighs [00:14:00] 1400, 1500 pounds Yeah. Versus one that's down around 11 50, 12, 13. That extra weight then, There's not enough room in the box.

[00:14:09] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. You know what I mean?

[00:14:10] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It presents a whole bunch of

[00:14:11] Jeff Tracy: side issues. Yeah. So that's why they tried to keep everything pretty flowing, pretty, uh, smoothly and rapidly and get it through like that. So, but the, the big difference in the prime choice and grass fed is just the way they're finished. Uh, the grading between prime and choice can be.

[00:14:33] Jeff Tracy: Just a fine line, you know? Yeah. Um,

[00:14:36] Eric Goranson: and then my cattle that I had were kinda like the Easter days. They just kept coming around and around and nobody knew where they were and they didn't exist. But that's a whole other joke outta the west, west coast people that, uh, look it up on Google.

[00:14:50] Jeff Tracy: True, true, true. The, the vanishing herd. Exactly. ,

[00:14:57] Eric Goranson: we've heard of ghost guns, ghost fleets, [00:15:00] and there's ghost cattle ,

[00:15:02] Jeff Tracy: there's ghost cattle. They got really good at that in Wyoming and Montana about a hundred years ago. So, you know, they, 120 years ago, they were, they knew how to make that work.

[00:15:12] Eric Goranson: It, it shows that those old tricks still work today.

[00:15:16] Jeff Tracy: Oh yeah. Now you just have to move them in the semi and not on a cattle drive. Yeah. You know, ? No, they're

[00:15:21] Eric Goranson: still moving though. They're still moving.

[00:15:23] Jeff Tracy: They're still moving. Rolling, rolling, rolling. . Um,

[00:15:27] Eric Goranson: so question about the grass, the grassfed stuff. Uh, is that gonna taste any more, you know, gamey or grassy compared to what you'd see?

[00:15:37] Eric Goranson: Something that was grain finished.

[00:15:39] Jeff Tracy: No, not really. Okay. Um, not in the Painted Hills products. I can't speak to everybody's grass-fed programs. It's not gonna have the as deep. Of a rich flavor. Yeah. As the choice or prime, but it's still gonna be very good. Yeah. It's just not gonna have that, that bit of marbling in it.

[00:15:59] Jeff Tracy: It has some [00:16:00] marbling in it. Yeah. It's not like eating a buffalo. All right. Exactly. It's just, it's, but it's limited compared to the other two. Uh. Classifications. Okay. Yeah. Well, if

[00:16:11] Eric Goranson: I walk into a grocery store, I see this certified Angus, is that just a marketing

[00:16:15] Jeff Tracy: thing? Yeah, pretty much. Okay. I mean, it does, it is a piece of Angus Sure.

[00:16:19] Jeff Tracy: There, but they, they, it's not a grade, right? No. It's just a statement. Yeah. More or less. You know, they're telling you that this came from an Angus steer. Mm-hmm. , it did. Okay. That's, that's where it stops. Yeah. It could still be choice, right? Yeah. That'll, that'll say, it should say on any, any label. Um, if it is, you know, certified Choice.

[00:16:48] Jeff Tracy: Certified Prime Certified select, I mean, they used to do one big chain used to have. Their name, insert the word select behind it, and nobody knew what that [00:17:00] meant 20 years ago. Except people in the ag world. Yeah. You know, now they figured it out. Mm-hmm. and, and a lot of the stores don't sell it anymore.

[00:17:09] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. They, they, that goes off to, that's hamburger. Some secondary markets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. That,

[00:17:15] Eric Goranson: that shows up in the sale hamburger on, uh, on Friday afternoon, right?

[00:17:19] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. It's in the bin way down there by the CU complex. You know, it's, it's just way down there. Yeah. That's the, that's the, that's the internet price, even check it.

[00:17:27] Jeff Tracy: Yeah.

[00:17:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah, yeah. And that makes sense and that makes sense. But that's where I tell you what it's, it's one of the lessons I've learned in, in cooking is the quality of the product directly relates to the end product that ends up on your table. There is, there is no short cutting that. There is, I mean, you could find a great sale or a great buy, like 15% off, but

[00:17:49] Jeff Tracy: you're still, you get what you pay for.

[00:17:51] Jeff Tracy: That's what I was gonna say, bud, was you get in, you get out of it, what you put into it. Yeah. You ca you cannot take a select, [00:18:00] even if it's a select filet. Yeah. And yes, there is such a thing. Um, but that will not taste anywhere near like a choice or a prime filet. Okay. Or actually America's favorite is kind of the ribeye.

[00:18:16] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. And, um, I love the ribeye. A lot of pro Yeah. A lot of professional chefs now have gotten on this kick. Like, we don't like filets. They're, they're kind of spongy and tasteless, so I think they're still a great piece of meat. Yeah. But I do like ribeyes and I also like New York. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So you, you know, buy a t-bone.

[00:18:36] Jeff Tracy: Get the best of both wolves, Absolut. So,

[00:18:38] Eric Goranson: I mean, that's, that's the thing. And so let's back up here and, and talk to the rookie that's probably in another month, gonna walk into their home center and want to throw down a few hundred bucks on a barbecue because maybe they've got that old one out there that, that $199 charbroil that lasted the, the 48 months and it's [00:19:00] ready to go off to the landfill.

[00:19:02] Jeff Tracy: You know what I mean? Well, you gotta, you gotta check with the raccoons first. Cuz usually they've set up a, a squatter's deal in that type of barbecue. R Yeah. Cause they got that big open

[00:19:11] Eric Goranson: bottom and they just, that's that's home, right?

[00:19:14] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. They got a little balcony , they got some, you know, sun and shade and all that stuff.

[00:19:20] Jeff Tracy: So Yeah, it's all good. Gotta

[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: be careful those, but, uh, yeah, it's, that's the problem is, is, and I think. This is, again, it's, it's like power tools to me, right? If you buy the right tool, it can last you a long time. And if you go out and buy that cheap tool and figure out, okay, I'm gonna be barbecuing for 20 years.

[00:19:36] Eric Goranson: This is not a smart thing, spending 200 bucks every 18 months to and throwing away a

[00:19:42] Jeff Tracy: barbecue, right? My advice to people is, number one, go to amazing ribs.com and they review almost every barbecue that's on the market. Gas pellet, charcoal, doesn't matter. All right. And every level from entry [00:20:00] level to, you know, $15,000 units.

[00:20:03] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, they do that. They don't get paid for it. It's kinda like, uh, consumer reports for barbecues. Nice. . The other thing is you have to look at it, and I know money's tight right now cuz of everything else that's going on. Sure. But if you're gonna go to a big box store and you're gonna lay down 1 99 99 for, uh, A stainless steel that's not put together very well.

[00:20:30] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , if you actually open it up and you look down in the box or you look through the lid, you can see sometimes in the corners gaps. You're a tool guy. Yeah. You know, you're, you know what I'm talking about. They, you got leaks, Swiss cheese there. That's right. Swiss cheese. Yeah. So you're your airflow, your heat flow is gonna be all messed.

[00:20:51] Jeff Tracy: It's not that it's not gonna work, it's just gonna be messed up. It's gonna take you longer, or you're gonna burn something up faster.

[00:20:58] Eric Goranson: Well then if you get a slight [00:21:00] breeze, it completely screws up your cooking cycle because you're letting that in there and all of a sudden the, the breeze side is cold and the front side is hot because our, whichever way it's going, right, because you've got a 15 mile an hour wind outside that's killing

[00:21:13] Jeff Tracy: your, killing your cooking.

[00:21:15] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's, there's all kinds of things you can do about that. There's, you know, uh, heat insulated, uh, blankets if you will, that you can put over your grills. But who wants to do all that crap? Yeah. You know, if you're thinking 1 99. Think 3 99 to 4 99, you're gonna get a better quality grill.

[00:21:39] Jeff Tracy: Um, it's gonna last you not just one or two years. It can last you 10 years. Yeah. Very easily. If you take care of, yeah. Uh, the, the sheet metal is thicker, holds the heat better. There's no gaps in it. The, um, the elements. For example, if it's gas, uh, you know, look at the [00:22:00] elements. There's various. Uh, sizes and shapes of the gas elements that come up the, where you see the flames.

[00:22:08] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. All right. So if you got one that's just got two elements down there and they look kind of tinny and crappy, that's probably how it's going to end up tinning and crappy. Yeah. As far as the, the gas flow, they burn out easier, so on and so forth. I would go for a three element burner. Mm-hmm. minimum.

[00:22:30] Jeff Tracy: Yep. That way you can have a, a hot side and a, or as we call it, a direct heat. An indirect heat. Yep. , it's easier to cook chicken and ribs and big pieces of beef that way, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. All right. So those are some things you look for. Uh, make sure the regulators are good and solid. Mm-hmm. , you know, not something that was.

[00:22:54] Jeff Tracy: Uh, you know, kind of made in the jungles of Botswana . Yeah. And it, you know, and it's like, [00:23:00] you know, a couple of pieces of bamboo Yeah. Nailed together. So you just, quality. Yeah. Really the word is quality. Eric, and you and I talk about this a lot, not only in barbecues, but in tools and kitchen tools. Uh, Chainsaws, whatever.

[00:23:14] Jeff Tracy: And I think that's really important. Yeah. To look at that. Well, great example.

[00:23:18] Eric Goranson: I bought probably, gee, seven or eight years ago, I bought one of those Weber kettle cart ones, you know what I mean? That have the, the kettle, it's the gold one. That thing is, is as good a shape as it was the day I got it. And I'll probably, I will probably get rid of.

[00:23:36] Eric Goranson: To make space for something else before it wears out. It will live another life for somebody else. Because again, it wasn't expensive, but man, if you're throwing burgers and dogs and a, a steak or two on there, that thing

[00:23:48] Jeff Tracy: works great. Oh yeah. Those Weber kettles, number one, they're the number one selling barbecue in the world.

[00:23:54] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , they have been forever. Yep. Um, if you [00:24:00] start by using a Weber kettle, you're probably going to. You know, adapt your skills faster or learn your skills faster than you are on a 1 99 gas grill. Mm-hmm. , because you have to pay more attention with charcoal. Yeah. You, you know, you just do, um, very simple, easy mistakes that people make.

[00:24:21] Jeff Tracy: You know, they put in too much, uh, briquettes or they lump whatever they're using gets too. They let it burn down a little bit and then they think, okay, it's good. It's still hotter than hell in there. Mm-hmm. , you know, uh, and they think, well, now I can do this whole chicken or whatever. Maybe they've spatchcock it or something.

[00:24:42] Jeff Tracy: A lot of times you end up with one side that's pretty much crispy. Yeah. And the other side that's still clucking. Yeah. All right. So that doesn't work out well. Well, so using that, adjusting and controlling your airflow through the vents and stuff all. With the Weber Kettle is great [00:25:00] education. No question.

[00:25:01] Jeff Tracy: Yeah,

[00:25:02] Eric Goranson: no question. It made me a much better barbecue with learning with that thing because you know, oh yeah, I've had gas grills and stuff for years and years and years and using that and figuring out that, oh, I need to crack this a little more close this up, or vice versa. That's really where you understand how the whole heat thing works and.

[00:25:19] Eric Goranson: It just makes any other barbecue use make even more sense, because that's kind of the, the more labor intensive way to cook, but it also tastes killer.

[00:25:27] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, yeah. No, it's great. I think that, I think that pretty much all great. Uh, Uh, hands, if you will, in the barbecue world. Mm-hmm. started with a Weber kettle or a cheap, um, stick burner smoker.

[00:25:47] Jeff Tracy: Offset smoker like that. Yeah. You know, um, I, I do have one, and I think I've said this before in your show, but it's been a while. I have one that I've had for over 20 years. Mm. , uh, stick burner. [00:26:00] It was cheap at the time. 20 years ago, I think I paid $200, but that was a, that was a bigger number. Yeah. That's

[00:26:06] Eric Goranson: a $600 grill

[00:26:07] Jeff Tracy: now, right?

[00:26:08] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Right. And I still have that old booger sitting out behind the shop and I, you know, wheeler up to the deck once or twice a year now. I pretty much cook like or smoked salmon filets or stuff like that. Yeah. And that's great. But they're great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:24] Eric Goranson: So what do you think about people out there trying to, you know, In the seventies, everybody was using the, the light, you know, the, the, the fluid to light the briquettes and stuff like that.

[00:26:33] Eric Goranson: And to me it always tastes like you used fluid to light your briquettes. What's your thought on that with, between that and the, and the, and the, the quick stirred flame or, you know what I mean? There, there's a, there's a briquette for everything out there it seems, but. These days, but seems to me, what's

[00:26:49] Jeff Tracy: your thought?

[00:26:50] Jeff Tracy: The, the, for under $30, you can buy a chimney. Yep. Which is you pre light and [00:27:00] ignite your charcoal lump or, uh, briquette. Uh, you can get it started. Once it's really cooking, you just pour it down on the rack where your charcoal goes. I am not in favor of, any quick start stuff. Mm-hmm. , because you've got that residue and I don't care what you do, that residue is gonna be there.

[00:27:22] Jeff Tracy: Yep. You know, I do keep a couple of bottles of that Kingsford lighter fluid around, but that's usually for my burn pile or when I'm burning up weeds or something. You know, . Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:31] Eric Goranson: That's for agriculture work. That's not for, yeah, that's not for cooking.

[00:27:34] Jeff Tracy: Not that's not for food.

[00:27:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. That's the one thing I like with my Weber kettle is mine came with that little propane can start Uhhuh , which, that's the easy button.

[00:27:43] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I mean, turn the knob, hit the button. Uh, two minutes later I walk away and it's got, it's basically, it's like a built-in chimney on that thing. And it's, and it's ready

[00:27:50] Jeff Tracy: to go. I'll tell you, I got something that, uh, , um, you would like, I don't know if I've ever shown it to you, but it's called [00:28:00] Grill blazer.

[00:28:01] Jeff Tracy: It, it looks like a Taurus nine millimeter. Mm-hmm. with a, with an extended tube on the end and the little flame thrower thing out there. You use those little Coleman cylinders. Yeah. Full of propane, but that's just like a gun and you start it and you. Get some hotspots. If you don't have a chimney, you just stack 'em up and get 'em going with that thing.

[00:28:23] Jeff Tracy: And they worked great. Yeah. Also burns weeds really well. There you go. But, but uh, you know, there's all kinds of things you can use. I remember when I was a kid, we had an electric starter. Oh yeah. Did. It was kind of that coil U-shaped, the U-shaped coil.

[00:28:37] Eric Goranson: That coil thing. Yeah. Like it was like an oven. Coil.

[00:28:39] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. . Yeah. You stacked stuff on it and you plugged it in and, you know, if you didn't blow a breaker in the backyard, then you were like, yeah, we're going. You know, and then like two hours later everything was kind of cooking. Yeah.

[00:28:51] Eric Goranson: My dad had that too, for his Weber kettle. I just remember that as a kid, you just jostled that memory out.

[00:28:56] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It was, you know, probably a 12 inch wide, 12 inch long [00:29:00] coil. Yep. And a, and a black handle. A cord came off and yeah, you could plug that thing in the outside element and, and, uh, how the lights inside the house dim a little bit and. Yeah. Flicker.

[00:29:10] Jeff Tracy: Flicker. Flicker. Yeah. Do that flicker thing. But those worked pretty good.

[00:29:14] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Uh, truthfully, but nowadays with those chimneys, you just put 'em in there. You put a little newspaper in the bottom of 'em if you want. Put the charcoal in there, like the newspaper. Uh, I just keep it up on half the rack. Yeah. You know, cuz we got racks that flip over and stuff. I just keep it up there when it's starting and then when it's ready I just put it down in there and get going.

[00:29:35] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. And you're good to go.

[00:29:37] Eric Goranson: It works out really. Yeah. I have another question for you, brother, so much another question like, you know, here in Portland, uh, you know, where you and I both live in this metro area, but thank God not in the middle of the metro area. We, I love going down to Ringside Grill and having a dry aged steak every once in a while.

[00:29:54] Eric Goranson: What's your thought on the aging process with that and, uh, and that, I mean, it's a totally different [00:30:00] taste, but to me, I like it. Some

[00:30:01] Jeff Tracy: people don't. Yeah. Uh, I think aging for beef is a good thing. I think aging for me, not so much . Uh, and I, and I have been dry for 20 years, , but, uh, you know, stay liquid my friend.

[00:30:16] Jeff Tracy: Really? stay liquid. Yeah. Liquid sunshine. Uh, um, I don't have a problem with that because, you know, when I grew up, um, We would buy a half or a quarter of beef, or if we raised this tier mm-hmm. , we, you know, a lot of that stuff was already cut and wrapped. Yeah. You know, the white paper and labeled and all that stuff.

[00:30:40] Jeff Tracy: And you put it in the freezer. You go freezer

[00:30:41] Eric Goranson: diving and try to figure out what

[00:30:43] Jeff Tracy: it is. Yeah. What it is, you know, all that stuff. Find some clams in there from 1960 fours. Man, that's not gonna work. . But if you go to some butcher shops, and there's still some that do this, they've still got a [00:31:00] carcass in back, in the back.

[00:31:02] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. in the, in the cold room is will, and if you want some fresh T-bones or whatever you want, they'll go cut 'em for you. But that, that carcass has maybe been hanging in there for a couple of weeks Okay. Or whatever their prescribed time is. Sure. You're not gonna make it, you're not gonna make. Go bad because you're, you're keeping those carcasses right above freezing.

[00:31:26] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. . Okay. You don't want to get it up into the forties that will get the bacteria stuff going. Yep. And pretty soon you're gonna lose, lose all or part of it, but it keeps it right down there so the bacteria doesn't grow and it's very dry. There's no moisture in the room. . That's why you get that. , almost black.

[00:31:45] Jeff Tracy: Hard exterior on some of those cuts. Yeah. If they've like, if they've taken the rib out of the carcass mm-hmm. , and you'll see that black on both ends of it. Yeah. Um. You know that they just kind of trim off. Yeah. More or less. Cuz it, it, [00:32:00] that's, that makes the meat a little tougher right there. Yeah. But once you get inside that, it's wonderful.

[00:32:05] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. But like, but also, like you said, Eric, it's not for everybody. Mm-hmm. , it's got a very distinctive flavor. The, the. The stuff you're buying at the grocery store, whether it's in the, the case where, you know, you pick out three steaks or what have you, or the pre-packaged stuff, that stuff has not been. In the box, you might say very long.

[00:32:29] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. They're not aging now. Yeah. They have to, they have to go through and process so many head of steers every day to keep the supply chain going. Yeah. And in pigs and chicken, it's worse. Yeah.

[00:32:42] Eric Goranson: That stuff's almost days, right. Versus weeks to months,

[00:32:45] Jeff Tracy: you know what I mean? Yeah. It is days. Yeah. It really is days.

[00:32:48] Jeff Tracy: I mean, um, will, uh, from Pinard Hills and I have talked about this a lot. They go in, they go through the processing plant, they hang [00:33:00] 'em, um, they do it to, to drain any excess fluids. Mm-hmm. , by the way, folks, when you cut into a steak, that kind of pink, juicy stuff, that's not blood . Right? That's hemoglobin, you know, it adds to the flavor, the flavor machine.

[00:33:15] Jeff Tracy: I've been known to pour that stuff on my baked potatoes, and

[00:33:19] Eric Goranson: nothing wrong with that. Without great flavor there. Yeah. Little bread to soak it up.

[00:33:21] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, a little bread to soak it up, but from the time that steer is hung and cut up, put in a box, uh, along with his buddies to get to the grocery store. That's maybe a week to 10 days.

[00:33:39] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, two weeks like that. And once they're vacuum packed in those big pieces, they're not really aging like dry aging. No. Cuz all

[00:33:46] Eric Goranson: the, all the moisture's in there. So it doesn't really give it a chance to break down. I mean, that's kind of part of the whole theory of dry aging, right? Is that you're, you're changing the moisture content in the meat a little.

[00:33:57] Eric Goranson: But at the same time right, that the [00:34:00] enzymes that are there are breaking down. Right. But when you put it that cold and, and seal it up, it's, it's kind of just in park.

[00:34:08] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. It's just kinda like your first wife, just never, you know, aged. Horribly. Oh, my second one. Sorry. You can take . You can take that. You can take that out.

[00:34:18] Jeff Tracy: Nope. That's a bad joke. . But it's, uh, yeah, the, the enzyme process like that, the breakdown process. Um, and you know, in the old days, yeah. When I say the old days, I'm talking in the 18 hundreds to the 1920s. Okay. Maybe in this country, because we didn't have mass refrige. No, we didn't have a lot of that, but ice.

[00:34:43] Jeff Tracy: But when the, yeah, if you went to a restaurant in New York in 1902 and you ordered, uh, a Delco as they called it Yeah. In that day, you know, or they ordered a strip or something. Mm-hmm. . A lot [00:35:00] of that was just cut off the carcass in the back room. Yeah. Because they didn't have huge amounts of room for refrigeration.

[00:35:07] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. So they had a dry room that was cold, that was, had big blocks of ice in it. Mm-hmm. and sawdust on the floor. Yep. You know, and, and the sh the chef or whoever would go back there. You know, cut out a primal mm-hmm. , um, and do that. And that's what they would be serving that night. Or they would make, uh, stew out of, you know, the round steak or what, whatever they were doing, they had.

[00:35:36] Jeff Tracy: It chilling itself in the back room. Yeah. And the

[00:35:40] Eric Goranson: special was what? It's not that way. Special is what they had a lot of. Right. You know what I mean?

[00:35:44] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Or what was left over. Yeah. After the weekend. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. That's the, that's the way it kinda worked and it worked that way for, for ranchers and farmers.

[00:35:54] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , a lot of these guys had. A cold room, a cellar, if you [00:36:00] will. Yeah. They had a veg cellar. Some of 'em had meat cellars. Mm-hmm. . And again, they would get ice if it was the wintertime in Wyoming. Hell, you didn't need ice. No. Know, you're trying to keep it warm. It was just cold . Yeah. So, you know, uh, they'd just go back and, and take what they wanted.

[00:36:18] Jeff Tracy: There's that famous scene in the Billy of the Kid movies where supposedly at the end where he is gonna get shot by Pat Garrett, he goes to get cut off a piece of beef, a steak, uh, you know, and Paulina's gonna cook it for him. Mm-hmm. . And that's one part that's one little segment that seeing that they've kept consistent through most all the ability of the kid movies.

[00:36:39] Jeff Tracy: But the point is you saw. You know, a quarter of a carcass or half a carcass laying there and somebody was cutting off a piece of meat. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. That's way it works. Yeah, that

[00:36:49] Eric Goranson: makes sense. I get it. Cuz back then it was a whole different time. That was a whole different time. Oh yeah. So another question for you, JT before we run outta time here today.

[00:36:59] Eric Goranson: You know what, [00:37:00] if someone's gonna go out and go barbecue shopping, you know, you get the, you get the gas grill, you get the pellet grill, uh, you know, there's a, there's a. Local company here that started out local and now they're not local and they've got a pellet grill that goes around everywhere that you can buy in every, just about every home improvement store out there that you can see, that's a big name.

[00:37:20] Eric Goranson: Uh, and then there's charcoal. What do you recommend for that beginning, you know, person that wants to jump into

[00:37:27] Jeff Tracy: barbecue? I would say it depends on, on, again, what you want to do. If you just want something. To be able to cook your food. Mm-hmm. , get a bit of that barbecue taste, but do it quickly. I would say go with a gas grill.

[00:37:43] Jeff Tracy: Yep. Okay. They sell more gas grills than they sell anything because people can come home, fire up the gas grill, go change their clothes, come back. You know, wrap up a potato and put it on there. Go in and make their salad, do this, and then in a half hour they go put their steak on and they're done. Yeah, kind of the [00:38:00] same with the pellet grill.

[00:38:01] Jeff Tracy: You have to be real cautious about the pellet grills because they'll say, well, we can get this pellet grill up to 700 degrees. Basically inferring that they could sear something. And some of them even have little Sears stations. Mm-hmm. on them. Mm-hmm. , I, I've cooked steaks on pellet grills. Mm-hmm. , you know, I, um, but it's never had quite the sizzle as it did either for gas or charcoal.

[00:38:25] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. . But steak isn't the only thing I cook. And steak isn't the only thing most people cook. Yeah. You know, you know if you're gonna do ribs or fish. So, so here's the, If you want a bit of a more smoky flavor, um, and. Uh, an ease of convenience. Probably the pate girl. Yeah. If you want a, a quick turnaround, go with the gas grill.

[00:38:50] Jeff Tracy: Those are just kind of, you know, blatant Yeah. Statements, but they are true. Yeah. If you really want to get into it, then look at the charcoal Yeah. Stuff.

[00:38:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And then that's the problem I had [00:39:00] with, uh, you know, I'm, I'm getting ready to probably get my first pellet grill here one of these days and, uh, we can talk about that in a future episode.

[00:39:07] Eric Goranson: But, um, My thing when getting one was I wanted to get something that had an ability to be able, if I wanted to throw a stake on it, to, to be able to get that temp. And there's only a few of them out there that legitimately can kind of do that. Right? And it's only because they've got some kind of mechanism that will allow the heat from that fire box to get up into there.

[00:39:28] Eric Goranson: Otherwise you're not getting that bark on the outside of a steak. It's kind of taste good, but if you think you're getting a, a, a crust on the outside of that, you're probably a mistake. ,

[00:39:38] Jeff Tracy: well, the process with App Pellet Grill, uh, and that, that bark you're talking about, it's called the mail Yard, uh, reaction.

[00:39:47] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. it. It takes a while. You know, when we cook ribs, for example, my friends that are competitors, they want the perfect bark on it. They want this, they want that. I don't compete. I don't care about [00:40:00] that. Yeah. But it's, I like my food when I bring it in to be pretty. Yeah. So the people we're feeding are happy with it.

[00:40:06] Jeff Tracy: It takes a long time. Our longer time on. Pellet grill to get that bark as you're calling it. Mm-hmm. And I agree. Um, and that's, but that's a, that's a period of time that's over a couple, three hours. Yeah. You know, to do a, a rack of ribs properly, it's two and a half, three and a half hours. Yeah. Because it's kind of a low and slow thing, but it will have a bark on it, right?

[00:40:31] Jeff Tracy: Yep. Um, you can't do that with a steak, uh, you have to have that temperature above 500 degrees. Mm-hmm. . I hate to say this, but a lot of the pellet companies, pellet grill companies that say, oh yeah, you can do that. You have to be very careful with that too. You, I have found that this is my experience.

[00:40:55] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. , I have to clean my pellet grills. I've got two of 'em. More [00:41:00] frequently than I ever do my gas grill or my charcoal grill, because you got drip pans, you get, you know, if you're, especially if you're cooking pork or chicken, there's a lot of grease on it. Mm-hmm. and there are pans you can buy that ha come with, with uh, screens in them.

[00:41:14] Jeff Tracy: You can find those on Amazon. You can buy three of 'em, three different sizes for like 29 bucks. But they're great. Yeah. But most people don't want to take the time to go mess around with too bad, but. You can get fires in pellet grills. Yeah. Okay. In a charcoal grill, you get a fire, you shut off the vents, pull your protein off, close the lid.

[00:41:37] Jeff Tracy: It'll go out eventually. Yeah. With the pellet grill, you have to be careful because they have been known to go. Fire in the fire box. Grease fire in the pan and it goes up the auger and it smolders. Yep. Okay. It will smolder cuz your auger's about what, two and a half, three feet long? Yeah. Something like that.

[00:41:58] Jeff Tracy: And there's pellets in there [00:42:00] all the time. Yeah. And they will cuz I've cleaned them out and seen God, these are already black. Yeah. You know, they've, they've been charred. So you have to be a little more careful. Yeah. With the, with that. And especially if you think you're gonna get it up at around 500, 5 50, you know, some of 'em aret, and this will go to 700.

[00:42:15] Jeff Tracy: Like I said, why? Why do you need that? Yeah, that's my question. Yeah. Why do you need that? Because you can, you can get that bark on something. Oh, you know, 5, 5 50. Yeah. And

[00:42:27] Eric Goranson: you're not gonna, you're not in, you're not trying to use your, your Traeger as a London Broil machine here either, right? I mean, you're not gonna get that thing up to a thousand degrees.

[00:42:36] Eric Goranson: It's just wrong tool for the wrong job.

[00:42:39] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, I mean, uh, if you want to say, I can get it that hot. Okay, great. I don't need to see it. Yeah, because that's not, that's not what I'm going to use to, to, to cook a steak. You gotta remember, like in your kitchen, you're gonna paril a steak, right? Yep. Now, there's a couple ways to do it.

[00:42:59] Jeff Tracy: You can put it on a [00:43:00] broiling pan. You can set the broil on high. Mm-hmm. , which is again, you know, five 50 to 600 degrees depending on your unit. Yep. Put 'em on there. Season it, throw it in there. You know, six, eight minutes later you might wanna flip it over. Mm-hmm. , put a little more seasoning on and pop it back in the oven and about 12 minutes, you're done.

[00:43:19] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Right. Give or take, depending on the cut of meat and how thick and all that, or you can see it in a cast iron skillet. Put a little butter on it, throw the skillet, guts, feathers, and all into the oven again, at above, around 500 degrees. And let it sit there for just a few minutes, depending on the recipe you're following.

[00:43:40] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. And pull it out. And you've got a lovely state. Yeah. See, but you can't do that in a, in a. Pellet grill per se?

[00:43:47] Eric Goranson: No. What I do with my, in the wintertime, especially when I, I don't wanna be standing outside for a long time. Maybe it's, you know, 30 degrees in raining or something outside. I'll go out and start it up, get the, get, get it going.

[00:43:58] Eric Goranson: I'll get the barbecue really hot out [00:44:00] there, get that grill going, I'll throw that tri-tip roast on there and just get some good sea marks on it and, and drop the temperature down and just let it catch some smoke. Mm-hmm. . And then I've got a cast iron pan that's sitting in the oven at. 4 25, I will take that, throw it, put it on, you know, put it on a, a plate, take it in there, drop it in that with a big pad of butter and I finish it off in the oven.

[00:44:27] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And yeah, makes for a killer steak. And that, that, that, uh, cast iron pan is, you know, hyper seasoned and it just, You know, you flop it over once in there to make sure you're good. And man, you've got all the ultimate control and you still taste like you did something outside with it. But, uh, I'm not standing outside trying to, to manage it in a parka, you know?

[00:44:48] Jeff Tracy: You know, we just had, uh, Harry Sue, uh, on Harry's a big time champion, uh, competitor. Mm-hmm. Barbecue competitor. Very [00:45:00] smart guy. Uh, he used to fly seven 40 sevens for Singapore Airlines. Cool. And he's got a really Renaissance man story. He finishes his, some of his competition briskets off in the oven. Okay.

[00:45:15] Jeff Tracy: I didn't know he did that. That's cool. Which made perfect, perfect sense. And so it's, uh, the show was about a week, 10 days ago. Mm-hmm. . So he, you know, if they wanna hunt that down online, they can find it. But he tells how he does that and he, you know, he puts it on the smoker, he gets it going, he gets the bark going.

[00:45:34] Jeff Tracy: He does this, he. Uh, put some butter in there. Wraps it up, throws it in the oven to finish it off. But here I'm gonna give you a, a pro tip. Mm-hmm. , buddy. Here's the deal. If you are ever, uh, cooking a brisket mm-hmm. . I learned this from Harry and you're doing the low and slow thing. Yep. Well, if you've ever seen that, it makes puddles.

[00:45:57] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. in the top of the, of the piece of [00:46:00] meat. Yep. At top of the briskets there's little puddles and that's just fluid, but it settles and right where those puddles are, you will not get the bark. You are correct. Okay. Okay. What Harry does is he takes. Like two or three little wood blocks and he puts 'em on the grill and he sets the brisket on it and it domes it ever so slightly.

[00:46:23] Jeff Tracy: Oh, he just makes a curve on it. Yeah. Yeah. And then you got the bark all the way across. Perfect.

[00:46:30] Eric Goranson: And if you got the right wood in there, if it gets a little charry, who cares? Right. You're just adding more flavor. Yeah. Oh

[00:46:35] Jeff Tracy: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and I. I wouldn't like soak them in water for three weeks before you do that because, you know, people are like, uh, and steam.

[00:46:47] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Coming off of there for the first half hour, 45 minutes until the wood actually starts to ignite. Mm-hmm. . And, and then, you know, you don't particularly want that right in contact with your, with your protein, but, [00:47:00] Kind of dome that thing, it works out really good. Yeah, I mean,

[00:47:03] Eric Goranson: if, if I'm char cooking with, with charcoal, I'll take a handful of like cherry or pecan or whatever I want to do, and I'll throw it in some water for five or 10 minutes and then.

[00:47:14] Eric Goranson: Throw it in there on the, on the coals to get some smoke going, but that's just a little handful. And then I put my, then I put my, my meat on it. Is that a the right way to do that?

[00:47:26] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, actually the best way to do it is if you put the wood down first. Okay. And then you put the charcoal on top. Top. Ah, yeah.

[00:47:34] Jeff Tracy: There you go. . Okay. Then you do it that way. It changes the, the flavor profile a little bit. Mm-hmm. . But the, the one thing that you're talking about, and millions of people do it, I've done it. You put some damper, soaked cherry wood on it. The first. I don't know, 20 minutes, an hour. That's all steam. Yeah.

[00:47:54] Jeff Tracy: Coming out of there. That's not smoke. That's steam. That's steam. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's gonna affect the [00:48:00] moisture and different things in your actual protein. So I think it's better to put it underneath. Yeah. You don't want a White Castle burger,

[00:48:07] Eric Goranson: right? You just .

[00:48:09] Jeff Tracy: No, no, no, no, no, no. We're all good on that

[00:48:13] Jeff Tracy: So I, I would, I would do it that way and then kind of. You know, keep an eye on it as you're, as you're going through the cook. Yeah. But yeah, y you know, if you're gonna really try a brisket now, I don't want to get off in the weeds here. We'll do this on another show closer to summer. Sure. . You know, if you buy a full brisket, what we call a packer, it's got a point and it's got this big muscle on the one side of it.

[00:48:38] Jeff Tracy: Mm-hmm. and all that. You know, the pro guys will trim that off that big muscle and cook it separately. Uh, you can buy, uh, brisket flats, which right now I'm sure are going out the door because it's St. Patrick's State, but they're just squares. Yeah. You know, basically like that. If you've never cooked a brisket before, I would suggest you start with one of those.

[00:48:58] Jeff Tracy: There you go. [00:49:00] Because you've got, you know, on a regular brisket, you've got meat that's, you know, an inch and a half, two inches thick, and meat that's five to six inches thick, all in one piece of meat. Yeah. So that's all different cooking times right there. Yeah. And so you really gotta know how to do that.

[00:49:15] Jeff Tracy: And we can another show, we can talk about the stall and all kinds of stuff if you're gonna do the low and slow thing. Yeah. But I really think if you. if you put the, the wood chips or whatever in, um, the burn box first and put your charcoal over top of it. Yeah. And that's designed for an offset. But if you're doing it in a Webber or whatever, you can do that.

[00:49:36] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. I think you get, uh, better results. Nice. Nice.

[00:49:41] Eric Goranson: Yeah. All right, dude. Do you, one last question before we go out of here. I wanna talk about Barbecue Nation for a minute. What are some of your favorite guests you've had on this last year? Uh uh. You've had some heavy hitters. I know, but who are some of the ones that you walked away going, wow,

[00:49:54] Jeff Tracy: that was fun.

[00:49:55] Jeff Tracy: I think, uh, I think Harry was a lot of fun. Harry Sue. Mm-hmm. , of course. We always [00:50:00] have meathead on there. Oh. Um, mason groups.com. Oh yeah. Chris Lilly, who's, uh, from Big Bob Gibson's down in Alabama. Okay. They have that famous white barbecue sauce there. Yep. I think he was good. We had a toughy stone on there.

[00:50:17] Jeff Tracy: Uh, You know, we, we've had some, some big, big hairs. We had Chef Michael Simon on there. He was a few. That's right. You,

[00:50:26] Eric Goranson: you went a list there. That was, yeah, that's a

[00:50:28] Jeff Tracy: list. And Michael didn't care about FCC rules Excellent. Or

[00:50:33] Eric Goranson: anything like that. Excellent. That makes for good podcasting. At least maybe not so good radio, but podcast podcasting's good.

[00:50:37] Eric Goranson: So, well

[00:50:38] Jeff Tracy: it made David work a little harder on the radio site, but the podcast to make it work. Yeah. Yeah. So this next week we've got, uh, uh, chef Steph from LA Nice. Is coming up. Um, trying to think who else we've got. Uh, we've got some pretty big ones. I, I have been working on Emerald for a while. There we go.

[00:50:59] Jeff Tracy: [00:51:00] We'll get him eventually, Mr. Lagasse. . Yeah, I like him a lot. Oh, and of course we always have Graham Kerr, the, the Galpin for me. Oh yeah. Legend a couple times. Yeah. Legend. Legend buddy and all that stuff, so yeah. Yeah. We've had some, and of course, you know, Leanne is now in the Hall of Fame. Yep. And she's, she's my co-pilot on that thing.

[00:51:19] Jeff Tracy: Yep. And so

[00:51:20] Eric Goranson: she is no joke on that cooking thing too. If you ever watched that, uh, that, uh, show Masters. It's a show with Bobby Flay that she did and, and took away the

[00:51:28] win

[00:51:28] Jeff Tracy: on. Yeah. Yeah. So that was good. She's, she, she'll get right after it. She's little, but she might be. Oh yeah. Trust me. No question. .

[00:51:37] Eric Goranson: No question.

[00:51:39] Jeff Tracy: And feisty.

[00:51:40] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah, . So if somebody wants to check out your show, where do they go, my

[00:51:43] Jeff Tracy: friend? Well, if they wanna listen to it on terrestrial radio, you can listen to it in the Portland area. And then we're in, we're kind of in a lot of markets you're in. Yeah. Milwaukee, you know, uh, up there. Uh, All around.

[00:51:59] Jeff Tracy: Yeah, all around. I, we [00:52:00]

[00:52:00] Eric Goranson: share a lot of different places. No questions.

[00:52:01] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. We do share a lot of, if you want to just listen to it online at your convenience, I would just go to wherever your favorite podcasts are. Like Apple or mm-hmm. , or one of those, you know, and we have, we're on Spotify and all that kind of stuff.

[00:52:16] Jeff Tracy: Oh, yeah. And just go barbeque. Which now is a trademark name for me. Congrats, by the way. Yeah, so you can just go Barbecue Nation or Barbecue Nation, JT and Leanne, or just jt. You. You'll find us. Yeah, you're there like that. And then we have the, you know, we converted like you have. We've converted the. The, the radio show to a podcast and now we've got a YouTube channel that they're starting to load up.

[00:52:42] Jeff Tracy: Nice. We have a lot of film that we haven't processed yet, but we're getting to it. We're trying to do two or three episodes a week. That's great. So it's just Barbecue Nation there. And then don't forget about my lowly golf show out there. Oh, I was just gonna mention that we talk about the food there. Yep.

[00:52:58] Jeff Tracy: And grilling at the green, [00:53:00] so. Got it. We, we've had some pretty big, uh, sports writers and golfers and celebrities on there too, so. Damn. It's all good.

[00:53:07] Eric Goranson: Absolutely, man. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on the show today, brother. I really appreciate it. And, uh, hopefully we got some people out there a little more education about, uh, starting to put some protein on the grill,

[00:53:17] Jeff Tracy: right?

[00:53:18] Jeff Tracy: Yeah. Don't forget. Painted Hills discount.

[00:53:20] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah. Make sure if you're listening to the podcast, it'll be down in the show notes. I'll put it down there. Yeah. As well as, uh, head over to, uh, I'll have it on my website here as well round the house online.com. You can check it there. And of course it'll be on all of our social media and, uh, I think I'll be making a purchase here too, cuz I need to fill that

[00:53:36] Jeff Tracy: freezer back up.

[00:53:38] Jeff Tracy: Um, just do it. Put a smile on their face, a smile on your face when you start to eat that meat. It's, it's really good. That's all I can say it

[00:53:47] Eric Goranson: is. I'm getting hungry. All right, thanks brother. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House.

[00:53:51] Jeff Tracy: Yes, you have