Rib Rub Review - Slap Yo Daddy's vs. Meathead's Memphis Dust

A few weeks ago I bought a different assortment of Slap Yo Daddy rubs. Today I did a test run of Slap Yo Daddy meat rub by Harry Soo and Meathead's "Memphis Dust." I owe a lot to Meathead and his website www.amazingribs.com When I first started getting in BBQ I must have read every page on his site like it was gospel. It single handedly helped me take my game from awful to decent years ago. Harry Soo smokes on a WSM and puts his pants on one leg at a time just like myself. Except when his pants are on, he wins competitions. I love following his success and his recipes. I figured if his meat rub was  remotely as good near his chicken rub, I'd be happier than a tornado in a trailer park.

L to R: Meathead's Memphis Dust, Slap Yo Daddy Meat Rub

Top to Boom: Slap Yo Daddy (top two), Memphis Dust (bottom)

I did not put a lot of Meathead's MD on because I find it to be over salty when applying a liberal amount.

Top to Bottom: Slap Yo Daddy (top two), Memphis Dust (bottom)

Slap Yo Daddy

Memphis Dust

Final Results:

I did these at 275 for about 4.5 hours. Yes I did the "Texas Crutch" with all the shit in it (butter, honey, etc..) While SYD had a darker color before the ribs were cooked, it was MD that came out with a darker bark. I don't know whether to attribute that to having more brown sugar in the rub or if it was an uneven fire going on. I'm  leaning towards an uneven fire because the MD rack was a little over cooked and almost falling off the bone while SYD ribs were not quiet done and could have used another 30 minutes.  Overall SYD was a great rub but I found MD to be a bit up more my ally. MD has a lot of unique flavors I don't find in most rubs such as ginger and rosemary. It's also a little sweeter despite the fact that I put a conservative amount of rub on as seen above.

Harmon's Bar-B-Q (Cibolo, TX)

It's a nice hot December day and it feels damn good to be in Texas. Northeast of San Antonio is a quaint town called Cibolo. Not much to do there other than eat some BBQ and call it a day. That BBQ will most likely come form Harmon's. After walking inside Harmon's BBQ from the front, it looked like they know what they were doing. They got a dance hall in the back and butcher paper to serve your meat on. Unfortunately for us they were out of beef ribs and pork ribs. So Clay and I got chicken, sausage, sliced pork, and brisket. This is what was presented to us...

So beautiful it brought a tear to my eye.

Sausage was pretty decent, their chicken was moist, and I don't remember a bad thing about the pork. In my book sausage, chicken, and pork are side items and I don't eat BBQ for the sides. Eating BBQ for the sides is about as bad as putting ice in your scotch. They had BBQ sauce there for the women and hot sauce for the men. We sampled this BBQ sauce and it was nothing more than K.C. Masterpiece rebottled. I'm a big fan of hot sauce and I thought it was a good choice for them to choose Louisiana Hot Sauce. It is personally my favorite brand.

Now...the moment of truth. To the main course. In Texas, where cattle is king, it's the brisket that is the mark of a true pit-master.

When I order brisket I expect the "flat." The "point" is for the Yankees in Kansas City to cut up in little squares and serve them as desert that they affectionately call "burnt ends." Judging the moistness of a brisket by eating the point is like judging the moistness of a chicken by eating the dark meat. There is a big ass handicap there that is not taken into consideration. Having said all that, this is what was served to me as brisket.

more fat from the second piece of brisket

After we pulled back the fat, the rest of it crumbled into little pieces like so...FYI this is a sign that it is overcooked. Let me clarify something. It's not that I don't eating the point. In fact I do like eating it. There is so much fat around the point that if you are going to serve it without trimming it a little, don't charge me by the pound for something I'm not going to eat.

 You know what Harmon's reminds me of? Adam Everett. Adam Everett use to play shortstop for my beloved Houston Astros. Adam Everett had all the working parts and mechanics. He was one of the game's greatest defensive players. Unfortunately when it came time for him to step up to the plate, there wasn't a lot there (with the exception of 1 great season). Harmon's BBQ has everything right except the MOST IMPORTANT THING. They have great chicken and pork and I'm sure their sides are tasty as well. In baseball you don't get graded and paid based on your golden glove awards, it's what you do in the batters box. In Texas that batters box is The Brisket. Harmon's struck out on that at bat.










It's hard to say that I'd give this place a second chance because they are located in the BBQ belt in Texas. There are so many places I have yet to try and so many places I'd love to come back to and try again. For the city of Cibolo I think they have a great BBQ spot for a town of its size (17k) . If they want brisket, San Antonio isn't too far away.

Harmon's BBQ will be receiving a generous score of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Texas BBQ

Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub

I've always been a big fan of Harry Soo. I like him a lot because he wins on the same model smoker that I use - The Webber Smokey Mountain. Out of 5,000 BBQ teams, Harry won 1st place in Chicken from the Kansas City BBQ Society. Lucky for us he sells his chicken rub online. So I decided to buy a pack of Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub and do a taste test up against McCormick's Chicken Rub that you can buy at your local grocery store.

The night before: cleaned chicken thighs

L to R - McCormick's Chicken Rub & Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub

First impressions: As soon as I opened the USPS box the smell of cumin hit me hard. Not a huge fan of a lot of cumin but we'll see. The McCormick's has your standard "citrusy" aroma that most chicken rubs have.

Top to Bottom - Slap Yo Daddy & McCormick's

L to R - McCormick's  & Slap Yo Daddy

After 5 minutes of rubbing the chicken, Slap Yo Daddy rub immediately starts melting and giving the chicken that glow. The McCormick's is looking a little dry.

70 minutes at 280 degrees later 

After they're sauced up, it's hard to tell the difference, BUT,  SYD's are at the bottom and not as dark.

The results:

Mercy! Night and day I tell you. I can taste an immediate difference. I almost didn't even want to eat the McCormick's chicken because it tasted like Ox feces next to SYD's chicken rub. While SYD's rub had a strong smell of cumin, it did not come out in the taste and that is a good thing. I highly recommend Slap Yo Daddy's Chicken Rub! I just need to find a better sauce and a cleaner way to sauce the chicken with a more even coat. Outside of the physical blemishes, it tasted great. 

Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub gets a 5 out of 5 stars.

BBQ 101: The Silver Skin

BBQ 101: James Westfall shows the laypeople how to remove the silver skin from a slab of spare ribs.

Hill Country BBQ Market (New York, NY)

So when you can look past making a reservation, $6.50 Shiner in a mason jar, or the $23 per pound brisket, it wasn't half bad. These mofos set up shop in an expensive area (near Chelsea in NYC) so they got to pay the bills some how. Offering their customers Texas sized deals won't cut it. Hill Country wants it bad. They want it real bad. They'll serve you anything from Frito Pie, Blue Bell, Big Red, to 4 different Shiners on tap. They even have pictures of the Lockhart High School football team above their urinals, a big ass Texas Flag, and a collection of Texas Monthly's framed on the wall. It's a little over compensating to say the least. I always give a thumbs up to the Texas enthusiast but it was over kill and instead felt like I had to give them a calming palms down style hand to the Texas Pride.

So here's the deal. You make a reservation, you sit down and they give you a card that the butchers will fill out, you wait in line until you get to the nearest butcher (Lockhart style), and you pay out your ass for the BBQ at the end of the night. The people there are nice, no NY service of rushing you out the door after you have your last bite. So don't let the crowds intimidate you from enjoying yourself.

Lets talk about the taste. I thought the brisket was a solid A. For $23 a pound it should have been nothing less than an A. The jalapeño-cheese sausage was great but come to find out they order their sausage from Kreutz BBQ in Lockhart, $6.50 a link....you heard right $6.50 a link, in Texas these things are $2 a link. Spare Ribs were a solid F. Do not bother trying them. They were very bland and they don't pull from the bone that easily. The sides looked great...I didn't have the money to try them all since I spent it on brisket, but I did get a side of Mac and Cheese and it was on par. It didn't rock my world but I've had worse. I came ill prepared and didn't take a pic of the food. But I'll do you a solid and provide you a link where a thousand other food bloggers have provided their own pictures of their own Hill Country BBQ. Your Welcome.

One plus about the place is that they do live music. Granted I had never heard one band on the calendar but again I don't follow the NY country music scene (nor do I give 2 shits about it). Either way you got to respect any establishment that provides performing opportunities for musicians.

Hill Country/Houston Astros

 

So I have mixed feelings about the place.

The Plus: Great brisket, Texas enthusiasts, and a live music hall down stairs. Come to find out they have a logo that casually resembles The Houston Astros...

The Negative: Expensive, shoving the Texas memorabilia down your throat, the ribs. At least these negatives would be easy to fix.

 

 

Hill Country BBQ will be receiving a generous score of 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Fire House BBQ (New Orleans, La)

 When I saw them putting up this sign about a year ago, I got really excited because this is literally right around the corner from my house. Why has it taken me a year to finally try this BBQ you may ask - I never saw a pit nor smelled the burning of wood. Not only that, this place closes durring the winter. Why does this BBQ place close durring the winter you may ask - because it's not a BBQ place, it's a Snowball stand...Dun Dun Dun!

Yea you aren't going to get a legitimate BBQ experience here. You will however get a legitimate Snowball experience, if you like that sort of thing which I do not.  As I walked into the 10x10 room I asked the lady behind the counter (who was behind a bullet proof glass window) for 1/2 a slab of ribs. Ribs seemed to be the only BBQ they had. She walked out of the back door and didn't return until 10 minutes later. Turns out, people that actually order the BBQ from Fire House get the BBQ from the the restaurant next door. I assume that they are owned and operated by the same people/person.

This is what I got:

These ribs fell right off the bone. They had that soggy texture with no flavor and no smoke. I spent hours trying to dig these ribs out of the sauce, I couldn't find them. Classic case of OBBBQ (Oven-Baked BBQ). You want a lecture about using an oven when it comes to BBQ, go down the road to Donaldsonville and talk to J.B. (at the 44 second mark)- 

Below are some pictures of the menus from this establishment:

Fire house BBQ will be receiving a generous score of 0.5 out of 5.