I hope that you get to spend today celebrating with friends and family.
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Saturday, July 4, 2009
Ramblings: Happy Fourth of July
Happy Fourth of July
I hope that you get to spend today celebrating with friends and family.
I hope that you get to spend today celebrating with friends and family.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Review: BIGS Sunflower Seeds
BIGS Sunflower Seeds
Regular readers will note that we periodically feature a ‘non-BBQ roundup’. Today we are concentrating on a bacon theme, starting with BIGS Bacon Salt flavored sunflower seeds.
These are sunflower seeds that are in the shell and have the exact same flavor as found in Bacon Salt (click here for our review of Bacon Salt). Let’s start with the basics. They are delicious. The flavor of bacon mixed with the nutty earthiness of the sunflower seeds quickly becomes addictive.
If marketed properly, I can easily see these becoming as ubiquitous on the competition BBQ circuit as beer and ABT’s. Sitting around a smoker watching temps at 2:00 am and spitting the shells into an ash bucket somehow feels right. It has that rustic, timeless appeal that matches a cooking method that takes up to 14 hours to cook a piece of meat.
Here’s the kicker. For those of us that are fighting the battle of the bulge, you can sit down and eat these for an hour and consume a couple of ounces. I wouldn’t be surprised if you burn more calories in the eating then you consume. That’s important to note, as once you start eating them you can’t stop.
There are currently 5 flavors available. The plain is what you would expect, slightly salty, with the traditional flavor of unadulterated sunflower seeds. The Bacon Salt flavor mirrors the Bacon Salt seasoning. The Dill Vlasic Pickle is an odd flavor. Not bad, just a different. I haven’t wrapped my head around it enough to render an opinion yet. The Zesty Ranch seeds have a milder flavor than the Bacon Salt, but are no less addicting. The Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wing style is designed to give the seeds a kick without overpowering the flavor.
The seeds come in a 5.35 oz. bag and let me assure you, that is plenty. It’s impossible to consume the bag in one or two sittings. The seeds themselves are huge. Chernobyl huge. As such, they are a great medium for the various flavors. The bag comes with a convenient resealable top.
I have to confess that until trying BIGS I had never even conceived of flavored sunflower seeds. I’ve clearly been missing out. I was sort of hoping that the BIGS website had an ‘under development’ section, but alas, it was not to be. I would have liked to peak behind the curtain to see what flavors they were working on. Sour cream and onion? Maybe a malt vinegar to mimic fish and chips? Whatever they produce next, I’ll be buying. The quality of the first five has guaranteed my trying the next five.
Looking for other bacon oriented novelties? How about Bacon Mints? They taste exactly like they sound and no pigs were hurt in the making of this product. They come in a tin, similar to an undersized altoid box, that is redolent with the aroma of smoke. If you are looking for something to finish off your guests meal after your next BBQ, give these a try.
Have a lot of kids attending your next pig roast? Why not offer up some gummy bacon? They lack the flavor of raw bacon, but make up for that with the taste of strawberry. Close enough in appearance to disgust friends as you seem to enjoy uncooked bacon, this product is tasty enough to enjoy while gross enough to have the kids asking for more.
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE HOME OF BBQ FRONT PAGE
Regular readers will note that we periodically feature a ‘non-BBQ roundup’. Today we are concentrating on a bacon theme, starting with BIGS Bacon Salt flavored sunflower seeds.
These are sunflower seeds that are in the shell and have the exact same flavor as found in Bacon Salt (click here for our review of Bacon Salt). Let’s start with the basics. They are delicious. The flavor of bacon mixed with the nutty earthiness of the sunflower seeds quickly becomes addictive.
If marketed properly, I can easily see these becoming as ubiquitous on the competition BBQ circuit as beer and ABT’s. Sitting around a smoker watching temps at 2:00 am and spitting the shells into an ash bucket somehow feels right. It has that rustic, timeless appeal that matches a cooking method that takes up to 14 hours to cook a piece of meat.
Here’s the kicker. For those of us that are fighting the battle of the bulge, you can sit down and eat these for an hour and consume a couple of ounces. I wouldn’t be surprised if you burn more calories in the eating then you consume. That’s important to note, as once you start eating them you can’t stop.
There are currently 5 flavors available. The plain is what you would expect, slightly salty, with the traditional flavor of unadulterated sunflower seeds. The Bacon Salt flavor mirrors the Bacon Salt seasoning. The Dill Vlasic Pickle is an odd flavor. Not bad, just a different. I haven’t wrapped my head around it enough to render an opinion yet. The Zesty Ranch seeds have a milder flavor than the Bacon Salt, but are no less addicting. The Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wing style is designed to give the seeds a kick without overpowering the flavor.
The seeds come in a 5.35 oz. bag and let me assure you, that is plenty. It’s impossible to consume the bag in one or two sittings. The seeds themselves are huge. Chernobyl huge. As such, they are a great medium for the various flavors. The bag comes with a convenient resealable top.
I have to confess that until trying BIGS I had never even conceived of flavored sunflower seeds. I’ve clearly been missing out. I was sort of hoping that the BIGS website had an ‘under development’ section, but alas, it was not to be. I would have liked to peak behind the curtain to see what flavors they were working on. Sour cream and onion? Maybe a malt vinegar to mimic fish and chips? Whatever they produce next, I’ll be buying. The quality of the first five has guaranteed my trying the next five.
Looking for other bacon oriented novelties? How about Bacon Mints? They taste exactly like they sound and no pigs were hurt in the making of this product. They come in a tin, similar to an undersized altoid box, that is redolent with the aroma of smoke. If you are looking for something to finish off your guests meal after your next BBQ, give these a try.
Have a lot of kids attending your next pig roast? Why not offer up some gummy bacon? They lack the flavor of raw bacon, but make up for that with the taste of strawberry. Close enough in appearance to disgust friends as you seem to enjoy uncooked bacon, this product is tasty enough to enjoy while gross enough to have the kids asking for more.
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE HOME OF BBQ FRONT PAGE
~
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Review: JD's Barbecue Shoppe - Perfect Sweet
JD’s Barbecue Sauce – The Perfect Sweet
Manufacturer JD’s Barbecue Shoppe
Website www.bbqshoppe.com
Quality **** (4 out of 5)
Viscosity ** (2 out of 5) (this is an indicator of thickness, not quality)
Aroma *** (3.5 out of 5)
Appearance *** (3.5 out of 5)
Packaging *** (3 out of 5)
It’s unfair, but this sauce enters the review process with a strike against it. I’m not a fan of sauces whose main flavor profile is sweetness. Will JD’s ‘The Perfect Sweet’ overcome that inherited and purely subjective deficit? Read on.
The sauce comes in a mason jar. Not a mason jar style bottle, but an actual mason jar. It’s not the most convenient vessel, but I like it. Along with the two tone label, the mason jar gives the sauce a rustic and ‘country’ feel. The tan label has a logo with a man in western regalia leaning against the company name. The labeling is understated and simple enough to be distinctive.
This is a strange and malleable sauce. Smelling very different than it tastes, the aroma is full of the sweetness promised by the name, but also has hints of spice that are missing on the tongue. The color is a deep, almost muddled brown in the jar, but is much lighter on the food and gains a reddish hue.
Barely thicker than a vinegar sauce, this is very loose. Repeated application may be necessary. A significant amount of the sauce slipped off the meat.
Let’s get one thing clear about the taste right away. It lives up to the label (well, ok, it might fall short of ‘perfect’). This is a SWEET sauce. As such, you may want to be overly careful of how you pair it with your protein. While fine for ribs or poultry, it might not stand up well to brisket.
Going back to the earlier point of how this sauce changes, the taste differs dramatically when tasted straight from the bottle to when it is cooked on the meat. Most sauces do, but this is significantly more dramatic. The sweetness mellows and isn’t as overpowering.
I’m not usually fond of ketchup (the first ingredient) in sauces as it’s always an indicator of corn syrup. Thankfully, this sauce sugar and brown sugar as its primary sweeteners, avoiding that heavy feel that corn syrup is noted for. For a sauce that has sweetness as its calling card, that was a great decision on the part of JD’s.
So, where do I stand on this sauce? The quality is very good. I’m not its target audience, but I can respect the craftsmanship. It’s not receiving a 5 or even a 4.5 on taste as I would have preferred more nuance to the taste (a more pronounced cider vinegar presence would have been enjoyed), but it’s a solid 4.
When ‘Qing you often have to target your outcome to your audience. For example, my sister can’t take heat of any kind. The next time that I need a sweet sauce for a meal, I’m reaching for this.
General Notes:
I do the majority of the sauce analysis on this site. I have often been assisted by Will Breakstone of Willie B’s Award Winning BBQ (pitmaster, competitor and caterer). The foods used with the sauces are usually brisket, pulled pork and chicken. On occasion, other foods will be used if recommended by the manufacturer (ex. burgers, fries, meatloaf, etc.).
Most of the food used for the reviews is cooked on a
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE HOME OF BBQ FRONT PAGE
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