barbeque

Friday Find: Brandon and Elizabeth Shepard of Shepard Barbecue on The NC F&B Podcast

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Monk: From what I’m seeing on Instagram, Shepard’s Barbecue looks to serve destination-worthy barbecue on Emerald Isle. And based on this podcast with the NC F&B Podcast from last month, he seems to be a thoughtful guy about where he fits in the current barbecue landscape and how he might be able to affect some change for future barbecue entrepreneurs. And it sounds like they are finding success in Emerald Isle, with a move to a bigger space in the near future as of the recording of this conversation along with a new concept in their current, smaller space once they move out.

Description: Brandon Bnice Shepard has discovered his culinary identity and its lucky for the citizens of the Emerald Isle, NC! Despite the grind of making world class BBQ, Brandon partners with his wife Elizabeth to run the front of the house and they stay close to their little girl by bringing her to work to stoke the fire! 

Listen in to hear Brandon talk about what it means to him to connect with his cultural roots to make BBQ. Also, learn about some of Shepard’s culinary heroes like, Helen Turner, Steve Grady and more. It’s a tasty episode!

Friday Find: The Carolina Foodie at BBQ King

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Monk: In case you missed it, The Carolina Foodie recently made a stop at Barbecue Bros favorite BBQ King in Lincolnton and sat down with friend of the blog Jordan Smith to taste pretty much the entire menu. Not just the barbecue but the burgers and the dogs and the onion rings (fun fact: they go through almost 2000 lbs of onions each week). As he puts it: “Great Food! Great People!” and I couldn’t agree more.

Friday Find: BBQ With Franklin’s Thanksgiving Parts 1-3

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Monk: To get you prepared for Thankgiving next week, here’s the three BBQ with Franklin videos on Thanksgiving from 2012. Aaron leads you through the brine, rub, and smoking in part 1 before his wife Stacy helps with some great sides in part 2 before Aaron brings it on home in finishing up the turkey and making a gravy.

Description: Part 1: Learn how to brine and smoke a turkey with Aaron

Part 2: Stacy Franklin shares a couple recipes that go perfectly with a smoked turkey. Learn how to make smoked garlic mashed potatoes and a grilled green bean shishito pepper side dish. Aaron also explains how to tell when the turkey is getting done and what to do in the last hour of smoking.

Part 3: How to tell when your turkey is finished plus make a beautiful gravy with smoked butter.

Barbecue Bros Book Club: “Michael Symon’s Playing With Fire” by Michael Symon

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Monk: Michael Symon’s Playing with Fire: BBQ and More from the Grill, Smoker, and Fireplace: A Cookbook is part of a recent trend of cookbooks from barbecue personalities. See: Rodney Scott (2021), Aaron Franklin (2015), Matthew Register (2019), Christopher Prieto (2019), Ed Randolph (2019), Sam Jones (2019), and Elliott Moss (2016). Not that I mind, as it has clearly given me lots of content over the years.

As for Michael Symon’s contribution to the barbecue cookbook world (which came out in 2018), he starts off with a short “love letter to live-fire cooking” and that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Not strictly a barbecue book, Symon includes a lot of grilling recipes informed by his love of Cleveland.

Symon makes his case for “Cleveland-style barbecue,” which is “a style and menu that draw upon Cleveland’s rich cultural heritage, much of which is firmly rooted in eastern Europe.” He goes on “We season meats with Jewish deli-style pastrami spices, our kielbasa is made by a sixty-year-old Ukrainian butcher at the West Side Market, we smoke over locally sourced apple- and cherrywoods; we serve Hungarian-based sides like spaetzle and cabbage; our tangy mustard-based sauce is designed around the legendary local stadium-style mustard Bertman Ball Park.”

Outside of the typical barbecue recipes, that is what sets this book apart. I was disappointed that we only really get Symon’s perspective in the introductory letter and some of the short intros to the recipes. Contrasted with Rodney Scott’s recent book that bared so much of his barbecue soul and history, it seems like a missed opportunity.

All in all, Michael Symon’s “Playing with Fire” features nice food photography and a slightly different point of view, but is far from an essential barbecue book. I’d recommend checking out the books from Sam Jones, Elliott Moss, Rodney Scott, or Aaron Franklin first and then preview this book at your library to see if Cleveland-style barbecue and live-fire cooking with ingredients native to that region is of interest to you.