Peg Leg Porker BBQ

Final New Vertical Smoker Build Video

2011-06-27T16:58:00.001-07:00

Well Shit:

We finally finished our new smoker build. It is a badass smoker and we are very proud of it. We finished at 2:00 AM the night before leaving for Memphis in May. We cooked on it for the first time at Memphis in May and it did great. Here is the video. It starts as a slideshow but be patient, the video starts at about 1 min. This smoker has seven shelves and will fit 7 shoulders per shelf. It will also do about 105 racks of baby backs. Enjoy...

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Back to the Smoker Build

2011-01-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

Well:

Finally I am posting and finally we are back to the Vertical Smoker Build. This one is from scratch and I am very excited about it. It should turn out great and I am looking forward to taking it down to Memphis this year. A lot has happened since my last post and I will share all of that in my next post. Until then, here is my latest video.

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Vertical Smoker Build 2010 in HD video 1

2010-05-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again and we are building a new smoker for the rig. This one will be from scratch and it's a monster vertical. We wanted to get it done before Memphis in May but didn't have time. So here is the first video of the series. We will post others as we go....enjoy

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New Smoker Design

2010-02-26T12:50:00.001-08:00

Well, here is the new smoker design. Within about 2 weeks we will start construction and will film it all. This smoker will be designed to hold 2 whole hogs or a lot of shoulders. You will notice that we will be building it without and cross members in the door openings so that we get more usable space. This will also be a model for the new line of Peg Leg Pits......

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Peg Leg Updates

2010-02-03T13:06:00.001-08:00

Way too long since I have Blogged but hey, we all get busy. We are gearing up for the 2010 BBQ season. The Peg Leg Porkers will be doing many more competitions this year. I am excited about getting out on the road and bringing home some trophies.

We just sent in our info and check for Memphis in May and hope to have another great year at the Super Bowl of Swine.

Dresch and I will be building many more smokers this year. In fact we have about 3 builds lined up to do in the first half of this year, including a new competition pit for the rig.....Stay tuned for more updates and videos in the weeks to come.

Carey B

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Cityhouse 2 year anniversary

2009-12-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the Cityhouse 2 year anniversary party. It was a great time. All of the Nashville Food Mafia was there...Jason McConnell, Pat Martin, Tyler Brown, Carey Bringle, Hal Holden Bache, Thomas Williams and of course Tandy Wilson, Owner and Chef. There were also several other great food faces there as well Drew from Park Cafe, Clayton from the Hermitage and too many others to mention. Check out the video....

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Smoke Like a Pro

2009-10-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

It is about time for Christmas and the Only gift to give someone this year is the Peg Leg Porker Smoke Like a Pro kit. It has everything that you need to cook championship BBQ in your own back yard. A must for the aspiring Pit Master in your life. Check out my new commercial....

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This is Hillarious...Pat Martin and Peg Leg Porker

2009-10-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

I went over to my buddy Pat Martin's one night and he was being interviewed by the newspaper while he was cooking a hog for the Belle Meade Plantation. This was the scene as his hog was being photographed......I thought I was going to crap my pants I was laughing so hard.

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Nashville Bacon Takedown 2009

2009-09-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, Dudney and I competed in Nashville's first Bacon Takedown. We had a great time and Matt Timms did a great job with the event. Here is an interview with Matt about the event and his other chili takedown events.

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Music City BBQ Festival

2009-09-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great time this last weekend at the Music City BBQ Festival. The organizers did a great job and we took home a 4th place ribs and #1 Nashville team in the MBN categories. We will definitely be back next year....Check out this video of our team.

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Big Apple BBQ from Alwayshungry.com

2009-08-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a great clip from the boys at AlwaysHungry.com. They came by the Martin's BBQ booth and interviewed us about cooking whole hog. This clip also features two other great guys, Kenny Callahan and Chris Lilly.

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Big Apple BBQ and Block Party 2009

2009-08-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

In June 2009, my friend and one of our Peg Leg Porker team members, Pat Martin, invited me to help him cook at the Big Apple BBQ and Block Party in NYC. We had a blast. Pat owns Martin's BBQ joint in Nolensville, TN and was asked to be one of this year's pitmasters for the event.

Robbie Lunday, Mitch and Chad Gallant and John Alderson were other Peg Leg Porkers that were there. Here is a video montage of the event.

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Rockin the Beer Gut

2009-08-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

You gotta love this song.....It's my pick of the week.

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Smoker Build Video #8

2009-08-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, We finished the smoker and I forgot to film while I was cooking on it. I have used it several times. This video explains some of the things that I would do differently next time and answers some questions.

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A whole lotta BBQ stuff

2009-06-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I have had a busy few months. We build two new cookers, one exploded at Memphis in May. We competed in Memphis in May. I released a new product, Smoke Like a Pro. I went on QVC. And this week, I am heading to the Big Apple BBQ with my good friend Pat Martin.

You can see my new product and video of my airing at:
Peg Leg Porker on QVC

I tried to post a video of the highlights of Memphis in May but it was too long. I am going to have to split it into two segments. I will try to do that tonight.

Peg Leg

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Martin's BBQ

2009-06-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

I would like to congratulate my good friend and Peg Leg Porker Team Member, Pat Martin for making Bon Appetit's top 10 new BBQ restaurant list in the July BBQ issue.

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/07/best_new_barbecue_restaurants

Please visit my Website at www.peglegporker.com

Demolition of the old smoker

2009-05-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well as many of you know, I burt down our old smoker last year. That is one reason I have been building a new smoker. Well, Memphis in May is fast approaching and so we have to demo the old smoker and get it off the trailer. It was sad to see her go.

That cooker was made from the old refridgerator of the place my friends and I grew up drinking in "The End Zone" RIP to the Smoker and the Bar

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Video Number 6 of the new smoker build

2009-04-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

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Refridgerator Smoker Video Number 5

2009-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

We got the firebox finished and just have a little more to go. Hopefully we will finish this week.

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Smoker Number 2

2009-04-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well,
We are still working on the refridgerator smoker and should get more done this weekend. Hopefully I will post Video 5 by Sunday. In the mean time, I have another large cabinet in my driveway to make a smoker out of. It is actually an old Vulcan 4 Door warmer. I took the back doors off and will be putting it on a platform so basically it will be like the one we are building now. The difference in this smoker will be that I am going to have my metal fabricator do it. I took him plans today and so hopefully he will be able to get started in the next few days. Because I am paying them to do the work, hopefully they can complete it in about a week. I will post pictures when we are done.

Carey B

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Building the New Smoker Part 4

2009-03-22T20:50:00.001-07:00

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Building the new Smoker Part 3

2009-03-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday we worked on the new smoker again. It is coming along and I hope that we can have it finished in just a few more weeks. Dave Johnson, Steve Dresch , Patrick Julian and I had a few beers and got just a little further on the firebox.

Thanks to everyone who has watched and given me feedback. I know that I have always appreciated when others have posted pictures or videos of building smokers before. I have seen several good picture libraries for building gravity fed smokers.

I have some exciting news coming in the next few months so stay tuned....

Peg Leg Porker

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Building a new smoker part 2

2009-02-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

This is part 2 of the making of our new smoker.

Building a New Smoker Part 1

2009-02-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the best pitmasters can build a pit or at least tell someone how they want one built. That doesn't mean you have to be able to weld or need to be a mason. It means that you understand that a pit can be as simple as a stack of cinder blocks and a grate; it can be as beautiful as a brick pit; it can be an offset horizontal smoker or it can be a vertical or gravity fed smoker. Some pits are open, others are not. Some utilize temperature control units, some do not. In order to truly understand the art of true BBQ, you need to understand what makes these pits different and the qualities that each have.....good and bad. Over the years, I have had a chance to use and build many pits. I am always finding new qualities that I like about each different design. We are about to build two new vertical pits and then a new brick pit. I like em all and just can't seem to get enough.

As I mentioned, we are in the process of building a new vertical smoker from an old stainless steel refrigerator body. Here is the first video in a series of videos showing you how we will build it. Enjoy.....

Porker Down

2009-01-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been too long since my last post. A lot has happened and I hope to post more regularly these days. Since my last posting, I attended the Annual Symposium for the Southern Foodways Alliance in Oxford, MS. What a blast! I was invited as a guest of Nick Pihakis, owner of Jim and Nick's BBQ. My close friend, and fellow pitmaster, Pat Martin and I both went with Nick and several folks from the Jim N Nicks organization. We met some great chefs, foodies, writers and generally had a blast. Pat and Nick are both fun to travel with.

I ended up joining the SFA and attended another function last weekend at Blackberry Farms in East Tennessee. Pat, Nick, Dan Latham and I, once again, had a blast. But this time as I was about to leave, it happened.........Porker Down!

As you know if you read this blog, I have one leg. I don't wear my prosthesis in the shower so I generally hop. I am pretty used to it at home and have regular places that I hold to get in and out of the tub. Sunday morning, however, I was in an unfamiliar place in the cabin that we were renting. The threshold was low so I thought, no big deal. I can hop this with my eyes closed, after all, I had done it Saturday morning. The problem.......very slick shower pan. As I hopped into the shower, I felt my foot slide. It was quick and it was painful. I landed dead on the end of my cut off leg......$#&%. I think I saw Elvis..... He was right there sitting on the toilet laughing at me with that lip quivering. I have a full Femur on that leg and landed square on the end. If I were driving a nail, I would have sunk it with one swing of my stump hammer.

I managed to get home but not without a great deal of pain and suffering. Once home, I realized that I would not be able to wear my prosthesis for several days. After much coaxing from my wife and mother, I went to the orthopedic surgeon to get some Xrays. It turns out that I fractured my femur in two spots. One fracture on the end and one straight up the femur about 4 inches. Needless to say, I am still down after a week of leglessness but hope to get back on two feet in the next few days.

I will post again this week and have a new product and website coming out. Stay Tuned for more details.

Carey Bringle
The Peg Leg Porker

Check out the website at http://www.peglegporker.com/

Bon Appetit and Peg Leg Porker

2008-06-04T12:45:00.001-07:00

Well, after much waiting and not knowing how or if it would be published. The July BBQ Issue of Bon Appetit magazine is here. The best thing about it is that Peg Leg Porker Memphis Wet Sauce is named as their #2 pick for BBQ Sauce..........This is quite an honor.

It is humbling to be alongside some of the greats in the BBQ world Big Bob Gibson's (Chris Lily and Don McLemore), Britt's BBQ (James Britt), Wee Willy's and Memphis Championship BBQ (Mike "The Legend" Mills).

Bon Appetit is the #1 culinary magazine in the country. To say that I am excited is an understatement.....Thank you Bon Appetit.

Check out our website at http://www.peglegporker.com/

Franklin Food and Spirits Festival

2008-06-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, my good friend Pat Martin of Martins BBQ Joint in Nolensville, asked me if I would like to help him cook a whole hog for the Franklin Food and Spirits Festival. The festival organizers built him a pit at the Carnton Plantation just for this event. I knew that we would have a great time and so naturally I said yes.

I was on my way back from a business trip in Memphis on Wednesday so in order to save Pat some time, I picked up the Hog at Hayes Meats in Lexington, TN. It was a 220 lb hog. Thursday we went out to the Plantation and got the Hog on. I believe that it went on about 7 PM. The guys from Jim and Nick's were there. They had put the festival together and Dave Story was helping to cook the hog as well. Folks came and went most of the night but we were there until about 3 AM when we let Bo take over. The pit was built so tight that it only had to be fired about 3 times during the whole cook. Pretty impressive.....

Pat and Dave Story came back early Friday morning and kept it going all day. I had to work so I didn't get back out there until around 5:00. We served the hog along with 2 others cooked by Legendary Pit Master Ed Mitchell out of the Carolina's and the crowd seemed to love it. I think that the dinner was a big hit. Pat did a great job.

On Saturday, I took the family to the festival and we hung out all day. It was a great weekend and I got to meet some great folks. I think that this festival will continue to grow and become a major showcase for Southern food.....BBQ in particular.

Memphis in May

2008-06-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well we had a great time at Memphis in May this year. We met some new friends and just generally had a great time. Additions to the booth this year included a jumbo-tron projector screen in the top of the tent and wireless microphones. We spent countless hours in front of the tent commenting on passers-by through our PA system and the live video feed of the ice luge on a ten foot screen in the middle of the tent was spectacular.

The judging didn't go so well but that happens sometimes. Last year Memphis in May decided that they would not be sanctioning contests anymore and the MBN was formed to take that network over. For some reason, the MBN and Memphis in May could not reach an agreement on working together and so the MBN was not involved in the judging at all this year. There are a lot of folks that hope they get that worked out next year.

This year we had some new guests and sponsors. We picked up Yazoo Brewing as a sponsor and that was great. We also had the guys from Jim and Nick's BBQ out of Birmingham join us. They were great to meet and seemed to have a great time.

There were however some things missing. Dave Johnson for one. Dave had to leave on Wednesday because his mother was very sick. He was not able to come back and I tell you, it was tough not having him there. Dave and I have not missed a year together at Memphis in May for about 12 years.

We were also missing our competition rig because I burned it down. We are in the process of deciding how we will replace it and with what. I have taken my fair share of ribbing about the fire. Dudney even bought me a "Smokey the Bear" apron. I take it all with a grain of salt. After all, what would a BBQ team be without great stories and good friends. We are truly blessed to have on of the best groups of guys around. Each one brings something unique to the table.

Me..........well obviously, I bring the heat.

John, Pat and Dresch thanks for working so hard all week.

Check out the website at www.peglegporker.com

Far too long - Grease Fire

2008-05-09T14:47:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been too long between posts. Things here have been very busy as I have been preparing for Memphis in May and the World BBQ Cookoff.

Last week, while preparing to cook some brisket, I burned down my competition pit. It had been too long in between cleanings and our pit doesn't have a good grease drain......Anyway, as I closed the firebox, the fire jumped to the body of the cooker, blew open the doors and burned down the pit. Being an old refrigerator, the interior was made of aluminium. It didn't take long for that to completely melt.

The good news, I was not standing in front of it so I wasn't hurt. The bad news, it happened a week before the world BBQ cookoff. The other good news is that team member Pat Martin has almost finished his new rig and so we have a rig to use in Memphis; a nice one at that...We will also use the old horizontal.

I will write more next week from Memphis.

Carey B

Check out the new website at http://www.peglegporker.com/

Memphis in May

2007-12-06T19:28:00.001-08:00

Well, the applications are out and we are getting ready to gear up for the big show. Memphis in May, The super Bowl of Swine, The Big Dance....you get the picture. This is the time we work up to every year. It is a tremendous amount of work to put together but I love every minute of it.

We have a great group of guys and a great group of sponsors. It is mine and Dave's job to not only make sure we compete at a world class level but also to make sure that each and every one of our team members walk away from the event saying, "that is the best damn party I have ever been to"...... I am proud to say that in past years, we have had new members say that they expected a good time but this far exceeded their expectations. WOW......Those are the type of comments that make the hard work well worth while.

Our team has really come of age the last several years. Instead of having to tell people what they should be doing, now we have team members asking, "how can I contribute and what can I do to help". I think that is a result of letting everyone know that they have a steak in making the weekend a success and that each of them contribute to the good time in their own way. With 35+ members, not everyone can be involved in the cooking or wants to be. It takes members that can landscape, do dishes, set up tables, decorate, run a sound system, welcome guests and many other tasks to make a great team. Our members come from every walk of life but down in Memphis they are a unified group.....Peg Leg Porkers.... and I am grateful that they have chosen to be a part of our team....

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

Uncle Bruce

2007-12-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

I know, it has been a long time since an update. I have had a lot going on but that is no excuse. Since my last posting, my uncle Bruce passed away. As many of you may know, I lost my father on July 16th. This was his youngest brother Bruce and he died of cancer as well.

Bruce and I were very close. When my father and I were not seeing eye to eye and subsequently not speaking (for 4 years), Bruce really stepped in and spent a lot of time with me. We used to reload ammo in my grandmother's basement and then go out to Lyle Ogle's family farm and spend the weekend shooting with Lyle and John Interbitson. Bruce introduced me to BBQ at a young age and taught me a great deal about the art. He competed in the very first Memphis in May cook off and was a big inspiration for my getting involved in competition BBQ. Over the last three years, he came down to the booth and really became a fixture of the team, sitting in the back of the booth and telling his great stories. Bruce will be missed by me and by many who had the benefit of knowing him. There will always be an empty chair in the back of the Peg Leg Porker booth for Bruce........

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

The Church BBQ

2007-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well, the church BBQ went great. With some help from the other members of the Men's club and team members Dudney, Dave and Dresch, everything was dynamite. My two boys stayed with me and camped out. Dresch and his son William also stayed until about 5:00 AM. Having my firebox man there was a huge help. We cooked 56 Butts and 50 racks of ribs.

Overall, I stayed up from about 9:30 AM until 12:30 PM on Saturday. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I am sure that Dresch was too. We drank some beers and bourbon and ate some oysters. The highlight was when Dave braved the coyotes at Radnor to ride his bike over to the church at about 7:00 Am in the morning. He then topped it off by drinking a big bourbon drink. It was BBQ at it's finest. Only Episcopalians can have such a good time at a church BBQ.

20 Boys for 4 hours

2007-10-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

My two boys, Carey and Connley have birthdays 2 weeks apart and today we celebrated both birthdays with a capture the flag party at the house. They brought home 10 boys each and we had them from 3 to 7.......Delaniah and I are exhausted. We never could have done it without the help of my good friend and fellow teammate, Greg Hamilton. Thanks Greg.

Boys 10 and under can be a handful....Multiply that by 20 and you can have chaos. Thank goodness everyone was well behaved and we got by with minor to no injuries.

Happy Birthday Carey IV and Connley.....you are the next generation of Peg Leg Porkers. Tomorrow we cook for 500 at the church BBQ.

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

The Church BBQ

2007-10-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend is my Church BBQ. It is always a great time and I really enjoy the fellowship of all of the men in our Men's Club on Friday night while we are cooking. This year we will be cooking about 58 Butts and about 60 Lbs. of Chicken. That will feed a few hundred. On Friday night we will cook 3 cases of Baby Backs..........Ohhh Boy.

The actual BBQ is Saturday Oct. 13th. It is Church of the Advent on Franklin Road in Nashville, TN. There are games for the kids and live music. People generally come in and out between 11:30 and 4:00. We will be selling to go packs for all of the football fans that need to get their fix and go watch a game.

This week, I uploaded some new photos to the website and Mike added a video from a few weeks ago. It looks great. We are about to add the storefront and will begin selling merchandise. Things seem to be really coming together. I am meeting with a food broker this afternoon to talk more about distribution.

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

KCBS Competition

2007-09-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we competed in a KCBS competition this weekend at Opryland. We had a great time but unfortunately did not do well at all. That is just how it goes sometimes. It is easy to look back and think of all of the things you did wrong after the fact but sometimes, you just don't do well for a number of reasons. That is the way it goes. I don't typically try to over think it. I just make a note of where I think we made mistakes and try to do those things differently next time.

We are used to competing in Memphis in May competitions and the KCBS is very different. For starters, you turn in Chicken, Ribs, Shoulder and Brisket as opposed to just turning in pork shoulder when we do Memphis. It is a chore trying to make sure that everything is on schedule and done right. It can be done but it just takes some practice and good timing. If we are going to do any more KCBS cooks, I would like to go to KCBS judging school and learn the complete judging criteria. That helped tremendously with Memphis in May.

All in all it was a good experience. We had a small crew and I think everyone had a good time. Mike Causey brewed some great beer, Terry Atkins made some great wings and Brian Hamilton made some great chicken. Dave and I were there as well as Cory Guerenno, Pat Martin, Frank Platt, Shane Smith and Patrick Julian.

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

Promoting a brand

2007-09-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I spoke with a broker yesterday about Peg Leg Porker and how to get my products out there more in the marketplace. Launching and promoting a brand is a long road that has many moving parts. I am small and expensive and so I would be classified as a specialty item. That makes it hard to get on the big retailers shelves. My product is also expensive to produce so that makes things difficult.

The broker suggested that I join the Tennessee Specialty Food Association. They have done some good work helping companies like mine get products out there in the mainstream. I think that I will do that. They also work with the department of agriculture on the Pick Tennessee Products campaign which can help me. One of the problems is time. I work a fulltime job that is very demanding and have a wife and children that are also demanding, in a good way.

Next week the team and I will be getting ready for the competition at Opryland. It should be fun. We will be doing a KCBS cook and having it here in Nashville will make things easier. I will post some pictures and let you know how it goes.

Carey B

Check out the new website at www.peglegporker.com

Let's Get this Blog Moving

2007-09-11T18:44:00.001-07:00

Well,It has obviously been a long time since I have posted to this blog. A lot has happened in the past few months.

I was a guest blogger on Pat Martin's Blog Page. He asked me to write about my experience at the Food & Wine Magazine's Classic at Aspen. (I will post a copy on this blog)

My father passed away on July 16th after suffering for over 10 years from Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer. We knew it was coming but it was not easy.

I have been seriously considering opening a restaurant and have been working on all of those details with my future business partner.

We got the Peg Leg Porker site up and running. (Still in it's early stages) but Mike Causey and Skyscraper Media have done a tremendous job in capturing my vision for the site.

I have been traveling a lot for work and that has kept me from getting as much done in these last few months as I would like. I recently spoke with a broker about getting my sauces and rubs out into more retail locations. Right now I just sell on Lobels.com . That has been great but I need to get it out on the national retail scene. That will involve brokers, distributors and more time. I believe that it is a great brand and can do well if I start putting more focus on the marketing.

I made some great contacts in Aspen and it was fun being out there with Evan, David and the Lobel's crew. Evan made the front page of the Aspen Times and they specifically mentioned the Waygu Brisket that I prepared. It seemed to be the hit of the show.

Check out the new site http://www.peglegporker.com/ . Also, the next appearance of the Peg Leg Porkers (our competition team) will be on Sept. 28th at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. They are having a KCBS sanctioned contest and we will be competing. The last time we did a KCBS contest was the first appearance of the Peg Leg Porkers. Hopefully, we will do a better job this year then we did back then. They tried to kick us out more than once that year.

Savor the Flavor,

Carey Bringle - Peg Leg

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Guest Blog About Aspen Food and Wine on Pat Martin's Site

2007-09-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Guest blogger Carey "Peg Leg Porker" Bringle: Aspen Food & Wine Festival
My good buddy Carey Bringle (Peg Leg Porker) was asked by the Lobel boys to cook & attend the prestigious "Aspen Food & Wine" festival. This week I asked Carey to guest blog about the experience. By the way......look at the dadgum fat marble in those 3" thick (yes you read that right!) Wagyu dry aged New York strips. Also Carey is pictured with food/wine celebrity Andrea Immer.Hey Folks, It's Carey Bringle, The Peg Leg Porker......I am honored that Pat asked me to guest Blog today about my experience at the Food & Wine Magazine, Classic at Aspen.

Let me start off by explaining the reason that I was there. Three or four years ago, Evan Lobel asked me if I could smoke some Waygu Brisket for the Classic at Aspen food Show and ship it out there for them to serve at the Grand Tastings. I did this cook as a personal favor but let me tell you, it was nerve racking. Evan wanted them to be just right. He would be serving them next to his father and their reputation was on the line. It was the first time that they had done this show and it was very high profile. I cooked about 36 Brisket that year and from Evan's account, they were a real crowd pleaser. He called me from the booth and said "Carey, your a F$%^*&* hero, we have a line around the booth and this stuff is the hit of the show." I was glad to hear it because for the previous week, Evan had called me several times to remind me how important this was. I think I lost 10lbs. that week worrying about how they turned out and waiting for his call to let me know. The next year, I cooked again and they asked me if I would like to come out to the show as their guest for the work I had done. I cooked the brisket but I turned them down on the trip because frankly, I had been traveling a lot, just finished Memphis in May and was plain worn out.

Last year they didn't do the show and one of their key competitors, Allen Brothers, started displaying there. That did not set well with Evan. They made an executive decision that this year, they would be back and show the world why they are the Best Damn Steaks and Mail Order Gourmet Food Company in America. I had regretted not going the year I had been invited so this year, we made a deal that a ticket to the show and a plane ride would be my payment for Smoking the Brisket. The amount.........650 Lbs. of Waygu. That is a lot of Brisket.

My father lives in Carbondale and is very ill. He has been suffering from Multiple Meyeloma for over 10 years. This would also be a great chance to spend some more time with he and Susan and see him for Father's Day. I started cooking Brisket on the Vertical Smoker at 5:30 AM on Friday, June 8th. That night, Dave Johnson and Pat came over to help and have a few. Dave was cooking on the horizontal for a catering Gig and Pat was just coming to help and lend moral support. We had a great time shooting the shit and throwing back a few. I cooked almost non stop until Sunday morning. 50 Brisket in total. I was worn out. Pat and Dave can both tell you, cooking a ton of meat can wear you out but when you see people enjoying it and hear their comments, it is a great feeling.

I arrived in CO on Thursday. My sister was with me and we spent some time with Dad and Susan that night. Friday, I got up, we had some breakfast at the Village Smithy in Carbondale and I headed to Aspen (about 25 miles away). I got there about 1:00 and they had just finished the first Grand Tasting. Evan and David said that it was a huge hit. There was not another tasting until 4:30 so I went to a Mixology Seminar given by Tony Abou-Ganim. He has a show on Fine Living teaching the art of cocktail making. Let me say that any seminar where they hand you a drink on your way in and then make you drinks all the way through is my kind of class.

I went to the Grand Tasting at 4:30 and it was great. The Lobel's were serving Braised Short ribs at that tasting. They seemed to be a pretty big hit but I really wanted to see the Brisket being served. We hung around after the tasting and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in town. We would start again in the morning. The Aspen Times had come by that afternoon and spoken with Evan. We were all anxious to see what they would write. On Saturday morning, I woke up and drove to Aspen first thing. The Grand tasting started at 11:30 and I wanted to see how the brisket would be received. David came in to the tent holding the Aspen Times......Jackpot.......Evan was featured on the front page with a headline of "Lobel's, Butchering the Competition" .....In your face Allen Brothers.....It talked about the brisket and needless to say, at the Grand tasting, the table was mobbed. The log jam in front of our table wasn't helped by the fact that Mario Batali was signing Crocs at the table across from us. Between the two booths, you couldn't make it through that part of the tent. I'll have to say that it was pretty exciting seeing all those people go crazy over the food that I cooked.

That afternoon, I met Mario Batali, Jacques Pepin, Andrea Immer and Bradford Thompson. Wow, what a treat. The last thing that I did that afternoon was meet Evan, David and Jamie (owner of Smoke Restaurant in El Jebel, the caterer that Lobel's hired to help them in Aspen) at Jamie's house to see them cooking the Waygu strip steaks that they would serve that afternoon at the 3:45 Grand Tasting. What a sight to see, 147 Lbs. of Waygu strips at a retail value of $150 a piece....beautiful.....I told them that I was going to have dinner with my family and probably wouldn't be back on Sunday. Evan told me top pick out the best steak and take it for me and my Dad to share for Fathers day. We cooked it that night and it was great....

I spent Sunday with Dad and Susan. We enjoyed the day and the incredible view that their new house has of Mt. Sopris. I was leaving Monday morning and it was going to be hard to say goodbye. The weekend was great. I am thankful to have been able to participate in such a celebrated event, enjoyed spending time with my good friends Evan and David and even more thankful to have been able to spend a little more time with my Dad. This is a Fathers day weekend that I know I will never forget.....

Lobel's: Butchering the competition...............Brisket a hit in Grand Tasting tent
www.aspentimes.com/article/20070616/NEWS/106160061&SearchID=73284675093471

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A first for PegLeg

2007-06-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is my first Blog posting. I have just set up the Peg Leg Porker Blog to link to the Peg Leg Porker Website and be an outlet for my friends and teammates to communicate.

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