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It’s well into summer and it’s gettin’ hot outside. After one more competition in a couple of weeks, we’ll be cruising toward football season. And in early August, we’ll have a glimpse of our preliminary fall schedule of ‘cue activities and events. Our new website should be up by then and we’ll be rolling into our next chapter.

This is about the time when people grill more……’cause it gets too hot outside to brave these 12+ hour smokes. But this doesn’t mean we stop cooking. No, sir. We just regear into something that works with the season.

This calls for serious hot dogs and hamburgers. Controlled Burn style.

We’re gonna do these real. People think hot dogs are like bologna…..like its cheap food or something. It isn’t. As with our search for barbecue nirvana, there’s no reason why we can’t be in search of the best hot hog too.

And we’re on it. Read the rest of this entry »

“…For many of us, encountering a long-forgotten smell can bring the memories flooding back. Soon there could be no need to leave the enjoyment of such pleasant experiences to chance. Inventors are on the verge of creating the first mobile ’smellophone’, a gadget which can capture an odor and then replay it back later, just as camcorders do with images.

Amateur chefs desperate to recreate perfectly a restaurant meal they have enjoyed could use the device to record its aroma.

‘In video you just need to record shades of red, green and blue, but humans have 347 olfactory sensors so we need a lot of source chemicals.’…….”

Read all about it here.

Get ready. One of these days a bunch of people might be dialing 911 for a whiff of some Controlled Burn….

The Big Butt BBQ Contest was another great success in April. It was such a great success that we ran out of food for the public. Not good. But it reflects the demand for these types of events here. The event can be doubled safely next year. The folks at Smokin’ In Style here in the Hot Springs were the winners this year. They had excellent stuff.

Hey, it was almost as good as ours. :)

We did not make the Mississippi State Championship this year in Ashland, but word is they had over 50 teams…with the chefs from Memphis sweeping the event, as expected. They’ve got it down and they’re hard to beat. No word as to whether Jerry Lee Lewis showed up.

The Couchwood event for St. John’s Church out on Lake Catherine was a big hit in mid May. We fixed our Controlled Burn Smoked Cheese Rellenos Stuffed With Shrimp for lunch for the crowd that was there early. Id be hard pressed to say that wasn’t as good as the pulled pork fest afterwards. Anyway, lots of money went to the church for the event, which was the whole idea. Thanks for all who attended and gave generous amounts for a good cause. Read the rest of this entry »

This snake was recently found at the old Turkey Creek gas plant located just south of the Alibates Turnoff on Highway 136 south of Fritch, Texas. Fritch is just north of Amarillo.

9 feet, 1 inch - 97 lbs. That’s taller than Shaquille ONeal.

I once had the pleasure of having some rattlesnake ‘cakes’ as an appetizer to a meal in Austin a year or so at Hudson’s…one of the nicer restaurants there….compliments of good friends and Austin residents John And Sabra Slais.

The attached recipe is similar….but these are straight ’steaks’ here. The ‘cakes’ are like crab cakes…just the pieces of the meat in a patty sort of like a salmon croquette.

So why not smoke ‘fried’ food?

And why not smoke fried rattlesnake?

Here goes…

Controlled Burn Smoked Rattlesnake

• 1 medium-sized rattlesnake (3-4 lbs.), cut into steaks
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup Aunt Jemima yellow cornmeal
• 1/4 cup cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon Controlled Burn Rub
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash white pepper

Mix dry ingredients. Whisk milk into beaten egg and use to dip snake steaks. Then coat them with dry ingredients…just like catfish. Fry, uncovered, in 400 degree oil until brown. Drain on paper towels. Read the rest of this entry »