Harry Soo BBQ Class knowledge


 
F

Frank Licata

TVWBB Fan
Has anyone that has been to Harry's class care to share some of the bbq knowledge that you learned? I'm not asking for his secrets or how to win a competition as I'm just a backyard smoker kind of guy. But besides the basic knowledge from his q&a and what I watched on pitmasters I'm just really curious how he does things. I would love to attend his class but I'm on the other side of the US and realistically it's just not in the cards.
 
I attended the class in Alameda, CA which he conducts at a Hampton Inn hotel conference room and parking lot. He usually teaches out of his home in Diamond Bar, CA which is just outside of Los Angeles.

You arrive early, before 8:00am. Class is scheduled to end at 2:30pm but can run longer. Breakfast snacks and coffee are provided. Harry starts cooking at midnight, because the briskets and pork butts need that head-start to be finished during the class.

He does a section on food safety, rubs, sauces, and injections. Then he continues with trimming, seasoning, and cooking pork butt and brisket.

In the next section, he covers trimming, seasoning, and cooking spareribs and baby backs.

In the next section, he covers trimming, seasoning and cooking tri-tip, chicken, and sausage. He also prepares his baked bean recipe during this slot.

Next up is preparing ahi tuna and his coleslaw recipe.

All this is building toward lunch at around 1:00pm. Everything you've seen during class is served in large quantities, and extras are sent home in to-go boxes. Leftover rub is divided into Ziplocs and you're sent home with some. You're given a homework assignment to cook something using the rub in the coming two weeks and post the results on Harry's class Facebook page. At the end of the day, you get a certificate of participation and a class photo. Attendees also receive a SYD logo apron.

So that's sort of the structure of the class. A lot of it is lecture and up-close demonstration by Harry. For example, it's not practical for everyone to trim a whole brisket, so everyone gathers around the table and watches Harry do it and explain a basic backyard trim and then a competition trim. For something like baby back ribs, he'll demonstrate how he prepares and seasons them, then he'll have everyone try their hand at seasoning a slab. When it comes time to foil the ribs, everyone has a chance to step up and apply brown sugar, agave nectar, and juice to a slab of ribs and wrap them in foil. So it's hands-on whenever possible.

During the rub portion, Harry will discuss components of the rub and you'll sample it. Same for the sauce portion, but he'll also have some commercial sauces that you can taste and compare styles with his all-purpose version that is created in class.

You do gather around the cookers at various points to check on the status of the meats, to observe how crust forms on meat, and he does a quick segment on how to build a fire in the WSM using the Minion Method. He also discusses smoke woods and type/quantities used.

It's just a jam-packed day, and hard to summarize it all!

Harry is such an enthusiastic guy and has such passion and love for barbecue, it's hard to communicate that in words. You have to experience it first-hand. I would encourage anyone interested to try his Backyard Pitmaster Class. It's worth the time and effort and expense, definitely a great memory for me!

I hope others will chime-in and add to my comments, correct errors, etc.

Best,
Chris
 
Chris;
I have a question that others might also be interested in.

I have heard that Harry sets up his Maverick (or equivalent) so it measures the heat coming up the inside of the smoker near the edge. Is that true?

If so, how much does this vary from a center of the smoker placing of the probe?

On point, I am a fan of Harry's and use his recipes for both pulled pork (Bone in Boston Butt) and ribs as well as his basic rub. I truly appreciate his attitude towards sharing information to all of us.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
I was fortunate enough to attend Harry’s class (THANK YOU TVWBB) in Oakland CA. For me to attend this class it was a 6 hour drive each way, but the food alone that we ate at the class was worth ever hour of driving.

Chris was spot on about Harry’s class, the man works another full time job and BBQ is truly his hobby. What really impressed me most about the class is that Harry is a Grand Master BBQer and he cooks on WSMs just like I have in my backyard.

I’m sure that there are thousands of recipes for rubs and sauces and hundreds of techniques on how to cook ribs, briskets, butt, chicken…. But what really impressed me about Harry is that he is not only knowledgeable but he is also very humble. Harry teaches how to Q by touch and that the most important ingredient that you can put into Q is Love. As Harry says, there is nothing better than Mom’s cooking because she cooks with love.

If you ever have the chance to meet Harry, whether it be at a competition or at the airport I would encourage you to do so, Harry is very approachable.
 
Harry is fantastic. I've been to his class and didn't really learn that much that was new (to me). His class is for backyarders. We asked him for a comp or advanced class. That said it's a great memory. Thanks Harry!
 
I was one of the attendees at Harry's Jan '12 class at his home. The class schedule was as Chris noted. Extremely interesting and full of enjoyment. What I took away from the class was the science behind BBQ and Harry's methodical approach to it. Harry does use an ATC, specifically the earlier version (white box) of the Stoker. It was his suggestions regarding the Stoker, in phone calls and emails prior to class, that help me purchase mine. Harry does indeed place his pit probe through a Sensor Grommet so that the silicon jacket rests inside the grommet. The probe's end sticks 1 1/2" inside the WSM.

NC is not really that far away, considering Harry has class attendees from Europe as well as Asia. The San Francisco area as well as our area are beautiful this time of year. Would make a great mini vacation.
 
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Chris Allingham said:
So that's sort of the structure of the class. A lot of it is lecture and up-close demonstration by Harry. For example, it's not practical for everyone to trim a whole brisket, so everyone gathers around the table and watches Harry do it and explain a basic backyard trim and then a competition trim. For something like baby back ribs, he'll demonstrate how he prepares and seasons them, then he'll have everyone try their hand at seasoning a slab. When it comes time to foil the ribs, everyone has a chance to step up and apply brown sugar, agave nectar, and juice to a slab of ribs and wrap them in foil. So it's hands-on whenever possible.

Best,
Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

Out of curiosity is there Soo's recipe online for the ribs? I have seen something similar before but I have never heard the agave nectar part so I was just curious as to how much brown sugar, agave and juice I should add. Also when wrapping is it better to individually wrap each rib slab or can you put the slabs in an aluminum disposable pan and cover that?
 
Christopher H said:
Thanks Chris,

Out of curiosity is there Soo's recipe online for the ribs? I have seen something similar before but I have never heard the agave nectar part so I was just curious as to how much brown sugar, agave and juice I should add. Also when wrapping is it better to individually wrap each rib slab or can you put the slabs in an aluminum disposable pan and cover that?
Click to expand...

Slap yo daddy bbq.com
All of his recipes are in there. Try his pork butt one. You may solve your mystery of pork in the middle having no flavor. He also wraps his water pan in foil and smokes without water to answer your clay saucer method.
 
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