3 Men And A Babyback Competition BBQ Team

Three Men and a Babyback started out with three barrels and a dream. Their custom built triple barrel smoker was built in a garage in Montvale NJ. It was baptized at Roc City Ribfest in Rochester, NY with a First Place trophy for ribs! Three Men followed that up with a 3rd place chicken trophy at the Hudson Valley Ribfest, a first place brisket trophy a First Place People’s choice award for clam chowder in Norwalk, CT (not bad for a bunch of Jersey boys). In 2010, they started the season in Little Rock, Arkansas at the USA BBQ championship and followed up with another first place brisket at the New York State Championship in Rochester, NY and a first place ribs at Hidden Valley, NJ.to name a few The team finished the season with a 2nd year people choice in chowder at the Oysterfest,  Norwalk, CT. The barbeque trio has brought their culinary trained brains and passion for good BBQ to create a winning combination and some stellar BBQ.

How did you come up with the team name? We came up with it on a whim and a few drinks. and since there was the three of us, it made sense.

Where does the team call home? Bergen County, NJ

When did the team come together? We started to brainstorm in January of 2009, and started to build the smoker soon thereafter.

Who were the founding members? The founding members were Dana Reed, Marc Mangano, Justin Reed. We have since taken on additional member Dan Krystiniak.  Of course none of us could pursue this passion with out three very supportive wives.

What is the furthest you have travelled for a BBQ competition? Last year we traveled to Little Rock Arkansas for the USA BBQ Championship. That was the furthest we traveled.

Have you won any competitions? We have taken a RGC at Mt. Holly last year, However we have placed first in Brisket, Ribs, and top 10 finishes in most categories. We have a good feeling about this upcoming season, and hope to get our much anticipated GC.

Does your team have a specialty? Our most consistent prize winning entries have been our Smoked Cheddar Chipolte Sliders and our KCBS Brisket.

What is the strangest / best / worst thing that has happened to you or your team since you have been in BBQ competitions? One of our Most memorable moment Other teams can attest to this, hearing your team name called for the first time is a once in a lifetime feeling. Now couple that experience with a first place rib call in a field of 60 very talented pitmasters,  and it being the very first comp you have ever done.

Do we do catering? We are a fully licensed and insured vendor and this to helps offset the cost of  the comps and all the toys that come with it    www.threemenandababyback.com

For the people that BBQ home do you have any BBQ tips? For those that do at home, Good BBQ comes from trial and error, Get a binder, and make notes about about what has worked and what you will never try again.
If your thinking about competing, be patient and take away a little knowledge from each comp. and most importantly, have fun.

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A body found underneath a barbecue pit built by a California woman at least six months ago is that of her husband, authorities said Thursday.

Dale Smith, 74, was found buried at least 4 feet underneath the patio of the home he shared with his wife, Evelyn Smith, 55, investigators said. The cause of his death has not been determined pending toxicology tests by the Marin County coroner, said police Lt. John McCarthy.

Evelyn Smith is a “person of interest” in the case, which could be anything from a homicide to improper disposal of human remains, McCarthy said.

“I don’t think we’ve ruled out anything,” McCarthy said. “We’ll go in any direction the evidence takes us.”

The body was discovered Feb. 23 by an FBI evidence response team that had been given permission to dig by Evelyn Smith’s attorneys.

Neighbors had not seen Dale Smith since at least September. It was around that time that his wife and two laborers put in a brick barbecue pit in the backyard of the home on Rebecca Way, neighbors said.

Evelyn Smith never reported her husband missing. A neighbor finally called police last month.

An attorney for Evelyn Smith, Hugh Levine, said Dale Smith was ill and that it was possible he died of natural causes.

“I’m not surprised,” Levine said when told the body was that of Smith. “I wasn’t expecting Jimmy Hoffa or Amelia Earhart.”

Dale Smith was a Korean War veteran and retired contractor. His wife used to work for the U.S. Postal Service. The couple were married 18 years and did not have any children together.

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• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chile sauce
• 1/2 cup rum
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over low heat, mix the brown sugar, chile sauce, rum, soy sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, dry mustard, and pepper.
2. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool, and refrigerate until ready to use.



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Dallas BBQ stands out as the lastest eatery to be hit with a lawsuit around its pay procedures. The restaurant has been charged with failing to pay the proper overtime rate for its tipped workers.

While many wage and hour grievances in the restaurant business concentrate on employees who are not paid the minimum wage, not paid overtime wages or have their tips unlawfully distributed to management, this particular complaint, filed in U.S. Southern District of New York, is focusing on a obscure law, known as the spread-of-hours pay. This entitles tipped workers to an added hour’s pay at the full minimum wage for each day in which their shift lasts greater than 10 hours.

An previously employed server, Candy Eric Carino, who worked for the Dallas BBQ at 166 Broadway in Manhattan, states he had not been properly compensated by the restaurant chain, which has 8 restaurants in New York City. Mr. Carino left the company in October.

Mr. Carinohas retained the law services of Louis Pechman of Berke-Weiss & Pechman, who introduced Waiterpay.com in October, an internet site centered on restaurant labor law and the top infractions. Mr. Pechman represented waiters who sued the well-known mafia hangout Sparks Steak House over tip-sharing problems and received a $3.5 million settlement for his clients. His agency also has lawsuits pending against Bobby Van’s Steak House, Hooters of Long Island, Nello, Barbetta along with other New York companies.

Mr. Pechman is planning to certify the Dallas BBQ complaint as class-action, that would include about 500 former and current workers spanning the past six years.

Greg Wetanson, co-owner as well as president of Dallas BBQ, said “We pay everyone in complete accordance to the law,” and referred to Mr. Carino as a “disgruntled employee.” He refused to comment further on the case.

Mr. Wetanson added how the company was founded by his father and is thriving. “We are growing; we have no investors, no debt and we own and operate the restaurants ourselves.”

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The London-based Ramsay, whose empire currently is numbered at twenty five restaraunts worldwide. Gordon Ramsay’s whose first profession had been as a soccer player, however he switched to cooking following an injury pushed him to give up the game professionally.

The British chef has made a decision to add a Montreal restaurant to his worldwide empire, becoming a partner of the Canadian landmark Rôtisserie Laurier BBQ. Mr. Ramsay decided to become a part owner of the restaurant following a visit to Montreal last month to market his brand of kitchenware. Strategies to increase the restaurants across the country already are being discussed.

Noted for his expletive-laced rants on cooking reality shows like Hell’s Kitchen, The F Word, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay of late has confronted a flutter of personal difficulties.

He has openly admitted to being on the on the edge of bankruptcy in 2008. His Prague restaurant closed in 2009, and his Cape Town restaurant closed this summer. His restaurant at Claridge’s hotel in london also lost its celebrity this year.

Mr. Ramsey is also being sued by his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson for 3 Million dollars. Mr. Hutcheson states he was unfairly terminated from his role as CEO of Gordon Ramsey Holdings (GRH).

Despite Hutcheson possessing 29% of the stock, he was discharged from his position as CEO following 12 years of service. In addition, Ramsey’s brother-in-law, Adam, and 20-year old nephew, Christopher, were also displaced from their jobs.

Once a flourishing enterprise, Gordon Ramsey Holdings are now revealed to be approximately $27 million in debt.

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Sam Dog Barbeque is a small family owned business that was started in the beginning of 2010.  We have been barbequing for about15 years.  From the back yard to social events, to fundraisers, we’ve taken part in helping out or heading up the cooking at these events.  Sam Dog Barbeque Yellow Dog Sauce is a new twist on mustard based BBQ Sauces.  It goes great with chicken, pork, beef and wild game.

Our company is always looking for unique flavors to offer our customers.  We’re not your usual grocery store commercial brand sauce.  We understand those products are readily available and people can get them anywhere at a cheap price.  We offer a unique “Micro” sauce made in small batches that we hope the true bbq’r will appreciate.  We’ve had lots of great reviews on sauce from North Carolina, Florida, to Canada.  People letting us know our sauce “rocks.”  That is always a great feeling to hear you created a product someone tried and loved.

We have learned a lot through this year developing our sauce business and finding the right co-packer to produce it for us.

We’ve really developed a love for the BBQ style of cooking and it is really amazing the amount of information people in the industry are glad to offer.

How long have you been in business? We officially started this summer.  We have been toying with the idea of commercially marketing our sauce(s) for a very long time and finally took a leap of faith this year and did it.

How did you get started? Years ago I was influenced by some co-workers who were into the back yard bbq scene.  We started doing a little larger cooks, started helping with fund raisers in the area, and semi-catering some events for friends. Of course when you’re making your own BBQ the next step is to try and make a sauce to accompany it.  So through a lot of sampling from around the southeast and tweaking different recipes we’ve landed where we are today.

How many products do you manufacture and what are thier names? As we are a small family owned and operated business, and are just starting up, we only have one sauce available at this time.  Sam Dog Barbeque Yellow Dog Sauce.  This sauce has many infuences from the Carolinas, Kentucky, and our own Alabama tastes.  It is a really unique mustard base sauce that appeals to many meat types.

Are any new products in the works? We have 4 other sauces that are in their final stages of “tweaking” the recipe before release.  The sauces range from a true Carolina vinegar base sauce, to a thick sweet sauce that is really hard to pin point a region of flavor.  We know we’re not going to be able to compete with these large corporation sauce companies that are out there.  So we’re trying to supply a product that is unique and different, but still adds a nice compliment to the meat our customer is serving.  We are also working on producing 2 rubs.  One will be a strictly pork rub that helps to create an incredible bark to your pork butt or shoulder.  The other rub will be a all purpose rub to compliment poultry, fish, and beef.

How did you come up with the product names and label concepts? Thats a funny story.  We had been racking our brains trying to come up with a catchy meaningful name for our business for a while.  We thought we had one, even bought the website, then after a little further digging found the name had been trademarked a few different ways.  So one day my wife picked up our little terrier and said, “We could call it Sam Dog.”  I kind of lauged a little and after about half the day went by, I went back into her room and said, “You know, that might just work.”  From that moment I knew what the logo would be.  I had taken a picture of our dog up on the bed one day and he had this crazy little look on his face and he was sitting up begging.  I went back to my phone archives of pictures and there it was.  From that we just added some color and flames.

How do you come up with the recipes? We have all sorts of recipes.  Some we get from people we know, some we have an idea what we want and we all sit around the table throwing ideas around.  Sometimes we just start with a basic condiment, and a note pad, always have a note pad, then start adding spices.  We will get something close, then we’ll start making samples for people to try and get feedback from them.

What is your favorite sauce made by someone else? Oh thats a tough one.  Mainly because there are so many styles of sauces out there.  For a sweet thick style sauce, I gotta go Big Butz Cranberry, for a Carolina style vinegar I like Smithsfields, for a KC Style I like Stubbs or Sweet Baby Rays

How do you sell the majority of your products? (through supermarkets, distributors, wholesale or direct? The majority is sold by word of mouth.  Or a better word for it would be through social media networks.  We have worked on twitter mostly making friends, sending samples and the word got out.  We also sell through a few websites www.bbqpro.com and www.baxtersoriginal.com  And we sell through local businesses.

Do you have a recipe or two that you would like to share? We actually have a whole section of our website dedicated to recipes www.samdogbbq.com .  The recipes found there aren’t all original recipes.  We love food from all over and pic and choose recipes we’ve tried and enjoyed for our site.  But I’ll give you one my daughter makes for when we’re entertaining. Samdog Chicken Chipotle Dip

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• 1 lbs chicken (diced)
• 1 jar chipotle peppers in adobe sauce( I typically only use 3 or 4 peppers)
• 32 oz  mayo
• 32 oz  sour cream
• 1 tablespoon samdog rub
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups shredded cheese (colby jack)
• 1 cup tomatoes (small diced)
• ½ cup onion (small diced)
• ½ cup sliced olives

Directions:

1. You will need: food processor, frying pan, 9 by 13 casserole dish, and 1 Large bowl.
2. In frying pan heat oil to med heat then add in chicken and samdog rub cook for 5 min then add in 1 chipotle pepper and as much of the adobo sauce as you can and cook the chicken in it until done.
3. In food processor finely chop chicken and 3 chipotle peppers. Then in large bowl combine sour cream, mayo, chicken, and peppers. Make sure to really mix this together. Now pour into casserole dish and top with shredded cheese, tomatoes, onion, and olives. Use Tostitos( I like scoops) to scoop out dip and ENJOY!!!

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The November 2010 issue of Men’s Health highlights the magazine’s feat of tasting, testing, and ranking thousands of grocery store products to find the healthiest, tastiest foods for men. Of the thousands of commercially available BBQ sauces available, Men’s Health selected Pork Barrel BBQ’s Original BBQ Sauce as an “essential item” for grocery shopping lists.

Earlier this year, taste testers and sauce aficionados with Men’s Health blog selected Pork Barrel BBQ’s Original BBQ Sauce as their number one go-to grilling favorite.

“Our Pork Barrel BBQ Original BBQ Sauce is made of all natural ingredients with no preservatives and is sure to give the food at your next BBQ the perfect smokin’ kick,” said Heath Hall, President and co-founder of Pork Barrel BBQ. “It is a tremendous honor to have Men’s Health name our BBQ sauce the best BBQ sauce for men and recognize our efforts to produce an all natural and nutritional gourmet BBQ sauce at an affordable price.”

According to Men’s Health, with only 35 calories, <1 gram of protein, and 8 grams of carbs, Pork Barrel BBQ’s Original BBQ Sauce is great slapped, “on chicken just minutes before it comes off the grill for a tangy, smoky flavor.”

Pork Barrel BBQ has quickly become the preferred BBQ sauce for the backyard BBQ’er. Since the company started selling BBQ sauces in 2009, all types of BBQ’ers – from competition smokers to casual grillers – have taken notice of their sensational sauces. Pork Barrel BBQ’s Original and Sweet sauces have taken home numerous top awards from the Kansas City Barbecue Society and Memphis in May competitions, including winning the “People’s Choice” award at the prestigious annual Safeway National Capital Barbecue Battle in Washington, D.C.

One year after their appearance on the ABC and Mark Burnett reality show Shark Tank, the company has experienced huge growth, and their Pork Barrel BBQ Sauces and Spice Rub are now carried in over 1,000 stores in 38 states. The first Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant will open in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia later this fall.

People nationwide can try these award winning sauces for themselves by purchasing them local grocery stores such as Safeway, Whole Foods, Savemart, Schnucks, Wegmans, Harris Teeter, and Bloom. To find stores near you that carry Pork Barrel BBQ products, visit the online store locator and interactive map at http://www.porkbarrelbbq.com/store-locations.

For recipes and BBQ tips, visit http://www.porkbarrelbbq.com/recipe.

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Austin Texas -- If it weren’t for smoke bellowing from chimney on the roof, it might be easy to mistake the Old School BBQ and Grill bus for a standard school bus. A peek inside shows otherwise; stovetop, fryers and a big barbecue pit line the interior of the vehicle.

When Old School owners Dan Parrott and Albert “Trey” Cook opened their bus nearly last year, they made a decision not just to offer barbecue and burgers, but additionally to aid the community by working together with nonprofits throughout Austin. Along with the aid of Danny Cook, Cook’s son, the threesome has catered occasions for organizations such as the Burke Foundation, a home for removed kids in Dripping Springs, and Austin’s SafePlace, a shelter for battered woman and children.

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Until now, the unparalleled Lang products, which cook faster, better and in larger quantities than conventional types of grills, were available only to grillmasters in large competitions, restaurants, hotels, and catering businesses.

But now cooks at home can use a black, stainless steel Lang 36 cooker, a smaller, lighter version of four larger models that Lang BBQ Smokers has been manufacturing in Georgia since 1988. Barbecue masters at home can impress their family and friends with the best taste they’ve ever had, a fresh, grilled flavor with a hint of smoke. Food can be grilled fast or slow-cooked on low. The Lang cooker is easy to use and clean.

Even pitmasters on television are discovering Lang products. The Lang 36 was used by four cooking teams, including the grand champions, in the BBQ Pitmasters competition televised on TLC.

“Using the Lang 36 will make a star out of you,” said Ben C. Lang II, owner and chief executive officer.

Barbecue chefs at home will find that the new Lang cookers heat up faster, are more responsive than conventional grills, and can cook small to large quantities, said Lang. Because the Lang 36 can hold up to 75 pounds of food at once, the cook grilling for guests can cook large quantities at one time, rather than grilling small amounts in stages.

Also, Lang cooking is healthy cooking because the fat is rendered out and sizzles. The Lang cooker uses state-of-the-art, reverse air flow technology for maximum heat circulation and flavor.

This is a dramatic improvement over most grills, which have heat generating under the food, rising and escaping, with grease dripping onto the flames and burning back onto food. The Lang cooker instead works with heat generated in a firebox. Wood or charcoal is loaded into the fire box, lit and heated to the desired level. Cooks can use a heat gage on the exterior of the cooking hood to choose either “smoke,” “grill,” or “barbecue.” As the firebox, and then the cooker, heat up, smoke vents out of the smokestack just above the firebox.

Heat from the firebox flows into the cooker and circulates under and over the food. There is a baffle with a V-shaped, angled griddle under the food that runs the length of the cooker. As the grill cooks meat, for example, fat renders out and drains off of the griddle. So meat is greaseless, leaner and less filling.

“The design is simple,” Lang said. “The fire is away from the food and heat is everywhere all the time. It’s drawing down and back and from left to right, which makes cooking even and efficient. You can’t punch any more flavor into food or get barbecue that’s leaner.”

Customers who order soon will get the temporary low price of $850, made possible by Lang buying black stainless steel at a steep discount. But with the price of raw materials back up, Lang will only be able to offer the discounted price for a limited time.

For more information on the legendary Lang cookers call 1-800-462-4629 or 912-462-6146 or visit www.pigroast.com.

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