{"id":5276,"date":"2017-08-01T08:39:41","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T12:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/?p=5276"},"modified":"2024-05-28T07:32:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T11:32:11","slug":"welcome-to-camp-low-n-slow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2017\/welcome-to-camp-low-n-slow\/","title":{"rendered":"WELCOME to Camp Low \u2019n\u2019 Slow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Dana Hanson is wearing a necklace adorned with plastic pigs. He claims to have lost track of how many smokers and grills he has at home. And one of his favorite childhood memories was seeing a lamb butchered on his family\u2019s farm in Wisconsin. \u201cAll the biology,\u201d he says, \u201cit kind of was right there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s no surprise that Hanson calls himself a \u201cmeat dork.\u201d As an associate professor of food science at NC State, Hanson helps meat producers throughout North Carolina stay current on the latest rules, regulations, technology and industry practices. He also is charged with engaging the public on issues such as food safety and preparation, which is why he is standing in front of 30 men in a classroom in Schaub Hall. With a string of plastic pigs dangling across his chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dana Hanson is the ringleader of the NC State BBQ Camp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The men are here for the NC State BBQ Camp, an annual event that offers a blend of science, hands-on food preparation and cultural history. They are wearing shorts, T-shirts and ball caps, not unlike the kids at various camps that spread across NC State\u2019s campus each summer. In the real world, though, the big kids at the BBQ Camp have serious jobs as lawyers, salesmen, financial advisers, professors and IT security specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of the meat was prepared on an industrial smoker parked outside Schaub Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lunch the following day featured ribs with rubs from six different teams of campers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

What these men, ranging in age from their late 20s to late 60s, have in common is their love of barbecue. Hanson, who serves as the camp director, is among his people here. When they talk about the first time they smoked, they aren\u2019t referring to cigarettes (or something more clandestine). Some of their introductions include a mention of favorite barbecue restaurants (from Wilber\u2019s Barbecue in Goldsboro, N.C., to Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, N.C.), often as a way of letting others know what part of the state they\u2019re from. When they mention bark, they aren\u2019t talking about dogs or trees, but rather the spicy, sweet crust that forms on the edges of smoked meat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will feed you well. Your caloric intake\u2009 . . .\u2009 your curve is going to spike.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
\u2014\u2009Dana Hanson<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why they have each paid $450 for a two-day camp on the science of cutting, seasoning and smoking meat. \u201cThey\u2019re with a bunch of people of their same kind,\u201d says Hanson. \u201cThey just eat, live and breathe it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will certainly do that over the course of the next two days, as Hanson makes clear when he kicks off the camp. \u201cWe will feed you well,\u201d he says. \u201cYour caloric intake\u2009. . .\u2009your curve is going to spike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAKING THEIR TIME<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Outside, an industrial smoker is loaded with beef briskets that have been on the grill for several hours. The smoky smell washes over the campers, and they waste no time pulling out their phones to take pictures. Hanson explains that the butcher\u2019s paper that wraps the briskets keeps the meat from getting too black and crispy during the long hours it is in the smoker. One camper asks about using foil\u2009\u2014\u2009the \u201cTexas crutch,\u201d as they call it in barbecue circles\u2009\u2014\u2009instead. \u201cIt steams the brisket,\u201d Hanson says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t want pot roast, don\u2019t use foil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note the smoke ring, or the \u201cred badge of honor\u201d as it is sometimes known in barbecue circles, underneath the brisket\u2019s bark, or crust.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Camper Mack Morrison \u201978.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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James Byrd is happy to sample three grades of beef brisket that Hanson and his crew had prepared for dinner on the first night of camp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Other questions range from target temperatures for the meat to what sort of spices work well on brisket. \u201cFor me, on brisket, it\u2019s salt and pepper and let it ride,\u201d says Hanson, who once spent three days at a barbecue camp at Texas A&M devoted solely to beef brisket. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t need rubs or sauces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, on brisket, it\u2019s salt and pepper and let it ride. It doesn\u2019t need rubs or sauces.\u201d
\u2014\u2009Dana Hanson<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hanson is a mountain of a man, a former offensive lineman for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits who grew up on the brats of Wisconsin. When he realized in college that he wasn\u2019t going to make a living playing football, he turned to food science. When Hanson arrived at NC State 15 years ago, though, he realized he still had a thing or two to learn about meat. He was clueless when one of his new colleagues invited him to a \u201cpig pickin\u2019,\u201d and was blown away when he saw all the pig cookers blowing smoke outside of Carter-Finley Stadium before his first Wolfpack football game. \u201cYeah, my learning curve was pretty steep when I found out that pig pickin\u2019 was a religion around here,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m in a good place for barbecue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbecue can mean different things to different people. Some campers prefer the pulled pork of North Carolina while others favor the beef brisket of Texas or Memphis\u2019 dry-rub ribs. Some swear by the vinegar-based sauce of eastern North Carolina while others pledge their allegiance to the ketchup-based sauce they grew up eating in the western part of the state. A few even have kind words for the mustard-based sauce of South Carolina or the mayonnaise-based white barbecue sauce found in Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no matter the meat or the sauce, all of the men at the camp relish the fact that it takes hours to achieve the smoky splendor found in the best barbecue. That\u2019s time that can be spent visiting with family and friends, enjoying a few beers, and taking a step off the treadmill of life. For them, the formula for success can be boiled down to three simple words\u2009\u2014\u2009low and slow (as in temperature and time). \u201cThere is just something enjoyable about spending 12 to 24 hours preparing a meat and then serving it at a cookout,\u201d says Whitfield Gibson, a 34-year-old lawyer who had his wedding rehearsal dinner at The Pit barbecue restaurant in downtown Raleigh. \u201cIt is both a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. And if you get some compliments along the way, all the better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, as Charley Warner \u201989, a bank operations executive from Charlotte, N.C., who helps prepare as much as 12,000 pounds of pork barbecue for a regional Boy Scout gathering each year, says, \u201cFaster is not better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THERE\u2019S THE RUB<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The lessons at camp range from how to identify the different cuts of meat in a hog to tips for making a great rub for ribs or other meats. Campers are required to wear lab coats and hair nets when their work takes them into the meat lab, a room filled with stainless steel tables, meat cleavers, freezers and industrial meat grinders. With the room chilled to 38 degrees, campers can see Hanson\u2019s breath as he tells them the keys to making good sausage. \u201cYou want to create a bind that springs against your teeth when we bite into it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe salt does the binding. Without salt, this is ground beef.\u201d Later, while demonstrating how to trim the fat off a \u201cpacker cut\u201d brisket, Hanson offers another tip\u2009\u2014\u2009if you want beef ribs, be sure to ask for \u201cbeef flanken\u201d ribs because they have much more meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Campers got suited up to enter NC State\u2019s meat lab, chilled to 38 degrees, where they learn how to make their own sausage, properly butcher a hog, and how to truss a porchetta, a boneless pork roast stuffed with sausage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hanson also gives the campers a chance for some hands-on training and spirited competition when he divides them into six groups and challenges them to come up with their own rub to be used on pork ribs. The campers will determine a winner by a taste test. Hanson and Eddie Wilson, director of culinary innovation at Golden Corral and a former executive chef at Talley Student Union, offer more tips: coriander and paprika work well in rubs (but steer clear of smoked paprika), kosher or sea salt is preferable because it melts and absorbs into the meat faster than table salt, garlic works better than garlic salt, and spices and woods aren\u2019t mutually exclusive. \u201cIf you use cherry wood, you might try a cinnamon spice,\u201d Wilson tells the campers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the campers have their own ideas. Scott Hughes \u201989, a financial adviser from Charlotte, N.C., has a recipe for a rub that he gives out to friends as Christmas gifts. Jim Holloway, 59, a real estate appraiser from Raleigh, is trying to convince his group to use some New Mexico chiles that he brought with him for the contest. \u201cI\u2019m competitive,\u201d he confesses. Other groups are considering using ancho chiles, onion powder and ginger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holloway\u2019s group is happy with their creation. \u201cIt\u2019s got a nice bite to it,\u201d says Tim Jones, 59, who manages a heating and air wholesale branch office in Durham, N.C., and has dreams of owning his own food truck. \u201cI can taste a little bit of everything in there.\u201d After one of the campers takes a photo, Holloway declares, \u201cWe\u2019re ready to take it to market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n