- Hello my friends.

And welcome.

Welcome to my kitchen time for another episode of Johnny On Fire.

With me today I got Chris Harvey from Pond Pit Barbecue, my man.

- How are you buddy?

Thank - You so much.

One of my favorite all time restaurants is Pond Pit Barbecue on Route three.

If you haven't been there yet, you gotta try it.

And today, what are we making - Ribs, my man.

Ribs.

- Ribs.

And you guys are making ribs there every day.

- Every day?

Yes.

- Okay.

We're also going to make Jen's broccoli salad.

Which is your better half.

- Oh, better.

Better half.

- Yes.

And we're gonna also maybe throw in some of your beans that are from the restaurant - As well.

Absolutely.

For - Sure.

Okay, let's break in.

What are we gonna do first?

- All right, well, we're gonna make our rub.

- All right.

First thing I want to ask you, is there anything you, you guys do to prep the, rub the ribs ahead of time?

The - Only thing we do is trim 'em up a little bit if there's a lot of fat on 'em.

Yeah.

And silver skin, as far as I'm concerned, that's a myth for everybody.

- Okay.

- We don't rip 'em off.

We just cut by the bone.

Both sides leave the silver skin on.

Cook's better for us and the meat stays on the bone.

- And one of the things he's talking is basically like a membrane around there.

Some people remove it.

- Absolutely.

- And you don't need to.

- Yeah, you don't need to all, it's just something, like I said, we just trim up a little bit and move on.

- All right.

What are our dry rub ingredients?

It's a big mystery.

We don't even know.

- So we got onion powdered.

- Okay.

- And garlic powder.

- Okay.

- Cumin.

- Okay.

- Cayenne chili powder, black pepper salt, brown sugar mustard powder.

- All right.

So we're gonna combine all these ingredients to make up our dry raw.

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

- Yep.

- I mean, these sound like they're gonna give it that zest.

- They do.

- So when you bite in and it falls off the bone, which it does, trust me, - It has a little zip to it, but it's not bad.

- Yeah.

- We don't sauce our ribs.

We only dry rub them.

So all of our sauces are out at our counter for everybody to actually do themselves whatever they like.

You don't need it.

But - I love this.

Now, one of the things they have on the menu is something called pig wings.

Am I right about this?

Pig pig wings.

What are pig wings?

- Our pig wings are actually our cut ribs and then we deep fry 'em.

- So basically a rib cut.

- Yes.

- And then dropped in the fryer.

- Dropped in the fryer.

- Yep.

And then you can dunk 'em in buffalo chicken wing sauce.

- Yeah.

Whatever sauce you want.

Whether it's our barbecue sauce or any of our chicken wing sauces that we have at the restaurant.

I - Can vouch for 'em.

I can vouch from there.

I get 'em every time.

So they'll be really good.

So he's just combining all of these ingredients.

You'll be able to get the recipe wpbstv.org.

We got all the recipes from all the episodes of Johnny on fire right there together.

This is brown sugar?

Yes.

Okay.

Light brown sugar.

You putting that in there too?

Yeah.

It all goes.

So.

All right.

Woo.

Look at all that pepper.

I hope we got a big enough bowl, Chris.

- Yeah, we're good.

- And and salt - For you.

The salt.

- You guys are open six days a week, - Seven days a week.

- Seven days a - Week.

In the summer we're open seven days a week.

Winter time it's a little scarce around our place.

So we, we do a limited menu Tuesdays and Wednesdays usually.

- So Great.

Right there in Sandy Pond.

New York.

Sandy Creek.

- That's - Right.

Right outside of Sandy Pond.

So you're mixing everything together.

- Yep.

- And I know what you're gonna do next.

You're gonna rub that right into this.

Beautiful.

- We're going to, after we trim that silver skin a little bit on the back.

- Oh, you are gonna trim the silver.

- Well, we, we just cut through it.

- Okay.

- So each side of the bone, - I wanna try.

- There you go.

- All right.

I gotta find the bone.

- Yep.

- And then just make a slice.

Hope I'm doing this right.

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

Hope I don't lose a finger.

Okay.

Chris is putting together all these gray herbs and spices.

So I see what you're saying.

This would be the silver skin that's often removed by people.

Yes.

You just make that slit.

- We make the slit on each side.

Then it holds to the bone while it's cooking.

It holds a little better.

And then, like I said, for our, our holding purposes to keep them warm after the five hours of cooking, we put throw 'em in our proofer to keep 'em warm and it actually keeps it on the bone instead of falling off immediately.

So anyways, we're done with that.

So, okay.

We'll just turn around and season our ribs a little bit.

- Look at that.

It now it is okay to freestyle if you want, if you want to add another ingredient or two.

- Yeah.

What whatever ingredient you like to add is, is perfectly fine.

Okay.

I mean, whatever you feel is good for your taste buds or whatever, once you get it done.

- And the whole idea behind this is it, it kind of crusts on and then when the fat renders, it kind of soaks it all up - And Yep.

Gets all moist and - Yeah.

- Goes right into the meat - And gives you that crunchiness when you bite into it.

- Absolutely.

Then it's puts a bark on it, - Put the bark on it.

- Love it.

That's all.

- And you guys are doing real wood now.

Do you pack it in or anything?

- Nope.

I don't do anything.

'cause what we do is, we'll, we'll cook it for two and a half hours, three hours, depending on what it is.

Okay.

Then we do our wrap Okay.

With our aluminum foil.

And then we put it back - In.

So you smoke it first?

- Yeah, smoke it for two and a half hours.

- Alright, we're gonna wrap it in the foil right now.

- Right.

- All right.

And then we're gonna throw in and grab the foil.

Okay.

And show me how we're gonna, how, how you'd wrap it up here.

- We just put 'em in.

- Alright.

And this you do every morning.

- Every morning.

Yep.

- So half awake, sometimes always half awake.

Always half awake.

5:00 AM I can imagine, brother.

They just wrap them up, - Pull them over, - And they're ready to go.

All right.

We're gonna stick this in the wood fire.

And while they cook, we're gonna do some other things.

We're gonna mix up some of the famous, one of the famous side dishes that they feature at Pond Pet Barbecue.

Jen's famous broccoli?

Or is it bacon - Salad?

No, it's bacon.

Broccoli salad.

- Bacon and broccoli.

All right, here we go.

In the oven.

We go.

All right.

So we're with Chris Harvey.

Chris and his wife Jen.

Own pot pit barbecues on Route three down Sandy Pond.

We wanted Jen to make the salad, but you're in charge today, so thank God you're gonna have to do it.

So this is a side that is served at the restaurant.

It's one I I like.

I always get it.

It's a broccoli salad.

Yes.

- Right.

Absolutely.

Okay.

- What are our ingredients for this?

- So our ingredients, obviously our broccoli.

We got mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, cheddar cheese, bacon and golden raisins and a little sugar.

- Okay.

All right.

Just to make it good.

- Yeah.

- All right.

What do we need to do - First?

That's, that's the, that's the big facade on all this.

Everybody thinks broccoli sale, it's good for you, but if you had as much sugar in it as what we put in it, - Right.

Sugar and bacon.

Yeah, exactly.

Every time.

And cheese.

Every time.

- So we just get started by actually cutting up our broccoli florets.

- Right.

You got, they've gotta be bite-sized.

- Yeah.

You can't, I mean, everybody loves 'em big, but I mean, you don't want it that way.

- So were you guys in the restaurant business before you got into pond pit barbecue?

- Absolutely not.

No.

Actually I built houses and cut concrete for 25 years.

- That's amazing.

- And my wife was a travel agent for 17, so, - So you guys are just like, you know what, let's start an awesome barbecue.

I like too, the way you guys have it, you don't necessarily have any servers there.

- Nope.

No wait staff, no nothing.

You order at the window, pick up at the window, go to the bar for your alcohol.

It's just easier for people that way because you know what, now you're waiting on yourself.

- I know.

- You know, you're not waiting for somebody to come over and get something for you or ask you if you, you need anything else.

If you need anything else, just jump up and grab it.

- I was gonna tell you the first time I went, I was a little confused.

But now every time I go, I love it.

'cause you're right, you don't have to wait for the server to come over.

Exactly.

You know, you just kind of get, you're like, get up, I'm gonna take this, this and this.

You give a little buzzer.

Yeah.

And the buzzer rings and you bring your food back to the table and it's usually done pretty quick - Too.

Absolutely.

We try to get it out as quick as we possibly can.

- One thing I want to tell you, first time I went, I got something called the piggy platter.

- Pigpen.

- Pigpen.

- Yeah.

- What's that?

- That is kind of like a garbage plate from Rochester.

Yeah.

Four and a half, five pounds.

Every little bit of food you can get at our restaurant.

Right.

Other than our ribs In one plate.

In one plate.

- Yeah.

So it's like a scoop of macaroni salad, a scoop of baked beans, a scoop of potato salad.

A bunch of delicious Turkey pulled pork.

Is there ribs on it?

- Nope.

No ribs.

That's the, the only thing we don't put on is our ribs.

- You don't wanna get a bone in there to confuse - People.

Right.

And then it's chicken on it.

Our Turkey, we do differently.

- Yeah.

- But yeah.

French fries.

- Yeah.

And then sauces, - Then our sauce.

- What about your sauces?

So your barbecue sauces?

- Our barbecue sauces are all homemade also every day.

Pond pit, barbecue, baby.

- All right.

We did pretty good.

Yeah.

Now what are we got Now we gotta mix a little more into this.

I can tell - Already.

Right?

We can do cheddar cheese in here.

- Okay.

- Then your bacon.

I mean, who doesn't love bacon?

Come - On.

We love bacon.

- Golden raisins.

- What kind of smokers do you guys use?

Just like big, - We actually have two Myron mixing H2O smokers.

Well, 1 72 inch one and 1 48 inch one.

- Like I know what those are, - Right?

They're, they're a, a steam smoker.

So the 72 inch one has 16 gallons of water in the bottom of it.

Okay.

Fire underneath it smokes and steams at the same time.

So it keeps everything, everything nice and moist.

- I love that.

- So anyways, we got the mayonnaise here.

- Okay.

- And - Now Jen wanted me to tell everybody that you can do your own variation at home.

I love the golden raisins, by the way.

Those are so beautiful.

Yeah.

- It, it definitely adds to it.

People like it.

Once again, like you were saying, you can do a variation on it however you want.

- Yeah.

- Sunflower seeds.

There's numerous - Red - Onions.

Yeah.

Red onions, whatever.

Yeah.

Numerous amounts of things you can put in there.

So anyways, our mayonnaise.

- Okay.

- Our red wine vinegar, - We'll get that ready - And our sugar for everybody to - Heck yeah.

- Wants to have a little sweetness in their life.

Yeah.

O - That smells good.

I'll let you do All right.

Do the work on that.

So this is super easy.

You could make this at home.

Our ribs are in there cooking Now how long does it take ribs to cook at the restaurant?

- We are five hours.

Right around there.

Yeah.

So, like I said, smoke 'em for two and a half hours.

We wrap 'em in aluminum foil, put 'em back in for another two and a half hours.

- I can't wait to see what we come up with.

Alright.

So you're mixing our sauce together, which is our, our apple cider vinegar and our mayo.

- Yep.

And our sugar.

The red wine - Vinegar.

I'm sorry, red wine - Vinegar.

That's right.

Then we just pour it over the top of it, let it sit for about a half an hour.

Go back through, make sure that it's moist as it can be for what it needs to be.

And then, I mean, obviously going through the process, you gotta taste it, you know?

- Yeah.

- The better it gets, the more it sits.

- Five years you guys have been open down there.

- We've been open for five years.

Yep.

You - Opened during COVID, - We bought the restaurant during COVID.

Yes.

Kind of one of those things that everybody looked at us like we had nine heads.

A lot of banks looked at us and said, no, we're good.

We're we, we don't need to headache.

But, you know, it's kind of one of those things.

You, you, you go do something and you prove people wrong and it's good.

- Well, you do your a a beloved restaurant.

- Well - Down in, - We appreciate it for - Sure.

Down in Sandy Creek.

All right, - So, - So here, that's it.

Here is this is it right here.

This is it.

And like you said, let it sit in the fridge for a half hour.

Just make sure you taste that.

I mean it tastes good right now.

Alright, so, well, we gotta keep an eye on our ribs.

They're gonna take a little while.

So what do you say?

We just sit back and relax.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

We can do that.

All right.

And here they are.

How many of these do you make - At the restaurant a day or during the, during the summer.

A week.

We're doing 275 racks of ribs.

Oh God.

So, - Oh my gosh.

You pull that right down in there.

Those are beautiful.

Okay.

Apart fall.

Fall apart ribs.

Woo.

Look at that.

I want that off the Oh.

Mm.

Oh, Chris.

- Absolutely.

- Of course these are available every day.

If you ever get down to Sandy Creek and you should, - They just fall apart now.

- And again, you guys don't do the barbecue sauce.

It's just the rub.

Just the rub.

People can add one of your homemade sauces.

- Absolutely.

- Alright, let's, let's plate.

All - Right.

- Put a couple on there.

Wow.

- Yeah.

Woo.

A little fall apart - There.

Wow.

And then some beans.

I'll hold it for you if you want.

- All right.

- I mean, I want to keep it close.

Yeah.

Oh great.

And then some broccoli salad.

Broccoli.

What a meal.

Okay.

And some for you.

- Well, that'll be one thing you'll never see me eat.

What?

Broccoli.

Broccoli salad.

- That's not your thing.

Huh?

That's, - That's why - You stick with the ribs.

Oh - Yeah, the ribs, the brisket.

- Okay.

My friends, we got some fall off the bone, ribs, pond pit style.

We've got their famous baked beans and the salad.

Chris won't eat.

I'm just gonna just pick, 'cause it's fall off the bone right here.

Mm hmm.

Amazing guys.

Try it yourself at home and you know, visit Pond Pit.

Make sure you check out the recipes wpbstv.org for all the Johnny on Fire shows, including this one.

And of course you can listen to me on the border 1 0 6 7.

Check out the dinner at Johnny's podcast and make sure you visit Chris and Jen and the crew at Pond Pit Barbecue.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much for coming in today.

Oh, thanks for having us.

It was great.

Amazing.

So smoky.

You gotta, Hmm.

You're not gonna eat your broccoli?

No, no, it's all yours, man.

I'm not gonna eat off your plate.

I do that to other people, but I won't do that to you.

Hmm.