In praise of the Cornell Recipe and Bob Baker, the Aaron Franklin of chicken

Cooking Cornell Recipe chicken at the Rochester Canoe Club in the early 1980s. Photo: Gary Jacobson

Within our great barbecue family, none of us stands alone. We're all influenced by someone or something else. Friends, relatives, pit masters, other cooks, experts, bloggers, books and all the joints we've ever visited, good and bad.

One of my main influences occurred almost 40 years ago when I first encountered the Cornell Recipe.

For fans of Texas barbecue who love dry rubs and post oak smoke, this may be a bit jarring. The Cornell Recipe is for a sauce -- a vinegar and oil marinade, if you prefer -- used on chicken.

The recipe is wonderful in its simplicity (see below). And it allows for some great barbecue theater.

On a long, cement-block pit, I've helped cook chicken for 100 guests, periodically splashing the sizzling quarters and halves into a pot of the sauce and then returning them to the grate. As the charcoal burned down, we lifted the heavy grates and kicked out a layer of blocks to get the chicken closer to the heat.

Labor intensive, yes. But lots of fun to cook…and to watch. It can be barbecue as performance art, even when you're using the Weber in your back yard.

Dr. Robert C. Baker
Photo: Cornell University

Dr. Robert C. Baker, a college professor, developed the sauce recipe while at Penn State after World War II. He took it with him to Cornell when he moved to the Ithaca, N.Y., school, and served it for decades at his Baker's Chicken Coop at the New York State Fair in Syracuse.

I "discovered" the Cornell Recipe in the late 1970s while working in Rochester, N.Y., about 90 miles from Ithaca. Ever since, the sauce has been a barbecue mainstay for me. Even hard-core barbecue fans like it. Meathead Goldwyn praises the sauce on his Amazing Ribs Web site.

While the recipe alone would be enough to put Baker in my culinary pantheon, he created many other food innovations, including poultry hot dogs, turkey ham and chicken nuggets, long before McDonald's. The New York Times once called Baker "something of a chicken Edison."

To translate that into Texan, we might call Baker the Aaron Franklin of chicken.

There's even a humorous song about his exploits:

O, Nugget Man
O, Nugget Man
Headin’ on down to that old Promised Land
Happy the meals all have been since the day
That the Nugget Man came our way

Baker died in 2006 at age 84. Before his memorial service, they held a chicken barbecue in his honor at his church.

In our great barbecue family, that rates among the highest forms of tribute.

Cornell Chicken Barbecue Sauce Recipe
From the Cornell Web site:

(enough for 10 halves)
1 cup cooking oil
1 pint cider vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg

Beat the egg, then add the oil and beat again. Add other ingredients and stir. The recipe can be varied to suit individual tastes.

Note:  I use kosher salt.

Cooking backyard BBQ with John Mueller & John Lewis

Last Sunday I hauled my Jambo pit to Austin. The first stop was John Lewis' house. Both Lewis and I had been invited to a backyard BBQ with John Mueller the next day.

John Lewis is a pitmaster (I call him The BBQ Genius, food critics call him the BBQ savant) who works at Franklin BBQ in Austin for Aaron Franklin. Franklin's has been named the best BBQ joint in America. That also means best in the world, says John Mueller, because no place else cooks real BBQ except Texas.

I help John Lewis on national KCBS BBQ competitions. John's cook team is named Porky's Revenge, and includes his fiancé Maureen Williams, Daniel Rugg Webb & Raymond Carreon. In its short time competing, Porky's Revenge has attracted the attention of top competitors like Tuffy Stone and Jamie Geer, the Jambo pit builder. Stone and Geer were featured in the first season of TV's BBQ Pitmasters along with Myron Mixon, Johhny Trigg and others. Later this month, John and I are competing at the upcoming 2012 Academy of Country Music and Mandalay Bay BBQ Throw-down competition in Las Vegas, NV.

John Mueller, who learned how to cook from his father, Bobby, of the legendary Taylor barbecue family, runs JMueller BBQ in Austin. He was intrigued by Lewis' competition BBQ skills and hinted at joining us at an event.

Early Monday morning with our pits in tow we headed over to Mueller's joint, which was closed for the day. Mueller had already fired his pit and loaded a couple of briskets and a bunch of beef ribs. When I saw that, I trimmed and rubbed a brisket and had it on my pit in no time. I ran my Jambo pit hotter than hell to try and keep up with Mueller's briskets since he obviously gotten a jump. He had told us the day before "no need to show early!" Lewis fired his pit a few hours later to cook a suckling pig after he completed final preparations.

So, while the meats cooked, everyone sat around the pits smelling the sweet burning post oak, throwing back a few beers and talking some serious BBQ. Mueller's wife Debi, daughter Erika, sister LeAnn, good friend Ali Form (cuts the meats at JMueller) and Wes were all there. Several other Mueller friends stopped by later as well.

The first round of meats came off Mueller's pit. We all devoured his handmade beef sausage - best sausage I've ever had. We all ate lots of it with cheddar cheese and Mueller's spicy hot sauce on fresh saltine crackers. It was damned good! Then Mueller pulled a few racks of his beef ribs off his pit. These were to die for. There is nothing better than eating properly prepped and cooked smoked meats straight off the pit. A while later, Mueller pulled a couple of briskets, which also rocked.

After a few more hours and a few more beers, Lewis pulled off the suckling pig. It stole the show. Lewis had stuffed it with herbs, seasonings, pounds of sausage and pork tenderloin and other secret stuff. Everyone at the cook off loved it. It was by far the best anyone there had ever had. And coming from the Muellers, that's very high praise.

Then I pulled the brisket off my pit and let it rest a while. Mueller pitched it on his block and cut it for us. They all told me it was excellent, which was sweet music to my ears coming from Lewis, the Muellers and their close friends.

Later, LeAnn Mueller, well known photographer and the sister of John, mentioned that John Lewis reminded her of her father, Bobby. John Mueller readily agreed. This is absolutely the highest complement any pitmaster could receive. Lewis just smiled, blushed a little and changed the subject.

John Lewis, left, and John Mueller pose for a portrait.

Photos ©Marshall Cooper/Texas BBQ Posse

Pit Talk: Tips for choosing a backyard smoker

You have visited plenty of stops on the Texas BBQ Trail and know what good BBQ is. You've experimented on the grill in the backyard, but need to buy the proper equipment to take the next step of becoming a serious backyard pit master.


Here are a few simple tips and options to help you make the choice.


Determine how many people you want to cook for at one time, how often you will be cooking and  how much you want to spend. 


Slow smoking meats in the backyard is a considerable time commitment so consider the cost of a smoker as an investment that will help cook higher quality BBQ.


A good BBQ smoker is well-built with plenty of airflow, good draw and maintains steady & even temperatures at the grate. It also needs to be large enough to cook on while minimizing radiant heat from burning the meats. 


Insulated Smokers will tremendously help produce steady temperatures and heat over long periods of time, which is crucial for making good BBQ. Selecting a functional smoker to cook backyard BBQ to meet your criteria can be overwhelming due to the hundreds of choices out there. 


There are many different pits designs to choose from: bullet, off-set aka log burner/stick burner (which is an indirect type design with the firebox off set to one side), gravity fed charcoal, kamado ceramic cookers and pellet cookers. 


Electric and gas oven smokers have been purposely omitted by the author.


Below is a short list of some smokers that vary in design, size, results, and price. Again it gets down to the level of commitment you are prepared to pursue.

Smoker Name:	Smoker Design	Size	Cost	Fuel	Insulated Firebox	Website	Comments
Barbeques Galore Offset Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	N/A	$349	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.bbqgalore.com/smokers.html	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps for long periods could be challenging
Big Drum Smoker (BDS) Small	Direct	small	$475	Wood logs, charcoal	No	http://www.bigdrumsmokers.com/smokers.htm	N/A
Big Green Egg (BGE)	Charcoal, wood chunks	small	N/A	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.biggreenegg.com/eggs/sizes/	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Brinkman - Professional Charcoal Grill	Off-set/stick burner	small	$379	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.brinkmann.net/products/outdoor_cooking/charcoal_smokers_and_grills/details.aspx?item=805-2101-W	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps could be challenging
Charbroil - American Gourmet Deluxe Offset Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	N/A	$158	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.charbroil.com/ProductInfo/10-17-1928/American-Gourmet-Deluxe-Offset-Smoker.aspx	light gauge construction, possible initial entry-level for backyard, maintaining even temps could be challenging
Gator - Backyard Classic	Off-set/stick burner	20" x 32"	$1450+	Wood Logs	No	http://www.gatorpit.net/backyard_pits/backyard_classic.htm	N/A
Horizon (Smokey Joe) - 20" Classic Backyard Smoker	Off-set/stick burner	20" x 36"	$995	Wood Logs	No	http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-376/20%22-Classic-Backyard-Smoker/Detail	Well built.
Jambo Pits Backyard Model	Off-set/stick burner	24 inch diameter - 48 inch length with 24 X 24 X 20 insulated firebox	$1800	Wood Logs	Yes	http://www.jambopits.com/directions.html	good build quality, cook very well, holds the heat and temps steady due to the insulated firebox and design.
Klose	Off-set/stick burner	24 inch diameter - 48 inch length	$2395	Wood Logs	No	http://www.bbqpits.com/backyard_smokers/24x48_smoker.htm	N/A
Lang 36" Smoker Cooker Model	Off-set/stick burner	36 inch length	$949	Wood Logs	No	http://www.langbbqsmokers.com/lang36/index.html	Smaller models are widely used by backyard cooks and the larger models used by competition pit masters
MAK Pellet - 1 Star General	Pellet Cooker	N/A	$1299+	Pellets	No	http://www.makgrills.com/shopping/start.php?browse=1&cat=8&=SID	N/A
Stumps – Baby Model	Gravity-fed charcoal	Height with stack and caster 49” inches; Depth with thermometer 24 1/2” inches; Width with ball valve 36” inches;	$1350+	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.stumpssmokers.com/products/gravity-feed-smokers/vertical-smokers/the-baby	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Superior – SS2 Model	Gravity-fed charcoal	N/A	$1900	Charcoal, wood chunks	Yes	http://www.superiorsmokers.com/ssTwo.html	widely used by backyard cooks and competition pit masters
Traeger - Junior Model	Pellet Cooker	N/A	$399	Pellets	No	http://www.traegergrills.com/shop/grills/BBQ055	N/A
Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM)	Bullet	18 1/2 "  & 22 1/2 " diameter	$299 $399	Charcoal, wood chunks	No	http://www.weber.com/explore/grills/smokers-series	good build quality, Cook very well, excellent economical smoker, widely used by backyard cooks and professional competition pit masters. Guru BBQ or Stoker BBQ is easily fitted.