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Smoking Meats and Smokin' Tires · Two Old Fashioneds Podcast

• Brian (00:01.302) Hey, hey, hey, I'm Brian. Scott (00:03.385) And I'm Scott. Brian (00:04.92) And welcome to the Two Old Fashioned podcast where two friends and neighbors get together about once a week, share some old fashions and share some stories. Hope everybody's doing well and welcome to a very special day today. Well, you know what? Let's take a little like take a little step back on that. Scott, where are you drinking? Scott (00:22.555) What am I drinking? I am drinking an old fashioned. I have larceny bourbon, that whistle pig maple syrup that I had a couple of weeks ago. And then I'm trying some cocoa bitters today. It's tasting pretty strong. I mean, it's a double as always. I'm ready to go. You caught me right before we recorded. took my first sip of the evening and yeah, it hit me. It hit me. So we'll see how this recording goes. Brian (00:35.276) Ooh, how's that working out for you? Brian (00:52.098) Nice, excellent. So what I kind of got ahead of myself on, so I am drinking a Taylor Bottled and Bond Old Fashioned. And why I think that's a special day is on the day that we're recording, March 3rd is actually Bottled and Bond Day. So what that means for people that don't know, Bottled and Bond, this celebrates the act that came out in 1897. And really at this time, lots of people were putting bad stuff in their whiskey, right? Like tobacco, spit, and... Scott (01:06.736) Mmm. Brian (01:20.44) prune juice and all this stuff. So not a lot of safety in what you were getting. So this was actually, you know, being a big marketing advertising guy, this was the first truth in marketing legislation that was out there. So in order to be a bottled and bond, the whiskey, or actually it can be any spirit, but it has to be in a bonded warehouse. So federal government has to have access to that warehouse to make sure no funny business is going on. Has to be at least four years old from one distillery, one distillation season. and come in at 100 proof or 50 ABV. So pretty cool. There's a lot of great modeling bonds out there. Taylor was actually one of the people proponents of this legislation. So, you know, I thought we would raise the glass to Bottled and Bonded. Scott (01:49.883) Hmm. Scott (02:04.763) Well, cheers. mean, who knew that this podcast was going to be so educational? Last week we learned about proof and why it's called proof. And now we learned about bottle and bond. Brian (02:14.028) I mean, I'm gonna run out of fun facts very quickly, so let's not get too excited. Yeah, but you know, I think you're gonna have a lot of fun facts on today's topic. So the other day, weather was nice. I mean, you know, nice for Northern Virginia in this February, March time period where you might get a little sun. Scott (02:16.507) I doubt that. You're full of fun facts. Scott (02:25.903) Okay. Scott (02:32.911) Meteorolog- how do you say it? Meteorological Spring? I can't even say it. It's like the title of our podcast. Meteorological Spring. Brian (02:37.581) Ooh, okay. All right. Well, don't get into the weather business. But, you know, it was nice enough on Friday that I fired up the grill. I put on some burgers, some hot dogs and, know, just felt felt right. Now, again, two days later, it snowed and the kids had a two hour delay. But here we are. But it got me thinking, you know, sometimes when I'm outside, I'll just smell these great smells kind of coming from over the hill. And I'm like, what is Scott making? And so I know you are quite the griller, the smoker. Scott (02:45.391) Yes. Scott (03:06.587) Hmm. Brian (03:10.542) And thought we could kind of get into that because I feel like guys our age, they fall into a couple of different camps, right? Like I'm in the bourbon enthusiast camp. Some people get into hiking. Some people get into cars. A lot of guys get into grilling and meat. And I know that's something you're passionate about. I've been fortunate enough to have some of the great food that you've made. just let's start at the beginning. How did you get so good at smoking meat, Scott? Scott (03:19.917) Yeah. Scott (03:34.491) That is a great question. I want to say maybe 10 years ago or so when we were living at our previous house, all my neighbors had smokers and I didn't really honestly, I don't think I knew what the difference between smoking and grilling was. I had a grill. I had a propane Brian (03:52.492) I still don't, so maybe help our audience out. Scott (03:56.592) Well, I'm not prepared to give the actual difference. I can tell you what my impression or what I think the difference is, right? I mean, here's what it is. If I'm grilling, I'm cooking over a flame. If I'm smoking, I'm using indirect heat. So there is a flame somewhere, but there is something blocking that flame from hitting my meat. So you're getting the indirect heat. And if you are cooking low and slow enough, Brian (04:03.004) That's all we need. Scott (04:25.325) heard the term low and slow, you're getting the smoke of the wood that you are burning. And you could be burning a number of different types of wood, you could be burning, you know, charcoal, you could be burning pellets. But if you're producing smoke, which again, happens at a relatively lower temperature, probably about like 225 or so, you're going to produce that smoke, which flavors the meat. And I think it makes a world of difference. Although, I mean, it depends on what you're going for. Brian (04:27.16) Mm-hmm. Brian (04:56.214) Right, so you gotta be thinking ahead. You can't be 5.30 on Friday night and your kids need to eat in half an hour and, you know, smoke a brisket. Scott (05:03.023) Half have no, I'm not a brisket. But you know, some people have the misconception that smoking takes all day and you can have it take all day if you want it to take all day. But there are certain things like a favorite in our house is chicken thighs. If you have never smoked something and you're looking for like, hey, I want something easy as my first smoke that I can't mess up. Chicken thighs is always my recommendation. You can't really overcook them. and you can smoke chicken thighs in probably about 45 minutes. So it doesn't have to be a long commitment. I mean, even like a big pork butt or a brisket, there are ways to speed up the process where it's not gonna take you 18 hours. It might take you six hours, but you know, it's all relative. Brian (05:36.44) Mm, okay. Brian (05:42.849) Okay. Brian (05:53.932) Yeah, I feel like I got intimidated, right? think another neighbor of ours told me, you know, set his alarm for 2 a.m., go get things started, take a nap, be back out there at 5 o'clock to adjust the billows or things like that. And I'm like, this seems like a lot of work. But I get that people enjoy it. Scott (06:10.659) Yeah, any excuse. mean, I've done those all night smokes. in my opinion, they're more stressful. The juice is not worth the squeeze in the sense that you're working literally all night to get your meat to be the proper temperature to get it to taste the way you want it to taste. And then you eat your meal and the meal takes, what, 15 minutes? So I've kind of graduated from that. Brian (06:32.979) Yeah. Scott (06:38.319) But yeah, I do. I'm using my smoker probably once a week. And yet to your earlier point, right now that the weather is nice, I'm out there more often. It's a good excuse to turn some music on, pour yourself a drink, get away from the family, get away from the kids for a little bit, enjoy the nice outdoors and yeah, smell the, you know, the, exhaust, the good exhaust of the smoker. Brian (06:41.931) Okay. Brian (07:01.11) Yeah, so I know some guys are like big green egg guys. Some are like Traeger. Like what's your device of choice? Scott (07:07.749) So I've had them all. So again, 10 years ago, right? We lived in our own. We live in our old house and all the neighbors had smokers and I was intimidated. So my wife for my birthday actually she got me an electric smoker, which you know electric smoker is probably the entry level smoker. I would say you can probably buy one for $200 something along those lines. And you know it's exactly what it sounds like. You plug it in. Brian (07:10.114) oops, you are an expert on this. We have come to the right source. Scott (07:35.386) You tell it what temperature you want it to be. You feed it some wood. The one I had, you had to feed maybe every two hours or so. And it almost looked like an oven like you have in your kitchen. It was very easy to use. And then, you know, I maybe had that for two years or so. And then I felt like I had graduated and everyone had told me the big green egg is what you need to own if you are a serious smoker. And the eggs really cool because you can do the low and slow. but you can also get that thing ripping hot like get it to. I don't know how hot you can get it probably like 1000 degrees. You can make it a pizza oven and you can make it like a steakhouse broiler right like you know the stakes taste so good at a steakhouse because they got that really hot broiler. You can get it that hot and get these crazy flames going. And I loved it. It was so much fun. But man, that thing was a lot of work and when I talk about the overnight smokes. Brian (08:19.33) Mm-hmm. Scott (08:36.325) You know, you're out there tending to that egg because there's no automated temperature control. You're only just playing with vents. There's two vents and if you want it to get hotter, you open the vent a little bit more, get more oxygen in. If you wanted to get cooler, you close those vents and so there's just an art to it. And again, the art is fun at 2 in the afternoon. The art maybe is less fun at 2 in the morning and there were definitely some occurrences where. Brian (08:54.637) Okay. Scott (09:05.019) You know, I put that brisket on. I can think of one Memorial Day, maybe like 2018. I put that brisket on at let's say midnight and I got the buzz at like 430 in the morning saying like your fire is way too hot. Your brisket's overdone and you're scrambling with very little sleep freaking out. Brian (09:25.196) Okay, so you get like a monitor so you get an alert, but you can't do anything. Okay, you got it. Scott (09:27.771) Well, you have the you have the wireless thermometer, right? So like that that particular time I went to sleep, I thought I had everything set up properly. I was sleeping on the couch, but I did go to sleep. And then I was woken up by the thing beeping telling me, you know, you're going to have some burnt meat if you don't get to work soon. So that was no fun. Brian (09:38.903) You Brian (09:46.062) So were you able to fix that one or was that a broken Memorial Day? Scott (09:49.724) I think it turned out okay. If I know, I think it turned out okay. I think I pulled it at like six 30 in the morning. So I talk about there's ways to speed it up, right? Like I thought it was going be an 18 hour cook. turned out to be a six hour cook because the temperature was so high. Uh, it ended up being okay. But then it was like, what do I do with this piece of meat at six 30 in the morning? I'm not having a brisket for breakfast. Friends are coming over in the afternoon. Um, so anyway, I don't know. It's just, you know, the trials and tribulations of smoking. Brian (10:01.154) Mmm. Scott (10:20.059) But then when we moved to our new house, I was like done with the egg, right? The egg was fun, but it was too much work. So I went and got a pellet smoker. And the pellet smoker is awesome because it's kind of the best of both worlds. You can set it and forget it. It's electric. So you do tell it what temp you want. I almost call it cheating, right? Like smoking is an art, but using a pellet smoker, it's cheating and it's really, really hard to mess up. anything you put in a pellet smoker. So I have my gas grill and then I have my pellet smoker and they sit right next to each other on their desk. Brian (10:58.222) Yeah, that whole big green egg thing reminded me, you want to be a good neighbor, right? that neighbor texted and said, Hey, can you help me out? Like, sure. Probably should have asked what he had just gotten a delivery of one of these big green eggs. And so it's me, him and his like 14 year old trying to move it from the driveway back around the house. So those things, I mean, I'm not a strong person, but that thing felt like it weighed like seven sumo wrestlers. Like that thing is solid. Scott (11:11.44) Yeah. Scott (11:21.506) They're heavy. it does. It is. It's crazy. I have a question for you and I'm going to type back to smoking in a second. You'll see where I'm going. But have you ever been to a NASCAR race? Brian (11:37.688) You know what? I grew up outside of Richmond. I did not go to any NASCAR races in Richmond. Richmond has a large international speedway, big race culture there. I went to one IndyCar race there when Danica was kind of a big thing. And then I did go back to one of your cities. I went for a bachelor party to a NASCAR race in or outside of Atlanta. So will say that was the first NASCAR experience I had. Scott (11:52.411) Okay. Brian (12:05.742) to your point, kind of cheating. We were doing all right. had pit passes and a friend had a sweet and everything. So we had a great time. But I'm gonna guess it has to do something with the smell of the tires. Scott (12:18.401) No, no, actually, I'm getting to to the tailgating, the tailgating that goes on at NASCAR races. So right after I graduated college, and again, I was in Atlanta, we talked about that, I think in Episode One, me and a few friends, we drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina, to go to the NASCAR race. They have a night race in the fall, or at least they used to, I think they still do. And the night race is great, because they open the parking lots at like, six in the morning. Brian (12:19.438) Alright, this is why she... Scott (12:48.059) and you have these epic tailgates that again start first thing in the morning and they go basically till midnight when the race is over. You know, NASCAR races again, at least they used to, you could bring a cooler in to the, the, um, the grandstands. It's a big party. So we had a great time where 22 year olds just, you know, having, having a lot of fun outside and we made friends with the older man who was parked right next to our car. Brian (13:01.58) Mm-hmm. Scott (13:15.491) And he was doing a solo tailgate. He was a serious NASCAR fan. It was not his first race, so he had a portable smoker that he had going. Like, you know, by his car, he was just sitting there drinking some beers and he had his own snacks and things like that. And we start talking to him and we're asking, you know, what do you have going on in this thing that's smoking? I didn't even realize what it was. And he had a pork butt that he was smoking. Again, started six in the morning and he said it was going to be ready when the race was over. And we go, You know that's interesting. You're going to have dinner at 11 PM like explain. He's like no, the traffic is so bad that when the race is over I come out. I continue my tailgate. guess you know, I guess he sobered up. He was drinking water, who knows, but he had his dinner waiting for him that was smoking all day. It's like that's genius and he said, you know you guys look like you're so much fun. Brian (13:47.79) Scott (14:13.049) If you're out here before I'm out here, you know, help yourself, eat whatever you want. So nice. So nice. So anyway, we go to the race, we're drinking our beers, we're having a great time. We decide we're going to beat the traffic. We're going to leave before the race is over. We didn't really care who won the race and we get out and man, that pork butt was smelling good. Now you can imagine what a bunch of 22 year old kids who've been drinking all day did. Brian (14:16.462) Just help yourself. That is Southern hospitality right there. Scott (14:41.913) to that barbecue pork that he had been working on all day. I don't want to say we ate all of it. But we sure ate a lot of it. And I think we felt a little guilty, but obviously not that guilty. And we drove away, we had a great laugh about it. And we talked about it. We still talk about it to this day, actually, but I didn't realize what I really did to this poor guy until I started smoking, you know, my own pork butts and realize how much work went into it. Brian (15:08.214) Mmm, because of all the work he put into it, yeah. Scott (15:11.789) And you know that guy, he's probably telling his friends to this day, this story about how he went to this race and these punk kids ate all of his pulled pork that he was making all day. Brian (15:22.806) I mean, did you like leave him a couple of brewskis or something? Scott (15:28.251) I don't think so. I mean, this was, yeah, this was not good. Brian (15:28.942) Alright, well Scott, if he's out there, is there anything you want to say to him now? Scott (15:35.193) I mean, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You're welcome to come over here. I'll cook you a dinner one night. Brian (15:40.878) Hey, you think that Howie Day song, So Sorry, is actually about you stealing this guy's pork butt? You know, I've got another one of my 90 % sure it's true stories here. I'm pretty sure NASCAR started based on bootleggers during Prohibition that were getting in these like souped up cars and trying to outrun the law. Scott (15:45.807) Sorry, so sorry. Yeah, it could be. Could be. Scott (16:00.048) think that's true. Scott (16:04.011) That is true. I have a number. I used to be a big NASCAR fan. I really was. So I went to this race that I'm talking about. And the other cool thing about NASCAR. The cheaper the ticket, the closer you are to the track because you can't see anything. So we bought the cheapest tickets we could, and I'm pretty sure we were front row. We were the front row or second row. Couldn't see a darn thing, but we were right there. And when the cars are driving by you at 200 miles an hour, I mean, you feel it. Brian (16:07.97) Okay. Brian (16:17.378) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Scott (16:31.523) So anyway, I was a Orioles fan. This is my whole life story. Basically grew up a Baltimore Orioles fan lived in Atlanta. got tired of trying to find ways to watch Orioles games in Atlanta because the Orioles were so bad at the time that I you know what? Screw baseball. I'm going to become an Asgard fan because it was so much fun at that race. Brian (16:51.63) And there was no streaming back in the day for, you know, our younger listeners. Scott (16:55.195) There was some forms of streaming. I don't think they were very legal, but there were ways to find the games if you wanted to. So anyway, I have a number of NASCAR books and your story is correct. I don't remember much more about it than that, but yes. Brian (16:59.522) Okay. Brian (17:10.904) Okay. So who, like, who was your guy? Scott (17:14.843) I really liked the Red Bull Racing team. So it was Brian Vickers, number 83, and AJ Almondinger, the Dinger. He was number 84. And I don't really know why I gravitated towards those two guys, but I just love that they were the Red Bull Racing team. were like decent. They might win one race a season, but they were dominant. They weren't total scrubs, but yeah, Red Bull race like Brian (17:40.482) I've never heard of either of them. Scott (17:42.277) Brian Vickers, man, he was really good. He had a heart murmur or something that caused him to retire early, but like that guy. Brian (17:48.808) Geez. Yeah. So what made you fall out of love with NASCAR and into love with Smoking Meats? Scott (17:56.474) Well, I don't think they're related. What happened was the Nats got good and I became a Fairweather Nationals fan. And then there wasn't time in my sports calendar for two sports. So I gave up on NASCAR and went back to baseball. Brian (17:58.37) Yeah. Brian (18:02.158) Mmm. Okay. Brian (18:10.318) That's fair. are in March. We are now in March Madness, which maybe we'll cover that in future episode. One of my favorite times of the year when kind of March Madness is happening, opening day is happening. Like there's just a lot of fun sports to kind of get us through that football-less period, I would say. Scott (18:19.353) Mm-hmm. Scott (18:28.527) Do you have any interest in the world baseball classic? Brian (18:33.538) I like the idea of it. I like you, like, you know, just don't have as much time for sports as I used to. So I will spend all of my effort on college basketball while that is going on. But I think it's great, great idea. It's cool, really, you know, it is an international game and just to be able to expand that. I think it's a little weird with the timing, how sometimes like it messes up spring training for some of the MLB teams and players, but hey, it's good for the game. I'm all for it. Scott (18:40.847) Yeah. Scott (19:02.203) You know, we're recording this probably a few weeks before it goes live. But today was the first exhibition game of the world baseball classic. And it was on at 3 p.m. So I actually got to watch it with my oldest son. And it was the USA team against the San Francisco Giants, which was kind of cool because even though it was spring training, the Giants put their starting lineup out there to give the USA team some competition. And I mean. Brian (19:15.182) Mmm. Brian (19:26.275) Yeah. Scott (19:27.995) The USA team is so dominant. won. I don't actually know what the final score was. They were winning 9 to 1. I think in the sixth inning and then we turned it off because it was time to do homework or whatever it was time to do. But. I mean, there's so many good young American players. It was pretty pretty fun to watch and I don't think anyone on the team is really older than like 30 years old. Maybe Paul Goldschmidt. might be the oldest player, but I don't know. I love baseball. Baseball is my favorite sport. Brian (19:53.291) Uh-huh. Scott (19:57.206) And when the Nationals are good, I get so excited. I try to watch every single game now, you know, the past five years or so, the Nats have been so bad that I'm just craving some baseball and I got excited to watch the classic. Brian (20:10.862) That is cool. Yeah, I remember it. So growing up outside of Richmond, we had the Richmond Braves at the time. Now they're a double A team called the Flying Squirrels. But I forget if it was 92 or 96. They were doing some exhibition games ahead of the Olympics. And so the USA team came and played. And, you know, I don't know which sports, you know, are purely amateur in the Olympics and which ones have pro. But at this time, baseball is pure amateur. And so it was cool seeing some of those guys. Scott (20:16.218) Yeah. Brian (20:39.182) that then went on to play in the big leagues. And it was just like, it was cool. was like a lot of pride and excitement and like you, like I grew up playing baseball by far my favorite sport, the one I know the most about and just sort of like be able to get up close and just kind of see that kind of stuff before, felt like before everybody else, right? Cause it was going to be in the Olympics in two or three months. Like that was, that was exciting. Scott (20:44.56) Yeah. Scott (20:58.659) Yeah, I'm going to retract what I said a second ago. There are multiple players on that team that are over 30 years old. I'm just thinking like Bryce Harper. He's not young anymore, is he? Bryce is over 30. Yeah, Aaron Judge. He's over 30. Everyone just feels young, I guess. Anyway, there's a lot of. Lot of good players on the team. Brian (21:09.11) Unfortunately, Yeah. I think I saw something the other day that Bryce has now been on the Phillies as long as he was on the Nats. Scott (21:23.791) Well, he joined the year before we won the World Series, so he joined in 2019. So that's seven years. And then I think he came to the Nats in 2012. That sounds probably right. So, yeah, probably about the same amount of time. Brian (21:39.424) Yeah, it is crazy now that we're in our, you know, low 40s with all these guys that are considered old that are in their low 30s. Scott (21:47.044) I know, I know. Was there a time in your life, there was a time in my life when I realized, man, I'm never gonna get to participate in the Olympics anymore. I don't know what I was gonna play, what I was gonna do in the Olympics, but it was just like, think I've aged out. I guess I could probably still do curling. Brian (21:55.662) That was early on for me. Brian (22:05.378) I was gonna say, feel like everybody sees Curling in the Winter Olympics and thinks, you know what, I'm pretty good at shuffleboard, I can do this. I don't think it's that easy. Scott (22:11.267) Yeah. You know, there's a place, I think it'd be ION. They have curling night. I think it's like a Tuesday night. You can do curling there in an adult curling league. Brian (22:26.222) I feel like we should join just for content. Scott (22:28.377) We actually, and some other friends, we looked into it and you had to, it was more complicated than just showing up on a Tuesday night. had to not get certified, but you had to do a training, I guess. Be certified that you know what you're doing so that you can participate in the Tuesday night league or whatever night it was. It was just too much work. Brian (22:53.184) I it actually sounds like, I know where you're a big fantasy football guy, I do it a little, but I feel like that'd be like a fun thing. Like some of these leagues, right, have something that the loser has to do that's kind of embarrassing, make them get certified in curling. Scott (23:02.512) Yeah. Scott (23:06.871) It's like not pain. That's not painful at all. Yeah, I mean, I think that's I'd be happy as someone who usually finishes in last place. I'd be fine with that. Brian (23:08.558) Not hard enough. Brian (23:17.71) What kind of penalties have you seen that crack you up? Scott (23:23.587) I mean, I love the guys that have to spend 24 hours at a Waffle House or an IHOP. I think those are hilarious. Brian (23:29.998) Mm-hmm. But can get out early, like depending on how many pancakes or waffles you eat. Yeah. Okay. Scott (23:35.759) Waffles you eat. I think that was a really good. There was a really good like diary. I don't know, maybe five years ago or so somebody who was stuck at a waffle house. I'm just trying to think if we had in my leagues, if we had anything that was super memorable, there was one year was we my my serious league, the one that I take most seriously, we. like to get together, even though people live all over the country, actually all over the world, we have somebody in Asia. Folks like to get together. I don't participate as much as others, but one year there was, I guess, a dare for folks to get a tattoo on their behind of their favorite teams. So there are multiple members of my fantasy football league who have matching tattoos on their butts. Brian (24:20.942) Heard of that. Scott (24:31.959) I'm glad I was not there for that. I can't think of any really good penalties that I've been a part of. How about you? Brian (24:40.812) Yeah, it's been pretty low key. Like usually the league with the guys from college and guys and girls actually, it's like couples league. The person that loses has to hope, back when we would do the drafting person has to host the draft, the beer, buy the pizza, and usually like wear some kind of ridiculous outfit that says like, suck at fantasy football or maybe like a Canadian tuxedo, know, stuff like that. So. Scott (25:05.839) Yeah. Yeah. Brian (25:07.256) Pretty mild, we don't take it too seriously, because nobody's very good at it. Scott (25:12.302) Awesome. Brian (25:13.358) I feel like we've covered a lot. We started out with meat. We've done NASCAR. We've done fantasy football. So I think this is a good encompass of kind of what I was talking about earlier. Like, you know, you get to a certain stage in life as a male, you fall into one of these camps and maybe you don't fall into one camp. You fall into different ones. So I think that is probably a wrap for today. What do you think? Scott (25:15.002) Yeah. Scott (25:34.145) I think that sounds good. Brian (25:35.978) All right, well, cheers, and we'll see you out there. Scott (25:39.1) Cheers,