Low and slow or hot and fast. 

When it comes to smoking meat, Dusty McCain has no questions about which method is best.

“Low and slow is the secret to ours,” McCain said. “We run around 225-250 degrees for everything and as long as it takes to get what we need to. It give your meat time to break down where it is more tender, has a better smoke ring and better flavor.”

McCain travels throughout the state competing in barbecue competitions and has honed his technique over the years. From the seasoning to the woods, he has it down to a science, even if he wouldn’t go into specifics of the seasoning other than that he uses brown sugar and paprika.

“I use pecan and hickory and I will use oak every once in a while,” McCain said. “Pecan has a good mild flavor. It doesn’t overpower the meat. It just kind of enhances it. We don’t try to change the flavor of the meat. We just want to work with what is there.

“Any kind of a fruit bearing wood has a lighter smoke. Mesquite is going to be that strong Texas, harsh smoke and I will use a little mesquite occasionally. Your pecan and oak are kind of in the middle.”

Local cook Corey Jones has also started competing in competitions, but honed his skills smoking and grilling in the backyard. From ribs and pulled pork on the smoker to chicken and steak on the grill, if it can be cooked outdoors Jones has done it.

“I’ve wrapped about everything you can in bacon and grilled about every vegetable you can do,” Jones said. “I am getting to now where I will smoke something for two or three hours and then have my grill really hot and I will grill it to get that charcoal flavor on it.”

He started cooking after having surgery. While laid up in bed, he began watching cooking shows and was inspired to try it himself. Trial and error has led him to secret recipes that he uses to create sizzling steaks and fall off the bone ribs.

“I wasted a lot of money,” Jones said. “I’d cook one way and then the next time different and it got to the point where I was smoking meat every other day. I have three main recipes that I have gone through and the one I use now is the second and the first ones mixed together.

“It takes 15 to 20 times of cooking something the same way to get it down pat where you don’t have to think about it. That is when you get your muscle memory and all that down.”

In the smoker, Jones said his specialty is his ribs where one of the most important steps takes place before the meat ever gets near the grill.

“There is a membrane on the backside,” Jones said. “You have to get a little knife and move the knife by the bone and pull the membrane back. If you don’t remove that, then you won’t get the smoke or the flavor actually onto the meat. It is just on the membrane.”

He then uses what he calls the “3-2-1 method,” which is three hours with the ribs by themselves, two hours with the ribs wrapped in foil with butter and brown sugar and then a final hour with the ribs unwrapped so they “tighten back up.”

McCain said his specialty is his stuffed pork loin in the smoker. He wouldn’t divulge his dry rub, but cream cheese, jalapenos and garlic bring the dish together.

“We take a pork loin and roll it out slicing it where it rolls out into a sheet,” McCain said. “Then we dry rub and we fill it with cream cheese, diced jalapenos, minced garlic. Then we roll it up and wrap it in bacon and then we smoke it for three and a half to four hours.”

Whether cooking in the backyard or smoking in a competition with money on the line, McCain said the key to getting it right is, “Patience more than anything. It is trial and error and you can’t rush it. It has to do its own thing.”

Stuffed pork loin

Ingredients

• 1 pork loin
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1 jar of diced jalapeños
• 1 small jar of minced garlic
• 1 cup fresh chopped green onions
• 2 packages of thin bacon
• 1 jar commercial dry rub “cooks preference”

Slice pork loin longways as thin as possible without cutting all the way through, rolling it out as you slice. Dry rub the inside side of the loin. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Soften cream cheese and spread over seasoned loin add 1/2-3/4 of a cup of diced jalapeños and cup of green onions. Roll back up so it is back in full loin. Lay out your bacon barely overlapping side by side. Place pork loin in the middle of the bacon and starting at the end you stopped on when laying it out, begin wrapping with bacon. Use toothpicks to keep bacon wrapped where needed. Put on smoker at 225 degrees and cook until internal temperature reaches at least 145 degrees. When taking off allow the loin to rest, slice and enjoy!