Not-So-Secret Sauce: Patience and Practice Make Perfect for the at-home Pitmaster

In the long and storied line of world-altering human accomplishments, harnessing fire to cook food is arguably among the most consequential. Some evidence suggests early hominins started roasting meat as far back as 1.5 million years ago, and the combination of flesh and flame made for more palatable, digestible diets. Certain anthropologists even credit the advent of cooking for the growth of the human brain, which needed as many calories as it could get to keep the gears turning and develop the likes of science, math, art, music and, well, the entire modern world.

 

Technology and techniques might have been refined in the interim, but one need only bite into a beautifully smoked rib or succulent mouthful of pulled pork to understand what a revelation barbecuing was and still is. These days, pitmasters come from all walks of life and range from backyard hobbyists to professional competitiongoers and restaurateurs.

 

“My deal was I just bought a bunch of books and did a bunch of reading and trial and error, having a bunch of cookouts and a bunch of people over,” said Thurman McCroskey, the titular ‘guy’ behind This Guy’s Smoke N Grill in Searcy. “I tried something new. I tried a new sauce. I tried a new rub. I’ve been doing it for a lot of years professionally and on my own, and I’m always playing and trying something new.”

 

 

For Keith McGeorge, one-fifth of the central Arkansas-based competition team Black Mamba BBQ, an influx of pandemic-era free time gave him and his friends an opportunity to dive into the world of smoked meats, and the results have included an impressive run of awards and more than 1,500 pounds of food served.

 

 

“Our team consists of myself, Richard Moore, Dick McKay, Bill Puckett and Michael Seaman,” McGeorge said. “COVID-19 had just begun, everyone was stuck at home, and I decided, on a whim, to go purchase a lightly used, black, 250-gallon smoker on a trailer from an older gentleman in Maumelle. Just months before buying the smoker, one of our favorite NBA players had tragically passed, Kobe ‘Black Mamba’ Bryant. It just seemed fitting to name the smoker and team Black Mamba BBQ.”

 

 

A longtime preeminent name in Arkansas ‘cue, Whole Hog Cafe got its start on the competition circuit before venturing into brick and mortar. Founders Mike “Sarge” Davis, Ron Blasingame and Steve Lucchi entered the 2000 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest with a rib recipe that captured second place. The team later returned and became world champions with a first place win in the whole hog division. The Whole Hog trio took a chance on opening their own restaurant afterwards, and the rest, as scores of diners since can attest, is history.

 

 

“Competition-quality barbecue hits on all the key elements of appearance, taste and texture, and hopefully those match the judge’s palate on that particular day,” Lucchi said. “The great thing about backyard barbecue is that you’re the judge, so you can cook to your own taste. You can control your choice of meat, seasoning and wood, and each of these can affect the final product.”

 

 

At Whole Hog, pecan wood provides a nice, mellow smoke flavor without being too overpowering, Lucchi said, though apple and oak are also “nice and flavorful.” Hickory or mesquite might be a good choice for those looking for a stronger smoke flavor. One should be wary of going overboard in any case.

 

 

“The easiest thing to mess up is probably the most common we see, and that is too much smoke,” McGeorge said. “You don’t want your smoker looking like the chimney from the Sistine Chapel after a new pope is elected. White smoke is never good, and it usually results from too much wood, wet wood or not enough oxygen in the firebox. The smoke coming from the smokestack should be a faint, bluish smoke, which means you have a nice, clean fire going.”

 

 

“When you’re doing all wood smoke, you just have to make sure you’ve got plenty of time and not rush it,” McCroskey added. “You’ve got to do your study and your research.”

 

As with a preferred wood flavor, experimentation is key to finding one’s own seasoning and dry rub blends. Be careful not to overdo it on smaller pieces of meat such as ribs and chicken, which can be overpowered by too much rub, Lucchi said. Regardless of how one incorporates seasonings into their ribs — from rubs to brines to injections — McGeorge said the goal is for that bite to “explode with flavor.”

 

 

“We always start with removing the membrane off the back of the rib (optional), apply a light coat of mustard as a binder, and we will use two to three different rub combinations to season both sides of the rib,” he said.

 

McGeorge’s first rule of ribs is one he said applies to any meat a would-be barbecuer intends to smoke, grill or otherwise serve — “you truly get what you pay for.” McCroskey similarly stressed product quality as fundamental to a tasty end result.

 

“You’ve got to get a quality product. Try to stay away from any frozen meats,” McCroskey said. “A lot of times, my vendors, they’ll have frozen pork butts on sale or frozen chicken on sale or, you know, frozen wings, and I stay away from all that. Try to go with quality products and quality ingredients because I think it makes a difference.”

 

When it comes to slab selection, McGeorge recommended finding ribs with “nice fat marbling” — but not too much, since some of it will need to be trimmed off. Look for a rack of ribs uniform in shape to avoid one side cooking faster than the other. Fundamentally, the question is, “Would I want to bite into that?” McGeorge said.

 

Depending on size, ribs or skin-on chicken thighs can be smoked in two to five hours compared to the 15 or so needed for pork butt. For those with the time to cook it, however, Lucchi called pulled pork a great entry point for several reasons. It is a large piece of meat and cooks slowly, so the window between “cooked” and “overcooked” is larger and more forgiving. It is also a more affordable option compared to brisket and ribs, which can be helpful for feeding a crowd.

 

“For any piece of meat, though, just make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to cook it — 1.5 hours per pound of meat at 250 degrees is a good rule of thumb,” Lucchi said.

 

One can go heavier on the rub for a larger piece such as butt or brisket, Lucchi said, letting the meat marinate anywhere from an hour to even overnight in the fridge. The time and effort it takes to narrow down that just-right combination suited to one’s tastes is often its own sweet reward to boot.

 

“My dad, he kind of tinkered with it a little bit here and there, and he came up with a barbecue sauce that was pretty decent,” McCroskey said. “I [would ask him], ‘How’d you make that? How’re you doing that?’ and he never would tell me — but he bought me my first barbecue book for Christmas that year, and he goes, ‘You can learn it like I did.’ That was kind of how it went.”

 

Given enough time, one might even discover a hidden talent or favorite item to make outside of the usual suspects. Black Mamba BBQ “excels at all things pig,” McGeorge said, but the group is best known for its raspberry chipotle pork belly burnt ends. That dish has earned the “People’s Choice” award for five years and counting at 103.7 The Buzz’s annual Doublebee’s Buzz B-Q competition. McGeorge’s No. 1 piece of advice for the at-home smoker was to “cook to temp, not to time.”

 

“Always have a meat thermometer or thermapen on you,” he said. “You can find them easily at box stores or on Amazon. After spending so much time and money for a barbecue, the last thing you want is overcooked [or] undercooked meat. Invest in a good instant-read thermometer. Additionally, YouTube has so many great videos for a novice to learn and build confidence when [barbecuing].”

 

One should also resist the urge to keep opening the smoker to check on the meat, since consistent temperature is crucial to the final result. In addition to letting out heat, constantly opening the smoker can introduce additional oxygen and lead to flareups in the firebox — or, as Lucchi summarized, “If you’re lookin’, then you ain’t cookin’.”

 

“Sometimes the meat temperature just stalls for a while, which could set you back an hour or two unexpectedly,” he said. “It’s OK to finish cooking early and take the meat off the smoker and let it rest.  You can wrap it in foil, place it in an insulated cooler to keep it warm, and enjoy a refreshment or two with your guests until you’re ready to serve.”

 

Lucchi advised aiming for a temperature of about 200 to 205 F for butts and brisket and 175 F for chicken. For ribs, by contrast, the “pull test” might be a better indicator.

 

“When the rib meat just starts to pull from the bone with a gentle tug, then it’s ready,” he said. “I know there’s a common phrase that ribs are great when they ‘fall off the bone,’ but you actually want to stop cooking slightly before that point. That’s when they’ll be at the optimal balance between tenderness and juiciness.”

 

Newcomers might find themselves overwhelmed by the seemingly endless choice of cuts, seasonings, rubs and woods, not to mention any number of high-tech tools promising to make the difference between a superb and so-so final product. Keeping in mind the ancient origins of roasted meat, however, can be a useful reminder not to overcomplicate things.

 

“You don’t need a high-dollar smoker to make great barbecue,” Lucchi said. “A simple offset smoker from the local hardware store or home supply store is all you need to get started. Start simple, give yourself plenty of time, and enjoy the process.”

 

“I don’t know that there’s really a secret to it other than just having pride in what you’re doing and taking time, low and slow, and just having a love for what you do,” McCroskey said. “You just have to have the passion [and] the patience and not be scared to make a mistake and keep on rolling.”

 

SEE THE FEATURE BELOW AND IN OUR JULY 2026 ISSUE OF AY MAGAZINE