Welcome to a festive Christmas special of the Ducks Unlimited podcast! Join hosts Dr. Mike Brasher, Katie Burke, and Dr. Jared Henson as they celebrate the holiday season with special guest Malcom Reed from "How to BBQ Right." Malcom brings his expertise in barbecue and shares his experiences and favorite recipes, perfect for hunting camp and duck camp. Listen in for a delightful conversation filled with holiday cheer, barbecue tips, and memorable Christmas stories.
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Send feedback: DUPodcast@ducks.org
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Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.
Swell AI Transcript: Christmas 2024 NO MUSIC.mp3
Mike Brasher: Hey, everyone. Merry Christmas. Welcome to our special Christmas episode. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season out there. We are glad that you are joining us for this and sharing some of your time with us. I'm Dr. Mike Brasher, one of the hosts on this episode. I'm happy to be joined by co-host Katie Burke. Katie, great to have you. Hi, Mike. Nice festive sweatshirt. I forgot the memo.
Katie Burke: This is a sweater.
Mike Brasher: Sweater, sorry. I lost the memo. Jared, Dr. Jared Henson, our other co-host over here. Jared, great to have you as well.
Jerad Henson: Great to be here. I'm excited about this episode.
Mike Brasher: You also have the red and green color. I tried to be festive somewhat. And it was a busy morning for me, and I forgot mine. But the real guest on today's show is Malcolm Reed with How to Barbecue Right. Malcolm, thanks for joining us here on the Duck Sound Limited podcast.
Malcolm Reed: Thanks, Mike. This is going to be fun today, man. I appreciate the invite.
Mike Brasher: You don't have the red and green on, but you've got the camo.
Mike Brasher: It is the season for camo.
Mike Brasher: It's the right brand. So we got this going here. So we got a number of things to talk about here. You're going to share some time and some of your recipe experiences with us. But I'm going to kick it over to Jared and let you kind of take it over right now. So, Jared. Thanks, Mike.
Jerad Henson: I take it from here. So we brought this episode up. Malcolm does some fantastic barbecue content and not just around barbecue and cooking itself, but also around hunt camp, duck camp, things like that. So we thought Malcolm would be a perfect fit for this episode. Really glad you came in. And as we're talking about that, I kind of wanted to jump in and say if, or see if you or any of the other people in here have a specific like barbecue thing you remember from camp, like your favorite thing you cooked or best story.
Malcolm Reed: For me, I mean, I just remember coming back in, you come back in from the field, whether you're duck hunting, deer hunting, whatever, and there's always a breakfast made. Somebody went back, somebody didn't hunt or either somebody went back early to get that breakfast started and we would have biscuits and gravy. And then we would have some fried deer or some duck or something like that to go with it or sausage. And that was what, that's what kicked the day off. That was always something that I love about camp these days. When you come to our camp, we may not shoot the most birds, but I guarantee you're going to eat good and you're going to have a good time. We're going to throw the food out there.
Mike Brasher: I actually, I'm probably the only one here that does not have a lot of childhood memories or even memories now or like regular experiences at a camp. We didn't have deer camp, duck camp, anything of that nature. There was one we did when I was getting into hunting, we would go to, I guess, the host's house where we would kind of all covey up, so to speak, before we went out and did our thing. Deer hunting, but that wasn't a camp, but I do have distinct memories of, I think they warmed sausage and biscuit on, on the, on the, uh, above the fireplace and things of that nature and had a full breakfast. And that was just like a really cool thing for me. Um, so I don't have a whole lot of experience at a camp that we own or have any sort of friend, uh, friend affiliation with, but whenever I do have an opportunity to go with, um, whatever the case may be and you come back after a hunt and it's all ready, that's, that's the way to do it. It doesn't matter what it is as far as, as far as that goes, just really, really good. Absolutely.
Jerad Henson: That's something that's awesome right now. Like our camp that we've got, we kind of started up three, four years ago. It's more of a lake house on a big bay. And my mom will come and my wife will come and everybody, my mom will not hunt. She's not hunting. She doesn't want to. It's cold. It's early. She doesn't want to happen. But she will wake up early, you know, five, six, something like that. And then she'll work on cooking breakfast while we're out hunting and we come back, she's got a breakfast made. It's like, man, this is, we were missing out. This is, this is awesome.
Malcolm Reed: My mom pulls the guy. She does the exact same thing. I love it. Like, you know, you know, when they, when they, people can start smelling the bacon when they pull up, they're going to, they're fixing to be eating good. And that's just the way it's always been, you know, being from the South and Mississippi, we've always, it's like people gather, whether it's around the campfire outside or, or the fire pit. Yeah. or the kitchen at camp, you know, that's where everything starts. That's where the great conversations are. And that's what, I mean, that's just the good times.
Katie Burke: Yeah. Ours is similar. So I was similar with you. Like I didn't grow up with the camp, but we went back to my parents' house and that's where everybody was. But the consistent part was my mom. And she always made all the breakfast and still does. And the best thing about… And she doesn't hunt either, right? No, no. She's similar. Doesn't have any desire. She'll go every once while in the afternoon to see grandkids shoot things. So that's about it. But my mom is from South Louisiana, right outside of New Orleans. And we have breakfast beignets. Do you still do that? Oh, yeah. We used to rarely have them. So did I… Wait, sorry.
Jerad Henson: Do you have the recipe?
Katie Burke: No, I don't. I could get it, I guess, but she's really hard to get recipes from. She's one of those people like, oh, I just do it this way.
Mike Brasher: So you took me on my first turkey hunt. Was Patty there? Yes. We didn't do the breakfast beignets.
Katie Burke: You know why? No. This is what happens when you have children, but then you have grandchildren. So we would get beignets on the rare special occasion as kids. And then now that she has grandkids, they get it every time they show up.
Mike Brasher: We did have a meal when we got back, though. I remember that.
Katie Burke: She probably made homemade biscuits, at least. Usually she makes biscuits.
Mike Brasher: Maybe, maybe so, but it wasn't the beignets. But anyway, oh well, next time.
Katie Burke: She'll fry you individual eggs and make you homemade biscuits, but only grandkids get beignets. Right.
Jerad Henson: Well, that's one of the nice things too, though, about having camp, especially if you're barbecuing and want to smoke something, like you want to throw a pork shoulder on there, let it roll all night, you get back from hunting and it's there, or a brisket or something, and, you know, use a pellet grill or something like that.
Malcolm Reed: Just set it and walk away. It's nice. We'll take a front shoulder. and get it doctored up with the seasonings and maybe, you know, put a little beef broth or some kind of consomme in there and then just let it cook all day. And it'll be ready for dinner that evening. And you want to talk about, man, you can throw some potatoes together, some vegetables to go with it, and you got some really good eats, man. You just, we pick it right off the bone and it's, oh, it melts in your mouth. It's fantastic.
Mike Brasher: So you used a fancy word there, consomme. And so, I want to learn more about you. I mean, you're our primary guest here, and so I think I've seen one of your videos, but I want you to talk about some of what you do, what the products you have are, where people can learn more about you. But then, like, all of that rolls into this idea of, here, we typically get together for these holiday episodes, and we'll talk about some of our favorite memories and favorite meals and so forth. But we don't do this professionally the way you do. So I'm really intrigued by the type of spread that you produce. And so it's a lot of questions wrapped up in that, but kind of for folks that may not know who you are and then we'll get to these other things.
Malcolm Reed: Well, so I kind of got my start in the barbecue world doing competition barbecue. I mean, I grew up in a town, South Haven, which is just across the state line, North Mississippi. And. All these little towns had contests, but the big Super Bowl of them all was Memphis in May, the World Championship. Jared, I know you said you were on a team. We were on a team, yeah. And I'm sure our paths have crossed out there before. But that's kind of how I got started cooking. Now, growing up, The kitchen was the center of the Southern household, and that's where your grandma was, that's where your mom was, and that's where all the good stuff was. And for me, it was just memories, and I was always drawn to it. I didn't go to culinary school, but I did work in some restaurants in high school and caught myself, you know, through college and all that. So, I had some experience with how a kitchen runs, and it was from doing the dishes to the, you know, all that stuff. Like, I'm nowhere close to being a chef. I just have a passion for it. So, I would be in my mom and my grandmother's cookbooks. I was always watching, you know, Emeril, the old Cajun guy, Justin Wilson. If you've got family in Louisiana, you know who that is. But that was the kind of stuff I was drawn to. And, you know, during the holidays, it was always revolved around some hunting season. Whether it was Thanksgiving, it was deer season. If it was around Christmas, we usually had some birds then. So that was like our duck season where we hunt. We might kill some woodies in the early season, but most of the time, the bigger ducks aren't coming until it's really cold. And that was kind of my experience with it. So we cook game. We cook Southern-style food. It was comfort food. It was stuff like that. And I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with barbecuing and spending time doing it. And so I wanted to learn more about it. Barbecue has always been one of those things where people held those recipes close to their vest. You didn't share your granddad's secret sauce recipe. You didn't share the seasonings you were putting on the meat. And I saw a thing where when I was wanting to learn, I was like, man, you know, there's not really anybody. There was a few like little forums and stuff for you to ask questions, but there wasn't a really a good, a good resource. to learn how to do this if you're a novice or if you're somebody that wants to get better at some things. I said, well, I'm going to flip the script. I'm going to start sharing what I'm learning. And it might not be right, but the only way to be wrong about it is not to do it. So, that's how we kind of come up with How to Barbecue Right. I mean, there's a million ways to do these barbecues, to cook a slab of ribs, and the only wrong way is just to give up.
Mike Brasher: And so, that How to Barbecue Right, that's, is that your YouTube channel?
Malcolm Reed: So, it started out as just a website and a free newsletter where I would And I'm not a writer. We talked about this earlier.
Mike Brasher: And so you were just doing this on the side?
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, yeah. So I was doing commercial architecture. I worked for some firms here in Memphis doing that. That was kind of my real job, my day job. And I was doing all this on the side. And so my wife, she heard me in all my spare time. I was on the phones with my buddy, you know, what do you think about this pork butt? It hit 160 at, you know, the four hour mark instead of the five hour mark. And it was just always stuff like that. Just guy banter around barbecue. And my wife actually had a, she had the, I don't know, it was the vision or the inclination or whatever that other people might be interested in what me and my buddies were interested in. And so she said, I'm going to start you a new website. and then we're going to start a newsletter, and you're going to start writing." And I said, hold up. I didn't do English in school. That wasn't… I was the math and science guy. You give me some numbers or some lines or how to draw something, I can do that. But the writing part didn't… She said, no, no, no. Don't worry about that. You're just going to do it in your voice, like we're sitting here talking, just like this podcast. And I said, well, I can do that, you know. And I started, and I just started writing about what was going on. If I was cooking ribs, this is how I cook them. And, you know, four or five people would subscribe to it. And that, you know, and it, it was a slow crawl. There wasn't, this wasn't like today when somebody can start a TikTok channel or a YouTube channel and go to a million fast. It was a low, slow and steady crawl. And the whole thing that worked for us was the consistency. So, we didn't know anything about video. We didn't have cameras. We didn't have microphones. We didn't have any of this stuff. It was just what we were doing. This was before cell phone cameras when I started. Um, I remember the first one I got, um, we had a company that we were doing some, some advertising stuff where they wanted to see what the competition atmosphere was like. So they mailed us a little flip camera and it was like a little USB camera and they wanted us to record it and then email it back to them, the footage. Well, that was fine. We filled that little camera up, but back then files were so large, you could not email. There wasn't Dropbox or anything like that. So he was like, how are we going to get this footage to them? And my wife was doing some work with another company and it was like, there's this thing called YouTube that come out and it's a, you can put videos on it and then you can just send a link. And I said, well, let's try that, you know, and then it just, from there we had a YouTube channel. We just kept doing that same little camera and then we'd learned how to do, you know, buy another, more expensive camera and learned how to edit and all that. And it's just been, it's been a, it's been a fun journey. I promise. It's been a lot of fun.
Mike Brasher: I have a, have a question here. I want to go back and want to, we need to, we need to define something first. You said barbecuing. So what's your definition, definition of barbecuing versus grilling? Cause we got people all over the, all over the country and all over the world is going to be listening to this. Um, and I think there's a bit of a debate about whether it's barbecuing or whether it's grilling and what, what's one versus the other.
Malcolm Reed: I don't know if there's a debate. It could be a noun, it could be a verb, it could be an adjective. It's, you know, it's its own thing. And depending on where you're at, what it means. To me, barbecuing is the act of going outside and cooking something. Often it is low and slow. It takes a little longer. If I'm cooking just something on a grill over hot coals, I'm grilling. But if it's taking some time to do it, it's barbecue.
Mike Brasher: Okay, so let the comments roll in on this, folks. If y'all disagree, here's your chance.
Malcolm Reed: But, you know, in Mississippi, or in the Memphis area, when you say barbecue, that just means pulled pork and ribs. It means smoke hit and meat low and slow, yeah. That's it, that's it. So there's, you know, there's a lot of interpretations, and that's been an ongoing argument for a long time. What is barbecue?
Mike Brasher: I have a tremendous amount of admiration for the folks like yourself that learned it and perfected this craft through sort of experience. And of course, it just wasn't all, say, experience through like trial and error. And you didn't do it by yourself. You talked about how you were talking with your friends and you looked to cookbooks and other TV shows that were available then. But as you said, the pace of learning was much slower then than it is now, and I have a lot of friends that have invested a lot of time into getting good at barbecuing, and Jared, I think, is one of those. You're pretty good at this, invest a fair bit of time. I learned something from this guy, from those videos. I just, I think about I think about the amount of time required to do one pork butt. And that's one, from the way I think about it, one data point. I mean, there's multiple data points there, but it's like you're learning. It's one moment in time of learning. and then you have to apply what you learned there to the next time. It's a lot of time. It's a lot. And so, I bet if you added up the amount, number of hours that you've spent doing this kind of stuff, you're, well, you probably don't want to do that.
Malcolm Reed: Oh, yeah. No, I don't want to add the dollars that I spent.
Jerad Henson: I was about to say, a lot of these cuts of meat are out.
Malcolm Reed: They're not. And it's easy to mess some of them up, too. You take a big brisket, man, I've messed up my share of them, I promise you.
Katie Burke: Oh yeah, as I was saying, sometimes you get cuts and it's not even that you messed it up. Like, you don't even know what, you could have done things exactly the same.
Malcolm Reed: That's the challenge. That's the challenge of it. You could do the same exact thing and it turn out different outcomes because you don't know. There's so many variables when it comes to this style of cooking. From the weather outside, the humidity, the air, you know, the wind. If, you know, depending, the wind plays a big part in it. The quality of the meat you get from animal to animal or from cut to cut. Um, some things it's easy, like a slab of ribs, every bones come off the same animal that's on that slab. But when you cook two pork butts, you don't know if they came off the same animal or not. You know, you're dealing with two totally different things. Same goes for, for any cut of beef there. You don't know what that animal went through, you know, in the process of getting it to the store to where you can buy it.
Katie Burke: Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't barbecue or smoke things, but I do cook. So I do know that like, yeah, it doesn't, not every time it's going to be the same. Like you can't predict what you're going to get. And you can see.
Malcolm Reed: Except our grandmothers. I can do those biscuits.
Katie Burke: I don't know how they do it.
Jerad Henson: Every time. It needed more seasoning. My great-grandmother, that needs more seasonings. Salt? No. Bacon fat. That's what seasoning was. Well, you can tell from the conversation there that you've got that competition background. You've got all these variables you keep talking about, and that's really interesting because you're talking about the variability within those meats. And you're generally only cooking three, four, five cuts of meat, right?
Malcolm Reed: That's right.
Jerad Henson: Or something like that. I know from your content that you put out, you cook a lot more than just that these days. I think one of the craziest things I think I've seen on your channel was y'all did an alligator? We did. We did a whole alligator. A whole alligator.
Malcolm Reed: That was an experience. Where'd you get the gator? It came from Gamekeeper Butchery, a mossy oak company. They're raised in Louisiana. There, when we did that video, um, that those guys, I'm buddies with some of them and they approached and I said, man, do you want to do a video for us about cooking an alligator? And I said, yeah, I'd love to. Well, they didn't know how many alligators they were going to sell after that. And so it was like sold out forever. And now that's like, people want to do them for tailgates. They want to do it for holidays. It's I'm gonna be honest with you. It's not the best to eat. It's not the best to eat, but it does look really, really cool.
Katie Burke: Yeah, I did it. I've had it a few times at Ole Miss games when we played Florida.
Jerad Henson: That's appropriate. Get some gator bites.
Malcolm Reed: It's okay. Fried gator's really good. It's just the whole one, you know, you have to cook a smaller one because the big one would probably really not be good.
Jerad Henson: That's what I've heard. I've heard they get tough.
Malcolm Reed: The smaller ones, you know, the tail's primarily what you're eating. And if you don't take the time and clean it real good, it can get a little fishy on you. There's a lot of fat in there that you really got to clean out and stuff. It's a lot of work for a little bit of meat. And usually what you stuff it with is really good. That's what people end up eating. It's like cream cheese and all the good stuff that's in there. And, you know, that's what makes it good. But the alligator itself, I'd rather have it fried. Like buffalo style.
Mike Brasher: Oh, it's good. Jared, I got a question for you. You said a moment ago that you've watched some of Malcolm's videos, learned a few things. What are the most valuable tips that you've learned from Malcolm? And then maybe he can add to some of that.
Jerad Henson: I think his approach for time and temp.
Malcolm Reed: That's the first thing I get in my mind, time and temp. Right.
Jerad Henson: If you want to be consistent, like good at barbecue, it's general time and temperature at what, not temperature to cook at per se, but temperature on when to to go to the next step in that cook.
Malcolm Reed: Or to take it off the grill. Internal tip. Yeah, yeah. And so what do you mean by that? So, I mean, every meat's done at different temperatures, you know. So, say a pork butt, for instance, it's gonna need to go up close to 200 degrees to really turn into good pulled pork barbecue. And so you don't, you're guessing at it if you don't know that internal temperature.
Mike Brasher: It just needs to hit 200 or just need to stay there some… Well,
Malcolm Reed: It doesn't, the fact that it needs to stay there, but it needs to render, it needs to break down the connective tissue inside that butt. And typically that's where it happens. That's where a lot of that fat or that, that connective tissue will kind of liquefy and you're going to get everything from it. It's going to flavor the meat on the inside and make it super moist and tender where it's not, you know, it's not tough when you bite into it. And, and all cuts of meat are different, you know, poultry is different than pork and pork's way different than beef. And using, you know, besides your grill, that's the smoker you're using, that's a really important tool that you have. That handheld thermometer or a probe thermometer, those are super important tools. And you don't, a lot of times you don't see chefs using these. They do use them, but they just don't show you. But if it's cooked right, it's cooked to a precise internal temperature.
Mike Brasher: I use a little temperature probe for everything that I cook now. It's been a game changer for me in achieving some of that consistency.
Malcolm Reed: Even cooking in the kitchen, it's a big thing for you.
Jerad Henson: You say cooking duck or any type of waterfowl. Absolutely. That is the key right there. Everybody that talks about, oh, I don't like duck, it's just because you had it overcooked.
Malcolm Reed: Everybody wants to do roll-ups, roll-ups, roll-ups, and it's like, y'all know those roll-ups? To get that bacon done, that duck is so overcooked, man. You don't, just trust me, just sear it real fast on each side and get that internal temperature about 125, 130. Let it rest and it'll melt in your mouth and you'll be like, God, this is not duck. I said, yes, that is duck.
Jerad Henson: So speaking of that, what is your favorite way to cook duck?
Malcolm Reed: That's seared. Seared. Seared fat, seared hot and fast is my best way. And I've, you know, I would have to, I'd have to go teal, wood duck, mallard. That's my, that's my recipe. I can get on board on that. But I, you know, I've fed some people, some ducks that they, that they say aren't the best eating. If you cook them that way, you sear them hot and fast. People don't have a clue. They don't know. Skin on? Brine or no brine. Um, typically not. Typically, I don't brine them. So, I'm a brine. I like to brine mine. I mean, there's nothing wrong with brining. I brine all my turkeys and stuff.
Jerad Henson: It gives you, when you're searing, that perfectly done window is a lot longer.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah. You don't dry it out.
Jerad Henson: Yeah. Are you doing, like, a traditional brine? Like, a traditional turkey brine, but I will add a little, like, rosemary and black pepper to it.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah. Man, I should have brought you a bottle of my bird brine. I haven't tried it on. Well, we'll work that out. Yeah, I'll get you that. So, skin on? Typically, we just breast them out. I have cooked some duck with the skin on. Nice layer of fat on it, and it gets crispy. It's really nice. But most of the time, we're ripping through them and trying to get done.
Mike Brasher: So here's what I did. That's what I used to do, but I've started plucking all of my birds, at least the breast and legs and thighs. And this weekend, I was doing that. because we went hunting last weekend, brought back a few ducks, and I think I had like 12 ducks with me. I hunted for like three days or something. And so it was taking a while to pluck through all those birds.
Katie Burke: You need to get you a guy.
Katie Burke: Well, I need to get a plucker. Top dollar duck. Well, I'm the do-it-yourself. That's a deal. He's in Webb, Mississippi. He's great.
Mike Brasher: Yeah, but by the time I factor the fuel and time and all that, so what I did is I bought a plucker, an electric plucker, and so that's what I'm gonna, to accelerate that process, but since I started doing that, if there's fat on that bird, I absolutely pluck every one of them, unless they're in some ridiculous stage of right in the middle of mold and it's just a mess, you know, but if it's got good fat on it, Actually, I rendered some fat from some duck skin here this weekend, too. I've done that.
Jerad Henson: That's liquid gold. I do that, and I save it, and on those birds that we do end up just resting out, you just take a spoonful of that, throw it in the skillet, and it is money.
Malcolm Reed: Oh, man, that's a good idea. I'm a firm believer in the duck fat. I mean, the duck fat spray, it's good stuff.
Mike Brasher: We are going to take a break. I think our producer, I mean, look at him. We've got some cocktails, right? You want to tell us what the cocktails are right now? How's this going to work? Sure. Welcome to the show, Chris Isaac, our wonderful producer. He doesn't make a video appearance. We got him an audio appearance right now.
Jerad Henson: Happy to be here.
Chris Isaac: The man behind the curtain. Today, we're just doing one for this cocktail break. It's a mulled wine.
Mike Brasher: One variety. That doesn't mean we can't have refills.
Chris Isaac: That's right. Yeah. Unlimited refills till the Crock-Pot runs out. So it's a mulled wine featuring Bird Dog's Blackberry Whiskey. So mixed with, I got a bourbon barrel-aged red wine, and then added the Blackberry Whiskey, added some cinnamon sticks, some cloves, a little bit of Angostura bitters, and some orange slices. So that's been simmering for the past two hours, and so those flavors should hopefully be all combined and ready to go. When we come back after the break, y'all will… Enough of the chit-chat.
Mike Brasher: We're going to a break, folks. Grab yourselves something similar to this and rejoin us on the backside of this. Thanks, y'all.
Jerad Henson: Hey everybody, welcome back from that break. We got us a nice little libation now, a little mulled wine with some bird dog blackberry whiskey. I'm feeling very festive and holiday. Cheers, everyone.
Mike Brasher: We're going to do the clink?
Mike Brasher: That's what I feel, yeah.
Malcolm Reed: This is a fantastic holiday libation. I mean, it really is. It warms you up.
Jerad Henson: I could get in trouble on these. Oh my goodness.
Katie Burke: Yeah, it's fantastic.
Malcolm Reed: The citrus, the clove, the cinnamon, it just comes through.
Mike Brasher: Now, the people watching this will not be able to try this right now unless they have paused it. We had a little video right before this where our mixologist, producer extraordinaire, Chris Isaac, led you through the little recipe for this. So, hope you're enjoying it.
Jerad Henson: Highly recommend. And while we're in that festive spirit, Let's talk about some of those festive recipes, right? Those holiday recipes. What's your go-to, Malcolm?
Malcolm Reed: I would say the number one, around Christmas time, is the ham, the double smoked ham. And they're really easy to do. I mean, for anybody, if you're just getting into cooking outside, smoking low and slow or anything, The ham is something easy because we're starting with a fully cooked ham already. It's been smoked. And when you buy it at the grocery store, typically they're all have already been smoked. So you don't have to do a lot to it. Often they'll come with like a little glaze pack or something. I recommend throwing that in the trash. We'll make our own glaze. There you go. But you're gonna put that ham on a pit, and you could do it at 225, you could do it at 250, you could do it… I wouldn't go over 300. That's gonna be kind of the top limit on it, because you're trying to warm it up in a smoked environment. So we're gonna add a little bit of wood flavor. When I'm doing hams, I like to use a little cherry or a little fruit wood, like apple or something like that, because often they've used hickory, they've used oak, they've used some harder hardwoods. And so the mixing of those woods is fine. It's perfectly fine in moderation, because we're not putting a heavy smoke on it. So think of like a pellet grill. You can set that thing at 225 in there, and then you can use some apple pellets or some maple pellets, something with a little more a sweeter kind of aroma to it like the fruit woods give, and it works out fantastic. It usually takes about three hours to warm one of these up, so for the first two hours we're just putting the ham on the cooking grate and letting it rip. Just letting it keep it closed, let it do its thing, and then about that third hour I like to take some turbinado sugar and some brown sugar, a little bit of orange juice, and maybe a little clove or a little cinnamon, or a little allspice, something that you've got in your probably… These flavors would go excellent with it. In fact, you could probably reduce this down with the bird dog. And it would turn it into almost a, just reduce it by half and it'd kind of give it a syrup-like consistency. And you just brush it over that ham that last hour. And you want to check the internal temperature. You want it to be back to 140 degrees, that's serving temp. So we're not trying to cook this a long, long time. So you're just really warming it up in that environment and it will change your Christmas ham. People will be begging you for the recipe and it's super simple to do. There's nothing to it.
Mike Brasher: Do you have a big family that comes over, or do you go somewhere for the big family to cook for?
Malcolm Reed: Usually, back, I mean, now, you know, as you get older, you start losing family, but you add friends. And so, we do, like, friendsgiving, and we do friends holiday parties and stuff like that. So, yeah, they're pretty large gatherings.
Mike Brasher: And so is there a recipe when everybody shows up or before they're coming over, are they asking you, did you cook this? Is there one of those items that everybody's looking for?
Malcolm Reed: It's probably going to be the smoked prime rib. That's the one that people will drive across the country for. And why is that? I think it's just because it's good and it's different. You know, most people think of prime rib, it's usually oven roasted, something like that. So you get some flavors on the outside of it, but there's just another level that goes with all the traditional flavors once you put it on a barbecue grill. Because you're getting, you're introducing that, that charcoal, that grill flavor, a little light smoke to it. And it just had, it takes on its own thing. And it's, I mean, for me, it's way better than anything cooked in the oven. And I understand that everybody's got a smoker and I'm biased. But it really is good. And they're really not, you know, everybody gets a little scared on prime rib because it's an expensive cut of meat. You know, you're going to spend over a hundred bucks on a decent sized piece of prime rib. But the worst thing you can do is overcook it. So it goes back to- That's my question. Are you still doing it like medium rare? Yes, absolutely. I'm using a meat thermometer. And depending on the size of the prey, like if it's a whole rib loin, I'm going to put two in it. Because I want to know where it's at all through, you know, in a couple spots. Cause if you just dig it in the end, well, of course the end is going to heat up before the center. But I want to know, I want it in a range. Like I'll, you know, at the end, the reason why I like the range is because there's always some people that don't want to see that. Yeah. And that, and so we'll give them the in cuts, you know. But the rest of it, I mean, I want it about 125 internal in the center. And that way, it's going to carry over to 130. It's going to be medium, and it's going to still have that nice pink tone from edge to edge. You're not going to get a lot of big gray area, and then some pink, and then some gray area. That's because people cook it too hot too fast. You got to slow it down and let it go slow. At the very end, if you want to get a nice crust on it, you can kind of sear it a little bit over the hot part of the grill. But primarily, we're just letting it come up slow and really let those flavors develop.
Mike Brasher: I want to know what happened to the idea of having Malcolm come be part of this episode and actually cook for us. I'm going to put that on our playlist over there, Chris.
Mike Brasher: I need to bring a grill next time.
Jerad Henson: I thought we were going to do that. Actually, one of my follow-up questions there is listening to you talk about that. What's your preferred cooker for that primary? Because I know you've got a lot of different grills and smokers that you like to run.
Malcolm Reed: For the prime rib, I really like doing them either on a pellet grill or a ceramic grill, like a Big Green Egg or a Primo, something like that. Those are my two favorite. Really good temperature control. Because of the precise temperature control. I'm not putting those on my big pits and running them like I cook shoulders and ribs and all that. I'm cooking it on something where I can really dial the temp in. I look at it as this is just an extension to my oven. What would I cook it on in my oven? Can I get it on those temps outside and incorporate the smoke and the grill flavor?
Mike Brasher: So, I imagine you probably have some sponsors where you get, or do you, like for your grills and things of that nature? I have a few companies that I work with, yes. And so, before you got to that point, how many different types of grills had you gone through?
Malcolm Reed: Well, I still cook on a lot of different types, and that was one thing I tell my sponsors. I'm not going to be just one specific. And my thinking has always been, I knew what it was like. I mean, I had homemade grills when I first started, so I didn't have a grill like everybody else. Well, most people are in that boat. Y'all aren't going to have the same grills that I have at home, and Jared, you're probably not going to have the same grills. So if I mix it up and I learn to cook on everything, these techniques will apply to your grill as it does mine. So I try to learn the other grills too. So that way I can speak to, you know, what would I do if I was cooking on this? Because I get that question a lot. Hey, I've got this type grill. What would you do? And oftentimes, I would do the same thing. Just watch your heat control. You're going to have to adjust your vents and dial it in. You're going to babysit it a little more. But you can cook on anything. Any of the recipes that I do can be cooked on just about any grill there is.
Jerad Henson: And that's like what I talked about earlier, that time and temp thing. That kind of standardizes it, right?
Malcolm Reed: That's right. That's right. I mean, you can do that on a Weber kettle. Once you learn the airflow and the coals. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's probably the best grill made. The old trusty Weber kettle.
Jerad Henson: It is versatile. Good charcoal. Let it go. That's right. Let it rip.
Mike Brasher: Malcolm, do you find there is a sort of natural evolution of barbecuers, like, whenever you first get into it? Because we've had an episode, a podcast episode, I don't know, a couple of months ago, with the stages of being a hunter. Like, when you just get into it, and then there's different motivations for it, and then are you the gadgeteer, and there's lots of different sort of models of how these things progress. But is there something similar to that in the world of barbecuing?
Malcolm Reed: Oh, 100%. You've got the purest. The guys that think you have to cut down a tree and dry the wood and cook it on this big stick burner and build the fire.
Jerad Henson: And they won't be caught dead or at a pellet grill.
Malcolm Reed: A pellet grill, you know, you're cooking. That's the Easy-Bake Oven. So you've got these levels, and I would say most people start out, the novice person's probably going to start with maybe a Weber kettle or something inexpensive, or they're going to buy an entry-level pellet grill because they're not really comfortable building a fire and managing it. They know they can turn a button on and use the pellets, which is fantastic. I think there's a place for all of it. But as you go, you're just like, you, you start saying, well, I know I'm not getting as good a smoke flavor with the pellet grill because you're not burning real wood and real coal. So I'm going to graduate. I'm going to buy a grill that I can do that. And then they're going to want one of the big pull behind grills. And then they're going to be in my addiction where you've got to have multiple and all of that. Before you know it, it's like shotguns. You've got a whole, you know, safe full of them.
Jerad Henson: Does it ever get to a point where you start to though, towards the end, it's not, it's less about the technology and the goodies and more about the experience? Yes. And who you, and I think we get to that same place.
Malcolm Reed: I found myself lately just liking cooking over live fire. Just a fire pit with a grate and learning how to get meat done and that kind of thing. And it's a lot of fun at camp. We have a, I think it's called a, Brio, but it's like, you know, it's like a metal fire pit. Kind of like a solo stove. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But they have a cooking grate that swings over it, like you would see the old time camp grates. And man, we cook more stuff on that. Just even if it's burgers and hot dogs for the kids, we just like firing up, just building a fire and cooking over it.
Mike Brasher: We could continue this conversation for about another hour. I've just got tons of questions. I do want to ask you one more question about cooking related stuff. Then we're going to move on to another topic. Do you have, do you want, or do you have a say in the sides that go along with the meats?
Malcolm Reed: I don't get a big, I don't get a big say in the size. That's usually my wife's department. But there's, so I love sweet potatoes.
Mike Brasher: Yeah. And so. Mississippi sweet potatoes? No, Barton sweet potatoes.
Mike Brasher: Okay, there you go.
Katie Burke: I grew up in Caledon County, so I know all about Barton sweet potatoes.
Malcolm Reed: I'm the oddball at this table. But no, the sweet potato, and I don't want to see the marshmallow stuff. Don't bring that. It better be that praline pecan topping. That's the one and mac and cheese. Yeah. And I do a mean smoked mac and cheese on the, uh, have you ever done it?
Jerad Henson: I have. And it's one of those things like you, when you mentioned earlier that you treat your smoker sometimes like an oven, anything you finish or that you would cook in an oven, if you finish it in a smoker, sometimes it's just fantastic.
Malcolm Reed: Mac and cheese. It's just another slight layer of flavor that puts in a dish that your oven can't do. If they could figure out how to incorporate that smoke inside your house in the oven, we probably wouldn't cook outside. Yeah, not comfy, stay on the comfy chair. We can keep it, you know, 70 degrees all year round.
Jerad Henson: Well, we were talking kind of through these different recipes and all these things that make me really hungry. But we're hunting season right now, right? And I know you're a big deer hunter, got a deer camp down there in Mississippi. What have y'all been doing land management-wise? I know Mike's got some input on that.
Mike Brasher: Maybe I might just listen and learn. Well, I don't know about that.
Malcolm Reed: We got a long ways to go, but that was kind of my goal. What part of the state? So we're in Tate County. Tate County.
Mike Brasher: Okay, so for folks that aren't Mississippi geography familiar.
Malcolm Reed: I would say if you know where I-55 is at Cenotopia, we're before it drops off down into the Delta. So we're right on that edge. Okay. So east central. It's like Cenotopia area. Yeah. It would be Northwest-ish. I guess you would say.
Katie Burke: You're like 45 minutes south of Memphis.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we're not, I mean, we're right there on the Delta, but we just don't have the. the Delta plots, the big ag fields. But yeah, so that's what we started doing. Most of ours, it's still hill country. So we've got some hardwoods, but we also have some old fields that we've reclaimed and trying to get out all that, you know, the pasture grass that was in there that's not really valuable to wildlife to promote habitat where we can get some birds and then we can get our small game and we can get the deer laying in there. You know, and that's a big part of it to me. I mean, the hunting part is just a bonus. Being able to be a steward of that land, that's really what is exciting. And you really see your results, you know, because you're down there more. I mean, we think hunting season, we don't want to go in there all the time. I don't want to get, if I've got a good hunting stand and I know the wind's right and there's a buck in there, I don't want to go in there much. But doing habitat management, it lets me be in there in the late winter, which is coming up, and we're going to do be doing our prescribed burns and maybe some hack and squirting to try to open up, let some sunlight in, promote some natural forage for them. And then that's just, that's the kind of things we start doing. We start really walking our land in the after hunting season, trying to see if there's stuff that we need to clean up or get ideas for improvement or to figure out where to make some bedding areas or figure out where we want our turkeys to be hanging out.
Katie Burke: I was gonna say, it's like you're listening for turkeys.
Malcolm Reed: But that's it. And, you know, and I've, I'm trying to get my son into it and, you know, just, that's a, that's a big thing of taking care of the land that you have to hunt. And I mean, I don't have a lot. It's not a, you know, it's not it, but, but it's an, it's enough for me to have fun and to learn on and to appreciate. Cause I think we don't really own the land. We're just taking care of it for a little while. For the next person.
Jerad Henson: That's something kind of I talked about in a podcast yesterday as well, kind of one of the most exciting things about hunting, especially as a waterfowl hunter or turkey hunter, is that interaction you have with the animal and you're calling and you're working them. Being a land manager allows you to do the exact same thing. You get to make a manipulation and watch how the wildlife responds and that's super rewarding. And that's one of the fun parts about it, whether it's deer, turkey, ducks, whatever.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, well, we step up our predator control, too, after hunting season. We usually, I mean, we don't, we're not out there calling coyotes at night now, but coyotes and raccoons, I mean, they're, they destroy our turkey nest. And so, and you know, I would love to see the quail bounce back, and I'd love to have a property that could hold some, and I know it's tough. I mean, it's so tough. But, I mean, that's something that we had. It hasn't been too many years ago where the North Mississippi had a pretty good population.
Katie Burke: Oh, yeah. We've had them come back in the Delta. Not in our hill place, but in the Delta, we've had them come back and then we lose them back and forth. Do you deal with and take county? So, I grew up in Tallahatchie County, not very far. And we have a hill place and then we have our place in the Delta. But our hill place, do y'all deal with hogs?
Malcolm Reed: We don't where we are.
Mike Brasher: Because they know that he'd kill them and eat them.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, well, that's true. But on our duck lease, which is probably maybe five miles west of us, where it actually drops off, it's on the edges of the Coldwater River, infested with them.
Katie Burke: Yeah, we had it really good for a while. It was pretty good for, like, it was bad and then we had them back down and they're, I mean, every time I'm out there turkey hunting.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, I don't think there's, it's almost impossible to get rid of them. The state came in and took a lot off the property with helicopter, which I would have liked to have seen that. And then they do a lot of, they do a lot of hog trapping and hog, you know, trying to manage them, but it's… We have some good old boys that come out in horses.
Katie Burke: Yeah, shoot them and hunt them on horses. I'm pretty sure they're part of the problem. I think they kind of let them go so that they don't get to hunt them.
Malcolm Reed: Well, there was a long time where people wanted to hunt hogs. They said, oh, we need some hogs to hunt. So, you know, you get something like that going, you don't realize the environmental impact it can have by doing something like that. And I'm thankful that we don't have them. And it's only because they just don't want to be there. If they wanted to be there, there's nothing we could do about it.
Mike Brasher: Do you have much experience with wild hog cooking?
Mike Brasher: Yes, I've cooked a pretty good bit of it. And how does that compare?
Malcolm Reed: What are the key differences? So it's just a lot different because it's so much leaner. I mean, you got to think that animal's tough and he is running all the time. And it's the smaller ones eat really good. The larger ones are, you know, the back straps are pretty good.
Mike Brasher: So, what's the best thing to do with the others? I mean, you just kind of leave them, leave them for the vultures?
Malcolm Reed: Well, grind them. Grind it into sausage, and it mixes pretty well, and you mix some regular fat with it. It needs fat because it's so lean. But, you know, I've had some wild hog that was as good as any domestic raised hog that we've turned into barbecue that, you know, sometimes I've had, it's just not fit to eat. Probably can't do bacon from them, can you? No. So, Bossy oak has a line of bacon, but it's way different than what you would think. It's not like the package bacon you would get. It's more akin to the texture of country ham. If you know like how it's like really thin sliced country ham, but you know, because they cure it like bacon and has some of the flavor, but the texture is just a little different. It's tighter. It's not going to crisp up. Kind of similar to that texture. Yeah. a lot and it's okay. We do a candied version of it that's pretty good like you know you sprinkle it down with some seasoning and then a little brown sugar and you let it caramelize on the grill and then you put a little maple glaze on it and it's a good little treat.
Jerad Henson: That would go really really good with these by the way.
Malcolm Reed: Oh yeah it would, it would go real good. But like, just eating it like a piece of bacon, it's like, this ain't bacon.
Mike Brasher: Yeah. So you've got deer hunting, turkey hunting, duck hunting. Any other kind of hunting that's your favorite right now?
Katie Burke: Squirrel. I love squirrel hunting.
Mike Brasher: So, of those four, you had to give up three of them. Which one would you be keeping?
Mike Brasher: Turkey.
Malcolm Reed: I just got into turkey hunting and it's a whole different game. You're going mono-a-mono with that guy trying to trick him. When did you get into it? Since I bought my property. So two years ago was my first time as well. I killed my first two last year, finally, and it took a while. And it was… It's exhilarating. Oh man, there's nothing like it.
Mike Brasher: That was my exact… I went to school at Mississippi State. Obviously, the wildlife profession has kind of been what I've associated with for 30 plus years. And everyone would always ask me, have you ever turkey hunted? And I'd say, no, I haven't gotten into that yet. And they'd say, well… don't do it unless you want to get hooked. And so, finally, I broke down and it was actually at a lunch that you and I were having with a donor here at Ducks Unlimited and it came up that I had never gone turkey hunting and Katie said, I'm taking you turkey hunting. Yeah, and he's from Calhoun County, Mississippi, which is like turkey heaven. And so, during the first year, I killed… I mean, we had an amazing hunt.
Katie Burke: We had a good, crazy turkey hunt. That's what makes it so great. That's what's so fun. They're so unpredictable.
Malcolm Reed: Every hunt that I went, that I've been on, has been different. There's not been one that's the same. And when you think you've got that bird figured out, you don't.
Jerad Henson: You don't. It's also just a beautiful time to be in the woods.
Malcolm Reed: Of course. I like early turkey season. When it starts getting closer to May and those no-shoulders start coming out and I get to thinking at night. You know, and the ticks. Yeah, I love turkey.
Katie Burke: Yeah, but they get real hot at the end of the season.
Malcolm Reed: That's when they really yell.
Mike Brasher: Well, I think we have… Mr. Producer, what do we want to do here? Do we want to take another break and refill our cups? Or… That's sort of a… I'm calling an audible right there. Do we want to do that? That's how the bacon is made, as they say. I don't have any left. What, you've been drinking it all?
Chris Isaac: No, I only made like one serving.
Mike Brasher: I'm sorry. No, it's alright. Well, we're not all perfect.
Chris Isaac: So… Let's go on to some… Just some quick questions. Some rapid fire questions. Then maybe we can… Should we expand any more on your products?
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, we can do that. I can talk a little bit.
Katie Burke: I want to taste the pickle. Oh, yeah.
Mike Brasher: Go taste the pickle.
Mike Brasher: They go great with cheese and crackers. Do we want to do this live? Just keep rolling right now? Are you going to leave all this in?
Chris Isaac: We'll see.
Mike Brasher: We'll see. It's all good if we do. It'd be a nice change. It's crisp, right? So Katie's gonna get up, you're gonna go get some pickles and… We're gonna ask some questions while she's doing that.
Malcolm Reed: If I had to recommend one of those two, I'd do the spicy garlic first just because the other one's really hot. It's kind of like a cowboy candy. But the crawfish ones are really good. The crawfish ones down here, Katie. What are you getting into over there? They're not too spicy. They're in their deal.
Chris Isaac: Spicy garlic.
Malcolm Reed: Spicy garlic are really good.
Mike Brasher: So tell us about your products while we're kind of doing it. While Katie's over there kind of opening up every bottle that we have, so.
Malcolm Reed: She's really not, I just, you know. Well, I started with, this was my Killer Hogs competition team, and we were making seasonings. We'd make our dry rub to go to these contests with, because we were trying to wow the judges, and you wanted to be a little different than everybody else. So that's kind of how we came up with the recipe, and we called it The Barbecue Rub. It was the only barbecue rub you needed. It was The Barbecue Rub. And so I started making it and as people found out we were, you know, we're doing pretty good at contests. Well, they would say, can you make me a bottle? Can you make me a bottle? I know you're making some of this contest. Can you make me two pounds or whatever? And so I said, man, I got to start bottling this. And that's what we did. And I found, you know, I started working with a co-packer and we got them the recipe exactly like I was making it. And then that one led to, I need something to go with it. You know, what would be just a general season and the AP come out because it's all purpose. It's really salt, pepper, garlic, and a few herbs. It's not Adam Putnam? No. Not our AP.
Mike Brasher: But he needs some of that. Christmas present for… So Melissa, if you're watching, it's going to be a little bit late to get in on that. And then we also… Consider the release date of this.
Malcolm Reed: I had a, I also had a barbecue sauce and that was, and it took years to kind of get it to where it was the same. That's, that's the hard thing about developing these products is I can make it in my kitchen with the ingredients I have, but the spice companies have all this fresh stuff. So their spices is totally different than, than what we're getting at the supermarket. And then, so they have to step it back and change the quantities. And it's a lot of testing goes into it, but it's been a lot of fun. And I think I'm up to. Wow, over a dozen, over a dozen different seasons and sauces. This is our busy, believe it or not, this is our, you'd think barbecue season like summer would be, but from November 1st to Christmas is a busy time. People, everybody's cooking for Thanksgiving. A lot of people are cooking for Christmas and it makes excellent gifts. So if you're looking for a cooking man, something to… Stocking stuff. It's excellent, yeah.
Mike Brasher: And what's the website?
Malcolm Reed: You go to howtobbqright.com.
Mike Brasher: Howtobbqright.com. All right. Jared, you've tried some of his products?
Jerad Henson: I have. I really like the BBQ Rub. We use that one on a regular basis. King Crawl is pretty good, too. King Crawl is a good one, yeah.
Malcolm Reed: It's a little Cajun seasoning, yeah. I have a Grande Gringo. It's kind of a Mexican seasoning. Is that a newer one? Yeah, it came out when the King Crawl came out, yeah. I don't know, you know that. You've done your homework. I like that stuff, man.
Jerad Henson: I don't like buying local products, right? Barbecue and the cooking scene in this region, in this area is real big, and so that's one of my favorite ones. What about Not your product, but one of my favorite ones is like, it's that secret that came out in like barbecue groups. It's Flavorama.
Malcolm Reed: Oh, yeah. Number five. Oh, number five.
Jerad Henson: You know, those, but like, those are like local products that people really, really push. And so anytime I see something that's come out of a competition group, I was like, I gotta try that one because I know it's good.
Mike Brasher: Do you have a cabinet full of barbecue rubs and that kind of stuff?
Jerad Henson: I think I have four or five in there. I do. And I, and I use, and, Because I, I have my own taste palette, right? And my preference is I use those as a base and then I'll adjust depending upon what I'm cooking. So, you know, if I'm doing something beef or something like that, I might take the, the barbecue rub just for color and that it's that barbecue flavor and then just add more salt, black pepper, garlic to it. Or if I'm doing duck. I actually really, really like to do pastrami duck, but instead of doing classic pastrami seasonings, I use brisket seasonings. It's fantastic.
Malcolm Reed: Do you do the soak for so many days?
Jerad Henson: I do. I do a wet brine and do them in the fridge for a week. And that's one way you can take those duck breasts that are no skin, no fat on them. And once you get them to that perfect, like we talked about earlier, that 130 on the inside, Pull them, slice them thin. Man, it makes a real good sandwich.
Mike Brasher: So, Mr. Producer, you made some comments a minute ago.
Chris Isaac: I made some noises.
Mike Brasher: Some noises. What's going on over there?
Chris Isaac: I tried the crawfish pickle.
Malcolm Reed: Did it remind you of a crawfish? Oh, my gosh. Which one is this? Walk us through these. That's the crawfish. That's the crawfish. So, it's flavored with the seasonings of a crawfish bowl pot. Anything? Yeah. That's the spicy garlic. This is the spicy garlic. That's good. And now some of these have a little pop now.
Jerad Henson: I'm gonna go to this one next.
Malcolm Reed: And this, you know, these little thin dill pickles. Those are the jalapeno ones. Yeah, those that you think they're gonna be mild.
Jerad Henson: But they have a… That tastes like it just came out of a bowl. I love pickles.
Malcolm Reed: So if you get to Jones and for crawfish in the summertime, you can grab a jar of those and you'll think you're eating crawfish. It'll take you back.
Mike Brasher: That's good. Jalapeno? Yes, but… That one is what now? That's a spicy garlic. But it's got some sweet.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, it's a sweet too. Both of those are sweet. I don't even like sweet, but that's good. This one's like candy, but they go really well with like cream cheese. If you're doing a smoked cream cheese, I know we mentioned that earlier, they go really well with that. But a sausage and cheese, charcuterie boards, if you're doing those for the holidays, pickle products do really well.
Jerad Henson: Those would go good with that pastrami I was just talking about.
Mike Brasher: That right there is awesome.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, that's my new favorite one.
Mike Brasher: That's really good.
Malcolm Reed: That's really cool. These I like with something. By themselves, they can be a little hot, you know. That's good though.
Chris Isaac: Usually when I'm eating something that's like a side or a sauce or something, I'm always like, can I make this into a cocktail? And I bet you could take this juice and do like a dirty martini. A spicy, dirty pickle martini. That'd be fantastic. I'm bloody married too.
Katie Burke: I like sweet, but that's the kick with that.
Malcolm Reed: I could do a crawfish martini. You could do it with that. Oyster shooter? Oyster shooter, yeah.
Mike Brasher: All right, are we off the rails yet? We're probably just an appropriate distance down the track. All right, so what do we got now? We're gonna go to rapid-fire questions. We have a few.
Katie Burke: We gotta do that. Oh, it's me?
Mike Brasher: I'll do it. Okay. So these are to you. So these are to me, okay.
Katie Burke: Yeah, they're to you. Okay. All right, first question. Smoked turkey or grilled prime rib?
Malcolm Reed: Grilled prime rib.
Katie Burke: It's nothing better than prime rib.
Katie Burke: I was going to say beef and turkey.
Mike Brasher: Hey, do we want to ask him the question about is turkey? Oh, no, that was a Thanksgiving. It was a Thanksgiving question about underrated or most underrated.
Chris Isaac: What was the question? Turkey for Thanksgiving, underrated or overrated?
Malcolm Reed: Underrated Thanksgiving. You think so? Gotta have it. It's not… Yeah.
Chris Isaac: We had different opinions. Some people… I like turkey.
Jerad Henson: I thought it was well done. Like, done right.
Malcolm Reed: Done well.
Jerad Henson: Perfectly cooked turkey. Yeah.
Malcolm Reed: I mean, it's… Oh, no, like the Griswold turkey that comes with… Smoked turkey?
Katie Burke: I haven't watched that this year.
Malcolm Reed: I haven't either. It's on my list.
Katie Burke: Yeah, that's right. All right. Favorite wood for holiday barbecue. Hickory, cherry, or applewood?
Malcolm Reed: I'm gonna say cherry.
Katie Burke: Why? I don't know.
Malcolm Reed: I like the tones cherry gives it. It gives it a little sweetness, and I think it goes with the holidays. And often I'm doing hams, which are already hickory smoked, so I don't need that harsher smoke.
Mike Brasher: You're experienced enough that if somebody gives you a piece of smoked meat, you can tell what kind of wood it's been cooked in? Pretty close, I would say, yeah.
Malcolm Reed: So there are different categories? Yeah, you can just tell. Sweet versus more robust. Sweet versus a little bitteriness that some of the hardwoods can get, you can pick up on.
Mike Brasher: So sweet versus this other. So we got hickory is mesquite in this category?
Malcolm Reed: Mesquite's at the extreme end of it.
Mike Brasher: Of the harshness. And so you get cherry, you got apple.
Malcolm Reed: Maple, the lighter woods. Pecan, where's pecan? Pecan's kind of in the middle right before oak and hickory. Okay. Yeah, I love, pecan's excellent too. It's a really good mild wood.
Mike Brasher: Is there any other sort of type of wood flying under the radar that a lot of people don't think about that you really like?
Malcolm Reed: Maple's probably one that, you know, unless you've got access to some maple trees, you don't see a lot of it, but it's a really, really great smoking wood. But the fruitwoods, you know, I've used plum, I've used wood from plum trees, pear trees, peach is really good. It's kind of unique. You can definitely pick it out.
Katie Burke: randomly, like persimmon.
Malcolm Reed: I've never, you know… Because it's around. It is, and I've never used it, and I should.
Katie Burke: There you go. This is your new thing.
Malcolm Reed: New challenge. Yeah, I'm going to see if I can take the limb some. I wouldn't cut one down for anything. I don't know, but you know. Because you eat a wild persimmon. I don't think so, because, you know, have you ever tasted an acorn? They are bitter, bitter, bitter as they could be, but the wood's great for smoking.
Jerad Henson: If you get a wild persimmon that's ripe, they're fantastic.
Malcolm Reed: Yeah, when you let them get ripe, they're good.
Jerad Henson: For real. But they will turn you inside out.
Katie Burke: It's a real risky endeavor, those persimmons.
Jerad Henson: I used to do it to students all the time.
Katie Burke: Oh, that's mean.
Jerad Henson: I'd grab one off the ground. I could tell by texture when they're perfect, and you can't eat the skin. The skin will always be super bitter, and I would try one. I'd be like, these are great, and they'd pick one off the tree, and then they'd be in trouble for a while.
Mike Brasher: There went your teacher evaluation for the year.
Jerad Henson: From at least one student. The rest of them thought it was entertaining.
Katie Burke: Yeah. All right. Best Christmas barbecue sides, smoked mac and cheese or barbecue Brussels sprouts? Smoked mac and cheese. That seems like an easy one. That's easy for a fat kid. This one also seems really easy. Gingerbread cookies or barbecue glazed ham?
Malcolm Reed: Glazed ham. Yeah.
Katie Burke: Gingerbread cookies are overrated. I'm sorry. I think so too. They're not the best Christmas cookie. There are better.
Mike Brasher: Katie's email is Katie.
Katie Burke: All right. Go-to drink pairing with Christmas barbecue, mulled wine, craft beer, or mead.
Malcolm Reed: This mulled wine screams holidays to me. And I don't know, I don't think I've ever had meads.
Katie Burke: I know, I would change this. I would change what I would put there.
Mike Brasher: Did you put mead? So help me, I'm dimps right now.
Katie Burke: Honeywine.
Mike Brasher: Honeywine, yeah.
Malcolm Reed: Okay, okay. Or would you just go bourbon? I would go bourbon. Bourbon always goes.
Mike Brasher: There you go. Man, man, this is a good episode. This gets you hungry.
Malcolm Reed: Alright, here we go.
Katie Burke: We're going to have to go find food after this. Barbecue must-haves on Christmas Day. Rubs, sauces, or killer thermometer.
Mike Brasher: thermometer. Great Christmas gift, right? If you're looking for that, and it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter just what we were talking about, it doesn't matter if we're, if you don't think about it as just necessary, if you're out on the grill, or if you've got someone who's doing a lot of smoking, it's essential for even in the kitchen for ordinary type cooking, right? Absolutely, absolutely.
Jerad Henson: Especially for Wild Game.
Malcolm Reed: It makes your food better, but it also has that food safety issue in there where you know you're not going to get someone sick because you've cooked that meat to the proper temperature.
Mike Brasher: Except you use proper judgment there on Wild Game, right? You don't want to imply that USDA got it wrong. Let me just stop talking there.
Katie Burke: Alright, I think this is the same thing, but barbecue accessories you'd want in your stocking.
Malcolm Reed: Let's go, let's go, uh, flamesaber grill lighter. I've got one that I've been using and it shoots a flame. It's like a little flamethrower handheld. And man, I love that thing. That's the tool for the barbecue guy.
Jerad Henson: What's your favorite way to start your like charcoal grills and things like that? Do you use chimney?
Malcolm Reed: Do you use… Usually I'll use a chimney and a couple of little tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds? Okay. And I'll stick them under there and I'll just spark it with that flamesaber. Keep that lighter fluid out of there and that flavor.
Mike Brasher: When was the last time you used lighter fluid? Oh, I don't know.
Malcolm Reed: It's been a long, long time. Yeah. Yeah. Probably, I don't know, probably in college at a campground or something, you know, a bonfire. Good.
Katie Burke: All right. Uh, last one. What's hard to pull off smoke duck or smoke leg of lamb?
Malcolm Reed: Let's go duck. I mean, ducks, you can mess some duck up.
Jerad Henson: Duck's challenging to cook. It can be for sure.
Malcolm Reed: But I like duck way better than lamb.
Katie Burke: Yeah, okay.
Jerad Henson: And duck's different, too, because the breast and legs have to be cooked so different, so… Well, often it goes back to that.
Malcolm Reed: You've got to get that fat underneath the skin rendered, so you need to, you have to, like, poke holes in it to get it to release and let go, because if you don't, it gets so rubbery. The meat's good, but you can't eat the skin, but I like to get it to where the skin gets a little crispy on the outside.
Jerad Henson: I need to see this guy cook some duck.
Katie Burke: Yeah. Alright, last one. Holiday leftover hack for… Smoked, I guess it's a smoked meat sandwiches or barbecue tacos.
Malcolm Reed: Which one would I do? I would probably go the taco route. I love tacos. And then how would you do that? Often, like say if we've got a pork butt or brisket or something like that, I would throw it just in an iron skillet, maybe add just a little sauce of some type, depending on, if I'm doing tacos, it's probably gonna be some type of salsa. just to give it, you know, a little bit of moisture in there, get it warmed up, maybe add a little peppers and onions or something, maybe some jalapenos, just to get it, you know, kind of happy, and then I'd use that for taco.
Katie Burke: All right, what about double smoked ham, like sliders the next day?
Malcolm Reed: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. The Hawaiian rolls, take them and split the whole thing, and then, you know, a little melted butter, cheese, the ham, more cheese, the top, a little more butter. Pull all that, like, butter, sesame seed stuff all over. Oh, that stuff's so good. We call them little ham biscuits. They're so good at the holidays.
Jerad Henson: Those would be really good wrapped up in your blind bag the next day.
Malcolm Reed: That's exactly. Hey, we've, we go to duck blind. We'll take a little, you know, a little heater in there and then we'll have those little ham biscuits wrapped up in foil and set them right on top of that little buddy heater. And man, they're just right after you shoot a few birds.
Katie Burke: Mom turned, uh, she turned Hawaiian rolls into little mini muffalo- muffalo- muffalos.
Malcolm Reed: Yes! Oh, wow. That's a good idea, I'll tell you. Yeah, they were good. Little olive spread in it.
Katie Burke: Yep, it was delicious.
Katie Burke: You can tell we're all getting hungry in here.
Mike Brasher: It's lunchtime. I think we are gonna wrap this up. Malcolm, Man, thank you so much. This has been awesome. This is one of my favorite episodes we've ever done. This has been great. We really enjoyed this. I would even be so bold as to ask you right now, you know, we oftentimes kind of struggle to figure out what we're going to do with our Christmas episodes. You'd be interested in coming back next year? Oh, absolutely. How hard would it be to get you to do some sort of a little, I don't know if you, you couldn't cook here necessarily, but you could bring something.
Malcolm Reed: I could bring something in. How would that work? I could definitely bring something. Let's figure that out.
Chris Isaac: We'll figure that out, Mr. Producer. We can post a grill up out by the garage. We'll figure something out.
Malcolm Reed: We can figure something out. If we got a year to plan it, we can make anything happen.
Katie Burke: That's right.
Mike Brasher: Yeah.
Mike Brasher: Good deal. All right. Well, folks, we are going to wrap it up. Thank you so much for joining us here. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Katie Burke, thank you so much for being here, and it's been a great year. Yep. And Jared Henson, Been a great year and looking forward to another great year. Um, I guess when this releases, we'll have about a week or so before we get into 2025. It's hard to imagine that, but, uh, Malcolm also, thank you so much for being with us. Uh, how to grill, how to barbecue, right? Is there, there's a website, there's YouTube. Tell us a little bit about that.
Malcolm Reed: That's it. You can find us on all the social platforms, howtobbqright.com. And yeah, if you're interested in learning more about cooking outdoors, barbecue, smoking, and grilling, come check it out. All right.
Mike Brasher: Thank you. Thank you so much to our producer, Chris Isaac. Thank you for all that you do over there. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season as well. Landon McCullough, who does all the video editing for these episodes now, thanks to him. And then it's a great time of year. Get out, go hunting, go check out the Ducks Unlimited Banquets, ducks.org forward slash events. Go hang out with good folks that have similar mindsets. And we all contribute to conservation. And so most importantly, thank you for that. Thanks for your contributions to wetlands and waterfowl conservation. Merry Christmas, y'all. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, y'all.