- I am so excited for today. - I am so nervous for today. We have barbecue legend, whole hog master, Rodney Scott. Whose recently taken on
ribs at his restaurant. And he is here to teach us everything. - You know who has ribs? We have ribs! - Here we go. - We're here to talk ribs, with the man. So we brought our already
quartered half hog out here. What do you want to cook today? - Let's put some spares
on and then maybe a whole hog when nobody's looking later. - Okay. - Take these ribs off and these guys just uh, see what happens. - Let's get it all. - Borrow that knife? Like how much fat are you looking on, looking to have on a fat cap. - This right here is the limit for me. Because the way that we cook
it, the whole animal is like this for 12 hours. So
all that fat is going through down into a
direct bed of hot coals. And with that happening,
you don't want the hot coals to catch fire ablaze. I personally prefer them
no thicker than this. (smooth music) - Spare ribs off the belly. - Ribs off the loin. - Country style ribs off a picnic. - I mean since we have three
different cuts is there an approach that you're thinking
because there is different thickness, different fat content. - Same approach for me all the time. Be careful, pay attention, start slow. Cause you can always add to it but you can't really take away all the time. Right now you're not thinking about this being delayed, you want to eat this. So we're gonna make sure
that we be careful on how we season it, and how hot our pit is. I've screwed up some ribs
before, starting too hot. And you couldn't, I mean, you couldn't rip them apart they were so tough. Just before I put them on the fire. - Yeah - I sprinkle my rub on them. We use a basic rub with some
other stuff added to it. - What's in the rub? - We got some paprika. - Uh huh. - And then we got some paprika. - Uh huh. - And then we put a little
more paprika in there. - So paprika. - I've personally like to just
a little sprinkle over them. - Yeah that's not a really aggressive like you would kind of imagine it. - You rub it, and you
bite into it, it's salty. When you just sprinkle it on
there and give it a chance to cook through, it's usually a better flavor. Another thing I don't like to do is, pre-rub my ribs too far ahead. Because if you start to rub
them, and you stack them, they start massaging the
ingredients all in there. And then you get that
saltiness that you don't want. This is the way that Rodney Scott seasons his ribs, with paprika. - With only paprika - I was only using two types of paprika. - Yeah, you got to use at
least three types of paprika. - Alright. - Ya'll might as well
say he's full of s***. (laughter) - When someone comes to
you and they want to work, what are top three tenets
that they need to learn? - First thing that they
need to do is, be patient. They need to pay attention
because this could be a very intense job with the
heat and follow directions. You're not going to get the same results everyday from the same protein. Example, whole hogs. I've had whole hogs that
were smaller than others but they would take longer to cook. - I think you are aware that
we are in New York City. We don't have a live fire
pit, we do have a smoker but I feel like we are showing up
to a dinner party right now and like giving you a
microwave to cook with. You don't use any electric smokers but what do you think about them? - I've never used an electric smoker. - Really? - Ya know, on the road
a couple places. But, - And that's it. - They still product great products. - It's a pretty nice smoking microwave. You put it, set it, forget it. - [Rodney] We'll make it work. So you got some cherry in there. - [Brent] A little cherry, little hickory. You're like real
exclusive about your wood. - Yes, I like to use majority
of oak and every now and again I'll add in a little hickory. - [Brent] So, I got to get this going. What temperature do you want it at? - [Rodney] With that meat
I would stay around 220. - [Brent] Perfect. - [Rodney] Go nice and slow. Because it's not a real thick cut, 250 might cook it a little fast. - So we got about an hour, anything else you want to cook in the meantime? - Lets go play around with
a little something else, let's get a smaller
version of that rib-eye and just play with it a little bit. - Oh you're gonna go
straight rib-eye, alright. Let's do it. (dramatic music) - Yes! - [Brent] Do you want a dry-aged steak? - [Rodney] We don't have
to have a dry-aged steak. - [Brent] What? - I mean if we are
pushing the envelope here. (saw turning on) (high pitched buzzing) (dramatic music) (Rodney exhales) - This is gonna be good. I see some flavor right in
that bone, look at all of that. A little bit of sauce,
with this we can rub because we want it to go in. - So we already talked
about this paprika rub. Is this paprika sauce? - We got some cayenne in
there, black pepper and then we add a couple other things that we put in there that's not paprika. - What's the advantage of rubbing it with both the dry rub and the other stuff? - There's no paprika in this. (Ben hums in agreement) This paprika compliments that
when they are both together. Alright! Another 30 minutes we'll
take another peep at them. Sauce them up and flip them over, cause we are making great
progress, better than I thought. - Once we put the sauce on
the ribs how much longer? - Not long, because the sauce
starts to break it down and make it nice and tender, and
then we just want a little bit of color on the other
side, and boom, we're good. We're gonna let them go, then
we're gonna come back and double check on that
experimental aged rib-eye. - Wow! - I think we need to sauce and flip. Since we don't have a mop
and we are in New York City. We're going to do a make-shift mop. So you really wanna just
get the sauce on it, just enough to coat it. - Is there anything
else you're looking for? - Just a little color,
we want a little bit more of this going on, all over. I'm thinking we're going to make it there probably within the time
frame we were expecting. Every pit is an adjustment
for me because I've never used this one and don't know
how hot it will get. But, one thing I've noticed. Usually the bottom of the rib will get all of the texture and the color first. In this one, the top got all the texture and the color first. - Never thought about that. - Me either. We all just learned something. I listened to you tell me how
your smoker operates and we paid attention to how
it was cooking the meat. So we learned that, hey let's
go ahead and flip it over or else we're going to be
here an extra two hours. Let's pull the steak out. - [Brent] Let's do it,
let's eat this steak. - We'll be back for the ribs shortly. (upbeat music) - [Brent] How big is a sandwich? - [Ben] Four ounces. - [Brent] That is a really
reasonable amount of meat. (meat sizzles) (upbeat music) - Cheers. (upbeat music) - That is like a perfect summer sandwich. - I was skeptical of smoking
a dry-aged rib-eye but, this is fantastic.
Still taste the paprika. - That meat is pretty good. I might have to step up at home. - Perfect amuse, lets see some ribs. (country music) - [Ben] Oh yeah, these are
already the best looking ribs that have come out of this smoker. - Woo! (country music) - It just looks great, I mean
it's like the Himalayas when you look on a map and
you see the little bumps. When you got the tiny Himalayas there, nice color, should be nice and tender. So lets go with the picnic. - Alright. - [Brent] You've got the blade man. (country music) - Oh my god. - Well that is a really really good rib. - What do you think of the texture? - That's what I want, a little
more fatty which gives us a little more nature juices
flowing through it. - Feels like I'm eating
a straight-up pork chop. There is so much meat on it. - And the flavor is about closer
you get up to the neck and the head the flavor is just
like a little bit more intense. - Very intense. - [Ben] Want to go belly next, or loin? - [Rodney] Let's go belly. - [Ben] Let's, yeah. Tap the flat lands. - Alright, here we go, belly. Wow, the belly really showed up. - I mean a lot thinner so,
you get a lot more spice. - But not too much spice
where you can eat it. - Exactly. - I feel like whenever I have
done ribs, I've been actually rubbing them in. But, like
watching you today just. - If we rubbed it in, this
would have been more intense. Shall we move on? The loin. I like a little tug in my rib,
and because I like that tug that loin area is where you're
gonna get just that little bite like you said, the pork chop bite. You wanna enjoy the rib
without biting into it and the whole thing slides off the bone. - Yeah. - That's great and everything but, me personally I prefer a little tug. - [Brent] You want to earn it. - This is like neck and
neck with the picnic for me. This is really good. - I might actually like this better. - Just a little tug. I don't like my rib meat
falling off the bone. I like to serve my food the
way that I enjoy it myself. And that's with that tug. - Cause in order for it
to fall off the bone, you just have to cook it
and cook it and cook it. Do you feel like that's
kinda like a rookie move? Like just cook the hell out of it? - Not necessarily a rookie
move, but just something I've never really been a big fan of. - So what do you think,
cooking in the city? - This is definitely doable. - You're happy with the taste? - I'm still eating. - Alright, good. - You went over like the
three things you need to be, you need to have engraved into you when you work at Rodney Scott Barbecue. You feel like that holds
true no matter where you are? - No matter where you are. Be patient, pay attention,
follow the rules. - Rodney I would love to shake your hand, but that would be very
disgusting right now. - You know, a little greasy. - Thank you so much
for doing this with us. - Thank ya'll, Thanks for having me man. - Such an honor. - Cheers. - We just learned how to
use an electric smoker. - And for more about electronics from our friends at Verge, click here. - If I walked just a few
blocks from this office. I can find a robot that will
make me a latte, serve me quinoa bowl and now there's
one that will make me a custom made to order. (upbeat music)
He's also featured on two episodes of Serious Eats' Special Sauce podcast. https://www.seriouseats.com/features/special-sauce-podcast