Two Cowboys: The Spice Must Flow with Alberta Steak Spice in Canmore, Alberta, Canada

It’s the Spice

Someone once said that you can never have too much spice in your life. We agree. As we get older and our palates develop, some would say mature, we definitely lean towards discovering new and bolder flavors for cooking. Spice is one of the go-to options to add more flavor. It allows us to broaden our culinary repertoire. We have our favorites but we are always open to discover new ones.

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There are a lot of places in the world known for spice production and its use in specific cultures and cooking. Mexico for chilies, India for curries, and Asia immediately come to mind with a mind-numbing array of bold spicy flavors. We didn’t think that the Province of Alberta was one of them until we discovered that it is the New World’s main producer of mustard! This opened our eyes to the adventures of Alberta’s spice masters.

We were fortunate enough to have met one of them, Larry Gale, at the Canmore Uncorked Food Festival a couple of years ago. Today, he is the inventor, proprietor and general cheerleader of Alberta’s newest and most adventurous journey into spice production - blending spice. According to Larry, Alberta has a unique demand for a  foundational spice that goes well with its world-renowned Black Angus Alberta beef.

However, he didn’t stop there. Once the foundation was laid he discovered that it worked with a lot more than Beef. It spiced up chicken, ribs, seafood, vegetables. In fact, Larry will canvas for the use of his spice even on Ice Cream!

The real opportunity came for Larry’s product when he hunted for a name for his spice. At first he settled on the unassuming and generally accepted convention for plain and simply referring to it as Alberta Steak Spice. Alberta’s people are Prairie farm folk. Simple folk. It is better to make it clear what the stuff in the bottle is for.

Then it struck him. Larry invented “ASS”! Or, more commonly referred to as Alberta’ ASS. The acronym for (A)lberta (S)teak (S)pice is ASS. This opened up all kinds of wicked marketing possibilities which he hasn’t even started to explore.

Observations

The novelty of the name may be the first thing that attracts someone to ASS. However, once you tried ASS you want to use it a little more in your daily cooking. We’ve used it on our steak and we’ve liked it more and more.

The blend is course, yet versatile, and a little on the peppery side - the way folks like it here in Alberta. It is a base blend which allows you to add more of your own adventures like a little more cyan pepper, mustard for pork, all spice fr chicken or even brown sugar for caramelization. Larry mentioned that he is adding to the ASS repertoire with a finer version of ASS (Alberta Seasoning Spice). He is doing it because folk have been using ASS on so much of their food and so many different kinds of food that there is scope for something with even more use.

We can see this only the beginning for this novel idea. It has our support. Where will you be able to get your own ASS, I hear you ask.

You can buy it online for worldwide shipping, in your local supermarket in Alberta (soon British Columbia and the rest of Canada). It is also available in the Two Cowboys Store. (http://www.twocowboysstore.com)

Hendrik van Wyk

Spice Cowboy

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Two Cowboys: Connecting with Our Food at the Olds College National Meat Training Centre in Olds, Alberta

Where's the Beef?

What we eat and drink determines who we are. It is a big part of us and integral to what we do each day. Throughout our evolutionary journey, as it is for every other animal on earth, our food ultimately determined and enabled our species, homo sapiens, to claim its place and standing on this planet.

For humans, our involvement with food goes a little further. It also plays a large part in determining our identity. It defines our relationships with our environment and our fellow man. One can deduce a level of cultural and moral sophistication from civilization's connection with its food. It plays a pivotal role in defining a society.

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For a person, food is nourishment. Without food, famine is inevitable. If we don't eat well, we face disease. For a group, it is also a source of expression that influences and displays cultural convention, ritual, and perception. Families come together for celebration meals, heads of state dine together, and a nation's geopolitical and economic welfare is determined by its food production abilities. Food is security. Competition for resources to produce food is the principal source of revolution and of war. For eons, individual, tribal and national identities have been recognized through uniquely crafted dishes, ingredients, and meal preparations. It is fair to say that as humans, we have a fascinating love affair with what we eat.

Humanity now produces more food than ever before in history. Unfortunately, we are also more disconnected from our food now, than we've ever been.  Food manufacturing and industrialized levels of production have slowly been eroding our link with, understanding, and the role of our food, beyond the simple provisioning of sustenance. As a result, we may also be losing our sense of who we are, and in large part, of our societal identity.

We are also losing our ability to recognize and work with our food.  The art and production of food through baking, butchering, brewing and cheese making are falling by the wayside as our butchers, bakers, and cheesemakers depart, to be replaced by corporations with large processing facilities and factories focussed on a uniform, compliant output contributing to the bottom-line.

Even our chefs are spoiled by these companies, with pre-prepared manufactured products that merely requires heating and plating. The elementary art of cooking is under threat in the average meal preparation facility in North America. Fast Food is not food in the true sense of what it could and ultimately should be.

To illustrate my point further, we should only take a look at the degree of effort we put into making food unrecognizable. Celebrity chefs are beating a path to creating mouses, gels, pearls, pills, and pellets that is entirely void of resembling source ingredients. Meals come ready-made. Molecular Gastronomy, which should have remained a fascinating experiment, now trailblazes a departure from the familiar in favor of concepts such as multi-sensory cooking, modernist cuisine, culinary physics, and experimental cuisine.

The result is that we can now eat a perfectly looking, uniform, sterile, mostly synthetic, manufactured sandwiches containing the resemblance of meat, bread, and condiments, that is morally and culturally acceptable and available to the masses, across the planet. This is now our idea of "food"!

Should we be loving it?

Because food has always been closely linked with who we are, losing its origins and our linkages to what we eat have the inevitable result that we just succumb to also losing our sense of identity.  We mistakenly claim a false pretense of cultural "progress" and moral high ground when misguidedly people succumb to disorders, become vegan, or allow vegetarianism to take hold.

Human evolution did not result in equipping people to only eat plants, and unfortunately, no amount of moral or spiritual convention will change our biology in the short term. Maybe it is time again that our children know that milk comes from cow's teets? Chickens lay eggs. Renin and bacteria make cheese and meat come from dead and butchered animals. Substances like blood make for great sausage!

When we rediscover food, we may find our true primal selves again void of pretense, and stripped from our delusions of civility. When we have the pleasure of eating what we always ate, the way we did, with the people we treasure, we may then also have the joy of re-discovering who we truly are.

That is why we seek out great food, places to find it, and why we celebrate the stories of the people and producers connecting us with ourselves - with our true primal being - homo puretus!

The Last Butcher School

The Olds College Meat Processing Program is one of only two remaining in North America that offers an educational certificate in the whole process stream of meat, from slaughter, processing, preserving to retail. Where big plants once dominated the industry, we are glad to say that the revival of the art is back in Alberta!

Olds College teaches hands-on practical techniques and age-old science of meat processing for the highest premium quality cuts. Successful graduates gain the experience needed to start their own entrepreneurial business ventures or take their skills to Canada’s third largest industry.

Olds College is the National Meat Training Centre for Canada. Three times a year its program takes in a wide range of students from all over North America and as far away as Africa. They teach techniques for professional meat cutting, trimming, boning, breaking, wrapping, sausage-making and curing with professional sanitation and food safety applications, including HACCP. It is Alberta’s training site for humane handling and stunning, and the only program in North America that teaches slaughter skills and techniques such as skinning, eviscerating and carcass preparation.

The College boasts an extensive multi-purpose facility that is fully equipped to teach the value-added skill sets and knowledge for the meat industry. Its services are expanded to cater to large and small industry, from sausage making and dried, cured hams to the installation of an industrial canner. It also boasts a favorite retail counter where students learn applied retail merchandising and customer service skills in explaining the attributes and benefits of various products and cuts.

Observations

We are saddened by the fact that Olds College is one of only two remaining programs of its kind in North America. On the other hand, we are encouraged that it still exists, is more popular than ever, and a mere hour's drive from our home base in the Rocky Mountains. The retail shop is a favorite stop for our monthly meat purchases.

Alberta is famous for the quality of its agricultural produce and its rich heritage in producing quality feed for animal husbandry. We are convinced that Alberta boasts the best tasting beef, pork and, dare we say it, lamb (sorry, New Zealand)!

What we need now, is a supportive regulatory food production climate and consumers that invite our producers back to rearing fantastic animals and our butchers again into our towns. The Old-World fostered an appreciation for its producers, and the food that resulted for our ancestors were just incredible. In the New-World, we have the opportunity not only to re-rediscover this rich food heritage but cherish it more than ever. It is where we come from, what we can do, and who we ultimately are.

We are meat-loving Cowboys.

Hendrik van Wyk

Cowboy

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Focus

Evolution

Bones

How It's Made

Hours

Two Cowboys: In-depth Investigation Into Custom BBQ Use at the Annual BBQ on the Bow Competition in Calgary, AB

Custom Big

We are told that people can't find the tools they need to become prize-winning BBQ pitmasters.

That is why we did an in-depth investigation into the phenomenon of custom BBQ design and constructions at this year's 25th annual KCBS BBQ competition, hosted by Alberta's (possibly, even Canada's) oldest BBQ Society.

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BBQ on the Bow is an annually occurring Kansas City BBQ Society (KCBS) sanctioned BBQ Competition and outdoor festival.

It takes place at the Montgomery Community Association (Shouldice Park) during Labour Day long weekend. Their mission is to spread the love, passion, and joy for “southern style” BBQ while simultaneously celebrating and promoting local products, businesses, and musicians. Now you know why the Two Cowboys took an interest. They had us already at BBQ. We also share a similar passion for products, the people that make them and the people that sing about them.

The association was founded in 1993 which, according to Bernie Kenney (VP of the Association) makes it one of the first of its kind in Canada. The BBQ on the Bow was created to jointly promote “Southern BBQ” and Alberta agricultural products of pork, beef, and chicken.

This year it celebrated its 25th year. The event has endured everything mother nature threw at it over the years, be it floods, snow, winds and other storms. It has evolved from a small competition with a  handful of teams to one of Canada’s premier competitions with over 35 teams competing annually.

Forty-five teams competed this year, in spite of a Province wide fire ban, which makes it an event for the record books. It may also be because of the fire ban that so many teams grabbed the opportunity to do some BBQing in a controlled and permissible environment before BBQ withdrawal sets in.

Observations

We are amazed at every competition to see the number of home-grown, self-built BBQ's that make it to competition. The people that take the plunge into constructing a custom smoker machine are seasoned pitmasters or very adventurous engineers.

Big brand name smokers, which are usually in ample supply in such a competition, are often associated with newbies or with teams that managed to get that all elusive sponsorship from a well-known brand or manufacturer. We've heard that some teams are even bribed into merely displaying a big brand name smoker (not necessarily cooking with it) for a small fee. You know who they are because the smokers are all clean, shimmering in the sun and brand new.

The more salted pitmasters have their go-to smokers customized and seasoned over time to meet their particular need or style of cooking. We are told that these smokers have personality. "She's like a woman. If you treat her well, with respect, she will make a BBQ champion of you", a pitmaster proclaimed, which will remain nameless.

One way you know that custom machines are worth their weight in smoke and iron is that they are the tools that show years of wear and tear. These smokers worked and will continue to do so. The meat-fat, grease, and caked on carbon from weeks, months and years of use serve as one-of-kind seasoning that provides a unique and unduplicatable taste to the fare. That is why these smokers end up with names and their teams with the medals.

What makes a BBQ Smoker, good?

If you listen to the champions, some like even heat in the cooker. Others want different temperature profiles on the same machine so that the machine becomes multi-purpose. Some smokers are suited to the purists that cook and smoke with wood. Others are "cheaters" with computer controlled pellet feeders and convection fans.

One fact above all distinguishes a champion pitmaster and his team. It doesn't matter what tools they use. The machine helps, but it is their experience and finely tuned palate that separates them from the rest. They are also the ones busy cooking while the rest are looking.

Hendrik van Wyk

Smoker Cowboy

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Steampunked!

Massive

Sponsored

Definitely Sponsored

His Wife's Fault

Old-School!

Traveling Cowboys: 2017 Feast and Frolicking and SmokinQ some BBQ at Lynnwood Ranch, Okotoks, Alberta

BBQ Feast

It's not BBQ. It is chef inspired gourmet cooking with locally sourced Alberta produce. Alberta Pork, Beef, Chicken, Alberta smoke and truly amazing Alberta BBQ talent.

Gus Leduc and his team at Lynnwood Ranch hosted the annual KCBS' Alberta Chapter, BBQ on the Bow, for the seasonal kick-off of Alberta's 2017 low and slow BBQ competitions. If this sounds like a mouthful, let me explain.

The Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and enjoying barbecue. It is the world's largest organization of barbecue and grilling enthusiasts with over 20,000 members worldwide. KCBS sanctions over 500 barbecue contests worldwide. The annual event at Lynnwood Ranch is one of three in Alberta where a team can earn a ticket to the annual World Championships in the U.S.A.

Here is the first of two videos to showcase the events of the May 12 weekend.

Feast and Frolick and SmokinQ

Video 1 of 2: Feast and Frolic

Video 2 of 2: SmokinQ

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The Feast and Frolic precede the SmokinQ competition to give the BBQ teams a fantastic feast, a dance and a chance to be judged on the preparation of inspirational food items outside the KCBS criteria. Almost 300 people attended the event to sample from a series of starter dishes prepared by the teams. It was accompanied this year by Gus' own outstanding smoked brisket and "Alberta" salmon.

Competition day is known as SmokinQ. This year 35 teams competed with a fair number of newcomers to the "sport" of BBQ. I questioned Steve Alvarez (the KCBS representative in attendance) on why it is referred to as a "sport"? He clarified, "There is a lot of physical activity that goes into preparing good Southern Style BBQ. It can take up to 18 hours to have the food prepared perfectly and on time for judging". We here mistakenly thought that to eat BBQ was the sport!

Observations

The hospitality at Lynnwood Ranch was as usual, outstanding. There was nothing too much for Gus and Wendy when we wheeled in our Motorhome on Saturday afternoon ahead of the Feast and Frolic. They are the perfect hosts.

If there is one thing that stands out in the BBQ community other than the great food, it is the community and the friendships amongst the people involved. People from different locations, as far as Manitoba come to the event. They are from diverse backgrounds, varying levels of cooking skills and experience. All of them come together for a fabulous weekend around their love for a particular type of food. If you were ever looking for a real festival of food, then this is the single best place to experience it all first-hand.

We are glad we can be part of it all and tell the stories of the people involved.

Hendrik van Wyk

Brisket Cowboy

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We have a thousand photos. See all the event photos here.

Competition Time

Arrival

It is Called a Braai