Andy Husbands - Wicked Good Barbecue: Fearless Recipes from Two Damn Yankees Who Have Won the Biggest, Baddest BBQ Competition in the World

FEARLESS RECIPES FROM TWO DAMN YANKEES WHO
WON THE BIGGEST, BADDEST
BBQ COMPETITIONS IN THE WORLD

ANDY HUSBANDS AND CHRIS HART
WITH ANDREA PYENSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN GOODMAN

2012 Fair Winds Press

Text 2012, 2011 Andy Husbands, Chris Hart, and Andrea Pyenson

First published in the USA in 2012 by

Fair Winds Press, a member of

Quayside Publishing Group

100 Cummings Center

Suite 406-L

Beverly, MA 01915-6101

www.fairwindspress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN: 978-1-59233-499-5

Digital edition published in 2012
eISBN: 978-1-61058-210-0

Digital Edition: 978-1-61058-210-0
Softcover Edition: 978-1-59233-499-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Cover design by Carol Holtz

Book design by Carol Holtz

Book layout by meganjonesdesign.com

Photography by Ken Goodman Photography

Additional photography by Caitlin Bilodeau, Frank Boyer, Todd Coleman, Jessica Goodman, and Jenny Hart

Printed and bound in China

FOR OUR FAMILIES.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I first met Andy Husbands at the East Coast Grill, the celebrated restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that launched the revolution in contemporary American grilling.

We reconnected last year at a barbecue I staged for the crew of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides, the worlds oldest commissioned warship afloat), where Andy did a terrific job preparing a meal from my book, Planet Barbecue (Workman, 2010)a feat that was equally remarkable for the fidelity with which he executed my recipes and the skill with which he turned them out on his custom-built smoker.

After that experience, I vowed that the next time I met Andy it would be over his food. I was particularly interested in some of the dishes he and his coauthor and IQUE barbecue teammate, Chris Hart, made to win some of the biggest, toughest barbecue competitions in the world. Like the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where IQUE took the Grand Championship with their astonishingly succulent, smoky spare ribs. (You can read all about them on ). Not bad for any smoke-meisters. Downright astonishing for a bunch of Yankees!

Well, now I have something even betterthe secrets to their successin the form of a breathtakingly original, meticulously detailed, lavishly illustrated cookbook thats as piquant and sassy as the food IQUE serves to smoke the competition. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Wicked Good Barbecue.

These guys are a raritychefs who not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk, turning out dishes like the Seven-Layer Dip of Disbelief (an IQUE riff on the traditional bean dip that includes layers of Old Bayseasoned shredded beef short ribs and crab remoulade), Six-Day Bacon of the Gods, Whole Smoke-Roasted Striped Bass, the Ultimate Steak Bomb, Pot Likker and Cornmeal Dumplings, and Pecan PieStuffed Cheesecake for dessert. Did I mention the Motel 6 Old-Fashioned, which comes complete with advice on making simple syrup in your motel room?

They go beyond straight competition barbecue food to ambitioussome might say outrageousrecipes that are worth every minute of preparation that goes into them. With detailed instructions for each dish, as well as explanations of different barbecue styles, techniques, equipment, and more, Husbands and Hart urge readers to get outside and start smoking!

I can only add: Amen.

STEVEN RAICHLEN,
AUTHOR OF PLANET BARBECUE AND HOST
OF PRIMAL GRILL ON PBS, 2011

How did two guys from Boston win hundreds of barbecue ribbons, thirty Kansas City Barbeque Society championships, and the biggest prize of them all, the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue? It took about twelve years, lots of hard work, a healthy sense of youthful invincibility seasoned with a dash of arrogance, more fun than we might even be able to remember, and the help of our IQUE barbecue teammates. And now were ready to share the secrets that got us herewell, most of them anyway. Some things that happened in Kansas City will have to stay in Kansas City.

When we started, we were part of a relatively small but devout bunch of folks who loved nothing more than spending a few days at a time hanging with friends, drinking bourbon and beer, playing late-night poker, cooking over live fireand trying to prove that we did all of it better than everybody else around us.

A lot has changed in ten years. We still love doing all those things. And when we compete, were in it to win. But that devout bunch is not so small any more. In this new century, barbecue competitions have become one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. The American Royal in Kansas City routinely draws more than 500 teams to compete. And barbecue organizations are multiplying throughout the country. We see this not only as a reflection of how many people appreciate great barbecue, but also how many people appreciate great food. And the lengths theyre going to these days to experience it.

In the world of food television, blogs, chat rooms, and publications, where its not uncommon for people to photograph their every meal, then beam the shots over the Internet, these same folks are taking the time to seek out the best ingredients they can find, whether its American Wagyu from Idaho or heirloom chile peppers from New Mexico. This same food revolution has spilled over into the world of barbecue and live-fire cooking. Inspired barbecue enthusiasts travel miles for that perfect rib/pulled pork sandwich/barbecued bologna they read about on an online forum. They trade recipes and tips online. And they spend hours, sometimes days, making the ultimate dish. Then making it again, and again, and again... until they get it right.

Some might call this extreme cooking. We call it what we do. What weve always done. And our reward is that buzz you get when you push yourself to the edge. Sometimes that means standing in the middle of a NASCAR racetrack in Dover, Delaware, at midnight with a tornado barreling down, watching it blow by as you tend to your brisket and pork butts. Sometimes it means waking up every hour through a Saturday night to make sure your fire doesnt go out because youre having company the next dayor because youre just testing recipes. Always it leads to food thats not just really, really tasty, but wicked good.