Class is back in session at New School BBQ University
We’re back to in-person, outdoor, barbecue classes this summer
Clayton and I took a trip to Texas A&M recently to pick up a goat from the Rosenthal Meat Science Center to run some specials at the truck. We also got a great tour of the facilities from Ray Riley. I’d been to the campus and the Rosenthal Center before for their Camp Brisket weekend the university holds in association with Foodways Texas. It’s a deep dive into the most lauded beef cut in barbecue, but it’s also a networking event, a learning experience, and just a fun weekend. Attending that weekend inspired to our team to come up with our own class teaching our unique methods, sharing the experiences of our local ranchers, and bringing together the New School BBQ community.
Our very first class was at the end of February 2020. The photo above was many of these folks’ last public outing before all of our worlds changed. We held a smaller class last summer and have done some zoom classes as well, but now that our staff is fully vaccinated, we are excited to bring a group of 30 students back to Cosmic for our New School BBQ University — Summer Session.
On Friday we’ll have a “Meat and Greet” in the evening. It’s a low key, get-to-know-each-other hang. The next morning we have breakfast tacos and coffee at 7 and we start trimming meat at 7:30. Brad and I switch off trimming brisket, ribs, beef cheeks, and we break down a whole hog for barbecue. Once the sausage is on cure, the pits are loaded and hot, we’ll start prepping our lunch demo which is the L&L Burger. After lunch we’ll have a panel discussion and then a break in the action from about 2–5pm for students to take a nap or explore Austin.
For dinner we usually grill up some steaks and throw down a baked potato bar. We hang out and have a couple drinks and at around 8–9pm we show the students what a finished brisket feels like, answer some questions about resting overnight, and make sure all the hog, cheeks, and briskets are tucked away in the warmers staying hot.
Sunday morning is a Chud Shop tour at Brad’s at 9. We’ll do biscuits and gravy and have coffee there too. Around 10 we head to the food truck where we slice up the brisket, cheeks, shred barbacoa, case and cook sausage, and pull a whole hog. Then around 1–2pm we put down a massive, 30 person barbecue spread and all share the fruits of the weekend’s labor. We usually have one panel discussion after that and then hold an informal graduation ceremony, aka we hand out t-shirts before people depart for the weekend.
Just writing up this blog has me buzzing with excitement for the weekend. I love bringing people in for an extended time and really showing them everything we do. This is the perfect weekend for anyone who is serious about barbecue as either a career or a hobby. We’ve made so many connections and friends from this class and have even hired one of the members of our first graduating class who just turned out to be a rockstar.
I obviously teach the thing but I can’t recommend it enough and I think the same can be said for all previous attendees. Of course, if you can’t make it to the class because of scheduling or if it’s cost prohibitive, our Patreon is a great place to watch us cook everything on our menu and much more!
