Cooking BBQ the Pork Mafia way with Phil Wingo

let’s do this let’s do this thefollowing was recorded in front of alive studio audience at the studio 21podcast cafe welcome to this episode ofpit light BBQ gather on the pit withyour host jöhnny Maggs and messy moneylet’s talk barbecue what’s up everybodycoming to you live from the studio 21podcast cafe in Salem New Hampshireit’s the FitLife BBQ podcast where wetalk barbecue and a lot of other topicsthat you normally talk around the pit asalways I am joined by messy mic todayvia possibly a Hawaiian tropical islandthat is nigh look at you we where’s thecoconut in the umbrella a couple hulagirls let’s get this party startednice how’d they allow you on a planewith all this stuff going on you canleave the country now at a POIOh DJ in it uh private jet I see how youroll nice nothing how you holding up ohyeah for sure yeah guess what guess whateverybody the phone rang in the middleof the show Michael is everyone a beeroh yes you were telling me about thatyesterday gels measure quality follow methat what we saw it’s a certain suitnice because we know you got some timeon your hands that yeah this is this isgetting rough this is getting old realquick yeah this whole staying old youknow lucky you know I’m still I stillgot to go in everyday but man some ofthe calls I’m taking there it’s like mymailman it doesn’t have gloves on sorryI don’t know what to tell youwe’re not mandated to wear them you knowwe can hold your mail for you if youwant if you don’t want it we will holdit till it’s this is all over yeah butwe can’t make him wear the glove with amask or two gloves whateversome of them might do the old MichaelJackson style what hey to each his ownhey Dave is Mike recording from hisbathroom all right all rightyou got anything else you want to add wewant to get into this let’s get intothis ladies and gentlemen joining ustoday all the way from Chicago Illinoisof the rubs and sauces you might know ofpork mafia the one and only Phil WingoPhil you can hear us brother awesome tobe here awesome thanks for joining usmanno problem thank you guys for asking soPhil I always start off by asking ourguests how did your barbecue journeystart so how did you you know did yougrow up with it with relatives or youknow how’d you get into the barbecueworld I got into barbecue and I wasalways cooking in the backyard ended upchanging professions from constructionwork to catering and kind of just rolledinto barbecue and getting involved inthe food industry I got into cateringthrough tailgate parties through youknow football games baseball gamestaking people to some events andopen forum nice nice so actually withwith the football we already know thatthat answer you know bear downbut we will go baseball we are we whitesock so we do cubbiesI am white sock southside yeah attaboyyes nice so I used to that used to be mymain business for a little while itrented motor homes and we had tenmotorhomes that we we would rent out andas I developed guys would say hey youknow we need a driver or we need food soit kind of just rolled into a cateringbusiness through doing that and as acatering developed of course I got intous a couple of barbecue contests gotfortunate enough to not win GrandChampionship of a Pacific contest butyou know first place in a couplecategories as we went through the yearsand loved doing contests but contests isGod took in a kind of turn you know gotto be where everybody was doing it andeverybody’s got their own sauce and rubso I kind of looked at it as after a fewyears you know too many things that gotinto barbecue contests so I kind ofbroke away from the contest I still lovedoing contests but just don’t get outthere it’s often in 2013 I had a partnerwho was a research and development chefand he’d asked me to start a businessand so right away we had 11 restaurantcustomers and then a year into it hesaid hey I want to buy you out and heended up never giving me any money andkind of jerked me around and I went toevery customer at that point said heyI’m starting over let’s just keep goingforward so I had all of them come backwith me except one and that guy now isout of business cousin he had threerestaurants at the time and now isclosed so formio is just a little bit of karma comingback but we now service about 40restaurants with their rubs or our rubswe do to do custom rubs it’s not all ofit selling our recipes we will do acustom recipe now are you developing therecipes yourself so we do know what therecipes if the guy at the restaurantdoesn’t have their own will get a sampleof what they’re using a lot of themdon’t even know what they’re usingthey’ll say oh this is what we buy fromCisco or us foods but they lot of themdon’t like it so they’ll add tell mewhat they want to add to make it betterto make it their own and I’ll have thelab make a sample for them let them testfit and then tell me what they want tochange and percentages like I want 20percent more garlic or 30 percent morepepperso we’ll just adjust that till we get itto where they want it and once they saythey like it then I can price it outwell that’s cool that’s coolso so do you you know I also love I loveasking this question with the guys whomake their own stuff are you like a madscientist on the weekends in theevenings on your you know coming up withstuff or do you have like a base flavorprofile you start with and then you knowmove up or down depending on where youwant to go with an ideadepending on where we’re going with itlike some one of my new seasonings isthe best tech Mathia which is a Mexicanskirt steak seasoning it’s not spicyitself but it has that deeper Acehflavor and if you want some spicy justadd some jalapenos to it now do you dolike a straight jalapeno powder or howdo you get there is those powers and allthose things can be thrown in on any ofthem the main thing is if people’strying to do their seasoning is havesomewhere to sell it before you startthinking you’re going to sell it becauseit’s sad to say 60% of the time guyswant to do it do it and then can’t sellthe product just because they’re notfail right now what’s the what’s theminimum batch that you require well I gothere are hours it’s for cases of courseit’s a volume type business so for caseseight cases twelve cases a pallet loadis 40 cases of course is where you’regoing to get your best price yeah whatyou’re doing you’re doing both you’redoing five pound bags you doing Labour’sI do 10 pound bag so 40 pound case fourbags in a case yeah lot of places justdo 50 pounds in one big bag in New Yorkone of my customers is pig beachbarbecue so they’re one of a New Yorkarea restaurants that I service nice andicy so looking at you know your Facebookstuff and you know seeing you drivingyou doing – all those deliveriesyourself or you like just going intoGreat Lakes area I will deliver most ofthose items myself I was starting to geta lot of customers over in Detroit soI’ve been heading over there at leastonce a month taking products back andforth I also have started selling coffeethrough a distributor in Detroit that’swhere I get my coffee so I when I ever Igo there I usually take some seasoningsand I’m bringing coffee back place now Idid see a post from your this – I thinkit was this morningit was definitely today you’re makingpork mafia masks they said I don’t haveone yet but we got our masks ready orwhen it’s coming mandatory is what Ihear it’s coming – so we figured we we’dget ahead of the game and you alreadyget them so one of our restaurants thatwe service his other businesses apparelso he jumped on this Monday startedmaking these masks and he’s just hookedon the ears so we got him up on ourwebsite now and we’ll see if maybe Ihave to order more alreadyis that uh great with the culinaryChicago gala Chicago kitchen yes nicenice I business yes well that’s his mainbusiness so but uh yes the food wastheir secondary but they’re greatthey’re great people Oakland yeah we aregoing to show a couple episodes ago nowyou know with everything that going onI’m like how is that affecting you youyou know we be able you stop you justyou know kind of developing new productsright now so most of our restaurantswere doing takeout I think I only hadtwo restaurants closed but to give youan idea how much it slowed down onecustomer I was delivering four cases ofseasoning a week and he’s down to fourcases a month so it has droppedconsiderably we are keeping busy withsome website sales that seems to beboosting right now with everybodycooking at home and I so I see you onalso you know online and through yourclosest you go around the world I meanyou’re you’ve been to Israel I meanyou’ve been overseas I mean what do youwhat are you doing that they hiring youto you know teach you know explain whatgoes on over there so a lot of theEuropean stuff I started first off Iwent to Sweden my first place in Europegreat couple over there invited us tocome over teach a class before theirbarbecue contest ended up getting someproducts made there so I have a threeflavors there my taxes Memphis inLouisiana I have made with a company inEurope and is in shovel stores there soI have manufactured the three as I callAmerican barbecue flavors already thereand so they’re manufactured in Finlandso after Sweden I went to Finland fortwo years got hired to teach class thereand that went real well went back toFinland twice and then even got thetill you’re there and I like to saidIsrael way NIA Israel the customer thereowns a winery and they have a bigbarbecue smoker on a trailer and theycook on Fridays only and it’s not overthere it’s a good timeoh that’s cool cuz that’s that’s gonnabe a hell of an experience you know thatyou know like you said Sweden andeverywhere you know not yes so we reallyknown for barbecue but you know just totake in everything the culture andeverything and you know teaching themoney yeah so a lot of places sometimeswhen I’m in enough especially theNetherlands that’s where my trips havebeen your Hamsterdam area we’ve got afew stores on the outlying area ofAmsterdam to sell our products so we’llgo to those stores and do a little demoone day and teach a class with using ourproducts what type of meats they likedone you know you smoking over thereyou know you’re doing roughly the sametypes you know pork puffs brisketsor you know is it are you doing theircuisine or their you know type of meatsI didn’t hear you there and I had aphone call coming and I cleared itwhat’s popular is to smoke over thereyou know you doing pork butts brisketsyou know ribs or you doing you knowother types of they have a KCBS there aswell and a steak SCA there so a lot ofguys are cooking steaks now the wholeculture there seems to be a little bit Iwon’t say it’s bigger or as big as herebut it just seems like everybody isinterested in cooking in the backyardthey have some different cuts they havea lot of the South South American cutslike the Pena in Konya and a lot of beefthere I’ve even a head horse there aswellOh how does it tasteyou’d probably never guess it ifsomebody didn’t tell you who wants totell you you kind of get the feel of itbut I thought it was delicious I had agreat horse steak horse think okay thatis for sure difference yeah it was alittle different but it’s very veryenjoyable and everywhere I went peoplehave been nothing but hospitable and Ireally enjoyed getting to travel as Isay barbecues been very very good to meyeah I can’t ever say I’ve had horse Iknow there’s been a few horses I wouldhave loved to carve up on Kentucky DerbyDay that dad did me wrong but so is thelife I supposeright all right Phil hang on one secondand take a quick break and I will beright back hey Mike try to turn that guyvolume down a little bit moreatención cigar smokers or even friendsof a cigar smoker if you’re looking torelax with a nice premium cigar orlooking for a great gift for cigarsmoker this is the gift that keeps ongivingour friends at two guys cigars calm havecreated the cigar of the Month Club forjust $24.99 per month you or your friendwill receive four different premiumhandmade cigars every month and shippingand handling is included go to two guyscigars calm that’s the number two guyscigars calm and go to the cigar of theMonth Clubyou can stop any time because there’s nocontract but you own because this is atremendous deal for our listeners go totwo guys cigars calm that’s the numbertwo guys cigars calm and click the cigarof the Month Club at the same time ifyou want to learn about the cigars youreceive each month you can smoke alongwith them on their own podcast calledthe cigar authority sit back relax andenjoy a nice premium cigar from ourfriends at two guys cigars gov and weare back hey Mike say something so faryou have this like like I said it’salmost like that flatline whining soundI turned out how my speaker audio liketurned out the mic on yeah so far rightnow it’s absolutely silent it’s perfectnow so what would you say save thosepopular rallies for this day my pointmost popular robberies Memphis mud nowwould you consider that like you’re likeyou’re a pee out of your line so peopleask me sometimes if I was the only getto have one rub what would it be I mightwould go with my loose Louisiana rubit’s more of a all-purpose rub than thanthis one but I do use Memphis muttersabout everything I’m sorry Phil I’m I’mnot I’m not laughing at youhey Mike Mike see Mike see says you needHugh Hefner robe and also Phil we dohave a a question or comment for you orthe chat from from our good friend SteveCoddington can you tell us about thecamel the camel that came on the camelhump ride animals no no the audiencewanted to the audience wanted to knowabout the camel as in the horse likecreature from from northern Africa thatthe indigenous people would ride aroundon their humps look at the big brain onyou it’s not that big not ringing a bellno Bubba he’s got menow he said mistakecamel snake I don’t know yeah I don’tknow all right you got us on that oneBubba but buddy okay Phil we weretalking about the Memphis mode you hadalready hit on the bistek seasoning yougot a few other hairs and they staysound phenomenal so what what he wasbehind the Greek mafia so the Greekmafia is a Greek seasoning salt for themost part I first called it low countryand I changed the name after about ayear because I wanted to come out with aboil seasoning I wanted to call lowcountry so I figured well let’s justcall it what it is it’s Greek so why notcall it the Greek mafia nice nice nowwhat obviously is gonna have somethingGreek it’s got a it’s got to be killerwith lamb oh it’s it’s unbelievable Iactually use it about every day it’sprobably the most used seasoning that Ihave now I started in the morning with Ihave gravy or eggsI always put a little bit of that Greekin it it just seems to work oneverything like that some guys evenusing that as a base coat under brisketsnowokay look like what it would it have uhhow did Holly how do you pronounce it isit the Zeki sauce did that have likethat dill why there’s no dill in itno so it does have a little bit of herbeNOS to it okay you need a little bit oflike a lemon a ten that does sound greatyou know we’re maybe even drinking oreven you know a turkey you know poultrythat would be phenomenal with yes reallygood on chicken excellent excellentthen then we have we just we hit theMemphis mud visit eka you know I’malways a big fan of the heat myself soyou can also have a Weezy and a bayou sothe Louisiana bayou is a great offpurpose rub it does have a little bit ofheat but there again it’s it’s reallygood on everything the pork but one ofthe really things that I like to have iton is a salmon that it’s great on Samnow does the heat level go down a littlebit after cooking or just lightlylightly thanks that’s what your dippingsauce is it a barbecue sauce is thatalso I call this if you toss just to bedifferent but it is just a barbecuesauceMemphis mud spice is the only spice inthat sauce there again I just wanted itto be different instead of calling it aregular barbecue sauce slightly sweetand vinegary oh nice I nice see I’m aI’m a big fan I love the vinegary saucesyesIII don’t know if it’s the tartness thetang to it you know you know obviouslysome some sauces can be very sweetalmost too sweet over this wayalthough overpoweringthe net pain kicks in and at yeah I likeknow like the tank yeah for sure I’mgonna sound the same black and nowSophia they you know done relative yoursauces you know petrol masks also do youknow restaurant consulting you knowyou’re still doing that you know you’restill going to be doing catering and youhave any classes as well so the onlyclasses that really taught in the statesis uh at culinary institutes one inMyrtle Beach South Carolina I’ve taughtat the last one I did was in Louisianaat Nicholls State culinary Departmentthose are always fun because uh theculinary students really don’t getanything on barbecue so when you get totalk to a group of students that iswanting to learn that’s what makes it alot of fun thanks yeah whoo I haveVinnie who I have uh you know workingwith me he actually is well right nownothing but uh graduated from TheCulinary Institute of America and youknow again you know just to cook youknow chef you know and uh but he’s outhe was before this happened he was doinghis internship at hometown barbecueyellow you know that that’s pretty goodgig right there good cool effort I seeonion yep now are you gonna be doinganything online are you gonna you knowkind of do any teaching or demonstrationoryou know just with all this going on sothere is a lot of it I see a lot ofchefs do it it all looks great I didhave a little conversation with a one ofmy top chef friends from Philadelphiasaid maybe we would get something goingnext month so we’ll see maybe maybesomething online will work outthat’s definitelynice well though Mike can’t believe wehaven’t even gone haven’t even hit ityet how did you come up with or what isthere a story behind the name pork mafiayeah because I guess I just love thatname I first got into wanting to cater awhole pigs so I watch South Carolina tomy friend Jack wavers class 10 or 20years ago maybe now I think it was andwas really interested in whole pigs andcame back to Chicago started a cateringwhole pigs and got asked to help cookthe pig got a friend of Mines bar upnear Wrigley so as it was getting closeto being done where all four or five ofus sitting around and some guy walked upand snapped a picture and said man youguys look like the pork mafia so I saidwell I don’t know where it’s gonna gobut I’m gonna use it oh yeah becausethat’s that there that’s so you that’s agreat name you know I think anything youcan throw mafia on at the end of it youknow it worksyeah yeah for sure yeah cook them is ontheir backI mean further for contests and for showof course running style everybody likesto see the shiny skin and and so forthin the head but I think for the flavorthe best is just the leaveit thing onits back and it kind of acts like a bigbowl at the time and you can just get itall mixed up I end up just pulling thebones out mixing it all up throw alittle more rub on it and that’s thebest eaten right there oh nicenow you see smoking those in the CW I nolonger have the DW right now I haveAlvar on style cooker which is wood orpropane and they cook pigs pretty damngood you can kind of just turn it upwhen you need to and turn it down whenyou don’t need it so I actually likecooking like a 150 pound pig I don’tmind it taken you know 20 hours or so Ipretty low nice do you have any possiblepublic secrets on the whole hog cookingor you know any though you see a lot ofguys like packing the Tenderloin withyou know sausage or you know throwing abitch that’s great it’s a great idea toadd a little more flavor but for me it’suh I actually don’t even like cookingpork butts no more I’d rather just havea whole pig if I’m gonna have porkI want a whole big style whole hog I’mthe mission Memphis in May yeah they’redead Derek I know Memphis amazedcanceled Mike didn’t you say they wereeither they cancelled or they were thinktalking about canceling the Royal wellthe competition for the Royal dog gotmoved out so we’re still doing that thatgot postponed the Royal I believe thatgot postponed for later of the year I’mnot sureyeah Memphis in May it’s supposed to belike that last week and I September nownice nice what else we havewe got you a steak and burger seasoningand then the Texas gold with Texas goldis another one so that’s like my secondbestseller I actually like mixing thatMemphis and Texas together a little bitand it’s a mustard base so I went withthe mustard base on that because uh theold-school Texas brisket guys wouldslather and a lot of people stillslather with mustard and then put therub on so with this rub you actuallydon’t have to slather I already got themustard in your rub and then of coursesalt black pepper a little ancho chiliis in that one just to balance it outbut it worked pretty damn good thenyou’re gonna learn anything thatwhenever they have anything with alittle spice to it piques my interest islike how difficult you got with thatLuluI like spice what do you got from me nogo back and watch the Coco Locochallenge that was to spice too muchspice now you say you know just poweralso it is mustard powderthat is the base of it all right SteveCottington Memphis and Meggie they movedtill Octoberokay October so like the first time thatI met you at an MV BQ Ava you know Ihaven’t been in a couple years I justended up a lot of times that’s been whenI was going overseas was around thatsame time though if they if it happens Iknow it was going to be in Louisvillethis year got canned but it works outyeah I’d love to go back now are yougonna try and go to you know some of thelike the Memphis in May or some of thecolumns just so uh the Memphis in May Icook with the pig beach restaurant guysknow that the base of our team is fromNew York and we cook under the saltyrinse barbecue for the what is it theit’s in New York the Big Apple big hogyou so I have I’ve been have been at theBig Apple um went there for Pappy’s outof st. Louis I was with them one yearthat’s a great event to I hope hopefullythey get to do that again yeah a goodtime yeah they just stopped doing a lotof stuff yeah definitely I heardsomebody say cabin fever set but youknow today outside it’s about near 80degrees here so cabin fever is hitneared also now so what do you what doyou got first motor out we don’t holdback yard stuff so back yard I got a eggand I have a drum I really like cookingon drums drums just probably my favoritething to cook down in the backyardyou could just cook anything on a drumnow you hate or just put little racks orpull I am a drum I use both racks andI’m the egg I just have the one at youknow a lid level there’s no double racksand egg feel like I got one lastquestion for you surehow did the goatee come about and ithasn’t become your trademark so to speakso when I stopped so I was in theconstruction and when I was got out ofconstruction like I I kind of just saidthis is my asset you know yeah and I hadit trimmed I went to Louisiana a friendto barber shop couple years ago and helike cut half of it off oh my god oh nosee I’ve tried to dry I’d love to have alittle extra but it’s wrapped after acertain like it just drives me but crazyyeah I recently stopped shaving my lipson my hair starting to grow there it’sdriving me nutsoh no because that that’s what he gets Iget the little pieces in the corner andI sit here I’m like hung in my mouthlike a fool all day long and not even Iknow it either day like what the hellare you doing I got a long one I missedone and you know just sit there like ajackass well my look I’m trying to looklike the Rolling Stones logo orsomething so I switch locations so wecan everybody find you social media wisewebsites and you know I do I would sayany upcoming events but they website ispork mafia dot us and Facebook page isthe same on Instagram if you look uppork mafia boss or Phil Wingo you shouldfind awesome awesome any new products inthe works or I definitely want to get aoil seasoning that’s something that I’mget into the boiling I got into those asI started to go on to Louisiana andSouth Carolina doing the who shariq’sBoucherie is actually where we would dothe whole whole pig where it’s processedbutchered cooked and heat and all in thesame watch the you know the butcherypart actually while I started gettinginto those as because I wanted to knowexactly where my food was coming fromand there’s nothing like seeing ithappen right from you oh yeah hell youtalking about Mike didn’t you take abutcher in class I did but the pig wasalready killed so the thing was alreadydead and then they cut the pig in halflengthwise and that’s how you know theyteach you or show you okay can i killingall this running around and i had a nameand stuffwell first off don’t name nothing in thesecond off always follow this rule youcan’t grill it till you kill it wellPhil thank you so much for taking thetime out to join us you know variableslocated thank you guys you know you knowfour four five four or five o’clock inthe afternoon on a Tuesday can is alittle tough for some people soseriously thank you so much for takingsome time out to talk to us and uh whichfor sure introducing people to uh whodidn’t know of pork mafia you knowhopefully to uh found some interest init and I give it all this short becauseit sounds absolutely phenomenal thankyou guys Ohso buddy you got anything I’m good nicenice just dragons like oh my god it isgetting ridiculous you know but youstaying safe out there I’m doingwhatever I can you know I got to go homeand uh get the yeah he’s already homedue to the old the new routine ofstraight into the shower and all thisbut hey we got to do what we got to dothis ain’t safe on this one but uh nextweek folks a good friend reishi and aBBQ Buddha is going to be joining us onTuesday next Tuesday April 14th and itis also the release date of his newcookbook and of course he doesn’t say adamn wordI’ll pull in the driveway and boom boomstarts barking his head off now we stopstaring at him on the screen and nothingdefinite recipes in there and yeah Iknow I know we’ve done a couple teaserposts but a few a few other pictures andyou know couldn’t get into the recipespart because of obviously the book isn’tout but uh did a few teaser pics on thatso you know go check that out you canstill pre-order yes he did I saw thatyou know and also Ray had said we aregoing to be doing next week not one buttwo giveaways so two lucky winners nextweek one winner will receive a copy ofthe cookbook and the second winner isgoing to receive both of Ray’s sauces sowe’ll we’ll figure out a way to do thatin the chat we might do the old numbertrick screenshot my screen where thechat starts and you know first person tothrowcertain number out there wins thewalk-in but we’ll figure it out ohabsolutely happy birth and happybirthday happy Anniversary guyscongratulations how many is there buddyreally what really how dare you sure Iwell guaranteed we shell would know youwouldn’t all you you’re gonna get you’regonna get a call from FrankFrank if he was here I’d give him asmack on the back of the head for thatone but all right buddyyou stay safe over there pal you do I’mdoing my bestall right folks that’s it for this weeklike to thank you all for joining us tocatch the audio wherever podcast I foundcatch the video on Facebook and YouTubeon YouTube hit that subscribe button inthe notification bell you leave everytime we upload a new episodeyou’ll get the notification and you haveall our episodes right there at yourfingertips on social media find us onFacebook YouTube Instagram at FitLifevbq questions or comments please sendi’m gonna pit life vbq podcast atgmail.com and like always folks pleasesubscribe like rate and review hit thatshare button you know we’re stillhitting it live trying still trying tovery important to bring some normalcy toeverybody so did you just stick your eyeup to the camera only seven years fortyseven years good lord your mother is asaint if I know my buddy Frank Frank hasa little wild side I think that’s why meand him get along so goodsomething is nice all right folksstay safe out there be smart about itand till next weekkeep that smoke[Music]the views and opinions expressed by thehosts guests or callers of this programdo not necessarily reflect the opinionsof the studio 21 podcast cafe the Unitedpodcast network its partners oraffiliates