BBQ Meats Your Baby Can Eat with Barbecue Pitmaster Taylor Carroll

Katie Ferraro (0s):

Thank you so much for listening to this podcast, I know you have a lot of options when it comes to parenting content and it means so much to me that you're here to learn about starting solid foods safely. I do have a request and I wanted to ask if you'd please leave me a written review of this show on Apple Podcasts. Your honest reviews are so important for helping the show get found by other parents and caregivers and it just takes about 30 seconds to complete. If. you have any future episode ideas? Drop em in the review too. I read every single review and I really appreciate you Thanks so much. Here's a new podcast recommendation for you. Check out the Go Diaper free podcast hosted by Nicole Cheever. Now you might recognize the name Go diaper free associated with Andrea Olson, Andrea's the owner and the guru of Elimination Communication.

Katie Ferraro (44s):

So basically that's infant potty hygiene and she helps your baby go potty as early as birth. Now Andrea and I often joke that the only thing weirder than a baby feeding themselves is a baby pottying themselves. But Andrea was a guest on our podcast a while back. She was teaching about elimination communication in episode 164. If you guys wanna listen to that one, it's called Elimination Communication. Can Your Baby Go Diaper Free with Andrea Olson? And Nicole who hosts her podcast is so informed on this approach as well because just like with eating, babies have a natural instinct to potty and keep themselves clean and we can help them do that. The Go Diaper Free podcast gives you tips, tricks, and helps you troubleshoot so that you can respond to your baby's needs and change fewer diapers.

Katie Ferraro (1m 28s):

If you're interested in this approach and you're not sure where to start, I really recommend episode 232 of the Go Diaper Free podcast. It's called Elimination Communication for Beginners, A Simple Guide to Infant Hygiene. Sometimes people will say to me if their babies are grown, oh my gosh, I never knew about baby led weaning when my babies were little, but I wish I did. I personally did not do EC with my babies. It's something I wish I knew about. It makes so much sense. Just search, go diaper free in your podcast player and subscribe today.

Taylor Carroll (1m 60s):

So things like pork shoulder, shoulders of lamb, even I actually cook them in a baking dish or a braising pot. Whatever you have, if you don't have either, you can cook it in a foil pan so it's less mess for you when it's done. And when I shred that meat at the end, I mix all of that rendered fat back into it so that way it is just going to be super, super moist. You reheat it cuz you wanna make sure that you reheat cuz the fat will congeal and you want all of that nice slippery fat to be on there.

Katie Ferraro (2m 32s):

Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in babyledweaning here on the babyledweaning Made Easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning.

Taylor Carroll (2m 58s):

Question for the meat eating families, does the thought of making meat for your baby kind of freak you out? Well today's guest is going to set your mind at ease. Her name is Taylor Carroll. She's a Barbecue Pitmaster out of the Atlanta area.

Katie Ferraro (3m 15s):

She's also a baby-led weaning mom. Her son Hayes is doing our 100 First Foods program. I met her previously on a parent call. She was struggling with some things when he was starting solid foods and I kind of like learned a little bit about her job and I was like, oh my gosh, please can you come back on the podcast? She has been on the Food Network before. She writes recipes, she ghost writes cookbooks, she does a lot of blog writing but she also was formerly the Pitmaster for the Big Green Egg. So my husband is from Texas but he's a huge Barbecue fan. He has a big Green Egg and I've been telling him about this interview and he's like, when are you gonna interview the Big Green Egg Lady? I was like, it's coming, it's coming. So I've been dying to have this interview. Taylor is dropping so much value in this episode about making meat you guys like this might be the one where you need to like flag it and save it for later or text it to yourself.

Katie Ferraro (4m 2s):

Remind yourself to re-listen cuz she's got so many great tips in here about making different cuts of meat safe and we've covered meat a lot on the podcast. So I'm gonna drop some of the other related episodes that you might find helpful in the description and the show notes for this episode. But Taylor, this is not the last you're gonna hear from her because she is in the thick with her baby. She kind of got over the hump of being scared at the beginning and now she's fully loving integrating foods that she's making for work but she's also making them for the baby. And so you can hear her baby Taylor throughout the entirety of this episode. And I know you guys don't care but I'm just mentioning it so people don't leave comments like, oh I can hear the baby crying you guys. She's a real life mom working from home. Her baby woke up so she's there in the episode with us.

Katie Ferraro (4m 44s):

He is a junk, he's so adorable. So she shares a little bit about her baby led weaning journey in this episode as well. I hope you guys love this interview. I had so much fun chatting with Barbecue Pitmaster, Taylor Carroll, all about Barbecue Meats that your baby can safely eat.

Taylor Carroll (5m 2s):

Thank you for having me.

Katie Ferraro (5m 3s):

So we met previously on a parent call. You and I were talking about like all the things related to Hayes who had just started solid foods with bab-led weaning. I know you're in our program, you guys are knocking off all the foods from the 100 First Foods list. So like you're a relatively new mom but I was so fascinated by your professional story. So I'm gonna pick your brain about how Hayes is doing, but could you tell us a bit about your work background and your specialty as a Barbecue Pitmaster?

Taylor Carroll (5m 28s):

Yeah so of course so I have loved food my whole life. I have one of those as they'd call them now, granola moms. So like I grew up going to a CSA, which is a community sustained agricultural farm with a little basket my mom. And we would get whatever was in season and we'd go home and we'd cook it together and that's what we ate. So I'm not tall, I'm like 5'2", 5'3". So I like tell my mom I'm little cuz I didn't get the hormone milk. All the other kids gone but it was great. So we learned to love cooking through her. And then I showed American Quarter horses and the shows are long, we all look the same when you do western you're going slow, you're not like going fast and jumping. So the husband's all barbecued and I'm 10 years old at this show and I see it and I go what are you doing?

Taylor Carroll (6m 13s):

They told me it was a man's sport, my dad was behind me. So I got my first grill at 10 years old and started barbecue. I actually went on to be the Pitmaster for Big Green Eggs North American franchise. I did restaurant consulting. I'm trained in Italian fine dining and pastry and now I travel around doing live fire events with a brand called Live Fire Republic. And I write blog posts, recipes and do photography for a Hey Grill, Hey in the past currently https://grillgirl.com and Live Fire Republic and then a few other brands as a ghost writer.

Katie Ferraro (6m 49s):

Okay, so I have to tell you, my husband has been like when are you interviewing the Big Green Egg girl? When he when's Big Green Egg Girl coming on it Cuz I had told him about you after we had talked in the pocket. Yes. He's like that is so cool. We have an XL Big Green Egg, we have seven kids so we kind of have XL everything in life and he's like can you find out if they're making an XXL? It's just not big enough. And I was like it's definitely big enough and I will sell that XL if something bigger ever comes out because they're have, they're not cheap but like okay what like why is the Big Green Egg different? I know you're not working for them anymore. This is not sponsored by Big Green Egg. I when people say like is it just a fancy grill? I'm like I don't know anything about grilling.

Taylor Carroll (7m 22s):

So these ceramic grills are more forgiving because ceramic is porous so it's going to hold in moisture which is why they say like don't put lighter fluid in it, only use natural lump charcoal because it will taste like that forever if you do it just because ceramic almost kind of breathes like the pores get bigger with the heat but because it's more forgiving holding in that moisture you have a little bit more wiggle room. Like if you kind of over cook your chicken, it's not like dead. Like if you were to put it in a metal, say like offset smoker that have like the fire on the side, those are not forgiving. If you cook too long on that and you're not spraying it to add moisture or basing it in something or mopping, it's not going to be the same as if you went a little over on an egg.

Taylor Carroll (8m 3s):

And they do have a double XL that I actually fit inside of.

Katie Ferraro (8m 8s):

Oh my gosh, okay. Maybe like three father's day from now I'll be able to afford that. But wait, so what did you do for Big Green Egg? Like what was your job title?

Taylor Carroll (8m 16s):

Responsibility? So I'm based in Atlanta and Big Green Egg's headquarters is in Atlanta. So initially I went on to be their head culinary and instructor. So I would teach the in-person demo classes there and then I would also travel to events that they were hosting around the country. So like Memphis in May, they used to host the VIP area so I would do demos for them there and then cook thousands of samples for people.

Katie Ferraro (8m 38s):

Oh my gosh. So like cooking for Hayes is probably like, is it fun for you? Do you enjoy it? Cuz some people that cook professionally like oh I don't wanna do it for my own kids. I know I make baby food all day long and then I have to make my big kids dinner. I'm like oh darn it like how was the whole process of starting solid foods with Hayes for you? Like how many foods has he had right now? Were you nervous when you guys started like you're a food expert but now you're feeding your first child real food, how's that go?

Taylor Carroll (8m 60s):

Yeah, so Hayes has had 57 foods. Two of those were accidents that he literally grabbed from me. Like you know babies turned into like an octopus with like eight arms and they're fast and they just grabbed things. So like he stole a cookie from me this morning. It was homemade so there was nothing bad at it. And then he was like a ravenous dog that like got its first piece of meat that was like, what was that? And I want more. He has done very, very well with food. Like most of my friends that have seven month old babies, they're like oh they just kind of play with their plate. My child eats a hundred percent of the food that you give him and if it's something like asparagus that like he'll chew on for a while and then the stringiness kind of breaks apart, he gets angry that like he can't actually finish eating whatever that piece is.

Taylor Carroll (9m 45s):

So he spent a lot of fun to feed cuz he gets some fancy stuff like my child eats roasted bone marrow that I whip cuz it's great for iron. He was eating a farro and tuna salad for lunch today.

Katie Ferraro (9m 59s):

Okay, I need to learn more about roasted whipped bone marrow. Like when you said iron you have my heart. I've never thought about making it for a baby. So let's follow up on that, an exclusive recipe forthcoming you guys please stay tuned. I know Hayes is doing great. How did you do like take yourself back to when he is six months of age you're starting solid foods. What sort of emotions were you feeling if you can conjure those back up.

Taylor Carroll (10m 20s):

So I'm a pretty like A-type mom. So backtracking a little bit, my baby had horrendous reflux like to the point that he was napping one day and he used to be a noisy napper and he wasn't making noise and his eyes were rolling in his head and his lips were blue cuz he was choking on reflux. So my worst nightmare is my baby choking it again. Now I was a nanny in college and so I was CPR first aid certified, I got it redone before I had my baby so I knew what to do and he came out of it fine but I was terrified cuz when you've actually seen choking you're like oh my gosh that can never happen again. And I didn't think he had a gag reflex cuz he sticks all of his fingers.

Katie Ferraro (10m 57s):

That's why we met like on our parent call like when you have to do the intake survey, it was like baby doesn't have a gag reflex and it's like you had filled it out like a week or two before we actually met and I was like a hundred percent this mom was like whoops, wait a minute. It was just a little too early and now he totally could gag.

Taylor Carroll (11m 11s):

So the only, he's only gagged twice and it was like at the point that it like could have been a choke had he had not gotten it out and we got like the like exorcism vomit with the second one. But yeah, so of course this child likes to eat. He doesn't say no to anything but we were terrified to feed him. But funny enough, the two things that he's had the bag gagging on, which he did resolve himself were things that you would not think like a banana. He just bit off more than he could chew and then accidentally swallowed it when he was trying to cough it up and then projectile vomited everywhere and then was mad because I took the plate from him cuz it was covered in vomit.

Katie Ferraro (11m 51s):

Oh I like when they go into the vomit, fish out the piece of food and put it back in their mouth like we video, I mean it's gross but we videotaped stuff like that all the time because we just wanna show parents listen, they recover from a gag on their own and they go right back to eating whether or not it's covered in vomit. You're the only one grossed out by vomit mom. Yeah,

Taylor Carroll (12m 4s):

Oh yeah exactly. And he was like wait a minute, like where is my plate going? Like I was not done with that so I put some more on there and he was happily eating again right after.

Katie Ferraro (12m 15s):

Hey we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

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Taylor Carroll (13m 25s):

It's like literally four weeks since we talked last time and you are so much more confident in what he's eating and I just want parents to know like your baby doesn't start out like that.

Katie Ferraro (13m 36s):

Like at the beginning Hayes wasn't eating that much and because he wasn't eating that much food wasn't getting in the back of his mouth and then he wasn't gagging so Taylor was like oh my gosh there's something wrong with him cuz he's not gagging but like it just takes time for it all to get together. And then when he gags you're still kind of freaked out. Are you still freaked out about the choking stuff or are you kind of past that?

Taylor Carroll (13m 54s):

So I'm more past that now that I've seen him work up the gag and actually one of the first baby led weaning videos I ever watched was your video of other people's babies gagging. So I could tell the difference on what it looked like verse like if he were choking, oh

Katie Ferraro (14m 5s):

We've been doing tons of that stuff for like seven years at this point because it is, I mean it is weird content but like parents need to see it, they also need to hear it. We used to put like when reels just came out we'd like you know put 'em to music and trending audio and people are like can you please stop? I'd like to hear what the gag sounds like and that's so important right cuz with gagging they make noise, air is passing through, that's a good thing. If there's no noise they're choking If they're blue or purple like that's not good.

Taylor Carroll (14m 29s):

Exactly. So he is very confident in his ability to eat and actually like very typical babyledweaning baby, we were at a restaurant the other day brought him his own meal, he was fully set up, he wanted my burger like screamed at the top of his lungs with both of his, he's

Katie Ferraro (14m 44s):

Not your vegan baby, we talked about this. He loves meat,

Taylor Carroll (14m 47s):

He does love meat and meat has been very easy to feed him because we make it very soft to the point that you could shred it between your fingers and like a pinch or grasp. So his gums have no problem pulling it apart. We just do make sure that he either has some sips of his milk between eating because he will kind of mash some against the roof of his mouth. So we wanna make sure that it's not getting too stuck up there to where it could get him when he does eventually.

Katie Ferraro (15m 16s):

Yes, dry Meats are huge choking hazard. We adding liquid, adding moisture, no salt broth, the cooking juice, the liquefied fat, whatever it is, breast milk, pour it on it as long as there's some moisture there it really helps. And I wanna ask you about the m eats because for families who eat animal foods, they they worry about, you know, how do I make meat safe for my baby to eat? My mantra personally as a baby-led weaning dietitian who's done this with thousands of babies is if you can tread the meat between your fingers and your thumb then it's safe for your baby to eat with their gums. And the key is what you said earlier there Taylor, it's that soft shreddable cuts of meat and parents are like yeah but which one? So we do a lot of education on how to choose m eats. We've had you know, butchers on the podcast to talk about different cuts and why dark Meats with more fat are safer but like as a barbecue pit master, which cuts of meat that you've worked with have you fed two haze doing baby-led weaning with your seven month old?

Taylor Carroll (16m 6s):

So if we are doing red meats, I say go for shanks because they're very full of intramuscular fat and just hey just connective tissue and muscle. They don't have a lot of sinew or silver skin on them which can be a choking hazard. Chuck is a great one. And then brisket, so like there's actually like a brisket on a lamb obviously they have it on beef, things like pork belly, anything that is going to have a very high ratio of fat to that muscle fiber. And also you don't wanna take something that you've never seen used as a low and slow meat like a filet or a rib eye and use that because if you look at it in the package, the muscle fibers are shorter, they're not those long stretched fibers.

Taylor Carroll (16m 52s):

So because of that they're gonna get kind of like gristly and gritty when you cook them down they're not gonna have a lot of fat to them, they're gonna dry out. So you wanna look for the bigger cuts that are just loaded with fat marbled through them.

Katie Ferraro (17m 4s):

And I love that you pointed that out because this is a big issue that we deal with. So many parents that come into our community are like Katie, I'm so confused. I see on other accounts they're offering things like steak and solid pieces of pork chop and it's exactly what you talked about. It's like not understanding about basic food preparation and the way the connective tissue and the fat and the muscle words and then just saying babies can eat all meat. That's certainly not true. Solid pieces of meat like that that you can't shred with that short connective tissue, those are choking hazards for your babies. Even for toddlers you guys, they really, really struggle with them. So I think it so important that you're educating about this now gimme some examples of the cuts that you stay away from for your baby

Taylor Carroll (17m 43s):

Pork chop tenderloin. Like I said, things like ribeye, even though they look fatty, they are not going to cook down the same when you're cooking to the level that they need to. But because that they have a lot of fat, it's going to pull into breakable pieces that are not shreddable. Are you adding, he's like I want the rib eye though. And that was actually how we found you as well because a lot of those accounts are telling you, oh give your baby a big piece of Pork chop there fine, okay meat baby super gums over here who can rip off a giant chunk of Pork chop and then needs it assisted getting out of his mouth because this child eats everything that he puts in his mouth cuz he's used to being fed things that he can mash and then swallow and I'm not gonna let him choke on a Pork chop.

Taylor Carroll (18m 26s):

So things like pork shoulder, shoulders of lamb even I actually cook them in a baking dish or a braising pot, whatever you have if you don't have either you can cook it in a foil pan so it's less mess for you when it's done. And when I shred that meat at the end, I mix all of that rendered fat back into it so that way it is just going to be super, super moist when you reheat it cuz you wanna make sure that you reheat cuz the fat will congeal and you want all of that nice slippery fat to be on there. Your baby's gonna be messy after, don't use an apron on them or whatever it is you use to feed them if you really like it because it's gonna get stained and be a slippery disaster.

Taylor Carroll (19m 9s):

We've kind of learned we don't buy cute bibs anymore. We're like okay this little muslin cloth is tie dye from food stain.

Katie Ferraro (19m 16s):

So Taylor, I think a lot of parents are scared of grilling Meats for their whole family to eat. Particularly moms if they're like you as a 10 year old girl be like oh girls can't grill, they're not super comfortable with the grill. Tell us what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see home cooks make when they're trying to grill or Barbecue Meats?

Taylor Carroll (19m 32s):

Okay, so some of the biggest mistakes that you might see are if you're using a charcoal grill you need to wait until you can't see the smoke coming out of it anymore. We call it clear blue smoke cuz if you look real close you can still see it coming out of the top vent. But if it is billowing white smoke, you're gonna get a bitter accurate taste on your food and it might even have kind of like a black residue on it which isn't great for you or your baby ingesting but also it's going to have a very strong unpleasant flavor and babies care about the flavor too. So for anyone that you're preparing meat for, I definitely recommend waiting until you hit that point on the grill. And then another mistake that you see is people are going by done temperatures online.

Taylor Carroll (20m 14s):

So like they'll look, it'll be like oh this pork shoulder's done at 145°F. Well if you're doing Barbecue it's like 195°F to 203°F is the internal temperature and what you look for is stick a probe in there. If it probes like peanut butter or room temperature butter, you're done. So you're kind of looking more for a feel cuz it's variable.

Katie Ferraro (20m 39s):

Oh interesting cuz I thought you were gonna say people are going by done temps. What they do is they cook it to the temp and then they take it off, they tent it, it continues to cook, it goes way up and over. But you're saying people are pulling it too early.

Taylor Carroll (20m 51s):

A lot of people are pulling too early because you can, like you said, tent it or wrap it tightly and foil. So when I'm making food for haze, I actually smoke it until like 165°F and then I'll add unsalted stock into the bottom of my pan. You can even add things like orange juice if they're a little bit older or you don't care about the little bit of natural sugar in there. I don't recommend pineapple juice cuz the bro meline acid in it will break down meat after a while. So that's like an after it's cooked right as you serve kind of mix in but add in whatever broth or stock you want or liquid people do apple juice, whatever kind of flavor you're looking for.

Taylor Carroll (21m 34s):

More spices cover that pan up and then finish cooking. So what you're doing is you're creating a braising liquid that you can then save. So I do tend to make meat separate for haze and what I do is, is I have all of these little ice cube forms for like big like whiskey cubes and I freeze portions for him in the cubes. So as I'm making his meals I pull them out and I prepare them and then the protein is done. So I have like a freezer full of ready proteins for my baby and when I thaw them because I've spooned that braising liquid back in, not only is the fat there to help make it kind of nice and slip but there's also that additional liquid that goes in his plate as well.

Katie Ferraro (22m 18s):

Hey we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (22m 60s):

And Taylor made an excellent point that when we're offering Meats to baby, whereas for a lot of the foods I really don't care about the temperature, do it cold, hot room temperature, whatever. Obviously don't burn your baby's mouth but with Meats we definitely want them to be reheated and either at or above room temperature. Like think about yourself trying to eat a cold burger even if it was a high fat cut of ground beef, it's still going to be very challenging for you to swallow in you as an adult with all your saliva and decades of practice swallowing food for our babies, we really, really need those meats to be lubricated by the fat. So when you cook the meat, the fat liquefies lubricates those protein strands which in turn makes it safer for your baby to swallow.

Taylor Carroll (23m 39s):

Yes. And then things like chicken thighs, if I'm making those, I actually like to use a mini loaf pan and I put one thigh per mini pan and I buy them boneless skinless already just because you have a kind of needier baby like my guy, you don't have the time to cut all of the cartilage and skin and kind of hard fat off as well cuz there is a difference like if you're buying a brisket and you're gonna cook it for your family and serve it to your baby, the really hard fat is not going to be that velvety gelatin soft fat when it's done it's just gonna be kind of gross. So you do cut that off but then you leave all of the good soft fat. So these chicken thighs I'll season up, I'll put 'em in the little tins and I cook 'em individually and I can add salt to ones for adults and leave his un salted and they're kinda like little individual meals.

Katie Ferraro (24m 31s):

Do you wanna be in my fan club for the mini loaf pan? I'm cooking babyledweaning foods like I love it so much we just made a YouTube video all about it because literally anything that I used to fry as a fritter, I now cook in a loaf pan because when you mini loaf pan when you pull it out and you can cut it in those little pieces about the size of your adult pinky finger, you can also freeze them in whole pieces. I do it not so much in in the ice cube trays but more in like a food storage container with parchment paper separating it so you can just break the piece off that you want but like these are amazing food prep tips and that the mini loaf pan is my jam. Like I can't say enough about it. I'm gonna try your chicken thighs recipe, let's get in touch about that cuz I'd love to share that with families as well. Let's talk a little bit about cost cuz I think sometimes families like oh meat's too expensive but like what I love about making soft shreddable cuts of meat is that it tends to be the cheaper cuts of meat which are the easiest to make safer babies.

Katie Ferraro (25m 16s):

So give us some tips there on food cost and making these cuts safe for your baby.

Taylor Carroll (25m 22s):

So things like chuck roast, super cheap. I just bought like a five pound one from a butcher shop, not even from a grocery store and it was like $17 and it's enough food for him portion like that for like two weeks if I wanted to serve it to him every day for two weeks. And this child eats a lot so I am a big fan of chuck roast if you're trying to be cost effective. Pork shoulder at most grocers goes on sale very, very often. It is a minimal waste product because they're trimming it before cuz like if you buy something like brisket, brisket, brisket six months now because everybody got into backyard barbecue. So it used to be like two bucks a pound and now you're lucky if you get it for under five and it's a bigger piece of meat.

Taylor Carroll (26m 6s):

So you're usually looking at like minimum $65 if you're gonna buy a brisket. So that's not as cost effective for every family and it's a little bit harder to master that without it being dry. But what you can do is you can buy a point of the brisket. A lot of butcher shops that are doing a short rib chuck brisket burger, like a house burger are grinding the point of the brisket which is the fattier portion and they are putting out brisket flats cuz two muscles on top of each other. So you can actually ask your butcher if they have any points of the brisket and they should be able to give that to you. And it's a little bit cheaper, it's smaller so if you don't have seven children

Katie Ferraro (26m 46s):

You just freeze the rest of it. I love that though. It's like you're not gonna make no one's asking to make a brisket every week, make it once every two months and then freeze the excess portions.

Taylor Carroll (26m 53s):

Yes. Which we do and we use it in all kinds of stuff. Like we make 5 million like pies and different noodle dishes with it and all kinds of stuff. And that's the other thing I think a lot of people when they think grilled food or Barbecue, they are thinking it has to be seasoned like that and it doesn't. You can use any flavor profile. So like I said I have a background in Italian food so I will even make like a pesto and cover Meats and pesto, especially like chicken thighs. We really like to do that. And I'll keep the meat separate, I'll heat the meat up and I'll kind of add it on the side of like a pasta salad that I might make for him that I'll make with kale and he doesn't have a nut allergy so I will put pine nuts ground really fine and into things like that for him.

Katie Ferraro (27m 38s):

And then you guys can eat that too though. That's the beauty of this. Like you're busy, you're working, you don't have time to make two separate meals, you're doing work stuff, cooking for your family, your the adults in your family and haze can eat it as well. It's amazing.

Taylor Carroll (27m 50s):

Yes. And you can also always salt food after you've taken babies portion, especially if it's something that's pulled or chopped. Most pit masters, if you're going to like competition to restaurants, we add seasoning and stuff in after we've cooked it anyway. We do season it before but more of that flavor is built after.

Katie Ferraro (28m 9s):

Can I tell you my one beef with barbecue? So my husband's from Austin and like I gotta ask you a little bit about geographical differences and we live in San Diego, like if I had it my way we'd be vegetarians cause I'm too lazy to cook meat. But I love like learning from people that like you. Like no it doesn't have to be that expensive, it's not that hard. But when you go to Barbecue in Texas and they're like, oh this barbecue's the best place in blah blah blah blah, why do they give you white bread with it? I'm like, if your Barbecue was so good, why are you serving like the grossest, most nutritionally void food in the world alongside with it? I don't understand the white bread thing. Is that a thing in Atlanta?

Taylor Carroll (28m 39s):

Every Barbecue place gives you like they call it Texas toast with it. I don't know why. So like my husband will make like a little mini sandwich, like he'll put coleslaw on it, he'll put whatever pulled meat he might've picked, whether that's chopped brisket or chicken or something on the Texas toast and eat it that way. I'm anti toast. I'm like okay if I'm gonna eat a thousand calories in one sitting, it's not gonna be on toast

Katie Ferraro (29m 3s):

From this crappy white bread,

Taylor Carroll (29m 6s):

Then sure I could go for that. But it's gonna be like banana pudding not Texas toast for me.

Katie Ferraro (29m 12s):

Okay. Taylor, I gotta ask you about like regional geographical differences like you have. Tell us a little bit about being on Food network and I did a lot of research looking at all the work that you've done prior to this from the Atlanta area. How is Barbecue in your area of the United States different than maybe other parts of the country?

Taylor Carroll (29m 28s):

So Atlanta's fun because we are not geographically defined so you can kind of do whatever you want. Like if you're in Texas, it's all beef, it's expected that it's all beef. If you're gonna do a heavy pork menu, people are gonna be like why are you in Texas? If you go into the Carolina's they do whole hog and it is a vinegar based sauce or mop that they're doing or like Carolina vinegar kind of mustard sauce. So it definitely is defined. Kansas City is that sweet Barbecue sauce. So it's fun to not be in a box. He's like yeah it's so we're not in a defined box of what is normal for us or what's expected.

Taylor Carroll (30m 9s):

You can make fresh sauces with things like peaches that are really rip peel the skin, puree them with a little bit of vinegar. I do recommend not serving your babies anything that you buy at an actual Barbecue restaurant unless you can ask for sure what's in it. Cuz most of it's very, very heavy salt. There's a lot of honey even if it's granulated in the rub or in the sauce. And also always read the label if you're going to be using a pre-packaged Barbecue rub because there are a lot of them that use MSG as well, which as an adult I don't really have a huge problem with in moderation, but I would not give it to my baby.

Taylor Carroll (30m 50s):

So you do wanna read labels, you can always make it your cell. Our kind of go-to is cumin, we put this all on a spice grinder. So we'll do cumin, oregano, paprika and a little bit of ancho chili and orange peel and then we'll kind of blast that together and put that on the Meats for haze. And when we finish we do apple cider vinegar.

Katie Ferraro (31m 10s):

Okay. Taylor rapid fire here. Before we close it out, what's been the hardest foods so far for you to make for haze and why?

Taylor Carroll (31m 16s):

The hardest food for me has been anything I have to serve whole and it's actually not usually things that I make, it's things like a banana cuz my child is like a brute. So like he'll grab it with his whole hand and if half of it's sticking out, he's putting the whole thing in his mouth.

Katie Ferraro (31m 29s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back Okay, but just continue to cut the foods and strips about the size of your adult pink.

Katie Ferraro (32m 11s):

Oh like I know it feels weird but like well he's gonna pretty soon be getting his pin or grass but it's uncomfortable to watch that overt stuffing. But as long as he's not actively choking, you don't need to do anything cuz he's gonna realize that feels uncomfortable and make the micro adjustments the next time he goes to eat.

Taylor Carroll (32m 24s):

It's like, you're right, I am.

Katie Ferraro (32m 25s):

As he you guys literally putting his whole hand in his mouth right now. He's like, watch me. Okay, yeah, Taylor food you haven't done yet but you wanna do next.

Taylor Carroll (32m 35s):

So we are going to make him his first brisket here shortly because I haven't, he's just gotten to the point that he sleeps 13 hours through the night,

Katie Ferraro (32m 43s):

But that's when you cook brisket, right? Doesn't even don't you cook it all night night.

Taylor Carroll (32m 47s):

So I'm gonna do it now and I'll be able to keep an eye on it without having to go and take care of baby at like potential crucial steps of doing that.

Katie Ferraro (32m 55s):

Oh my god, I love it. Your new baby sleeping through the night brisket. It's gonna be the best recipe ever.

Taylor Carroll (33m 1s):

My celebration brisket. Right.

Katie Ferraro (33m 2s):

Okay. What's been the best thing about doing baby-led weaning with Hayes?

Taylor Carroll (33m 7s):

He loves food. Like how excited he is about it and how much he loves it makes it like so worth the anxiety of watching you baby. Like shovel things into their face. Cuz like I put him in his high chair in the morning and I have him watch me make his breakfast for him. Cause like in a restaurant he's not instantly gonna get his food. So we're kind of working on the patient's aspect cuz he sits down, he's like, oh yeah, this is my feeding throne. Something is coming for me. But he just loves food, everything.

Katie Ferraro (33m 37s):

The restaurant weight does not get easier as they get older. My kids are like, how come we, why are we always eating slow food? And I was like, so you learn to sit at a restaurant and talk to other people, but I feel your pain. But that's great that he's excited about baby led weaning. And tell us for our audience that wants to go learn more about your work, see your recipes, read your articles, where can they go?

Taylor Carroll (33m 55s):

So mainly https://livefirerepublic.com. It's also an Instagram as one word exactly as it sounds. I'll have recipes that are being published on that site. And then I am reachable through Taylor_Carol_Cooks as my personal page on there. I'm actually about to start posting recipes and stuff. Again, as I mentioned, I am a ghost writer. So when I had the baby and when I was pregnant, I kind of stepped away from personal content just because I was doing recipes and photography for others. And as a new mom I didn't have the time. So Now, I'm gonna be posting things again and I'm actually gonna do adaptations of like for you and for baby.

Katie Ferraro (34m 35s):

I love that. That's what parents wanna know and it's really pretty much the same thing just without salt and sugar and some texture modifications too. But thank you so much for coming on cuz meat really can be challenging and it's so inspiring to see the work that you're doing and then being able to incorporate that into your life as a mom and feeding Hayes all these foods. So congratulations on all your guys' success and thank you again for sharing your time and your expertise with us.

Taylor Carroll (34m 57s):

Thank you. We appreciate it.

Katie Ferraro (34m 59s):

Well I hope you enjoyed that interview with Taylor Carroll like a female mom, Pit master. How cool is that? We were talking more about her job after the interview and I'm just like so enamored by her because she's putting into practice all the stuff that she does for work. So she does a lot of ghost writing. She was telling me like famous people who like wanna write cookbooks, she helps them with that and she's like been able to kind of blend her work with having the baby at home. And she said, cause I do a lot of photo shoots, like you can't hear the baby crying in the back of a photo shoot, which is pure genius. Anyway, I'm gonna link of all of Taylor's resources that she mentioned in this episode on the show notes, which you can find at https://blwpodcast.com/350. A special thanks to our partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave.

Katie Ferraro (35m 45s):

We're online at https://blwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time.