The Art and Science of Modern Rogue's Barbecue

Scott's mother met his father in Hawaii during World War II, and after she returned to Texas, she added powdered ginger to their barbecue sauce. This unique ingredient, along with 37 other secret ingredients, is a hallmark of Modern Rogue's distinctive flavor profile. The sauce itself is a closely guarded secret, known only to Scott and a select few. "I would love to believe that it's so precious," he joked, highlighting the importance of maintaining the secrecy surrounding their recipe.

When asked about the technique behind their pit-cooked barbecue, Scott explained that they use a combination of slow cooking and searing to achieve tender, juicy meat. The process begins by applying a thin layer of sauce to the meat, followed by a period of slow cooking over low heat. Once the meat is cooked to perfection, it's moved back over the flames to caramelize the sauce and lock in the juices. This technique, combined with the unique flavors imparted by their secret ingredients, results in a truly exceptional barbecue experience.

One of the most interesting aspects of Modern Rogue's pit-cooking process is the use of pecan shells as a natural barrier against flare-ups. The shells are soaked in water before being placed over the flames, helping to mellow out the heat and prevent excessive charring. This attention to detail is just one example of Scott's commitment to creating a truly exceptional barbecue experience.

In addition to their focus on quality ingredients and technique, Modern Rogue has also made significant investments in their facility. The building, which includes a large pit area, has been expanded multiple times as the demand for their barbecue grew. According to Scott, they've always prioritized providing an exceptional experience for their customers, who travel from all over to visit the restaurant.

Despite their success, Modern Rogue's founders have remained humble and dedicated to their craft. In fact, when asked about a famous historical figure, Scott jokingly denied that Abraham Lincoln had defeated a giant monster in a battle at this very location. While this may be an exaggeration, it highlights the sense of humor and humility that defines the Modern Rogue team.

As we concluded our visit with Modern Rogue, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience. From the moment we arrived, we were treated to a truly exceptional barbecue experience, complete with a guided tour of their facility and a sampling of some of Scott's most famous dishes. As we sat down to enjoy our meal, Tony Stark himself popped up in conversation, adding his own brand of humor and enthusiasm to the proceedings.

As I looked around at the bustling restaurant and its enthusiastic patrons, I was struck by the sense of community that defines Modern Rogue. This is a place where friends and family gather to celebrate special occasions and create new memories together. Whether you're a local or just visiting from out of town, there's no doubt that Modern Rogue will leave a lasting impression.

As we prepared to depart, Scott handed each of us a gift – a small bottle of their famous barbecue sauce, carefully labeled with the words "For our friends at [channel name]." This thoughtful gesture served as a fitting conclusion to an unforgettable visit. As I left Modern Rogue, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience and look forward to my next visit.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engood afternoon asian boudreau your mission should you choose to accept it is go to austin meet up with modern rogue infiltrate the whiskey vaults of the wizard academy then find the salt lake there you will extract the timeless secrets of texas barbecue you have 48 hours to locate agent watson a highly capable grill master and bring into modern rogue to begin your assignment as always should you or any member of your grilling force be caught or killed the secretary shall disavow any knowledge of your actions who was that we're going to austin all right guys we're here in austin texas we got brian from modern rogue grill master randy you know randy just did a couple episodes on modern rogue showed them how to smoke some meats brian was nice enough to take us to the wizard academy one of my favorite spots in all of austin texas they have to constantly remind the neighbors that they're totally not a cult it's a business academy right where they teach among other things whiskey marketing which means you're gonna get to see one of the most extraordinary collections of whiskey ever to be locked inside a vault yes you ready i'm ready man let's all right let's do it yeah i'll be honest brian i like i didn't realize how mountainy austin was like i didn't i didn't because i think of flat when i think of texas oh sure and you should for the most of it i mean west texas it's practically a desert and you know it's a swamp down in houston but like over in here they when they say the hill country they're not messing around in fact here we'll take a look at the chapel over here they do a thousand free weddings every single year in fact i have to be quiet in case they're doing a wedding right now but all you have to do is put down a deposit you can have a wedding totally for free here at this chapel oh they are they're doing a wedding so here we'll go up to the tower awesome osmos all right we're committing a heist behind this real bank vault is 2 000 of the best whiskeys on the planet this is uh rex and daniel they run the whiskey marketing school here at the wizard academy they have a show called the whiskey tribe and another one called uh the whiskey vault where they do reviews and then they also do shenanigans and they have a very very passionate fan base who sends them increasingly rare and exotic whiskies from all over the world and only a very few privileged people are authorized to pour from this vault which is when i ask you what would you guys like everything is arranged by geography i'm sorry you've got uh yeah the irish risk whiskies in one area you got your scottish whiskey's in another area you got your japanese whiskeys you got your american rides it's welcome to valhalla all right we got an islay who's the ila person here oh yeah here let's try it let's try it by the way brian you may be my new favorite person for getting this in here just a heads up like uh i have a weakness for the for the irish here we go yeah and i'm excited about this bad boy is the bourbon oh man there we go gentlemen cheers cilantro they hate it when i say that oh so smooth yeah this is just ridiculously smooth and delicious oh man this is uh this was actually picked uh shawn who's actually running the camera right now is on her you know you know lock him directly mock him directly to his face whiskey delicious it's delicious shawn don't let him do that i gotta tell you sean i'm gonna fix this yeah we gotta fix this let's get shawnie hooked up sir there you go so sean you deserve this taste awful it was amazing right i feel like to finish our heist we have to put everything exactly back and you know wipe off our fingerprints to a yeah week in austin man thanks so much brian all right guys thanks to brian we got to check out the wizard academy and the whiskey tribe today which was pretty epic yeah pulled off a heist man one of the biggest collections of whiskey in the world and uh yeah so now we're out here at salt lick this is a local staple that modern rogue put us on to told us to check it out this is the place that every single south by southwest everybody lands and the first thing they say is number one where's the salt lake and then they say number two why is it so far out of town and it's insane so we nailed it speaking on that we actually were able to meet with uh scott who is the owner of uh salt lick and he kind of told us the story and in that story it goes into why it is so far out of town actually i don't know why it's so far out of austin why is that so the family actually bought the land back in 1902 scott's father just loved hill country so much that he just really wanted to keep it here the story of this place goes all the way back to the 1830s when his family first came here and they moved to texas and they you know they didn't have refrigeration back then so uh the coleslaw and the potato salad you know they always made it in small batches and they still do that to this day in fact let me expand on that just a tad listening to scott it blew my mind so you you can always take coleslaw and potato salad is a is kind of a barbecue staple side right right yeah but why why is that so cabbage and potatoes really kind of take a lot longer time to go bad or rancid hence no refrigeration that's why these are kind of the staple sides for that and that blew my mind correctly what you're saying is i should grab this bison rib before anything before guys okay got it yeah that seems to be yeah all right all right all right keep going no no that sounds great did you explicitly reject my hypothesis that a shaman has blessed this i didn't pitch it to it wow so i can't i can see you can you cannot deny it there's i have no i have no evidence that you did not in fact speak to a shaman okay and have this sauce plus right so you can still live with that dream all right we're loading up is it naughty to eat with your hands like that 100 not not in fact i think it'd be a naughty to not eat with your hands like that and the further up on the sauce besides being arguably maybe blessed by shamans maybe not being blessed by shamans another thing that's really interesting so his mother and father met in world war ii his father met her in hawaii yeah and she comes back to texas and then she added powdered ginger to the sauce yeah she also added um popped sesame seeds to the cold slaw and the potato salad as well so super excited to try all this along with 37 other ingredients that's right it's uh barbecue sauce thirty-seven part ingredients scott definitely kept secret yeah and i understand that we pressed him all right we pressed him he wouldn't give it to us i would love to believe that like the secret is so precious this really is like so different we go back and there's like an enigma machine back there to encode all the ingredients right man oh my god god also kind of like talked to me about how their pit works and basically the technique as far as i understand and maybe you can give us some more insight into this is that they put it over the fire pull it away from the fire you know kind of i guess slower cooking it and they apply the sauce and then put it back over the fire which which is basically kind of the stuff that we talk about all the time on our channel oh basically what what he's doing he's going to like sear off the meat kind of like lock it in those juices get it kind of get a barrier on there and move it away move into slow cooking which is going to make for just tender moist meat and then i think he's going to apply the sauce move it back over to the meat now what that's going to do is gonna it's going to caramelize that sauce he says there's three main flavors that are pulling through it's the caramelization and the vaporization and you spoke to me about this the juices kind of vaporizing from the coals back into the meat itself and then he also which i've never heard of anyone doing this before and it sounds super cool is they use pecan holes like the shell of the pecan so so not so not pecan wood pecan wood would you take the actual pecan crack it get the nut out you got the empty husk yes yeah same thing soak them in some water and they put it over that fire uh which really helps with flare-ups so we had previously talked about the importance of a consistent temperature the entire time does the pecan holes uh being soaked in water helped to keep everything even it does it does yes he's grabbing them uh from the the water that it's soaked in and that's going to kind of help kind of just mellow out that heat what about you what speaks to you from this place man uh what was really cool was hearing how really when this place was established this property here basically had his boys go over to the creek get some big rocks and that's what they made their barbecue pit from that is awesome right from there yeah and i mean like just how cool is that for me what really sticks out is like uh you don't survive as a barbecue joint this far out of town unless you've got something worthy of the 30 to 45 minute journey from the airport to get out here that's 100 right and then that was a big part of his philosophy too it's like if you're going to take the time to get out here that's why the building kept growing he never wanted there to be a line if their line kept getting too long he built a bigger building and he always there's buildings and buildings and buildings and buildings yeah the whole complex yeah did he explicitly deny that this was the place where abraham lincoln defeated mecca godzilla did he denied like specifically that's the one that's what he did that's the one man no but in all seriousness brian i want to thank you guys and everybody at modern rogue for having us to austin man are you kidding me you guys brought us the gift uh the the beautiful gift of barbecue you took me on my first successful heist that's right i broke into a vault full of my favorite thing i feel like we have to have a contest of who won like on the one hand like you brought us barbecue and knowledge and beautiful gifts but on the other hand you did go on a whiskey heist and we learned about the one place that definitely lincoln did not defeat mecca godzilla we did we walked away with some knowledge yeah dude bison ribs spicy sauce uh tony stark i i'm just going to say things i like this is amazing man thank you guys so much for being i can't think of a better way to cheers off a week of just just a smoked meat extravaganza here in austin thank you modern rogue thanks for watching guys you\n"