Vince Young Enters the Barbecue Business

This just in: diversifying into the meat business isn't just for country stars anymore. Apparently, Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young is getting in on the act, introducing a line of smoked meat products. For now, it looks as though his smoked sausage, brisket, and ribs are only available in his native Texas. But with the way things have unfolded in the last 48 hours, I'm not sure how much barbecue he'd be selling to Titans fans.

To our readers in the Lone Star State, if you have a chance to try it, please report back.

BAR-B-CURIOS: World's Largest Barbecue Sandwich - UPDATE!

I wanted to check back in and let all of you know how the Pulaski Kiwanis' world record attempt turned out. As we pointed out beforehand, the people from Guinness were not on hand, so the record was not certified. But it appears that unofficially we do in fact have a new world record. The assembly of the sandwich began shortly after the dessert turn-in at 2:00.

Here is the finished product.

As you can see on the scale, the final weight was 145 pounds. Old record of 89.9 lbs = destroyed.

Thoughts:

1. First and most obviously, this is not one sandwich, but two. Two buns = two sandwiches.

2. You might not be able to tell from the photos, but most of the pork was not pulled. In the first photo, you can see that they started to pull it with the first few butts, but most of the sandwiches consisted of them just placing whole butts (bone-in) onto the buns.

3. Now that the excitement of this record is behind us, what's next? What should be the next "world's largest" food item record-breaker? I for one would like to see the world's largest funnel cake. You?

BAR-B-CURIOS: Pulled Pork Slyderz

Those of ya'll who live in Middle Tennessee know that you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a barbecue restaurant - they're everywhere. And we aim to talk about a lot of 'em here on this blog. But to begin with, I'd like to start smaller. And squarer. As I was sitting in traffic in front of the White Castle on Broadway, imagine my surprise to see a sign advertising a pulled pork sandwich!

This struck me as odd for a couple of reasons. Usually, when fast food places try to do barbecue, they just throw some BBQ sauce on a chicken sandwich or a burger. Or they fashion a piece of "pork" into the shape of a miniature rack of ribs and serve it on a sandwich. This may just be the first attempt at a pulled pork sandwich by a fast food restaurant. And it comes from...White Castle? How did Krystal - the southern, non-buddy version of White Castle - allow this to happen on their home turf?

Anyway, seeing as this might be culinary history in the making and also seeing as I am a pulled pork junkie, I decided to give it a shot.

As you can see from the sign in the drive-thru line, they are pushing this sandwich hard. They are also calling it "slow cooked." I proceeded to order this slow cooked barbecue sandwich from a fast food restaurant.

As you can see in the picture, the sauce dominates. The meat itself, not really contributing any flavor, just serves as a vehicle to get more of the ketchupy sweet sauce between the buns. It was so saturated with the stuff that I have to think the meat has just been sitting in a crock pot full of sauce all day.

When it comes to pulled pork, dear reader, barbecue sauce is kind of like cologne. A little bit can complement what you've already got and make a good thing even better. But when there's way too much of it, you have to wonder what somebody's trying to cover up.

Until next time...