EP 444. Making Smoke

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast from downtown Dallas, Texas, the Big D. Joining me today is Mr. Brandon Roy, who cooks the best damn steak in Dallas, Texas, I found out last year. We’re meeting at my little apartment in downtown Dallas, he’s on his way out of town and didn’t fire up that parrilla this year, but I knew he’s good for a good story. I was surprised to see that his YouTube channel has broken out. Brandon, I mean, you’re like an overnight celebrity with over 100,000 YouTube follows cooking barbecue.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of – It’s taken off this year that’s or last year, that’s for sure. And first of all, it’s good to see you. I think, like what, a few days ago, you were in the Tasmanian Sea –

Ramsey Russell: My ass is still hurting from the flight back.

Brandon Roy: Shooting Cape Barren geese, if I’m not mistaken. So, congratulations on checking that one off and it’s good to be here with you.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to tell you about that Cape Barren, since you brought it up, because a lot of people have asked my other day said, man, had they broach the subject about money, I’m like, well I’m a professional hunter, it’s what we do, that’s what get ducks does. But Cape Barren was not a GetDucks hunt, it was not a GetDucks hunt. The whole thing about the Cape Barren goose is not a GetDucks destination, it’s a personal bucket list trip. And it ain’t like I ain’t got a whole bunch of air miles. I got a whole bunch of air miles and that’s not the kind of thing you can gift to your grandkids because they expire. So I used them, I said, hey, man, this is a coming wait season here in North America, it’s the duck season that winter forgot. I’m going to go down to Tasmania and knock off a bucket list. And it was a massive bucket list hunt for me and I just – It’s a long way from here, though.

Brandon Roy: 9000 miles, you told me.

Ramsey Russell: 9000 miles.

Brandon Roy: That’s –

Ramsey Russell: There’s an app online, you all, to check it out. No matter where you’re sitting on earth, you can dig on it and it’ll tell you the exact polar opposite of where you’re sitting. The exact polar opposite. And I did that and from where I was goose hunting, I was about 200 miles from the exact polar opposite where I’m hunting.

Brandon Roy: Do you remember on Looney Tunes, like you could actually like dig a hole –

Ramsey Russell: Dig a hole.

Brandon Roy: Dig a hole out, go down and then next thing you’re popping out and –

Ramsey Russell: China. Yeah, well, actually I’d been out in the Bass Strait, out somewhere closer to the Pacific Ocean than to China, but it was a heck of a trip, it really, truly was a heck of a trip. The interesting thing about those Cape Barren geese, I learned is they’ve got all these, they’re very territorial. They don’t even roost on the water anymore and fly into dry land, it’s like every field, every paddock they call it has got a pair or more of Cape Barren geese staking it out like their home because it is, and for 500 something square miles, however big of an island is, it’s just geese scattered everywhere. And so what the boy does, he lines you up down the shooting lines, pass shooting. He takes an ATV, drinks about 2 red bulls before he gets started and puts on a helmet because one time he hit a Wombat hole and got hurt, so now he wears a helmet. It’s kind of odd seeing a big, burly man, especially a tough Crocodile Dundee kind of character wearing a helmet on ATV like you’re supposed to. But he’ll take off and put around and he’ll go 3 and a half kilometers, a 5k maybe and just start kind of forming a net, going back and forth, back and forth, kind of rolling them until they start flying over.

Brandon Roy: I saw you were plucking some Cape Barren, but you were also skinning something down there, if I’m not mistaken. What else did you hunt down there that looked like a miniature kangaroo?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, well, it was a wallaby, because you’re in Australia after all. And we went out and shot our Cape Barren geese, very interesting, it was a bucket list, I was glad to have him. I never will forget putting my hands on the first one, it was something worth living for. But there was a lot of wallabies down there, which is a small kangaroo about belt high if he’s standing up looking at you and these boys were going to form a line and wanted me to come with them. And man, I had gone around and seen them hopping along the road like Roo on Winnie the Pooh or something. And I tell my host, I said don’t judge me by this, I’ll kill any duck goose comes over. But I just hadn’t got a compunction to shoot one of these things if you can understand, understand. He said, but maybe you can just drive, we’ll form a drive and you can be a pusher.

Brandon Roy: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: So I started. I got out and he said, well, you might as well carry your shotgun just in case. I said, all right, I’ll carry my shotgun. I put on my ammo belt and off I started walking and going through some dense evergreen timbers and about that time, one of them got up there about 50 yards from me and I couldn’t really see him through all the evergreens. And I really couldn’t tell if I was looking at his back or his front, I just knew I couldn’t see behind a tree. And as I kind of took a step to ease around, he hopped off. They don’t just hop like they do on the side of road, man, they run about a foot off the ground. I mean, gone like a beam of light.

Brandon Roy: Wow.

Ramsey Russell: And so it’s like I described to you one time, that old house cat, you take the fattest house cat in the world and bounce a rubber mouse across from him, something sparks inside him. And so I’m thinking if I see one, I might shoot one. Well, then I start walking through these – It’s in the woods, but it’s kind of open and there’s what they call these bracken ferns and about belt high, these ferns, I’m walking through it and there’s like this trail, like a cattle trail coming through there, I’m walking down. There goes one, there goes another one. And they ain’t loping, but they’re like a beam of light going, my shot, boom, my shot, it’s kind of like rabbit hunting. Because you don’t just see the rabbit bouncing across the pasture, man, you kind of see him go behind a piece of fern, you shoot kind of where he’s supposed to be, I missed 2 of them that way. I learned it’s way easier to miss a wallaby than it is to hit one when they’re running. And I was walking along, now, I’m like that cat chasing a real mouse, I’m like my heart’s kind of like, all right –

Brandon Roy: It’s on now.

Ramsey Russell: What it reminded me of, Brandon, it reminded me of being back in junior high school and high school, running rabbits back home. All I could think at the time was, lord have mercy if I had 3 or 4 beagle hounds running around getting these things going. And so I’m walking along, I see the ferns kind of move up there about 5 or 6 yards and they stop and I ease up and there’s one, like, got his head and tail up under him like a turtle shell, he’s hugging the ground and he’s just right there 5 yards and I got a million things running through my mind, well, if I shoot him, it’s going to leave a hole the size of my fist and which side is his head? Just like Eddie Springs and I mean, he’s gone. And just leaving those moving ferns in his way, I’m like a dinosaur, he’s gone. And then, man the game – Now, at this point in time, I’m going to kill one of these some bitches.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, you’re pissed.

Ramsey Russell: I’m in. All right, let me see what it is to this and I’ll jump them up, the one I actually got was the – I was walking back through the ferns I knew because what I knew is you couldn’t walk through one time and get them out, you had to, like, you cut the grass kind of offset a little bit and walk back through the same brick, they’d hide from you. And as I was doing that, somebody else would kick one up and he’d come run across an opening and I could see where he was kind of hopping down there about 50, 60 yards. But instead of kind of going to him, I said, I’m going to cut him off over here. Now I know where that trail is and as I’m slipping along, he stops 20 yards to look back behind him. Well, that’s it.

Brandon Roy: Game over.

Ramsey Russell: Game over. But that was – and look, we killed a dozen these little old wallabies, red-necked wallabies or Barrett’s wallabies, I think they call them. And but it just these Australians are serious. It’s like a buddy of mine said, he said, Ramsey, they would fit right in south of I-10, Louisiana, they’re like coonasses with a funny accent. In 3 days, we shot a mountain of Cape Barren geese, a dozen wallabies and they went fishing, they went long lining for gummy sharks and everything else. I don’t know how they got it home, I mean, it’s a tiny little prop plane to get out this island and it was a meat hall for these boys so I can say, I can also add that I’ve skinned wallaby and eaten wallaby, which is just like a venison.

Brandon Roy: Wow, quite the adventurous. So did you bring back a hat with like some crocodile teeth on it this time?

Ramsey Russell: No, nothing. I didn’t bring back nothing. Just a bunch of pictures and memories.

Brandon Roy: And a sore ass from sitting on a plane for –

Ramsey Russell: Sore ass and sore back from all that shit.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It’s no way to shorten a 14 to 16 hours flight.

Brandon Roy: No.

Ramsey Russell: And after about 10 hours, I just got to go sit in the bulkhead and stand, and stand and stand.

Brandon Roy: I went to Australia one time and luckily, I was able to sleep for 7 or 8 hours. And I was flying from LA, so it’s a 14 hours flight, woke up and you know how it says time to destination?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: Still said like 6 hours and 7 minutes. And I’m like, son of a bitch, it’s such a long flight.

Ramsey Russell: And jet lag is real on those real big flights, because like when I leave, let’s just say I left on – Well, I know when I left, because I left on the 28^th of December and I landed on New Year’s Eve day, 31^st. So I totally missed, so I left on 29^th, missed the – 30^th just vanished.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. You weren’t even on planet

Ramsey Russell: I land on the 31^st.

Brandon Roy: You weren’t even on the planet that day.

Ramsey Russell: But then when you come home a week later, when you come home, you leave on say the 6^th, after flying all that distance, you land on the 6^th. It’s like a time warp.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And your body just – And if you were to go over there on a business trip and you’ve got 3 or 4 days, you got a little time, you go out and hit a round of golf or go do something, that’s one thing. But when you hit the ground, eat dinner, go to bed, get up and you’re going hunting. I mean, it’s just, you just catch up when you can.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Nothing you can do but muscle through it.

Brandon Roy: The worst jet lag I ever felt was when I landed in Australia and I made it for about –

Ramsey Russell: It’s the worst.

Brandon Roy: We landed like 08:00 in the morning, I was good for maybe 4 or 5 hours and then it just hit me like a freight train and I had to go back to the hotel and take a 4 hour nap. I woke up and we almost missed our dinner reservation. So, anywho, well, that was good, I want to go back and maybe one of these days I get to hunt over there. That’s one of the things that I’m really excited about, because next month, you and I are going on a hunt.

Ramsey Russell: We are.

Brandon Roy: Where are we going?

Ramsey Russell: We’re going down – You call me like a lot of folks wanting to go on that new Nayarit Mexican hunt, South of Mazatlán. We’re so full of Mexican bookings, I mean, I’ve got some of these hunts booked out, I was telling a group today that wants to lie to themselves, I said, I’ve got, I’m at Dallas Safari Club, I’ve got one week in 2025 left that’ll satisfy you. Unless you want to go in mid-January or earlier, but from mid-January through almost the 1^st March, I got one date left that’ll hold you all.

Brandon Roy: Wow.

Ramsey Russell: And so I’ve just got to where I – That’s 25.

Brandon Roy: I know.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying? Not this year, next year. So I’m having to go look and scout and it’s been a hard to find the people I want. So last year, I looked into some guys, I went down there, had the time of my life, it’s a lot like Mazatlan without the resort and what I mean is, they’re not baiting the ducks. It’s thirsty ducks, you’re hunting thirsty ducks. These ducks are all feeding brackish saltwater and they come in to drink fresh water when it gets hot and it’s hot down there, you’re going to find out it’s hot. But they got afternoon white winged dove hunting, so we get to do 2 and it’s good, authentic Mexican food. You’re a guinea pig, I’ve got 5 or 6 teams going this year and that’s just how I like to do it, I go in there and proof it, okay, I like it, I like it a lot. Let me bring some groups, make sure my clients like it and love it and then I know where to go with the program. And so probably this time next year, it’ll be on getducks.com, ready to go. It’s going to be a good hunt, 3 to 4 of us to blind shooting a lot of teal, shovelers, few pintails. The pintails might be gone by the time you all get there in late February, but a lot of teal, some shovelers and white-winged doves in the afternoon. I can’t wait because you bringing your son for a senior trip.

Brandon Roy: That’s right. One of my sons, he’s a senior in high school and that’s going to be his gift from us to – So I’m taking him on an international duck hunt, he should be pretty happy about that.

Ramsey Russell: He will be.

Brandon Roy: We’re going to have a good time because that’s kind of he and I’s thing is we connect in the duck blind.

Ramsey Russell: How old will he be?

Brandon Roy: So he’ll be, he turns 18 next week.

Ramsey Russell: So he gets to drink margaritas and cold beer down there.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. But I don’t want to talk, he’s knock on wood he’s so far, he’s pretty good kid. So let’s try and keep him that way.

Ramsey Russell: I got you. So, look, I got a question for you, I follow you religiously on Instagram. We talked about this last time, you got more grills and parrillas and smokers and then a hardware store has on inventory, but how often do you eat barbecue? How much meat do you eat in average week? Because every single day, you’re putting out reels and videos and live feeds and YouTube stuff, I mean and I’m sitting there thinking, this guy must cook 8 hours a day and eat barbecue till it’s coming out of his ears. And I thought I liked barbecue, but you must be eating a bunch. How much do you really eat?

Brandon Roy: Not surprisingly, not as much as you would think, I mean, yes, I do like to like most normal guys, I like to eat meat, I like to eat protein and. And I like to grill, I mean, it’s part of the American way. So I mean, it was during COVID when my kids were like, hey, you should start putting your food on social media and I was like, yeah, whatever, I don’t want to do that, I did it. And it just kind of – I developed a library, you don’t see it all, I’m not cooking everything – Everything that you see, I’m not cooking the day before.

Ramsey Russell: Oh.

Brandon Roy: So like not that it’s not –

Ramsey Russell: Pretty like me. When I post up ribs, I’m cooking ribs.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, but how often are you actually at home cooking ribs? Not too often. So, like, it’s a novelty when it when you’re doing it. But like for me, I’m a homebody, I don’t get to travel the world as much as you do. And I like being home and I like cooking at home, just like, I don’t really – We were just talking about earlier one of the first meals you ate when you got to Dallas, you went and got some barbecue. I don’t really go to a lot of barbecue places in Dallas because I cook it at home, now I don’t cook it every day, but, like I do cook it maybe a couple times a week. And it doesn’t have to necessarily be, like, a long cook, like, on the big offset smoker, just be like grilling on the little Nomad grill. So, like, last night or 2 nights ago, I did just some pork chops, just a real good grilled pork chop and what took 10 minutes to cook and that was it. And I’m not that big of a guy, I couldn’t eat barbecue every day, I wouldn’t want to eat barbecue every day. I like good barbecue, but not every day.

Ramsey Russell: So, what’s up with your barbecue channel?

Brandon Roy: What’s up with it?

Ramsey Russell: Well, I mean, what’s the point? Where are you coming from with it?

How to Grill Perfect Pork Chops: A Step-by-Step Guide.

And like, somebody like yourself or whoever, they can take away something from it, like how to grill pork chops, something as simple as that.

Brandon Roy: So it’s a great question. So, you know how it is, because you’re on social media, too and especially Instagram, this algorithm thing is constantly changing and I used to think that I needed to post something every day and I’m just not going to do that, I don’t have time to do that anymore. And I think, like, my focus, especially for this year is going to be posting quality over quantity and not just posting for the sake of posting. And so I’m really going to make an effort at, instead of just, like, posting pretty food, I actually want to like make it as educational and informational as possible. So I’m really going to try and focus like before I hit that post or that share or whatever it is that you hit, I want to make sure that there’s just value in the post, right? And like, somebody like yourself or whoever, they can take away something from it, like how to grill pork chops, something as simple as that. How to spatchcock a chicken, how to cook a chicken over charcoal, how to roast a chicken in an oven, like and maybe, like, reaching a broader audience more not just the guys that do have 5 or 6 grills in their backyard. You know what I mean? And not just the guys that duck hunt and like to drink bourbon and that kind of thing, like, I’ll pick on the Nancy that lives in New York City that wants to she doesn’t want to go out and spend a bunch of money on takeout, she can roast a chicken in her apartment in the oven and eat on it for 3 days and it cost her $10 or whatever for that chicken. So I’m trying to go about it a little more methodically and then I really, I’ve taken that and like, in terms of YouTube, I’ve like, I’m on steroids in terms of YouTube, like, I’m really focused on the educational aspect.

Ramsey Russell: Does that mean you’re going to become more instructional?

Brandon Roy: Absolutely. I think my deal is wanting to teach people what I know and I’m no expert, but I’ve been – I took a liking or a loving to cooking when I was like 8 or 9 years old. And I’ve been doing it ever since, I love to do it. I think my passion shows because that’s – it’s my passion. And it’s gotten to where people enjoy seeing it and people enjoy the food. And so I’m going to keep doing it and if there’s an audience that’s willing to listen or watch, I’m going to keep on putting out content and really focus on the quality of the content, not just posting to post.

Ramsey Russell: On the Instagram page, you got steak and you got beef, what’s the difference?

Brandon Roy: Steak and beef. Well, I mean, steak is something that I have at least probably once a week and it’s something –

Ramsey Russell: I do, too.

Brandon Roy: It’s something that it just, I don’t know, when you go, there’s something about having your own steak, though.

Ramsey Russell: I rarely buy a steak out unless I’m traveling way away from home. I will not buy a steak within driving distance of my home.

Brandon Roy: Went to a steakhouse the other night because it was one of my best friends birthdays. So went to a steakhouse or whatever, you look at the menu and you see all these French words that you can’t, that I can’t pronounce Chateaubriand, this and that, whatever. We ordered this big old steak for people to share, they don’t even know how to slice it right. And I’m paying $200 for like a steak to share –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And they don’t even know how to slice it, like that to me is just, that’s just not right. So I do that for the social aspect, but like I think the next day or 2 days later, I was grilling a steak, because my grills at home.

Ramsey Russell: Cutting it right.

Brandon Roy: You remember that steak I cooked for you last year? That Bone in Filet? On the parrilla, bife de lomo. Yeah, that’s my jam. Bone in Filet.

Ramsey Russell: But is that the only way you’ll cook a filet at all is on the grill?

Brandon Roy: No.

Ramsey Russell: Yours was, like I say, the best damn steak in Dallas, Texas. Did you cook that Bone in Filet on a parrilla over them live coals as if you have –

Brandon Roy: Live coal.

Ramsey Russell: For 4 hours. I cook mine a cast iron skillet. That’s how I’m weighed it every time, it’s cast iron skillet. If I’m cooking, I’m going to smoke up the house with a cast iron skillet.

Brandon Roy: There’s nothing wrong with that and I have done that. But I’ll tell you when I do that, when it’s too freaking cold outside and I don’t want to mess with the fire, like, 2 nights ago, we had, like, 60 miles an hour winds in Dallas, wind gusts, it was crazy. I wasn’t about to stand over a fire.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s going to be 9⁰ Monday morning.

Brandon Roy: I know, that’s the thing about this Texas weather, the last time I went duck hunting, it was three 2, 3 days before Christmas, it was 60⁰ and I was shooting mallards in 60⁰ weather, okay, in the timber. Monday, it’s going to be like 9⁰. And that’s January and February in Texas, it could be 80 and then an hour later, it could be 30. It’s nuts.

Ramsey Russell: You were talking, you were telling me earlier that seasons, summer, winter, fall, spring, affect the way or the duration, how you cook a lot of your different stuff.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. We’re talking about that in terms of in the context of brisket and like cooking something low and slow like that. Excuse me. We’re talking about the stall, you remember?

Ramsey Russell: Well, that’s what I how that conversation started on, I’ll just say it is, I have not mastered brisket. I cook it, I love it, it’s good. But I have not yet made brisket that I absolutely love. And I think that if you’ve got a smoker and you can make turnout brisket every single time you cook it, you’re there. And mine will sometimes be a little too tough and I think it’s because I said, okay, hit this temperature, do this 4 hours, 5 hours. Boom, 5 hours, I’m ready to come off and sometimes that meat will stall.

Brandon Roy: Well, your first thing what you said there is like, I never cooked a time, I always cook the temp, always, like, time is just something that you can’t get locked in on time. I have people ask me, hey, do you do the 2-2-1 method for ribs or the 3-2-1 method? I’m like, no, I don’t do that. Because if you cooked baby back ribs for 6 hours with a 3-2-1 method, they’re going to be so overcooked and so dry. But back to the brisket question, what I’ll tell you about the seasons and the summers when you’re running an offset cooker and I’m not one of these big old Texas monthly best 50 pit masters and I don’t have a restaurant, this is just what works for me at home. It takes a lot more energy and a lot more fuel to keep that cooker at the temperature you need it during the wintertime when you’re trying to push a brisket through a stall. In the summertime, when it’s 105⁰, you don’t need nearly as much fuel and that thing will just stay, like, if you need it at 270, it’ll just stay. In fact, it might even get too hot on you and you need to, like, back it down a little bit. But if you’re talking about it being 30⁰ outside and you’re trying to maintain a very consistent fire, you really have to pay close attention to that cooker. It’s so much harder, in my opinion, to smoke a brisket or anything of a long, that takes a long cook in the winter than it does in milder temperatures.

Ramsey Russell: How do you select a good brisket?

Brandon Roy: That’s a big part of it.

Ramsey Russell: You gave me a live tip when you told me how to buy a ribeye.

Brandon Roy: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: That has to be cut from the chuck side.

Brandon Roy: That’s right. I’m glad you remembered that.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll never forget that.

Cook to Temperature, Not Time: The Key to Perfect BBQ.

If you ever notice, you ever watch these, these restaurants, these barbecue joints, they might have on a 1000 gallon smoker, they might have 30 briskets on their brisket cooker. Every damn one of them is the exact same size and within probably half a pound of one another.

Brandon Roy: So in terms of brisket, I mean, first of all you can spend – if you’re going to do a brisket, like, there’s 2 different sides here, but some people are like, hey, I don’t want to mess up an expensive piece of meat, so they’ll buy like a select brisket and try and like because they don’t want to worry about messing it up. You’re never going to get a really good tender, a really good piece of brisket off of a select, I mean, you got to at least buy choice. My preference is to buy prime, you can go and get all that crazy wagyu stuff. So a lot of it is first starts with the grade of meat that you, that you buy and then the second thing is all about, like, I’m very particular and I like to stay in like the 12 to 15 lbs range on a packer brisket, because you see these, some of these briskets might be 22, 24, 25 pounds and yeah, you’re trimming 2 or 3 pounds off of that, but who wants to cook a 20 pound brisket? It’s going to take a whole weekend to do that. I mean, like, it literally will take a long time to cook that. If you ever notice, you ever watch these, these restaurants, these barbecue joints, they might have on a 1000 gallon smoker, they might have 30 briskets on their brisket cooker. Every damn one of them is the exact same size and within probably half a pound of one another.

Ramsey Russell: Yep.

Brandon Roy: Right. And the other thing is they’re all probably, when they start, they’re within probably 11 to 13 pounds in terms of size, because it doesn’t take a marathon amount of time to cook that, you can probably cook a brisket that size in depending on how hot you’re running 8 hours, 9 hours, 10 hours, somewhere in there. And so part of it is you asked me about how I select one, I start with the grade and then the size, the weight initially on the package and then the other thing is like the kind of like, the composition, I look at the flat, I look at the point it’s 2 muscles. A lot of times, like the flat, which is the lean or the leaner part of the brisket. A lot of times it gets trimmed down to, like, super thin. So it’s not proportionate to like the really thick moist side of the brisket. And so you end up having to trim that off anyways because it’s so disproportionate. So what I try and look for when I’m selecting one is I try and look for the 2 muscles to be roughly the same size in terms of thickness.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: And then all I have to do is like, is really shape it with my knife. And that’s all there is to it, it’s great, it’s 12 to 15 pounds in my opinion and then it’s the proportions between the 2 muscles that that’s what makes a good brisket.

Ramsey Russell: How do you season your brisket?

Brandon Roy: Pretty simple. I mean, salt and pepper, maybe a little bit of, I don’t know, lemon pepper.

Ramsey Russell: That’s it. Salt and pepper.

Brandon Roy: That’s really it.

Ramsey Russell: Let the meat speak for itself.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I mean, a lot of – and the big thing now and I don’t know if it’s still a big thing, but salt, pepper and seasoned salt, like Lawry’s or I think Morton’s makes one, it’s called, like, nature seasoning or something, it’s just a seasoned salt. But that has all these other seasonings in it. And that’s pretty much what I’ve seasoned briskets with that, with salt and pepper, the 50-50 salt pepper, the Aaron Franklin method. But I’ve also seasoned them with Montreal steak seasoning.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Brandon Roy: Pretty damn good.

Ramsey Russell: Coarse garlic, coarse pepper, coarse salt.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, that’s all it is. I mean, what I will tell you, I don’t put, I mean, maybe a little bit in Lawry’s, but I really don’t put a very sugar heavy rub on beef. It just doesn’t, to me, it doesn’t.

Ramsey Russell: But a lot of people do. I’ve seen where a lot of these guys, the restaurant I ate today, I love their beef ribs, I love everything they got. My wife got the, oh, shoot, the burnt ins sweet, not too sweet, but I could tell their brisket rub had maybe some brown sugar or white sugar in it and it makes a great crust, but it’s just, I don’t know, it can be too much.

Brandon Roy: That’s Kansas City barbecue. Whenever you sweeten up beef like that, their burn ins versus Texas burn ins, it’s a whole different deal. And that’ll be a debate until we’re long gone in terms of which of those 2 styles are better than the other. I just obviously, I favor Texas because it’s simple, it’s savory, it’s salt, pepper and to me, it’s really all about the pepper and the quality of the pepper, because that’s really what makes your bark. That’s what makes a good bark, that an airflow.

Ramsey Russell: Quality of pepper.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. So quality of pepper like don’t go buy table pepper, go buy a really nice like coarse, not too coarse, but like a 16 or an 18 mesh.

Ramsey Russell: Which is, how would I compare to gunpowder?

Brandon Roy: To gunpowder, definitely a lot, a little more coarse than gunpowder.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. I don’t know – I don’t have my measurements on gunpowder, but maybe you can help me with that, Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I don’t know. We started talking sizes, I didn’t know, I’m just trying to think of something I can compare it to.

Brandon Roy: The first thing you came up with was gunpowder.

Ramsey Russell: I guess. Oatmeal flakes, I should say, okay, what about oatmeal flakes?

Brandon Roy: Oatmeal flakes? Yeah. No, not that. That’s more like flaky salt?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: If you were to do that. So I mean, the thing about brisket is it just you got to really make an effort that you want to cook it right if you’re at home. The reason why I don’t spend a lot of time doing that is because, A, I don’t have the time, B, if I do decide I need to do that, it’s probably on a weekend. I don’t want to give that much of my weekend to – and I like to cook over live fire as you know. So I don’t own a pellet cooker, I don’t have anything against them. But I’m not one of these guys that has one at my disposal where I can just leave for 4 or 5 hours and know that my temps are going to stay where they need to stay. That’s just me, though.

Ramsey Russell: Pellet smoker makes it too easy.

Brandon Roy: I mean, but that’s what they’re there for, they’re there for convenience. You’re not going to get the flavor that you get out of an offset, but you’re damn well going to get convenience. And you can put on a brisket, you can go run your Saturday errands, spend a few hours, go to lunch, whatever, come back at the 6 hour mark, check your brisket temp, be like, okay, we’re about to get installed, whatever or maybe give it a little spritz here and there, and it’s like, okay, I should be in the next hour or so, I’m probably going to be wrapping this thing. And I mean, that’s it. And then –

Ramsey Russell: What about pork ribs?

Brandon Roy: Man, ribs are like probably my favorite thing to cook.

Ramsey Russell: Mine too.

Brandon Roy: Now, I love smoking ribs, but you and I were talking earlier. I’ve recently started grilling ribs.

Ramsey Russell: I’m glad to hear that, because I do smoke ribs and love them. But I grew up eating grilled ribs and I like grilled, slow grilled.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: But I like grilled rib.

Brandon Roy: Yep. So let me tell you a little bit about what I’ve been doing lately, so I’ve been taking a full rack of spare ribs, which on an offset typically takes 6 hours to cook them as long as it they need to go. What I’ve done lately is I’ve taken that same rack of spare ribs. I’ve made a little marinade with a little Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and some maple syrup like equal parts, that’s it and then put whatever seasonings you want in there. Put it in a bag 2, 3, 4 hours whatever, turn it a couple of times and marinate it. And what that does, it’s just like marinating wild game –

Ramsey Russell: I guess.

Brandon Roy: You know what I mean? Buttermilk or whatever you want to put, like, duck in before you decide to grill it. You marinate it for 2, 3 hours, it gets it really nice and tender. It actually by osmosis, you get more moisture back into the meat and then I set up my charcoal fire, maybe put a couple of wood chunks. And what I do is I’ll start out and I’ll grill the ribs directly over the coals to get a nice sear on both sides and then I’ll slide them and then I’m cooking them direct the rest of the time and I’ll occasionally flip them back on each side, they’re on the indirect side, they take half the time. And not only that, so they take about 2 and a half hours to cook which is great, because I don’t know how many beers you drink in 2 and a half, 3 hours, but it’s a few 3 or 4.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: Right. And it’s a nice, relaxing cook. It’s almost like a therapy session because it’s not 6 hours, but it’s like you got time, what I do is I’ll pull my chair out, I’ll get my turtle box or whatever, put some music on and just chill. You know what I mean? That’s what I like to do, that’s therapy to me, so do that and it develops, like, this really nice crispiness, but it’s still super tender and it’s just such a great bite of barbecue. And at the end, you can season them however you like. I don’t put a lot of sugar because there’s going to be enough of that bark on there. You can season them with something more savory. And then if you want, at the end, you can just, maybe just add a little honey or a little simple syrup to just sweeten them just a tad, finish them, take them off they’re amazing.

Ramsey Russell: I found 3 pepper peach sauce somewhere.

Brandon Roy: 3 pepper, well.

Ramsey Russell: 3 pepper peach and it’s got a little bite, but it’s sweet and peachy. And I like to take a store bought cheap craft, whatever and sweeten it something like that. That’s when my meat’s done grilled or smoked, that’s when I’ll sop it on, let it just till it caramelizes and finishes glazers. I’ve gotten to where if I use that 3 pepper peach sauce, that’s all I put. I don’t know, I skipped a barbecue, I go straight to it now and it’s just for something different.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. Do you like it? Does it so it gives you the savory and the hot and the spicy, but it doesn’t necessarily give you that sweetness to offset.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a little sweet, little hot, a little sweet. It just goes so good with those, with pork ribs. And I don’t know where we found it, my wife found it somewhere, it was good. It was just a good, I think I liked it so well, I think she bought several bottles of it.

Brandon Roy: How often are you grilling ribs at home?

Ramsey Russell: If I’m home for a week or more, I’m going to cook ribs. I’m a very simple guy, we eat steak, we eat chicken, we eat pork ribs. That’s my favorite thing to cook on a smoker or a grill.

Brandon Roy: Do you ever – Do you eat much game at home or is it strictly –

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah, a lot of game. No, no, a lot of game.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Smoked Duck Gumbo: A Flavorful Twist on a Classic.

I brought home 2 dozen whole pick mallard from Wyoming and those kind of like a whole pick mallard, you know what I’m saying, I’m going to go into gumbo, so I’m going to go on a smoker.

Ramsey Russell: Venison, some waterfowl. I brought home, gosh, I brought home 2 dozen whole pick mallard from Wyoming and those kind of like a whole pick mallard, you know what I’m saying, I’m going to go into gumbo, so I’m going to go on a smoker. I want to start getting in smoking those ducks, I love smoked duck and I like to cook them. I think I’m going to play with some of these where I’m going to fillet the meat, the breast off the bone and then try to pop the leg loose, play with it just a little bit to where I can debone that leg to where I’ve got like a whole half a duck with the skin on that I can just plop down, because I like to take a duck breast and cook it over the skillet and then flip it over and then pop it in the oven, similar to how I cook filet. And I just I think it just add a level to it to have the leg on there and the wing, too. I had them picked all the way down to the wing tip, I think it’s so pretty.

Brandon Roy: You don’t even have to do that, why don’t you just spatchcock it? Just take the backbone out –

Ramsey Russell: Well, I can do that.

Brandon Roy: And just open it up and that way you still have the skin on breast, you have the bone –

Ramsey Russell: That would work.

Brandon Roy: I mean, just spatchcock.

Ramsey Russell: But I was thinking, entirely boneless is what I was going for.

Brandon Roy: I got you. But there’s one thing that so, growing up in Louisiana, there ain’t no breast and ducks down there, they don’t breast ducks down there. We pluck them and we cook the whole thing. Either smother it with a gravy. Nobody really smokes duck in Louisiana. I find that, like, especially wild duck, there might be some here and there, but basically, they put it in a pot and they make a gravy out of it and serve it over rice, that’s how they or they put it in gumbo. Those are, to me, the 2 primary ways to cook it down there and it’s the full bird.

Ramsey Russell: Or make a gravy. Oh, Terry Denmon recently told me, speaking of going to Wyoming, I was going to get those ducks plucked and I wasn’t going to sit there and pluck ducks all night, but especially when they got a duck plucker right down the road. So I took them to go get the ducks plucked and we were talking about and he got telling about a club he managed or was in or running or something like that and had a couple ladies cook and they made the best gumbo he ever had. But they would not cook duck gumbo if it didn’t have the whole neck.

Brandon Roy: Oh, interesting.

Ramsey Russell: They wanted the neck fat with the neck bone or they weren’t going to make, they said, they’ll do anything with them you want to, but they ain’t making gumball unless you got the whole neck plucked. And I’ve never heard that.

Brandon Roy: Save the neck for me, Clark.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s exactly right.

Brandon Roy: So I will tell you, back from when I went on this hunt in December, I did, we had some big greenheads come in that one day and we’re in the timber and I’m talking some big blimps, okay, and I love how those mallards decoy and they just come down, they cup and like they stick those big old bright orange feet out and just – man, so anyways, I was like, I want to pluck a couple of these ducks because I want to bring them home, a, put one in a gumbo. And one thing that I’ve never done, out of all the things that I’ve smoked, I’ve never smoked a whole wild duck before. Believe it or not.

Ramsey Russell: I haven’t either, but it’s going to be. I want it, I love smoked duck.

Brandon Roy: But guess what? It’s about to go down.

Ramsey Russell: What you going to brine them with? How you going to brine them?

Brandon Roy: That’s a good question. Now, I did these teal poppers not that long ago and I chose buttermilk for those and I don’t know, I just like how buttermilk just kind of, like, breaks it down and makes it just a little less gamey, not that teal’s very gamey in the first place. But I just like the bite, it still gives it just a little bit of bite, I don’t know, I like the buttermilk. So what I might do is I’m either going to do that buttermilk or I’m going to do like I just talked about that rib marinade with the Dijon, with the maple syrup and the apple cider vinegar, and I know you’re like, oh, syrup. But I’m telling you, this marinade with the acid and the sweet, it’s so well balanced and it provides just a really good flavor. So definitely going to marinate the whole thing and then in terms of seasoning, I think, what pepper, cumin, mustard seed, I think a little bit of salt, that’s probably about it, is what I’m going to put in turn and then just hit it with some smoke, I’ll put it, I’ll cook it on the offset and probably over oak or something like that. I don’t know, maybe apple, I don’t know what I’m going to use, but I feel like it might even – wild duck is such a strong, I mean, it’s a strong meat. So it can stand up to like a mesquite or hickory. So I could use one of those woods on it. It doesn’t have to be like super light like apple or cherry.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to use my pellet smoker and I make gumbo once a year. I make a big old pot, we can freeze and save some leftover and man, some of the best gumbo cooks, I know they use a pour out of the jar roux.

Brandon Roy: The roux, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t want to. I like to sit over the stove drinking beers and make that roux from scratch start panicking because I’m getting it too dark, but then get it right. And I think I’m going to smoke the ducks because I like smoked ducks, but then I think I’m going to put a smoked duck or 2 in that gumbo. I think it’ll kick it up a notch.

Brandon Roy: Hell, yeah, it will.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying? There’ll be plenty of fat after boiling, cooking the ducks, making a stock off those unsmoked ducks, I think I’m going to throw a smoked duck in there just –

Brandon Roy: Anything smoked that you can add to gumbo just brings so much more flavor, whether it’s like smoked ham hawk or whatever, just anything smoke. It could be a smoked chicken, but, yeah, I think where you’re going with that it’s going to probably go make you your best gumbo yet.

Ramsey Russell: Do you fool very much with lamb?

Brandon Roy: I haven’t. My wife is not a big fan of lamb and I like lamb chops, I’m actually like getting more into it a little bit. I’ve actually like in the past couple years, really started eating a lot more Mediterranean stuff. So like just the way that they grill like on the skewers and the tahini and the hummus and the pita and all that kind of stuff, and the vegetables, been doing a lot of that lately. And so I’m definitely probably going to be doing some more lamb. I think I’ve done one, maybe 2 Instagram reels with lamb chops and when I did do them, I did them on the parrilla over that fire and I finished them caveman style directly on the coals.

Ramsey Russell: Oh.

Brandon Roy: Because I had them cooked to that that medium rare. But then I wanted – You know how there’s like a little fat cap on the top of the lamb rack? I wanted that crispier. So I had these beautiful oak coals that I just laid them down bottom side and just let it just crisp up that fat, they were so delicious.

Ramsey Russell: Best lamb I’ve ever had was down in Argentina, cooked over a parrilla, it was a whole lamb. And they used chimichurri, you know what chimichurri is? But this was a mustard based chimichurri, so it had that acidity, that vinegary flavor. They kept sopping it on and sopping it on and sopping it on and it was out of this world, I thought I was going to explode, I ate so much.

Brandon Roy: Have you ever had – you know how like mint goes really well with lamb, a lot of people love mint. One thing that I haven’t tried, that I really want to try is and I do love a good Argentinian chimichurri, like, with the oils and the –

Ramsey Russell: I figured you would.

Brandon Roy: I love chimichurri. I’ve never made it though with mint, kind of like a mint based chimichurri. Excuse me. But I think that would go really well with lamb, like, really well. You know what else goes really well? If you’re not on the tahini kick.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, come on.

Brandon Roy: Tahini sauce.

Ramsey Russell: Come on.

Brandon Roy: Nothing like it.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t even know what tahini sauce is. That’s one of them things in the grocery store I’ve never bought in my life.

Brandon Roy: No, no. Tahini sauce, you can’t just, like, you have to go to a Mediterranean store to buy it. Tahini comes from like –

Ramsey Russell: Sesame seeds.

Brandon Roy: Sesame seeds, exactly. It’s like a sesame seed paste. Basically, what you do is you take it, you add water to it, you add lemon juice, you add salt and it makes this really amazing dip that you can dip like grilled meats, especially lamb, grilled vegetables in and it is – I eat it every day, Ramsey. It’s nuts, like, I’m crazy about this stuff.

Ramsey Russell: Brandon, do you ever just cook a good old fashioned hamburger?

Brandon Roy: Hell, yeah. My wife and I – Listen to this, last time I had a hamburger was on Christmas Eve this year.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Brandon Roy: Yes. And it was just her and I on Christmas Eve this year, that’s just kind of how the cards fell.

Ramsey Russell: Yep.

Brandon Roy: And I knew we were going to be eating filet the next day and rib roast and all these other things that we’re going to be eating the whole rest of the week and I was like, babe, what do you want tonight? She’s like, I think I just want a good burger, I’m like, hell, yes.

Ramsey Russell: How can you beat a good hamburger?

Brandon Roy: I do. That is one thing that I will cook in a cast iron skillet, I love a good smash burger, but I also, what is your preferred burger type? A smash burger or a grilled burger?

Ramsey Russell: What I call a bam bam burger, which is a grilled burger. My granddaddy made burgers in a skillet and I sometimes will, but I’m going to say it’s a one, it’s that big, biggest softball.

Brandon Roy: Biggest soft – But is it like, how thick is it?

Ramsey Russell: Like inch and a half big.

Brandon Roy: Oh, so it’s a big thick –

Ramsey Russell: Really and truly, my wife will take them and cut them in half and smoke them.

Brandon Roy: But I don’t like big –

Ramsey Russell: They cook good and I cook them on the charcoal or smoker, but usually on the charcoal.

Brandon Roy: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s really kind of one of my – especially if I’m on extended travel, we eat good, when I travel, we talk about that. But when I come home, nobody on God’s earth, nobody, no culture, no country, nowhere do they make a homemade burger like we do. And if they do Australia, they put beetroot. Let me tell you something –

Brandon Roy: Beetroot.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve had worse. But beetroot don’t belong and I’m an adventure some burger eater, which made me think of when you talking about tahini, I put peanut butter sometimes on my hamburger, not all the time, but sometimes, man, onion and peanut butter and bacon on a hamburger.

Brandon Roy: It’s good.

Ramsey Russell: It’s amazing. One of the burgers I use, I like to put ranch dressing, ranch dressing powder, lots of it.

Brandon Roy: Oh, interesting.

Ramsey Russell: Inside that burger, it’s just a million different things I put in a hamburger. Blue cheese and mushrooms.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

The Perfect Homemade Hamburger: Simple Ingredients, Big Flavor.

Now, you will sometimes go these old real mom and pop greasy spoon restaurants that make a real skillet burger, you know what I’m saying, okay, that’s different. But I’m talking about there’s no corporate American hamburger, I regard the hamburger.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, it’s a million different things I put inside of it, but I just like a good old fashioned salt and pepper Worcestershire sauce. Let it sit, mash it down into a big massive, if you can eat the whole thing in one sitting, you’re full hamburger. But that’s one of my staples, if I’m going to come home and I’ve been traveling, been away from home, I want a hamburger. I don’t want a steak, I don’t want salad, I don’t want pizza, I don’t want chicken, I want hamburger. Boy, I love hamburger, a good hamburger. I don’t like – There’s not really, I can’t think of a single store bought hamburger. Now, you will sometimes go these old real mom and pop greasy spoon restaurants that make a real skillet burger, you know what I’m saying, okay, that’s different. But I’m talking about there’s no corporate American hamburger, I regard the hamburger.

Brandon Roy: There’s a place in – where we go hunting up near Paris, Texas and there’s a place in Paris called Burgerland and it is one of them mom and pop places –

Ramsey Russell: There you go.

Brandon Roy: And they got this guy that’s on the griddle and he is the guy that’s, he’s probably cooking these some big patties, he’s probably cooking 30 burgers all at once. And he’s like got his air pods in or whatever and this dude is just spinning like he’s a DJ at a rave. I mean, there’s no way I could do what this guy does with all those burgers, like, the fact that he’s like, it’s insane. Anyway, the reason I wanted to tell you that is because what I want to know is like how do you like your burger? Like, is it, do you like it medium? Do you like it medium rare?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, medium.

Brandon Roy: Medium, right. Because like if you like steak like I do which is medium rare, typically, you like your burger up a notch from that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: So okay, that’s kind of what I figured. And then like just everything on it? Everything –

Ramsey Russell: Or creative.

Brandon Roy: You’re creative.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll go with the flow. I’m in the mood.

Brandon Roy: You’re not too picky every time that I’ve that I fed you, you just eat what’s on your plate.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’m like that.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I like that.

Ramsey Russell: If I like it, I like it. But there’s sometimes I’m in the mood for something on the hamburger and other times I’m in a mood for something else. I tell you what I don’t like on a hamburger, I do not like barbecue sauce. I do not want barbecue sauce, nowhere near a hamburger, it doesn’t belong. It used to be a hamburger joint in the Mississippi Delta made a belly buster. That place is a quick stop old restaurant near Onward, Mississippi and they made a belly buster and if you could eat that son of a gun, you’ll belly busted. But it was about a 3 quarter pound burger cooked on the griddle with at least a half a pound split open link of sausage on top of which they put coleslaw. That was a good burger.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. It’s dinner time, I’m getting hungry now. You’re probably not going to eat 2 days.

Ramsey Russell: I won’t eat until breakfast tomorrow morning. I ate a pound and a half rib.

Brandon Roy: You had a dino rib?

Ramsey Russell: I’m contented.

Brandon Roy: Man, what is it with people they come to Texas, they come and they want to get the Texas barbecue and they cannot not order the dino rib.

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t order it for years until somebody served it to me. I’m like, beef rib, I’m a pork rib guy, I’m from the deep south.

Brandon Roy: Oh, right, you’re from Mississippi –

Ramsey Russell: But now I found religion and that’s one of my favorite cuts of meat on earth is one of them big old dino ribs.

Brandon Roy: It’s good. I mean, but it’s so rich you can’t eat it all the time, like – But you probably eat one like once a year, twice a year.

Ramsey Russell: No, more than that.

Brandon Roy: Well, more than that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Half dozen times, maybe 8 a year. Yeah. In fact, I’ll usually cook an extra one and chop it up and roll it in tortillas for lunch or something.

Brandon Roy: Now we’re talking.

Ramsey Russell: It makes a really good taca taco or something like that. I’ve seen you post up like, here’s what made me think is barbecue in Texas is also like, there’s 5 items, you get to 2 or 3 meat plate, it’s always smoked sausage on the menu, always. And I like smoked sausage, eat the hell out of them. I’ve seen you post about sausage, do you ever make sausage? Is that one of the things you make or have you fermented any?

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I have before, but that’s another thing that – and some people like making the sausage. To me, a, it’s pretty time consuming. I guess, it’s not too time consuming, but you have to have a lot of big crap to effectively make it, like, you got to have a big old sausage stuff or you got to have, I mean, you can make it with a KitchenAid stand mixer, like – But is it ideal? No. So it requires a lot of kind of big equipment to do it and then again, it makes a lot. So if you don’t want to make sausage, just to make a pound or 2 of sausage, if you’re going to make it, you might as well make at least 5, maybe 10, 15 pounds of sausage. And so where that comes into play is you got all this sausage, you got to preserve it because you’re not eating 10 pounds of sausage over the next week. So, like, then you got to have a vacuum sealer and do all this and that. So I have made it before, there’s actually being from Louisiana, being from central Louisiana, there’s a sausage that I grew up eating and it’s a pork sausage, it’s a Cajun pork sausage. They put green onion in it, they just call it green onion sausage, it is delicious. So I have made that a few times because it’s not something you can – That is readily available here.

Ramsey Russell: But sauce it just seems like it’d be right in your wheelhouse with all the smoking and stuff.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, it is. I mean, it’s not that hard of a process. I mean, the pork comes from – The easiest thing to do is take, get a pork shoulder because the pork shoulder already has the right ratio of meat to fat. That’s another thing and it also kind of makes a mess and I don’t want to make a massive mess if I don’t have to.

Ramsey Russell: We started out, what made me think of that? We talked about hamburgers and belly buster and the sausage, and we started off talking about Cape Barren geese, I started this episode talking about Cape Barren and at one point in time, you’d ask what they taste like? I don’t think I recorded that part. And they taste like a big old Canada goose they’ve converted straight over to pasture. and a lot of guys that – a lot of you big goose hunters, they know how to make pastrami. They know how to make – they get sausages made, smoked sausage, summer sausage and they’re no different down there with those Cape Barren geese and I was shocked to learn this. But one of the best appropriations of goose meat I have ever in my life encountered and I’m on the hunt to find somebody that can make it, this man made big old hot dogs. I’m talking Ball Park Frank hot dogs and it was just to die for, it was absolutely to die for. It was a great way to eat a lot of geese, I’m going to tell you that right now. That’s what got me going, is like, man if I had the time and the shop and equipment and the stuff, I could see making sausage and hot dogs and stuff like that, I think it’d be fun, because I do like to eat that kind of stuff.

Brandon Roy: It is fun. I mean, it’s just takes a lot of stuff to make it. I’ve never, like I said, it’s not that hard to do, it’s really just a matter of if you want to go acquire all that stuff and spend the time to do it.

Ramsey Russell: There’s a one last question. We’re talking about social media, YouTube, your Instagram. Anybody’s watched my Facebook recently since getting back from Australia, the onslaught of virtue signaling anti-hunters and that’s all they are. They don’t do jack diddly for birds down there, except run the mouth and it’s hit and run.

Brandon Roy: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s best to just ignore them. When you’re in an airport, especially when your flight gets ground, you’re stuck in San Francisco on an airport, I can’t help but poke a bear, I’m going to mess with them, why not? Rattle exchange, get them riled up, make them post more. What about your stuff dealing with all this meat and barbecue and I mean, do you have any – do you ever have any flare ups at all on social media or on your YouTube channel?

Brandon Roy: I mean, there’s always someone out there that thinks that what you’re doing is against what they do. Like obviously, I do cook a lot of meat, so every now and then, a vegan, a very strong vegan will poke the bear, if you will and it’s their right and it’s their viewpoint, but I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.

Ramsey Russell: You’re not going to start smoking tofu or nothing?

Brandon Roy: No. I mean, I don’t think that’s really my target audience, to be quite honest. But I bet if you did decide you wanted to smoke tofu, I mean, you could pawn it off as maybe some smoked cream cheese. Yeah, if you could get it to taste like smoked cream cheese, it might not be half bad.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: But it’s pretty funny, some of the comments that I get, I mean, there’s trolls all over the Internet, you know that?

Ramsey Russell: All over the Internet.

Brandon Roy: I mean, whether it’s on YouTube or Instagram or TikTok or wherever, I mean, they’re everywhere. And they have nothing better to do but to like poke fun of whatever it is you’re doing on your video.

Ramsey Russell: The professional trolls down in Australia.

Brandon Roy: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: Have blocked accounts.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: So you can’t click and take a look at them.

Brandon Roy: No, no or they’re private.

Ramsey Russell: Or they’re private, I mean, there’s no date that, but, boy, they’re coming out singing.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And if you dare indulge them and I will, they bob and weave. They’re talking about a red cup, no, no, no, I’m in a blue cup. No, no, no, I’m in a basketball. No, no, no, I mean, they’re just, they’re fools. But my favorite one, you can’t make his shit up. My favorite one, his name was –

Brandon Roy: Oh, you calling names?

Ramsey Russell: Something Elvis. Well, you can’t, I mean, something Elvis. I basically get around because he keep coming back at me and I click it. This guy is a part time Elvis impersonator down in the street.

Brandon Roy: I mean, he can’t be –

Ramsey Russell: He’s a part time Elvis impersonator or part time dog groomer. And I started looking through his feet, it means, like, got the poses, the Elvis poses got his hair done. He don’t look nothing like Elvis except his haircut. So I come back to him, I said I just, I can’t help but read your post to the soundtrack of ain’t nothing but a Hound Dog. And he started getting quiet, so I knew I had him and I said, come on, man, post a video.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, please.

Ramsey Russell: Post a video, singing.

Brandon Roy: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Come on Prez, I kept calling him Prez. And he finally come back said we can just agree to disagree, I’m moving on, I said, I ain’t. Come on, Prez.

Brandon Roy: Yeah. I mean, speaking of this, I just found about this show that I’m watching right now on Netflix and this is, it’s appropriately titled, it’s called Beef. Okay.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I know how to spell beef.

Brandon Roy: I know. But I mean and it’s about these 2 people that had a road raid, road rage incident and they don’t know each other, but they keep on going after each other, and it is, this show is hysterical. And the reason you reminded me of that, because you’re talking about these Internet trolls, you’re talking about baby Elvis down in wherever he is, Tasmania. He’s got a few dog grooms he’s got to do in the daytime and he’s got a gig that night at the local whatever and he’s in a beef with Ramsey Russell, who’s traveling the world duck hunting.

Ramsey Russell: He didn’t like it when I started calling him Prez, talking about his hound dog routine, let me tell you what, it got personal quick.

Brandon Roy: I can’t believe you even – You’re like, man, this guy Elvis down in fricking Australia, I’m going to beat his ass.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t dare threat something like that, I had too much fun. They’re trying to get you to do something.

Brandon Roy: I know, that’s the thing. Yeah, I think it – if you’re going to put your stuff, if you’re going to have a public profile, if you’re going to put any sort of content out on any platform you just subject yourself to –

Ramsey Russell: You’re going to get trolls.

Brandon Roy: It doesn’t matter, I don’t care who you are, even like –

Ramsey Russell: You’re bound to hear. But say, by the same token, it’s not just your say, vegans, you’re bound to hear criticism from beef experts, brisket experts, rib experts, tahini sauce experts.

Brandon Roy: Trust me, every time, every now and then, like and again, I never claim to be an expert pit master. I wasn’t trained at a Pinkerton’s or a Franklin or anything like that, I’m self taught. I cook it in my backyard, I cook a damn pretty good brisket, whatever. Every now and then, one of those pros will say something and I’m like, man, just cook your 30 briskets on your 1000 gallon smoker and just leave me alone, just let me cook.

Ramsey Russell: But I’m going to say this, I’m going to end this episode on this thought because we’re talking about this barbecue duck hunting worldwide, it doesn’t matter. I was in a duck blind up in the Illinois river with my friend Doc and Pat Gregory and we were talking about some of this trolling, some of this stuff going on and Gregory hit the nail on the head, it’s the bald, honest truth. If you’re not getting trolled by the good, the bad, the evil on your social media and you’re building a platform, if I’m not getting trolled, you know what? I’m not making contact. The wind ain’t blowing if feathers ain’t getting ruffled. And that’s the whole point, if you’re going to put yourself out to get 100,000 and growing YouTube follows, talking about barbecue, you’re putting yourself out there. But you’re not making contact, you’re not having meaningful impact, if the wind ain’t blowing.

Brandon Roy: You’re exactly right.

Ramsey Russell: If the wind is blowing, their freaking feathers getting ruffled, good and bad, you got to deal with it.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, I’ll add one exclamation to that and I know you’re not on YouTube very much, but on YouTube, you can actually dislike. You can like but also dislike, you get the thumbs down, too.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Brandon Roy: What’s really funny is like, if you go and look, because YouTube has shorts now, which is kind of like the Instagram reels, it’s just anything under 60 seconds and it’s in a vertical format. And so you typically see it more there because it’s so you can absorb it so much quicker, it can hit a lot of people, you get a lot of interaction on the shorts side of the platform. You’d be surprised at how many dislikes videos get. So like for example, if I get 100 likes on YouTube and I guarantee you 70 of them might be positive likes and 30 of them might be dislikes. And it’s just like where are these people coming from? And they’re just doing that to be that way. And it’s fine, it doesn’t bother me, you just have to take it with a grain of salt.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Brandon Roy: But we talked about earlier and I’ll end on this, its engagement, though.

Ramsey Russell: It’s engagement.

Brandon Roy: And it’s like that’s fine. You want to be negative? That’s fine.

Ramsey Russell: Those anti hunting fools have no idea that the more they comment, the more the algorithm saying show more people.

Brandon Roy: Exactly.

Ramsey Russell: Show more people. And it’s working and boy, I cannot wait, we’re still a few weeks away from releasing Battlefield Australia on YouTube and I’m expecting so the Australians I’ve talked to down there expecting it to explode. But anyway, tell everybody your Instagram channel and especially your YouTube channel. I know we’re going to all want to follow along.

Brandon Roy: Yeah, so it’s really all my socials are the handle is B.Roy’s BBQ, it’s broysbbq all one word. Doing a lot on YouTube, a lot of focus there. On Instagram those are probably the 2 primary platforms, occasionally, I’ll post something on Facebook or TikTok, but those are the main 2. And yeah, I just, I enjoy, I love when you – I don’t get a lot of interaction from you, but when I do get interaction, like, when you do decide to share something, I’m like, damn, he really liked that.

Ramsey Russell: No, I do. I keep up with you because I in this barbecue and the stuff we talk about really don’t have much to do with waterfowl and this is a waterfowl culture podcast almost entirely except for the fact every duck hunter I know like to eat like you cook. Me, too.

Brandon Roy: Well, you know what –

Ramsey Russell: Everybody likes to hear about how this stuff’s cooked, what to do and come up with ideas. I’m going to end on this last question that I didn’t ask you, where do you get your inspiration? Because I get my inspiration from travel, I borrow ideas from when I’m traveling. Point case, I’ll tell you this one short example down in Peru, eating shrimp chowder, kind of like a jambalaya or something without the rice base and they put eggs in it. And the next time I was cooking a gumbo and to this day, I put, I dropped eggs in it and I just crack them open, let them drop and it makes an egg and it’s a great add to a gumbo. And that’s just something I picked up traveling, eating something shrimp chowder down in Peru. Where do you find your inspiration for cooking? Where do you come up with your ideas and your flavors and your flavor profile and stuff? Where do you come up with these ideas?

Brandon Roy: A lot of it is travel, a lot of it was my upbringing, so my grandparents and my mother is an outstanding cook, a lot of influence from them because they are tremendous. But also, my travels, the reason I have this big old parrilla in my backyard was –

Ramsey Russell: Argentina.

Brandon Roy: I went to Argentina and I ate steak and drank Malbec for a week. And I there is no cooking a steak hot and fast in Argentina, you know that it’s low and slow and it’s like it’s going to be done when it’s done. And what I love about that and I think I referenced it earlier, but I love just the whole experience around cooking, it’s very therapeutic to me. And like I said, my main deal is just I’ve learned, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I’ve learned from a lot of my mistakes and I just want to like teach others, like and hopefully kind of maybe they’ll get a little inspiration from me on kind of some of the things I make and some of the things I prepare. So really that’s all it is.

Ramsey Russell: I appreciate you, Brandon, as always. Next time I’m in Dallas, we’re going to be the show how we’re going to record at your house again, because you ain’t going to be packing up leaving.

Brandon Roy: No.

Ramsey Russell: And good to see you. Folks thank you all for listening this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. Go check out his YouTube channel link down in the description below. See you next time.

Brandon Roy: Thank you, Ramsey.

[End of Audio]

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