Sweet and spicy. That’s how Eddie Crook likes his barbecue seasoning. But when he couldn’t find anything to his liking locally, he decided to make it himself.
It was back in the mid-1990s that Crook got his first taste of smoked meat made on a little can smoker his father had purchased. “Once I got the taste of smoked [food], I thought, ‘Holy moly, this is a different level of doing things,’” he recalls. So he set about trying to perfect the art of barbecue. “Back in those days, every barbecue seasoning was full of salt. I kept thinking there’s got to be something else out there.”
He found it on the Internet: a brown sugar-based seasoning from Texas. It made a nice bark on the outside of the meat, and there was nothing similar available in the Upstate. “From there, I just thought, ‘Let me see if I can make it,’” Crook says. “That’s what started the progression of wanting to make my own seasoning and sell it [in 2005]. That’s when Sweet and Spicy BBQ Rub—his original seasoning—was born.
The seasoning enhanced the barbecued meats he made by request for friends and family on weekends, a pastime that evolved into competing in barbecue competitions and eventually a catering side hustle for the self-proclaimed “car-guy” who’s worked as a machinist for half his life.
These days, Crook is ramping up his barbecue business. He currently offers two products, his original brown sugar-based rub and Mexi-Que BBQ Seasoning. In the former, he says, “you have a nice first taste of sweet, and then it goes into the bold part, garlicky, peppery, with a little bit of heat and a hint of lime on the back end. Mexi-Que is more up front: you taste the cumin and smoked paprika first, then it moves into sweet then garlicky at the end. It makes one of the best steaks I’ve ever had . . . and it’s excellent on salmon. It’s extremely well-rounded.”
He currently has several more recipes on the back burner, including Magic Dust (due out this year), a bolder version of his original rub; a salt, pepper, garlic, and jalapeño blend; a habanero-spiked version of the Sweet and Spicy original; and a Greek-style seasoning.
It all shakes out as a way to make people happy. “When someone tastes my food or seasoning or someone tells me they so enjoy cooking with my seasoning, it’s very humbling,” Crook says. “Just to see the happiness on somebody’s face, it means everything.”
Find The Crooked Boar seasonings at Publix, Lowe’s Foods, and Harris Teeter in the shop-local sections, and on his website: thecrookedboar.com.
Crooked Boar Smoked Mac and Cheese
from Eddie Crook
Yield: 6-8 servings
The Crooked Boar’s catering menu includes side dishes, many of which, like the smoked mac and cheese recipe below, use Crook’s original Sweet and Spicy BBQ Rub.
Ingredients
- 1 pound elbow macaroni
- 1 stick butter (salted or unsalted)
- 1 Tbsp flour (you can substitute gluten-free flour)
- 4 eggs
- 1 quart heavy cream
- The Crooked Boar Sweet and Spicy BBQ Rub, to taste
- 4 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 cup shredded Gouda
- 2 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese
- 1 Tbsp white truffle oil or Truff Hot Sauce, to taste
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Cook macaroni according to instructions on package and warm your smoker up to 250° F (or preheat your oven to 350°F.)
- Combine all the grated cheeses in a bowl.
- While the macaroni is cooking, make the roux. In a medium pot on low heat, melt the butter, sprinkle in flour, and stir constantly for several minutes until it makes a smooth, thick paste. Slowly whisk in heavy cream and cook until thickened. Add The Crooked Boar Sweet and Spicy BBQ Rub to taste.
- Begin combining noodles, roux, and cheeses in a baking dish, reserving some cheese for the top of the dish.
- Add truffle oil to taste, or Truff Hot Sauce (a little goes a long way!). Once combined, add a layer of cheese on top, then sprinkle with panko and a little rub.
- Cook for 3 hours on 250°F on your smoker (or in the oven for 2 hours at 350°F) or until golden brown on top.
