Early this morning Emil bounded in to my office looking as though he’d eaten a chesire cat for brehfast. He’d dropped his muffler yesterday, ouch that’s gotta hurt. Which means first thing this morning he stopped by Mel & Son’s Muffler shop in Richmond to get the sucker welded back together. As he pulled in he noticed they had a handful of smokers & grilling machines lined up. As he got closer there was a table being set up, tablecloth out and was informed he should come by for lunch. Every Wednesday they smoke huge amounts of meat. Today was Wednesday and at noon I was out of here like a bullet.
Here we find one of the little smoked chickens with exhaust pipes in the background, neat eh? Dave is in charge of this meat muffler party and says one of his family members owns a fruit tree orchard. That’s right, when the trees are trimmed he gets loads of FREE fruit tree wood fer smokin’. I had me some chicken pieces and I have to say, it had to be one of the most tender, most juicy yet somewhat sweet chickies I’ve had in a long time. Dave says they usually do their own dry rubs & sauces, but today it was just smoked chicken. Last week was smoke pork ribs, dang.
Missed that by a week.
This sucker seems to be their main smoking rig. 55 gallon drum with a weber lid. It’s got a few horizontal steel bars inside to hang meat over a small fire and water bowl.
Here we see the chicky hanging tight. You’ll see there’s an upright chicken holder (usually used in a conventional oven or smoker for vertical cooking), keeping it from dropping in to the fire below. They have other home-made racks for ribs & roasts. These guys are doing it right. Know why? Cause they use real wood and they didn’t spend more than a few bucks to build something that can cook many pounds of meat efficiently.
So, if you’re needing some muffler work, yer hungry, it’s a Wednesday and you’re near Richmond California, stop by Mel & Son’s Muffler for some damned fine que.
Xo Xo
Mel & Son’s Muffler
12432 San Pablo Avenue
Richmond, CA
510-233-8484
I was the first bbq cook at mel and sons, I tought dave how to cook with charcole and wood back in the mid to late 90’s The real deal KK Hill
Dave is the coolist white dude in the world!
Hay, I thought I was the coolest white dude in the world?
Stopped by M&S’s a few years ago and was sad to see it’d changed hands. Was looking for the smoker and it was gone. Are you smoking meat every Wednesday at your newish job?
Biggles