Judging Open Fire Meat Up & Best Thanksgiving Sides

HowToBBQRight

Malcom Reed

Food, Arts, Leisure

4.8 • 638 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on the HowToBBQRight Podcast, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we are more than ready for it (00:27). We kicked things off at the Open Fire Meetup in Hondo, Texas, and it turned out to be an absolute blast (02:37). Saturday's open-to-the-public portion of the Open Fire Meetup was packed from end to end (07:38). Malcom even judged the event and tasted some of the best BBQ bites he's ever had (12:31). While on his elk-hunting trip in Texas, Malcom also threw down some incredible steaks on a pellet grill (23:35). If you're searching for a great Christmas gift for the cook or pitmaster in your life, ThermoWorks is running a major sale right now (27:01). With Thanksgiving approaching fast, we're sharing our favorite family traditions for turkey day (28:45), along with the must-have side dishes that always make our holiday table (31:20). We're also talking about the new Thanksgiving desserts we can't wait to try this year (37:29). We take a closer look at why Primo Grills might become your new go-to backyard smoker (40:01). If you're planning to part, brine, and inject your turkey, we break down exactly how long you should cook it (40:43). For anyone slicing and vacuum-sealing their turkey this year, we explain the best way to reheat it without losing moisture (43:03). And if you're using a pellet grill for your bird, here are the top pellet options to get the best flavor (44:56). Should you brine your turkey for 48 hours (46:38)? Is it too much to brine and inject (48:52)? We answer those questions and more. Finally, Tyler shares his top-secret carrot bacon recipe (50:21).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Malcolm Reed's How to Barbecue Right, a podcast where we talk about barbecue, share recipes, and discuss all things delicious.
0:09.6	And now here's your host, Malcolm and Rochelle Reed.
0:12.6	Hey, welcome back to the How to Barbecue Right podcast. I'm your host of Malcolm Reed.
0:17.1	Join by my lovely talented wife, Miss Southern Shell. We got Tyler over here on the board, and it's Thanksgiving, y'all. It pretty much is, yeah. It's less than a week away. I'm already planning menus. Yep, yep. What we got to cook, what are we going to do, where we got to go? How long are we going to get to set in the deer stand? Is the duck going to be here? Is it going to be too warm? I'm starting to get in the spirit. There's a lot of things on my mind. I put up the Christmas tree. Christmas trees started to go. Is it fully up or you still got a little to do? It's 80% done. How many people do you think put their Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving? As a kid, we never did.
0:55.7	You made me feel bad.
0:57.0	You told me this Monday, you're like, I guess I'm going to have a cat.
1:00.3	You've done spoiled me.
1:00.8	You've been doing it for so long, like November 1st.
1:03.9	I was like, man, what's wrong this year?
1:06.1	You said, like a Grinch.
1:08.1	I was feeling like Grinchy.
1:09.7	Not in the, not in the Christmas holiday spirit yet. I think we went to Texas and it was so hot there. And then we came back. Hadn't felt like Christmas yet. And then I was out of time. I went, did a trip last weekend. So I just, it hadn't felt like it to me. Well, it does now. Christmas music's playing every store. I was going to say, I think each year it's like earlier and earlier that they start marketing Christmas. So I feel like that's why you start to see the like November 1st and stuff like that. People start putting up their Christmas trees. Yeah. I mean, the stores start breaking it out right after they put the school supplies up. Like, they don't even want to get Halloween a shot. They want to go ahead and get the Christmas stuff rolling out in the garden centers. Start bringing out the wrapping paper. I get it. And they're trying to promote sales. The loves truck stops. We drove over to Texas last week. The loves truck stops all hit Christmas music playing. And then you came home and started playing Christmas music and talking about... They program. Talking about how you're... Guess I'm going to have to go buy me a bush at the Kroger. It has a real nice Christmas bushes. It's kind of potted tree or something. It's like like it's got a ribbon on it. That'll do.
2:18.8	That's how you do stuff.
2:20.5	You don't come out and say anything.
2:22.7	You just try to lay the guilt.
2:25.9	You see what it did.
2:28.5	Worse.
2:34.7	So we were out last week because you were out of town all week.
2:37.5	But the week before that, we went to the Open Fire Meetup.
2:39.8	Man, what a fun time that was.
2:41.1	Tyler went with us on that one.
2:42.6	In Hondo, Texas.
	...

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