I sat down recently with a few cook teams who are ready to battle it out at the Hadji Shrine in the 12thannual Pensacola Eggfest.
Consider it a virtual “face off” between the teams.
Each week we will introduce a new cook team, get to know them, then you can decide who the winner is when you attend the delicious event.
First up: 850 Barbecue
Stephen and his wife, Nicole, began their family and Veteran owned business after falling in love with Texas barbecue and started 850 Barbecue in 2019.
Stephen and Nicole Owners of 850 Barbecue and new cook team for Pensacola Eggfest.What you may not know is…
Their secret ingredient: Passion is something that simply cannot be taught. It is the sole ingredient that has led to our success. Technique and methods are a very important tool in every pitmasters arsenal, but none can even compare to Passion which is an ingredient for success, not a tool that can just be “picked up”.
If Stephen could only cook with one ingredient: We are a Texas Barbecue Company. Salt, Pepper, Time, and Love are the name of the game for us. Do we use other things? Sure! But these two are the main and only ingredient in most of our meats believe it or not. When your techniques are perfectly honed, you don’t need much else. When people taste our food and ask what we use and we tell them, “It’s just salt and pepper”, they rarely believe it.
The most unexpected dish you’ve cooked on the Big Green Egg: So, by nature of Texas Barbecue, I am more of a full fire horizontal offset cooker type of guy. And therefore, don’t have a whole lot of history on a big green egg. Which will therefore leave me somewhat “behind the ball” per se. But one item I absolutely love and have come to find out is not something anyone locally does, is the Texas Twinkie. A mix of several Mexican Cheeses, brisket, all put inside of a perfectly prepared jalapeño, wrapped in bacon, smoked until almost rendered, sauced, and then smoked again until fully rendered. There is a pretty good chance that this will be seen at 2024 Pensacola EggFest!
His best BBQ fail or mishap: “Pineapple” in a word is my biggest fail! Pineapple has an enzyme in it called Bromelain. This enzyme will break down meat at an alarming rate! I was working on a new sausage that had pineapple in it, and I knew that the mix was a bit more, “mushy” than what I wanted it to be. But I was able to get it in the casing, and on the smoker. After a while I went to check on it and it looked like water inside of a casing. It was flat, “liquid like”, and not firm even in the slightest. It jiggled like a water balloon when touched. And instantly I knew that it was a fail. I couldn’t even take it off of the grates without it rupturing and going everywhere. I had to dump the entire grate all at once into the trash bin, and it looked like roadkill across the grate. It was quite the cleaning process after that. I have since learned the error of my ways and now have the knowledge of how to conquer that tiny yet powerful enzyme.
If Stephen could have one famous person on his cook team: My dad. He wasn’t famous, he wasn’t even super well known but by maybe his work colleagues, friends, and family. He passed away in December of 2019. He had, just before his untimely passing, bought me what would be the start of my first horizontal cooker. 850 Barbecue had just been formed in October of that year, and we were a name and that was it. We didn’t really even “exist” yet. So much would come to pass that would bring us to where we are now, and he didn’t get to see any of it. But I believe in God and Heaven, and I sure hope that our loved ones that are there, can look down and see us. He is famous to me! And if I could cook with anyone on my team, it would be him.
The smack talk: We are not looking to beat anyone, we are just coming to Pensacola EggFest to cook our absolute best, allow the public and the judges to try our food, and may the best team win!
I don’t know about you, Pensacola, but the Local Pulse and Pensacola Eggfest team might need to sample those Texas Twinkies before November!
850 Barbecue, we wish you the best of luck. But most importantly, thank you for joining the family of local BBQ lovers who love supporting our local charities even more.
Pensacola EggFest will take place at Noon (or earlier if you snag a VIP ticket), Sunday November 10th, 2024, at Hadji Temple, 800 W 9 Mile Rd, Pensacola, FL 32534 . The event hosts BBQ teams and backyard cooks from all over the United States who share two things: a love of cooking and the joy of giving back to their communities. Since 2013, over $780,000 has been donated to local charities from this little BBQ party.
Come join them to taste all the good food. (Click here for Tickets!) Better yet, grab some friends and join us as a cook team. (Click here to learn more and register your team.)
Peace, Love, and BBQ!
Karen Jolly
Local Pulse Staff Writer
