Monk: Jeremy from Mad Scientist BBQ first visited Franklin Barbecue in December 2018. With the world being what it is now and the prospects aren’t looking great for a return visit, he mail orders a full brisket from Franklin Barbecue via Goldbelly and in this video walks through how to reheat before comparing it to the his first experience at the actual restaurant two years ago. How did it turn out?
More about Mad Scientist BBQ: I’m a barbecue enthusiast from Kentucky who loves to spend time smoking meat and enjoying the rewards of a long cook. I’m also a former Biology and Chemistry teacher, so I have a love for science. On my channel I’ll take you through all of the steps of making great BBQ while dispelling some of the common myths that are so pervasive in BBQ cooking. We’ll cover some of the science behind different techniques and approaches as well as why some methods really aren’t worth your time. Though I’m no competition cook, I’ve spent many hundreds of hours watching the fires and nurturing the meat in my smoker. It’s my hope that I can pass on what I’ve learned and help my viewers avoid some of the (many) mistakes I’ve made along the way.
So stay tuned for helpful, informative, and fun BBQ content!
Name: Honeyfire BBQ Date: 11/13/20 Address: 8127 Sawyer Brown Rd #304, Nashville, TN 37221 Order: Three meat combo – brisket, pork, ribs, baked apples, fries (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Speedy: I recently heard about Honeyfire BBQ when talking to a friend about restaurants with good whiskey selections. Honeyfire sits in the Bellevue neighborhood, which is in the western part of the city. I don’t frequent this part of town too often, but I found myself with a leisurely Friday afternoon and decided to bring back one of my favorite work traditions – long lunch Friday.
Honeyfire sits in a pretty sizable shopping center, which is a bit of a red flag for me from a barbecue perspective (where do they do the smoking???), but seeing a sizable woodpile walking in made me feel better.
Monk: But is the wood pile for show or for realsies? If its all the way in the front of the restaurant then surely its not the wood they are using for smoking. My guess is they are probably using a Southern Pride (or similar gasser) and throwing in a stick or two occasionally from a similar wood stack in the back to get a little wood smoke on the meats.
Speedy: The restaurant is sleek and clean, so I walked up to the counter and placed my order. I was asked wet or dry ribs (dry, duh) and fatty, lean, or mixed brisket (mix), which I also consider to be a good sign.
The food was brought out quickly and it was time to dig in. I’ll start with the ribs. The three bones that came were St. Louis style cut, dry with visible rub sprinkled on. They were meaty and cooked well (maybe slightly overdone), but the rub was a little challenging to me. This will be a theme of the review, but the rub was just very sweet. It seemed to be brown sugar based and mixed decently with the flavor of the ribs, but the sweetness was just too much to handle. The pulled pork was a similar story, as it was finished with a dusting of the same rub. The pork was tender, had some good bark mixed in, but was just too sweet for my liking. There was a sauce provided on the side, so I thought maybe some good vinegar sauce would offset the sweetness. Well one taste and I learned this was no vinegar sauce – it was actually a honey barbecue sauce. So what started as a little too sweet became way too sweet.
Monk: Wonder if the folks behind Honeyfire have a competition background, where the winning flavor profile tends to be on the sweeter side. Sounds like they could stand to add a vinegar sauce alternative.
Speedy: The brisket was a different story. Rubbed with just salt and peppery, there was (thankfully) no sweetness. The bark on the brisket was tasty and the overall flavor was good. The brisket, like the ribs, was slightly overcooked, so just a touch dry, but overall, it was a pretty nice effort.
As far as sides go, mine were fine. However, one reason I like to get baked apples with barbecue meals is to have a little sweetness to go along with savory meat. In this instance, the meat gave me all the sweetness I could handle, so the apples remained unfinished.
Overall, Honeyfire BBQ is a tough one to rate. I think they actually do a pretty good job hitting the flavor profile that they want to – it’s just not the right profile for me. However, if you’ve got a sweet tooth, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
Monk: If this pandemic ever comes to an end, I would love to make it to Cattleack BBQ in Dallas. For now, I will dream.
Description: Ranked best barbecue by D Magazine in 2018, the meat cutters at Cattleack serve beef ribs, brisket, and pork ribs to lines of people waiting to eat at the backyard-themed restaurant. What started off as a hobby for owners Todd and Misty David, Cattleack BBQ has now become a popular lunch spot able to seat hundreds of people.
Despite its popularity, it remains open for lunch only twice a week on Thursdays, Fridays, and the first Saturday of each month. We visited the popular BBQ joint to check out the seven smokers on their property, try our hand at slicing brisket, and serve customers alongside the owners.
Monk: Houston-based Khói Barbecue is a “Viet-Tex” pop-up that melds Vietnamese flavors with Texas barbecue in dishes like brisket pho or beef ribs marinated with kalbi (which is technically Korean) or a Vietnamese bò lá lốt sausage made from brisket trimmings. For more information, check them out on Instagram.
Description: At Khói Barbecue, brothers Don and Theo Nguyen use the Vietnamese ingredients and cooking methods from their childhood to influence their Texas Barbecue pop-ups, creating dishes like brisket pho and smoked chicken rice & yuzukoshō.
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