Monk: Bon Appétit’s Brad Leone makes beef pastrami at his house in Connecticut.
Description: We’re back with a smokin’ new episode of It’s Alive and Brad Leone is bringing the beef straight from his own kitchen (and backyard.) From brining and spice rubs to the smoker and oven, Brad takes this beef on a transformative journey you won’t want to miss.
Monk: Alex Delany, formerly of Bon Appétit, used to do this thing where he tries one “perfect” bite from everything on the menu and then gives out awards for his favorite items. For his visit to Hometown Barbecue in Red Hook, Brad Leone joins in on the menu tasting.
They are also joined for a short chat with Dave Gill, Aussie pitmaster of Hometown, who gives his recommended order for first time customers at Hometown.
Note: After I composed this past, I found out that Delany left Bon Appétit last year under quite a bit of controversy and while I don’t condone his actions, I still wanted to feature this video for the Hometown Barbecue of it all.
Description: While New York City may not be a city known for its barbecue, Hometown Bar-B-Que stands apart as a truly great spot to meet your smokey meat needs. We sent Alex Delany to go try one perfect bite of every item on the menu at this joint, and we also sent his buddy Brad Leone along for the ride.
Link to article with podcast at the bottom
Monk: You may have been hearing about Dave Grohl’s barbecue obsession for the past year or so, but here’s an in-depth conversation between Grohl, Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport, and Joe House from The Ringer’s House of Carbs podcast. In it, he discusses how he got into barbecue through tasting eastern NC barbecue at a shack (he didn’t mention a name) near the Currituck Lighthouse after he bought a beach house in Nag’s Head in the early 90’s (13:40). He also calls out when he met Elliott Moss from Buxton Hall Barbecue, whom he called “a badass” (24:14) and Sam Jones, who he “treated like a Beatle” (24:35). Grohl also gets into his barbecue venture Backbeat BBQ that started from a single Lang smoker (35:02) and how he worked his way up to feeding nearly a thousand firefighters for free during last fall’s Camp Fire in southern California (39:40).
It’s one thing to read about Grohl’s passion for barbecue (or see him hanging out during the tailgate party that is Memphis in May), but it’s another to hear the passion in his voice when he talks about barbecue. Also, now we know that he likes to drink High Life when he smokes (49:55) but won’t turn down a Coors Light if the Rockies are blue. Pretty cool stuff.
Now that you know how to butcher a pig, here’s how to tackle a cow.
Jason Yang, butcher at Fleishers Craft Butchery, breaks down half a cow into all the cuts you would see at your local butcher shop. There are four sections Yang moves through: 1. ROUND: bottom round roast beef, eye round roast beef, sirloin tip steak, london broil steak, shank (osso buco) 2. LOIN: sirloin steak, tenderloin steak, flank steak, filet mignon, New York strip steak 3. RIB: skirt steak, ribeye steak 4. CHUCK: brisket, ranch steak, denver steak, chuck steak or roast, flat iron steak