Hubby and I took a BBQ/Pitmaster class with Ben of Sneaky’s BBQ. Ben started his BBQ business in 2008, and now partners with Southpaw in San Francisco to bring BBQ to all most days of the week. There’s Ben in the kitchen prepping for class.

In this workshop we learned about different cuts of meat, meat smoking techniques, and the difference between North and South Carolina BBQ. We went over the step-by-step process of how to smoke, cut, store, and serve a 12-pound brisket. Caption this: Oh mah gaw, look at that brisket…

We tried lean, medium, and fatty pieces of brisket with pickled cucumber and onions. We also tried Ben’s cornbread and house BBQ sauces — a mustard-based sauce (South Carolina) and a tomato-based sauce (North Carolina). My winning combination: medium fat brisket with the mustard sauce!

We also had a lesson in dry rubs and each got to make and take home a self-designed rub. Rub Lesson #1: never use table salt for making rubs!

Thank you, Ben, for sharing your BBQ and BBQ wisdom with us! I’m excited to come back and try more things off the Sneaky’s menu, like the pulled pork-style jackfruit. Whaaat? Take Ben’s class. Learn all the BBQ things. Check out Workshop SF for a class schedule.