Greg Rempe is the creator and host of The Barbecue Central show. It’s longest running barbecue show in existence. It’s radio, it’s a podcast, and it’s on video too. Catch him every week as he chats with competition and pro pit masters. He was kind enough to chat with me about everything from grills to meat. Here’s a slice of our discussion; edited for time and clarity.
BW:
Do you have a ton of grills? What do you grill with when you’re just in the backyard?
GR:
I’ve really started to thin out because I’ve become a fan of my Traeger Timberline 850 that Traeger gave me a couple of years ago. That thing is just, you know, incredible. It works really well. It accommodates a lot of meat. Pellets are very easy. So I liked that one. I love my Green Mountain grills. I have two of those varying different sizes. I actually have a prime line of theirs. It’s in the garage that I just haven’t put together yet. So that’s three.
I have a Lang 36 inch offset, a reverse flow stick burner that I love when I have the time, but I got to have the time in order to do that. And if I have the time, I’m telling you right now, the stick burner provides the single best tasting barbecue that you can get. Certainly my opinion, but I can sit here and line up pitmaster after pitmaster that says a stick burner provides the best barbecue if that’s what you’re able to cook on.
I’ve given away a bunch of stuff that I don’t use or I’ve gotten
something new when I only have a limited amount of space on the patio. So those are the ones that I’m using now. So I think I’m right in the neighborhood at six or seven right now.
BW:
Which one will you definitely NOT get rid of?
GR:
I mean, I want to keep all of them right?! That’s why I have them! I think if I had to give all of them up except the one out of the current setup that I have, I would keep the Green Mountain Grill, "Jim Bowie."
BW:
What is that? Is that a pellet grill?
GR:
Yeah, that’s a pellet cooker. It’s got good space. It’s not that inefficient. If you were only doing a small cook, it does accommodate that pizza oven insert that you can get. So you can do a completely different cooking style with it. If I had a Weber kettle, I would probably say that. But I don’t have a Weber Kettle right now.
BW:
Right. So you have a soft spot in your heart for Weber kettles? Specifically their Smokey Mountain model?
GR:
Oh yes. It’s easily the most recommended beginner barbecue pit or if you’re just looking to add something that’s pretty quick to learn and you know, it doesn’t require a lot of time in like the stick burner does. Weber Smokey Mountain is something that I love. I had a pair of them at one point and you just get to learn that thing and it is so set it and forget it once you have that whole thing figured out. I mean I absolutely love those.
BW:
And guys are winning contests on those!
GR:
Yes. it's the original. Yeah.
BW:
What do you like to cook?
GR:
I would be lying if I said that I love to cook brisket. I love to attempt brisket but my results have been a mixed bag at best and that’s shameful for me to say. What I cook really well? Pork butt. But I think anybody can really produce a great pork. I mean they’re so forgiving. I really like them cause they yield a lot of meat and if you don’t eat through that in the first setting, you have a number of different ways that you can go with leftovers.
I love barbecued ribs. My favorite ribs are done on the Lang. Again, we go back to the whole flavor and a smoke profile. That thing moves so much air that I can do a rack of ribs that would take me, you know, five hours on the Traeger or the Green Mountain grill, in three hours on the Lang because the amount of air flow that is moving through there. I mean, right around the same temperature, 275 or so, because it is just moving so much air it gets done much quicker.
I think you gotta be careful with ribs. People go to “three, two, one method“ and I’m here to tell you that is a bunch of bull and you can end up with a overly cooked rib! Because remember that “two” part is two hours in the foil it’s going to steam and I call it like the super heating method. So if you’re not careful or you don’t have an extremely meaty rack of ribs, you’re going to be able to go in and pick that bone up and the meat is going to stay right there (on the plate) as meat mush. If that’s your deal, then fine. I’m not going to sit here and judge it too much. But I like a little bit more texture. I don’t like it to pull off the bone; but, you know, bite off the bone. There’s a little tug and it pulls away, clean. That’s really what I’m
going for.
BW:
Well, if you were to adjust the three-two-one method, what would the numbers be?
GR:
You know, depending on the temperature that you’re cooking. I like to go 275ᵒ
F to 300ᵒ
F. I would go two to three hours outside of the smoke. One hour max in the foil. Then back out to tighten up a half an hour, to 45 minutes, maybe.
BW:
Any other key secret ingredients that you use?
GR:
I like to do Avocado oil on the top. So, avocado is a neutral oil. It’s got a higher smoke point, has nothing to do with flavor. It just solely a, a rib or a rub adherence. Some people love the mustard thing (for adherence). When I got into BBQ, in the very beginning, 14 years ago, there was this rub called the Texas barbecue rub. A guy by the name of Bill Cannon did it. He had a pretty popular forum back in the day as well. And his method was to shake worcestershire sauce on the brisket or the pork butt or the ribs and rub that in and then apply the rub on top of that. So you actually ended up with a paste, if you will. So I’ll still do that from time to time. But the oil seems to be where I’m going to the most. It’s easy and you know, there’s no flavor profile at all on it. Do the rub, let it sit in. Yeah. I mean that’s pretty much it. No other secrets. I’m not injecting.
BW: What’s your typical smoking wood?
GR:
Up here? We get a plethora of cherry. It’s more expensive than, you know, hickory and some of the other stuff. But I like my choices cherry. If I have a decent amount of hickory and I’m using the stick
burner, I will burn that with a ribs or pork butts just because I think hickory and pork work really well together.
BW:
I know you talk to the pellet producers. Have you tried charcoal pellets?
GR:
Look, here’s another thing that we want to make sure that we’re telling folks! If somebody is passing off a "charcoal pellet", that is 100% complete B.S.! They’re selling you a bill of goods. It is not true. Cookinpellets.com does NOT make a charcoal pellet. I have had this discussion with my friend Chris Becker, the owner of Cookinpellets.com about it. They Just don’t. It would be a terrible product. There’s wood in there or they’re just lying to you. (Editors note: Chris Becker says it's trickier to explain then it sounds but it would involve too much binder to make a good product. Now back to Greg.). It's one of the biggest scams going. Almost as big as when the propane re-fillers didn’t tell anybody that they were taking your 20 pound bottle. And by law, we’re only allowed to fill it back up to 15 pounds. Well, they conveniently left out the fact that they could only exchange at 15 pounds. So if you have bottles, take them to a propane refill station, well they will refill to 20 pounds. Otherwise you’re just giving away five pounds and you’re getting screwed.
BW:
Interesting on the charcoal. It sounded legit to me! Do you have a favorite barbecue joint?
GR:
Alright, so favorite barbecue restaurants across the country? Well, as you know, I traveled nowhere. So in Cleveland I would say there’s only three currently that I’m recommending. Mabel’s BBQ downtown. That’s a Michael Symon owned restaurants, right on East fourth street. Killer barbecue. It’s really good. If you’re going, because you like sauces, you’re going to be wildly disappointed because he only has one sauce on the table. It’s a mustard based
sauce and more regionally it’s a Bertman’s ballpark mustard based sauce. Anybody outside of Cleveland has no idea what the hell that is. But it’s kind of a offshoot of a Dijon mustard. But it’s gray. Like this mustard is gray for real. So if you’ve ever seen it outside of basically if you know about it, you are from Cleveland and that’s about it. Otherwise, you don’t know anything about it. It’s a good sauce. There’s a hotter sauce that they can bring out from the back called Aardvark sauce. They don’t have 50 sauces like a lot of these other places.
Then on the West side of Cleveland, there’s a place called Proper Pig. I know the owners there, they do it right. And then right on the near West side, about a mile from where my office is, there’s this place called Barbecue Smokehouse. It’s the best in Cleveland as far as I’m concerned. He’s got a Southern Pride smoker out in the back.
BW:
Let me fire off some rapid fire questions and you can give the first thing that pops into your head. What is your favorite cheese?
GR:
American. Regular, old American.
BW:
How do you like your steak?
GR:
Medium rare.
BW:
Got a favorite chef?
GR:
Michael Symon.
BW:
What do you like on your hot dog?
GR:
Ketchup
BW:
And a single hotdog. Is it a meal or a snack?
GR:
That’s a meal
BW:
Wagyu. Is it worth it?
GR:
Yes.
BW:
What’s your specialty?
GR: Talking.