On Sunday, we stopped by Quaker Steak and Lube (in Sharon) and sampled their wings. On Monday, we had the wings at Fat Heads (on the South Side). The verdict: Quaker S&L wings are good, but Fat Heads wings are better. In both places, I had the third hottest wings--Hot at Quaker S&L, Beastie BBQ at Fat Heads. The Quaker S&L wings were unusual in that there was no sauce on them. Instead, they were coated with seasoning (made up mostly of Cayenne pepper, I'd guess). They were tasty but not particularly memorable. Nor, for that matter, were they very hot. The Beastie BBQ wings are coated with Fat Heads' Beastie BBQ sauce (also avaialble on their Beastie Burger). It is a very tasty, zippy sauce. The wings are meaty and good. Over the years, I've had a number of the other flavors of Fat Heads wings, including Carribean Killer's (a bit hotter than I usually like, especially in a place that has a number of beers that I also like), Fat Heads vs. the Volcano (their hottest, and way too hot; I could only eat one), Jalapeno Cheddar (cheesy, tasty, with just a bit of zip), Original, Cajun, and Garlic Parmesean. All are good. I've only had the Hot wings at Quaker S&L (Sunday's trip was my only visit), so I can't comment; I'll try others in the future, when I'm up that way again. My conclusion, though, is that, unless you are already up in the Sharon area, a trip to Quaker S&L for wings probably isn't worth the trip. Those of us who live in or near the city can get better wings at Fat Heads (and good wings at a number of other places around the 'Burgh). But if you are in the Sharon area, by all means visit Quaker S&L; they have good wings and great atmosphere. ****************************************************************** Jim Mann [email removed] Transarc Corporation The Gulf Tower, 707 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (412) 338-4442 http://www.transarc.com/~jmann Yet who reads to bring about an end however desirable? Are there not some pursuits that we practise because they are good in themselves, and some pleasures that are final? And is not this among them? -- Virginia Woolf From [email removed] Thu Aug 22 23:58 EDT 1996 Mime-Version: 1.0 To: [email removed] Subject: Re: I NEED YOUR HELP Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 3202 Michael O. wrote: > > You really ought to check the small town barbecues in the south. For > example, here in Commerce, TX (population about 8,000 souls) we have an > excellent barbecue place called Buck's Butcher Block Barbecue. Fine > brisket and hot links are to be found there. Also a sweet little > checkout lady who says "Thankyewwww" when she takes your money and who > might be worth the trip from England alone. Buck's also makes some > righteous beef jerky that'll keep you chewing for some time. I guess it > makes up for how tender he gets that brisket to be. Though lots of > people like his ribs, too, I think they need some improving. But > nobody's perfect. > > In Dallas, there are some fine establishments in spite of the size of the > city. Without Sonny Bryan's in big D as a guide, I might not understand > how culturally important 'cue rightfully is. But look out, the outfit got > bought by business types (it IS Dallas, after all) who opened a second and > a third store which I hear are not as good. Leave it to the suits. Gotta > go to the one on Inwood to get the real stuff. It's one of those places > where they sell the sliced beef sandwiches till they run out for the day, > and then they go home while the pit master does the next batch overnight. > Customers sit on old school desks and stumps and stuff themselves with > 'cue. My inlaws used to use the drippings from Sonny Bryan's to season > their beans. > > About 18 years ago I lived for a time up north in Omaha, NE where there > are a number of fine masters of 'cue in the black community. > Particularly wonderful are the ribs from a place called Skeets on 24th > Street. Fantastic smokey flavor and melt in the mouth tenderness. His > sauce is rich and complex with chilis and apple and sweet spices. The > hot sauce is about half that mild sauce and half Louisiana hot sauce. > Fiery and fine! (Who was it that first said "Okay, I'll tell you the > secret to my sauce, but then I'll have to kill ya.") As I recall, > Skeet's is carry out only. > > I never lived in Kansas City, but I have eaten ribs at Arthur Bryant's > original place there, back when the legend himself was still alive. Food > writer Calvin Trillin said that he felt towards the news that Arthur > Bryant's was going to franchise the busines rather as he imagined a devout > Muslim would feel upon hearing they were going to franchise the sacred > shrine at Mecca. It really is quite good, by the way. > > You might have seen the _Smokehouse Lightning_ thread on this list. I > would recommend checking that book as a source for some of the deserving > (and undeserving) out of the way places. > > Finally, you really ought to do a couple of the real Barbecue cookoff > competitions. Some of the veteran competiters on this list might be able > to turn you on to a schedule of upcoming events. > > Good luck on your project. How about keeping us posted as it progresses? > > M.Odom=================bbq========= For those of you travelling between Dallas/FT Worth and Houston, how about Fairfield's Sam's bbq? I've found it great for even breakfast bbq! Of course, I'm not the normal one in my family. From [email removed] Sat Aug 24 01:41 EDT 1996 X-Sender: [email removed] Mime-Version: 1.0 To: [email removed] Subject: Re: I NEED YOUR HELP Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 428 >Right on! But it IS an interesting question. Let's suppose you had to >pick just one joint for that last plate of barbecue. Where would you >go? > No contest. I would go to the Country Tavern for a good plate of ribs. It is located on the Tyler - Kilgore, Texas highway just south of Liberty City off I-20 in East Texas. The ribs are by far the very best i have ever tasted. They will make you slap your mama. Glenn From [email removed] Sat Aug 24 05:09 EDT 1996 Mime-Version: 1.0 To: [email removed] Subject: Re: I NEED YOUR HELP Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 524 Glenn M. wrote: > > >Right on! But it IS an interesting question. Let's suppose you had to > >pick just one joint for that last plate of barbecue. Where would you > >go? > > > No contest. I would go to the Country Tavern for a good plate of ribs. It > is located on the Tyler - Kilgore, Texas highway just south of Liberty City > off I-20 in East Texas. The ribs are by far the very best i have ever > tasted. They will make you slap your mama. > > Glenn I would head to Lexington BBQ in Lexington, NC. Chazman From [email removed] Wed Mar 6 20:59 EST 1996 To: [email removed] Subject: New England Barbecue Restaurants Content-Type: text Content-Length: 1256 Here's a list of a few New England barbecue restaurants. I've only been to a few, so I can't vouch for them. Blue Buffalo 969 Concord Street, Framngham, MA 508.872.8822 Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Q 1375 Washington Street, West Newton MA 617.332.2583 -(Right around the corner from where I live. GREAT Burnt Ends.) Bob the Chef's 604 Colombus Avenue, Boston MA 617.536.6204 -(Really a soul food restaurant, but has barbecue too.) Billy's Uptown Barbecue and Bistro One Forest Ave, Portland ME 207.780.0141 Coyote Creek 1271 Main Street, Tewkbury MA 508.851.8880 Fuzzy's Barbecue US Routes 110 and 119, Winchester NH 603.239.6895 Hawkes Street Cafe 26 Hawkes Street, Marblehead MA 617.631.4440 Horseshoe Cafe 226 Main Street, North Reading, MA 508.664.3591 Jake & Earl's Dixie Barbecue 1269 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA 617.491.RIBS -(Part of Chris Schlesinger's East Coast Grill. Good Stuff.) Lazybones at the Old Oaken Bucket Routes 110 and 225, Westford MA 508.692.0250 I'll post more later! ==================================================== [email removed] ==================================================== Subscribe to Alt.Food.Barbecue-Usenet's ONLY Barbecue Newsgroup! From [email removed] Thu Apr 25 10:44 EDT 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: web.azstarnet.com: majordom set sender to owner-bbq using -f To: [email removed] Subject: New England BBQ Society info Content-Type: text Content-Length: 3524 Below is an answer to a fellow list member who know more about the New England BBQ Society. After I put this together, I realized that others on the list might be interested. So, here it is. If any one has any questions, please feel free to ask. Mike. John, (other interested bbqlist members) The New England BBQ Society is made up of a lot of people from Rhodes Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and other area states. We do have LONG distance members like Ed Roith from Kansas City as well. Many members compete in local cookoffs. However I'd be willin' to bet that they are the minority. There are a lot of local restaurants with members as well as people who just love to grill and bbq. We meet at the Sit'n Bull Pub the first Monday night of each month. We meet at 7:30pm arrive at 7:00 for a few beers prior, and then go to a meeting room down stairs for a general bullshit session of bbq talk, business talk, and eating. The PUB sometimes provides us with free food, they have great ribs, and other times they give us a 50% break off of food. We pay $3.00 a meeting for members and $5.00 a meeting for non-members. I adds a little to our kitty for promotion of the group at meets...etc. The Sit'n Bull Pub is in Maynard, 163 Main Street. (508) 897-7232 They are almost right across from the HOME of Digital down town. It is actually just before you get to what use to be their headquarters..I think they called it the Mill. Usually between 8-15 people show up for a given meeting. We use to meet in different restaurants around the area, but found we could not get anything accomplished in the average noise in a place of business. It felt sort of funny being in the middle of a place of business trying to conduct a meeting. People came to the restaurant to eat bbq, not listen to a bunch of bbq fanatics discuss the virtues of smokin meat with "whiskey-soaked- hazelnut-branches-slightly-charred-to-the-blackened-stage". Just kidding, but you'll hear some pretty wild tales of how people cook their Q. So, now we meet at the Sit'n Bull Pub and they are VERY nice to us. They do have some good Q too. They do spare-ribs over hickory until they almost fall off the bone. I like them that way. They have a very good table sauce too. I am picky when it comes to BBQ so take it for what it is worth...maybe nothing. :-) The group has a newsletter called the Burnt Ends, monthly. You get it with membership. Membership is $25.00 a year and I find well worth it. The most recent issue had recipes for Grilled Alaskan Salmon Steaks, Tangy Sweet Barbecue Sauce, Grilled Pork Chops Dijonaise, and Spicy Chicken Legs. I know those sounded like grilled foods not BBQ, but the group is for everyone, so recipes vary from grilled foods to true blue bbq. That same issue had a New England BBQ Restaurant Directory, a review of the Smoke and Spice book by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison, an restaurant review of a Brazilian BBQ place in Cambridge MA. and some notes on an upcoming Kansas City BBQ Society Certified Judging class. The address is: N.E.B.S P.O. Box 97, North Billerica, MA 01862-0097 We have discussed doing "field trips" to local restaurants instead of holding meetings at them. We have all agreed that we really like to try out new places. We often get breaks for food AND a tour of the restaurant's kitchen (smoker etc.) I really like that part. That's about it for info on the New England BBQ Society. Hope this helped. Mike R. From [email removed] Mon Jun 10 11:28 EDT 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: web.azstarnet.com: majordom set sender to owner-bbq using -f X-Sender: [email removed] Mime-Version: 1.0 To: [email removed] Subject: brinkman electric smoker Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 3847 What with the seemingly endless palaver concerning the trials and tribulations of using the charcoal Brinkman water smoker, I thought it was high time someone extolled the virtues of their electric smoker. In Typhoid Mary fashion, I have infected three others, and and at least one of these has caused others to get the bug. Now I had always been a charcoal man (steadfastly refusing to go the gas grill route) but when it came to a smoker, I chose electric over charcoal (and succumbed to this backsliding) because I assumed it would burn exactly hot enough to vaporize the wood without actually igniting it to flame. Judging from recent discussions, it appears I was worrying about the wrong problem, the charcoal smokers don't get hot enough. The soaked wood chips (or chunks) are held in a metal container (along with a little water), and placed directly on the electric heating element. The element produces voluminous amounts of smoke. Virtually all of the wood is totally vaporized after four hours, and you really do not need to add more. I once tried adding additional hickory chips and it was so smokey as to be unedible, (something I would have thought impossible!). For bbq items typically done with a baste, I normally cook mine first in the smoker. This assures their doneness and provides a solid smoke underpinning flavor. Both chicken and baby back ribs are done past the pink stage in one hour. I suspect that people who parboil meat must be mass murders in their spare time. By controlling one of the variables, an electric smoker allows more control over others, such as "gnawability" on ribs or the buildup of sauce. I smoke my ribs a total of one and a half hours, and finish off on my trusty charcoal grill for another half hour, in order to build up enough thickened ridges of bbq sauce and burn on enough crust to suit me. The meat pulls away fairly clean from the bone but puts up a bit of fight. (It's still moist). Turkey breast is done in about four hours. Moisture is controlled to some extent in all water smoking, but can be controlled further; although it involves a partial trade off with smokiness. (Actually I don't think this is much of a problem since I think most of the wood is vaporized in the first couple of hours). My friend Bruce (an early infectee) likes his turkey breast a little more moist than I do, and wraps the breast in aluminum foil for the last two hours. Last weekends three and one half pound pork shoulder blade butt roast was smoked for two hours, then wrapped in aluminum foil and continued for an additional four. The additional moisture provided by bathing in the the meat juices probably aids in speeding up the cooking process. After wrapping in aluminum foil, however, pay attention to the water pan as it will dry out faster than before. Back in the house, I picked the finished shoulder up with a fork, and the other end fell off around the bone. Talk about pullable moist meat! (Be interestin' to compare it to Steve's!) N.B. Save the meat juices in the foil to add back, after the meat is pulled (most of the grease derived from the fat comes off early and is now in the water pan). Cleaning , in addition to the water pan and grill, consists of picking up the chip pan and dumping it out. My prime complaint about the system, is that it lacks a rheostat for slower cooking. The recent message from Steven Zinski makes me think that those of you with water smoker problems (unless you are died in the wool purists) might want to consider upgrading to either an electric or gas version. Michael E. Williams Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Cleveland Museum of Natural History Michael E Williams Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Cleveland Museum of Natural History [email removed] From [email removed] Wed Jul 24 08:53 EDT 1996 To: [email removed] Subject: Re: BBQ Competitions in Sept/Oct Content-Type: text Content-Length: 2414 If you can be in the Boston area during the weekend of October 12 and 13th, you have a fantastic opportunity to see, eat, and talk Q with many many professionals and amatures at the Massachusetts State BBQ Championship. It is held just across the Littleton/Carlisle MA border just off Rt. 495. Basically it is about 30-40 minutes from Boston proper. Last year we had entrants from Kansas City MO, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and many other states. There are usually around a dozen local restaurant vendors from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is a "family" event. Meaning NO beer or other such liquids. I know that just doesn't seem right (beer and Q really go together). I would not be too surprised if people bring a little hooch in their back packs. There are many many things for kids and family to do. Big bands like J. Geils (sp) and others play live toons all day. The cookers are there from Friday night through Sunday afternoon when awards are announced. It is worth every moment you spend there. It is called the Pig and Pepper Harvest and about 10,000-15,000 people PER day show up each year. IT is very well organized...parking is great with very timely busses going to and from lots. It is in a cow field across from Kimbals Ice Cream on Rt 110 in Littleton. Kimbals actually owns the field and support the non-profit event. It is CHEAP...5-6 bucks to get in. The money goes to local town schools. Each year the organizers work up a local phone answering machine that gives directions. When that becomes available I'll be glad to post it for you. For now....follow any road leading West out of Boston until you hit Rt. 495. Look on a map for Rt. 110 Littleton. I believe the exit is around 30 or 31. It is just after Rt. 2 going north and just before going south on 495. Take that exit toward Littleton. Go through the center of town where you'll see a single red light. Go straight for a few miles (3-5) and you'll see Kimbal's Ice Cream (great stuff BTW) on the right. The event is on the left. Rain or shine it happens. It rained all day Saturday last year, but we made up for it on Sunday. Hope you can make it. Oh almost forgot...everyone is welcome to enter both the BBQ and the Pepper contests. If you are a pepper grower and want to enter that suff you are more than welcome. I'll post contact names once I get them. Mike Roberts Nuts About Smokin' From [email removed] Sun Aug 25 21:56 EDT 1996 X-Sender: [email removed] Mime-Version: 1.0 To: [email removed] Subject: Favorites Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 1517 My pick would be Burr's BBQ in Mt Juliet Tn .It's a small place with about 10 seats. It's mostly carry out. They did a short story on it awhile back on our public channel on TV and cars were parked a half mile down the road waiting on ribs. He was caught off gaurd and ran out of everything. I bet he would like for them to run it again with a warning to him first. Anybody that did get theirs wasn't disappointed. Well today I smoked my own Q and imbibed a little too much so if this has too many mistakes or you can't dechiper it , well I'll try again tomorrow. Bear I hope the chiggars have been exorcised, I had them back when I was a kid visiting my Grandmother, they were on my privates. She made me sqaut over a wash pan full of bleach. I made it a point of never getting chiggars again. Well this is probably more than anybody wanted to hear but you know how southerners carryon when they get started. {Smokin in the hills{not the mountains}of Tennessee} Right on! But it IS an interesting question. Let's suppose you had to pick just one joint for that last plate of barbecue. Where would you go? The answers from the folks on this list might make a very interesting assortment. If the folks on this list would e-mail me their picks, I'll try to compile the results for posting to the list. Names, addresses, and a short description of what you like about each would add to the interest. Best regards, Dave Lineack [email removed] http://www.webbuild.com/~lineback/ Bill
Barbecue