From YouTube Tutorials to BBQ Entrepreneurship: Ashley's Story

Dan: 0:00

Today's episode of the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

Owen: 0:19

Welcome to another episode of the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast. Today we're talking with Ashley from Big Smoke BBQ UK. He is a back garden barbecuer that has now turned his passion into an events business. I'll let Ashley talk to you all about his journey.

Dan: 0:37

Hi Ashley. Thank you so much for taking your time to speak to us on the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast. For anyone who might not know, please introduce yourself to the audience.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 0:46

My name is Ashley, i'm 29, from Herefordshire and I love to smoke BBQ. Basically, i never, originally, loved smoking BBQ. In fact, i hated cooking growing up and whenever my mum would try and get me to come in the kitchen and cook with her, i'd always say no, no, i'm going to go and play football with my mates. And growing up, yeah, hated it and just ended up cooking Texas BBQ almost all the time, so never knew I loved cooking. Now I do. So that's basically that's me.

Owen: 1:22

How did you go from hating it to cooking Texas BBQ all the time? There's a big gap in between.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 1:29

Yeah, so well. I, growing up, hated it, and then slowly started to dabble with things that weren't just beans on toast, which sometimes was still a challenge, as a teenager growing up And then just slightly got interested in cooking family meals and sort of trying to fend for myself a little bit growing up And we bought our homey and my partner and she cooks as well but I kind of felt like I just needed to get used to actually using an oven. So just got cooking really and really enjoyed cooking our meals and noticing that you can actually use seasoning and things to make food taste good rather than just basic dinners. And, yeah, just went from there really. And the interesting story is about how I got started in Texas BBQ. But I just kind of wanted to get started with cooking basic things And then we bought our house but didn't have a barbecue and, being so uninterested in barbecue, i waited a whole year before buying one and, knowing absolutely nothing about outdoor cooking, i thought I was just buying a cheap, cheap and cheerful charcoal barbecue from Argos. When it came it turned out that it was actually an offset smoker, yeah, and I had no idea how to use it. Didn't even know how to use a charcoal barbecue. So I just basically went on YouTube as typically as it would be, and just went from there really And I studied. I don't know if you've heard of him you probably have. But Mad Scientist BBQ, i think I just put in on YouTube how to cook on an offset. I don't even know if I put offset smoke. I don't even know if I was that clued up with the technical words of it at the time. I think it was a case of how do I use this barbecue basically, and for months and months just watched the videos and just went from there really just cooking brisket and all sorts on this little cheap barbecue and seemed to love it.

Owen: 3:45

So you've done all this research. Did you decide to cook brisket? Is that one of the first things that you decided to cook on that barbecue?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 3:55

Yeah. So I had a bit of a harsh reality check when I was watching all these videos and you know, in America they say things like oh I just picked up this brisket from a local HEB or my grocery store. So I went down to our grocery store supermarkets to go and buy a huge brisket And I realized that that's not a thing. We just don't have that. So I opted for the next best thing, which was a cheap rolled brisket from the supermarket, took it home, was really excited to cook it. I had no temperature gauges. Well, i had one on the smoker, but they're terrible. The real cheap ones are. Anyway. I had no temperature probes. I had nothing. I was just basically sat in the garden with my beer watching this brisket. Salt and pepper I think I just put some pepper on it And I did. I remember it. I did a big tray of mac and cheese. I also did some kind of bourbon glazed beef, trippin onions to go in this burn that I was going to do with it, and some some barbecue sauce, and the brisket itself actually tasted good, but I've got a picture of it And it's so funny to look. I just basically hacked at it. I just chopped it into like pieces, had a real good smoke going on, but I would love to go back and taste it again because what I remember it to be like was probably it's probably terrible, but I just chopped it in this burn with mac and cheese and stuff all over it So you couldn't really taste it And it went really well And I think I just got hooked then because I thought actually this is a really good excuse to sit in the garden all day and just be a man and watch my barbecue food and drink beer or whiskey and smoke a cigar and just kind of have an excuse to say I can't do anything today. I'm watching my barbecue. So I just loved it. I mean, that's the dream.

Dan: 5:47

Yeah, and a barbecue is incredibly addictive, so I'd love to know how you go from that point and how long it takes to go from there to Big Smoke Barbecue, doing private events and things for people. Was that gradual or was it? And now I'm obsessed. I'm throwing everything at this to improve what I'm doing.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 6:07

Well, i remember I think it was around May or June I cooked that brisket in 2021. So we moved in under that story as a year before It was 2019 that we moved into our home And in 2020, so a whole year later I started cooking that. I think I left it a little while. I did a few ribs and stuff. I really enjoyed it And then, as the weather got a bit bad, i decided to put it to one side a little bit, but I was really still just watching the videos more. It was just me and my partner and it still is So kind of cooking ribs and brisket all the time and massive pork shoulders. It was just a money because we just wouldn't eat it all. So I kind of left it a while and I thought I'm very kind of, once I get into something, i'm all in on it and then maybe I'll leave it for a while and then maybe never go back to it. So I thought I'd leave it a little while, see if it's something I am genuinely interested in, and then I'll probably pick it back up. So that's exactly what happened around Easter 2021. I think I just started cooking ribs all the time and just really getting into it again And I was showing what I was doing on Facebook and Instagram on my own personal pages. And then I'm actually part of a local investment club and there's 20 members, so it was a little bit less than And they just said we're going to do a barbecue in the field for our event. Do you want to do the food? So I thought, wow, okay, this is a bit of a. This is different to just cooking some little baby back ribs on the tiny offset. I'm going to buy a different smoker. I just bought basically a slightly better version of the one I had already and did this event, for I think it was about 14, 15 people doing brisket chuck roast ribs and I did the sort of burn end type sausages on the little smoker. And I think from that point, when that went really well and people gave me genuinely great feedback apart from the ribs which is the barbecue fail I'll get into later They love the food and actually people were talking about it in the club six months later And every sort of couple of months they'd say, oh, i want to try your food again, i want to try your food, and I think it kind of planted a bit of a seed. From then I just kept studying and watching videos, and I don't know if it's the same for you guys, but it drives my partner mad. I'm sure most nights I'll just watch YouTube in bed before I go to sleep. It's just like a ritual I have. I've just got to bed for about an hour. I'm just watching these YouTube videos on brisket anything I can find. I love it.

Owen: 8:54

And what specifically about the Texas style is because I know that you're talking a lot about briskets, ribs, pork and things. What is it you love so much about that kind of flavor?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 9:06

profile. I think it's probably just the fact that I accidentally bought that type of smoker which lends itself best to that style And when I YouTube how to use it and I got hooked on Jeremy Yoder's Mad Scientist Barbecue channel, i kind of just took his word as gospel which is not a bad thing because he's a great teacher but I just kind of honed in on that And I did have a look at other types of barbecue but I didn't want to just get confused with all the different types And I mean I was kind of taking what they said as this is it. You know, this is the best way to cook. And they were kind of convincing, and rightly so, in the way they said it and all the different channels I'd watched And I think it's just the simplicity of it but also the fact that you look at the pictures of these barbecue trays and her Tardo barbecue do the best pictures of this And you just look at their presentation of all the brisket and ribs and everything in this tray and I just thought that looks like the best barbecue ever, like I can't see how you could really beat that And I just loved it. It felt like more of a primer way of cooking, just on the open fire, the proper wood splits and stuff. When I was chucking wood on the fire and, you know, splitting the logs and stuff, i just thought this has to be one of the oldest ways of making food cooked food. This obviously is the original way of of heating food. So it just felt more of a more of a natural way of doing it and more of a skilled way of doing it as well. So I think I kind of accidentally stumbled on the hardest but the most fun way of cooking food.

Dan: 10:46

So yeah, And the thing is you've talked about your partner becoming what my wife describes it as kind of like a barbecue widow kind of every night you're on there. But you know there's other types of tube that I'm sure other men are watching in bed every night, which is bothering the partner, so it could be a lot worse. Is she coming round now to the amount of your barbecue and enjoying the food, or is it something she's just letting you do and letting going on in the background?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 11:14

Well, I started cooking more and more of it and in the end she did love the food, obviously. Of course it was. It was good and I was happy with it still am. But when I decided to do this as a business, i kind of just said well, i need your help and she has restaurant experience, i have none. So I was kind of leaning on her a little bit to say you know, with front of house stuff, what do I do? because I don't know. I just kind of cook the food. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to the service or anything. And I think one of the main reasons why I decided to do this on my own but with her, is that we could do it together. Not the cooking side of it, but when we do events, she's the one selling food, taking the orders, doing all of the right down of all the menu, and it's something we do together. So all the events is our thing, which is great because it gets her involved and also she can see the journey that I'm on with it as well as being part of it. So it's really good and I'm really grateful as well, because if she wasn't involved I think it would have been very difficult to get somebody on board.

Owen: 12:28

So talk us through kind of where you are now then with doing that first event for your Investors Club to, as you mentioned, yourself and your partner now kind of having this business. So talk us through kind of what your setup is in terms of the business. What are you now doing regularly and what are you cooking for people?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 12:46

So now we do a variety of different things really, which wasn't the plan, but I wanted to just stick to the Texas style barbecue and I was adamant that anything else. But I kind of realized quickly that it reminds me a little bit like when people open up shops in towns because they love what it is they do. So people that open up like model train set shops, they love it, but most people probably don't. And I realized that was probably the same for me. I didn't want to be telling a vision and say, no, i'm just doing brisket because I mean, i didn't even know brisket was three or four years ago, so people in my town don't really follow barbecue like that. So I decided to do smash burgers and biriyatakos. But now we just we basically just cater for private events, parties and also pop-ups in breweries and things like that, and we've got our gazebo setup. I've got my huge smoke herb, which I don't take with me I would love to but it's just not on wheels and trailers and stuff. We've got an autosham holding oven, which is really good, and just basically a pop-up setup with a gazebo and it's quite simple but it works really well and it's a way to sort of merge to, however the people want me to set up. So if some grass or whatever, we could still do it or a difficult place to set up. So I really love how it's progressing. I think the way that I started doing it was I do home collections, so I don't know if you've seen Wilson's BBQ's YouTube channel, but he has a video on there that described how to set how he runs a Texas style barbecue business from home and I kind of replicated that and so every so often we'll offer a home takeaway night. That was the initial BBQ business plan, but from then on people wanted us to do events and stuff. So now we're in the event space and hoping to grow and get maybe some staff members or something next year and really take it to the next level really.

Owen: 14:49

And when you're out and about doing these events, are you still using an offset smoker? have you got one on a trailer? or are you kind of pre-doing the briskets and then keeping them warm and then kind of slicing as the orders come in?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 15:03

Yeah, so I cook everything on my big offset at home and then I've got a cambro which we transport everything in and I take the auto shine with me and then I would just basically set up as it was before at home, but without the smoker. I would love to take the smoker with me, but it's just too big, and getting in and out of the house around the house took me hours, so I don't want to go through that again.

Owen: 15:29

Are you still cooking on the same smoker that you wear a couple of years ago? Oh no, no way.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 15:37

So tonight. Well, funnily enough, a year ago today I did the Queens Jubilee Party and I kind of wanted to see how my family and friends would react to trying the barbecue food. That haven't tried it before And it was a little bit of a trial run to think. If people do really like it, then I'm hoping I get some feedback that would like lean towards me starting this as a business, because I had the idea And the feedback was genuine. It was that case that I needed I should do that. So I did my first home collection night and I had two times I had to find the offsets going round the clock And I realized quite quickly then when I put this huge brisket in there and it took up the whole cooker, that this isn't going to work long term. I'm just not going to be able to do this. So now I've got a gator pit which is from Houston, texas. I don't know if you've, but it was handmade in Houston. It was shipped over here to somebody else And then I bought it from them. I think it's around a 200 gallon pit but it weighs three quarters of a tonne. So getting that around the side of the house on stones was, yeah, hilarious.

Owen: 16:49

Has it got any wheel like casters or anything?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 16:51

Yeah, it's got casters, but it just got beached basically every time I tried to move it. So you have to get a little like pieces of wood and use a car jack, a manual car jack, jack it up, put the wood under it, then slide it across and then basically repeat that process for about three hours.

Dan: 17:10

Yeah, that's never going. That is never going And like if you ever decide to move, that'll be a very difficult decision about whether that just stays or whether you have to try and get it out.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 17:21

Yeah, i mean I want to put it on wheels, but I'm worried it won't fit down the side of the house because I had to take the fence post out to get the smoker in. So when my partner said, oh, what are you going to do? You just going to leave it there? What if someone tries to steal it? And I said, well, good luck to them, because there's no way that's going anywhere.

Dan: 17:39

I'd say that about the commando, you know, getting the monolith out and it's nowhere near as heavy as that, don't get me wrong. But you know you're still looking like 90 kilos that someone's going to have to try and kind of quietly move round out the back of the house. You know they deserve it if they can get that out. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, that's like best part of a ton, good luck.

Owen: 17:58

Yeah, i'd almost be clapping going. Go on, you can do it. Yeah, we'll give them another two hours.

Dan: 18:06

We'll give them another two hours. Then we'll call the police, because it's still going to be around the back.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 18:11

When they think they've almost got it. That's when they'll get nicked.

Owen: 18:19

I actually want to change the subject slightly before and then. I want to come back to brisket Ashley, but for people that are listening to this won't be able to see what we can see, but people watching on YouTube would. He often talk about having drinks with with barbecue, and you know you judge a brisket on how many beers you've had, right.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 18:38

Yeah, that's right.

Owen: 18:40

But I've noticed that you've got a very impressive election. It looks like a collection of about 30 bottles of whiskey behind you, or, some, i think it's rum.

Dan: 18:49

Is it rum?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 18:50

What you can see is actually whiskey. Yeah, i've got just under 100 bowls. Oh wow, i blame my father-in-law for that. It's not me.

Dan: 19:01

We're going to have to be careful, because I love whiskey and we could talk about ages. What is your favorite whiskey?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 19:08

So I've probably got two favorites. One of them is the Glen Farclas 21, and that's only because it's the most expensive whiskey I think I own And it was a gift from a friend. But the other one is called Glen Turret 12. It's not too expensive but it is about £50. But I think it's probably gone up in price now. But there are so many ones that I could probably say that are my favorite. But I would say those two and maybe Hibiki as well.

Dan: 19:37

Yeah, hibiki is good. I love a port casque finish. So the favorite whiskey I've had is I can't pronounce it probably either, which is stupid but the Glen Morangie Quanta Rabanne. They do a 12 or 14 year. I actually prefer the 12, but it's harder to get hold of And it was something like six or seven years ago before the pandemic. One Christmas, for every reason, waitrose had them at 25 quid a bottle And my dad and I went in and we literally bought our 10 bottles each And we had them for ages. But once it ran out there's something like 80 or 90 quid. Now The 14 years are cheaper. I know it's all to do with how rare they are And if it was a weird year, because obviously dud year, then you can have much less. But I'm kind of waiting for those to try and fall back down in price. But I love a pork cast finish, absolutely love it.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 20:28

I've got a Glen Morangie It's called Midwinter's Night Dram And yeah, I've had that. My partner bought me that for Christmas And I think it was about £25. Now you just can't buy it. I think it's over 100 quid.

Dan: 20:44

It's really strange how it was done for that Christmas. You just don't see it anymore And you wonder why? because it will be a drink. But I can see it slowly glazing over, because he's not a whiskey man.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 20:59

I also have some cognac as well, if you're interested in that.

Owen: 21:04

I unfortunately actually just I was to say I unfortunately did the typical, got too drunk off whiskey once. I used to quite like whiskey and now it just turns my stomach a little bit.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 21:17

The difficulty for me is I love whiskey and I love red wine, but you can't really drink both because you can. But good luck the next day. So, I kind of have to pick and choose what I'm going to drink in advance.

Owen: 21:32

So is the red wine, whilst you're warming up the smoker, and then you get onto the whiskey. once you've sat down, you've done the spritz in, and then you can kind of get your cigar on and relax.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 21:43

Well, i tend to go for a beer or something first. It's funny because it feels almost like I'm doing something wrong when I'm cooking, when I'm working, really, because it feels like you know, tripping all the briskets and stuff. I'll leave it and then I'll, once all the meats in, i'm literally there like few, now I can breathe, and then I'll have a little whiskey or beer or something.

Dan: 22:04

You've earned it. It's fine, it's absolutely fine. You know what? You mentioned trimming a brisket there. So some people might have seen I've been talking for ages and ages about investing in a proper goods, grain fed piece of meat, because whenever I'd done briskets before I'd been afraid of messing them up So I hadn't invested. So when I got a John Davidson Sao Paulo brisket five kilos, which had been reduced and it was phenomenal, like one of the best thing I've done on barbecue, was the most impressive to look at anyway And the stuff's on Instagram. But I'd never trimmed the brisket before And, like you, i watched YouTube video after YouTube video and made it all aerodynamic and everything And I had the leftover meat fat which I made beef tallow from. But to what extent does that trimming make a difference? Someone who's cooking commercially, surely you'll know to a certain extent, and how perfect or perfect an inverted commerce Should you be aiming for that trim?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 23:12

I think it very depends on the brisket you've got, really, and that was something that I didn't want to know. I was kind of like, oh please, let me just hope, and they're all the same, and they're not. So I've bought briskets like you've seen before, bought briskets, grass fed and things like that from my local butchers, and they've they've turned up and I thought, oh no, this is not what I thought this is going to be. So they. It's hard because you, as you said, you have to make them aerodynamic. That's the goal, really. But I think it's just a case of making sure you've got that even fat layer as much as possible on the brisket. And some of them don't come with much fat at all, especially if they they grow out of bed, but some of them just come with loads. But I think it's so important that you try and get every bite the same throughout, because if you're serving them to customers, they're expecting the same thing that the last person bought and the next person after them will think the same. So it's kind of hard to to get it perfect because it's all different. But I think you just have to look at it from more of a shape perspective that when you're going to, when you're going to slice that brisket. Each slice kind of has to be similar, at least as much as possible.

Dan: 24:35

But does that mean that you're separating the point and flat at some point, or selling them separately, because obviously one is going to be done before the other?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 24:42

you know, yeah, so I sell. So what we usually do in event is I will do a. I'm going to change the menu. But I usually do a big and a small tray. So with the big tray I tend to go for the point end cuts So they get the best brisket there is really, and then for the smaller trays they'll get probably equal in weight of what they've served. I've served on this big tray, but just more. You know the lean brisket which in a way sometimes I prefer it. The flat depends how it's been cooked. So at the point brisket can be quite fatty and I'm not a huge fan of fat on me. But when done right with brisket it's amazing. But it can taste a little bit over the top with the fatty side of it. So I don't serve it separately or anything like that. It's more just a case of whatever someone's ordered. But I will tend to give them slightly more lean brisket than point end, from a weight perspective as well, because it will weigh way less than point end.

Owen: 25:50

Just out of interest. We've spoken about this a number of times in the podcast with various people. Grame fed, grass fed Yeah, do you have a preference?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 26:04

Ideally, grain fed. But getting that over here for a good price is almost impossible And I've found that I've been really lucky with John Davidson's brisket, the XM gold, and that's what Wilson's Bugger uses And if it's good enough for him then it's good enough for anyone. So I kind of just stick with those. They're not they're expensive, but they're not like ridiculous. They're about 85 pounds for the five kilo, which is still a lot of money, but it's not. You know, we're not talking USDA Prime shipped over here or something like that, where it's two, three, 400 pounds, because you're just never going to make any money as a business perspective. But I would be. I think I'd be shaking from start to finish cooking that.

Dan: 26:49

That's what's always scared me. I mean, the reason that I got this, this piece of brisket that I ordered from them that was again phenomenal was it should have been 90 pounds, but it'd been reduced to 70. I thought, you know, now is the time to bite the bullet and give it a go. And because it doesn't have that US on it, you know, it's like half the price And it was great. I have had good results as well on grass fed and the fields, very different though you know the like the mouth feel, how it's looking, how it's cutting it still be moisted, anything would get me wrong, but I want to try meat matters. I've had a lot of good things about them And that's kind of going to be my next purchase for that, but at the moment I'm just blown away by what I cooked the other day, like so, so good I did, i did see it, it did look really good. I know OAD is very passionate about grass fed And I think he's also got a very. He's got a very good point as well about like the carbon footprint and the air miles and everything like that as well, which you know. I just need to find the right balance in the middle and also, regularly, compared to special occasion is very different to you know Well, I'm I'm in Herefordshire and I'm born in Hereford.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 28:07

I still live very close to it And it almost feels criminal to try and use a different kind of meat, because Hereford beef is one of the best you can buy, But it's just. It just doesn't work as well for low and slow because there just isn't that fat content on there For steaks and things like that. It is phenomenal, It's one of the best cuts you can get, But it just doesn't. Just doesn't suit the way that I cook the briskets. I guess I don't know. I mean, I've had some from my local butcher that have been really good and I have served them and sold them and they have been really good. But I'm just kind of looking for that perfect bite And I think I've only really got that from the John Davidson's briskets. This is a shame because I would like to use my local butcher for the brisket. But it's nothing to do with it, It's not their fault, It's just the way the meat is And it just isn't quite there.

Dan: 28:58

I suppose as well. It's not like you have the same sort of options they do in America, where you can go in and they'll have a big number and you can look for yourself at the marbling and then pick out what you want. It's normally, i found, if you go to like a local butcher, what brisket do you have? Do you have any? Thank you.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 29:15

Yeah, you know, yeah, and even when you order it in, you kind of get what they've ordered, and then you look at it and think, oh, okay, yeah.

Owen: 29:25

If you've been looking or thinking about an outdoor kitchen, then look no further in AOS outdoor kitchens.

Dan: 29:31

They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

Owen: 29:35

Their extensive showroom is based just outside Bournemouth on the Dorset-Hamshire border and, as well as numerous in-store displays, also features a live outdoor kitchen where they cook every week on commando grills, pizza ovens, and all filmed and shown on YouTube.

Dan: 29:51

They offer a wealth of knowledge on how to transform your patio into the most incredible outdoor dining area, with styles and options to suit every budget, and you can guarantee they will be able to create something perfectly suited to you and your home.

Owen: 30:04

They stock and supply everything that you're going to need for outdoor cooking, including barbecues, commando ovens, pizza ovens, outdoor fridges and every accessory that you would need to become the ultimate outdoor chef.

Dan: 30:17

So if you want to make yourself the envy of your friends and neighbors, get in touch with them today to arrange a consultation and take the first step in transforming your back garden into the most incredible entertainment space.

Owen: 30:29

Visit aoskitchenscouk. Actually, we want to talk. You've already mentioned that you've got some things lined up for us, So should we dip into some of the things that haven't worked so well for you, either personally or when you've been doing it as a business? I'd be interested to hear what you've got.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 30:49

Well with the barbecue fail. Specifically, i did that investment club event and I thought, oh, i'll just do brisket, chuck roast, i'll do ribs and I'll do some kind of burnt ends with some sausage or something like that. That'll be fine. I'm sure that'll feed everybody. Everyone will be happy with that. I took my little smoker along to this field and was cooking there and I realized quite quickly that something's wrong here, because I am not going to be able to fit all that meat on this smoker. So I don't know why I got this stupid no-transcript. You've probably seen it in any offset or anything like that you've had before. But in the cook chamber you've got these lower level grates which aren't for barbecuing on. I don't know why they're there, but they're for something. Maybe it's just to put the charcoal on. I don't know. But I put my water pans on there, normally To be this lower level grate, and then on top of that would be where you actually put the meat. I had my water pan in the one side near this firebox, had my brisket and my chuck roast on the top. I thought I wonder if those ribs will cook at the bottom. I chucked the ribs on the bottom and they looked great from above but underneath they were as black as the spades. They were absolutely horrendous. I was scraping them off and trying to source them up and stuff. A few people said they tasted nice, but I think they were just being nice because I didn't want to serve them to anyone. They were horrible honestly. I don't know why to this day. I thought that would be a good idea.

Dan: 32:32

It's a learning process, right? There is a moment in barbecue that can happen to you at any point and it comes from nowhere where mild panic sets in when you realise that what you had planned isn't going to happen. It's how you control that panic. If you're sensible, you think I'll just lob it all in Very easy, overload things or get stuff in the way or the other classic as well, depending on what you're using. If you've got deflector plates in, anything around the edge is not going to get the same protections in the middle, so you chuck stuff around the edge and, before you know it, all those bits are charred up and you've got to think on your feet. But it's also about having the versatility to go. This has gone wrong. How do I fix it? You talk about sourcing up and things there. I'm guessing, with the amount of practice you've got now, that happens a lot less often. Do you still have time? Do you think you're right? How do I save this? What do I do?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 33:24

Yeah. so before Christmas, our oven packed up and what I have done before in the past I know this is probably a no-no in some people When a briskets wrapped, i tend to just put it in the oven to finish. sometimes, if I've got nothing on the smoke it's still cooking I will just put it in the oven to temp and that's worked out really well for me.

Dan: 33:49

They do in professional kitchens in Texas. Yeah, if you need to hold it there at a resting level, what were you setting it at? Are you setting it at 80, 75? Where are you setting it?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 34:01

To hold it. I would, but in terms of when I've wrapped it, just to get the brisket to finish, because it's not taking any more smoke flavor on once it's wrapped. I would then put it in the oven to get it up to around 190, then I'd start probing it for tenderness. But what I did was we had our oven breakdown so we bought a new oven and you've probably done it yourself. You get used to how your oven works and you just whack it to the normal setting for your oven and then you just from muscle memory, probably you just do it. I did the same thing with our new oven, but the oven setting wasn't in the same place as our last oven. So the brisket was cooking in the oven, all right, it was going from the grill, so the heat was coming from the grill, the top and from the bottom, and then the fan at the middle. So this brisket finished in like half an hour and I was thinking this isn't right. There's no way that it's done that in half an hour. It should be like two hours, three hours. And yeah, i basically just singed the whole brisket. There was no fixing that It was done And that was for an event as well. So, yeah, that wasn't great. My Auto-Sham does actually cook as an oven as well, but I don't like setting it to those temperatures because if one thing's ready and I need to put it in there, i'm kind of wasting the oven space if I do ever use it. So the Auto-Sham is just used for hot hold overnight, as you were saying. It's around 150 Fahrenheit, 155. I like to get it a little bit hotter than the 145 that they like to slice them in restaurants, just because when you're lifting it out of the sham and putting it on the board slicing it, it won't be 145. When you slice into it It'll be probably slightly less, and then on the plate as well it's going to be even colder. So I like to just go slightly hotter than that. But that Auto-Sham has been a lifesaver. It really has.

Owen: 36:12

Have you got any more fails you want to share with us?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 36:16

I don't think so. I think that's probably the main ones I would say I loved how you said that.

Dan: 36:23

You said I'm going to hold them to myself, I'm going to keep them to me.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 36:25

The other ones, I would say maybe the other fails were just using those cheap briskets. Yeah, i basically couldn't have made it any harder for myself from the start because they got no fat cap on there. They look a bit like a tongue when you roll them out And then they just don't cook the same. It's not even worth calling it a brisket really. It's just for smoked anyway, for smoked meat. It's just not the same. And I just kept cooking them over and over again just to get the process right. But I'd say, oh, try this, try that. I've tried pieces of this brisket And some of it was so dry But I was just so impressed with the smoke ring that I got or the bark that didn't really care what the brisket tasted, like It was, just did I manage to cook this brisket, did I get it at the temperature And that was it. But yeah, looking back, those were some pretty big fails.

Owen: 37:20

I don't think this is a fail, it's just more stupidity. I've recently bought a portable charcoal barbecue just to take out, and about First time I was using it a couple of days ago, although by the time this comes out it would be a couple of months. It's got a little hopper And you've got a tray that you tuck your firelight you're into and then put the charcoal on, and it's spanner-sisted as well, which is quite cool, so it does hold. You can choose your temperature type thing. Anyway, looking back, i don't even know why I did it. I wanted to see if the firelight had gone out and if the charcoal had taken just again trying to get something new to a piece of equipment. And I saw the charcoal at the top and I was like, oh, that's still black, picked it up and obviously it was underneath And I've literally burnt the end of my finger. It's literally burnt my layer of my nail off. Oh, wow, wow. I just, yeah, the nail kind of almost took a sort of semi-circle dip. I have no idea why I've been picked it up, needless to say that the firelight had gone out and the charcoal had taken.

Dan: 38:37

If it's taken part of your fingerprint off, though, now's the time to go and steal My smoker.

Owen: 38:42

Yeah, exactly That's what.

Dan: 38:44

I was thinking You've got like a four-hour window to drive there and then a further three hours to get it out. But you know you'll get away with it. The only fail that I've had recently is the people over at Dele Vita were nice enough to loan Owen and us one of their weapons to try out for a few weeks, and the first time I got it being very different process. You kind of light it, you stack up the wood, you light it, get the wood light, push it to the back of the oven. I thought, right, i'm just wanting a bit more flames going here before I really start to get going. Bring the heat up quicker. So I spent like 25 minutes getting everything ready, lit, push it to the back. I get like the blower tried to put a little bit of air in it, blow it out. I was like that's half an hour of my life gone. Couldn't then get anything back close enough. I was like, right, start again relight. That's that classic that you've got people over And you're like you know how I was going to do your pizza in the next kind of 15 to no, no, just go do your own thing. Go, come back in an hour and we'll talk, then I would say a recent fail actually for me was I was using my weather kettle.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 39:56

I got weather 57. And I put my temperature probe in the meat. I did a pork belly brisket, pork belly kind of, but I did crispy skin pork belly. So I just basically flipped over at the end on the direct heat. Being stupid, i just moved the pork belly onto the direct heat with the skin flipped over And the temperature probe was still in the meat. So the probe's no good now because it's just completely broke. The wires just burned to a crisp. I think it almost separated in the weather. So you've got the wire just dangling on its own and you've got the probe still in the pork belly. Yeah, because I was so used to using the offset that I just didn't think that it was going to be over the direct heat. Yeah, the fat dripping as well just made it Filled it, but did the skin crisp up?

Dan: 40:52

Oh yeah, that's the most important thing, right?

Owen: 40:54

It did. Yeah, it did Wicked. Well, actually we didn't ask. We've obviously been talking a lot about offset smokers, do you have? and obviously you've just mentioned a Weber kettle. Do you have any other barbecues?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 41:06

So I have got three offsets and the Weber kettle, the other two offsets the one is basically dead in the corner of the garden, sort of rusted through. That was the one I used at the event And I have a second one, which is very cheap off Facebook, that I don't really use for anything other than just at home If I ever want to cook something quick on there. That was bought specifically for that Jubilee event because I knew that one from my mistake before that one little offset cooker is not going to be enough, so I went and bought this other one, quite similar to cheap, off Facebook, that I use. I plan on doing some YouTube videos on there of how to use cheap offsets to produce good food, because I think there's a little bit of snobbery maybe with things like that that you see on these Instagram pages where they have these massive smokers and everything and it's all done proper, of course. But you can make great food in very basic equipment because the way I think of it is, back in the old days they didn't have thermometer probes, digital everything. It was basically just a pit. So you can cook great food on cheap barbecues. That's why I still got them. I want to do so. I can set some videos on there. And the Weber kettle I bought just for practicality, really just for quick cooks as well, and they're so versatile. I mean, as you know, you can cook briskets in there, you can cook anything in there. They're fantastic pieces of kit. So that's what I've got, that one.

Owen: 42:39

So what would you say is next for you, I suppose, personally, in your barbecue journey, but also perhaps for the business? what do you hope to achieve in the next year?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 42:52

So really just to kind of ramp it up really in terms of what I'm doing now. So with me working full time, it's quite hard to manage with events. I'm self-employed but it's kind of hard because I have to obviously cook the day before. So I've got a book for Friday off and then cook all night and then have it Saturday or whatever. I'm just hoping to be able to in the next year do more events, but also just quickly. Thank you for having me on the show. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to be on here, so that I can put myself out there a bit more, because I want to grow and be known as somebody in this space, not for an ego sense or anything like that. I just want to be somebody that people think of when they think of barbecue. I just want to be a public figure, i guess, really within the community and help anybody that may have questions and stuff like that. I'd like to do YouTube videos. It did cross my mind to do a podcast, but honestly, what you guys do with the work you put in, i just cannot imagine the amount it takes. So, honestly, it is really really great what you do And the fact you've been doing it so long as well, and the editing and the time it takes, i just don't think I could put myself through it as well.

Dan: 44:13

So honestly Yeah, the editing is the editing as the difficult part.

Owen: 44:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan: 44:23

It's very kind for you to say Appreciate it.

Owen: 44:24

Thank you, Ashley.

Dan: 44:25

It's one of those things where, if you've got the passion for something like what you're doing now, it can be time consuming, yes, but difficult as it's a different word, isn't it And, like you said, with things like kind of YouTube and everything and that's an area that Owen's very passionate about and wants to be doing more on It's just imparting wisdom to people and helping people along, which is, i mean, we started this because we wanted people to be talking about barbecue as much as we were, you know, and we were sure that about that. But anything that can be done to kind of spread that and to be fair to the barbecue community, it's a great place where that happens all the time on Instagram, you know, saying to people look kind of find you on Instagram and ask you questions, why not?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 45:10

Yeah, i mean, the thing that made me really appreciate the community was the fact that there are people out there, like you said, that are really great about just everything. Just you can just ask questions on posts and they will be there just giving you advice and they're not, you know, laughing at you or whatever. They are genuinely there to help And Wilson's BBQ really did help me personally. To be chatted a little bit on Instagram And some of the things he advised me on really helped me set up the business. So, to go through all of the not so fun stuff like the health and safety and the food hygiene and all that, it really his advice helped me massively And I kind of thought even then I would love to be that person for somebody else, and I've kind of always been in like the marketing sort of space on Facebook because I did something completely unrelated to BBQ several years ago that allowed me to work for myself online for a couple of years, and I think I'd like to just take that and put it into the BBQ world so that I can make a living out of it, but not because of that reason, just so that I can do more BBQ things. Really, i just want to allow myself to leave my job eventually in a couple of years or something, and I don't see that happening purely from doing events, because there are only so many weeks in the year that you can do them within reason. I mean you could do them in the winter, but it's not as good, and seeing outside cooking biscuits in the freezing cold doesn't sound like fun to me, even though I love it. It's just yeah, i've done it a few times now and it sucks. So I'm just hoping to grow really as a person and just offer advice, i suppose.

Owen: 47:06

Right, actually, i think we've been talking about you cooking a lot, so we should definitely set you a challenge. Bbq Bingo. Bbq Bingo is brought to you by Lumberjack Food Company. Your ticket to Flavortown, yeah, so this is our BBQ Bingo wheel, so hopefully you can see the screen And we've got a list of ingredients. We're going to give it a spin. Whatever it lands on, we'd love you to cook for us. The difference for season five is we've been asking all of our guests to leave an ingredient for the next guest, so pretty much the whole of this wheel now is based on ingredients that people are. the other guests have left, apart from one, which is my signature dish, so which will be your signature dish. So if it lands on my signature dish, what would you cook? I would probably cook smoked brisket biriyatakos Nice I think Okay, and in your mind, when I give this a spin, have an ingredient ready, so let's give it a go.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 48:16

Cool, i've landed one there, haven't I? That's like the nicest one at all.

Owen: 48:25

There you go, you've got your Heraford beef on your doorstep. Exactly.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 48:29

Yeah, you've just given me a nice win now, haven't you?

Owen: 48:33

It's very kind to you. That was Now. This is the judgment. Now isn't it. Are you going to be kind to someone else or are you going to stitch them up with a really difficult or disgusting ingredient?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 48:44

Well, it's not going to be a disgusting one. It might sound it, but I think it could be an interesting one. It's probably going to be difficult to find, but butchers should have it. I'm going to say beef neck roast, beef neck roast Or just beef neck.

Dan: 49:03

So I know Owen does a lot of pork neck, but I've not really heard of anyone using beef neck. Well, what did you do with it? Is it low and slow? What would you do?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 49:12

Well, i've kind of taken that from Chuds Barbecue. He did a video on goes which I watched after I learned how to make them, but I love watching his videos anyway And he used some really peculiar cuts of beef One of them was beef neck And he just cooked them on the offset, got some nice bark on there and then made it into the barbecue or the tacos. So I think it could be one maybe like beef or something.

Owen: 49:47

I've cooked pork neck before and it was super tender and really, really nice. I should imagine, if you know the beef would be exactly the same.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 49:56

Yeah yeah, you could do it like a almost like a pulled brisket style cook. Yeah.

Owen: 50:04

Perfect, great. So is there anything actually that we haven't spoken about yet that you'd like to kind of discuss on the podcast?

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 50:12

No, i don't think so, other than just where you can find me. I guess Please go tell everyone. So if you follow me on Instagram, you'll be putting in big smoke BBQ UK and Facebook is BBQ. Or you can just message me direct, which is Ashly Tunney on Instagram, and just keep an eye out on my posts. Really, i don't post as much in the Facebook group as I should, which I'm really guilty of. I'm just trying to build up an Instagram audience because people mostly that follow me, that know me locally, just know me as in person. So I just post it usually on my personal profile as well. But for Instagram, yeah, i'm trying to build it up. I don't quite get the science behind Instagram. Facebook I knew years ago and I did quite well out of advertising on Facebook, but Instagram for me is just you know, you find the trend in audio, you do the reels and you get like three likes. You think, okay, i'll try again next time. So yeah, i'm hoping to get some followers.

Dan: 51:17

The trick is to Instagram. They change the algorithm every few months And so there is no trick to Instagram. It's just keep posting and keep engaging and hopefully, at some point something will stick. I mean, we've talked about it before. I had a stake video which looked nice, but I have no idea why that one had 15,000 views. And then I can do one exactly the same and it'll get 50. Yeah, no understanding whatsoever, but if you keep putting stuff out, more things will hit, and that's all anyone can do. If they're trying to build Instagram, yeah, i'm sure this company's out there it'll say differently. But nah, mate, just go for it.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 51:58

I think the good thing as well is that you just have to power good food first and foremost, really. I mean, social media is great and everything, but in person, if people are going to try it, the food needs to taste good, because if it looks good but isn't great to eat, then what's the point? really, it's just a very expensive picture. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Owen: 52:22

Well, actually, thank you very much for coming on to the podcast. It's been a pleasure to meet you and chat with you. Perhaps, hopefully, we'll get to see you at an event at some point soon, meet in person, get to try some of your brisket. But yeah, again thank you very much for coming on. Have a great evening.

Ashley Big Smoke BBQ: 52:38

Thank you, cheers, guys, cheers, bye-bye, bye-bye.

Dan: 52:43

Thank you again, ashley. You can find him by searching for Big Smoke BBQ or Big Smoke BBQ UK on Instagram and you can see all the great bits and pieces he's put out there. You can message him directly to ask questions and even see if he's got any availability to do any kind of private cooking for you, although if you're listening in America, i can't promise he's going to fly over. Who knows, though? Don't ask, don't get. So yeah, thank you so much for listening. You can find us by searching for the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast. At this stage, because of Owen's hard work, stick it in Google. You'll find our website. You'll find us on Instagram. You'll find us on Facebook. Please do follow us on all of those things and get involved. Also, if you're listening through your favorite podcast provider, give us a like, give us a review, give us a share Really helps us reach more people and that, as well, helps us get the best possible guests on here, like Ashley today, who was fantastic, and until next time, keep on grilling.