Arby's Steak Bites, Mississippi Meatballs & Smoked Turkey Meatloaf

HowToBBQRight

The episode begins with a critical review of Arby's Steak Bites, which the hosts find disappointing due to an overwhelming liquid smoke flavor and

Key takeaways

• Arby's Steak Bites were criticized by Malcolm for having a 'fake smoky taste' similar to Jack Link's jerky.
• Malcolm suggests that better steak bites could be made using sirloin or strip steaks cooked low and slow to maintain juiciness.

Main topics

• Arby's Steak Bites Review
• Mississippi Meatballs Recipe

Notable quotes

It just smells way too smoky. Like, way, like, bad.

Conclusion

The episode provides a mix of culinary experimentation and community u

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Amazon Great Indian Festival is here. The festival of all the greats is here. The Speaker 1 (0:10) phone has been upgraded from exchange. The beautiful salsi is here. The Speaker 3 (0:15) great deals on fashion are here. The candle hopping is here. The Speaker 1 (0:20) house is decorated. India celebrates. Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kochi. The Speaker 3 (0:24) festival Speaker 1 (0:24) of all the Speaker 3 (0:24) greats is here. The Amazon Great Indian Festival is here. From 8th October. Speaker 5 (0:30) If you're a tea drinker, listen up, because Lousiane now has ready-to-drink tea gallons you can pick up at the grocery store. Same southern tea flavor folks have loved forever, already brewed and ready for the fridge. They've got sweet tea, extra sweet, unsweet, and zero sugar. It tastes like the kind of tea grandma used to make, but already brewed and ready to grab and go. Take it to your barbecue, the party, the picnic, or just straight to your refrigerator. Look for Lusianne tea gallons in the refrigerated section at your local grocery. Welcome to Malcolm Reed's How to Barbecue Right, a podcast where we talk about barbecue, share recipes, and discuss all things delicious. Speaker 6 (1:10) And now here's your host, Malcolm and Rochelle Reed. Speaker 5 (1:13) Hey, welcome back to the How to Barbecue Right podcast. I'm your host, Malcolm Reed, joined by my lovely, talented wife, Miss Southern Shell. We got Tyler over here on the board. What's going on? Speaker 6 (1:25) Well, we just door dashed some Arby's steak bites. We got lunch. Speaker 5 (1:30) I just was kind of joking when I was like, hey, why don't you go door dashes some of those so we can try them. Well, he's been talking Speaker 6 (1:37) about them. Speaker 5 (1:37) Well, in the community, someone replied that they tried them. I can't remember what person's name it was, but they said they are not worth the hype. And so me being the curious person that I am, we got to try these. Speaker 6 (1:51) Are we going to try them? Do you Speaker 2 (1:52) think we Speaker 6 (1:52) want to jump right in? Are Speaker 5 (1:52) we Speaker 6 (1:52) going to try Speaker 5 (1:53) them right here on the podcast? This is Speaker 6 (1:54) not a product placement by any means. Speaker 5 (1:57) No, but I did tell you to get me some horsey salt. Speaker 6 (2:00) Well, it's supposed to come with this horsey ranch. I got some curly fries. Speaker 5 (2:05) I got some beef juice off in there. What do you think that is? When I pulled it out of the bag. Are Speaker 6 (2:09) we Speaker 5 (2:09) sharing these? Speaker 6 (2:10) Yeah, you got to share with me and Tyler. It's got a... A fake smoky taste. Yeah. I hate that. Speaker 5 (2:15) Huh. I don't know. I don't know Speaker 6 (2:17) about this. So there's nine in the pack. You get three. Tyler gets three. I get three. Speaker 5 (2:22) I don't know if that's what Speaker 6 (2:23) you Speaker 2 (2:23) did. Speaker 6 (2:23) What's your first? Oh, Speaker 2 (2:24) my gosh. Put one on a fork. I Speaker 6 (2:27) feel like you need to show it to the camera. Yeah, put one on a Speaker 2 (2:29) fork and kind of hold it up. Speaker 5 (2:31) Dang, you can't always stab. Oh, gosh. That. Is it Harvey steak? Can y'all see that? Harvey steak bite. It looks like a chunk of steak or some kind of beef. All right. Cubed up. Try it. Let me pass these to y'all. Tyler, can Speaker 2 (2:46) you grab that? Yeah. Speaker 5 (2:47) So do they want you to try it with this horsey ranch? Is that what they do? Try one, Speaker 6 (2:51) just the steak bite. Speaker 5 (2:53) I Speaker 6 (2:53) don't want to dip Speaker 5 (2:55) it. Speaker 6 (2:56) Need some sauce. Speaker 5 (2:58) Yeah. Let me try this other one that's got a hanger on it. You need a real fork. Show that one. You need a real fork. I mean, it's a piece of some kind of meat. All right, here we go. Y'all ready? Go ahead. Man, it just smells way too smoky. Like, way, like, bad. Like, you want to talk about bad smoke? I told you, isn't it? Like, you want to talk about bad smoke? It reminds me of, like, when you open up a pit that's been sitting for a minute. It smells like Jack Link. Speaker 4 (3:26) Oh, I can't bite it. Oh. Yeah, that's pretty tough. Speaker 6 (3:35) Did you try the sauce? Speaker 5 (3:36) Mm-mm. That's a gristle bite. Don't say. I mean, I hate to knock on Arby's, but I'm going to try it in this ranch. Speaker 6 (3:47) It's not as tough as I thought it was going to be. You Speaker 5 (3:49) need to Speaker 6 (3:50) try this one. I'm trying to work on Speaker 5 (3:51) here. All right, I'm going to try it. Did y'all get some of this ranch? I'm not going to re-dip it. Well, I already bit off that one, so I kind of rent the ranch for y'all. That's okay. Speaker 4 (4:00) It's all right. I'm going to have to try it with the ranch. It's a little dry. It gets real dry. Speaker 4 (4:17) Are you still chewing? Put a clock on me on that one. That was pretty tough. Yeah. I know you're hitting. Man, that looks like a horrible, horrible dice Speaker 5 (4:29) in your mouth. Like bad smoke? Yeah, it's like they've been Speaker 2 (4:34) marinated in liquid smoke. Perfect time to wash down with some Louisiana tea. Did you try it, Speaker 6 (4:40) Trouble and Tyler? Speaker 2 (4:41) Definitely. I think my expectations for this product was that it was going to taste like beef jerky. That was what I was thinking. But in a weird way, and it does taste like beef jerky, but in a weird way, it's not texturally like beef jerky. So I feel like it. I don't know. It's very weird. And then like the aftertaste that leaves in your mouth because it's warm. I don't know. It's got such a bitter smoke, Speaker 5 (5:07) like not a good Speaker 4 (5:10) flavor. I'm going to try with some army sauce. Maybe it's better. I don't know. I can do this. Yep. Speaker 3 (5:18) You're good. All Speaker 4 (5:18) right. Well, you can't. I'm going to be biting into a pack on camera. Speaker 6 (5:28) It's more tender than I expected it to be. Or mine is. You must have Speaker 2 (5:31) got a good one. Mine was pretty tender too, I would say. I like this Speaker 6 (5:36) horsey ranch. Speaker 5 (5:38) You like that? I'm going to squeeze some of the regular horsey out too. That way I can try both. It Speaker 6 (5:44) reminds me of like when you buy the barbecue that's already cooked in the package from the store. Speaker 5 (5:48) Yeah. Speaker 4 (5:50) Yep. Yeah. What was that brand? I can't remember the name of the brand, but. Speaker 6 (5:55) Would you order it again? Speaker 2 (6:03) It's funny because I think I love they have a they did a cheesesteak one time on their seasonal rotation and they did a Italian beef sandwich another time. Both of those I thought were great seasonal products. These beef bites. I'm going to Speaker 5 (6:19) try it just with the Arby's sauce. I Speaker 4 (6:23) can't get over the liquid smoke, man. It's just off. Yeah, that's Speaker 2 (6:29) funny for Speaker 4 (6:30) steak. Speaker 6 (6:33) Yeah, it's safe. It's grilled. It don't need the liquid smoke. Them Speaker 5 (6:37) cows had a rough life. They are tough. Might have ran them all over the place or something. I didn't get to ease around and just eat grass. Speaker 6 (6:46) I bought 27 total steak bites, so we could try some and then everybody in the office could try some. That's a very disappointing. I Speaker 5 (6:55) don't know what I was thinking. I was thinking they would be tender like a steak, like a piece of, you know, good steak. This is more like, if you've ever... took a brisket point or poor man's burn-ins like chuck roast, cubed them up, smoked them until they got some color on them, and then took them off and tried to eat it. That's what it's like. They need to be put in a pan with some butter and a bunch of other, not liquid smoke, and try to cook that taste out of them and get them tender. It might work like that. Speaker 6 (7:26) The flavor's like real fake to me. Speaker 4 (7:29) Yeah. Speaker 6 (7:33) Could you recreate this better? Speaker 4 (7:35) Yes. I think so. That's my goal now. Speaker 6 (7:39) I'm going to give you a second to get you a sip of your Louisiana. Speaker 5 (7:41) Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:44) Yeah. Speaker 6 (7:44) Put a better taste in your mouth. Speaker 2 (7:47) I definitely. So the last item we reviewed was the Mississippi or not the Mississippi, the Wagyu steak burger, I think is what the product was. Was that from Arby's? Yeah, that was from Arby's. And that one was better than I expected. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty good. You know. Speaker 5 (8:00) The Wagyu burger, I remember doing that. It's been a year or so ago. It was pretty good. I tried to order Speaker 6 (8:05) their fish sandwich, but Speaker 5 (8:07) it's seasonal. I ain't caught any fish today. It wasn't on the menu. Speaker 6 (8:13) All right. So how would you recreate a steak bite like that? Speaker 5 (8:19) Well. Do they advertise it as smoked? I don't know. It's called steakhouse or steak. I don't know what they're called. Speaker 5 (8:30) They ought to be called liquid steak bites. Yeah, Speaker 6 (8:33) it says 100 % smoked steaks served with the new Horsey Ranch dip and sauce. I do like the Horsey Ranch. Speaker 2 (8:40) They serve them. It looks like you can get a steak and potato bowl or you can get a steak and mac and cheese bowl. So it would be served on top of those things. And I could see maybe. Maybe. Speaker 6 (8:50) That just seems like a good way to ruin some mashed potatoes. It's way too much. It's Speaker 5 (8:53) way too much. There's nobody who tastes that and thinks that's a good flavor. Speaker 6 (8:58) It's Speaker 4 (8:58) very Speaker 6 (8:58) processed. Speaker 5 (8:59) Very. Speaker 5 (9:02) Okay. Arby's needs to go back to the drawing board on that. They need some more R &D. I think they rushed that one out. Speaker 6 (9:07) This is like their second or third time doing it. Steak bites? Yeah. Isn't it? I Speaker 2 (9:12) think that's what happened is a bunch of people ran to go try them. They were like, Arby's has steak bites? Like, what the heck? And so they had all these like false sales. People just like curious. Yeah. I don't know. Speaker 6 (9:22) It worked for us. They got us. They got us. All right. I feel like you're stalling. How would you? Trying Speaker 5 (9:29) to get this horrible taste out of my mouth. The tea ain't cutting it. I need something serious. So I would start with a decent piece of meat. Speaker 6 (9:42) What's a decent piece of meat? Would you start with a steak? Yeah, obviously Speaker 5 (9:47) you're not going to use like ribeye because it's going to be too fatty. So you need something like a strip or maybe a sirloin. And then I'd probably. Speaker 6 (9:58) Could you use a sirloin roast if you did it right? I Speaker 5 (10:03) don't know about that. You mean like buy the sirloin before it's cut into steaks and cube that up? Yeah. Yeah, you probably could because you can cut it as thick as you wanted it. But a decent-sized sirloin steak from the grocery store is going to be about the thickness of those. And it would cube really well. I mean, I'd like the idea of getting some seasoning on it, getting some smoke on it, putting it on the smoker and cooking them, just not overcooking them. Low and slow. Speaker 6 (10:30) Because once you get... Once you get Speaker 5 (10:32) over medium, I don't care what kind of steak it is. If it's still going to be a steak bite, it's going to be, you just took it, cooked all the flavor out of it. You know, I want my steak still to be juicy. I still want to see, I mean, you want to have some color on the inside. It ain't got to be bright red, but I'd like it to be pink. You know, I'd like it to look like that. There ain't no pink there. No. Same color on the outside, same color on the Speaker 6 (10:55) inside. Speaker 5 (10:55) If you take it further, is it really, I mean, you kind of don't need the steak name to it. If you're going to cook them well done and cook them to where they're really, really tender. Because then it would be kind of like, because I see an appetizer in here. I see like a football food or something like that in there cut up like that. It just needs to be, the execution needs to be a little bit better. I'm going to work. I want to do something. I'm going to try to make my version of it without the fake smoked taste with a better tenderness to it. Speaker 6 (11:23) That's what I'm thinking. Like the poor man's burnt ends. Yeah. I like Speaker 5 (11:27) the idea of serving it with a creamy sauce. Speaker 5 (11:30) Yeah. And I can see that like a chuck. See, chuck roast, you're not going to be able to cook it to where it's like a steak bite because it's going to have the texture of it. It's going to be tough. It's going to be rubbery like that. It's got to go to braised stage to where it's broke down enough to actually get your teeth into it. You know, I want it to be tender. That's the one thing. Whatever it is, I want it to be tender. Well, Speaker 6 (11:52) with like pork belly bites, you braise those. I guess they can. Right. They can handle it. Speaker 5 (12:00) Now, pork steak bites, you could do like that. Cut pork steaks into cubes. Speaker 6 (12:06) Do that. Pork steak bite. That would be pretty good. That seems like an Alonzo recipe. Speaker 5 (12:12) It would be pretty good, though. But, I mean, I think there's something there. Like, I think that's a pretty good idea. I can see, you know, it's a great way to stretch some steaks if you've got a lot of people. Because how many times have we ate, like, you do a steak dinner and you try to cook a steak for everybody and you waste so much. But then there's been times where, you know, we might just cook two or three different, like, a ribeye. a filet strip or something like that and then cut it all up and everybody kind of eats from that and it goes so much further. So I think you kind of get that aspect of it with the steak bite. You could, you know, you can feed, a lot of people could get an appetizer size portion off of it or, you know, do a bunch of them. But don't do those. They need some work. They need some work. Speaker 6 (12:56) It's the processed bad smoke. And like you could smell it as soon as we pulled it out of the package. Oh, yeah. Speaker 2 (13:03) Yeah, I just moved mine. You Speaker 6 (13:06) kept getting a whiff of it. I still smell it. Yeah, I still taste it. Speaker 5 (13:09) The curly fries hit, though. I'm going to eat some dental. The curly fries, yeah, those are good. I Speaker 6 (13:13) was afraid like these steak bites are going to suck. So might as well get some curly fries when we're Speaker 5 (13:18) at Speaker 6 (13:18) it. Speaker 5 (13:19) I don't think mashed potatoes and macaroni cheese are helping. Speaker 6 (13:23) Then your macaroni cheese is just going to taste like liquid smoke. Speaker 5 (13:28) When you look at it, it looks okay. Speaker 4 (13:30) Yeah. Speaker 5 (13:31) You know? But it's that, I swear, I think they poured some extra liquid smoke in that cup. Speaker 6 (13:38) Well, I got the bottle where it was just the juice. Yeah, steak juice. Speaker 3 (13:43) Real Speaker 6 (13:44) quick, I wanted to talk about hogs for the cogs. Yeah, on a different note. Would you say this is a failed attempt? I mean, we tried. Yeah, Speaker 4 (13:56) I Speaker 6 (13:56) wanted to try Speaker 5 (13:57) them. Would I recommend them? No, I wouldn't recommend them. I'm just honest, being honest. Everything ain't got to be great, you know. Speaker 6 (14:05) Just to bring everybody's awareness to hogs for the call, since 2009, they've given out over $19 million in direct grants to families battling pediatric cancer and to hospitals, programs, and charities. They've helped tens of thousands of families nationwide who are struggling with their children having pediatric brain cancer. So it's a great organization. It's a big contest down in New Orleans. And this year, we're helping them raise some money. That's Speaker 5 (14:33) right. Speaker 6 (14:34) what we're doing is in the community, if you donate, it doesn't matter if you donate a dollar or $10,000, it doesn't matter. You get entered to win a turtle box that we're giving away. Awesome. And this will be, how long is it going Speaker 2 (14:49) on for? Speaker 5 (14:50) We may do a couple of these. We might get to a point where we say, all right, let's give that turtle box away and let's give something else away. Because I think we can raise money all the way up till, the contest isn't until March usually. So we can raise, I know we can do it to the end of the year, so we're going to keep it going. Speaker 6 (15:04) How do Speaker 5 (15:06) you enter and Speaker 2 (15:07) donate and all that stuff, Chelle? Speaker 6 (15:08) In the community, there's a link. Speaker 2 (15:10) So look for the pin post at the top of facebook.com forward slash group forward slash h2q community. It'll be up there for, I think we decided on four weeks. So the contest is going to run for four weeks. You'll be able to, like she said, literally donate whatever. Every donation is a contribution to win the turtle box. Awesome. and for an awesome cause. And we'll keep talking about it. Speaker 6 (15:32) Yeah. And if you are interested in going to a cool barbecue contest in one of the best cities in the world. That's Speaker 5 (15:39) a Speaker 6 (15:39) good one to go to. That's a good one to go to. Speaker 5 (15:41) Perfect time of year. It had like, there was times where it rained a butt. Oh, it always Speaker 6 (15:45) rains. Speaker 5 (15:47) There's something to do in New Orleans, even if it rains, you gotta go into the barbecue. So that never let that stop me. New Speaker 6 (15:51) Orleans is one of my favorite cities. I love New Orleans. Speaker 5 (15:54) Yeah. Everything about it. Speaker 6 (15:56) The smell, it doesn't smell that good, but it just, it smells like New Orleans. It's Speaker 5 (15:59) like Speaker 6 (15:59) debauchery. Speaker 5 (16:02) There's always Speaker 6 (16:03) music. Everything's, oh, it's fun. Three for one beers. Food's amazing. How'd you do in our Pick'em League? Speaker 5 (16:13) I think I was 50-50 again. I'm tied for like 304. Speaker 6 (16:18) I'm not doing Speaker 5 (16:18) good at all. Speaker 6 (16:19) You're ranked 304? Speaker 5 (16:21) Yeah. Speaker 6 (16:21) Well, Speaker 5 (16:22) when it says your rank, it says it in the thousands. Speaker 6 (16:26) Yeah, but that's within the like. The Speaker 5 (16:28) whole pick them thing. Yeah. No, in ours, I'm tied for three. I think I'm 500. How many games have we picked? Ten? Speaker 4 (16:39) Yep. I Speaker 5 (16:39) think I'm five and five. No, we picked 20. I don't know. Speaker 2 (16:45) Yeah, we picked 10, but we've picked 20 overall. Yeah, so I think I'm 10 and 10. Speaker 6 (16:50) I'm ranked 2-11. You're beating me. I'm beating you. Speaker 2 (16:55) I don't know where I'm at. And Speaker 6 (16:56) 200 people are beating me. Speaker 2 (16:58) I can't find it. Speaker 6 (16:59) Yeah, but Speaker 5 (16:59) the tie is so still early in it. Still. So you're going to have a lot of people with the same. But, man, the guys up top, they're killing it. They're cheating. Speaker 6 (17:10) They got to be. I Speaker 5 (17:11) need them to go ahead and slide me what they're picking for Saturday. That way I can get me a bet in. I will Speaker 2 (17:17) say it's not perfect, though. That's kind of one thing that I expected. I expected even at week two for there to be somebody with a perfect score. Speaker 5 (17:23) Oh, it's so hard. That would be Speaker 2 (17:25) crazy. I'm 143 ranked. Oh, you're doing pretty good. Yeah, I got seven the first week, five the second week. So I was 50-50 like y'all. So you got two more than me then if I'm 10-10? Speaker 5 (17:37) Yeah. Speaker 4 (17:37) Okay. Speaker 6 (17:38) Dustin's first entry is ranked number one, and he's got 18-2. He's only missed Speaker 4 (17:45) two. Speaker 6 (17:48) In my other pick-em league, I'm only beating the people that forgot to pick. Like, Speaker 5 (17:55) I'm the he-bottle. This is not a good year for you, is it? No. What are you attributing it to? Optimism. Optimism. Speaker 6 (18:06) Unfounded optimism. Speaker 5 (18:09) Well, how do you feel about this week's games? Speaker 6 (18:11) Good, good. The Speaker 5 (18:15) big game is Saturday night. We can go ahead and talk about it. All Speaker 6 (18:19) right. Speaker 5 (18:19) Lane Kiffin is coming back to Oxford, the team that he abandoned, that he just left them high and dry. Instead of going and trying to win the national title, he tries to take all the players, take the coaches. Burn the bridge. Burn the bridge. Just leave town. I can't believe they let him come back to town. I figured they would pass some kind of. citywide ordinance or something about no Lane Kiffin. Nobody named Lane Kiffin can come back to Oxford. Speaker 6 (18:41) I don't blame a coach for wanting to go to a different school or take a different job opportunity, but he chose every option he had. He made the worst possible decision on how to handle that. For the University of Mississippi. For Ole Miss, yes. I don't think Speaker 5 (18:56) he did it for Lane. Oh, Speaker 6 (19:00) he made, yeah. But, I mean. He's just like, he's a troll. I don't think. He's a hoe. How do you think? Yeah, Speaker 5 (19:08) you're right. He is. He's a hoe. Show him the money. He's going to the money. Speaker 6 (19:13) Tyler, are y'all going to the game this weekend? Yeah. Speaker 5 (19:15)