Boston Butt. Burnt Ends. Fat Cap. Meat Candy. All terms used to describe the "nectar of the Gods"...barbeque. Somewhere along the way my husband and I turned into self described bbq snobs. Perhaps snobs is a little too dramatic...perhaps aficionado is a better description. While I don't know exactly when the love of barbeque occurred I can tell you that anytime, and I do mean anytime, we travel to the south you can find us on yelp looking for the best bbq place in town. Even though I don't know exactly when the love of bbq occurred I can tell you the place that pushed that love into overdrive...Wiley's Championship BBQ. On a trip to Hilton Head Island in 2009 with my in-laws my mother-in-law read that we should eat there on our day trip to Savannah. After spending the morning wandering the riverfront we jumped in our cars and headed out to Whitemarsh Island. My initial thoughts were what is a bbq joint in a strip mall going to do for me? Really...how good could this be? Now I should pause here and tell you that there are several factors I look for in a good bbq place: cleanliness (it's ok to be a dive but you can be sanitary), hospitality (you already know I'm an outsider when I walk in the door - how are you going to react to that), and the meat should stand on it's own (if it's slathered in sauce my question is why? Is the meat that bad that you're trying to hide something?)
Ok - back to Wiley's. While I was surprised by the strip mall my reservations quickly dissipated when I walked in the door. Immediately my family was greeted warmly and sat promptly. Drinks were brought quickly and we placed an order for appetizers. After perusing the menu we all landed on our meals and the app was brought out quickly. It. Was. Amazeballs!!! If you go to Wiley's get the Redneck Nacho's...you will not regret it. From there the meal continued to be amazing. Wiley's wife Janet came over to see how we were doing and we talked about how we were from Ohio and heard we needed to eat here. She had desserts sent out to us, even though we were all completely stuffed we just had to try them. Now I will admit I don't like bread pudding...like at all. One of the desserts was bread pudding and even though I don't like bread pudding I felt like I had to try it. O.M.G. that was the most amazing bread pudding I ever had. Now don't necessarily take my word for it because, again, I don't generally like bread pudding but I finished the dish without offering any to the rest of the family. Sorry not sorry fam!
So what does Wiley's have to do with the content of this blog? A couple years ago Wiley himself (along with his wonderful wife Janet) published a cookbook titled "Wiley's Championship BBQ Secrets That Old Men Take to the Grave." https://www.amazon.com/Wileys-Championship-BBQ-Secrets-Grave/dp/1423636317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504741665&sr=8-1&keywords=wileys+championship We purchased the book and it sat on a shelf for awhile. My husband had a smoker at the house and he tried a couple times to make chicken and such but it just never came out right. I looked over at the cookbook one night and, as one who loves ribs, decided I wanted to try to make Wiley's ribs. I told my husband this and he sort of laughed at me, kinda in that "what in the world do you know about smoking any sort of meat let alone ribs" look. I convinced him to let me give it a go and I immediately set out trying to find all the ingredients (thank you Amazon). Once I had the rubs made up and in containers and the rib spray neatly in a spray bottle in the fridge I set to work. On Labor Day weekend last year I attempted my first ever batch of smoked ribs. I followed every word and tip in the book and when I took the ribs off the smoker grates and put them on the pan and covered them with foil I said a silent prayer to God to please don't let these be a colossal failure. Can you imagine if they were terrible. My goodness I'd never hear the end of that. As it turns out they were anything but terrible. They were, dare I say it, amazing. Like we both took a bite, looked at each other, and my husband said, "I can't believe you made these." I'm still not sure how to take that one.
One year later and I've made Wiley's ribs many times now. We've upgraded our little bullet smoker to a big momma I call Sadie...and now I'm ready to branch out again and try something more. Not just something but everything...and that's where the content of this blog comes in to play. I'm going to take Wiley's book and I'm going to make every recipe in the book. I'm going to be honest throughout...was it an easy recipe or was I ready to throw the smoker down our back hill? Did it turn out tasting well or did my husband spit it out in the nearest trash can. The good, the bad, the ugly will all be there. The cookbook contains meats, apps, sides, and desserts and that's exactly what will happen here. Obviously I'm not going to sit outside in the crappiest part of winter here in Ohio and spend 8-13 hours making a brisket but I'll be making every recipe in here. Each time I make a new recipe the section will be titled: What's that Smell? So be on the lookout for that.
In the off time that I'm not making a recipe I'll review some of the other bbq places we've been to and let you know what we liked and disliked. And a little disclaimer here - just because it's something we didn't particular like doesn't mean it's a bad place to go or bad food to try. Maybe we caught them on an off day. Maybe we just ended up with the final batch of something that had been sitting a little too long. Maybe it just wasn't our cup of tea. All of this is ok - this is all just one family's bbq journey. Thankfully our daughter (who is 7) seems to enjoy bbq as much as we do so I'll let her slide for now on the dislike of spicy food.
I hope you'll tune in as we head down the bbq journey together.
***As an aside - this blog is not sponsored by anyone...this is merely one family's journey into expanding their bbq smoking skills***
