Meet the Rusty BBQ man, and check out his story of how he has created a diverse range of bbq rubs including IPA Ale and Cola aswel as some more regular rubs to flavour your bbq cooking.
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00:00 How you doing chap? The rusty barbecue co-king. We're here in Shrewsbury and it's
00:07 coming to that season isn't it? Although you've just been telling me
00:10 barbecue season's for all year isn't it? There's a saying barbecue 365 and yeah I
00:15 mean we barbecue all year round. Turkeys at Christmas go on the barbecue
00:20 everything comes snow, rain, sun yeah we barbecue and try and promote barbecuing
00:25 it's not just a summer thing, it's a year-round thing but a month like this month is
00:29 brilliant because the weather's turning better, people are getting
00:34 outside it's just easier to barbecue like this. So I guess we should
00:39 say what you do, so the rusty barbecue what's it all about? Yeah so we are a
00:43 multi award-winning artisan producer of hand blended barbecue rubs and
00:47 seasonings. We are fortunate to have won a number of great taste awards for our
00:53 products so we think they're good obviously others have agreed but yeah we
00:58 hand blend spices which effectively amp up the flavour of your meat or veggies
01:02 when you cook them on the barbecue. Yeah so it's a case of what just rub them on
01:06 before they go on the barbecue is that how it works? Yeah before they go on if
01:09 you're let's take a steak for example if you're cooking a steak rub it on 10
01:13 minutes before, a bit of a sprinkle and just give it a season, a dusting
01:17 and then let it sit let the flavours permutate a little bit into the meat and
01:21 stick it on the barbecue and away you go. Yeah and this all started, we were having a
01:25 little chat off camera, you were doing this just for fun for your friends
01:27 weren't you? Yeah and then your mates were like oh can you get a bit of that in a
01:31 bottle for me and then the light bulb moment came. That was it yeah it was
01:35 friends going home with little kind of packages of the the rubs that I was
01:39 making for fun and yeah somebody said to me why don't you give it a go and stick
01:42 them online and try and sell them and yeah the rest is history we've been
01:45 going since 2016. Yeah as I mentioned we've won a few awards now which is
01:49 always a bonus. Well yeah we should say you've got the, what was you were telling
01:53 me about the Star Award? Yes. One of the few companies in that range sort of thing. We're the only UK
01:58 barbecue season company to hold a three-star Great Taste Award. Yeah. And we
02:03 were in the Golden Fork Awards last year we went down to London and were up for
02:07 product of the year. Narrowly got picked to the post but just to be there is
02:10 thrilling. Yeah and you've got some, I mean talk us through some of the flavours
02:15 now you were a well-travelled man so some of these have come from your own kind of
02:18 travels haven't they, is that right? They have, whenever, I love travelling and
02:22 immersing myself in the cuisine and I try and use that as inspiration. I bring
02:26 the flavours back with me. It's a science as well as a skill in terms of getting
02:31 the flavours right, knowing you know what sugars have burned temperatures, what
02:36 salts go well, how the spices are going to react under heat but fundamentally
02:40 it's by getting that flavour profile across and making sure that you know the
02:43 flavour you're trying to translate comes out in the end product. Yeah. So if
02:47 there's one flavour that's your best seller which one would that be? Oh there's
02:52 a big favourite at the moment, black truffle. Everybody loves a bit of black
02:55 truffle so we import dried black truffle from Italy and blend it with salt, pepper,
03:01 garlic and a bit of Scottish wild garlic as well to give it a kick. Cool. And if
03:05 there's one flavour that's let's call it misunderstood, which is the one
03:09 that you think people are going nah not for me but actually they really should
03:13 try it. It's the cherry cola. Cherry cola. Sounds bizarre but I mean think of a
03:18 gammon that you put in a slow cooker you cook with you know cola in there. Yeah.
03:22 This is just like that. It's got a slight little bit of cayenne for a bit of a
03:25 kick, a bit of heat to it. Yeah. But it's got a great sweet profile which is great
03:29 on the ribs and anything pork or chicken. And for the beer lover you've
03:32 even got the IPA. I love a good pint of IPA so for me I wanted to translate that and that is my
03:39 biggest challenge to date that one. It took me over a year and a half to get
03:43 that right. Oh wow of developing and tasting. Developing and tasting, getting the hops right, the level right. Like you would create a decent beer.
03:49 Yeah. But we finally landed on it and yeah it's a triumph. So it's these
03:54 flavours you've got here they've been a labour of love then haven't they to kind
03:57 of come up with and create. They really have. There's been lost sleep, tears from the boy you know over a few
04:02 spices. But everything that we do you know we put our heart and soul into and
04:07 we hope that comes across in the products that we put out. And you know for those that are
04:10 barbecuing stuff and not necessarily meat we've got some cracking collie
04:15 wings down there and you can put your seasonings and flavouring on that. Yeah I
04:19 mean I eat vegetarians for about three or four days a week and then meat the
04:23 other three or four days. I love it. We've got cauliflower wings here which have
04:27 got some spice on. You can treat them just like a chicken wing. I love charred
04:30 cabbage is another great one as well. Halloumi you can look at the cheeses, the
04:34 fishes. Basically the world's your oyster. If you cook it in an oven or on a grill
04:39 you can stick it on the barbecue.