It is truly a gift when once can turn a passion into a mitzvah. I have been lucky enough to experience this journey and also bring along more people along for the ride.
Over 15 years ago, I was gifted a hand-me-down smoker and immediately fell in love with smoking all manner of delicious meats. This did cause some issues, because I married a life-long vegetarian who was potentially raised as an experiment by her nutrition scientist parents. But, after some negotiation, I was able to clear a path for my smoked meat adventures. And I had a lot to learn – this was in the days before YouTube, so there were scant resources other than cookbooks and enthusiast websites. But I soon started experimenting.
I was never settled with the equipment I had. I tried charcoal smokers, electric smokers, gas-powered smokers, and eventually pellet smokers. They all had their pros and cons, but eventually my wife issued a moratorium on outdoor cooking appliances.
The organization I worked for at the time, Gamestop, had a partnership with the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) organization which provides lodging and meals for families who have children going through challenging medical experiences. We are very lucky to have a thriving branch here in Nashville within walking distance of Monroe Carrell Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. We even have philanthropists who are fundholders in our Jewish Foundation who donate to RMH, which is a testament to how generous our community is to our friends and neighbors.
Every year we at Gamestop made a point of getting our teams together to prepare a meal for the families staying at our local RMH. The sad thing is that most of the folks staying at RMH get stuck on pasta and pizzas – it is literally what most organizations prepare for the guests. After getting to know some of the families, they confessed that they really missed home-cooked meals. I convinced our corporate headquarters to go in a slightly different direction, and they ended up letting me make 50 pounds of BBQ for the guests. And after seeing the joy of a couple of dozen folks getting to eat home-cooked BBQ, it made me realize that I enjoyed seeing folks enjoy BBQ almost more than actually making it!
A good friend of mine commented that while he loved the food I was making, he really wished he could get some that was kosher. And that was when I decided to buy West End Synagogue some smokers. Along with the ever-present Stuart Wiston, my BBQ support system and smoky wingman we had our first BBQ at West End Synagogue around 2011. To this day I will never comprehend how we got so many briskets, chickens, and sides of salmon into those non-commercial smokers to feed over 150 people. It was a huge hit, and for many congregants, it was the first time they had ever had kosher BBQ.
A few years after we started making mass quantities of kosher BBQ for West End, Stuart convinced me to participate in a leg of the Kosher BBQ circuit down in Atlanta. So, Stuart, Trent Rosenbloom, and my brother-in-law David Ortiz made our way to Atlanta to Congregation B’nei Torah to compete. It was like nothing I had ever seen. We had to do all our prep on a Thursday night and then started cooking Saturday night at 8pm. To complicate matters, the judges were Kansas City Certified, and none of us had any idea what that meant. And rather than my fancy high-tech smokers, we were stuck using good ol’ Weber charcoal grills. Throw in some untimely food poisoning caused by bad menu choices, and by the end of Sunday, we limped back to Nashville thoroughly defeated. But, on the bright side, the challenges of that experience inspired us to create the Kosher Hot Chicken Festival, which has been a Nashville staple for over a decade and been a joy to thousands of people over the years.
And then, Vanderbilt Hillel entered the story. The legend goes that on a parent’s weekend, a family from Texas was appalled that at Vanderbilt “BBQ” meant hot dogs and hamburgers. And so, they purchased a competition-grade BBQ smoker trailer which lives permanently behind Hillel. I had never worked on something as big as that beast, and certainly not with something that devoured logs as fast as you could put them in. But I learned over the years, and now it truly my pleasure to use this incredible resource for the good of West End, Hillel, and the community at large. I particularly love getting to show the Vanderbilt students how to make BBQ and take care of the smoker. While there are no college credits earned, the life skills of learning how to make great BBQ will serve them no matter what major they choose.
Over the years I continue to experiment; my current passion is turning brisket into corned beef and pastrami. And in my mind, there is no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with a slow-smoked turkey. Cold-smoking cheese, nuts, and fish is also something I love to do. But the moments that always bring me the most joy are the hundreds of hours I have spent hanging out with friends smoking delicious meats and the faces of all those who get to enjoy it at the end of the process.
I’m also more than happy to share my brisket rub so you can do it yourself:
Sparky’s Brisket Rub
2 parts Onion Powder
1 part kosher salt
1 part garlic powder
1 part Hungarian paprika
1 part brown sugar
1 part black pepper
Blend spices together; I recommend using a food processor to ensure uniformity. Dry the brisket and season liberally – I recommend using rubber gloves to massage it in thoroughly.
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