I’ve known of Famous Dave’s Barbecue and even met Dave himself a few years ago at the National Barbecue Conference in Memphis. But for some reason, I had never gotten around to eating at one—until a few weeks ago.

My in-laws were here for a few days over Christmas, and one day the ladies all went shopping in Chattanooga. The rest of us decided to make it a good day too. First we headed to Best Buy and took care of some tech shopping, then on to Famous Dave’s for an unforgettable experience.

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The biggest challenge with an offset smoker is keeping the paint on and around the firebox looking good. The heat in the firebox is intense and it takes regular maintenance to keep the firebox from rusting. And if your firebox metal is thin, the problem will be even worse than if you have a Meadow Creek Smoker or other heavy duty smoker.

Meadow Creek’s insulation upgrade for their smoker fireboxes has been a great success. The insulation keeps more heat inside the smoker, which keeps the paint nicer on the outside and drastically reduces the amount of charcoal and wood it takes to cook.

Turns out, there is something even more—something beyond this fancy-pants double-wall insulated firebox—you can add to a Meadow Creek smoker trailer to make it even more durable and maintenance free. As is often the case, we can blame this idea (a good kind of blame) on Tom from Smoke’n Dudes.

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Here’s a helpful food safety infographic, courtesy of Compliance and Safety. You can be a great chef and crank out wonderful barbecue every time, but if you don’t handle it wisely, it can turn around and bite you and your guests. You surely don’t want Mr. Campylobactor visiting you for 10 days. 🙂

Be safe and have fun!

Lavern

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Here in the United States, we celebrated Thanksgiving last Thursday. I cooked some sausage for breakfast and a ham and turkey breast for dinner. We had a really good day and a nice time with family.

I had bought a frozen turkey breast at Wal-Mart. It was an 8 pounder and I had given it a few days in the fridge to thaw. The ham was a pre-cooked spiral sliced ham. And I also picked up a couple pounds of ground sausage on sale at our local grocery store.

The night before Thanksgiving, I prepped and seasoned all the meat. I put it in glass pans, covered it with plastic wrap, and refrigerated it until the next morning.

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There is a lot of attention given to the idea of cooking a whole pig for catering events or a whole turkey around the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s all fine and dandy, but I think sometimes the romance of cooking the whole critter causes people to overlook the advantages of smoking only certain cuts. For example, smoking a batch of Boston butts instead of a whole pig.

The idea of going whole hog is wrapped up in a lot of culture, tradition, and novelty—especially at parties and other special events. People love hanging around the pit, and a whole pig or bird on the smoker makes a great conversation piece or an interesting place to take your picture. 🙂

Cook Time

One slight challenge when cooking a whole turkey or pig is making sure every part of the animal is fully cooked. White meat cooks faster than brown, so in a whole turkey, the breast is often on the verge of drying out by the time the legs are done. If you cook breasts separately, you’re only dealing with white meat and don’t need to worry about scaring off that red juice around the leg bones.

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Last week, I wrote about our week-long family vacation on the Outer Banks. One day we visited the Wright Brothers Flight Museum. I’ve had a long-time fascination with airplanes, but I had no idea it would be such an inspiration. In fact, Wilbur and Orville Wright have become my heroes in vision, creativity, and perseverance.

So what does flying have to do with barbecue? A better question to ask is, “What do Will and Orv have to do with my barbecue venture?” According to the National Barbecue Association, barbecue has expanded beyond the traditional South/Midwest boundaries here in the USA to a national level. We’re not only talking about backyarders, but also other segments of barbecue, including barbecue businesses (people making money cranking out delish que).

Are you stuck in a 9-5 job, wishing you could get out on your own? Do you dream of setting the neighborhood on fire with unbelievable flavors? The business of barbecue offers some amazing opportunities for people wanting to start a small business, such as a restaurant, catering company, or road-side stand. Even part-time or weekend setups in town can be extremely successful once the word gets out.

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