Review: BGE Tasting Dinner, Charleston

Thursday night saw the latest in a series of sold-out BGE tasting dinners/grilling classes at a gourmet butcher shop in Charleston, Ted's Butcher Block.

These start after the shop closes at 7, and this one lasted for two hours with three tasting courses offered and a choice of red, white, or beer for $25. It's an interesting mix of BGE practice and an intro to butchery. Ted is a third-generation butcher who loves the Egg but does not sell them; he shrugs and says, "I just cut meat." He was ably assisted by four sous-chefs (sous-bouchers?) and the meal was prepared primarily on a single XL BGE. The 30 souls attending were a mix of experienced Eggers to new buyers to never-heard-of-an-Egg-but-wanted-something-to-do-tonight types.

The courses were beef brisket, BBQ pizza, and grilled scallops with jerk rub. I understand earlier this year they did a dinner where Ted prepared a single lamb using various methods.

It was very cool to have a meat expert stand in front of us and talk about how he trimmed down primals to get particular cuts (nothing like pulling out a whole brisket on a tray to explain the flat vs. the point, for example). He uses his XL BGE every day to cook a catering and lunch menu that's a popular adjunct to the butcher shop, and he also has a large BGE. He said he's burned through a lot of gaskets. He uses very few accessories and gadgets (tongs and a pizza stone were about it; I noticed that even his dome thermometer was broken). The evening was more about the meat and Ted's techniques than about Eggs per se. He welcomed questions and the evening had a conversational quality.

Ted uses some approaches that are quite different from forum members here. He doesn't cook to specific internal temperatures unless it's a fast-cook steak, and even then he doesn't use a thermometer (but has no issue with others using one). He has what I might call a Crock-Pot theory of brisket, saying that as long as the temperature is controlled it's hard to overcook it. His theory of rubs is that any rub that involves 1/3 sweet ingredients, 1/3 salt, and 1/3 savory ingredients will probably work just fine if it stays on the meat for six hours or more. Ted does sell a house rub with ingredients kept secret (tasted like lots of brown sugar, thyme and paprika to me, but he said it had about 20 ingredients). He says to marinate only those things that don't have much natural flavor (e.g., chicken). He brines anything that will get long smoking unless (like a brisket) it's very fatty. He likes apple and alder woods for most all smoking, hickory he reserves for pork, mesquite maybe never but possibly in small amounts for beef. For steaks, he builds a two-zone fire and uses tongs to spin the cooking grate around after sear and let the steaks come gradually to finish temperature on the cooler side. For flakey fishes like swordfish, salmon and tuna, cook like steak; otherwise, use a fish basket. He thinks organic beef is overrated (the word is not strictly enough defined) and thinks grass-fed beef is fine but the flavor comes from the "finishing" feed in the final six months of the animal's life; he prefers grain-finished animals provided that not just corn is used. He sells wagyu and says it is markedly different in flavor because it's a different breed with excellent marbling, but it's up to you whether you think it's worth it (true kobe even more so).

Of interest to the more experienced Eggers attending was that Ted removes his fire grate, loads charcoal, and then puts the fire grate on top of the charcoal to act as a diffuser for low-and-slow cooks. He seemed quite relaxed about cooking times, saying that if you run out of charcoal after six hours at 230-240 dome, just pull the meat, reload and restart. Just shoot for at least 16 hours cooking and you'll be fine, seemed to be his philosophy. I did wonder to myself whether if he loaded his Egg right he might have his charcoal last for a full cook, but this was Ted's show. The brisket was moist, quite peppery with a firm bark and he had a sous-chef demo a pan sauce to finish. This sauce was made from coffee, chocolate stout, cinnamon and cocoa with a pinch of cayenne, seasoned to taste and thickened with cornstarch slurry. Served as two slices of brisket with sauce, and cold potato salad.

Second course was pulled pork BBQ pizza. Ted uses a standard yeast dough recipe, makes 6" crusts, and half-cooks the "empty" crusts on a preheated pizza stone set on a plate setter. Time is a couple of minutes per side, one flip with tongs after the crust bubbles up, and it comes off looking like naan (flatbread). He suggests this approach to catering, so that your party guests can select their own pizza toppings and return the loaded crust to the Egg for finishing. His choice for us was pulled pork with slivered onions, BBQ sauce, and mozzarella with a sprinkle of cheddar. Each of us got an ample six-inch pizza, cut into quarters for easy eating. Ted was right, this would be great party food.

Third course was grilled scallops with a jerk rub, cooked direct and served with a julienne of zucchini and summer squash and carrots. I thought this was probably the weakest of the three, as the Egg didn't seem to have enough heat left for a good sear and the jerk overwhelmed the fresh scallops. Again, a generous tasting, with four scallops per person atop the veggies.

In summary, it was a good evening for anyone wondering what you can make with an Egg. Toss in a glass or two of libation, three ample tasting plates, and a couple of hours with a well-spoken meat expert and it's a good value for $25. The networking was enjoyable, and learning about local dealer service from real customers was valuable. For example, IMHO the couple next to me struggling with temp control on their first few cooks was suffering from a dealer mis-assembled Egg.

Yes, I would pay to return depending on the menu.