I had never barbecued much, except the odd overly char grilled burger, raw chicken and sausages that seemed to fall between the grate more often that end up on a plate. Fond memories of youth with Dad cooking on his bbq and Mum having a backup plan in the oven. I still have his BBQ.
Then I started to travel. Initially to Houston with work in the oil patch. Mostly courses on running tools but the food they served at lunch was new and utterly delicious. The guys who ran the school would get bbq delivered, or Mexican food. They talked bbq and ran a trailer pit for competition bbq that is still one of the biggest pits I’ve seen to date. So as they talked, I listened on how to cook ribs, how to make rubs, how to pickle, smoke and eat bbq.
We would come home with suitcases full of liquid smoke and chipotle peppers, bbq sauce and wood chips.
But then I had an opportunity to move from Scotland to South America and run a region from Mexico down to Argentina based out of Buenos Aires. And it was during the four years we spent working and eating around S America that my eyes and taste buds were opened to a whole new world of cooking.
Still the best meal I remember is fish cooked over an open fire at a restaurant under a mango tree (El Mangito) in Villahermosa Mexico. Fish, shrimp tacos and three kinds of hot sauce. The next day we drove East towards Cuidad del Carmen and came across the simplest bbq. A man and a tin hut (his home), diving for oysters out the back into the water and cooking them over dried palm fronds in about 60 seconds. Lime, salt and hotsauce.
Living in Argentina was a carnivore’s paradise. Meat was so cheap at that time we could buy a whole fillet for £5. We lived on the roof terrace overlooking a polo field and had a parilla grill that was built in. So the Argentine’s taught me how to cook meat in their own way. Different cuts of steak like Bife de Cuadril, Ojo de Bife, Bife de Chorizo and short ribs rolled up like a string of bullets.
They cook over charcoal made from the embers of wood, slowly, drinking wine and cooking for hours. There is little seasoning used; they prefer to add their own salt after. I remember one time I cooked for the guys from the office and did these short ribs, but I’d smoked them and then wrapped them with herbs and apple juice.
We did a smoked chicken that was brined in apple and bay. It honestly blew their minds while for a year previously they had blown mine with Asados and Parillas. I’d recommend anyone to go to Argentina, have a weekend in an Estancia farm and cook Asado meat like the Gauchos. Its spiritual.
So from Buenos Aires we moved to Rio after the crime became quite savage. Rio was even more crazy! But the bbq was very different again. Churrascarias! Amen!! Skewers of meat after meat, picanha and farofa a firm favourite.
We used to grill on the roof overlooking Baja de Tijuca or go down the coast to a friend’s house and cook on the beach and watch the surfers. We cooked tuna by firelight up in Natal after a fishing trip and discovered the Tuna jaw bone is something rather special.
But we found different bbq in Bolivia, Colombia, NE Brazil, Trinidad and Venezuela. Different sauces, spices, heat levels.
Different meat, smoked, buried, fried. Influences from Japan, from the US, from Portugal, Spain and India roving the continent and alive with sensations of mind blowing food.
So Angus & Oink ltd was born when we came back to Scotland after a 2 year stint in Saudi Arabia where new skills in brewing were learnt; different bbq again. Camel is actually quite nice with Zatar flat breads and Zoug spicy sauce. River cottage has a lot to answer for and we made a few of our own sauces to see if we could re-create some of the flavours we had encountered. We sold our first 12 jars of sauce to the local butcher 2 years ago and since then have sold over 10,000 sauces as far afield as South Africa, Austria and France. A&O is a passionate endeavor and we hope that the flavours we bring to the tables of the people we sell to give them pleasure, passion for food and cooking. BBQ is all about people and coming together for us and a celebration of culture.
Scott Fraser Angus & Oink Head Honcho
Good friend of UK BBQ Mag Scott has come up with a cracking range of sauces that light up BBQ food.
Here's his story, of how he came to be inspired to create his sauces, his travels, and the flavours he experienced, that have all gone into the mix for Angus & Oink.
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