Our Team

The “Little Kettle That Could!” competition barbecue team doesn’t exactly exist yet, it’s more of an aspiration to give it a try. When we do figure out how to compete, we’ll be putting up pictures of the trophies here (before we eat them).

The Eleventh Commandment

Thou shalt begin thy day with a good butt rub and a long smoke.

A Tribute to Our Kettle

Our barbecue rig is a 22 inch Weber kettle with a Smokenator insert and Maverick thermometers. Really basic, really cheap, but really good at turning Boston butts and hickory smoke into tasty pulled pork sandwiches. It also turns out decent ribs and decent brisket too. As a grill it’s great for making burgers, and does a fine job of planking salmon and cooking chicken as well.

Paul Wake’s Scientifically Designed and Mathematical Pork Rub

Here is the current state of our own ever evolving and still in need of improvement dry rub. The secret recipe is: 5-3-3-1. Five parts sugar (brown, or brown and white), three parts paprika, three parts salt (kosher or sea if available), and one part pepper (freshly ground is nice), with chili or cayenne, mustard, garlic, onion, celery, lemon, and/or herb powders to taste (perhaps a part per desired addition, although sometimes we do the rub over a slathering of actual mustard). For wet, we go commercial but haven’t settled on a favorite sauce; the only one we’ve found that isn’t made with high fructose corn syrup isn’t as good as some that are.

Real Pitmasters

Utah has a number of places to enjoy barbecue. The best known are Q4U in South Kearns, and Pat’s Barbecue in South Salt Lake, both in Salt Lake County. The owner of Q4U actually is a pitmaster, which is more than most barbecue joints have. Pat’s Barbecue often has live music—sometimes some good blues—so it’s popular in a trendy way. Down in Utah County where we live there is The Smokehouse, Lon’s Cooking Shack, and a chain place, but our favorite is tucked away in Springville (and apparently in Lehi also): Charlie Boy’s Pit BBQ. In fact, Charlie Boy’s Pit BBQ probably serves up the best pulled pork sandwich of any restaurant in Utah—no red goop on it at all, just an authentic vinegar and pepper-based sauce and some coleslaw. Of course, any competition at which Utah BBQ Association members are cooking is likely to be, well, smoking.