Piggly Wiggly

Let’s try this food blog thing again….

This blog includes another edition of the Wannabe Foodie going to school, the best *&%$ pork bbq I’ve ever had, “please pass the pig brain,” and competition bbq’s dirty little secret.

BBQ School.  Rumor has it that I’ve been known to eat bbq and cook it, sometimes prolifically.  The same rumor says that I have been known to harshly judge bad bbq.

Let that sink in.  I know.  That rumor shocked me as well.

Recently the Red and I had a big wedding anniversary.   She got jewelry and I got, wait for it, another cooking school.  Last time it was a week at the CIA in California.  This time is was bbq school at Myron Mixon’s house in Unadilla, Georgia.

Needless to say, I was a happy man. 

 

Who’s Myron Mixon, you say?  He’s is the winningest man in competitive bbq.  He’s been on various bbq tv shows and is one of the hosts of BBQ Pitmasters.  Here’s a picture with him.

If you want to get better at bbq, what better way than going to the house of the self-proclaimed king of bbq for a bbq school?!  For those of you that watch his shows, he is just as loud and boisterous in person as he is on tv.  However, he and his family were also warm and inviting hosts, which is what you would expect at someone’s house in southern Georgia.

So we show up on Friday night for dinner to get an overview of the weekend.  Thankfully, there was a keg of beer on ice.  Did I mention that I was in southern Georgia in June?!  For a boy who lives in the west, the heat, humidity, and bugs were almost unbearable.  Good lord. 

But, we soldiered on, bug bites and all.  Here’s an overview of the weekend’s festivities:

First thing Saturday morning, the Mixon clan shows how to prep a hog for the bbq.  And for the record, we’re not talking about some suckling pig.  This was a 160 lb (dressed) hog.  Check it out. 

 It wasn’t possible for all of us to prepare a hog (they’re not cheap), so we watched them prepare the hog.  Naturally, I snagged a seat up close to the front.  If you’re squeamish at all, don’t watch someone prep a hog for the smoker.  There’s the sound of the spine cracking as it’s opened up, and, oh yeah….  Do you know what a rib saw is for?  Not for the vegetarians in the crowd.

Which is probably why when Mixon started he said “If there are any vegetarians in the crowd, y’all need to getcha ass up and get out of my yard.”  A master of subtlety.  I like it. 

So the hog was rubbed and injected.  And I don’t mean a little injection.  I can’t tell you what’s in the injection or else team Mixon will come after me, but let’s just say it’s fruit juice based and gallons go into Hogzilla.  He was wrapped up in aluminum foil and slipped into a big ‘ol smoker for … wait for it… 17 hours. 

Here he is going into the smoker.  

Onto the rest of the day and Sunday….

Mixon and crew demonstrated how they prepare baby back ribs, spare ribs, pork shoulder, brisket, and chicken.  Mr. Mixon would demonstrate each protein, and then we would break into groups and prep that same protein.  The school prepared approximately 1500 pounds of proteins that weekend.  1500 pounds!

Some notes:

Ribs.  Nothing tricky about his ribs, other than they are rubbed and sit overnight.  We ate the ones that the students made and, frankly, they were salty. Quite salty, actually.  I tried one of the ones he made and it was also a bit salty, but more on that later.

Pork shoulder.  Good.  I love his injections.

Brisket.  Let me say that it’s weird getting brisket lessons from a Georgia boy.  I am certain that 10-15 years ago, you never saw brisket in Georgia.  Only pork, and maybe a little beef.  He prepared it odd in my opinion, but he’s won a lot of contests, so what the hell do I know?!  He showed us his technique for making burnt ends off the point, which I will use. 

Chicken.  Very interesting to see how the competition guys do it, particularly to make perfect looking chicken with bite-through skin.  Totally using some of those techniques. 

Preparing competition boxes.  This was one of the cooler things to watch.  These guys are judged partially on appearance, so they are meticulous about their presentation.  There’s a guy on Mixon’s team, Bill, who uses tweezers and other tools to make the boxes perfect.  Check them out.

The Star of the Show.  Not even close.  The whole hog.  Check it out when he came out of the smoker:

It was cooked skin side down, so all of the fat, rub, and injection rendered down and stayed in the cavity and meat.  Michael Mixon (Myron’s son) got some heavy duty gloves on and proceeded to pull the entire hog by hand and hand out portions to everyone. 

I held my bowl out like a starving man receiving alms for the poor.  I don’t know how many helpings I had, but it was a lot.  I tried every piece of the pig, including some interesting ones like the belly, jowls (damn those are like butter), and the tongue (tastes like pork). 

And then Michael said “Anyone want to try the brain?”  My friend D and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and decided we should probably check that off the list.  So, Michael cracked open the head and gave us portions of the brain.  It was creamy and had a strangely seafood flavor, almost like uni for you sushi eaters.

So I checked that off my list.  Not sure I need that again.   I respectfully declined one of the eye balls, though I would eat one. 

Notwithstanding my foray into pig nasty bits, that whole hog was by far the best piece of pork bbq I’ve ever had, and it’s not even close.  The unctuous nature of the meat coming out of the cavity, offset by the fruit juice, with a backdrop of smoky.  Damn.  That’s all I can really say.  Damn.

Notice that I said best piece of pork bbq, because I’m not sure it’s better than Aaron Franklin’s brisket.  But, it might be.  The fact that I even put it in the same sentence as that brisket should tell you all you need to know.

Now I just need a smoker big enough to let me cook a whole hog.  Did I mention I wrote down his injection recipe?

Competitive BBQ’s dirty little secret.  Team Mixon can’t get mad at me for sharing this, since it’s listed as one of the ingredients in his rub.  But, MSG is very prevalent in competitive bbq.  Someone in the know told me that they’ve seen competitors sprinkle it on bbq before they close the box.

MSG.  That’s why the ribs tasted salty to my palate.  You know MSG when you taste it.  I know why they do it.  They’re competing for a lot of money and they usually have one bite to impress the judges.  Better make it the best damn bite they’ve had. 

Still, not my thing.  MSG won’t be added to my bbq any time soon.

Happy cooking.

WF.