Low and Slow BBQ – Intensive Learning @ MFS

Today? We feast.

March 28, 2024March 28, 2024Low and Slow BBQ

Cookies at midnight, an early morning Cubby Hole run (with only one kid forgotten in a closet) and a whole day of food prep for the staff-appreciation lunch. This was our final day of Low and Slow IL. After all the cookies were baked, homemade of course, and games were played, we all ventured...

Low and Slow: Preparing for the Feast

March 28, 2024March 28, 2024Low and Slow BBQ

Today was a big preparation day for the feast on Thursday for all of the school staff, as well as the day for our sleepover. Firstly, we trimmed pork butts (which is actually meat from a pig’s shoulder) by cutting off all the excess fat and bits of hard bone around the outside of...

Low and Slow: Lamb Tacos on Homemade Corn Tortillas for Lunch

March 26, 2024March 27, 2024Low and Slow BBQ

To start the day we went to the pit and uncovered the meat that was cooking overnight. We unwrapped the lamb to find three perfectly cooked cuts. After bringing the lamb inside, we then filled the hole with dirt and started to prepare the lamb for lunch. To prepare the lamb, we pulled apart...

Day Two of Low and Slow: Ribs + Barbacoa Prep

March 25, 2024March 26, 2024Low and Slow BBQ

We arrived at Van Meter this morning to discover that our pit that we dug over the weekend had collapsed due to the rain. All the walls had caved inwards, leaving soil and bricks where the firewood was supposed to go. Not to be disheartened, the crew rushed to the rescue and saved the...

First Day Low and Slow: Digging and Rib Prep

March 22, 2024March 22, 2024Low and Slow BBQ

Itinerary for Day One We arrived to Van Meter Hall at 8:30 a.m. and went over the plan for the day and set up our Remind app to communicate with each other. Then we gathered materials to dig our hole for the lamb to cook in. Unfortunately, the digging posed some difficulties. The bottom...

Low and Slow, Day Five — A Feast for the Ages

March 31, 2023March 31, 2023Low and Slow BBQ

We started the day off by having breakfast at Cubby Hole after the sleepover (which had featured movies, several rounds of hide ‘n seek, and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies). We then walked back to Van Meter to prepare for the big feast at 12:40 pm. We had to finish cooking and pull the pork...

Low and Slow, Day Four — A Long Day’s Journey Into Night

March 30, 2023March 30, 2023Low and Slow BBQ

Today we all sat around and enjoyed an episode of The American Barbecue Showdown on Netflix for the morning. After the episode was finished, Matt and Molly had to prep some vegetables for the collard greens. Matt cut onions, and Molly prepared the garlic. Then Mr. Sussman realized that we didn’t have a saucepan,...

Low and Slow, Day Three — Ribs, Ribs, Ribs!

March 29, 2023March 30, 2023Low and Slow BBQ

We started off Tuesday before the school day even officially began by taking the ribs out of the fridge and lighting up the smoker. By about 9 o’clock, the ribs were in and smoking away. To get them all to fit, we stood them up on end, curled each rack into a spiral shape,...

Low and Slow, Day Two — Sharp Knives and Sharp Wits

March 28, 2023March 30, 2023Low and Slow BBQ

So today we started the day off prepping the ribs. Mr. Sussman told Ted and Myles to get the ribs out the fridge and put them on the table. Earlier, as we had covered the tables with brown paper, someone pointed out that the paper made it look like a solid table when in...

Low and Slow, Day One — Setting up, the low and slow way

March 24, 2023March 25, 2023Low and Slow BBQ

Low and Slow: The Science, Culture, and Practice of True Barbecue got off to a slightly “low and slow” start on a grey, rainy day of orientation, background learning, and prepping to start serious cooking on Monday. We set up our space in Van Meter Hall, inventoried our kitchen items, researched recipes, assigned responsibilities,...

Low and Slow — Feast Day

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022Low and Slow BBQ

On Thursday we were ready for our big feast which we had been planning since the start of this IL program. Everyone was assigned one item to bring, along with the biscuits and pulled pork that we made at school. For instance, Jack Bitman brought his homemade mac & cheese. This was one of...

Low and Slow, Day Four — The Overnight Saga Begins

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022Low and Slow BBQ

Today was a pretty slow day in preparation for our feast tomorrow. First thing in the morning we trimmed and rubbed our pork butts to prepare them for the 18-hour smoking time. We’re practically pros after having done the same process for our ribs on Monday. We cut up some of the scrap meat...

Low and Slow, Day Three — RIBS!

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022Low and Slow BBQ

On our third day day of Low and Slow, we started off the day by lighting the coals and taking out our prepared ribs that had been sitting in the refrigerator overnight. We bent them into spirals, securing them with wooden skewers (to fit all six racks into the relatively small smoker) and put...

Low and Slow, Day Two — Preparing the Ribs

March 21, 2022March 21, 2022Low and Slow BBQ

For our second day of Low and Slow, we started the day off busy. First, we unloaded Mr. Sussman’s car, which had all the rest of our materials in it, and we put them all away in the kitchen. That included about 40 pounds of meat! Then we built the mini grill that Ben...

Low and Slow, Day One — Prep the smoker and eat BBQ for lunch

March 19, 2022March 21, 2022Low and Slow BBQ

For our first day of “Low and Slow” we started off by watching a couple of videos about the art of smoking meat. The video also taught us a couple of different ways to cut meat with a knife. Then we transferred all of our supplies to Van Meter Hall. We then got introduced...