I immediately checked out Q Barbecue’s web site and marked it down on a list of places to explore when I had some time.  Heck, it brought back great memories of visiting a good portion of St. Louis’ BBQ joints when moving out in 2007.  Why not hit it and see what these guys have?

I finally had the opportunity yesterday…

Let’s start with the positives.  These guys are sure proud of their food, evident by their actions and words.  From the cook loading the “cooker”, the cashier taking the order, bringing out the food, to the person wiping up the tables – these employees look happy.  The store is absolutely clean in every aspect; clean décor, polished stainless steel kitchen, mirror like windows.  There are trophies on display!  They have a cool logo and a huge t-shirt collection.

I read something about BBQ not long ago.  I recall the quote was about making BBQ a business.  The point was as soon as you make BBQ a business it goes all wrong.  Q Barbecue might want to do some light reading along these lines.  And actually I couldn’t help but think of the late Bill Hicks’ view points on marketing.  Q Barbecue plays the marketing whore role very well.

Richmond, if you think this is the best BBQ you’ve ever had move to St. Louis.  They love vacuums there.  In fact, it’s insane to make that claim on a web site and ask your web site visitors to finish a line: “Barbeque so good that…” you could ring enough water out of the pulled pork to grow corn in the Sahara.  There’s my submission.

To the food…

I ordered a two meat combo with one side item and tea (of course the tea).   The cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $15.  I received a healthy portion of pulled pork and about 4 ribs.  The baby back ribs were prepared and served St. Louis style (oh the irony).  My side item was greens and the plate also had a small bun.  No doubt a good portion of my cash went to the t-shirt display.

I asked the gentleman a couple of questions when ordering.  About the greens he said they were a combination of collard and turnip greens cooked with apple juice, bacon, onion, and some sugar.  On the wood, it was hickory.

The cooking process is an all night affair.  Seems Q likes to start their fire and place the meat in the “cooker” (stainless steel smokers inside the restaurant).  They bring the rig up to temp and leave it to cook overnight.  The meats are then prepped for the day’s business the next morning.

The greens certainly were unique.  I’ve never had greens so sweet.  In fact they were too sweet.  Greens should be a little bitter so a person can taste the onion, bacon, vinegar, and the greens.    It’s almost like the sugar is added to trick kids into eating them.  Weird…

The ribs, and pulled pork for that matter, looked the part.  There was a deep red smoke ring in the meat.  There was a subtle smoke aroma, not overpowering.  The St. Louis style sauce on the ribs was the predominant aroma.  I prefer Memphis style ribs personally but there wasn’t too much sauce on the ribs to be insulting.

The meat fell off the ribs.  There wasn’t any labor involved in eating them.  Some would say this is an indication of overcooking and I believe it is in this case.  Some parts of the ribs, namely the outer bark were tough and chewy.  The ribs were not dry but the texture indicated moisture was added after cooking.

I gave away my thoughts on the pulled pork already.  There’s nothing I hate more than pulled pork that has sat in a steam pan all day.  It’s dog gone pig abuse in my opinion.  The meat looked like it was near perfection at the point of pulling: deep red ring, nice bark, pulled not chopped.  The water however had begun to break down the meat to the point where it had lost a good bit of its flavor.

I tried all four sauces Q had on the table for its patrons: a North Carolina vinegar sauce, original red, sweet red, and a spicy red.  The original was the better of the red sauces.  I prefer a vinegar sauce myself and used that over most of the pulled pork.  It added some flavor back to the meat.

All-in-all my write up here may seem unfair.  In truth, the marketing whore in me appreciates the slick branding.  The BBQ purist in me says to let the food speak first.  Most BBQ nuts know competition BBQ and good-eatin’ BBQ are two different animals.  I would question the Q story given my experience in the store.  Are the trophies there to support a value proposition?  Or did the passion and way of the BBQ life come first?  Judge for yourself.

I’m positive the BBQ right out of the smoker at Q is darn good BBQ.  I would be first in line for their Q at a festival.  I really think Q’s biggest opportunity is to shut down the fancy store and find a location that allows it to scale down and turn over traffic.  Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis is a good example of this.  They only sell what they cook for the day and once it’s gone the store closes.  Lines at Pappy’s often stretch a block or two.

So now to the Butts…

We rate Q Barbecue in Richmond 2.5 out of 4 Butts.  The marketing doing the talking is too overwhelming.  It may fool the common Richmonder, but not a kid from North Alabama.

We have two Butts smoking today.  Tracey will be heading to the market soon to pick up the compliments.  We’re having a vinegar based slaw, greens, and who knows what else she’ll come back with.  Other than the Butts, we’re shooting for easy fixins today.  Easy livin’ is our theme.

We’re mixing things up with the Butts today in two areas: 1) prep and 2) fire.

With prep, we rubbed the Butts down about an hour before smoking.  Normally we’ll do that at least 18 hours before.  Not today.  There’s no primary reason for doing so.  We’re using a recipe from Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book by Chris Lilly and thought we would switch up our technique too.  Validation, right?

The fire technique is going through a good bit of testing.  First we’re using a combination of briquette, wood, and lump charcoal.  Secondly, we’re building a secondary fire in the Weber to feed the smoker.  Sounds nutty and maybe it is.

Our primary fire was started with natural lump charcoal.  We brought the smoker up to around 425 then added briquettes.  The temp peaked at about 500 before I choked it down to 220.  I then added two small sticks of cherry (barked removed) just minutes before the Butts went in.

With the second fire, I’ve built a base of briquettes for low and slow heat.  I plan to add two larger sticks of hickory and burn those down into coal.  I’ll use the hot coals from the Weber to refuel the primary fire.

This is quite different from the past but very similar to when I used the Weber exclusively for all my outdoor cooking.  The briquettes maintain their temperature better over longer periods of cooking.  The lump charcoal is great when you need smoke and heat – at the beginning of the cooking process, not at the end.  The wood is ideal for well, hard wood smoke to penetrate the meat.  We really need the hardwood for the first half of the cooking not after.

Over the entire 8-10 hours of cooking, I’m attempting to eliminate heat spikes and burn off in the smoker.  I’ve noted when adding charcoal to the smoker inevitably a coal dust can move through the smoke chamber.  There is also a “burn off” effect in fumes and heat.  Both of these impacts taste of the bark and meat.

So the overall goal with today’s testing is to a) understand how rub time makes a difference and b) improve quality of taste and cook time.

We’ll be posting through the day I’m sure depending on how good the cooking goes.  Check back in or follow the tweets from Twitter.

Salud!

Burger talk and recipes have been catching my eyes and ears as we near summer.  The work gang hit a new burger bar next to the office this past week called Current.  I tried the Pittsburger, a slant on the infamous Pittsburgh style deli sandwich: a half-pound burger piled high with slaw and fries and drizzled with Thousand Island dressing.  Don’t worry dear, I only ate half.

With my brain on burgers, I naturally turned to memories of the good ol’ days growing up in Slidell.  We ate large!  “Daddy Burgers” graced our Weber and dinner table year round.  Dad would make gigantic burgers that stood at least 8” off a plate.  I think he tried to outdo himself every time he made them because as I started to grow the burgers never got smaller.

When we had kids, I brought back the tradition.  Tracey and the girls couldn’t eat them.  They plump while cooking even if you make a dimple, smash them between plates, or use any modern day viral Internet trick. We used to have competitions to see who could stack the highest burger.  Today the kids just shake their heads.

Dad’s Basic “Daddy Burger”

• 80/20 beef or ground chuck.  One or a couple of pounds depending on how many burgers you’re making.
• Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper
• Egg
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Minced Yellow Onion

This is your basic burger.  Break up your ground beef into a mixing bowl.  One egg will cover up to two pounds.  You’ll want the egg to keep your beef together on a hot grill, particularly if you like your burgers well done.  Leave it out if you’re on the rare side.

Dad always covered the meat with a layer of garlic powder.  Several of pinches of salt and pepper did the trick from that department.  The Worcestershire sauce was liberally dashed in.  You don’t want the burgers so drenched in the sauce that the meat changes color. So cut short before you get to that point.

Ah the onion (totally optional)… One of my siblings, who shall remain nameless, hated the mere sight of onions.  Dad would do a great mince job, add them to the meat, and the brother would never even know.  I never knew until adulthood.  I still gut laugh thinking about it.

Aside from tricking children to eat onions, they serve another particular purpose.  With the onions minced so small, they literally fall apart in the meat and add a ton of flavor.  Check it out if you’re feeling frisky.

Dad made simple patties.  First create a ball just smaller than a baseball then smash with your hands until it resists going further.  The patties will be an inch thick at least.  Sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper, and more garlic powder.

The burgers take about 8 minutes to cook for medium rare, shorter if your patties are thin.  Help prevent burger abuse by not cutting into a patty while on the grill to check doneness.  Trust the time or use your spatchula to press on the center. A Jell-O feeling is rare.  Spongy feel is medium rare.  Stress ball would be medium.  Brick… well, don’t do that.

Dress it up with your favorite fixin’s and go make some memories!  Cheers.

Associated links from/for the week:

• Homer Simpson’s 6 Best Grilling Tips
• Bobby Flay’s Best Burgers
• BBQ Pit Boys’ Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe
• All things Cheeseburger on Cheese-burger.net