TWO priests are tucking into Red’s finest smoked ribs – seemingly oblivious of the tongue-in-cheek brand evangelism all around, proclaiming the gospel of True Barbecue. Co-founder James Douglas, aware of possible sacrilege, approaches them to ask if any offence is taken.“Surely not. You are absolved. With ribs this good you are guaranteed a place in heaven,” comes the irreverent reply.
Maybe it’s an apocryphal (sic) tale, but it blends in with the playful streak that has helped fuel the meteoric rise of Red’s from their Leeds start-up in 2011 to their current expansion into Shoreditch and, this autumn, Liverpool. Along the way ‘True Believers’ Douglas and Scott Munro have begotten a range of smokehouse sauces and rubs and topped the Sunday Times Bestsellers List with their barbecue bible, Let There Be Meat.
James and I are thumbing our way through this in the Manchester Red's on the edge of Albert Square. My thumbs are greasy from beef jerky and pork scratching nibbles. In an ideal world, pitmaster Pietro would have torn off a chunk of Texas brisket for me as we inspected the smokers, custom-built across the Pond. It's all making me that ravenous.
A pitmaster, by the way, is the Southern States name for a man who operates a barbecue pit or any of the modern variants that fuel that region’s (and various sub-regions’) insatiable craving for pulled pork, slow-cooked brisket, ribs, longs, burnet ends and the rest. A craving that has spread to the UK in the way that US craft beer styles have. Red’s have had a big hand in this. Hence on the website:
“Come forth believers, the church of true barbecue in Manchester is here to save your hungry souls. Step through the imposing wooden doors of the former Shipping Agent’s Building and be transported into a twisted fairground of worship. It’s god’s own junkyard of epic neon and glorious open plan pitmaster joy.”
They get away with all this because their social media followers love getting in on the joke and because the food’s so good. It took the business partners seven years of Stateside road trip research to create Red’s. Touring round in their Winnebago, astonished how easily the NNB aristocracy would share their smokehouse secrets. So Let There Be Meat is more than a collection of recipes.
It’s certainly helping me find the true path. After a conversion in Texas and Tennessee I bought my own ‘mini-pit’, a bullet smoker with assorted aromatic woods like hickory and mesquite.
Wearing my Central BBQ Memphis, I fired it up in the yard, entrusting 5kg of beef brisket, infused with brine, to it and after several, anxious hours checking thermometers and topping up the coals (I used far too little charcoal in the first place to build up the heat) watched it fizzle out in the dusk and had to finish my Texas-style smoked brisket in the bottom of the Aga. Even so, it kept an aromatic smokiness and fibrous tenderness to give me hope for next time. From the (highly recommended book) I have made gallons of brine, litres of Kansas City Barbecue Sauce and a tub of Red’s basic dry rub, so there will be a next time.
James consoles me by saying how many kilos of meat they murdered while trying to get the techniques right. Indeed, during our walk around the kitchens, he rejected some smoked cuts that hadn’t made the grade. He gave me lots of tips, too, for which, hallelujah, I am truly thankful.
He and Scott were brought together by a mutual business consultant, who recognised their shared enthusiasm for the revival of traditional US slow-smoked barbecue (grilling meat usurped the BBQ title, but it’s fighting back). In the Red’s hierarchy Scott, who has background of South African Brai cooking, holds the title of ‘Prophet of Smoked Meats’; James is ‘Director of Aesthetics and Simple Tasks’.
“We do regard it as a pilgrimage, a crusade,’’ says James. “For the pitmasters over there it’s not just a job. It never has been. It’s a vocation, a religion standing for hours in front of their smoker. We too, like them, are learning all the time.”
Let all true believers, rejoice over that.
Red's True Barbecue, Albert Square, 22 Lloyd St, Manchester M2 5WA. 0161 820 9140.
Let There Be Meat: The Ultimate Barbecue Bible by James Douglas and Scott Monroe (Orion hb £25).
