- I am so excited for today.
- I am so nervous for today.
We have barbecue legend,
whole hog master,
Rodney Scott.
Whose recently taken on ribs at his restaurant.
And he is here to teach us everything.
- You know who has ribs?
We have ribs!
- Here we go.
- We're here to talk ribs, with the man.
So we brought our already quartered half hog out here.
What do you want to cook today?
- Let's put some spares on and then maybe a whole
hog when nobody's looking later.
- Okay.
- Take these ribs off and these guys
just uh, see what happens.
- Let's get it all.
- Borrow that knife?
Like how much fat are you looking on,
looking to have on a fat cap.
- This right here is the limit for me.
Because the way that we cook it, the whole animal is like
this for 12 hours. So all that fat is going
through down into a direct bed of hot coals.
And with that happening, you don't want the
hot coals to catch fire ablaze.
I personally prefer them no thicker than this.
(smooth music)
- Spare ribs off the belly.
- Ribs off the loin.
- Country style ribs off a picnic.
- I mean since we have three different cuts is there an
approach that you're thinking because there is different
thickness, different fat content.
- Same approach for me all the time.
Be careful, pay attention, start slow.
Cause you can always add to it but you
can't really take away all the time.
Right now you're not thinking about this
being delayed, you want to eat this.
So we're gonna make sure that we be careful on how we
season it, and how hot our pit is.
I've screwed up some ribs before, starting too hot.
And you couldn't, I mean, you couldn't
rip them apart they were so tough.
Just before I put them on the fire.
- Yeah
- I sprinkle my rub on them.
We use a basic rub with some other stuff added to it.
- What's in the rub?
- We got some paprika.
- Uh huh.
- And then we got some paprika.
- Uh huh.
- And then we put a little more paprika in there.
- So paprika.
- I've personally like to just a little sprinkle over them.
- Yeah that's not a really aggressive like
you would kind of imagine it.
- You rub it, and you bite into it, it's salty.
When you just sprinkle it on there and give it a chance to
cook through, it's usually a better flavor.
Another thing I don't like to do is,
pre-rub my ribs too far ahead.
Because if you start to rub them, and you stack them,
they start massaging the ingredients all in there.
And then you get that saltiness that you don't want.
This is the way that Rodney Scott
seasons his ribs, with paprika.
- With only paprika
- I was only using two types of paprika.
- Yeah, you got to use at least three types of paprika.
- Alright.
- Ya'll might as well say he's full of s***.
(laughter)
- When someone comes to you and they want to work,
what are top three tenets that they need to learn?
- First thing that they need to do is, be patient.
They need to pay attention because this could be a
very intense job with the heat and follow directions.
You're not going to get the same results
everyday from the same protein.
Example, whole hogs.
I've had whole hogs that were smaller than others
but they would take longer to cook.
- I think you are aware that we are in New York City.
We don't have a live fire pit, we do have a smoker but
I feel like we are showing up to a dinner party right now
and like giving you a microwave to cook with.
You don't use any electric smokers but
what do you think about them?
- I've never used an electric smoker.
- Really?
- Ya know, on the road a couple places. But,
- And that's it.
- They still product great products.
- It's a pretty nice smoking microwave.
You put it, set it, forget it.
- [Rodney] We'll make it work.
So you got some cherry in there.
- [Brent] A little cherry, little hickory.
You're like real exclusive about your wood.
- Yes, I like to use majority of oak and every now and
again I'll add in a little hickory.
- [Brent] So, I got to get this going.
What temperature do you want it at?
- [Rodney] With that meat I would stay around 220.
- [Brent] Perfect.
- [Rodney] Go nice and slow.
Because it's not a real thick cut,
250 might cook it a little fast.
- So we got about an hour, anything else
you want to cook in the meantime?
- Lets go play around with a little something else,
let's get a smaller version of that rib-eye and
just play with it a little bit.
- Oh you're gonna go straight rib-eye, alright.
Let's do it.
(dramatic music)
- Yes!
- [Brent] Do you want a dry-aged steak?
- [Rodney] We don't have to have a dry-aged steak.
- [Brent] What?
- I mean if we are pushing the envelope here.
(saw turning on)
(high pitched buzzing)
(dramatic music)
(Rodney exhales)
- This is gonna be good.
I see some flavor right in that bone, look at all of that.
A little bit of sauce, with this we can rub
because we want it to go in.
- So we already talked about this paprika rub.
Is this paprika sauce?
- We got some cayenne in there, black pepper and
then we add a couple other things that we
put in there that's not paprika.
- What's the advantage of rubbing it with
both the dry rub and the other stuff?
- There's no paprika in this.
(Ben hums in agreement)
This paprika compliments that when they are both together.
Alright!
Another 30 minutes we'll take another peep at them.
Sauce them up and flip them over,
cause we are making great progress, better than I thought.
- Once we put the sauce on the ribs how much longer?
- Not long, because the sauce starts to break it down and
make it nice and tender, and then we just want a little bit
of color on the other side, and boom, we're good.
We're gonna let them go, then we're gonna come back and
double check on that experimental aged rib-eye.
- Wow!
- I think we need to sauce and flip.
Since we don't have a mop and we are in New York City.
We're going to do a make-shift mop.
So you really wanna just get the sauce on it,
just enough to coat it.
- Is there anything else you're looking for?
- Just a little color, we want a little bit
more of this going on, all over.
I'm thinking we're going to make it there
probably within the time frame we were expecting.
Every pit is an adjustment for me because I've never used
this one and don't know how hot it will get.
But, one thing I've noticed.
Usually the bottom of the rib will get
all of the texture and the color first.
In this one, the top got all the
texture and the color first.
- Never thought about that.
- Me either.
We all just learned something.
I listened to you tell me how your smoker operates and we
paid attention to how it was cooking the meat.
So we learned that, hey let's go ahead and flip it over or
else we're going to be here an extra two hours.
Let's pull the steak out.
- [Brent] Let's do it, let's eat this steak.
- We'll be back for the ribs shortly.
(upbeat music)
- [Brent] How big is a sandwich?
- [Ben] Four ounces.
- [Brent] That is a really reasonable amount of meat.
(meat sizzles)
(upbeat music)
- Cheers.
(upbeat music)
- That is like a perfect summer sandwich.
- I was skeptical of smoking a dry-aged rib-eye but,
this is fantastic. Still taste the paprika.
- That meat is pretty good.
I might have to step up at home.
- Perfect amuse, lets see some ribs.
(country music)
- [Ben] Oh yeah, these are already the best looking ribs
that have come out of this smoker.
- Woo!
(country music)
- It just looks great, I mean it's like the Himalayas when
you look on a map and you see the little bumps.
When you got the tiny Himalayas there,
nice color, should be nice and tender.
So lets go with the picnic.
- Alright.
- [Brent] You've got the blade man.
(country music)
- Oh my god.
- Well that is a really really good rib.
- What do you think of the texture?
- That's what I want, a little more fatty which gives us a
little more nature juices flowing through it.
- Feels like I'm eating a straight-up pork chop.
There is so much meat on it.
- And the flavor is about closer you get up to the neck and
the head the flavor is just like a little bit more intense.
- Very intense.
- [Ben] Want to go belly next, or loin?
- [Rodney] Let's go belly.
- [Ben] Let's, yeah.
Tap the flat lands.
- Alright, here we go, belly.
Wow, the belly really showed up.
- I mean a lot thinner so, you get a lot more spice.
- But not too much spice where you can eat it.
- Exactly.
- I feel like whenever I have done ribs, I've been actually
rubbing them in. But, like watching you today just.
- If we rubbed it in, this would have been more intense.
Shall we move on? The loin.
I like a little tug in my rib, and because I like that tug
that loin area is where you're gonna get just that little
bite like you said, the pork chop bite.
You wanna enjoy the rib without biting into it
and the whole thing slides off the bone.
- Yeah.
- That's great and everything but,
me personally I prefer a little tug.
- [Brent] You want to earn it.
- This is like neck and neck with the picnic for me.
This is really good.
- I might actually like this better.
- Just a little tug.
I don't like my rib meat falling off the bone.
I like to serve my food the way that I enjoy it myself.
And that's with that tug.
- Cause in order for it to fall off the bone,
you just have to cook it and cook it and cook it.
Do you feel like that's kinda like a rookie move?
Like just cook the hell out of it?
- Not necessarily a rookie move, but just something I've
never really been a big fan of.
- So what do you think, cooking in the city?
- This is definitely doable.
- You're happy with the taste?
- I'm still eating.
- Alright, good.
- You went over like the three things you need to be,
you need to have engraved into you
when you work at Rodney Scott Barbecue.
You feel like that holds true no matter where you are?
- No matter where you are.
Be patient, pay attention, follow the rules.
- Rodney I would love to shake your hand,
but that would be very disgusting right now.
- You know, a little greasy.
- Thank you so much for doing this with us.
- Thank ya'll, Thanks for having me man.
- Such an honor.
- Cheers.
- We just learned how to use an electric smoker.
- And for more about electronics from
our friends at Verge, click here.
- If I walked just a few blocks from this office.
I can find a robot that will make me a latte, serve me
quinoa bowl and now there's one that will make me a custom
made to order.
(upbeat music)