Blog

Saddleback BBQ is offering 4th of July Bundles! We’ve put together multiple packages that anyone interested in BBQ would be thrilled to receive!

Gold Package

• 1000c Z Grill Pellet Smoker – Saddleback Matt hand picked this smoker as the only one he would endorse. It’s a versatile, well built, & easy to use smoker that is an incredible value. Our goal is to introduce more people to the art of smoking meat. Giving a new meaning to backyard BBQ. This pellet smoker allows you to use all wood pellets to grill like you always have with a new smokey twist. It also has the flexibility for more traditional bbq, with foods like, brisket, baby back ribs, pork shoulders, and almost anything else you can imagine.
• Smoker Assembly
• Grill Cover
• Meater Bluetooth Thermometer – One of the coolest thermometers on the market. Just leave the probe in whatever you happen to be cooking and track the internal temperature on your phone. The simplest way to have a perfect cook every time ($100 value).
• Saddleback’s Pork Rub
• Saddleback’s Beef Rub
• 12oz Bottle of Sweet & Savory Sauce
• 12oz Bottle of Michigan Mustard
• $50 Saddleback Gift Card
• 40lb Bag of Smoke Ring Pellets (made in Boyne City, MI)
• 20lb Bag of Z Grills Pellets
• Free Delivery (within 10 miles)

Now $899, very limited availability!

Order Now

Silver Package

• 1000c Z Grill Pellet Smoker – Same smoker as the Gold Package
• Grill Cover
• Grill Assembly
• 12 oz Bottle of Sweet & Savory
• 12 oz Bottle of Michigan Mustard
• Saddleback Pork Rub
• Saddleback Beef Rub
• 40lb Bag of Smoke Ring Pellets
• 20lb Bag of Z Grills Pellets
• Free Delivery (Within 10 Miles)

Now $799, limited availability!

Order Now

Bronze Package

• 10002e Z Grill Pellet Smoker
• Grill Cover
• 12oz Bottle of Michigan Mustard
• 120z Bottle of Sweet & Savory
• Saddleback Pork Rub
• Saddleback Beef Rub
• 40lb Bag of Smoke Ring Pellets
• 20lb Bag of Z Grills Pellets

Now $639, limited availability!

Order Now!

*The Bronze Package does not include smoker assembly*

Pellet Bundle

• Sweet & Savory 12oz Bottle
• Michigan Mustard 12oz Bottle
• 1 Bag of Pork Rub
• 1 Bag of Beef Rub
• 1 40lb Bag of Smoke Ring Pellets (Made in Boyne, MI)

The perfect bundle for anyone that loves all things grilling and smoking.

Total retail value $49.95, only $39.95 for a limited time!

Order Now!

Gift Card Bundle

• Sweet & Savory 12oz Bottle
• Michigan Mustard 12oz Bottle
• 1 Bag of Pork Rub
• 1 Bag of Beef Rub
• $25 Gift Card

Total retail value $49.95, only $39.95 for a limited time!

Order Now!

If you have any questions about the bundles please email drew@saddlebackbbq.com!

The Z Grills Initial Startup and Burn-in Process

The initial startup and burn-in process must be performed before your first cook on your new pellet smoker. Like any pellet smoker, your grill needs to be seasoned before use. The entire process takes about an hour, and you’ll need enough wood pellets to run the grill on HIGH for at least 45 minutes. Be sure to perform this outside or in a well-ventilated area.

If reading isn’t your forte, here’s a helpful video!

Purchase a Z Grill today!

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Remove Everything

• Open the hopper and grill lids.
• Remove the grill racks, grease tray, and baffle plate that sits over the fire-pot.

2. Turn the Grill ON

• Ensure the controller dial is in the Shut Down Cycle position.
• Turn the switch ON.
• If you see "Er2" on the display, the grill is not in the Shut Down Cycle mode.

3. Set to SMOKE

• Turn the controller dial to Smoke.
• Listen for the fan to start running.

4. Check Auger Operation

• Confirm that the auger is slowly rotating. You should hear a faint "whirring" sound.
• The auger will rotate for a few seconds, then pause for 30-40 seconds. Over the next 5 minutes, it will turn on and off periodically.

5. Check the Fire-pot

• Hold your hand above the fire-pot to feel for air movement, confirming the fan is working.
• You should hear the fan running when the controller is on Smoke.
• Observe the ignition rod at the bottom of the fire-pot—it should turn a dull red color within 4 minutes. Do not touch it!
• Some smoke may appear as surface oil burns off; this is normal.

Once you’ve confirmed that:
✅ The auger is rotating periodically
✅ The fan is blowing
✅ The ignition rod is heating up

Proceed to the next step.

6. Add Wood Pellets

• Pour about 4 lbs of wood pellets into the hopper—just enough to reach the safety grate.
• Close the hopper lid.
• Only add a full hopper of pellets if planning a long cook. Always store pellets in a sealed container to prevent moisture absorption.

7. Turn to HIGH

• Turn the controller dial to High to feed pellets from the hopper through the auger tube into the fire-pot.

8. Wait for Pellet Drop

• About 7-8 minutes after adding pellets, they should start dropping into the fire-pot.
• As soon as you see pellets dropping, move to the next step.

9. Ignite the Fire

• Turn the controller to Shut Down Cycle, then immediately back to Smoke to activate the ignition rod.

10. Fire Up Your Grill!

• After 3-5 minutes, you should see lots of smoke, followed by a flame.
• Congratulations! Your grill is officially running.
• Reinstall the baffle plate, grease tray (no foil), and grill racks.
• Close the grill lid.

11. Burn-in Process

• Turn the controller to High and let the grill run at maximum temperature. This burns off any remaining manufacturing oils.
• The smell may be unpleasant, so avoid doing this near an open window.
• After 10-15 minutes, the smell will disappear.
• Keep the grill on High for at least 45 minutes, then:
  • Turn to Smoke for 10 minutes to let the fire die down.
  • Switch to Shut Down Cycle (leave the power on).
• The fan will run for 10 minutes before automatically shutting off.

Once the grill has turned itself off, you can unplug it—or start cooking!

12. Time to Cook!

• Once the grill has shut down, open the lid and wipe the grill racks with a damp cloth.
• Cover the grease tray with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
• Start the grill by turning it to Smoke with the lid open.
• After 4-5 minutes, you should see lots of smoke. Wait until you hear a roaring fire and see less smoke before closing the lid and setting your desired temperature.
• Let the grill reach the target temperature before placing your food inside.

PELLET GRILLS MAKE BARBECUING EASY

Plug it in, fill the hopper with BBQ pellets, turn it on, set the temperature, and let the grill do the rest. Pellet grills are designed for a hands-off approach, allowing the controller to handle most of the work.

No need to haul logs or arrange charcoal. Put away the lighter fluid and flint—the ignition sequence on a pellet grill starts with the press of a button.

Learn more about Z Grills and how you can upgrade your grill game!

PELLET GRILLS MAKE COOKING FUN

Most of us are in this for the same reason—we love outdoor cooking. We enjoy sharing great food with friends and family and experimenting with new recipes. What we don’t love? Micromanaging a fire or dealing with cleanup.

Pellet grilling gives you more freedom to enjoy what you love and less time worrying about fire management. Once you place food on the grill, there’s no need to stand around babysitting it. The grill does the work, so you can focus on your guests.

Learn more about Z Grills and how you can upgrade your grill game!

PELLET GRILLS ARE SAFE

• Gas grills can explode.
• Charcoal and wood logs are messy and can smolder for days.
• Direct cooking over an open flame increases the risk of flare-ups and grease fires.

Pellet grills cook indirectly, eliminating open flames, flying sparks, and direct contact between fat drippings and fire.

Learn more about Z Grills and how you can upgrade your grill game!

PELLET GRILLS ARE THE MOST VERSATILE OUTDOOR COOKING MACHINE

If you can cook it on a stove or in an oven, you can cook it on a pellet grill. Not only will a pellet grill replace your stove or oven, but it also maintains and recovers temperatures more quickly and accurately. With convection cooking, hot smoke and air circulate around the food, ensuring even cooking while keeping everything moist and flavorful.

Learn more about Z Grills and how you can upgrade your grill game!

Barbecue Rubs are the baseline for any great barbecue.  Dry Rubs are a blend of seasonings and spices without any wet ingredients. They are versatile and can be used in many different applications.  This is what makes them not only important but also fun to experiment with.  A Dry Rub can be as simple as Salt and Pepper on a New York Strip Steak or a 15 ingredient mixture used to season a competition pork shoulder.  Either way, Dry Rubs have a big impact on your final product.

When it comes to barbecue, Pork seems to be the best canvas for a good dry rub.  Pork has great fat content, works well with smoke, and works well with longer styles of cooking.  Of course, Chicken and Beef work well too.  Beef, in particular, sometimes only needs salt and pepper to get the job done.  Combining Chicken, a dry rub, and smoking can give a little extra flavor that compliments the smoke in the meat.

What we are going to go over is what I think is the easiest way to make your own dry rub.

First, we need to start with your Base Dry Rub. This is your starting point. The good news is that most Base Dry Rub Recipes are made from ingredients that can be found in most people’s pantries.  Brown sugar, Salt, Black Pepper, Paprika, Onion, and Garlic powder.  You can go a long way with just variations of these ingredients. A rub like this can be used on nearly anything.  From seasoning Pork Ribs to putting it on French Fries. Your base rub is kind of your Northern Star.  You can get off the beaten path as much as you want but if you have a base rub to go back to you can really examine where you went and if you like it or not.  A great base rub is listed below.

When you are ready to add some complexity to your rub, be sure not to go too far too quickly.  By that I mean if you want a spicy rub do not go and add a cup of cayenne.  If you start with a base rub like the recipe below you can subtly add ingredients to get the desired flavor profile.  A good rule of thumb is to add one teaspoon at a time of any outside ingredients listed below to get the desired flavor blend that you like.  Measure and document everything, then you will start understanding things that are working for you and things that are not.  Tasting the rub gives you a good idea of what you are looking for but remember when these are cooked a chemical reaction happens and mixed with the juices of the meat will give a very different flavor.

What we suggest is that you start with the Base Recipe below.  Then as you want to add more flavor profiles, use the ingredients below.  It is recommended that you test each one before getting too crazy.  For instance, you might start with the Base Recipe, and then if you find that you would like it to be a little spicier, add one teaspoon of one of the ingredients under the “Heat” category.  Taste it dry. Then make a product with the dry rub and see how it tastes after cooking.  Document your findings. If you find that you still need more flavor profiles, start the process again. This way you can test how each ingredient impacts the flavor not just when tasting it dry, but also how it tastes after the product is smoked and fully cooked. 

Base Recipe (Start Here!)

• ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
• ¼ Cup Kosher Salt
• 2 teaspoons Cracked Black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Paprika
• 2 teaspoons Onion Powder
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

To Add New Flavors & Complexity To Your Rub - Choose From These Options!

Heat

• Cayenne Powder- reddish in color used in moderation good heat.
• White Pepper- relatively the same as black pepper but white.  A little milder in heat
• Chipolte Powder (smokey)- Ground dried Chipolte peppers.  Medium heat
• Chili Powder- Is typically a mixture of spices mainly chili peppers.  (make sure to stay consistent with your chili powder because they do vary)  Mild Heat

Savory

• Celery Seed (earthy, bitter)
• Mustard Powder (Strong, bold Mustard flavor)
• Turmeric (mild, peppery) similar to mustard powder
• Rosemary (minty, bold flavor) lamb Beef
• Cumin (earthy, mild spice)
• Thyme (woody, earthy) great florals

Sweet

• Light Brown Sugar- (sweet, mild molasses)white sugar that has been flavored with molasses. Generally the best sweetener for Barbecue
• Turbinado Sugar- Named for the process in which it is turned from Cane syrup to Sugar.  This sugar has a little more grit, Amber in color also great for BBQ less moisture than Brown Sugar still containing the molasses flavor

Color/Flavor

• Spanish Paprika (aka Sweet Paprika, Paprika):  vibrant color, sweet but with no heat
• Hungarian Paprika (Hot Paprika): Color and heat
• Smoked Paprika (aka Smoked Spanish Paprika, Pimeton): Heat can vary (Mild, Med, Hot) darker in color.

Of course, if you would prefer to do it the easy way, you can purchase the Saddleback BBQ Rub's! 

Pork Rub 

Saddleback's signature pork seasoning is now available to the public. Perfect as a rub for all your BBQ needs, or great as a seasoning for fries, chips, or almost anything else. 

Beef Rub  

Saddleback is now selling the same beef rub we use for all of our beef products. This is the same seasoning that gives our brisket its delicious bark. Buy your own seasoning and see how your brisket measures up to ours! 

Now available for curbside pickup or delivery! 

Click Here for More Interesting Information on BBQ

Why You Should Consider Ditching the Large Delivery Platforms

The three largest delivery platforms (GrubHub, UberEats, Doordash) dominate almost the entire market. Their popularity has soared over the past 5 years, but most consumers don’t know how these platforms really work.

If you’ve ever used one of the delivery platforms you’ll already be familiar with the fees associated with the consumer. They charge a delivery fee, ranging from $1.99 – $7.99. They also charge a service fee, ranging from 5% – 35% of the entire order.

What you don’t see are the fees associated with the restaurant. They charge the restaurant a fee from 20-35%, depending on the size of the restaurant and how popular it is. For example, when you purchase a $10 brisket sandwich from Saddleback, the restaurant only revieves $6.50 – $7.00. When you consider most restaurants operate with around a 30% margin on food, and rapidly rising food costs, this essentially wipes out the entire profit, and in some cases the restaurant will lose money with every delivery order.

We appreciate everyone doing their best to support local restaurants, but suggest, if possible, to order directly from the restaurant. This small change will have a large impact on all of your favorite restaurants.

See full video of Saddleback Co-Owner, Travis Stoliker, speak on this issue: https://www.facebook.com/Saddlebackbbq/videos/553485268645703/

Smoking Cheat Sheet

A handy guide to (almost) every meat you’ll ever smoke

How to Bottle a BBQ Sauce for Retail Sale

From Idea to Retail Shelves – A Handy Cheat Sheet

Throughout this blog, we’re going to cover each step of taking a product to the retail space. Please revisit this blog whenever you are uncertain of the next step. We speak only about what we have real experience in, we hope this will make the information extremely practical.

Bottling our bbq sauce was something we always wanted to do. Truthfully the reason we hadn’t done it sooner was not for lack of effort. We had reached out to over 50 co-packing companies. The answer we were continuously given was that our order size was not going to be worth their time. We’ve now figured it out and hope to help anyone attempting to take a product from production to shelves.

THE PRODUCT

There’s no reason to go through the long grueling process if you don’t have a product that people want to buy. It’s not enough to have friends and family tell you it’s a good idea. Get out there, let strangers try it. We had a bit of an advantage here. We’re a restaurant, we have new customers coming in every day giving their input on our BBQ sauce. We felt fairly comfortable that we had something worth selling and that there would be some demand for the product.

Since most people don’t have this advantage they often skip this step. Please don’t do this, this is possibly the most important factor separating success and failure. Craft a simple prototype, don’t spend much time on this, you’re just going for a Minimum Viable Product. This way outsiders can give their input. You can see what features people enjoy and which are frivolous.

KICKSTARTER/FUNDRAISING

There are other options that will serve a similar purpose, this is just the one that we’re familiar with. It’s a fairly simple platform to use. The setup for a project takes less than a day and the payoff can be huge.

• Video – going over what motivated you to make this product, your background story, what you will use the money for.

• Attractive Rewards – for people that back you. You can do several tiers for different levels of backing (ie a different rewards for $5 pledged than for $100).

• Setting Your Goal – This is important, specifically for Kickstarter, if you set your goal to $10,000 and you reach $9,999 you don’t receive a single dollar. There’s really no reason to make your goal something you don’t think you can comfortably hit. There are no rules to how much you can go over. For example our goal was $4,500 and we raised over $16,000 (Humble Brag).

• Promoting Your Campaign – This is crucial, you need to use whatever existing audiences you have and all social media tools to your advantage. Post about the campaign on Facebook and Twitter. Use your business page (if you don’t already have one you can make one in less than 10 minutes) to talk about the campaign. Boost your posts to audiences interested in topics similar to your product.

NUTRITIONAL TESTING

This portion of the blog is specific to food products

Once you have a product you’re confident with you need to have it tested in a lab. There are companies that offer these services as well as most universities. We’re lucky enough to be down the street from the largest university in Michigan.They tested the PH level, shelf stability, and nutritional breakdown. This is all mandatory before taking your product to retail stores. This step can seem daunting, but the company or university will really guide you and take the difficulty out of it. The most difficult portion was getting MSU a recipe to the gram, it needs to be uber specific.

PRODUCTION

This step took the longest. There are seemingly infinite companies out there offering these services. Not to mention the fact that you could produce the product in house and potentially save money. If you’re going to produce in-house make sure you’re bargain shopping. Buy used, compare many prices, and don’t be scared to barter. We chose, for now, to have the production done out-of-house. This way we save labor and are able to save money since we currently don’t have the necessary equipment.

If you’re going to hire a production company, this is cold calling, you truly just need to pick up the phone and start dialing. You should weigh options, get a sample from each company, and pick whichever company best suits your situation. Remember if you find a company but are unhappy in the future for any reason you can always find a new production facility or do it yourself.

MARGINS

The retail world is a game of pennys. Everything you can do to shave from your cost helps. There are several techniques to finding ways to save on cost. You’ll likely be working with several different companies to produce your product. Every company you work with should be viewed as an opportunity to save money. You can shop quotes from other companies and use the quotes to leverage better deals.

Another technique is to try to find cheaper materials, shop around the market and see if there are better options. It should be noted if organic or biodegradable resources play into your brand you won’t have as much wiggle room here.

Buying in bulk, this is one of the most popular ways to cut your margins, it’s also one of the riskiest. If you don’t know you’ll have continuous demand for your product and you order in bulk you could be left with a warehouse full of product nobody wants. You could also buy in bulk and have legislation change requiring you to make changes to your current product. This can be very costly and time consuming. With that being said there are absolutely benefits, you’ll probably save money per unit, you won’t have to worry about reordering, and you’ll save on shipping.

LABELS

Once you figure out how you will produce your product you need to find a labeling company. This not only means finding someone to produce the labels but most likely, designing your labels. It’s important that your labels stay on brand. One great idea is to give a shout out to your local community, these are the people you have to thank for your opportunity to go on this journey. Give the labeling company some ideas and see what they come up with. Don’t spend too long on this. You may be enticed to order way more labels than you need to “save money”, I would recommend against this. Do a smaller order of labels, that way if you think of a way to improve the label down the road you won’t be sitting on tens of thousands of labels customers don’t love. They’ll need your nutrition label, which you should already have from the “Testing” step above, and a UPC which we’ll go over next.

UPC/BARCODE

This step goes hand in hand with the labels. You’ll need barcodes on the labels to sell them at the retail level. This again seems more difficult than it is. Go to www.gs1us.org, all in all it might be a 30-minute project and cost around $250. Send the information you receive from them over to your labeling company and they’ll put your barcode on your label.

Finishing

At this point, you’ll have all the necessary steps complete. That’s it. We hope you use this document as a guideline in the future.

If you found this useful, consider supporting us by purchasing a couple of bottles! 

How to Reheat Ham

At Saddleback we love to try new meats all the time. This Easter that love for trying new things led to offering a smoked Easter ham meal. Since then we’ve had an influx of questions asking the best method to reheat the leftovers. We’re giving out our best tips!

How to Reheat a Whole Ham

1. Wrap entire ham in plastic wrap
2. Put ham in deep aluminum pan
3. Put about a 1/2 inch of water in the pan
4. Securely wrap the entire pan with aluminum foil
5. Place pan in oven at 350f
6. Check after 45 minutes, you’re looking for internal temperature of 165F
7. If not done, place back in oven, checking every 15 minutes
8. Enjoy!

How to Reheat a Portion of a Ham (1/3lb – 1lb)

1. Place ham in small sautee pan
2. Put stove on medium heat
3. Cook each side evenly for 2-3 minutes
4. Enjoy

How to Reheat a Thanksgiving Turkey

Every Thanksgiving Saddleback offers a fresh smoked turkey. This inevitably leads to questions about how to reheat the bird for later use. We’re giving out our best tips, please use them and let us know what you think!

Reheating a Whole Turkey

1. Put whole turkey in deep aluminum pan
2. Add about and inch of water
3. (Optional) Put a small amount of chicken stock in the water
4. Put in oven at 300F
5. Check after 45 minutes, you’re looking for internal temperature of 165F
6. If not done, place back in oven checking every 15 minutes

Reheating a Small Portion (1/3lb – 1lb)

1. Put sliced turkey in small sautee pan on stove top
2. Put stove on medium heat
3. Add a small portion of butter
4. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or desired temp
5. Enjoy!

How to Reheat Prime Rib

Prime Rib has been an ongoing special for Saddleback over the years. We try to offer it 3-4 times a year. It is usually sold in rather large portions, which ultimately leads to leftovers. When trying to reheat your left over prime rib you need to be careful to do it the right way or it will lead to drying it out and ruining the best qualities of the meat. We have a process for this that we’re confident will be as close as possible to as enjoying it fresh.

One of the most important aspects when reheating prime rib is evaluating your portion size. This is going to lead to dramitically different procedures.

Reheating a Whole Prime Rib:

1. Wrap the entire cut in plastic wrap
2. Place in large pan
3. Fill pan with about 3/4 inch of water
4. Securely wrap entire pan in aluminum foil
5. Place in 350F oven for 30 minutes
6. Check for internal temp of 130F
7. If not done, place back in oven, checking every 10 minutes

Reheating a Slice of Prime Rib

1. Place skillet on stove over medium heat
2. Pour small amount of olive oil in skillet
3. Cook on each side for 5 minutes
4. Enjoy!

How to Reheat a Pasty

Being a restaurant in Michigan, it would be a crime not to try our hand at pasties. Over the past two months, they have been especially popular. Many customers have been freezing their extra pasties to save for a later date. This led to questions about best practices for reheating. Here’s our quick guide. 

Frozen Pasty:

1. Wrap in aluminum foil
2. Place in 350f oven for 35 minutes
3. Let cool for 5 minutes, enjoy!

Thawed Pasty:

1. Wrap in aluminum foil
2. Place in 350f oven for 15 minutes
3. Let cool for 5 minutes, enjoy!

How to Reheat Pork Shoulders/ Pork Butt / Pulled Pork

Pork shoulders, often times called pork butts, are the most common cut of pork for a bbq pulled pork. We’ll go over our preferred methods.

For Whole Shoulders:

1. Wrap shouldler in plastic wrap
2. Place in deep pan
3. Fill pan with about 3/4 inch of water
4. cover pan securely with aluminum foil
5. Place in 350f oven for one hour
6. Looking for 165f, internal temperature, if not there after one hour, place back in, check every 15 minutes

For Already Pulled Pork:

1. Place pulled pork on stove under medium heat
2. Put small amount of water in skillet to add moisture
3. (Optional) add your favorite bbq sauce
4. Cook for about 10 minutes or until you reach desired temp.

Click Here for More Information on Z Grills

Click Here to Purchase a Z Grill and Take Your Skills to the Next Level