Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

February 26, 2010

Cue the 'cue guy

— YORK — Dennis Sherman has a message for me.

It's from Ardie Davis, PhB, nationally known barbecue expert and inductee into the Kansas City Barbecue Society's Hall of Flame.

We're standing in the middle of Sherman's living room. Sherman holds out his iPhone so I can hear the voicemail Davis left for my benefit: ''Tell that writer that indoor barbecue is an oxymoron,'' he said. ''There is no such thing ''

We laugh. We both know that Davis is correct. But Davis doesn't live in Maine, where the long months of winter can make true-blue barbecue fans go into withdrawal.

Sherman, the man behind DennyMike's 'Cue Stuff, a locally produced line of barbecue sauces and rubs, has agreed to a challenge: prepare a barbecue feast indoors in January that has outdoor summer flavor.

There are some products out there that allow barbecue lovers to try smoking meat in their oven, but what Sherman came up with was more of a version of ''barbersauce'' -- meat cooked indoors with sauces and rubs that will make you swear it's August. Sherman's menu included pulled pork cooked in a crockpot, St. Louis ribs cooked Memphis style, barbecue chicken, corn bread, slaw and (thank you, God) collard greens.

''I think the meal itself is certainly anything that you would expect out of any good barbecue joint wherever you are,'' Sherman said. ''The main thing that would be lacking is certainly that smoked flavor.''

Sherman, who favors Texas-style barbecue, used his own products as flavorings, but also made suggestions for alternatives straight from the cupboard.

Sherman developed his own line of barbecue seasonings (with names like ''Hot 'n Nasty'' and ''Cow Bell Hell'') after noticing that other off-the-shelf products were full of salt and sugar. He uses natural sweeteners in his rubs and sauces, some of which have started winning national competitions.

Most recently, Sherman won five awards at the National Barbecue Association's Conference & Expo in Austin, including two gold medals for his ''Pixie Dust'' and ''Chick Magnet'' rubs.

He is currently working on a new hot sauce and steak sauce, and he's developing a new seafood marinade with Portland Shellfish. Sherman and his wife, Patty, are also nearing completion on a small cookbook that uses his products on everything from shepherd's pie to Thai food.

Watching Sherman at work in his kitchen, I was most intrigued by his pulled pork in a crockpot. Born and raised in Memphis, I grew up just a few minutes away from the famous Gridley's BBQ on Summer Avenue. That's the pulled pork sandwich that tugs on my memory, so good pulled pork is what I crave when I think of barbecue.

SPRINKLED, NOT RUBBED

If you want to try this indoor version of pulled pork, buy a boneless pork butt somewhere in the 5- to 7-pound range. Sherman preps the meat with an old pitmaster's trick he learned from Paul Kirk, the man known as ''the Baron of Barbecue'': he paints the meat with a light coating of yellow mustard. Nothing fancy, Sherman notes as he pulls out a huge bottle of French's from the refrigerator.

The mustard creates a little bit of a wet coating for the spice rub that comes next. ''Rub is a bit of a misnomer,'' Sherman said. ''I always sprinkle.''

The argument against actually rubbing the spices on the meat is that rubbing tends to fill the pores, blocking the juices that want to sweat out during cooking. Blocking the juices from coming out of the meat sounds to me like it would be a good thing, but this is apparently another tip from the Baron of Barbecue, so who am I to argue?

Sherman sprinkled the pork butt with his Sublime Swine Rub, but if you want to experiment on your own, he suggests trying combinations of spices that include chili powder, cayenne pepper, turmeric, ground bay leaf, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, and salt and pepper.

Sherman added just a touch of his Carolina-Style Sauce to the pot before turning the crockpot on low and walking away for 10 to 12 hours.

The meat is done when an instant-read thermometer reads 195 to 200 degrees.

''Temperature is everything in barbecue,'' Sherman said. ''People think they can tell by eye. You want consistency, you want accuracy, you've got to have one of these (thermometers).''

The only thing lacking in the crockpot recipe is smoke, which is the factor that truly distinguishes this from outdoor barbecue. Sherman said you can add some of his ''Mesquit-O Madness'' or a touch of Liquid Smoke to the pot to get some of that all-important smoky flavor, but he prefers serving the meat straight up and letting people add their own preferred sauces.

Sherman isn't afraid of Liquid Smoke, but is still ''a little bit uneasy about that'' because most barbecue experts frown upon it and don't even keep a bottle in their pantries. Use too much, and it just doesn't taste right.

''You have to be very judicious with it,'' Sherman said.

When the meat was done, Sherman plated it with some cole slaw, corn bread and collard greens.

''Gotta have your greens,'' he said, laughing as he stirred them with some tongs. ''Sure looks good, huh?''

The final result was some of the moistest pulled pork I've ever had without sauce.

Low and slow, just the way I like it.

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com

Tweet