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One of the things that I love about bbq is taking inexpensive cuts of meat, that take a low and slow approach to get the most out of, and turning them into something truly amazing. Cuts like brisket and a pork shoulder need gentle heat for hours to become tender, juicy and flavorful. If you were to cook them like a steak on the grill you would be horribly disappointed with an extremely tough piece of meat that you could hardly chew.

What if you took a premium grade of meat and cooked it low and slow for hours over a fire produced by burning a blend of cherry and hickory wood? Great question! We had done that very thing for our anniversary the last two years when we smoked Wagyu brisket from Snake River Farms. What makes Wagyu so special? Does it really make that much of a difference compared to anything else that I have tried? If it so good why don’t I see it around?

Before we get into the different grades, let’s talk about marbling and how that affects the quality of beef in the different grades. Marbling consists of the amount of fat in the lean sections of the beef, like a ribeye. It’s important because this marbled fat holds most of the flavor and once it heats up it renders down and makes the meat tender. If you see a steak at your meat counter and it’s bright red with little or no white “marbling”, then it would be safe to say that it won’t be as tender or as flavorful as the one that has speckled “marbling” throughout.

The USDA has three different grades: Select, Choice, Prime. Select has little or no marbling and makes up most of the beef that you see at your local grocery store. Choice has noticeable marbling, but not a lot and you will see a noticeable difference between select and choice with flavor and tenderness. Prime has significant marbling, and only 3% of the beef produced in the U.S. make up this grade. Usually, only restaurants have access to this grade and you hardly ever see this around.

Now we get to Wagyu, which is a grade higher than even prime. Wagyu is a type of cattle from Japan that have been imported to the U.S. and crossbred with Angus (a type of cattle found in the U.S.) to help it to adapt to our climate and thrive. Wagyu has more marbling than Prime and if you see a Wagyu steak it looks like it’s half fat and half meat making it the most tender, juicy, and flavorful steak that you have ever tried.

So what does all that mean for us at Saddleback? Well first off when we get these things delivered it’s like in the movies during those love scenes where it gets really quiet. Things move very slow and two people are “running” towards each other almost skipping with some sappy music playing. There is a slight glow around the delivery driver, wow things got weird. Needless to say, it’s a big deal around here. Anyways when you compare our CAB brisket to one of these bad boys, the first thing you notice is that fat cap on top. It’s so supple that you swear that you could use it as a pillow (yes I have had that very thought). Flip it over and you can see that it’s almost a 50/50 blend of fat and brisket.

Cutting one of these guys is so much fun. The juice just runs out of it and it’s so tender you barely have to use your knife. We only season the Wagyu with a salt/pepper/garlic powder blend to let the beef flavor really come through. I know that they cost more, but if you love our brisket, you have got to try the Wagyu. It’s like a slice of heaven on a plate.

Author: Drew Piotrowski

Instagram can be a powerful tool for letting consumers know about your restaurant. When used effectively it can take your establishment to the next level, driving greater sales, garnering a more engaged clientele and bringing new customers through your door. Here are five tips to keep in mind when using your restaurant’s Instagram account.

Photo Quality – the pictures you post are a direct reflection of your establishment. Make sure the photos are high quality, iPhone cameras work great. When thinking of what to post restaurants have a distinct advantage, it’s no secret we love to look at pictures of food. Here’s your chance to show off your cuisine. How appetizing can you make it look? With that said don’t forget to show off the more personal side of your restaurant, mix in pictures of your wait staff, chef, and happy customers.

Description – the description is one of the most crucial elements to getting your message across. Here’s your chance to tell a story, be comical and clever, announce an upcoming event, whatever you can come up with. Constantly test new strategies to find what works best and keep the content fresh.

Targeting – Instagram (read Facebook) gives you access to powerful tools to reach your target market. You can use them to pinpoint geographic locations, interests, age groups, and genders. This allows you to display posts to folks that aren’t following your page, maybe have never heard of your restaurant, but fit your usual customer’s mold. You can even use this to find new customer segments you never knew existed.

The Regularity of Posting – a popular route is having weekly campaigns, maybe some type of customer of the week, or featured menu item. This gives you something to post with regularity as well as creating a sense of familiarity for your followers.

Get your customers to help you – people love to take pictures of their food, especially when it looks good. Encourage your patrons to share the pictures they take on social media. This is one of the best ways to reach new audiences.

If you keep these tips in mind and explore new ideas you can be truly surprised by Instagram’s impact on your business. It’s an amazing tool, that is relatively inexpensive to use, with nearly unlimited upside potential. Play around with your account, if something doesn’t work try something else. Most importantly have fun while doing it, it will reflect on your company’s page!

Saddleback is happy to offer our customers a Rewards Program.  We rolled it out in August of 2017, so there is a chance that you may already be signed up. If you need to sign up for Saddleback Rewards Program just click here! The loyalty program is pretty simple.

When you make a purchase at Saddleback you are given the option to enroll in the program. All you have to do is enter your email address at the point of sale when completing your purchase.  If you use a credit card, your rewards program will be linked to that credit card. That way in the future whenever you use the same credit card you will automatically accumulate new rewards points and be given the redeem the rewards when you've accumulated enough points.  It's pretty simple and it's our way of saying, Thank You! 

Saddleback BBQ Rewards Program FAQ's 

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We have made claims in our first blog that we are a craft bbq restaurant. With the type of smokers that we use, making everything from scratch and using only the finest ingredients we believe that we deliver on that concept. Most regional bbq is usually influenced by what is typically abundant in their region. For example, Texas is known for their beef brisket due to their abundance of cattle.The Carolina’s and Georgia are known for their production of pork so they, in turn, brought us pulled pork and 2 types of sauce, a mustard based bbq sauce and a vinegar based bbq sauce.

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In Michigan, we have 2 things that we have in abundance that we can use in our version of bbq, craft beer, and our diverse agriculture. Michigan is host to some of the biggest and best craft beer breweries in the nation. From Bell’s, Founders, Dark Horse, etc. we are privy to some of the most flavorful beers around. From an easy drinker like Oberon to a full flavored stout like KBS from Founders to one of the top I.P.A.’s in the world like Two Hearted from Bell’s we can honestly say that we have some of the best beers in the world right in our backyard. Lot’s of flavors from the beer work really well in bbq sauce. Stouts can add a depth of flavor to a sauce unlike anything else. Hops from an I.P.A. work really well in bringing out spices in a spicy bbq sauce. Needless to say, we are fortunate to have a lot of options and we have a lot of fun trying to come up new recipes every day.

Michigan is also home to the second most diverse agriculture in the nation and one of the biggest suppliers of tart cherries, blueberries, apples, carrots, etc. Who doesn’t love when cherries are being sold on the side of the road up north? I, for one, am a big fan of fall when apples come into season. Nothing like some fresh apple cider and donuts. Since both cherries and apples have a sweet, tart flavor profile they work really well in a complex bbq sauce. I really like a sweet and savory bbq sauce and those two fruits are the perfect backdrop to a great sauce.

We have taken a lot of influence from the different regions of BBQ across America, but we also felt it was important for us to break out and do our own thing. Michigan BBQ. Since craft beer and our diverse agriculture really pair well with typical BBQ flavors we know that we can deliver on our promise of Michigan BBQ. Our first attempt at Michigan BBQ will be with Oberon Chicken. Nothing says Michigan more than Oberon, heck we even celebrate this beer being released with its own special day. As if we really need a reason to celebrate after not seeing the sun from late December to March. We think that the orange zest and the bitter finish work really well in a mustard based sauce and really enhance our smoked chicken. And nothing says sunny day more than Oberon beer and bbq chicken.

Oberon chicken starts with our take on beer can chicken. We have a rack that we custom built for our smokers enabling us to produce about 10 chickens at a time (yes we take this very seriously). Next, we put a half and half mixture of our pickle brine and actual Oberon beer in each can to put inside of each chicken. This accomplishes a couple of things. First, the chicken will steam from the inside making it juicier than if you were to just smoke it. Second, the pickle brine makes the meat more tender due to the acidity of the brine. Thirdly, you can pick up a little of the beer and the brine with its sweet, tangy flavor. Next, we season each bird with a mixture of salt, black pepper, and thyme to offer a savory element. Lastly, we take our Oberon sauce that is our yellow sauce infused with orange zest, orange juice, and a little honey to round it out. Now I have to at least mention that these birds take a 2 to 3-hour nap in our smoker to get another flavor element to our chicken. Who said that chicken was bland? Definitely not this version.

I mentioned earlier the term Michigan BBQ and in the next few months, we will expand on what that means to us. Next up will be our Apple BBQ sauce, so look for our next blog when we explain the process of making this sauce. It’s got a lot going on.

Here is a list of some of our favorite Wedding Reception Venue’s nearl Lansing, Michigan. If you are in need of a Caterer for your Wedding, we hope you’ll consider Saddleback BBQ Catering!

Michigan Princess
Lansing, MI
Capacity: Up to 300

UrbanBeat Event Center
Lansing, MI
Capacity: Up to 150

Serendipity Farms LLC
Blanchard, MI
Capacity: Up to 250

Grand Ledge Opera House
Grand Ledge, MI
Capacity: Up to 250

Okemos Conference Center
Okemos, MI
Capacity: Up to 200

Grand Loft
Grand Ledge, MI
Capacity: Up to 200

Brookshire Inn And Golf Club
Williamston, MI
Capacity: Up to 300

The MSU Union
East Lansing, MI
Capacity: Up to 250

Peacock Road Family Farm
Laingsburg, MI
Capacity: Up to 250

Old Town Marquee
Lansing, MI
Capacity: Up to 200

Graham Banquet Center
Laingsburg, MI
Capacity: Up to 300

The Huntington Club
East Lansing, MI
Capacity: 300+

Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center
East Lansing, MI
Capacity: 300+

Ingham County Fairgrounds
Mason, MI
Capacity: 300+

An Orchard Wedding at The Country Mill
Charlotte, MI
Capacity: 300+

The English Inn
Eaton Rapids, MI
Capacity: Up to 200

Charlar Place Events and Catering
Holt, MI
Capacity: Up to 300

Green Gardens Farm with Greenhouse + Farmhouse
Battle Creek, MI
Capacity: Up to 150

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– If you love Rachel as much as we do, take a moment to vote for her in The Lansing City Pulse Top of the Town Awards! She is nominated for “Best Restaurant Wait Staff person“. While you are there, we’d love if you could throw Saddleback a vote for Best Dining in the Category, BBQ!

Service is something that we take very seriously at Saddleback. Even though we are a fast casual restaurant, we try to go that extra mile to make sure that our customers enjoy their meal and they have a good time while they are here. That’s why Rachel is so important to everything that we do.

If you’ve ever been to Saddleback, odds are you know Rachel. Rachel is a people person. She has an incredible ability to see a face and remember a name. Rachel knows almost every customer by name, what they like to order, and probably the type of bbq sauce they enjoy. Not to mention that she loves everything Saddleback (she even has our logo tattooed on her leg!) making her our hypeman like the Hip Hop music that she loves so much.

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Without further ado, let’s allow Rachel to give you a behind the scenes look at what goes into our customer service experience:

How do you feel about being the Saddleback Hypeman?

First off, being dubbed the SB Hypeman is much cooler than cheerleader- but i guess I fit the bill no matter which way you cut it. I love my job. I also take the service we provide very seriously.

Why is customer service so important to you?

Maybe it’s because I am a very picky customer. I am the girl that orders her food with substitutions or extra of something. It’s not unusual for me to request extra plates. Don’t fill my coffee too full because I need to add ice (you may put too much or too little so it’s easier if I just do it)… yep… I am basically high maintenance and difficult.

That’s funny. So besides for the fact that you yourself are a difficult customer, why does it matter to you so much how the customer feels?

I am highly empathetic. I try to treat others how I would like to be treated. Saddleback is my home outside of my home. If you are coming to my home I want you to not only feel welcome but that your presence is important and impactful – yes, YOU impact me, the people I work with and the small business we are trying to push forward. We have a solid product that I not only love but believe in- this actually makes the sales portion of what I do easy. My transparency works to an advantage in Saddleback because you would know if I didn’t love it; it would be writen all over me.

It’s pretty obvious to anyone that comes in the door that you love your job. What makes you enjoy it so much?

I could literally spend all day listing a million reasons why I love the people I work with/for – they are all unique, and each one brings something to the table that cannot be duplicated. I have the most solid team of people by my side. I would put our product and our service up against anyone and have total faith in whatever the outcome would be. Saddleback is a business, but it is also a family. Sometimes we drive each other nuts and make each other mad but at the end of the day family is always first and we have each other’s back.

How big is the Saddleback Team?

SB is small… we have a dining room with 7 tables if you include the window seating, our staff is a grand total of 12: overnight pitmasters, Daytime Pitmasters/Chefs, FOH staff (Front of House), managers, an owner-operator, and another owner off site managing social media & marketing. I am amazed at the things we accomplish and yet I have come to expect nothing less….

What does your position entail at Saddleback?

So here I am, struggling to give you the information on the job I do and the roll I play. Here is what I can tell you: I am the first face I want you to see when you come in the door. I will do whatever I can to make sure my customers have what they want- not just because they deserve it but because I believe in what we do. I know that everything is made from scratch and with love. I have watched the people I work with play around with flavor profiles and recipe. I have seen the hours that they put in. I know that they will never hand me a product that is anything less than top of the line. All of these things make my job easy. Yes, I am bias, and understandably so…

How long have you been with Saddleback?

I started with SB around a week before we opened. I have watched us grow and evolve. It has not always been easy but nothing worthwhile is. I have seen all of your faces, learned your names, what you prefer – if you get the same thing every time or if you’re willing to play lunch time roulette and let me pick what you eat (yes, I have a customer who comes in regularly, lets me choose anything I want, and asks zero questions), I know about your family and how big your kids are. If your mother has been sick or if you have recently, these are the things I pick up on. I am attached to this Saddleback and our customers emotionally no matter which way I cut it and I love that about where I work. I love what I do. Where else can you connect with another human, even if only for a few minutes and impact their day?? In the 20 min I see my customers I am given the opportunity to make their day a little brighter because what is better than food made with love (probably why BBQ is referred to as soul food) and human connection? I sort of feel like I am the one who is winning, because you all have helped me find a place that fits me and that I fit!

What’s the relation to Saddleback and Hip-hop?

I mean if you know anything about me there are 3 things I love above most anything: my family, music, and hip hop culture. I mean we have a day dedicated to hip hop and that was something I made a contribution to. The reason I bring up Wu Tang Wing Wednesdays is because I am taken seriously and my ideas actually are not only considered but sometimes put into action. My voice matters to Saddleback. At a minimum I can make sure to give that back to the customers I encounter daily. I want to let them know they matter and we are grateful for the support! The only way I know how to do that is to do my best to make our customers feel welcome and give the best service I know how to give.

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I remember the first time that I heard the term “burnt ends” when I started learning about BBQ. At first, I thought the term was referencing something that had gone terribly wrong in the smoker that would never yield anything close to being classified as edible. Oh, how I was wrong! Now they are my favorite thing we have on the menu, and from the lines that form on Fridays, I think that you would agree. Let’s get into the 411 about burnt ends and see what the fuss is all about.

What are burnt ends?
Burnt ends traditionally come from the point end of the brisket that butchers would trim away because they were fattier, tougher and not as sought after. Since butchers are trained not to waste anything, most would save these pieces for themselves as a treat because they had so much marbling (fat=flavor) and tasted delicious. Kansas City was a meat packing district and a hub for the railroad and this is one of the reasons that Kansas City is so ingrained in the B.B.Q. culture. They would break down the steers and ship out the cuts that would bring back the most in sales and they would smoke what was leftover and sell it locally. Since the flat was more likely to sell, they were left with the point end of the brisket. The point end was also the tastiest part due to the fat content, so they would treat themselves to a little snack. Also, since the brisket would take longer to cook and break down, all of the marbling the point end would have quite a bit more bark which is darker in color (but not burnt) crust on the outside of the brisket, hence the name burnt ends.

Burnt ends have evolved over the years and most interpretations take parts of the whole brisket (not just the point) and cube them up, season them a second time, add a sweet and savory ketchup based sauce and smoke them a second time. That’s exactly what we do at Saddleback BBQ. We save up portions of the point and flat and season them with our brisket rub and coat them in our red sauce so we can smoke them for a second time for about a total of 2 hours. They’re a delicacy. Because we have to save up all week to make them, we can only have them on the menu once a week, otherwise we would run them everyday. We feature Burnt ends every Friday.

Burnt Ends are something we take great pride in. People line up at 11:00 and we have a line out the door until they run out. We try to have enough to get through the lunch rush (1:30pm) and we usually come pretty close. Make sure you can get here early, because they go quick.

– Matt Gillett

Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty or likelihood that a customer will recommend you to a friend. It is used by most of the Fortune 500 companies. NPS is a simple loyalty metric that was introduced in a 2003 Harvard Business Review article.

We use NPS as a tool at Saddleback BBQ to gauge how well we are doing with our customers, how we can improve, what we are doing well and how likely our customers are to recommend us to their friends. Obviously, how likely someone is to recommend us to a friend is of critical importance to any business, especially a restaurant. The vast majority of our growth is from word of mouth. People having a good experience and sharing it with their friends.

NPS is a simple question and the responded answers with a rating from 0 to 10. The question we use is: “How likely are you to recommend Saddleback BBQ to someone you know?”

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We use a Google Spreadsheet but there are many tools that have been developed for NPS measurement. Delighted is our personal favorite.

When looking at the results, a rating of 9 or 10 means that the person is a Promoter. A rating of 7 or 8 means the person is Neutral and a rating from 0 – 6 means the person is a Detractor.

Your NPS score can be as low as -100 or as high as 100. An NPS greater than 50 is considered excellent. Apple is reported to have an NPS score of around 70-80. Comcast’s NPS score is said to be around -10. (I’m actually surprised it isn’t lower!)

Net Promote Score is calculated by getting the percentage of Promoters and Detractors. Then you subtract the Detractor Percentage from the Promoter Percentage. So if you had 70% promoters and 20% Detractors. Your NPS would be 50 (70 – 20). You can use this handy NPS calculator from the team at Delighted.

At Saddleback BBQ we have had a NPS as low as 48 and as high as 80. Our most recent NPS survey measured in at 78.

In our surveys, immediately following the NPS measurement, we ask an open ended question. “Please explain why you provided the score that you did above.” This open ended question provides a tremendous amount of valuable feedback. In our most recent survey we learned some of the following things that our customers would like us to address:

• Another location in Meridian. (Hopefully on the way!)

• Wu Tang Wings all week long

• Lighter side options. Maybe salads.

• More special’s

• A larger location

• Less congestion around the cash register

• Dinner options

• Delivery! (We are working on it!)

• Liquor / Beer

Some things to consider about Bias…
One of the challenges with any survey is making sure that you construct and deliver the survey in a way that minimizes Bias. One bias that we have in our NPS measurement is “Selection Bias”. We send the survey to people that have subscribed to our email newsletter. Obviously this is a biased group that likes our restaurant enough to subscribe. Ideally we want to change that but we don’t have an easy way to do it now. What we would like to do, when we change Point Of Sale Systems, is to put an NPS survey on the bottom of our receipts. That is not possible at this time. Another problem is that we have a pretty small sample size. The receipt idea that we mentioned above should be able to solve that.

The final bias that we want to mention is Self Selection Bias. This bias is pretty hard to overcome. Basically it means that our data is a bit biased because people have to choose to fill out the survey. They “self select” themselves. This inherently means that we are not measuring everyone. This bias will be really hard for us to overcome but we are looking at ways to address it.

I hope that this article has helped you. If you have any questions or comments please let us know on our Facebook Page. Thanks!

Travis Stoliker – Saddleback BBQ

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Did you know that it takes over 9 days to prep our collard greens? Or that we make our own bacon, sausage, salsa, etc. The term “Scratch Kitchen” is thrown around a lot nowdays but we find that few people outside of the restaurant industry actually know what it means. Being a “Scratch Kitchen” takes a lot of work and we do it because we love what we do. To give you an example of what it takes to be a scratch kitchen we want to show you one of our processes: Making the Saddleback Collard Greens.

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First, let’s explain what collard greens are and why they can be difficult to cook. Collard greens are a green leafy vegetable that are usually cultivated in colder months after the first frost has fallen. They are in the same family as cabbage and broccoli and are basically big greens leaves with long green stems. They look like something that Adam might have used to cloth him and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They are very tough and because of this they take a little knowledge on how to cook them and lots of time. They are a Southern dish that consists of a salted pork product (bacon, ham hocks, etc.), chicken broth, apple cider vinegar and crushed red pepper flakes. Here is a rundown on how we go about making this southern delicacy:

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(Above: Collard Green’s Arriving)

How you trim these guys is of the utmost importance. You have to cut down the stems into small pieces because these are what takes the longest. The stalks get cut down into ⅛ inch slices, think of the width of a tick tack, and the leaves are cut into inch by inch squares. Breakdown all of the greens that you plan on cooking first so that you can just drop them into the pot once you are ready for them.

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(Above: Collard Green Stalks Being Cut Down)

Next we cut our house cured bacon (at home any store bought bacon would work) into the same size pieces as the stems of the greens and we cook them in a pot large enough to fit all of your ingredients. Since the greens cook down and reduce in size by half, if you put them in a pot uncooked and they fit – you are all set. We cook the bacon till it gets slightly crispy and most of the fat has rendered (melted) out of it. Once that is done we take our diced red onion and garlic and add them to the pot. These are also cut into the same size pieces as the collard green stems. We cook these until the onions are translucent (see through) and then we add just the stems of the greens and cook them for about a 15 minutes or so to deglaze the pan (removing all of the brown off the bottom of the pan) and also give the stems a head start.

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Once this is done we add our chicken stock, apple cider vinegar and crushed red pepper flakes and let all of this come to a light boil. Then we add all of the rest of the greens and let these cook down for hours. Make sure that you keep stirring these every 15 minutes so they cook evenly. They are done once the stems are fork tender.

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(Above: House Cured Bacon or Pork Belly. Cured for 7 days)

Usually we cut our greens the day ahead because it takes over an hour to cut up a whole case. We are limited in space to get this done and it’s tough to do if we are busy. All told the second day takes about a total of 4 hours. Half hour total to cook the bacon, onions and garlic and then 3 plus hours for the greens to get tender.

Spending all of this time might seem absurd to some, but like how we smoke our BBQ, we truly believe that the time we take is necessary to provide you with the type of BBQ experience you are looking for. One that takes pride in the process and one that takes time and patience. Know that all of our food is a labor of love and that everything is truly made from scratch. Hopefully this highlights our process and commitment to you.

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We truly believe that one of the reasons we have enjoyed success is because of our awesome staff. To help illustrate this point, we will be highlighting staff members in some of our blog posts. We will look behind the scenes at what makes Rachel so good as the first person you see through our doors and the great service that she provides everyday. We will also show some of the special projects that are being headed up by some of our team members. For example, our garden project.

First up is Mike Romblom, our resident garden genius, who heads up our garden program. Mike is a highly talented individual who not only is our garden expert, but he plays drums for Odds Fish. Odd Fish is a local band that is competing in the Homegrown Throwdown January 27th. So make sure to check them out and show your support.

Without further ado here is Mike:

Here at Saddleback, serving the freshest, highest quality food isn’t just a slogan; it’s how we operate. From our never frozen ribs to our fresh-cut fries, we strive for freshness in all facets. So it would make sense that we would have a garden program to ensure the produce you eat here at Saddleback has been carefully attended to from seedlings to table, to our quality standards.

Last year, we used the REO Town community garden to grow tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, squash, and of course Ghost peppers, for use in our dishes. This year, we have acquired a nearby plot that will be used exclusively for Saddleback. This will allow us to expand our garden operations to a larger scale. Saddleback Farms, as I like to call it.

This new plot comes with an interesting yet advantageous problem to fix: it’s a city plot, with a condemned house soon to be torn down. Which means…..fill dirt. Not the highest quality stuff for trying to grow good jalapeño’s. With bad dirt for growing, you have few options: fertilize until your wallet is empty, or composting to add nutrients and to amend the soil. Luckily, we’re a restaurant with plenty of food scraps and waste, which leads us to…….

COMPOSTING!

This year we will using Vermicomposting to generate our compost. Vermicomposting is the process of using worms to eat and break down food waste into usable compost. This suits us well because this is a comparatively quick process to regular composting. Our food waste can be turned into fertilizer in a few months, which means come spring we will have a good amount to start out with. And with a constant supply, we we’ll be able to use the compost throughout the growing season, helping to ensure a quality harvest.

How does this happen? Quite simply, worms eat the organic materials we put in the compost bins, and they excrete a nutrient rich ball of dirt like stuff. That stuff is what we are looking for. By not throwing our food scraps away, we reduce the amount of our trash going to a landfill, and give the worms food to make compost with.

What happens then? We’ll mix that nutrient rich excrement with our existing soil, and place it around the base of our plants along with some mulch. This way the plants will get the nutrients they need, and we don’t have to rely on commercial fertilizer.

What can be composted?
Just about anything that isn’t meat or dairy. Veggie scraps, onion skins, egg shells, lemon slices; the list goes on. Even paper towels and napkins can be composted; in fact they provide an important source of carbon. You want your ratio to be 2 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Nitrogen would be your food scraps.

So now you know, that when you come into Saddleback, you’ll be getting the freshest possible ingredients, and all of our food waste goes into making these ingredients through our composting and gardening programs. Just one of the many ways we are striving to become leaner and greener, while still serving some of the most delicious proteins in the Midwest.

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Since we will have more than doubled the size of our garden we will now be able to keep up production on a few key items, like tomatoes and cucumbers, that we are not able to last year. Also, we plan on expanding on the numbers of items that we grow and include:

• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Collard Greens
• Carrots
• Aromatics: Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Fennel, Cilantro

I will update you on this project as we get further along this year, so follow us on Facebook and other social media platforms. We are excited for the opportunity to use the County Land Bank Garden Program and provide our customers with the food that we always promise to deliver. Food that takes time, patience, and quality that you work so hard for and deserve.

Wood, the most important spice in the world of BBQ. Build an efficient fire, burn quality hardwood, use wood that has been properly seasoned and you have a recipe for quality BBQ.

What’s an efficient fire for BBQ?
Before you select the proper wood, you need to understand the importance of an efficient fire. By building an efficient fire you burn off all of the impurities in the smoke and you are left with the best smoke to flavor your food. An efficient fire for BBQ is one that has sufficient oxygen to burn the wood as completely as possible. If you have dampers on your smoker, leave them wide open. If you have a door to your firebox, leave it open. By letting as much oxygen as possible to your fires, they will burn hot and complete. When you look at the smoke coming out of your chimney it should look almost colorless except for a light blue hue. If you see white smoke it means that you have larger particles that have not been burned off in the form of creosote and impure carbon. Since the particles are larger, they reflect more light and it shows up in your chimney as white smoke. Blue smoke is made up of vapor, which does not reflect much light and is almost colorless. That blue smoke contains all of the flavor compounds of good BBQ smoke. We could go into much more detail about this, but it gets a little geeky, so if you have any questions about anything in our blogs please leave a comment on the Saddleback BBQ Facebook page. Nothing makes us happier than to talk BBQ.

How does your primary heat source impact your wood selection?
We all know technology keeps moving forward (even though I can’t keep up) and of course technology has impacted BBQ over the years. In the beginning, smoked BBQ was all done with wood to provide the heat to cook the food in addition to providing the smoked flavor. This process is traditional and we personally think it provides the best possible BBQ. However, it can be very difficult to control the heat and flavor when you are using wood as your heat source. It requires us to have someone monitoring the fire at all hours of the night. For example, as I write this blog post (12/14/2016) I just returned from stoking the fire at 1:23am in 12 degree temperatures.

Nowadays, most BBQ smokers use gas, charcoal or electricity as the heat source. Then they add in wood pellets, wood chips, logs or sawdust for the flavoring. Since the heat source is more controlled in these smokers, it is much easier to control the temperature. This makes it much easier to manage and in most cases doesn’t require constant monitoring of the fire. Like Ronco used to say, you just- “Set it and forget it!”

The reason we mention all this is because the primary heat source of your smoker has a big impact on what kind of wood you want to select.

What is seasoned wood for BBQ?
Since we are using wood as our heat source and for flavor, we prefer seasoned wood. Wood that has been dead for a period of 6 months or longer depending on the species. It is difficult for us to find the good seasoned wood we are looking for because almost all of the other BBQ joints in this great state use green wood in their smokers. Which means that the wood supply doesn’t have long enough to dry out and be seasoned like we prefer.

Why do these smokers use green wood? As we discussed above, they don’t need to burn wood for heat, most of these smokers use either gas or electricity for heat, and because of this they need lots of smoke to flavor their food. Green wood contains a lot of moisture which makes it burn inefficiently. This produces a lot of white smoke and burns longer to give them the flavor they need. But since we here at Saddleback are using the wood for both heat and flavor, we prefer seasoned wood that has been dead for a while. The important part here is to know your smoker and that will help you pick the right wood.

What type of wood do we use and why?
First things first, Uncle Remus: No, you can’t use lumber scraps in your smoker. That crap is treated with chemicals.

In general you want to find a good hardwood without a lot of sap. Nut and fruit woods are great. Since we are in Lansing Michigan, in our perfect world we would use all cherry wood. It produces a light, sweet smoke that we love. The challenge is, it can be hard to find in large quantities seasoned for 6 months or more. Typically, we use a blend of cherry and either hickory or white oak. Hickory and white oak burn clean and produce a nice even heat because they are very dense. They have a little more powerful taste, but they are offset in our other choice of cherry. Basically, in the BBQ world, you use whatever is readily available in your area. In Texas they use a lot of post oak, in Georgia they use a lot of peach, in Michigan we tend to use a lot of cherry and apple. #PureMichigan!

Sure we spend a lot of time talking about spice rubs and their importance, but the importance of good smoke vs. bad smoke will have a bigger impact on your food. The type of wood that you burn, how much moisture it has, and how much oxygen reach your fire will make all of the difference in the world in creating good BBQ. Craft BBQ

~Matt Gillett of Saddleback BBQ. #RespectThePig

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Ribs are something we take very seriously at Saddleback and they are one of our most popular items. That last statement makes us very happy because they are kind of polarizing. Which cut to use? How tender should they be? Dry rubbed and or sauced? These are questions everyone asks and almost everyone has an opinion on.

At Saddleback, we have quite a bit of experience cooking ribs (one of our pitmasters, Brad, has been cooking ribs for over 20 years, old fart) and early on fall-off-the-bone tender was how you judged how well they were cooked. At Saddleback, we cook our ribs till they are tender and still have a little texture. Since Ribs are in the smoker for so long and since it’s such a dry environment for the ribs, if we cooked them till they fell off the bone they would be dry and tasteless – unservable ribs. Instead, we cook them till they are tender, have a little chew to them, and in our humble opinion, the juiciest ribs around.

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We use baby back ribs for our ribs, not the more traditional spare rib. Let’s go into a little more detail on each one and further explain our choice of baby backs. Baby back ribs are ribs cut from the back of the hog and baby refers to the ones that are smaller closer to the back of the hog. Hence the name ‘baby back ribs’. These ribs are more tender, have less fat and are generally meatier ribs. Spare ribs are from the bottom of the hog, are a little tougher, have more fat and are generally not as meaty as the baby backs. Spare ribs have great flavor and are the more traditional cut for bbq since they react better to the low and slow mantra. The fat helps protect the ribs from the long cook time, have a great flavor because of that fat and are very good ribs overall. Why would we pick baby backs over spare ribs? Well baby backs are more popular in the Midwest, but more importantly we believe that we have the skill set to best take advantage with our knowledge of our smoker and experience in cooking them. Also, our pork rub really helps us to achieve the results that have people coming back day after day.

Rubs are important for ribs because, for one, they really need that spice rub to bring out that great pork flavor. More importantly we need to create that great bark to help seal in all of those juices in the baby backs. Like I talked about in our Pork Shoulder blog, our pork rub has a sugar component that melts over the long cook and creates a good stickiness that helps attract that blue smoke, creates that crispy coating that seals in all of that flavor and juiciness. We serve our ribs dry, with no sauce, so you can get that great pork flavor we all love so much. Our Red Sauce is a great compliment to our ribs with its sweet, savory taste profile that accentuates the rib without overpowering the natural taste of the rib.

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