Yesterday, a friend and I attended a 3 hour BBQ cooking class at Rub's Backcountry Smokehouse in Chicago. A coworker told me about it and said I needed to do. Am I ever glad I did! I'll do the best I can to recap the experience:
There were 36 of us in a room a few doors down from the restaurant. A smoker was at the back of the room with a table in front. Very rustic design. (The owner/pit master and employees did all the work themselves.)
Jared, the pit master, first talked about some of the history of BBQ and how it differs from grilling. Then he started talking brisket - how to buy it, how to trim it, and how to cook it. He trimmed a brisket and then had a volunteer trim a second brisket. The volunteer then rubbed them. Jared then pulled out 2 briskets that had been smoking for 16 hours. He sliced them up and then we got a sampling. BEST BRISKET I ever had.
After eating for a bit, Jared then mixed together a side dish (custard filled cornbread) and put it in the oven. We then took a walk over to the smoker they use in the restaurant.
We then moved on to pork butt. He picked two volunteers to rub the butts down. Luckily I was one of them (grey shirt guy). He uses boneless butts and puts a chopped onion in the bone cavity. Jared then took out 2 butts that had been smoking for quite a bit, pulled them, and let us sample.
We then got to taste some spare ribs, truffle mac-n-cheese, and the cornbread.
Overall, the class was awesome. Great food, chips and Texas caviar on table along with homemade pickles and 4 types of sauce, BYOB, recipes, and a diploma. Well worth the $42 deal I got on Living Social. If you live in the Chicago area and love BBQ, you have to do it.
