This product is being tested as we speak! I plan on sharing my experience, including pictures and over all results! We are also doing a video of the whole process and will also post it here on BossmanBBQ as well as YouTube!

Stay Tuned, but in the meantime Please Visit http://www.drybagsteak.com for a in depth product information and an awesome forum!

 Spices have little resins in them which will release when marinating with meat, when allowed to blend with the food it can make the world of difference from the average tasting BBQ to that which separates itself from the rest and is worthy of being an award winning BBQ meat!

  When you find a product that makes such a big difference in aroma and taste of not only BBQ meats, but sides and deserts you have to share it and let others experience it. THAT is what this article is about, that one product that can make a big difference in taste, flavor and aroma.

 A lot of individuals on the west coast have not heard or experienced Maple Pepper®, but if you have ever been in a kitchen in the morning and woke up to the smell of maple smoked bacon being fried in the kitchen, you can only imagine what maple flavoring can do to meats that are smoked!

 Highland Foods Maple Pepper® was first made in a country kitchen in Northern New England over 20 years ago. This family owned business uses only the finest natural ingredients, combining the age-old flavor of maple sugar, the zest of black pepper, and ocean fresh sea salt to bring you a deliciously versatile seasoning. There seasonings are pure and simple. Highland Foods, LLC is a family owned and operated business, offering its customers the personal attention you would expect and deserve.

 One of the most popular side dishes we make for both competition BBQ and catering is smoked beans. For this article we decided to include a recipe for smoked beans including the addition of Highland Foods Maple Pepper®.

 To make the best smoked beans known to man I would highly recommend the following recipe. This is my personal version of a popular recipe commonly found on BBQ forums. My wife and I have won a few awards with this recipe, and were sure you will be happy with it!

 Bossman’s Smoked Apple Beans

3 or 4 slices bacon, diced
2  28-oz cans Bush’s Baked Beans – see note below)
1/2 c. Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce (or other sweet-spicy favorite)
1 lb. leftover smoked pulled pork or 1 lb crumbled cooked pork sausage
1 can apple pie filling (chop up the big chunks some)

1 Tbsp.Highland Foods Maple Pepper® (or more to taste J)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. Mustard (prepared)
1 Tbsp barbecue rub
Brown bacon, and sauté onion and green pepper in bacon grease. Mix in remaining ingredients. Smoke for 1 hour-2 hours or until the beans begins to bubble and a nice crust has built on the surface of the beans. Serves .15-20 people

I know once you try this recipe with Highland Foods Maple Pepper® you will be hooked! For those with adventurous taste they also produce a Habanaro Maple Pepper® and a Garlic Maple Pepper® which is just as good as the original Maple Pepper®!

 A link will be established on our website in the next couple of days (our webmaster is out of the country..) but until then please click on this link to order directly from Highland Foods. http://www.maplepepper.com  The cost for a 3oz bottle is $5.50 ea for the original Maple Pepper® and Garlic Maple Pepper® and $6.65 for the Habanero Maple Pepper®

Please let Highland Foods know you read the article here and that the Bossman referred you! Until next time Smoke On!!

 Every once and awhile you do find a simple tool that does as it advertises and makes your smoking and BBQ cooking a lot easier. One of those items I wish I had seen or knew about is called the Frogmat. I first heard of Frogmat on the BBQ Central Show with Greg Rempe.

  I contacted Mike Riblett, creator of Frogmats and had one of his mat’s sent to me to see if it does what it advertises to do.

 Frogmats is a non stick, odor free easy to turn mat that is used on your smoker to help prevent food from cracking, sticking to the grate, falling through the grate mat. It’s designed to last for years with easy cleaning. Simply clean with warm water its ready for your next use. What I really like is that this simple mat will NOT pick up odors from the foods your smoking like fish. For me, wanting to use this for competition cooking and catering is HUGE.

 I decided to put Frogmats to the test and use it on one of my foods that sometimes sticks to the grill or tears as you take it off the grill. I tested the Frogmat with not only 1 Bacon Explosion but 3!

                                                     Bacon Explosions

 The above Bacon explosions were smoked on my Louisiana Whole Hog Country Smoker. The Frogmat was not sprayed with Pam or anything else, I wanted the test to be as real as it gets to see if Frogmats does what it advertises

 About 1 ½ hours later the Frogmat and Bacon Explosions were doing well. When they were finished the Bacon Explosions were able to be moved off the Frogmat with NO issues!

    Finished Bacon Explosion using the Frogmat

                                 First Bacon Explosion removed from the Frogmat

 Sliced and Ready To GO!!                

 As you can see from the pictures above, the Frogmat does exactly what it advertises to do! I was able to make a finished product that didn’t stick to the grill or Frogmat and it helped me in creating a product that looked great. Just from this test, I know I will be using Frogmats with my Smoked Chicken during this years KCBS Contests.

If you’re looking to smoke food on your smoker that you have had trouble with falling thought the grill, tearing, ripping or failing apart I would highly encourage you to contact Frogmats at http://www.frogmats.com/Home_Page.php. 

I know that by using Frogmats as a BBQ tool to help with a intact finished product I will have no worries or issues and my investment is one that when cared for and cleaned as directed will last for many years. Contact Frogmats and let them know the Bossman sent you, I promise you will be happy you made this investment! Smoke On!!

I love Smoked Turkey; it’s probably the one single meat that I love the most smoked. That being said there are times when I just don’t feel like heating up the smoker and yet I want a good turkey. Well I have the answer for you, the Butterball In-Home Turkey Fryer!  In my opinion the next best thing to a smoked turkey is a fried turkey. Here is my review of this awesome product.

When you first see this unit it will remind you of an oversize bread maker, at least that’s what it reminds me of. Its light weight, attractive and easy to use! What’s more, you can use this unit to fry ANYTHING to include wings; fries, onion rings and the list of possibilities are endless!

I have had a large Cajun Turkey Frier that has been in hibernation for several years. The reason is the amount of peanut oil you have to use is crazy, plus what do you do with the oil afterwards? Sure you can store it, but that’s a giant pain in the tush.

What I like about the Butterball In-Home Turkey Frier is that it uses only 2 gallonsof peanut oil or your choice of cooking oil! My recommendation is to use the peanut oil it has a higher burn point but if you have people who are allergic to peanut oil I would recommend the Canoila oil. The end result is a very moist, tender and delicious turkey with a wonderful and flavorful crisp skin!

  You can cook a turkey as large as 14 pounds. A plus is the non-greasy taste as and clean-up is a cinch as they have installed a drain in the back of the unit for quick and easy disposal of the oil.

 The unit is well built, made of stainless steel and has a digital display with a cook timer and all kinds of power and safety indicators. The porcelain inner pot is an easy clean as well. A full owner’s manual that is easy to read is included.

If smoking a turkey is not an option for you this year, and you’ve been scared to fry a turkey because of all the rumors and horror stories you’ve heard of morons having mishaps with a Turkey Fryer, Butterball has come out with one heck of a product that you can use again and again, and use not only for turkeys but endless cooking items and Ideas. For me, I’m using this bad boy to fry up some Atomic Buffalo Turds!!

You can purchase the Masterbuilt Butterball Turkey on line at On Amazon.com for $117 or you can find it in other outlets for as much as $179 at Best Buy.  Check on line and find the best buy for your dollar. But I would order one soon to avoid supplies running out!

I hope you enjoyed this review and have given you an option if you’re unable to smoke a Thanksgiving Day or Holiday Turkey! Happy Holidays and remember… Smoke On!!

I’m happy to report that I have come close to the perfect brisket in the past year with winning a couple of awards for my brisket in KCBS contests. But the one thing that always drives me crazy is trying to ensure that the brisket is moist and juicy. It seems that no matter what you do, once you slice brisket, in only a matter of seconds it seems to dry out. Until now that was a major concern.

Last week I received a sample of Butcher BBQ Beef Brisket Marinade. Now I have injected briskets before and I’ve marinade briskets over night for as long as 12 hours, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with this, so I was a little skeptical that an inject able marinade put out by Butcher BBQ would make a significant difference compared with what I was already experiencing. How wrong I was!

The first thing I did before opening the packet of marinade was of course read the instructions of use which seemed pretty simple to follow. You’re told to start out by using ¾ of a cup of marinade to 2 cups of water, beer, apple juice, cola or beef broth on a 13lb brisket. The following is an excerpt from the directions:

“All taste palates are different, so strengthen to your taste. We recommend starting with 3/4 cup of marinade to two (2) cups of water. Other options are to split 1/2 the water with beer, apple juice, Cola or beef broth.

Place your brisket on a cookie sheet with edges to help catch any excess marinade. Now, using a checker board pattern, inject in every other square, keeping the injecting needle in the center of the brisket meat. This amount should be enough for two thirteen (13) lb. briskets.

Butcher BBQ recommends you allow the brisket to marinade for as little as 4 hours and no longer then 8 hours. Upon opening the packet the smell is a very definite beef smell. I followed the directions, and being nervous that I was going to screw it up; I only allowed the brisket to marinade in the Butcher BBQ Marinade for 4 hours.

For this smoke I used a combination of Oak and Mesquite. I separated the flat and point as well to have some burnt ends. The brisket I chose was a 12lb brisket.

I followed the directions and injected both the flat and point and allowed the marinade to do its magic for 4 hours. On this smoke the brisket actually was done 2 hours earlier then normal the results from the marinade and smoking session? Well, judge for yourself:

Brisket

Brisket Flat Sliced

It was pretty evident in doing this experiment with Butcher BBQ Beef Marinade that it does exactly what it advertised to do, it gave the brisket and point a great, moist beefier flavor then past briskets I’ve done. The consensus of my family after tasting this brisket, Butcher BBQ Marinade has to be included with our cooking arsenal in preparing brisket wither for contests or catering.

I would highly recommend contacting Butcher BBQ at www.butcherbbq.comand order yours today. I know that once you use it and family and friends taste and see the difference this marinade makes you to will be adding Butcher BBQ to your list of ingredients needed to have smoked brisket. When you order let them know the Bossman sent you, Smoke On!

I told David that it was easy to say his tool was better then “The Chili Twister”, but until I tested it and used it I couldn’t agree with his claim of supremacy. With that David sent out the Jalapeno Corer for my opinion.        First off I could tell this was a tool that a lot of thought went into its design and feel. One of the comments that David had made was that compared to “The Chili Twister”, the Jalapeno Corer made little or no mess when preparing Jalapeno’s. I was also told that in his opinion The Chili Twister tore Jalapenos, were the Jalapeno Corer did not do this as often because of the design.With that said I put the Jalapeno Corer to the test. Here are a couple of pictures of my experience with it:     So did it live up to the hype? The Jalapeno Corer did in fact live up to the claims that David stated. I was able to core my Jalapeno’s with little effort and little or no mess. I did how ever have a couple of Jalapeno’s that tore during the preparation, which I contribute to my inexperience in using the Jalapeno Corer.I guess the bottom line is which is the better tool? I think like my analogy in the beginning of the article of which hamburger is better is probably the best answer I can give. In this case both tools do exactly what they claim to do. Both are great tools. But in using both tools, putting them to the test and seeing what they can do, I have to agree with Dave, the Jalapeno Corer did the job with less mess and was more effective in my opinion, in coring out he Jalapeno’s for preparation of ABT’s for the smoker.  

Just as I found the Chili Twister and thought I found the answer, along comes Iron Desert providing a product that I found to live up to its creators claims and, in my opinion is the better of the two.

 I would highly recommend that you take a look at the products Iron Desert offers including The Jalapeno Corer. You can order it from Iron Desert (irondesert.com) direct in either a wooden handle or stainless steel handle for a cost of $4.00 plus shipping and handling.

Chuck Marting (Bossman)