Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / James Buckingham| The Story, The Smoke & The Heart Behind Big Buck's BBQ

Transcript

James Buckingham| The Story, The Smoke & The Heart Behind Big Buck's BBQ · Single Tree Nation Show

• 0:03
  I started to say something and it just
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  did not come out.
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  Okay.
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  All right, great.
• 0:14
  All right.
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  We're all right.
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  I'm restarting.
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  All right.
• 0:17
  Yeah.
• 0:17
  Sorry.
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  I ain't gotten stoned in a minute.
• 0:27
  welcome back to single tree nation guys
• 0:29
  i'm your man charlie eblen and as always
• 0:31
  we have our illustrious co-host mr derry
• 0:33
  wells what's up everybody oh man it's
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  starting off on the right foot already uh
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  look we want to thank toast for being
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  our primary partner here at the show and
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  for our restaurant they help us bring
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  hospitality to life with all the
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  technology they provide us so
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  Thank you guys for that.
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  And we are super,
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  super proud to be a partner with you.
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  Today, we have a killer show.
• 1:02
  My man,
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  James Buckingham from Big Buck's Barbecue.
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  Thanks for coming to hang out with us
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  for a little while today, brother.
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  Thanks for having me, man.
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  Man, I'm glad to have you.
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  I started out in this barbecue field very
• 1:21
  similar to how you have.
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  And I thought when we met that this
• 1:28
  would be...
• 1:29
  a killer show to dive into because your
• 1:31
  story's pretty cool.
• 1:34
  You're literally,
• 1:36
  we just got done talking about a pre-show,
• 1:37
  but you're literally twice the size of me.
• 1:42
  Literally.
• 1:42
  It's big bucks for a reason.
• 1:45
  I say that I'm not a large man
• 1:51
  to begin with.
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  I'm only five, seven, but you were six,
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  seven as every teenage boy in America just
• 1:58
  died laughing.
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  Right.
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  Um, and, and, and it's just incredible.
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  So I, um, uh, I,
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  I'm just happy to have you on, man.
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  It's going to be a good time.
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  So we'll jump into it and rock and
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  roll.
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  So tell everybody a little bit about
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  yourself, who you are, where you're from,
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  where you're at, what you're doing now,
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  and we'll dive into the story.
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  I'd love to, man.
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  Yeah.
• 2:22
  So...
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  As he said, my name is James Buckingham.
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  Everyone calls me Buck,
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  and I am the face and the owner
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  and the operator of Big Buck's Barbecue.
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  And I was born and raised in Columbus,
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  Georgia.
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  I'm an Air Force veteran,
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  and I've been in Middle Tennessee now
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  about eleven years,
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  and just really this year getting to
• 2:52
  full-time running my food truck.
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  I started last year part-time,
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  still working jobs and whatnot,
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  and decided to trust the Lord.
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  By the way, before I go any further,
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  I want to give all honor to my
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  Lord and Savior.
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  He is the head of my life.
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  I couldn't do any of this that I'm
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  doing without him.
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  I want to say that first in four
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  moments.
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  Man's got a plan.
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  Yeah, man.
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  And so I had to take,
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  just go ahead and step out on faith
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  and say, man, hey, you know,
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  this is what God called me to do.
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  Barbecue is literally everything to me.
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  And so I said,
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  I'm going to do this full time.
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  And I've been doing it all year full
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  time now and haven't had a regret yet,
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  you know.
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  You went full-time in January?
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  March, actually.
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  March.
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  Yeah,
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  I took the winter off from barbecue last
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  year because, like I said,
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  I was only doing it part-time.
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  And so I was working my job.
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  I was doing security, actually,
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  and doing my job full-time.
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  And then when the weather broke,
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  I was like, well,
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  I'm going to open the truck back up.
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  And I said, you know what?
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  i'm gonna do it full time and uh
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  you know talked it over with my with
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  my fiance and uh we said yeah let's
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  let's do it so i'm doing it and
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  i love it it's been great i love
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  it so before we get into your story
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  we darry and i have talked uh extensively
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  recently i don't even know if you can
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  say it extensively but we're trying to
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  come up with a couple of new segments
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  for our show
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  And one of the segments,
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  Derry doesn't even know about it.
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  So this is new to him.
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  So welcome.
• 4:48
  I dropped him like five different ideas.
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  We were going back and forth wildly one
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  night, but I don't know about this one.
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  So we're all in for a treat.
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  I talked to him in my head.
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  Yeah.
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  We've had a full conversation.
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  See, you know me already.
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  Is this a barbecue guy thing?
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  Like y'all just like have conversations.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, we've,
• 5:16
  we've already had this conversation.
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  So, uh,
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  I'm on the customer advisory board with
• 5:20
  toast.
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  And when we went up there the first
• 5:22
  time I ever went up there, they,
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  they go around the room to ask us,
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  uh, to tell what your favorite toast is.
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  Okay.
• 5:30
  Okay.
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  So in my brain, I'm thinking,
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  I'm at a wedding or a reception or
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  something along those lines.
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  And I got to give a toast.
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  Okay.
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  Right.
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  That's where my brain went.
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  Right.
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  But they were wanting to know like what
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  kind of breakfast toast.
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  Oh.
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  I would have been the same way as
• 5:51
  you.
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  I'd have been like, this one's to honor.
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  I was going through all the toast in
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  my head and I was like,
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  I want to know about three and none
• 5:56
  of them are radio appropriate.
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  And I'm like, God, well, there's that one.
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  Scott taught me a German.
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  No, I can't do that one.
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  And then I'm like, well, no,
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  there's that one about a gunpowder and all
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  that was like, I just,
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  I don't have any.
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  So I got, I got,
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  I got one that starts with blind,
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  crippled and crazy.
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  Yeah.
• 6:15
  He can't.
• 6:15
  Somebody's Googling these.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Gunpowder toast.
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  Whoa.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Can't do that one.
• 6:23
  Google this one's to honor.
• 6:24
  Yeah.
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  So my question is, would you...
• 6:35
  would you think a toast as in cheers
• 6:39
  is more appropriate for the show or what
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  your favorite toast like bread is since we
• 6:46
  are sponsored by toast
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  Okay.
• 6:51
  I'm not familiar with Toast as a company.
• 6:53
  Okay.
• 6:54
  It's a POS company.
• 6:55
  It's a POS company.
• 6:56
  Okay.
• 6:57
  All right.
• 6:58
  Think square on steroids and equipment's
• 7:02
  way better.
• 7:03
  Okay.
• 7:03
  All right.
• 7:04
  So I need to look into Toast is
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  what I mean.
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  Yes.
• 7:06
  Yes.
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  We can discuss that.
• 7:07
  Y'all were going to have that conversation
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  off air.
• 7:08
  You just didn't know.
• 7:09
  Yeah.
• 7:09
  You just didn't know it was coming.
• 7:10
  Okay.
• 7:10
  All right.
• 7:10
  So-
• 7:14
  I think I would think that the cheers
• 7:16
  kind of toast would be more.
• 7:18
  Cheers kind of toast?
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  Because that's what comes, like you said,
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  that's what comes to mind naturally first
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  anyway.
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  I mean,
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  who's thinking about breakfast toast like
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  that?
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  I like throwing people for a loop too.
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  You did.
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  Well done.
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  So do you have any appropriate toast you
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  could give out?
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  I don't know that I've ever led one
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  that was in a scenario where it had
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  to be appropriate.
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  So I don't have, I mean,
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  all the toasts I've ever been where
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  somebody got celebrated at a bar for doing
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  something or we're all at somebody's
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  house.
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  Right.
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  Somebody showed up and you're like, well,
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  we ain't seen this fellow fill in the
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  blank and all the colorful language.
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  Oh,
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  and everybody raised their glass to him.
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  And all of a sudden everybody's,
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  I've never been like,
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  Welcome to the wedding guys.
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  This is the best man.
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  This is my blood shed for the remission.
• 8:08
  Yeah.
• 8:09
  Okay.
• 8:09
  All right.
• 8:10
  Well then let's go to breakfast.
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  Okay.
• 8:20
  Well, there's plenty of radio,
• 8:22
  stay radio appropriate.
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  You'll have to, right?
• 8:24
  Yeah.
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  So what would, if you were gonna,
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  what would be your favorite,
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  if you were eating toast for breakfast,
• 8:29
  what would be your, or lunch or dinner?
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  Doesn't really matter if you were eating
• 8:31
  toast,
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  what would be your favorite kind of toast?
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  Uh, man, I don't know.
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  week regular uh white bread with butter
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  and sugar and cinnamon there you go yeah
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  all right i took it back to when
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  i was like six and uh got the
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  the swirl raisin bread oh yeah you guys
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  had that when you were six man and
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  they lived on the upside town yeah yeah
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  yeah look that was a splurge oh okay
• 9:06
  I had to make my toast with the
• 9:07
  booty of the bread.
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  Yeah, put the ounce swirl in it.
• 9:09
  Yeah, yeah.
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  my mom has started buying half loafs and
• 9:22
  it doesn't have the booty on one end
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  and like and it cracks me up and
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  it throws me off a little bit because
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  i'm like we'll be at mom's house i'm
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  like yeah it's missing a piece and she's
• 9:31
  like it's a half loaf and i'm like
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  it's still like it's weird where's the
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  other hat
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  yeah because you know they didn't actually
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  take a full pan cut it in half
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  and like i don't understand how do you
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  why would why buy half loaf uh well
• 9:46
  at the time well most of the time
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  i'd eat a lot of bread i'm gonna
• 9:49
  guess well she doesn't eat a lot of
• 9:50
  bread and she lives by herself and there's
• 9:52
  just not a lot to be consumed so
• 9:54
  um but you know so and she she's
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  buying the sourdough bread too so she's
• 9:59
  uppity you know it's got the blue
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  packaging so but anyway i do find that
• 10:03
  comical but
• 10:05
  Your mom's snooty about bread.
• 10:07
  My mom is snooty about three things in
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  the kitchen.
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  Bread's one of them.
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  Bread's one.
• 10:12
  Okay.
• 10:13
  Butter and milk.
• 10:15
  She's got to have that Kerrygold.
• 10:17
  No, she's not there yet.
• 10:18
  Oh, okay.
• 10:18
  But she will once she discovers it.
• 10:20
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:21
  She just ain't splurged that hard yet.
• 10:23
  Okay.
• 10:23
  But when I tell you if this woman
• 10:25
  finds butter on sale...
• 10:26
  Oh, seven, eight, nine, ten boxes.
• 10:28
  Doesn't matter.
• 10:28
  Like, seriously, all the time.
• 10:31
  And I've never like part of her downstairs
• 10:34
  fridge.
• 10:34
  Oh, one hundred percent.
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  And there's never less than two gallons of
• 10:37
  milk in there.
• 10:37
  But she will spray for the milk to
• 10:39
  sidetrack quickly.
• 10:44
  Why are you posting pictures of your mama
• 10:47
  napping?
• 10:47
  Oh, man.
• 10:47
  Oh, man.
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  That's what you want?
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  Hang on.
• 10:50
  No, hang on.
• 10:50
  Bro.
• 10:50
  Yeah, you got to explain that.
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  My mom is not a social media person.
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  So you just said make her one.
• 10:57
  Yeah.
• 10:59
  He made her public.
• 11:01
  What he's not going to tell everybody is
• 11:02
  he texts me on the side asking me
• 11:04
  to share it on my work page so
• 11:05
  I have more followers to hit it.
• 11:07
  So I, I, I,
• 11:09
  it was her birthday last week,
• 11:10
  but it was her birthday last week,
• 11:13
  whatever.
• 11:14
  And I was like, this will be hilarious.
• 11:16
  The people that know her will get a
• 11:19
  kick out of it.
• 11:20
  Right.
• 11:21
  The people that don't know her, like,
• 11:23
  as far as like at the house may
• 11:24
  know me or whatever,
• 11:25
  or I can't believe you just did this
• 11:27
  to your mother.
• 11:28
  Right.
• 11:28
  And that was the response I felt.
• 11:30
  I even commented,
• 11:30
  she will kill me when she discovers this.
• 11:33
  I'm glad you actually brought this up.
• 11:35
  I get a text from a friend that
• 11:37
  I haven't talked to in a few months
• 11:40
  is a nurse at the high school where
• 11:42
  my mom teaches.
• 11:44
  And she's like,
• 11:44
  does your mother like pineapple and
• 11:46
  coconut?
• 11:46
  I was like, yeah, she goes,
• 11:47
  I actually brought a cake to school today.
• 11:48
  I'm going to take it to her for
• 11:49
  birthday.
• 11:49
  It's great.
• 11:50
  So she walks in and she's like,
• 11:52
  how'd you know it was my birthday?
• 11:53
  She's like, oh,
• 11:54
  I've been conniving with your son and you
• 11:56
  know, we've got it all figured out.
• 11:57
  I was like, ha ha.
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  So mom comes home,
• 12:00
  tells me the long version of how she
• 12:01
  got this cake.
• 12:03
  And she goes,
• 12:03
  but what were y'all even talking about my
• 12:04
  birthday for?
• 12:05
  And so I was like this and I
• 12:07
  showed mom.
• 12:09
  she was not pleased however she did find
• 12:13
  it hilarious all the people who do know
• 12:15
  mom like my mom's just one of those
• 12:17
  like she gets comfortable still she'll
• 12:18
  doze off and then like a little cat
• 12:20
  nap and so uh my sister-in-law also she's
• 12:23
  like i can't believe you did that like
• 12:24
  and i was like yeah you know but
• 12:26
  mom mom saw the hilarity in it and
• 12:29
  didn't create her instagram page what was
• 12:31
  funny about the entire thing to me yeah
• 12:35
  was your wife
• 12:36
  Derry's wife commented with a picture of
• 12:43
  him on the other side of the room.
• 12:48
  okay out cold it was it literally she
• 12:51
  took like a little three second video
• 12:53
  twinsies yes yeah here's my mom boom got
• 12:56
  me oh wow we're both just like you
• 12:58
  know i was like out all right that's
• 13:00
  fair yeah that's got it i could hear
• 13:03
  the snoring another side of town i don't
• 13:05
  snore when i sit upright i'm good it
• 13:07
  was so
• 13:08
  It looked like one of the best
• 13:09
  Thanksgiving meals I had ever been to is
• 13:11
  what it looked like.
• 13:12
  You know what I mean?
• 13:13
  Everybody wants a Sunday meal or a Tuesday
• 13:15
  night.
• 13:15
  All you need is that CPAP mask.
• 13:17
  It was wonderful.
• 13:20
  Buck's like,
• 13:20
  I showed up here to talk food truck.
• 13:22
  We're talking about this guy's mom's
• 13:23
  birthday.
• 13:24
  I love it.
• 13:27
  I love it.
• 13:29
  So let's back down now that we got
• 13:31
  toast and cheers out of the way.
• 13:34
  Oh, man.
• 13:36
  Oh, we're working on some other segments,
• 13:38
  but the other one,
• 13:39
  the other one that I think our favorite
• 13:40
  so far is if you could have dinner
• 13:44
  with one person, past, present, or future.
• 13:46
  All right.
• 13:48
  Who would that be?
• 13:51
  If I could have dinner with one person,
• 13:53
  past, present, or future,
• 13:55
  who would that be?
• 13:58
  Hmm.
• 14:01
  There's a bunch of choices there for me.
• 14:04
  I asked this question to a couple of
• 14:05
  people this week since me and Daria talked
• 14:07
  about it.
• 14:07
  And so far,
• 14:08
  everybody that I've talked to has, one,
• 14:13
  mentioned either a grandparent or a parent
• 14:17
  that is deceased, no longer with us,
• 14:20
  to have one more conversation with them.
• 14:23
  And I found that pretty interesting and
• 14:27
  pretty deep.
• 14:27
  Yeah.
• 14:28
  Right?
• 14:28
  Because you can go down a rabbit hole
• 14:30
  with all kinds of emotions there.
• 14:31
  Absolutely.
• 14:34
  I've gotten Abraham Lincoln,
• 14:38
  George Washington, all of them.
• 14:41
  But since you brought it up already,
• 14:45
  my favorite response out of all of them,
• 14:47
  and it never popped in my brain –
• 14:49
  which really shocked me myself as a
• 14:52
  religious individual.
• 14:53
  Jesus.
• 14:55
  Sit down and talk to Jesus.
• 14:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:58
  It didn't come into my brain.
• 15:01
  Now, it's in my brain now.
• 15:03
  And that's my response now is, man,
• 15:05
  how I would love to sit down and
• 15:07
  have that conversation.
• 15:08
  Man,
• 15:09
  how much that would change you as a
• 15:11
  person, right?
• 15:11
  Oh, yeah.
• 15:13
  I think the unique part there is to
• 15:14
  look where you go from a selfish aspect,
• 15:22
  the grandparent side.
• 15:24
  It's just that one more conversation.
• 15:28
  but it's not selfish to also think I'd
• 15:30
  like to have a conversation with Jesus for
• 15:33
  betterment of self, right?
• 15:34
  So like they're still both a little bit
• 15:36
  inward focused,
• 15:37
  but they're not rooted in the same thing.
• 15:39
  Well, here's my thought on that.
• 15:41
  So I thought initially when you asked the
• 15:44
  question,
• 15:45
  I thought about my mother who's deceased
• 15:48
  or my father who's also deceased,
• 15:51
  but I wouldn't choose them because
• 15:54
  I'd hate to lose them again.
• 15:57
  Does that make sense?
• 15:58
  You know what I mean?
• 15:59
  You get to have that dinner and then
• 16:00
  you know they're gone forever again.
• 16:02
  You know what I mean?
• 16:03
  I don't want to go through that again.
• 16:05
  So, you know,
• 16:07
  Jesus would be a great choice because he
• 16:09
  ain't going to die after this.
• 16:11
  You know what I'm saying?
• 16:13
  He's not a one adult.
• 16:19
  But, yeah, that'd be my thing.
• 16:20
  You know,
• 16:21
  as much as I'd love to talk to
• 16:23
  him one more time, like you said,
• 16:24
  selfishly, you know,
• 16:25
  you got to realize you got to deal
• 16:27
  with that loss again, too.
• 16:28
  Yeah.
• 16:29
  And so I'm cool on that.
• 16:30
  Yeah.
• 16:32
  I think that's going to be a good
• 16:33
  topic, like, long term.
• 16:35
  We may need to study.
• 16:37
  Would you have preferred to have a heads
• 16:38
  up on that?
• 16:39
  No.
• 16:40
  Okay.
• 16:40
  No, that's fine.
• 16:41
  Because I was wondering,
• 16:41
  as we discussed that,
• 16:43
  if kind of just a softball, hey,
• 16:45
  you know.
• 16:47
  I'm cool with that.
• 16:49
  We'll ask next week, too,
• 16:50
  on our next guest.
• 16:52
  I'm digging it.
• 16:53
  I think it's a lot of fun.
• 16:54
  Yeah.
• 16:55
  We'll see.
• 16:55
  I just think, like, the –
• 16:59
  The reason we started this show was to
• 17:02
  hear people's stories.
• 17:05
  One of the things that I love about
• 17:06
  music is when you get to know an
• 17:08
  artist, the music sounds different, right?
• 17:12
  Like if you hear the Chili Peppers story
• 17:19
  and then go back and listen and like
• 17:20
  truly listen to the music and listen to
• 17:22
  the words and hear how it goes.
• 17:24
  Understand what they were singing about.
• 17:26
  Right.
• 17:27
  Then your whole process changes.
• 17:32
  Last week, a couple weeks ago,
• 17:33
  we had a lady on named Caitlin Curtis.
• 17:36
  And she's got a couple of new songs
• 17:38
  coming out.
• 17:38
  And one of her songs...
• 17:41
  what she was singing about was totally
• 17:44
  different than what some people said to
• 17:47
  her that it meant to them.
• 17:50
  So when you really get into what it
• 17:52
  means to somebody that wrote it and
• 17:54
  singing it,
• 17:57
  they can have a totally different meaning
• 17:58
  than what you think it is.
• 17:59
  Right.
• 17:59
  So, you know, it, it,
• 18:02
  I feel the same thing about food and
• 18:04
  people that cook.
• 18:05
  I agree.
• 18:06
  Right.
• 18:06
  What's you, the way you cook,
• 18:08
  the way you, the way,
• 18:11
  The love, the passion,
• 18:12
  the soul that you put into a rack
• 18:14
  of ribs, the why,
• 18:17
  all of that changes when you know why
• 18:23
  somebody does it.
• 18:25
  I agree.
• 18:26
  I understand.
• 18:27
  You know what I think is unique about
• 18:30
  that?
• 18:31
  You could take a hundred guys who cook
• 18:33
  brisket and say, hey,
• 18:35
  what do you do to your brisket?
• 18:36
  Salt, pepper, garlic.
• 18:38
  No, but what else?
• 18:39
  That's it.
• 18:40
  yeah well how do you smoke it i
• 18:41
  wrap it at one six five you know
• 18:43
  at the basis of it everybody does it
• 18:46
  within a window the same way really the
• 18:49
  same yeah right unless you get something
• 18:51
  wild or you're brining it or something
• 18:52
  whatever blah blah but i mean for the
• 18:53
  most part everybody does something
• 18:57
  you can cut your dog on brisket to
• 18:58
  the wrong way right cut it the wrong
• 19:01
  way or you did this that but then
• 19:04
  you start talking to them then you get
• 19:06
  to hey what what what's your drive behind
• 19:09
  this and and i you know and you
• 19:12
  start kind of feeling the fact of like
• 19:14
  wait there's a lot more here than just
• 19:16
  salt pepper garlic yeah right and it gets
• 19:18
  that element and i think that like like
• 19:20
  what you're saying you start to know
• 19:22
  somebody
• 19:23
  And it draws me in.
• 19:24
  I mean, I'll just be honest.
• 19:25
  Every guest that we've had on this podcast
• 19:28
  who has been a restaurant owner,
• 19:30
  I have tried to go to their restaurant.
• 19:32
  And I've still got a list of a
• 19:33
  couple that I haven't made it to yet.
• 19:34
  Yeah, of course.
• 19:35
  But I always go in feeling like it's
• 19:38
  already better food because I know their
• 19:41
  background.
• 19:42
  Love is a real ingredient.
• 19:44
  A hundred percent.
• 19:45
  One hundred percent.
• 19:45
  It's just like if you had your grandmother
• 19:48
  write down all her recipes and you had
• 19:49
  your wife try to recreate them,
• 19:51
  it ain't going to be the same.
• 19:52
  Mom's pecan pie.
• 19:53
  She can follow the recipe to the letter.
• 19:56
  And it's still not going to be what
• 19:58
  grandma used to do because he didn't got
• 20:00
  grandma's love.
• 20:00
  That's right.
• 20:01
  It's all, it's all it is.
• 20:03
  I did it the other day.
• 20:04
  I don't even remember what it was.
• 20:05
  I was making it to restaurant,
• 20:06
  but it's not something on the menu.
• 20:07
  It was off menu.
• 20:10
  And, uh,
• 20:11
  I was putting something in and somebody
• 20:12
  was at one of my guys was asking
• 20:13
  me how to make it.
• 20:14
  And I was like, oh,
• 20:16
  that's a tablespoon of salt.
• 20:17
  And, and,
• 20:18
  but I used my hand for the tables,
• 20:21
  but it's not really a tablespoon, right?
• 20:22
  No, it ain't really a tablespoon.
• 20:24
  It's what my eyeball says.
• 20:25
  A table's right.
• 20:26
  Right.
• 20:27
  And that tablespoon is going to be the
• 20:28
  same almost every time for me.
• 20:31
  Right.
• 20:31
  But it's probably not going to be a
• 20:33
  tablespoon might be a tablespoon and a
• 20:35
  half.
• 20:35
  It might be three quarters.
• 20:36
  I don't know.
• 20:37
  I never measured it out.
• 20:38
  And he was like, you know,
• 20:41
  if I made one of those recipes like
• 20:42
  that, you'd get mad at me.
• 20:44
  And I went, well, yeah.
• 20:46
  Because that's a recipe for the
• 20:47
  restaurant.
• 20:48
  It's got to be the same every time.
• 20:49
  This one's for my house.
• 20:51
  And it might be this much different than
• 20:53
  the other.
• 20:54
  You know what I mean?
• 20:57
  So, yeah.
• 20:58
  Love is definitely a real ingredient for
• 21:01
  sure.
• 21:02
  I got a few years ago,
• 21:04
  I asked my mom to start writing down
• 21:07
  family recipes by hand.
• 21:09
  And that's been the thing going for years
• 21:12
  now.
• 21:12
  So I've got a nice little notebook,
• 21:13
  her stuff.
• 21:14
  And I go through there and make it.
• 21:16
  And there's about two things that taste
• 21:18
  like hers.
• 21:20
  Turns out those aren't recipes that she
• 21:22
  got or came up with.
• 21:24
  It was something she got somewhere else.
• 21:26
  So she's just duplicating.
• 21:27
  So I'm duplicating what was already being
• 21:29
  duplicated, right?
• 21:30
  But her stuff, can't touch it.
• 21:33
  I cannot get her biscuits right for
• 21:35
  nothing.
• 21:37
  Let me start telling you my barbecue love
• 21:39
  story.
• 21:42
  So starts when I'm about ten,
• 21:44
  eleven years old.
• 21:46
  I was raised by my grandparents.
• 21:48
  My grandfather, retired,
• 21:51
  twenty three year master sergeant in the
• 21:53
  army and also a barbecue man.
• 21:56
  You know, he every weekend seemed like,
• 21:59
  you know,
• 21:59
  if we weren't working hard somewhere,
• 22:00
  he won't do the barbecue.
• 22:02
  So when I got to be about ten
• 22:04
  or eleven and believe it or not,
• 22:05
  I was not a big kid.
• 22:07
  So I was I was an average size.
• 22:10
  I do not believe nobody ever does.
• 22:12
  Nobody ever does.
• 22:13
  But listen,
• 22:14
  if I could take you to my grandparents'
• 22:15
  house and show you the old pictures,
• 22:17
  I was not an abnormal sized kid.
• 22:20
  But when I got tall enough to see
• 22:21
  the top of the grill,
• 22:22
  my grandfather started showing me,
• 22:24
  you know, how to do it.
• 22:25
  And he started me with, you know,
• 22:27
  building a fire first.
• 22:28
  And then it was, you know,
• 22:30
  meat management and moving things around
• 22:32
  and whatever.
• 22:33
  And so that started,
• 22:36
  my love was doing that with him, right?
• 22:40
  And then as I got older,
• 22:42
  When I went into the military myself and
• 22:44
  everything,
• 22:45
  I took that and I became my grandfather,
• 22:49
  basically.
• 22:49
  On the weekends,
• 22:50
  I'm barbecuing and my friends coming over
• 22:52
  and we're doing that all the time.
• 22:55
  When I get out of the military,
• 22:57
  I come home and...
• 23:00
  uh, my uncle is, uh, he's, he's gotten,
• 23:03
  you know,
• 23:04
  heavy into barbecue at that time.
• 23:05
  And he, he bought a big,
• 23:07
  big trailer smoker and all this kind of
• 23:08
  stuff.
• 23:09
  And he's doing, doing big cooks and stuff.
• 23:11
  So I start kind of studying with him.
• 23:13
  Right.
• 23:14
  And, uh, he and I, we,
• 23:16
  we start comparing notes and,
• 23:18
  and challenging each other on different
• 23:19
  stuff and whatever.
• 23:20
  And that, that builds even further.
• 23:23
  Um,
• 23:25
  to the point we spent six years working
• 23:28
  on a dry rub together.
• 23:31
  I do my part on my side.
• 23:33
  He'd do whatever he did on his side.
• 23:34
  We'd come together and compare notes and
• 23:36
  whatever.
• 23:37
  Well,
• 23:37
  I put half a cup of this in
• 23:41
  there and whatever.
• 23:43
  And then...
• 23:44
  Eventually we got to a blend and we
• 23:45
  were like, oh, that's it.
• 23:48
  So I did that for about six years
• 23:54
  after I got out of the military.
• 23:58
  I was doing IT work,
• 24:00
  believe it or not.
• 24:00
  I used to be an IT guy.
• 24:02
  I was a computer nerd.
• 24:03
  call it is that what you did in
• 24:04
  the air force that's what i did the
• 24:05
  air force yeah and yeah i thought you'd
• 24:08
  be too tall for the air force don't
• 24:09
  they have a ceiling so uh for pilots
• 24:12
  oh for pilots okay so that so that
• 24:14
  was my original goal i wanted to be
• 24:15
  a pilot all right uh and then um
• 24:18
  i went you know to the recruiter and
• 24:19
  everything and i was going to go in
• 24:20
  the academy and all that to be a
• 24:22
  fighter pilot i always wanted to turn and
• 24:23
  burn right
• 24:24
  well they're like at the time at the
• 24:25
  time i was only uh only six three
• 24:29
  all right uh which the cutoff was six
• 24:32
  two oh jesus pilots and um because you
• 24:35
  know the cockpit's only so yeah and um
• 24:37
  so they're like yeah you're not gonna be
• 24:38
  able to be a pilot and uh
• 24:40
  And nobody knew that I still had room
• 24:42
  to grow at that time either.
• 24:43
  I was a real late bloomer.
• 24:45
  And so, yeah,
• 24:47
  so I ended up going into my second
• 24:49
  interest at the time, which was computers.
• 24:53
  IT was what I did.
• 24:54
  And so when I got out of the
• 24:55
  Air Force, I was doing contracts,
• 24:57
  working for different companies.
• 24:59
  And the final contract that I worked was
• 25:01
  down in Houston, Texas.
• 25:03
  And I was working with Chevron down there.
• 25:08
  And
• 25:09
  I, uh, I got tired of,
• 25:11
  of doing contract it work.
• 25:13
  I was like, this is, you know,
• 25:15
  it pays bills,
• 25:15
  but I don't like it like that.
• 25:17
  And, um, and so somebody told me,
• 25:20
  you know,
• 25:20
  if you do what you love and you
• 25:21
  work a day in your life,
• 25:23
  what do I love?
• 25:24
  What would I do if I was just,
• 25:26
  I just had free time.
• 25:27
  Didn't have, you know,
• 25:27
  didn't have to go to work somewhere.
• 25:29
  What would I be doing at home?
• 25:31
  I'd be barbecuing.
• 25:33
  So I use my GI bill.
• 25:35
  figured out where I wanted to go to
• 25:36
  culinary school and ended up going to Le
• 25:40
  Cordon Bleu to their Atlanta campus and
• 25:43
  got my culinary degree.
• 25:45
  And while I was in Le Cordon Bleu,
• 25:46
  everybody thought I was crazy because who
• 25:48
  pays all this money to go to a
• 25:49
  fancy fine dining French culinary school
• 25:53
  and to be a pit master.
• 25:57
  And I'd argue people down.
• 25:58
  I had many debates about this,
• 26:00
  because everybody in culinary school
• 26:02
  thinks they're gonna be the next Food
• 26:03
  Network star or Gordon Ramsay or
• 26:05
  something.
• 26:06
  And from what I've seen,
• 26:08
  ninety percent of them aren't even gonna
• 26:10
  continue cooking after school.
• 26:13
  But my argument was that there is no
• 26:18
  more skill-dependent type of cooking than
• 26:22
  barbecue.
• 26:23
  There's no other type of cooking where you
• 26:24
  have to create and manage your own heat
• 26:26
  source.
• 26:27
  You have to battle atmospheric conditions.
• 26:30
  You have to deal with varying apparatus as
• 26:34
  far as different type of smokers and all
• 26:35
  this kind of stuff.
• 26:37
  Baking is baking.
• 26:38
  You know what I mean?
• 26:39
  frying is frying if the oven's accurate
• 26:41
  let's go yeah and every other type of
• 26:44
  cooking you don't have to worry about the
• 26:46
  humidity right throughout the entire cook
• 26:49
  not just at the start of the beginning
• 26:51
  or in the middle right throughout the
• 26:52
  entire process it can change right so you
• 26:55
  can you know and that's one of the
• 26:56
  things in teaching in my restaurant it's
• 26:59
  the same thing and teaching someone else
• 27:01
  how to do what i do yeah not
• 27:04
  only do they have to have the feel
• 27:06
  not the thermometer and the SOP or the
• 27:09
  recipe or whatever you want to call it,
• 27:12
  but the feel,
• 27:12
  what it feels like when the pit's too
• 27:14
  hot, what it feels like,
• 27:16
  because it can be two hundred and fifty
• 27:18
  degrees and be too hot.
• 27:21
  And you may want to cook at two
• 27:22
  fifty,
• 27:22
  but
• 27:23
  if you if you're spiking in one side
• 27:26
  of your pit or another one because the
• 27:29
  doors open too much the humidity dropped
• 27:31
  whatever that changes the entire cook
• 27:34
  right so i agree with you man it
• 27:37
  hands down it is
• 27:39
  Or times like, you know,
• 27:40
  this time of year when, you know,
• 27:42
  you might start cooking at, you know,
• 27:45
  three in the afternoon,
• 27:45
  four in the afternoon when it's one
• 27:47
  temperature and the temperature drops
• 27:49
  sharply after the sun goes down.
• 27:52
  And, you know,
• 27:53
  now you're dealing with two different
• 27:54
  conditions, you know,
• 27:55
  while you're cooking.
• 27:56
  You've got to be able to adjust for
• 27:57
  that.
• 27:58
  You know what I mean?
• 27:58
  You've got to know how to handle that.
• 28:00
  And so, I mean, that…
• 28:02
  No other kind of cooking requires that
• 28:03
  much.
• 28:04
  Was it earlier this week or last week?
• 28:06
  It was thirty thirty one degrees when we
• 28:08
  started cooking in the morning and in the
• 28:11
  afternoon it was seventy seven.
• 28:15
  Yeah.
• 28:15
  More than double the ambient temperature.
• 28:18
  Right.
• 28:18
  So whereas, you know...
• 28:20
  You're telling me that makes a difference?
• 28:21
  Yeah.
• 28:21
  Absolutely.
• 28:25
  You go from every hour you got to
• 28:27
  put two splits on to now you got
• 28:29
  to go down to just one split because
• 28:31
  two splits is going to create too much
• 28:32
  heat for, you know...
• 28:36
  You know, logically,
• 28:37
  I know everything y'all are saying here.
• 28:39
  I've never considered it,
• 28:41
  especially from a hospitality standpoint,
• 28:45
  that you're trying to be consistent,
• 28:47
  serve the same thing every time that
• 28:48
  temperature would that play that much
• 28:49
  difference.
• 28:50
  And what's coming to my head was there
• 28:51
  was.
• 28:53
  two thousand twenty one twenty two
• 28:54
  somewhere in there we had a big snow
• 28:56
  here six seven eight inches whatever it
• 28:57
  was and i was decided i was going
• 29:02
  to cook some ribs or something and it
• 29:03
  took forever yeah and i couldn't decide
• 29:05
  why it took i knew it was cold
• 29:07
  outside like i'm not ignorant but like it
• 29:09
  took and i'm convinced now y'all are
• 29:11
  sitting here and telling it is the
• 29:12
  humidity from all the snow being on the
• 29:14
  ground that humidity slowed it all up
• 29:16
  remember last year we had we had this
• 29:18
  snow coming in it wasn't really that bad
• 29:20
  last year year prior
• 29:22
  what you're talking about okay last year
• 29:24
  it was just cold yeah super cold so
• 29:29
  once the road started clearing up the
• 29:32
  temperature at night kept getting colder
• 29:36
  so when we opened up we had to
• 29:37
  close for three or four days in a
• 29:39
  row when we opened up that day prior
• 29:44
  to us opening the doors back up for
• 29:46
  business when i got to the restaurant
• 29:50
  I went live on a Tik TOK or
• 29:53
  Instagram or something.
• 29:55
  And I was talking to somebody on there
• 29:57
  and we were going back and forth.
• 29:58
  They were asking questions and they were
• 30:01
  at, well,
• 30:01
  somebody asked me if I was cold and
• 30:03
  I was like, hell yeah, I'm cold.
• 30:05
  You know, it's,
• 30:06
  it's like seven degrees out here.
• 30:08
  And somebody corrected me and said, no,
• 30:11
  it's negative.
• 30:14
  So think about trying to smoke something
• 30:17
  at two hundred and fifty degrees when it's
• 30:20
  negative seventeen.
• 30:22
  And then today, when it's seventy seven,
• 30:24
  seventy five,
• 30:25
  whatever the temperature was.
• 30:26
  Yeah.
• 30:26
  Right.
• 30:27
  The difference in how you do this is
• 30:30
  your backyard barbecue guy doesn't
• 30:33
  understand.
• 30:33
  doesn't understand and that's why the beer
• 30:35
  makes it all taste good and i don't
• 30:38
  mean that like flippantly but like it's
• 30:40
  true like you know well and on top
• 30:41
  of all of that like if if i
• 30:44
  if i called buck and said hey man
• 30:45
  cook me a rack of ribs no you
• 30:50
  see his response
• 30:53
  Like,
• 30:53
  I'm not starting my smoker from a rack
• 30:55
  of ribs.
• 30:56
  You know what I mean?
• 30:59
  Like, sorry,
• 30:59
  I'll go buy a rack of ribs from
• 31:00
  somebody else.
• 31:01
  But cooking one rack of ribs or cooking
• 31:05
  one pork butt or one brisket or just
• 31:07
  one of anything is ridiculous.
• 31:13
  They make requests like that, you know.
• 31:16
  All the time.
• 31:17
  If I'm already cooking a bunch of stuff
• 31:19
  for other reasons,
• 31:21
  I'll throw an extra one in there.
• 31:22
  But if I'm not already doing it, no,
• 31:25
  I'm sorry.
• 31:26
  It's got to be a minimum order of
• 31:27
  this much.
• 31:28
  But from a dollar amount standpoint,
• 31:31
  let's just say the dollars aren't there.
• 31:35
  What's easier?
• 31:36
  You've been doing this for a while.
• 31:37
  What's easier?
• 31:38
  Cooking a full smoker or cooking one pork
• 31:42
  button?
• 31:43
  a full smoker.
• 31:45
  Why?
• 31:47
  Because I'm getting the most out of,
• 31:50
  I'm burning the same amount of wood.
• 31:52
  You know what I'm saying?
• 31:53
  The same fuel to keep that smoker hot
• 31:55
  and I'm getting the maximum profit out of
• 31:57
  all the meat that I got in there.
• 31:59
  When you have all of that on there
• 32:01
  and your smoker's completely full.
• 32:02
  And it's going to stay hot longer.
• 32:04
  It stays hot longer.
• 32:05
  Hold the temp better.
• 32:05
  Hold the temp better.
• 32:07
  The heat flows through better.
• 32:08
  Because the meat is absorbing the heat.
• 32:09
  And so it's more temperate.
• 32:10
  It levels it all out.
• 32:11
  It levels it out.
• 32:13
  So you got to think about like my
• 32:14
  smoker, I have an offset smoker, right?
• 32:16
  So the offsets,
• 32:18
  you start on one end and the heat's
• 32:19
  blowing through,
• 32:21
  but it's not a straight line.
• 32:23
  The heat rolls around the chamber like a
• 32:27
  convection oven.
• 32:29
  Oh, yeah,
• 32:30
  that's the other thing people think about
• 32:31
  is the science of convection.
• 32:32
  Yeah, I could go all day about that.
• 32:34
  So you got I'm really blown away right
• 32:37
  now.
• 32:37
  That is it.
• 32:39
  So when the smokers completely full,
• 32:42
  it levels that heat out all the way
• 32:43
  around.
• 32:44
  So it's easier to smoke.
• 32:46
  When you're smoking one, number one,
• 32:49
  the amount of wood it costs,
• 32:51
  it cost me to smoke
• 32:56
  one pork button is asinine yeah like it
• 32:59
  it would be i would have to charge
• 33:01
  somebody double what i would normally
• 33:03
  charge yeah just because of them to cook
• 33:05
  it on the same smoker yeah right yeah
• 33:07
  now if i'm using you know a backyard
• 33:09
  smoker or a smaller smoker yeah sure
• 33:11
  whatever but you're using little chunks
• 33:13
  you're not using i'm using firewood logs
• 33:16
  you know like you know stuff that you're
• 33:18
  making you're starting my favorite spots
• 33:20
  about going to your restaurant
• 33:22
  is when you see the wood stacked out
• 33:24
  and you're just like because you know
• 33:26
  right yeah it's not just there's a propane
• 33:28
  tank in the back and we threw some
• 33:30
  stuff on like there's ricks and ricks of
• 33:32
  wood stacked up because that is y'all's
• 33:35
  dependence on what you're doing and you
• 33:37
  know like and it makes a difference goes
• 33:39
  back to what you're saying that love like
• 33:40
  you can't simulate that without doing the
• 33:43
  work here's the other thing that a lot
• 33:44
  of people don't think about
• 33:46
  When you get wood to smoke with,
• 33:51
  do you check the moisture level in the
• 33:52
  wood?
• 33:52
  That's the other thing too.
• 33:54
  Not for smoking.
• 33:55
  I do that in the cabinet shop though.
• 33:57
  So if me, and everybody's different,
• 34:01
  he'll probably like the moisture level in
• 34:02
  his wood different than what I do.
• 34:03
  But I like, I like fifteen to twenty-two,
• 34:06
  twenty-three percent moisture in the wood.
• 34:09
  Because then it'll still burn hot enough,
• 34:12
  but provide me the smoky flavor that I
• 34:14
  want.
• 34:16
  most people that provide wood to you
• 34:18
  around here will give you wood that's
• 34:20
  under ten percent and that's like super
• 34:23
  cured yeah and that's like a burn hot
• 34:25
  but there's no burns hot smoke too fast
• 34:28
  yeah yeah it it doesn't so well like
• 34:30
  he's saying that the the moisture content
• 34:32
  is gonna change the the flavor of the
• 34:35
  of the smoke
• 34:36
  Right.
• 34:36
  Because so, you know,
• 34:40
  the difference between dirty smoke and
• 34:42
  clean smoke.
• 34:42
  Yeah.
• 34:42
  Yeah.
• 34:43
  Yeah.
• 34:43
  So that's that's a lot of a lot
• 34:45
  to do with with moisture content in the
• 34:47
  wood and and how much oxygen the fire
• 34:50
  is getting.
• 34:51
  Right.
• 34:51
  And so if if the fire is not
• 34:53
  getting enough oxygen,
• 34:54
  then it's going to it's kind of
• 34:56
  smoldering.
• 34:56
  OK.
• 34:57
  What gives you that thick white smoke?
• 34:58
  OK.
• 34:58
  And and and.
• 35:01
  that plus the moisture in it is gonna
• 35:03
  create that dirty taste, right?
• 35:07
  But if you're burning a clean fire with
• 35:09
  plenty of oxygen and you just get that
• 35:12
  thin blue smoke, as they call it,
• 35:14
  then that's gonna give you the ideal smoke
• 35:17
  flavor.
• 35:20
  But it's counterintuitive because people
• 35:21
  think, oh, I see more smoke.
• 35:23
  It's going to be more smoky flavored.
• 35:25
  No, no,
• 35:25
  it's just going to be nasty tasting.
• 35:28
  That's that black stuff that collects on
• 35:30
  your spatula when you go to grab the
• 35:32
  grate or whatever.
• 35:33
  Oh, yeah, I got plenty of smoke.
• 35:34
  Look at that.
• 35:36
  That's not what you want.
• 35:38
  Have you ever seen somebody do that?
• 35:39
  Somebody actually, oh,
• 35:40
  they scrape the grate and go out.
• 35:42
  No,
• 35:43
  you know when you go in and you
• 35:44
  get a flare up on the grill or
• 35:45
  something and the grease from the beef or
• 35:47
  whatever's sitting there and they'll kind
• 35:48
  of hang on to it.
• 35:49
  And you do that and it's on the
• 35:50
  bottom of the spatula.
• 35:52
  Oh, yeah, look at all the smoke.
• 35:53
  Oh, no, I've never thought that.
• 35:55
  Oh, yeah, I've heard people, yeah, look,
• 35:56
  that's flavor there.
• 35:58
  Man, you've had a hard barbecue life.
• 35:59
  No, I haven't.
• 36:00
  I haven't.
• 36:03
  My barbecue life has been very simple and
• 36:06
  very, and I've learned a lot.
• 36:07
  I mean, I don't do brisket often.
• 36:09
  I'm not good at it.
• 36:12
  And I know my limits.
• 36:13
  I can cook ribs in my sleep.
• 36:15
  I cheat though.
• 36:16
  I say I cheat.
• 36:18
  oh yes i do do that but where
• 36:21
  i cheat is once i hit once i
• 36:22
  wrap i throw everything in the oven and
• 36:24
  yeah and exactly like that you know and
• 36:30
  i get it i'm not like i'll take
• 36:31
  my shame and i'm fine with that but
• 36:34
  if once i finish stuff off once you
• 36:35
  wrap it you can't put smoke onto it
• 36:37
  be consistent put it in the oven and
• 36:39
  so well yeah no and there's nothing wrong
• 36:41
  with that i don't there's not but all
• 36:42
  i'm trying to do is feed my family
• 36:43
  dinner
• 36:44
  You know what I'm saying?
• 36:45
  And they're all like, Oh,
• 36:46
  look what you got.
• 36:46
  And I'm like, the secret is,
• 36:47
  is the sauce that so-and-so gave me or
• 36:50
  the,
• 36:50
  what you told me to do or do
• 36:51
  this, you know,
• 36:52
  and I'll try something new every now and
• 36:54
  then,
• 36:54
  but pretty much I've got my little system
• 36:56
  down and it doesn't, nobody complains.
• 37:00
  So you're not going to get me to
• 37:02
  fault you.
• 37:03
  So there's not a,
• 37:04
  there's my favorite thing about barbecue.
• 37:07
  There's no one way.
• 37:09
  there's not one way to do it, right?
• 37:11
  And the people that cook barbecue for a
• 37:14
  living, especially commercial level,
• 37:17
  right?
• 37:18
  Whether it's in a food truck,
• 37:19
  in a shack on the side of the
• 37:21
  road, in a full service restaurant,
• 37:22
  it doesn't matter.
• 37:26
  there's nine thousand different ways to do
• 37:28
  it and they're all right yeah yeah yeah
• 37:30
  because it's what works for them right
• 37:32
  yeah speaking of the shack on the side
• 37:34
  of the road before we get to that
• 37:36
  yeah let's take a quick break all right
• 37:38
  and then we'll come right back we'll do
• 37:39
  it
• 37:41
  Welcome back, guys.
• 37:42
  We are having a blast talking to my
• 37:44
  man, Buck.
• 37:45
  Derry is over here talking about shacks on
• 37:47
  the side of the road.
• 37:48
  I'm going to talk about shacks on the
• 37:49
  side of the road.
• 37:50
  And, you know, all kinds of, you know,
• 37:53
  pellet smokers and cheating and, you know,
• 37:56
  whatever you want to call it.
• 37:57
  Backyard warrior.
• 37:58
  I think it's great.
• 37:59
  Look, my extension cord runs.
• 38:02
  I'm different than a lot of people on
• 38:04
  pellet smokers.
• 38:05
  Yeah.
• 38:05
  Because when pellet smokers came out,
• 38:07
  everybody got, you know,
• 38:08
  the true barbecue guys were totally
• 38:13
  against it.
• 38:14
  Easy bake ovens.
• 38:16
  Yeah.
• 38:18
  And from a,
• 38:20
  where I'm against it is the guy down
• 38:23
  the street that is using his pellet smoker
• 38:28
  comes into my restaurant.
• 38:30
  or goes to your food truck and goes,
• 38:32
  Oh man,
• 38:32
  I can smoke a brisket just as good
• 38:34
  as you can.
• 38:35
  Oh, okay.
• 38:36
  Congratulations.
• 38:37
  Yeah.
• 38:37
  You know, good job.
• 38:38
  Um, you know, um, and,
• 38:42
  and he's never started a fire a day.
• 38:44
  Right.
• 38:44
  Yeah.
• 38:45
  So that's, that's where,
• 38:46
  that's where I get,
• 38:48
  I don't need to irritate.
• 38:49
  It's not even the right word.
• 38:50
  Cause I don't really care, but you know,
• 38:53
  what's funny though,
• 38:54
  I've got a smoked cheese dip that I
• 38:55
  make and I won't use my pellet.
• 38:57
  I only use my offset on that.
• 38:58
  Well, only and only pecan wood.
• 39:02
  Cause I liked the way it flavors the
• 39:03
  cheese and does what it does to it.
• 39:04
  Right.
• 39:05
  That's so where I got involved with pellet
• 39:08
  smokers, um,
• 39:12
  was uh friend and i we did the
• 39:15
  uh jack daniels uh competition and went
• 39:19
  down there and i saw all the professional
• 39:21
  teams and i'm talking about big names big
• 39:24
  mo caisson uh uh heath riles all these
• 39:29
  guys were
• 39:30
  were using pellet smokers in this
• 39:32
  competition, right?
• 39:33
  I mean,
• 39:34
  Big Mo had a couple of Traegers lined
• 39:36
  up beside by saying, oh yeah, man,
• 39:37
  I can go to sleep and all this.
• 39:39
  Yeah, okay, cool.
• 39:40
  I'm like, so what is the deal?
• 39:41
  Like, okay, so I said, all right,
• 39:43
  I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna get
• 39:45
  one and see what it is, you know?
• 39:46
  So I bought one, I bought a Rektek.
• 39:49
  And... Good group?
• 39:52
  Yeah, I mean, it's great,
• 39:54
  it's well designed.
• 39:55
  Nothing bad to say about its functionality
• 39:58
  or anything like that, but...
• 40:00
  you cannot get the same flavor out of.
• 40:03
  I completely agree.
• 40:04
  I completely agree.
• 40:05
  And I'm just a backyard guy.
• 40:07
  And like my, my first smoker,
• 40:08
  he knows the story,
• 40:10
  twenty-five dollar Facebook special during
• 40:11
  COVID bought fifteen dollars worth of high
• 40:13
  temperature paint on the way home.
• 40:14
  And that's what I did, you know,
• 40:16
  and I learned off that.
• 40:17
  Yeah.
• 40:17
  And mine's charcoal and chunk wood instead
• 40:19
  of the big one,
• 40:20
  cuz it's a small offset and I've managed
• 40:22
  it and I've learned it and I know
• 40:23
  it and I like the hotspots, you know,
• 40:25
  over here, whatever.
• 40:25
  Yeah.
• 40:26
  But I'll still wanna do my cheese dip
• 40:27
  on my offset.
• 40:28
  I will never put that on my pellet
• 40:29
  grill.
• 40:29
  And I find that comical because of the
• 40:31
  same thing.
• 40:32
  Yeah.
• 40:32
  So let's dive into let's dive into Buck's
• 40:37
  barbecue in general.
• 40:38
  Right.
• 40:39
  So you this year, you're you're full time.
• 40:42
  Yes, sir.
• 40:43
  Doing the truck.
• 40:44
  Yeah.
• 40:46
  What would what would you say is one
• 40:49
  of the biggest lessons you've learned so
• 40:50
  far?
• 40:51
  Hmm.
• 40:52
  The biggest lesson I've learned is
• 41:00
  Number one, you...
• 41:03
  You can't try to please everybody, right?
• 41:05
  When I first started,
• 41:08
  I'm trying to think of, you know,
• 41:10
  let me have something on the menu for
• 41:13
  everybody.
• 41:13
  Let me try to, you know,
• 41:16
  some people say they like this.
• 41:17
  Some people say they like that.
• 41:18
  You know,
• 41:18
  so I'm trying to have everything on the
• 41:20
  truck, you know, and I was wasting money.
• 41:23
  You know, because the few people that,
• 41:26
  for instance,
• 41:27
  won't slaw on their pulled pork sandwich
• 41:30
  is not worth the amount of slaw I
• 41:32
  bought.
• 41:32
  you know what i mean you know what
• 41:34
  i mean right so it's you know you
• 41:38
  can't please everybody um number number
• 41:40
  two if you got a good product
• 41:45
  People are gonna they're gonna come back
• 41:47
  for it.
• 41:47
  They're gonna tell somebody about it
• 41:49
  Mm-hmm,
• 41:49
  and they're gonna pay what you asked for.
• 41:51
  Mm-hmm,
• 41:51
  and that's that's one another thing I had
• 41:53
  to get over was when I first started
• 41:55
  I was worried about I don't want to
• 41:57
  I don't want to buy think I'm Charging
• 42:00
  too much or whatever.
• 42:01
  Yeah, quit worrying about that.
• 42:02
  You got to do you got to do
• 42:03
  math You got to charge what what what
• 42:05
  you got to charge what you need to
• 42:06
  operate.
• 42:06
  Yeah.
• 42:06
  Yeah, you know and and and I've never
• 42:10
  I when I when I started, you know,
• 42:13
  talking to myself that way and just
• 42:15
  saying, hey, OK, by the math,
• 42:17
  this is what I've got to charge.
• 42:19
  I've never had anybody go, oh, well,
• 42:20
  it's too much or whatever.
• 42:22
  People,
• 42:23
  they're gonna pay what they feel like it's
• 42:25
  worth.
• 42:26
  And like I said,
• 42:27
  if you got a good product,
• 42:28
  it's gonna speak for itself,
• 42:30
  it's gonna sell itself.
• 42:31
  So that's the biggest lessons I had
• 42:35
  learned.
• 42:36
  Now,
• 42:37
  do you have steady spots that you park
• 42:40
  the truck and cook or are you bouncing
• 42:42
  around?
• 42:43
  Now I'm moving around a lot.
• 42:46
  I used to be pretty much in one
• 42:48
  spot over here, Go USA, Fun Park.
• 42:53
  And shout out to them.
• 42:56
  They've been great to me over there.
• 42:58
  They basically gave me my first shot over
• 43:01
  there.
• 43:02
  I used to do security for them, actually.
• 43:04
  And so when I was just talking about
• 43:06
  my dream of the food truck,
• 43:09
  And you know,
• 43:09
  I'm gonna have my barbecue truck,
• 43:11
  you know,
• 43:11
  for long when I was still building the
• 43:12
  trailer and everything,
• 43:14
  the manager there was like, hey man,
• 43:15
  you know, you get that going, you know,
• 43:17
  you pull it up over here.
• 43:17
  And I was like, all right, cool.
• 43:19
  So I held them to it and they
• 43:21
  loved it over there.
• 43:21
  So that,
• 43:23
  but then I started branching out and,
• 43:27
  you know, trying to find other locations,
• 43:29
  other,
• 43:30
  because even the fun park has its up
• 43:32
  and down times, you know what I mean?
• 43:33
  And so I'm trying to find more consistent
• 43:36
  traffic areas and things like that and
• 43:38
  doing more special events and things like
• 43:41
  that and even more different towns.
• 43:44
  Now I'm outside of,
• 43:45
  Murfreesboro, I'm in Lebanon,
• 43:47
  I'm in Gallatin,
• 43:49
  wherever I can try to sell some meat,
• 43:51
  I'm gonna try to sell it.
• 43:52
  From a food truck status, what is the,
• 43:56
  I've seen,
• 43:58
  I don't know as near as many food
• 43:59
  truck people as y'all do,
• 44:01
  every now and then you'll see one in
• 44:02
  Murfreesboro that seems like a new person.
• 44:04
  And you find out they drove to
• 44:05
  Murfreesboro, whatever.
• 44:07
  And you mentioned going to other cities.
• 44:09
  Where,
• 44:10
  and not so much the break-even factor on
• 44:13
  the money side of it,
• 44:15
  but where does it become beneficial to go
• 44:19
  ahead and seek outside those boundaries to
• 44:21
  where you are the new kid on the
• 44:23
  block?
• 44:23
  Because you know what I'm saying?
• 44:25
  Like if you have a new restaurant in
• 44:26
  town,
• 44:27
  it's either everybody's going or like, ah,
• 44:28
  we'll get there when we get there.
• 44:30
  And you go there for one night to
• 44:32
  be the new guy in town.
• 44:33
  Are you hoping you're just, well,
• 44:35
  I'm the only one there at a single
• 44:36
  event or is it?
• 44:37
  Well, for me,
• 44:39
  when I go to a new place,
• 44:40
  like I just recently started, you know,
• 44:43
  in Gallatin and I, I,
• 44:47
  I'm not going to commit to being there
• 44:48
  every day,
• 44:49
  but I want to go there to get
• 44:52
  people to kind of start recognizing me,
• 44:55
  try, you know,
• 44:56
  however many people come and actually try
• 44:58
  my food,
• 44:59
  they're going to be telling somebody, man,
• 45:00
  I know a guy's got some great brisket
• 45:02
  over here, whatever.
• 45:03
  and then and then it's it's that's its
• 45:07
  own marketing and then of course i'm i'm
• 45:09
  you know passing out my cars giving them
• 45:11
  to you know getting them to my social
• 45:12
  media all that kind of stuff so that
• 45:14
  they reach out to me for for catering
• 45:16
  they reach out to me you know just
• 45:18
  to see where i'm at sometimes because i've
• 45:20
  had people come to me from other towns
• 45:22
  you know i mean like just because they
• 45:24
  want my bar that's got to be a
• 45:25
  good feeling
• 45:26
  Like when you know they're committed to
• 45:27
  making that trip for you.
• 45:28
  Absolutely.
• 45:29
  That's awesome.
• 45:29
  I've had people drive down from Nashville
• 45:31
  to come down here to Murfreesboro.
• 45:32
  I've had people come to Gallatin from
• 45:35
  Murfreesboro.
• 45:36
  I've had people come to Lebanon and come
• 45:39
  from Brentwood or whatever.
• 45:41
  I'd drive to Lebanon.
• 45:42
  I wouldn't drive to Gallatin.
• 45:43
  No.
• 45:45
  I understand.
• 45:46
  That ain't got nothing to do with you.
• 45:47
  Nope.
• 45:48
  Hey, look,
• 45:48
  that goes back to nineteen ninety seven.
• 45:50
  Nineteen ninety eight.
• 45:51
  That BMW he's got is too small for
• 45:53
  him.
• 45:53
  Ah, shoot.
• 45:55
  I couldn't afford the gas.
• 45:56
  Go ahead.
• 45:56
  Yeah, but no, I mean,
• 45:58
  that's that's the thing.
• 46:01
  Being the new person in the area,
• 46:03
  I just want to have as big an
• 46:04
  impact as possible.
• 46:06
  And so that I'm on people's minds.
• 46:09
  Yeah.
• 46:09
  When they when they when you think about
• 46:11
  barbecue,
• 46:11
  I want you to think about Big Buck.
• 46:13
  So along those lines,
• 46:18
  You started this venture.
• 46:19
  Yes, sir.
• 46:21
  Now, when I started this venture, for me,
• 46:24
  it was one or two different food items
• 46:28
  that really kind of,
• 46:29
  that I love to cook.
• 46:30
  You talked about if you do what you
• 46:32
  love,
• 46:33
  you never have to worry a day in
• 46:34
  your life, right?
• 46:34
  So there's a couple of different things
• 46:36
  that I love to cook and I love
• 46:38
  to eat that I couldn't find around here
• 46:42
  at the time.
• 46:43
  So let's just do it ourselves, right?
• 46:46
  Right.
• 46:47
  What are those items for you?
• 46:48
  When you wake up in the morning and
• 46:50
  you got the menu set for the weekend,
• 46:53
  what is it that you're excited about
• 46:55
  cooking?
• 46:55
  Man, number one, my brisket.
• 47:00
  I found brisket to be severely lacking in
• 47:02
  Tennessee period.
• 47:05
  And then also my ribs, man.
• 47:09
  I found a lot of people,
• 47:11
  and when I'm saying what I found,
• 47:14
  I'm talking pre-you.
• 47:15
  Okay.
• 47:15
  You're good.
• 47:18
  Yeah.
• 47:19
  But no,
• 47:19
  but people boiling their ribs and things
• 47:22
  like that,
• 47:23
  just things that I think are just
• 47:25
  blasphemous in my mind.
• 47:27
  Had somebody prior to us getting our
• 47:30
  restaurant, so this was...
• 47:32
  over three years ago,
• 47:35
  they were buying ribs from me to sell
• 47:39
  at their restaurant.
• 47:41
  And I would bring them ribs on Friday
• 47:43
  and Saturdays.
• 47:45
  So on Fridays, I would bring them ribs.
• 47:48
  And they would take,
• 47:49
  it was like nine racks, nothing crazy,
• 47:52
  right?
• 47:53
  So I dropped the nine.
• 47:54
  I can't imagine what they had to be
• 47:55
  charging for that, though,
• 47:56
  once they paid you for it.
• 47:57
  It wasn't inexpensive.
• 47:59
  Yeah.
• 47:59
  Yeah.
• 48:01
  so it was not the economy ribbon but
• 48:03
  anyways long story short i tell you this
• 48:07
  because i called them on saturday and said
• 48:11
  hey do you still want another nine racks
• 48:13
  today and and they said they said oh
• 48:16
  well we had a pretty slow night just
• 48:18
  just bring us six racks okay and i
• 48:21
  was like okay no problem so i bring
• 48:24
  six racks over there and the cook is
• 48:27
  in the back and somebody had just ordered
• 48:29
  a half rack
• 48:31
  and I walk in to this individual,
• 48:34
  taking it out of cellophane.
• 48:37
  Taking your ribs out?
• 48:38
  Taking my ribs out of cellophane.
• 48:40
  I can only imagine how that's going to
• 48:41
  feel.
• 48:41
  Cutting them into individual bones and
• 48:45
  threw them in the fryer.
• 48:46
  In the fryer?
• 48:50
  Oh!
• 48:50
  From cold.
• 48:52
  Oh, man.
• 48:52
  He didn't batter and deep fry them and
• 48:54
  make deep fried.
• 48:55
  Oh, no.
• 48:55
  Deep fried ribs.
• 48:56
  That was his method, just warming them up.
• 48:58
  That's how they were warming them up.
• 49:00
  Oh,
• 49:00
  I would have gone into my best macho
• 49:02
  man impression.
• 49:02
  I would have walked out with my six
• 49:04
  side ribs.
• 49:04
  Oh, yeah.
• 49:04
  Sorry, y'all.
• 49:04
  Oh, yeah.
• 49:07
  I can't do that.
• 49:09
  Oh, my God.
• 49:10
  I'm not going to tell you on air
• 49:12
  what I did.
• 49:14
  I'm coming off the top rope on that
• 49:16
  guy.
• 49:16
  But needless to say.
• 49:19
  My ribs were no longer sold there.
• 49:23
  It was pretty complicated.
• 49:24
  That was when you had the truck?
• 49:26
  That's hysterical.
• 49:29
  Deep frying ribs.
• 49:33
  That is a concern of mine.
• 49:34
  If I was to get into a deal
• 49:36
  like that with somebody where they're
• 49:37
  selling my stuff,
• 49:41
  especially if they're doing that and
• 49:43
  they're telling people that it's mine.
• 49:44
  That would be my thing.
• 49:46
  If you're just saying this is our rib
• 49:48
  and it's what you do and whatever, fine.
• 49:52
  But the moment you say, well,
• 49:53
  we got these from Big Buck,
• 49:56
  Charlie at Singletree dropped these off
• 49:57
  just this morning.
• 49:59
  He just walked in the door looking.
• 50:05
  They look crispy.
• 50:07
  That's crispy rib you got there, Charlie.
• 50:10
  What?
• 50:11
  A crispy rib?
• 50:12
  It's new rib crackling.
• 50:13
  Yeah.
• 50:14
  Wow.
• 50:14
  Oh, man.
• 50:15
  I can only imagine, dude.
• 50:17
  Oh, yeah.
• 50:17
  I'd lose all my composure.
• 50:19
  So you like the brisket and the ribs?
• 50:22
  Yeah.
• 50:24
  Spare ribs?
• 50:26
  Spares?
• 50:28
  I'm a spare rib guy.
• 50:30
  I am becoming a spare rib guy.
• 50:32
  My family's still stuck on the baby back,
• 50:34
  but the more I do spare ribs,
• 50:36
  the more I'm becoming that spare rib guy.
• 50:37
  I will tell you what I like baby
• 50:39
  back ribs for.
• 50:41
  And that is making a McRib sandwich.
• 50:43
  Oh yeah, sure.
• 50:45
  Overdo it.
• 50:46
  Pull the bone out and just cut it.
• 50:47
  Overcook the crap out of it.
• 50:48
  That's it.
• 50:49
  Right.
• 50:50
  You know,
• 50:50
  wrap them up in five pieces of foil.
• 50:54
  Yeah.
• 50:54
  You know,
• 50:54
  just foil boat and just boiling in its
• 50:58
  own juices.
• 50:59
  Put a little extra apple juice in there.
• 51:02
  Yeah.
• 51:03
  Now that is, that is,
• 51:05
  that is the jam on the sandwich.
• 51:07
  I love it.
• 51:08
  All right.
• 51:10
  I'm coming to your food truck.
• 51:12
  I gotta get the brisket.
• 51:12
  I gotta get some ribs.
• 51:14
  What sides are we getting?
• 51:16
  my food truck yeah none none none i
• 51:19
  don't sell sides no side i don't sell
• 51:21
  any sides of my food truck no sir
• 51:23
  man good for you yeah and it's in
• 51:26
  in my lights are still on so yeah
• 51:30
  um yeah no um i don't sell any
• 51:32
  size man i i the closest thing i
• 51:34
  have to a side is my like a
• 51:36
  loaded baked potato or something like that
• 51:38
  but uh yeah i don't sell you know
• 51:39
  any beans macaroni cheese anything like
• 51:42
  that um number one
• 51:44
  It's just me, right?
• 51:45
  I'm a one man operation.
• 51:47
  And that's a lot of cooking.
• 51:51
  And yeah,
• 51:53
  and I'm trying not to kill myself.
• 51:55
  And so- It's tough.
• 51:57
  Look,
• 51:58
  I did a full menu when we started
• 51:59
  ours and it was just me.
• 52:01
  And I used to have black hair.
• 52:05
  Yeah.
• 52:06
  Yeah.
• 52:07
  Yeah.
• 52:07
  Yeah.
• 52:07
  I don't know more.
• 52:08
  You know, and then you got,
• 52:09
  you got a little,
• 52:09
  just a little bit still hanging on.
• 52:11
  Right.
• 52:12
  And so I'm, you see, I'm, I'm,
• 52:13
  I'm going gray myself.
• 52:14
  And so I'm,
• 52:15
  I'm trying to limit that as much as
• 52:16
  possible, but yeah,
• 52:17
  I don't sell sides on my truck, man.
• 52:18
  Now I do sides for my catering.
• 52:22
  Order catering,
• 52:23
  you pretty much get whatever you ask for.
• 52:26
  I'll do whatever,
• 52:27
  but not on the food truck.
• 52:28
  So with that being said,
• 52:29
  you go to a barbecue joint.
• 52:31
  We have a segment.
• 52:32
  It's called our Mac and Beans.
• 52:33
  It's a this or that segment.
• 52:34
  You got to pick one.
• 52:35
  So when you go into a barbecue joint,
• 52:37
  are you getting the mac and cheese or
• 52:39
  are you getting the beans?
• 52:40
  Beans.
• 52:41
  Beans?
• 52:41
  Yeah.
• 52:42
  All right.
• 52:43
  I love it.
• 52:44
  I love it.
• 52:44
  Have you had his beans?
• 52:46
  I have, yeah.
• 52:46
  They're so good.
• 52:48
  Yeah, they're decent.
• 52:49
  The more I have your, the more I,
• 52:52
  they're good.
• 52:53
  They're just good.
• 52:54
  I don't have, I get worked up.
• 52:57
  You get worked up over the beans?
• 52:58
  He does.
• 52:59
  He does.
• 53:00
  I don't.
• 53:01
  Look,
• 53:01
  there's people that come into my
• 53:04
  restaurant.
• 53:04
  Yeah.
• 53:06
  They're either on the mac and cheese train
• 53:08
  or they're on the beans train.
• 53:09
  To me.
• 53:10
  And me personally, I like my beans.
• 53:13
  Don't get me wrong.
• 53:15
  They're mine.
• 53:15
  I like them.
• 53:18
  If I'm going to pick one of the
• 53:19
  two,
• 53:21
  I'm probably going to get the mac and
• 53:22
  cheese.
• 53:23
  Now, again, there's people like dairy.
• 53:26
  My brother,
• 53:27
  he won't come to my restaurant without
• 53:29
  getting a bucket of beans.
• 53:30
  And when I say a bucket,
• 53:31
  I mean a whole bucket.
• 53:33
  He wants his side while he's there.
• 53:35
  I didn't know he was an option.
• 53:36
  You've been holding that up.
• 53:40
  And then he wants a five-gallon pail to
• 53:41
  take home with him.
• 53:42
  Golly.
• 53:43
  Yeah.
• 53:45
  So, yeah.
• 53:47
  Okay.
• 53:47
  It's one or the other.
• 53:48
  Yeah.
• 53:48
  well i i like beans uh number one
• 53:52
  it's it's to me it's it's more of
• 53:54
  an actual barbecue item than mac and
• 53:57
  cheese is to me unless you like smoking
• 53:59
  your mac and cheese or something like that
• 54:01
  i guess but to me you know beans
• 54:04
  they just they're a barbecue item you know
• 54:08
  i mean they got barbecue flavors in them
• 54:10
  and all that you know what i mean
• 54:11
  i find that the more guests we have
• 54:13
  on that have an actual culinary background
• 54:15
  yeah are choosing beans
• 54:18
  And that's starting to kind of click a
• 54:19
  little bit in my head.
• 54:20
  And Andrew Gruhl had that moment.
• 54:22
  He was like,
• 54:23
  why do I want something that sits there
• 54:24
  and keeps cooking and gets soft and like
• 54:26
  a bean actually gets better the longer,
• 54:28
  you know,
• 54:28
  where the mac and cheese hits a point
• 54:30
  and it's just breaking apart.
• 54:31
  A true mac and cheese should be al
• 54:34
  dente.
• 54:37
  You don't want the noodle to be mush.
• 54:39
  Right.
• 54:39
  You don't want it to be mush.
• 54:40
  And also if you're going to keep it
• 54:42
  in a hot well for a while,
• 54:43
  it's got to have some fortitude to stand
• 54:45
  up to that.
• 54:46
  Because if you make it too soft.
• 54:48
  That's why I use cavatappia pasta instead
• 54:50
  of using just a macaroni noodle.
• 54:51
  Just because it's heavier?
• 54:52
  It's a heavier, substantial noodle.
• 54:55
  So it holds up longer in a heat
• 54:58
  well.
• 54:58
  So you can make a smaller batch.
• 55:00
  And then by the time you get to
• 55:01
  the end of that batch, that last scoop,
• 55:04
  Isn't mush and I've also found to you
• 55:07
  got to make it like if I'm making
• 55:09
  macaroni and cheese at home I want the
• 55:12
  traditional baked mac and cheese cut it
• 55:14
  like cake and
• 55:15
  Yeah.
• 55:16
  Like it's got a whole, yeah.
• 55:17
  Yeah.
• 55:18
  That doesn't,
• 55:18
  that doesn't work too well commercially.
• 55:20
  You know, you gotta have,
• 55:22
  it's gotta be creamier.
• 55:23
  It's gotta have more liquid to it to
• 55:25
  sit in, in that, you know, sit hot.
• 55:27
  Yeah.
• 55:27
  Yeah.
• 55:27
  Yes.
• 55:27
  For sure.
• 55:29
  Yeah.
• 55:33
  It's not how grandma made it.
• 55:34
  I'm sorry.
• 55:35
  She over milked it, but you know, sorry.
• 55:37
  Right.
• 55:37
  Put all the eggs in it.
• 55:39
  So we made it a nerve.
• 55:42
  Bucks will get upset.
• 55:43
  Yeah.
• 55:48
  What's the strangest thing you've ever
• 55:49
  smoked?
• 55:50
  Strangest thing?
• 55:52
  Octopus, I think.
• 55:53
  Octopus?
• 55:53
  That's a first.
• 55:54
  Yeah, I've smoked octopus.
• 55:56
  What else?
• 55:57
  I mean,
• 55:57
  I've smoked all kinds of wild stuff.
• 56:00
  Raccoon, rabbit, rattlesnake.
• 56:04
  Smoked rattlesnake.
• 56:05
  But I think the strangest might be
• 56:09
  octopus.
• 56:12
  Kangaroo?
• 56:13
  It's pretty lean.
• 56:15
  It is, and I didn't like it.
• 56:17
  But strangers, I'm thinking, yeah,
• 56:19
  octopus.
• 56:20
  And I'm not a fan of octopus,
• 56:21
  but my sister brought it one time,
• 56:24
  and she wanted it, so we smoked it.
• 56:26
  Okay.
• 56:28
  How did you smoke it?
• 56:30
  uh whole well i mean yeah just it
• 56:33
  was just the tentacles you know yeah and
• 56:35
  so i know you know like some people
• 56:36
  cut it up oh yeah no i smoked
• 56:39
  the tentacles whole yeah burnt hands and
• 56:40
  that's kind of what i ended up doing
• 56:45
  with it after i smoked it whole then
• 56:46
  i did i did uh cut it into
• 56:48
  chunks and then toss it in some sauce
• 56:50
  actually
• 56:51
  uh but it was more of a um
• 56:53
  it wasn't a traditional barbecue sauce it
• 56:54
  was more of like a a a japanese
• 56:57
  kind of yeah okay you know that makes
• 56:59
  sense yeah like a like a soy sesame
• 57:01
  kind of thing yeah and and um you
• 57:03
  know it it's all right it's a texture
• 57:06
  thing for me with octopus though i'm not
• 57:08
  a fan of like rubbery chewy kind of
• 57:11
  stuff you know i like it fried
• 57:16
  Fried octopus or calamari?
• 57:17
  Well, both actually, but calamari is.
• 57:20
  You like calamari?
• 57:21
  I do.
• 57:22
  I just,
• 57:23
  it's one of those things I don't eat
• 57:24
  it very often,
• 57:25
  but I could still remember the first time
• 57:26
  I had it and it was at some
• 57:28
  upscale restaurant that I had no business
• 57:30
  being in and they did it really well.
• 57:32
  And so now I always think, oh,
• 57:34
  I do like it because of them.
• 57:36
  And I've had a lot less than,
• 57:37
  and it's just,
• 57:39
  but I still think back to that and
• 57:41
  I was like, man, it's still well done.
• 57:42
  It's good.
• 57:43
  Yeah.
• 57:44
  Yeah.
• 57:46
  I would tell you,
• 57:46
  don't ever smoke a kiwi.
• 57:49
  You smoked a kiwi?
• 57:50
  That's not good.
• 57:51
  Where'd you get a kiwi to smoke?
• 57:54
  I don't remember where I got it from,
• 57:55
  but it is not... That's crazy.
• 57:59
  It's disgusting.
• 58:00
  I mean,
• 58:00
  it obviously comes from New Zealand or
• 58:01
  something, right?
• 58:02
  Yeah, it was not good.
• 58:04
  Somewhere,
• 58:05
  somebody brought some kiwi to the
• 58:06
  restaurant, and I was like, ooh,
• 58:07
  let's try smoking it and see what it
• 58:09
  is.
• 58:09
  Yeah,
• 58:10
  but you wouldn't know until you try it.
• 58:11
  I mean, so that's fair.
• 58:12
  You know, we tried.
• 58:13
  Like, you know,
• 58:14
  I've grilled watermelon before.
• 58:15
  And plenty of people like new peaches and
• 58:17
  stuff.
• 58:17
  I was like, okay, well, let's try that.
• 58:19
  You know, and I've done pineapples,
• 58:20
  and I've done all kinds of different
• 58:21
  fruits.
• 58:22
  Yeah.
• 58:22
  So I was like, why not a kiwi?
• 58:23
  Let's try it.
• 58:25
  And now you know why not a kiwi.
• 58:26
  When you say kiwi,
• 58:26
  you're talking about the fruit.
• 58:27
  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:29
  Oh, I was talking about the animal.
• 58:30
  Oh.
• 58:30
  Is there an animal called kiwi?
• 58:37
  Yes.
• 58:37
  Yeah.
• 58:37
  No.
• 58:37
  Yeah.
• 58:37
  Yes.
• 58:38
  I was like, where did you get that?
• 58:39
  Yeah.
• 58:39
  No.
• 58:41
  now i know why you said it comes
• 58:42
  from australia or something yeah the
• 58:44
  kiwi's a bird yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
• 58:47
  don't smoke that either i don't think yeah
• 58:49
  i mean it's got a weird look yeah
• 58:51
  yeah it does but it looks like a
• 58:52
  rat with a beak it does yeah i
• 58:55
  don't know if that smoked real well ah
• 58:56
  yeah i don't think you'd yield a lot
• 58:58
  yeah yeah like look marinated in something
• 59:01
  yeah you know rub it down in mayonnaise
• 59:03
  and some rub mayonnaise this guy
• 59:08
  What's your what's your binder binder?
• 59:19
  Yeah I'm convinced is conspiracy by the
• 59:22
  mustard industry to sell Have you ever
• 59:29
  have you ever seen a dry piece of
• 59:31
  raw meat and
• 59:34
  Dry as in like, just like.
• 59:36
  It's balmy.
• 59:37
  Correct.
• 59:37
  It's dry.
• 59:38
  Correct.
• 59:38
  To the touch.
• 59:39
  Have you ever seen that?
• 59:40
  Not to the touch.
• 59:40
  I mean, visually.
• 59:42
  Visually, they look dry to you?
• 59:43
  Yeah.
• 59:43
  Why?
• 59:45
  Because it's dry?
• 59:47
  No, no.
• 59:47
  The surface is dry.
• 59:48
  No, unless it's dry-aged or something.
• 59:51
  But I'm saying just a raw,
• 59:53
  out-of-the-package piece of meat.
• 59:54
  Oh, out-of-the-package.
• 59:55
  No,
• 59:55
  I'm thinking like it's set in the fridge
• 59:56
  for a day or two, it's uncovered.
• 59:58
  No, you've dried it out.
• 59:59
  You're dry-aging it.
• 1:00:00
  Yeah, you're dry-aging it.
• 1:00:02
  No,
• 1:00:02
  I'm talking about meat out-of-the-package.
• 1:00:05
  Disclaimer, not a culinary guy.
• 1:00:06
  That's it.
• 1:00:08
  But you're a guy who has bought meat
• 1:00:09
  from the store and taken it out of
• 1:00:12
  a package.
• 1:00:12
  And I hate when they're like,
• 1:00:13
  pat it down, it'll dry.
• 1:00:14
  No, it doesn't.
• 1:00:15
  It just lets what's still in come to
• 1:00:17
  the surface.
• 1:00:17
  But when you take a piece of meat
• 1:00:18
  out of the package, it is not dry,
• 1:00:20
  right?
• 1:00:20
  Correct.
• 1:00:21
  It is already covered in moisture.
• 1:00:23
  Correct.
• 1:00:23
  Why do you need to add more moisture
• 1:00:26
  for the seasoning to stick to it?
• 1:00:28
  I like the way he thinks.
• 1:00:30
  Look, I will tell you,
• 1:00:31
  the only time I use a binder at
• 1:00:36
  any point in time is twice.
• 1:00:39
  Typically in January, February,
• 1:00:42
  when the moisture level in the air is
• 1:00:44
  really, really low,
• 1:00:46
  because I cook outside,
• 1:00:49
  helps to be able to get an even
• 1:00:51
  coat of seasoning all the way around all
• 1:00:53
  around your bark and all that yeah yeah
• 1:00:56
  the other time that i do that is
• 1:00:59
  in march every year when i do the
• 1:01:03
  one barbecue competition i cook in and
• 1:01:06
  that's it what competition do you do uh
• 1:01:09
  smoke on the shores
• 1:01:10
  Okay.
• 1:01:12
  Um, we just got approved, uh, um,
• 1:01:14
  we will be at smoke on the shores
• 1:01:16
  again this year.
• 1:01:17
  So you have to get approved for that.
• 1:01:19
  You can't just, uh, the waiting list, uh,
• 1:01:22
  starts pretty much immediately.
• 1:01:23
  So it's the third largest competition in
• 1:01:25
  the country.
• 1:01:26
  Where,
• 1:01:26
  where is that located in Lebanon
• 1:01:28
  fairgrounds?
• 1:01:29
  Oh.
• 1:01:29
  Um, and they have, uh,
• 1:01:33
  normally a hundred and something pro
• 1:01:36
  teams.
• 1:01:37
  Okay.
• 1:01:39
  I,
• 1:01:39
  the day they released the application to
• 1:01:43
  sign up for it,
• 1:01:45
  I got busy and couldn't go sign up
• 1:01:48
  for it.
• 1:01:48
  I was like, I had no big deal.
• 1:01:50
  The next day I went to sign up
• 1:01:52
  for it.
• 1:01:52
  They were wait-listed.
• 1:01:54
  So I just got approved day before
• 1:01:56
  yesterday.
• 1:01:57
  Enjoy it while you can.
• 1:01:58
  I've decided next year,
• 1:01:59
  the twenty twenty six,
• 1:02:00
  I'm getting in the competition circuit.
• 1:02:03
  Why don't you why don't you come with
• 1:02:04
  me?
• 1:02:06
  Okay.
• 1:02:07
  In March.
• 1:02:09
  Sure.
• 1:02:09
  Join, join a team.
• 1:02:10
  Come, come play.
• 1:02:11
  Okay.
• 1:02:12
  It'd be fun.
• 1:02:12
  I got set up next to Matt from
• 1:02:15
  Blinky's and he'll play music at seven AM.
• 1:02:20
  Have you met Matt?
• 1:02:21
  Have you met, uh,
• 1:02:22
  Matt Osmond from Blinky's offset?
• 1:02:24
  No.
• 1:02:25
  So Matt is,
• 1:02:27
  I love him to his character,
• 1:02:28
  but Saturday morning, uh,
• 1:02:32
  quiet time ends at seven AM.
• 1:02:33
  Okay.
• 1:02:35
  And at seven AM, he lets it rip.
• 1:02:38
  He starts literally,
• 1:02:39
  he starts playing black Betty at seven AM
• 1:02:41
  black Betty.
• 1:02:42
  Yes.
• 1:02:42
  That's the wake up song as he can
• 1:02:45
  play.
• 1:02:47
  And it is like you were on, uh,
• 1:02:50
  uh,
• 1:02:52
  i don't even know like i mean it's
• 1:02:54
  it's just he brings a sound system yeah
• 1:02:56
  it's it's got military vibes like you know
• 1:02:58
  yeah i mean he's just screaming he went
• 1:03:01
  live with it this past year and like
• 1:03:03
  it was great it was absolutely great he
• 1:03:04
  does it every year yeah okay every every
• 1:03:06
  competition he does he goes live so yeah
• 1:03:08
  yeah no i decided i want to i
• 1:03:10
  want to get uh into into it's a
• 1:03:12
  total different world oh i i it definitely
• 1:03:14
  is i don't even really like competition
• 1:03:16
  barbecue
• 1:03:17
  I want to do it just because I
• 1:03:19
  want more recognition in the barbecue
• 1:03:23
  world.
• 1:03:24
  I want other barbecue guys to see me
• 1:03:26
  and know who I am.
• 1:03:28
  Not necessarily, you know.
• 1:03:29
  Buck, I assure you, when we see you,
• 1:03:31
  we know who you are.
• 1:03:32
  Yeah.
• 1:03:34
  but i'm saying as far as barb yeah
• 1:03:36
  i know yeah like i want my name
• 1:03:38
  recognized in the barbecue world uh more
• 1:03:41
  so than it is sure you know what
• 1:03:43
  i mean uh and competition is a great
• 1:03:45
  way to do that i don't i really
• 1:03:47
  don't care if i win or lose any
• 1:03:48
  of them right just you know because i've
• 1:03:51
  been i've done enough competitions like
• 1:03:53
  with uh like i got a friend of
• 1:03:54
  mine i've competed with a few times and
• 1:03:58
  i've seen how it goes there's a there's
• 1:04:00
  a lot that you you really can't you
• 1:04:03
  can have
• 1:04:04
  top tier, you know,
• 1:04:05
  number one barbecue this competition and
• 1:04:07
  be number forty seven in the next
• 1:04:09
  competition.
• 1:04:09
  Right.
• 1:04:11
  Without changing anything,
• 1:04:12
  just depending on who the judges are that
• 1:04:14
  day and whatever.
• 1:04:15
  And some stuff I even think somebody's
• 1:04:17
  greasing palms or something.
• 1:04:19
  I was at a competition one time and
• 1:04:21
  a guy and they had a they had
• 1:04:22
  an anything but category.
• 1:04:24
  And this guy won with a with a
• 1:04:26
  doggone baked potato.
• 1:04:28
  I believe it.
• 1:04:29
  A baked potato.
• 1:04:30
  I mean, just a baked potato with,
• 1:04:31
  he said, with hickory smoked bacon on it.
• 1:04:36
  You bought that bacon hickory smoked,
• 1:04:37
  first of all.
• 1:04:38
  You know what I mean?
• 1:04:40
  A baked potato one?
• 1:04:41
  Get out of here, man.
• 1:04:43
  Meanwhile, my buddy and I, we turned in...
• 1:04:48
  it was a it was like a smoked
• 1:04:54
  bacon-wrapped filet with a with a Cajun
• 1:04:57
  risotto something like that and we lost to
• 1:05:00
  a baked potato it's the judge that showed
• 1:05:06
  up that day that's the way it is
• 1:05:08
  so yeah just wait for sure until March
• 1:05:13
  Yeah.
• 1:05:15
  Oh yeah.
• 1:05:15
  I can't wait to see it.
• 1:05:16
  Yeah.
• 1:05:16
  I've cooked some of the best briskets I've
• 1:05:17
  ever cooked in my entire life in place
• 1:05:20
  and, and finished like fifty third.
• 1:05:22
  Yeah.
• 1:05:23
  Yeah.
• 1:05:23
  So that's why I learned to not get
• 1:05:25
  your hopes up on, on, on winning.
• 1:05:27
  If I do happen to win something,
• 1:05:28
  just enjoy the event.
• 1:05:29
  Great.
• 1:05:29
  But yeah, just enjoy it, man.
• 1:05:30
  I love just sitting out there with a
• 1:05:31
  bunch of barbecue guys,
• 1:05:32
  all the smoke in the air.
• 1:05:34
  You know, I like to,
• 1:05:35
  I like to pull my, my, uh,
• 1:05:36
  so my, my big smokers is a,
• 1:05:38
  is a. Uh,
• 1:05:39
  eighty four inch Lang reverse flow.
• 1:05:42
  and uh you know i call her big
• 1:05:44
  shirley and uh big shirley that's the name
• 1:05:47
  i love it love you baby uh i
• 1:05:50
  love it that's that's my that's my number
• 1:05:52
  one right there you know my even my
• 1:05:53
  fiance knows that uh shirley shirley pays
• 1:05:56
  the bills right here you know if you
• 1:06:00
  go if you go on uh on my
• 1:06:01
  tick tock there's we made a video of
• 1:06:04
  you ever heard that song uh woman to
• 1:06:06
  woman
• 1:06:07
  uh this lady she it starts off with
• 1:06:10
  lady calling another lady on the phone
• 1:06:12
  hello barbara this shirley you know so we
• 1:06:15
  did a skit like that where big shirley
• 1:06:18
  is is talking on the phone calling my
• 1:06:20
  fiance and telling her that you know
• 1:06:23
  everything from the clothes i wear to the
• 1:06:25
  food i eat it all comes from her
• 1:06:29
  anyway uh i love to pull my smoker
• 1:06:31
  out man and and you know just give
• 1:06:34
  Just be among other barbecue guys, man.
• 1:06:37
  Talk and shop.
• 1:06:38
  Have fun.
• 1:06:38
  I love it.
• 1:06:39
  And sing it.
• 1:06:40
  I'm a big singer, too.
• 1:06:41
  You guys don't know that,
• 1:06:42
  but I'm a big-time singer, man.
• 1:06:45
  Don't make me bust out on some good
• 1:06:47
  old Tennessee whiskey or something.
• 1:06:49
  Oh, we're going to have a good time.
• 1:06:50
  I can't wait.
• 1:06:50
  Yeah.
• 1:06:51
  Buck,
• 1:06:52
  if people want to get a hold of
• 1:06:53
  you, they want to book your food truck,
• 1:06:54
  they want to find out where you're at,
• 1:06:56
  how can they do that?
• 1:06:56
  Okay, so on all social media platforms,
• 1:06:59
  I'm Big Bucks BBQ LLC,
• 1:07:02
  Big Bucks BBQ LLC.
• 1:07:05
  And that's on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.
• 1:07:08
  I have BigBucksBBQ.com as well, a website.
• 1:07:14
  You can call my phone.
• 1:07:15
  It's four, two, three, nine, four, six,
• 1:07:18
  nine, three, nine, zero.
• 1:07:21
  And yeah, just let me know, you know,
• 1:07:23
  whatever you need.
• 1:07:24
  I'm happy to work with anybody for
• 1:07:27
  catering situations.
• 1:07:29
  You need me to come feed your company
• 1:07:31
  or whatever.
• 1:07:32
  I do it all, man, so.
• 1:07:34
  love it look you guys know what to
• 1:07:35
  do man call my man book him get
• 1:07:38
  him to come out bring the food truck
• 1:07:39
  the whole nine yards we'll have a blast
• 1:07:41
  doing it look i appreciate you coming to
• 1:07:43
  hang out with us today man it's been
• 1:07:44
  great man i enjoy this we'll uh we'll
• 1:07:46
  stay in touch and um and maybe we
• 1:07:49
  can maybe we can get you to come
• 1:07:50
  hang out with us for the smoke on
• 1:07:52
  the shores i'm gonna yeah i'm gonna try
• 1:07:55
  and talk dairy into coming to hang out
• 1:07:57
  with us this year for the third year
• 1:08:00
  in a row
• 1:08:01
  to come hang out with us and see
• 1:08:03
  if I get stood up for the third
• 1:08:04
  year in a row.
• 1:08:05
  Oh, you know what?
• 1:08:06
  We're going to try.
• 1:08:08
  Tell us why.
• 1:08:10
  It falls on my son's birthday weekend.
• 1:08:12
  Oh, it's your son's birthday weekend.
• 1:08:14
  He's twenty-two now and he's engaged.
• 1:08:15
  I don't care anymore.
• 1:08:16
  I thought you had like a three-year-old or
• 1:08:21
  something.
• 1:08:24
  What?
• 1:08:24
  Get out of here, man.
• 1:08:24
  He's thirty-five and worried about the
• 1:08:26
  grandkids.
• 1:08:26
  It's okay.
• 1:08:28
  What?
• 1:08:29
  I'm in this year.
• 1:08:30
  I'm in.
• 1:08:32
  I'm in.
• 1:08:33
  Okay.
• 1:08:33
  It'll be fun.
• 1:08:33
  We'll get him out there.
• 1:08:35
  Look, you guys know what to do.
• 1:08:37
  If you want to get involved with the
• 1:08:38
  show,
• 1:08:38
  please feel free to email me at charlie
• 1:08:40
  at singletreebbq.com.
• 1:08:42
  You can call me if you want to,
• 1:08:43
  six one five three zero seven zero one
• 1:08:45
  two zero.
• 1:08:47
  Please make sure that you like share and
• 1:08:48
  subscribe to the channel.
• 1:08:49
  We air every Saturday from eight to nine
• 1:08:53
  on ESPN, ninety four point nine.
• 1:08:55
  If you don't,
• 1:08:57
  catch us there.
• 1:08:57
  You can catch us on YouTube until next
• 1:08:59
  time, guys.
• 1:09:00
  We'll see you then.
• 1:09:01
  Y'all be good.
• 1:09:01
  All right.