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Whiskey and Fire; the two common interest that brought Derek Henley and Slade Beard, two middle aged Dads, together. Just like all dads they have an opinion about everything, and they are ready to share it with the world. Come along for the ride as they discuss everything under the sun while enjoying some brown liquor and delicious outdoor concoctions.
Whiskey & Fire Website - www.whiskey-fire.com
Slade Beard (00:00)
you
Derek (00:17)
Welcome to the Whiskey and Fire podcast. I'm Derek Henley, along with my co-host Slade Beard, and we thank you for joining us on episode five. Slade, how are things in your world?
Slade (00:28)
They've been a little hectic lately, not normal by any means. My wife had a surgery a couple of weeks ago. We've had little complications, had a couple of hospital stays, all in good fun, but she's doing great now. So I know we know a lot of people who are actually watching the show and listening. So the ones who did, thanks for the prayers. Thanks for all the good wishes and all, but she's doing a lot better now. So I'm ready to get into this again. I think we kind of ran behind on getting into this episode actually, but that's all on me. So my apologies on that one.
Derek (00:58)
I think you had a good reason and you know, we all kind of go through that stuff and as a dad and as a husband It's it's difficult It's draining because you're stressed about your spouse and then you've got all these duties going on with the kids and you're running around Now you're your mom and dad and having to do a little bit of everything So we were praying for her but we were praying for you too. So glad to hear that she's getting a little bit better
Slade (01:00)
I did.
Yeah, I've always told her, you know, I respect what you do and I expect what you do for the family and around the house and all that. And I even have a bigger respect now because I am, my mind has been on overload a few times, but I got through it and we're on our way back to normal. So looking forward to getting back to the normal stride and our normal day to day.
Derek (01:31)
Yeah, I hear you.
Yeah, glad to hear it. And you know something that helps when you're going through difficult times is whiskey. So.
Slade (01:47)
I'm not gonna say it's a crutch, but it doesn't not help. It does its part.
Derek (01:50)
No, that's for sure. Yeah, so we'll be sampling a little bit of whiskey today and interestingly, we've got a second partnership with a distillery that's local in the Texas area. It's in Toler, Texas. It's called Sledge Distilling and we've actually not tried it. So if you're ready to get into it, Slade, I am. You want to go ahead and talk about Sledge and then sample it.
Slade (02:14)
Yeah, I'm I appreciate this one from them. This is our first one. First one, we've had somebody send us a bottle for us to get to try. So really excited about that one. And thanks to the guys at Sledge, you know, I appreciate that. I think you reached out to a lot of these people. And this is one of the ones that got back to you and was willing to send us something. And they sent us their special reserve barrel finished spirit, which I had to look and make sure it was a whiskey because it doesn't say whiskey on there. But but it is a whiskey.
Derek (02:33)
Yeah, I'll show it to you.
The bottle looks really cool. It's got this 1940s look to it. It's a neat looking bottle so I showed it as best I can on the camera so they could see it. It's got a really cool story too. It's out on a ranch in Tolar, Texas and they do everything by hand. The recipe actually comes from the owner's father. His father was drafted. Before he was drafted to World War II, he learned how to make moonshine from his uncle.
And so he went to South Pacific, I think. And so when he was there, he was using whatever he could find and try to make moonshine and whiskey for others and then sell it and trade it. And what he was able to find, he was making whiskey out of. And so their match bill for this whiskey starts with potatoes, tomatoes, and corn. And I think cane, did you say cane sugar too? Yeah, so it's-
Slade (03:12)
somewhere in there, yeah.
I believe so, yeah.
Derek (03:34)
Pretty cool, I don't know what to expect when we taste this. It's gonna be a little bit different, I imagine. And what's the proof on it?
Slade (03:42)
I believe it's 115 proof, so it ought to be a pretty good strong one. A little side note, part of the story that I thought was neat, if you read the whole story on their website, which I suggest everyone do, it says that when he did come back from the war, I guess the woman he married told him he couldn't do that anymore.
Derek (03:46)
I would think so.
For sure.
Slade (04:00)
Good thing that marriage, I guess that marriage lasted. I know that was a rocky start for sure, but I believe, I believe, yeah, I mean, really, yeah, hey, you're good at this, just quit doing it. You know, quit doing it. But it sounds like his son kind of got all his recipe, huh?
Derek (04:05)
Yeah, could you imagine?
Yeah, well, she said he couldn't drink. She said he couldn't drink. What were the other two? He couldn't dance and I think he couldn't cuss. Is that right? I think those are the three things I read. So pretty incredible, pretty tough for him.
Slade (04:20)
Man, man. That's a strict waif right there. She really, she really reigned in on that one, but.
Derek (04:30)
Yeah, if we ever think we have it bad, we just need to remember this.
Slade (04:33)
Yeah, if I have a talent, hopefully my wife wouldn't say, hey, yeah, I don't do that anymore. I guess the cussing and the dancing, maybe he wasn't good at dancing. I don't know. I know I'm not. My wife would tell me not to dance in front of people. So, but yeah, let's.
Derek (04:38)
Yeah.
right. Well his recipe, he put it away, he saved it and put it in a war chest and I think that's where the owner, his son, found it and then kind of took off with it from there. So luckily he did and we're able to try this and I know they have a successful distillery going on as a result.
Slade (05:00)
Definitely. Let's pop the top and see if it's any good. Let's see if I can make a good noise. I mean, I can't get it out, so. Oh my gosh.
Derek (05:01)
You ready to pop the tub?
Oh, that was perfect!
Slade (05:16)
We got a little something, little something.
Derek (05:18)
Yeah, a little bit.
Slade (05:19)
Ooh, smells delicious, I'm gonna be honest. I did notice on the side though, it says what the notes would be, and the notes are supposed to be rich caramel or caramel. How do you say that, Derek? How do you say that word? Guess what I say too. Not caramel, I'm not one of those people. So, caramel, honey, and vanilla tones. So, good description for what it should... Yeah?
Derek (05:26)
That's no good.
I say caramel.
I think it's a southern thing. It's like karma.
Really? That's surprising if it starts with potatoes.
Slade (05:49)
I poured more than I normally do but...
Derek (05:50)
Feel like that was a heavy pour so we can tell life has been coming at you fast me That's the best I have before compared to what we normally do it really does
Slade (06:00)
Well, it smells great.
But I'm trying to figure out how you take tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and cane and get vanilla, honey, and caramel. But I'm excited to.
Derek (06:12)
Yeah, I don't understand how you would do that.
Slade (06:14)
Let's see.
You do. I don't know how you do it, but you do it. That is
Derek (06:24)
really good. Now it's got a little bit of bite but we expect that at 115 but it does have some sort of sweetness maybe vanilla I think I am picking up on that.
Slade (06:35)
tons of flavor. I mean, it's really surprising how flavorful it is.
Derek (06:35)
Surprising.
Yeah, and there's not like a, there's not any kind of strange aftertaste or bitterness that you would kind of maybe think that you'd have with those ingredients. Really good.
Slade (06:51)
Very good. Hoo.
So maybe if we do a really good job here, they'll send us a few more bottles of this, because it's amazing.
Derek (07:04)
That's delicious. I could get in trouble with that one.
Slade (07:07)
I mean when you first take a drink it doesn't even, it tastes like you're drinking some kind of sweet, I don't know, I want to say a dessert, a sweet drink, I don't drink too many sweet drinks so it's hard to say what that would be but.
Derek (07:17)
Yeah.
It's kind of like a cocktail.
Slade (07:24)
That's a good description, very good description.
Derek (07:25)
Yeah, so that was good. That was awesome. So, uh, don't any grilling. Yeah. Thank you, uh, Susan sledge. Thank you so much. Um, you've been wonderful and we appreciate it. And, uh, I know I'll make it out there. If we, if we're out that way and certainly slayed and hopefully you'll do the same.
Slade (07:28)
Yeah. Thanks for the people at Sledge. I appreciate that.
Derek (07:44)
So let's talk a little bit about barbecue. You know, we've heard from listeners several times now where we're whisky and fire. So we talk about the whiskey and what we also talk about barbecue. And we really focus mostly on the whiskey for good reason, I think. But today we're gonna talk a little bit more about barbecue. And so I think to start out, have you cooked anything recently?
Slade (07:44)
Definitely.
I have it's finally gotten the temperatures where I've got out there and done a little bit. So last night, let me go back last weekend, I actually fired the smoke up for the first time for the year. Um, sat around all day cooking on it. Did a, uh, what did I do? I did ribs had my first run in with chicken. I've never, I don't know. I've never wanted to try chicken. I'm a not a big chicken eater anyway, but
My wife asked for me to do something different. Every time I mentioned when I'm going to cook, she's never that excited. My wife, I don't, she says she liked smoked food, but I really don't know if that's true or if that's just, hey, you like doing it, so I'm going to be supportive. She wasn't the sledge wife. She didn't tell me to quit doing it, even though she didn't like it. But she's always asked me to do something different like chicken, so I looked online and found a recipe just because I didn't know what in the world to do. And I took a whole chicken, cut it in half, brined it.
smoked it all day, well not all day, you know, the right amount of time, glazed it and cooked a little bit more. Actually turned out good. Got the recipe off Meat Church's website. That's one of the ones that's my go to for recipes. I don't know how much of their stuff you look at, but it turned out delicious. And like I said, there's some ribs and some smoked queso in there too, kind of something to eat while chicken's going, you know, but ended up ended up ruining the ribs. So I was real proud of that. I don't know if I ruined them. Well, I don't know if I ruined them or.
Derek (09:01)
That's right.
Yeah, I do the same.
What'd you do?
Slade (09:27)
if it's what I put on them. So I covered them in a lot of sweet stuff. And it's like the outside kind of charred a little bit. All that sugar kind of got a little bit of a char to it. I think I did overcook them a little bit, but I think a lot of it was how much sugar was on the outside. So the rub I used was, it's actually Meat Church. It was their New Texas Sugar. Delicious stuff, try it. And then when I wrap mine, I don't know what you do, but I always do like brown sugar, honey, butter, and a bunch of that stuff when I wrap them. So it might've just been too much sugar. I don't know.
Derek (09:29)
Hmm.
Hehehe
Yeah, same. Similar.
Yeah, that'll happen. Like you said, I mean, when there's a lot of sugar in it, it caramelizes and it can get kind of burnt. So that happens sometimes. But honestly, even if it does, I think on ribs, if you get a little char on there, it's still pretty good.
Slade (10:08)
Yeah, they were, I won't say they had a, I won't say there was a burnt taste, just it wasn't exactly what I wanted them to look like. I don't know how you are, but when I pull stuff, I wanted, there's a look I wanted to have. I wanted to look the way I wanted to look, and it didn't, I didn't pull it off going, yep, that was the look I was going for. But either way, everything got, there was nothing left over. Nothing got left over, so I must've done something right. And then last night, so last night, so I said my wife's been recovering, and she wanted something different, and she mentioned tacos. So I'm walking around the store.
Derek (10:23)
Yeah, totally.
Slade (10:37)
in the afternoon trying to figure out what kind of tacos to make. Do I want to make the regular ground beef we do? Do I want to do the chicken for her or something? So I actually made steak tacos. Bought a couple filets, cooked them almost perfectly. I'm not going to say I nailed it, but you know almost perfectly. Cut them into strips, put them on corn tortillas with a little bit of sauce, some cilantro, onions, you know stuff like that. That was delicious. I'm telling you and I've told you before Derek, you got to get a griddle. You need to get a griddle. It's fun.
Derek (10:46)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I will maybe for the cabin, but I'm running out of room on the ports for grills and different things here, but I think I would like it up there. It runs on gas, right? So yeah.
Slade (11:16)
Correct. I mean, they make an electric one, but I know you're never going to do that, nor would I. They make an indoor electric one, but I just don't know how well that would work. I like the gas one.
Derek (11:26)
Well, you know, we have solar power up there. So if we want to run the lights, we really can't use it to cook with. So wouldn't do that but to guess.
Slade (11:33)
How does that work? Do you have to really, do you have to really like carefully calculate what all you're going to use electricity and not to use electricity for?
Derek (11:39)
Well, so the careful calculations happens upfront. You're trying to figure out how many solar panels and how many batteries and all of this stuff and inverters and charge controller, there's all sorts of stuff. And so you figure it out and it's super scientific and it's mathematic and you have it down perfectly and then kids happen. And lights are on and fans are on and they leave an AC unit on or whatever. And when that happens, it throws all the numbers off. But for the most part, if we're there, we can run.
Slade (12:04)
Thank you.
Derek (12:07)
we can run for three or four days with pretty much no sun and be just fine. But if we have a bunch of people and they're all running the coffee pot and their ladies need a hairdryer, then everything's off, all bets are off. But anyways, if we're gonna use a grill up there, it is not gonna be electric. And generally I wouldn't use electric anyway. And you know what, that makes me think of something when we talked about, hey, let's do a little more barbecue on this episode, that's what listeners are wanting. I reached out to a couple of guys from my cook team and said, hey, we're gonna talk a little more barbecue. Y'all have any ideas for topics?
Slade (12:08)
OOF
Derek (12:37)
and one of them said, hey, y'all should talk about the grills you use, and you should tell them that there's Weber grills and then there's all the crappy stuff. And then the other guy texted, you know, what you should do is let everybody know that has a pellet grill that they should move back to California. So that's the kind of help that I got for this episode. So obviously we're not going to talk too much about that. But I think it's a good idea to talk about the grills we've used and kind of where we started. And so what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the grills.
Slade (13:06)
Ahem.
Derek (13:07)
What do you use? What do you start with? Has it always been the same?
Slade (13:10)
No, I mean I've played with a few different ones. Sorry, I choked up a minute ago. Tried to beat that out of there. No, I'm good, no I'm good. I mean, I've always had, and I know you're not the biggest proponent of them, but I've had a lot of gas grills just for the speed, you know? If you want to hurry and go grill something, it's quick. And I still have one to this day. I will say it's not used as much as it used to be, but it's nice if you want to hurry up and grill something, throw something on there. I think the griddles kind of replace it a lot.
Derek (13:16)
You want me to go first?
Yeah, sure.
Slade (13:40)
uh i did and i'm gonna hate admitting this especially after your pellet grill comment but i did at one point try the electric smoker i mean i well i never i won't say i ever actually made smoke to be honest with you i will i want to say i maybe had like kind of an outdoor oven thing going on there
Derek (13:49)
How'd that go?
Oh really?
Yeah, and see that's no good. I mean, otherwise you could just be inside more comfortable and cooked in the oven.
Slade (14:06)
Well, I mean, I liked I did like the fact it was kind of one of those, you know, fridge looking models. So it was very convenient to smoke on. And I know they make them that aren't electric, but that's just I fought for ease. Maybe that would be something to try, but terrible, terrible idea. I never, never made much with that thing. But I mean, other than that, yeah, just that the gas grill, of course, I think we said before, I have a offset smoker and I think it's an old country from Academy or something they have. Well, they have a couple of different lines, so they have their.
Derek (14:31)
Yeah, I have one.
Slade (14:35)
And I'm sure you've walked through and looked at them before. You know, you have the one that feels like it's made out of sheet metal. And then they have their next line, which is I want to say like eighth inch or something, it's or maybe, yeah, maybe eighth or something. It's a little more heavy duty and has a little bit of weight to it. And that was been my go-to for a while as far as smoking, but, uh, yeah. So just the, you know, the griddle, the black stone, the offset and the, uh, the propane, what about you? What all do you have?
Derek (14:40)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so, you know, it makes me think when we first got started, and this has probably been like 16 or 18 years ago, my buddy that I graduated college with had moved to Dallas. I was in Houston. And he got transferred to the Houston area and he ended up buying a house at least in the same suburb, not real close, but relatively close. And so we were hanging out all the time. And one day we're like, what are we going to do? You know, Saturday we're going to hang out. What are we going to do? And I don't know who recommended, but we were kind of like, maybe we.
Slade (15:21)
Yeah.
Derek (15:30)
Let's try to smoke something. We've never done any real barbecue. And I had an old smokey. You know what those are? Did you ever have one of those? It's like a super cheap.
Slade (15:39)
No, that's not like the barrel ones, is it? No?
Derek (15:42)
No, it's hard to say. It's real low to the ground and it's kind of like a kettle grill, but kind of rough shaped. It almost looks, I don't know, it looks like a matte silver color, but it looks cheap. It's kind of a cheap grill. So that's all we had. So we didn't care. We're like, well, let's do a brisket. We've never done it before. We've never done anything. So we go to the store, we get, I think a brisket flat. We didn't get the whole thing because I remember it being small. And we got some coals and
Slade (15:49)
Mm-hmm.
Derek (16:09)
We were like, you know what, we'll put the coals on one side so it's not underneath and then we'll put a little pan in there to catch drippings and kind of keep the coal to the side. And we did that and we bought this cheap seasoning, I'll never forget, it's called Adams. I don't even know if they still make it. It might just be like a Kroger brand, but Adams brisket seasoning. Yes, yeah, store bought. Do they? Okay.
Slade (16:25)
like the Adams brand you buy at the store. They still make Adams. I mean Adams is, they have some, they have some decent things. I mean, they're definitely not your high caliber ones, but I know what you're talking about. And I did sit here and get on the web real quick. I looked up your old Smokey. So yeah, that's, that's different. I mean, I see them. They're not, yeah, they're, they got one that's a little pricier there, but most of them aren't.
Derek (16:33)
Okay. But.
You know what it is.
Well, 20 years ago, they weren't pricing. I think the thing's like 30 bucks 20 years ago. So we cook at this brisket and we don't back, you know, back then you didn't really YouTube how to do things. You just try to figure it out. So we put this brisket on there. I don't know, man. I don't even use YouTube now, but so it was, and I know we're on YouTube and I should probably watch, but I don't. So, so we did this, we put this brisket on there and we just cook it and we just.
Slade (16:48)
Hahaha
Was there YouTube?
Hahaha
Derek (17:13)
checked it and we added coals to the side when we needed to. And then we were like, it feels kind of tender. So we pulled it off and we started cutting it up and we're like, this is kind of tender and we taste it. We're like, this turned out really good. So we're like, brisket is easy. We're gonna start doing this. What we found over the years, it's not easy, but we got lucky the first time and that gave us this motivation. And then it turned into, well, we're competitive people so now we wanna do competitive barbecue. So that's how we got to where we are. But we started with that and then we got into the Weber's.
Slade (17:27)
Yeah.
Derek (17:42)
And I still love Weber and I know my cook team guys do. So we have a kettle grill. You've seen one of them, I have that at the land. And you can pretty much do everything. And you can use it for brisket and smoking stuff long-term as long as you keep the side or the heat to the side. And they're pretty awesome. So I've got two different types of Weber's. One's really for smoking and one's more for grilling. I've got an offset, I think the same as you. It's a heavier one from Academy. I think it's old country.
Slade (17:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Derek (18:10)
And then I've got a ceramic grill, which is actually my most expensive grill, but I use it all the time and you can do anything with it. So it's the red one, it's the Kamado Joe. So real similar to an egg. It's just not green, it's red, but similar.
Slade (18:17)
What is your ceramic? Is it a, what brand is it again?
So that's just like a big green egg just sitting up. Yeah.
And say to me, those things, I don't understand it at all. I think last time we were at your place, I think, you know, remember you did some ribs and I was hammering you with questions. I just, I don't get it. I have to too simple minded to understand what's going on there.
Derek (18:35)
Hehehehe
So it's got the coals at the bottom, and you've got these diverter plates that go down there, and they just block the heat, and they make it kind of go out. And then it heats up the ceramic, and that holds heat forever. So you can put maybe like a half a bag of coals down there, and you use lump coal in a ceramic grill. And you get it going in one small spot or whatever, and then you can slowly keep it going. It'll run for like 14, 15 hours on that little bit of coal. And...
Slade (19:04)
Hmm.
Derek (19:06)
If you use the plates down there, it's indirect heat like you would do for brisket or ribs or whatever. You can take those out and you can grill a steak or whatever, just direct heat. So they're super convenient.
Slade (19:11)
Yeah.
Yeah, sounds like more of a multipurpose tool really, where I have like five things sitting outside. You can kind of adjust yours and do what you need to do.
Derek (19:26)
Yeah, that's right. That's right. So how did you really get started in barbecue? Do you remember it? Was there a certain time that you remember getting really into it?
Slade (19:31)
Thank you.
Probably after I got married, we grilled a lot. I mean, I've always enjoyed just grilling in general. I think just looking for something new to do, I've grilled and grilled, you've grilled burgers, grilled steak, grilled vegetables, grilled everything you can grill. And it's like, what else can I do now? I've kind of, I rode this train long enough, let's try something else. And that's like I said, when I missed something by the electric smoker, terrible idea, but no, just looking for something more to do and.
I think it was also, you know, you go out there and fire the grill up and then, you know, less than an hour you're done and you're back inside and you're like, man, it was nice being outside and having a little whiskey in my hand or something and passing a little bit of time. How could I do this for a lot longer time? So, um, that's kind of what stirred the smoker. Cause I mean, you can get out there and start that thing at seven or eight in the morning and be there until eight that evening, depending on what you're doing or the, what all you decide to cook. So
Derek (20:24)
Oh yeah.
Slade (20:24)
Kind of to me, it's more of a hobby. I'll be honest, a lot of times when I cook, I don't even always eat any of it. I'm not nibble a little bit, but I'm more, I do it more to serve. Like let, let the family, let friends come over, let somebody else enjoy it. I'll pick, I'll, I'll text neighbors and ask them if they want, you know, some chicken, some ribs, queso, whatever, and share it all. I just, to me, by the time you looked at something for 10 hours, you're just like, okay, I don't even know if I want this anymore, but.
Derek (20:30)
Really?
I'm over it. Yeah, so I'm kind of the same way. I mean when we if you do a brisket or a like a Pork shoulder or something you're you've got so much food that you can't eat it all so you kind of have to invite people over So totally get it and you're worn out and then people are getting it and you might get a little bit So that's cool. I get it, but I Don't even care. I love brisket and that's my favorite food and when it's done really well, it's incredible
Slade (21:03)
Yep.
Derek (21:17)
But just the experience is what I like the most. I like getting up early and just sort of that solitude and getting a fire started and playing with fire. I've always liked to do that. And seasoning it and then just seeing how it goes. And I cook more now really to practice. And we don't really compete, but I've kind of gotten the habit of that. So I'll just be like, I'll tell Leah, you know what? I'm gonna practice. So this Saturday, I'm gonna do a brisket. And she's like, oh, we gotta invite the neighbors and we gotta get our friends over and we gotta do this and that.
Slade (21:21)
Definitely.
Derek (21:46)
That's typically what happens and it becomes a big deal. But I just do it to practice and play around and have fun because I like the actual activity itself as much as the food.
Slade (21:46)
clip.
Yeah, in the same way. Of course, lately, I mean, mine, and I don't know, you see, I think we're two different level people here. I haven't competed yet because I wouldn't win. But my big, my challenge so far, no, no time soon anyway.
Derek (22:05)
Oh, you said, yet. That means you're going to do it.
Slade (22:13)
So cause I was going to say my one, I don't know if you have any things that still are a challenge to you as far as it goes, but, and I guess with an offset, maybe that's what it is. I still have a challenge with fire management. I feel like that's what I spend my whole time doing is just trying to get it right, predict it right. And I'm terrible at it. Very impatient. I think that's what gets me in the most amount of trouble is I want it to happen quick and it doesn't. I want to get it going quick. And I also have that wanting to be good at it quick. Well, I want to, I want to make the right move, be done and know that I did it. And most of the time that's not what happens. I'm
chasing my fire back and forth. So do you being the competitive guy, would you say you still have any challenges as far as smoking?
Derek (22:49)
Yeah, man, because look barbecue is not science. It's barbecue. And so the humidity or the temperature The humidity or the temperature I guess that is all science This the type of meat, you know The grade of the meat how big it is how much you trimmed off how much fat there is in it It all throws you and so it's different every time and so I've had briskets that are ready Four hours before I think they're gonna be which is perfect. I don't mind that but they are sometimes
Slade (22:54)
probably is science in it actually, you know technically but...
Yep.
Derek (23:18)
And then, you know, sometimes they're not done until after people want to eat. And I don't care. We're waiting. So I did one on 4th of July years ago when we had some friends over and I was cooking this thing all day. And I mean, it got to the point where it was like 14 hours and it still wasn't, it wasn't done. And I'm like, I'm not, it's like 8 PM and they're, everyone wants to go look at the fireworks and I'm like, y'all have fun when you get back, maybe this brisk would be done and it still wasn't. And I think it finished up at like nine 30.
Slade (23:37)
Ha ha.
Derek (23:48)
Um, it, to this day, that was probably the best brisket I've ever made. It was so incredible. Had this incredible bark. It was totally worth it for me, but everyone else was kind of hungry and irritated. But no, I'm not, I don't get in a rush. I just, when it's done, it's done. And that's kind of it.
Slade (23:57)
Yep.
I felt like it was totally worth it then. I mean, yeah, I've done the same thing and it's worse when the more people you have over you feel even worse. They're all going, so it's about time to eat. It's not really, yeah, no, it should be. Cause you always make the mistake of going, oh, it should be ready in a minute now. It should be, we ought to be getting close. You're not.
Derek (24:16)
Yeah.
Yeah. So what I'll do now is if we're going to have people over like on Saturday night for brisket, I'll start the brisket on Friday night and I'll cook it all night and it can be done at eight in the morning. I don't care. I'll put it in the oven on the super low, keep it warm. And I think that even breaks it down a little bit more. And by that evening, it's done. I'm not worn out and I'm old now. So I got to think of ways to kind of do that, cheat a little bit and not be so worn out. Because if you cook all day, you know you get worn out.
Slade (24:40)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Derek (24:50)
You can't sit more than 20 minutes without going to check it. And so then you're up all night or early in the morning or whatever, and then by the time you're eating, you're just totally exhausted. And that plays into the, I don't wanna have to, I don't even care about eating it now because I'm just exhausted. I just want sleep. So I do it the day before basically if I can, and then I'll keep it in warm in the oven and it kind of turns out really good.
Slade (25:14)
So, do you like all the fancy wireless probes? Are you old school instant read? Or are you the good enough guy who can just go look at it or touch it and tell?
Derek (25:24)
No, I can't look at it, Intel or touch it. Almost probably kind of can. If I didn't have a probe or a temperature gauge, it wouldn't matter. I would probably get it pretty close. But since I'm practicing, I like to try to get it exactly where I want it. And so I'll go do an instant read on it every once in a while. If I feel like it's dragging out and I'm gonna have to open it a lot, then I'll put one that's wired to a little reader and I'll just have that on the table next to it. And then I'll let it.
Slade (25:51)
Mm-hmm.
Derek (25:53)
I'll let it go until it reaches the temperature.
Slade (25:56)
And they have some nice, some of these new wireless ones, man, they have some nice ones out there. The, what is it, the meter, I think is one of the really nice ones I thought about buying, but little much on the spending for me just yet in the game, but yeah, I think it depends on how many probes you buy. Do you need one, two? How much stuff are you going to jam in there? Which my smoker doesn't have room for too many items, so that's, there's no point in buying too many, but I used to always like to take, if I had multiple ones like that, and I would set, I would connect one to the grate. That way you were getting a true
Derek (26:06)
What are they, like a hundred bucks?
Yeah, that's a good point.
Slade (26:27)
what your temperature was right there at the grate, not on the, you know, the, I'm not saying the lid of the smoker. You're actually getting what's, where the meat is sitting. So you're getting a little more accurate number.
Derek (26:27)
Like a temp in there. Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah, totally, totally get it. We got to do the same thing. So, you know, you mentioned since we're competitive, are we always good? And we're not. Um, and it reminds me of a story of a massive fail, but before I get to my fail, do you have any barbecue fails that you can think of?
Slade (26:54)
I mean, other than the time ones, like we said, to me, I consider that a fail, especially when you have, you know, it's like a holiday and there's like 15 people waiting to eat and you're the only reason they can't eat and they bake chips and dip for two hours and are kind of getting pissed off at you. The ribs, I think I've messed up ribs a few too many times. I'm really, I'm really bad about just going by the time as opposed to looking. I guess I don't have the eye for it yet. I mean, I don't think I've been doing this as long as you have, so.
I'd just go by the simple time and that can get you in trouble if you didn't, like I said, go back to the fire management issue. If you're not managing your fire yet and then leaving it out there too long, you can mess them up or. I've had times where I've left them on the wrong end and piled the smoker with too much other stuff and forgot about the ribs and they come out a little leathery, but yeah, that would, that would be my two kind of fails. I would say, what about you?
Derek (27:39)
Yeah, for the record, the barbecue not being done in time for people to eat is definitely not a fail for me. I'm strictly is, did the brisket turn out or did it not or did the ribs turn out or did they not? If people wait an hour, I'm not concerned with that. That is still a success. But yes, there was a major fail. I don't remember how long ago, but it feels like we had done some competitions, a couple of them, and we were pretty, had it pretty good. But at that time, we were still using a kettle grill and we loved it.
We had these shirts with our team name and then we'd have like a little Weber grill on it. We still have them, but we, you know.
Slade (28:14)
Hold on, you can't say these shirts with my team name on it without saying what that team name was.
Derek (28:19)
But then I have to explain the whole thing. So I guess it doesn't take that long. So the team is, it's called brisket day. Now, whoa, brisket day. Did you know that? You didn't know that, no? So what it is when we, so we did that brisket and my buddy and I were like, that was fun. And so the next time we wanted to do a brisket, we're like, let's have another day where we do a brisket. So we did it. And over time, we just called it.
Slade (28:22)
Mmm. Ha ha!
brisket day.
No, I did not know that.
Derek (28:47)
We would text each other, be like, hey, this Saturday brisket day. And it became a thing. And it just all the time. Then we invite people over and we're like, it's a brisket day. So we have all our friends over. We do all of this stuff and it'd be really fun. Lots of beer, all that kind of stuff. So when we started getting into a competitive, we're like, let's just keep that. I like it. Let's just call it brisket day. And people always wonder what the hell it means. They're like, what is brisket day? So we get to tell them, which is cool. Yeah, so no, that's okay. So the grill.
Slade (28:52)
Makes sense.
brisket day.
That's pretty catchy, that's a good one. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off on that one, but...
Derek (29:16)
We were using these Kettle Weber. You know what a Weber Kettle Grill is, right? It's like the generic grill that you see dads cooking all the time. Well, you can do smoked meats. The key is to keep the coals to the side and then use a pan. We typically put water in the pan and it blocks that heat from getting to the bottom side of the brisket or the ridge or whatever. But if it gets there, it will overcook the bottom side. So you need to make sure it's kind of going around the brisket, not directly underneath. So we would do that all the time. Well,
Slade (29:20)
Yeah.
Derek (29:46)
from time to time, we'll have a few drinks before we start. In this particular day, when we were, before we started, we had several and we, and you know, the worst thing is we're gonna have a bunch of people over and we had just started competition and we said, look, we want you guys to grade this brisket and tell us, like, does it have too much salt? Is it overcooked, undercooked? Whatever, you guys tell us so we can learn from you. And then we'll take that and we'll figure it out.
Slade (30:11)
Mm-hmm.
Derek (30:12)
So we had all these people over and we had like a little grade sheet we gave them. It was kind of nerdy, but we were really into it. So we got this thing going and then we got some drinks and next thing you know, we're cooking this brisket and we're adding coals and it seems to be going good. Smells great, looks good. We cook it all night. The next day, it was the middle of the day we had people come over and we go to pull this brisket. It looks great. And we put it in oil and all this and we let it rest. And then we get it out and I'm like.
I get the knife, you know, and I'm starting to slice this thing and it gets to towards the bottom of the brisket and I can't like I can't even cut it. It's like cutting a piece of wood or like leather with this knife. It's not cutting it. And I'm like, why is it hard on the bottom? And it dawned on us in that moment. We never put a pan in there. So we put the heat off to the side, but there was no pan. And so that heat was still getting to the bottom side for like 12 hours. So totally annihilated this brisket. Worst we've ever made.
Slade (31:00)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Derek (31:09)
And that includes the first time we did one. And then we had all these people like all excited about it. Yeah, let's go grade it. We're gonna get you for this and that. We can't wait. And I couldn't do anything but basically make chopped beef out of it because it was just like, I could pull it off of there. I couldn't cut through it and make slices. It was a total disaster. And I still kind of like, I wake up in cold sweat sometimes thinking about it. It was so terrible. So that was definitely our biggest whiskey, or whiskey, our biggest barbecue fail.
Slade (31:29)
Well at least you got something out of it.
Sounds like it sounds like it and I can't judge you too much like I said before I still haven't tried to do a brisket yet I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to do it and see if I can do it better I don't know probably not but I'm gonna have to try to beat you
Derek (31:46)
Uh-uh.
You're going to have to, I mean, you had a buddy reach out to you and said he had a restaurant and he was going to give you all these tips and you were going to beat me. So I'm, I'm waiting to see it.
Slade (31:58)
He did. He did tell me he was gonna help me beat you. So I'm gonna do it. Yeah, I'm gonna do it
Derek (32:02)
You know what? That would be really cool. We can tape it and we can show people, but you and your buddy can get together and me and one or two of mine from the cook team will do it. And we'll see what happens. You want to do it?
Slade (32:14)
I'm probably not going to tape it. I mean, I've talked too much trash now. Let's not tape it. Let's not go that far with it. I don't want there to be video proof of what took place.
Derek (32:17)
Come on!
What if we have a Chubb? Can we do a Chubb competition?
Slade (32:27)
I mean, you can't mess that up. That's probably why I do stuff like that. I mean, as long as you remember to take it off, as long as you remember to take it off, it's gonna be good. You can't mess that up too much. I'm still doing too much fail safe stuff. So yeah, I've got to get brave and get out there and do it. Like I said, hey, I did chicken. I mean, I got brave enough to do chicken. Have you done chicken?
Derek (32:30)
It's going to be good regardless. All right, cool.
Yeah. I mean, so when you do competition in Texas and we've done some that are like tri-state and stuff like that, and they're the same, at least the ones we've done, you do brisket, ribs, sometimes pork and always chicken. So you're always going to do brisket, ribs and chicken. And sometimes I'll have you do pork too. So we have a guy that's our chicken guy and he's really, he does it, he's good, but he does it because we don't want to. Like I have no interest in practicing chicken.
Slade (33:13)
Yeah.
Derek (33:13)
And then, I mean, I'll do the brisket and the ribs and the other guys will kind of help too with that. So that's kind of how we split it up. Yeah, we do the chicken and even when it's really good and it places okay, I still don't really like it. It's just chicken. Yeah.
Slade (33:29)
To me, you never can get enough flavor inside of a chicken. You can make the outside taste amazing, but like I said, even when I brined it, it still didn't, there's only so much you can do to the inside of a chicken. Now the dark meat, I do like the dark meat. You normally get, you never get better flavor there, but that breast is just a big piece of chicken breast, no matter what you do to it. It's just what's on the outside of it, really.
Derek (33:42)
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. And we brine ours and all that kind of stuff, but I still don't really love it. So we talked about the fails. What about some tips? Do you have any tips for people maybe that are starting out or don't cook a whole lot?
Slade (34:03)
I mean, I don't have any personal tips. I would say use all the resources you have now. That's, I mean, that's what I do. Like you said, YouTube before, there's all these companies doing things, putting out videos, showing you how to do stuff. I mean, you don't have to just learn in your backyard. Get out there and watch a little bit and try things. Just don't be scared. You're gonna spend a little bit of money, but I mean.
re do your research, you know, watch some videos, how people are doing it, try it yourself. You'll eventually put your own little bit of spin of how you do it. You'll, you'll leave something off they left on or you know, you'll do something a little different and make it your own, but at least it gives you kind of a kind of a base to start with. What about you?
Derek (34:35)
Yeah, that's good advice because there's so much information out there. I think just keep it simple. Early on, it's about maintaining a fire and keeping a steady heat. That's probably the biggest one. The second one is the smoke. With the heat, if you're trying to cook something for 12 hours and it's going from 215 to 325 degrees, you're getting this big, huge variation.
It's not going to cook steady. It's going to heat up really fast and it's going to cool down really fast. And it's not going to break that fat down and turn it into like butter the way you want. So if you can maintain the temperature and then run a clean smoke where it's not that white chalky billowy kind of like paper burning smoke that yeah, you want to light blue. Exactly. So if you can get a blue, good clear, like a good clean blue smoke and a steady heat and maintain it for 12 to 15 hours, that's a big part of the battle. I don't care. If you take a brisket, it's beef.
Slade (35:16)
light blue. You want a good light blue smoke.
Derek (35:30)
If you take that brisket and don't put anything on it, don't trim it, don't do any of the fancy stuff you see online, don't worry about the different seasonings and go buy all this fancy stuff. If you cook it perfectly and it's juicy and the fat's butter and it's tender, you're going to be better than 90% of the briskets that you can buy in restaurants or that you're going to have that people make. And then, I'm not saying don't put any seasoning on there, but once you have that down, then a basic seasoning in central Texas is typically...
They say salt and pepper, but I really think it's salt, coarse pepper and garlic. You put that on there, you don't have to put mustard on there and all this goofy stuff. It's a bloody meat, so it doesn't need a binder for the seasoning's gonna stick. So you don't really need all that, and you'll get a good bark and it'll be tender and juicy, and it's just the most incredible thing. But you can worry about the seasoning and stuff later and really just focus on the fire early on. Once you get that down, I mean, the rest is history.
Slade (36:24)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I kind of wish I would have and something to step back. I wish I would have done is run the smoker a few times with no food in it. Just learn your learn how to manage your fire. Just see if you can do that. That way you're also not burning or wasting a piece of meat out there. You know, you're just seeing how your smoker runs and how to achieve the temperature there because they all they're all different size changes, style changes, everything makes them run differently. So there's not a set way they all work. You've got to learn how to make your smoker work. So
Derek (36:34)
Yeah.
Slade (36:51)
run a few test fires, just try to maintain just a fire at it. And then like you said, you're a little light blue smoke and see if you can do that.
Derek (36:57)
Yeah, good advice. And it's fun. Playing with fire is about as entertaining to me as anything else. So I don't know how you couldn't enjoy it. Well, I know, right? The other thing that's super entertaining is drinking whiskey. So, yep, absolutely, absolutely. Well, I think we've, yeah, go ahead.
Slade (37:07)
Well, I mean, it's half the show. It's half the name of this show, so yeah.
They're wonderful together. They partner well. Well, hey, thanks for everybody jumping on here and listening, man. Like I said, like he said, we kind of wanted to finally have a more, I guess we'll call it a barbecue show. We've had some people say, you know, y'all, you're whiskey and fire. Where's the barbecue? So I hope you, everybody got a little bit out of this and enjoyed some of our dumb, maybe good stories. We'll see. Thanks for tuning in and listening to that. I want to thank everybody at Sledge again. Thanks for the really good bottle of.
Whiskey that I think I almost choked and died on a while ago, but I'm here to survive. Um, thanks for tuning in. Listen to that. Uh, we want to say always, you know, check us out where you can. We got a website, whiskey-fire.com. Uh, we're on all social medias. We're on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. We're on Twitter. I still haven't done anything on there, but we're there. Um, you can email us directly. Whis Uh, wherever you get your podcast or YouTube, check us out. Uh, subscribe, get notified when we.
send a new one out and rate and review for us. It helps us out. And like we said all along, we want to hear from you all. We want to hear what everyone thinks. So anything you want to add before we hop off, Derek?
Derek (38:19)
Now I think you're about covered. God bless and we'll see you guys next time.
Slade (38:24)
See you guys next time.
Slade Beard (38:27)
you