OFFICIAL FIRE TIM LESTER THREAD
- Thread starter okeefe4prez
- Start date
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
FIRE TIM LESTER
Fryowa
Administrator
I've been to Houston, but I've Never Been To Spain, which is a great song.
I went to Dallas from Iowa U. I enjoyed the Mexican food (not cuisine) and the Barbeque. I have been gone from there for over 50 years but cannot believe that either one has declined any. Texas barbeques beef and the brisket is just great. But ask around because the chains are generally not as good as the independents.
Are you in Iowa? If so, what are the best barbeque joints in the state of Iowa? I am not too into the BBQ scene, but I think mostly because I haven't had much good stuff.
I know there is a little joint in Mount Vernon, anyone know if that is any good?
Fryowa
Administrator
My house.
To be honest I've been to a bunch of the ones typically rated as the best, but they're super meh...
Most (maybe all) places in Iowa are going to be standard restaurants. Which means that they serve to order, so they're going to have ribs/brisket/what have you, cooked way ahead of time and reheated and/or sitting in warmers. It's not great product.
Once you get to Texas and the Carolinas and Mississippi in the back roads you'll never want to eat northerner stuff again. In those places the best BBQ comes from joints that look like abandoned garages with no seating or dining areas, but they have quarter mile lines of people lined up at 1PM on a Tuesday. Those places make brisket, pulled pork, sausage, and turkey daily and when it's gone it's gone for the day. You show up, hopefully get a big styrofoam box of whatever your poison is, and that's it. In Des Moines or [insert Iowa wannabe BBQ shack here] you're going to get ribs that were smoked the day before and reheated and put under a warmer. It's gross.
Once you start getting into BBQ, start checking out how OG places do it in Texas/Carolinas, and do it yourself, it's impossible to beat.
tl;dr...you aren't going to find quality BBQ in Iowa. If someone tells you it is, they haven't had good BBQ before to compare it to.
Side note, it's the most fun hobby I've ever gotten into and it can cost as much or as little as you want. You can make STELLAR product with a walmart charcoal grill and some wood chunks, or you can buy a $5,500 Franklin offset and source hardwood splits. The only thing extra money buys you in the BBQ game is convenience.
This is a pretty bad ass thing that goes on 15 mins from my house. I went a last yr and I'm pretty sure you'd have loved it.
I have tried to dabble a little by smoking on a Weber kettle grill, but the combination of my lack of skill, lack of patience, and lack of equipment led to pretty mediocre results. I wasn't willing to put enough into it to get better, so I have mostly given up. I could definitely see myself getting back into it when the kids are grown, and I am retired.
Fryowa
Administrator
A Weber kettle is what I started with waaaaay back in the day and I've put truck loads of pork, beef, and chicken through mine. Still have it and use it from time to time.
Tell ya what, go pick up some ribs or a shoulder some weekend and I'll walk you step by step through making bbq that your neighbors will be jealous of. Can do it via PM here if you want. It'll be crazy easy, don't need any equipment. Just your kettle, charcoal, and some wood chunks from walmart.
Honestly. This stuff makes me happy to geek out on. I have a teenager and full time job too, we can get this thing knocked out for ya no prob.
That is an incredibly kind offer, I sincerely appreciate it! I got rid of the grill last summer (needed garage space, wasn't using it enough to justify it).
I think my best product was probably pork shoulder, and I used the snake method of charcoal arrangement. My biggest mistakes were seeing the grill temp going the wrong way (in one direction or another), and then overreacting to try to correct it, and then yo yoing back and forth. Back to my lack of patience.
So, I had decent luck with a few pork shoulders, but it was always more stress than I wanted it to be. I did a turkey breast for Thanksgiving once that might have been good, but I oversalted the brine so it required a swig of water after every bite.
I appreciate your passion for this stuff, and if we are both still around in 15 years, I might take you up on this offer!
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
I heard that a fella got shot down there once and the whole damned country was looking for the shooter. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Concur. I don't know if Big Daddy's is still open but back before Big Daddy died me and my buddy used to drive down there at least once a week. Big Daddy was such a gracious host, he'd always make us eat the hottest shit he could find to put on a show for the customers then he'd give us a slice of pie. His meat was mediocre, but he was a true maestro of the sauces. He got us into smoking, me and my buddy bought a Coleman water pan vertical smoker back in '94 for $25 and we used to go to town on that. It was the shittiest gauge steel ever and there was no such thing as a digital thermometer back then, but it taught me the basics of smoking.
I worked at Hostetler's back in the '90's as well. Everything was smoked up at Hickory Park in Ames and it was usually two days old at best. After Hostetlers went under I went to work at Famous Daves and I only lasted there like 10 days because I was so appalled with their food and systems.
Nowhere in Iowa does the volume to run really good barbecue. It sucks but that's just the way it is. Again, I can't eat pork on hickory anymore which is unfortunately the predominant style where I am, but a dude opened a Texas style smokehouse that is a clone of one he opened in Charleston and it's just completely fucking ridiculous. We go for lunch at around 11:15 because if you miss the window the line to order is like an hour minimum. But the whole key to these operations is that you have to be able to run the volume to gauge demand and guarantee a sell-out every day, and then you need the clientele to not get angry about the sell-out. You can't smoke stuff on Tuesday and then re-heat it on Thursday for sale. It's just not good. You have to dial in your smoke time to match when the lunch and supper rush is gonna hit.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
I'm going to tell you a secret about smoking. If you run a shoulder or a chuck roast or whatever big cut on your grill for two hours with decent smoke content and then you move it to a covered pan in the oven at 225 or whatever temp to finish cooking it will come out just fine. You won't get a rich bark, but you don't need all those carcinogens anyway.
If you want to do a smoked turkey for t-giving the only thing I can suggest is to get a Pit Barrel and the poultry hook. You run a turkey on that and you'll get invited back every year until you die or until your Pit Barrel rusts through.
That is what my brother-in-law does, and it always turns out pretty good.
Chickenlounge
Well-Known Member
Sooo...what's on the menu for this evening?
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
FIRE TIM LESTER
