St. Patrick’s day is one of my favorite holidays. No…no..no not because you can drink. Who needs a holiday for that when you can do that anytime. For me St. Patrick’s day is about the corned beef. This time of year is when it gets super cheap and I buy quite a few to make pastrami. I usually prefer the points.

Pastrami is traditionally brined and coated with spices. Corned beef is brined too but not usually covered with spices. This is a pretty simple and straight forward process.

First thing is throw that damn spice packet away. I have an aversion to spice packets included with food. I think that there is dead cat chunks leftover from the glue factory in them. I will admit the spices included here probably are o.k. but I’ll err on the safe side. Give them to your mother-in-law.

Anyway….you need to soak them in water for 2 days completely submerged. Change the water 4 times (if you only do it twice I won’t tell). This is to reduce the salt.

After two days your ready to rock and roll. Squirt some cheap a$$ mustard (yes I said cheap a$$ save the good stuff for later) and rub all around. This doesn’t really do anything I just want you to get mustard all over your hands. Well actually it is going to hold the spices on okay?

Sprinkle both sides with granulated garlic. Now in your spice grinder (you have one right?) you need a 2/1 ratio of black peppercorns and whole coriander. For the sizes I was doing I used 2 tablespoons pepper to 1 tablespoon coriander for each one (I did two). You want to cover it all over pretty good.

That’s it!

Toss on your smoker. I have a small Weber Smokey Mountain that I like to use for smaller things. The cut I used was the point (thick end of the brisket) and had on the smoker about 12 hours. I used hickory but I’m sure you can use whatever wood is your preference.

Mine shrunk almost in half! But it’s worth it trust me. I wrapped in foil and stuck in the fridge until the next day.

Now that it is chilled it is slicing time!

Yes you can use a knife but I finally found a reason to buy a slicer!

The two I made was enough to fill up a 1lb ziplock bag of sliced goodness. Now we need to get down to business here because I’m getting hungry!

Get yourself a nice loaf of crusty marble rye and some creole mustard.

Pile on the pastrami and add some swiss cheese. Okay quick story. When I was a kid I never liked cheese at all. None. Nada. Zip. I would gag on macaroni and cheese. The only exception was Swiss cheese on pastrami. I was a weird kid I guess.

And finally the end result that now is in my belly.

There are many ways to make a pastrami sandwich and the best I ever had was just a hunk warm pastrami on a roll with some au jus. I had that 30 years ago and to this day I still remember it.

If you have any questions about this let me know. Send your photos too!

It all started on Twitter today. Someone posted a link to a “gourmet barbecue” crockpot recipe. Maybe I’ve had a rough week or just not enough caffeine but I sort of…well…got pissed off! That’s o.k. right? I really was surprised at myself as I’m usually a pretty level headed person. Today I realized what I am…

My name is Robert King and I’m a barbecue snob.

Why was I pissed? It is the bastardization of american food. We have had a great history of food in our own right and I think too many people are “settling” for something that is substandard. That substandard ends up becoming the norm and before you know it we all lose a little bit of tasty history. It’s not just BBQ that this is happening but many other food traditions as well.

When you bite into a bratwurst sausage from a German meat market that has been making the same things from scratch for 30 plus years then compare it to a “beer” brat packaged in the store I feel cheated! Does anybody care anymore about quality? What are we going to do when these people pass on?

To do barbecue takes time. It cannot be rushed. It cannot be done in a microwave or a crockpot. It requires passion and true love for what you are doing to make it proper. We as an American people cannot sit idly by and lose our food traditions.

Barbecue is not grilling. Barbecue is not sauce. Barbecue is not crockpot.

The competition heats up in the northeast, even as temperatures fall at the Diamond State BBQ Championship in Dover, Delaware. Harry’s former teammate, Gary, competes on his own and Tuffy does Myron a favor, which could end up hurting his own chances.

Harry teaches Gary

Tuffy helps Myron out

I’ll be contacting you by email for your address to send your 1/2lb of DR’s BBQ Rub. Thanks to everybody who participated!

“I sure as hell, am not gonna tell you whats in them ribs if you wanna know for damn sure you better be paying me $750.00. I don’t be giving anything for F#$%ingdamn free not even you Jay Leno. Its all about me -getting paid.”

I will send the winner 1/2lb sample of my rub that is coming out soon. How about we end the contest This Sunday Jan. 17th, at Midnight PST and I will announce the winner first thing Monday morning.

Let’s make this fun and simple. No rules but what you see above. If I need to consult my attorney I will cancel everything and move to some Caribbean island with the money I would have given him.

Let’r rip! And don’t forget to watch BBQ Pitmasters on TLC every Thursday night. Check your local listings.

I HATE New Years resolutions! Why? I consider the same if you help feed some needy people on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Don’t they have needs the rest of the year? Okay that doesn’t make sense….Why not just start your resolution June 15th? If you want or need to make changes why not just start right at the moment you think about them?

So to contradict what I just wrote I now give you my New Years Resolutions!

2. Have our rub for sale on our site by February 1st. I finally found a company that makes it the way I want it. You would be amazed how difficult this is.

3. Sauce! I’ve finally made sauce that I like. Get to try it on some guinea pigs this year…urr I mean catering customers. Then….

4. Compete in at least 5 BBQ contests. Would like to do more but have to start out being realistic. It does cost money to go to these and I have to consider it like going to Vegas. Whatever money you bring you have to think you will lose it but have fun in the process.

5. Have a BBQ business full time. My existing business, stripping for Chippendales, is starting to get more difficult as I get older. I can only cover up things with sauce for so long until people start to notice.

6. Half of what I eat coming from my garden. Been trying to do this the last 2 years. But I have a plan! Hmmm….didn’t I have a plan the previous 2 years. This year is different! Wait last year was different…

7. Camp and fish more. We usually go camping during our summer vacation but want to try getting back to nature a little more. I’ll start by not shaving my armpits and eating granola.

8. Try to promote real food to people. By real I mean something that doesn’t come pre-packaged from the store. Remember that recipe your Grandma made? Well make it! Don’t have time? Turn off that computer and cell phone and just do it! (Sorry Nike)

9. More family time. Everything I do is for my family. Even the fart jokes. You have never experienced joy as when you tell a joke and your son’s eyes light up. Almost as joyful as getting a note from his teacher saying he told that joke in class.

10. Number 10…oh what to put for number 10….lose 30 lbs? No, then that would negate several of the above….Go sky diving? Hell no… Run with the bulls? Boy this number 10 thing is really difficult! Any ideas?

10PM Eastern Time.

I have never done a whole hog and my father-in-law made the comment that was one thing I haven’t done yet. He was laughing when he said that but little does he know that come summer time I will be cooking one out in his front yard. If it’s hot enough I may break out the Daisy Dukes.

Damn I’m one hot and sexy guy. At least that is what I tell the mirror and it doesn’t disagree and say anything back.

Okay enough about my hotness and back to the review.

Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ

How about a little sugar Harry? That was so sweet!

One thing about being in California, if you are a cook, is realizing how tastes and appetites are different here than the rest of the country. Most people here do not know what real bbq is so their tastes are geared to what they think BBQ is to them. I think they really did a Hail Mary changing up their plan and making it sweeter. They ended up 18th overall and I wonder how they would have finished if they didn’t change their plan?

Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers

And in this corner weighing in at a few hundred pounds from the bottom of the barrel Buddy Weiser! In the other corner we have all the way from Texas “Son I’m gonna whip your butt” Trigg!

Okay I’m all for drink once in a while just don’t drink and be an a$$! It doesn’t make for a real awesome experience or so I’ve noticed. I’ve heard from someone that was there that this wasn’t staged at all and the guy almost got a beat down. My favorite part was at the end when he came by to shake Johnny’s hand. He was more blitzed then before!

I think I will toast you drunk buddy with my favorite drink for making an entertaining show!

Lee Ann Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ

I can’t believe someone who hasn’t cooked a hog before would enter a hog and a KCBS contest at the same time. You have to have some serious cojones or just want to get on TV. Okay I would have done it too! I was stressed just watching her before the dog an pony show. How would I have done it?

“Nice to meet you sir….pull my finger?”

“You ever hear the one about pig, nun and jack hammer?”

Okay maybe whole hog competitions are not my calling!

Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South

I’ve have been reading numerous comments about Myron from the last episode. I’m not kissing his butt at all but boy a lot of people must be up for sainthood!

“We couldn’t let our kids watch!” Maybe I have a special TV but I thought they were beeping words?

“This is taking competition BBQ the wrong way” What? Maybe making people actually cooking something from scratch instead of going out and buying a dipped in flavor hamburger patty?

“It makes him look like a pompous ass!” Well it’s his ass and he can be pompous all he wants because he can back it up.

He didn’t do as well on the KCBS portion as I would have thought. 10th place overall and was bettered by Lee Ann who came in 5th overall. There priorities were a little different. Myron focusing on the whole hog and Lee Ann on the KCBS and their scores reflect that.

Jamie Geer – Jambo Pits

What you did to that hog was amazing! The bark, the sauce glistening, those specs of secret spices…..Oh sorry wrong dream he wasn’t on the show this week again!

I am working on getting a couple recipes out this coming week and will continue my review of this show next week.

Until then I leave you with a couple of clips from the show: