Bethany Blues BBQ
Our travels and research took us to the deep woods of Texas through Austin & Mesquite, from the infamous Salt Lick BBQ to the fabulous Rudy’s. We ventured through the entire state of Tennessee and learned their style from the World Famous Calhoun’s Ribs, and even headed way up to to upstate New York to learn from the infamous Dinosaur BBQ.
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After years of travel, experimentation, and research (it was delicious), we have developed our own unique barbecue. Dare we call it Delmarva Barbecue!
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Our huge smoker, which we call Lil’ Reggie, was built for us by J & R Manufacturing of Mesquite, Texas. We literally had to tear off the front of our building to get it in and build the kitchen around this thing! It is completely 100% heated by wood fire, no gas or electric heat! Many barbecue places use gas ovens and add a few wood chips for flavor. This may be fine for them, but we found that when you smoke your meats for 12-16 hours, gas ovens impart a noticeable gas flavor to the meat that true barbecue lovers cannot tolerate!
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Our standard cooking temperature is 200 degrees, this means that all of our meats cook for anywhere from 4-16 hours so that they develop tenderness and a delicious smokey flavor that can only come from this patient cooking method.
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We use a blend of woods in our smoking process. Fresh hickory is our primary wood. Unseasoned (green) wood is best in the smoking process because it burns slow and the moisture in the wood creates more smoke. We also add a small amount of Jack Daniels barrel wood. These oak sticks are from barrels that have seasoned for years with Jack Daniels Sour Mash. We found a source for them in Tennessee and have them shipped in for us from there.
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St. Louis Ribs are definitely our signature rib. They are full spare ribs with the ends trimmed. This leaves just the meaty center cut of the ribs. We use our house rub on them, then smoke them for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. They come out of the smoker and are served with incredible flavor. The smoke and slow cooking make the St. Louis ribs the most flavorful and meaty ribs you will find. They are a bit pink inside, trust us, that is a good thing.
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The pink lining that you will find on our tender beef brisket, as well as the ribs is the sign that the meats were cooked in a smoker for a long time. This is truly the mark of authentic barbecue, so dig in, and enjoy the flavors that come from authentic slow cooking.
