Attendees at Thursday afternoon’s Creative Academy cooking class got Kansas City barbecue chef Ryan Arensdorf and a few of his secrets all to themselves.

The self-described “mad scientist” of barbecue has made a name for himself in Park City with annual visits to Deer Valley Resort for Taste of Luxury, Creative Academy and the Fire and Flavor Festival, extending his stay exponentially over the four years. 

This year he’s staying for three weeks. Thursday’s class was an add-on due to extra time. He’s also added a third weekend at Fire and Flavor and will also stay to support the resort during the Chef’s Table Festival. 

Jacob Musyt, vice president of food and beverage at the resort, said Arensdorf’s cooking classes sell out every year, so they end up adding an extra one. Musyt said the resort prioritizes classes with guest chefs to allow the dining experience to last longer than the meal.  

“You don’t have to just tell people you ate something that was amazing. You can maybe duplicate things or take something you’ve learned and try it on your friends,” Musyt said.

He opened the class of 16 with an introduction to Arensdorf and encouragement to ask tons of questions and eat tons of food. Then the chef ran through his extensive career background before launching into his cornbread recipe. 

It’s not just the measurements — grams, not volume — that make his cornbread so good, but the methods. Massaging the sugar into cubed butter, mixing the dry and wet ingredients gently by hand, then pouring the batter into a 450-degree cast iron pan are essential to achieving the perfect crust, and the perfect bubble on his cornbread.

Then he moved on to talk about the meats, the highlight for guests.

One couple had returned for the class after enjoying last year’s class so much. Another couple had been gifted the class from their son for Father’s Day. There were quite a few Texans in the crowd, who shouldered Arensdorf’s lighthearted insults to Texas-style barbecue. Many had their own smoking setups at home, some more robust than others, and needed Arensdorf’s help with his specialty: brisket.

“I’ve never seen brisket that moist,” one man said as Arensdorf sliced into a finished piece during the lesson. “Me either! Sorry, honey,” a woman said, giving an apologetic hug to her husband, drawing laughter. 

Brisket is difficult because there are so many factors that can result in an overcooked, underseasoned, overly fatty result. For Arensdorf, it starts with the trimming, which he calls “shaping.”

Starting with a cold piece of meat, he told the class that shaping is the process of removing excess fat and getting the piece into a more uniform shape, avoiding sharp edges.

Unlike Texas chefs, who cut off large percentages of the meat to ensure perfection, Arensdorf prefers as little waste as possible. He’ll even use the heat from his hands to massage the meat into shape rather than fully relying on a knife. The trimmings, he’ll render down to beef tallow, or smoke and toss into sides like his baked beans.

After he’s done shaping, the chef will “slather” the meat with an acid, a yellow mustard in this case. Then fully coat with seasoning and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for at least two hours.

“The air is your friend. You do not wrap it. It’s going to pull the moisture off of that mustard, dry it out, and that’s going to become tacky feeling,” Arensdorf said. “That tack is called the pellicle. That’s what smoke sticks to. So when you blast it with smoke, if you got that on there, you have a better chance of a good smoke ring.”

He went through his smoking process, what temperatures to hit and for how long, detailing when to wrap the brisket so the bark, the hard layer of seasoning, doesn’t slide off. Then there’s “burping” or letting the meat slowly cool.

He showed a few tests of a ready-to-eat brisket. When poking with a meat thermometer, there should be almost no resistance, like a baked potato. It should be able to stay intact with pencil-thin slices. Held over a finger, it should be flexible enough to arch over while staying together. Then the pull test, where two ends of the slice break evenly across when tugged.

Of course, Arensdorf talked about the iconic Kansas City burnt ends, which he calls a “meat pillow.” He prefers to cook those on the brisket, then cut into cubes when slicing everything. 

As part of the class, he walked the group out to his barbecue truck parked on the Silver Lake lawn for a tour of his setup.

Then it was time for dinner, a buffet of his potato salad, cornbread, cheesy corn, brisket, burnt ends, sausage, pulled pork, coleslaw, baked beans, pickles and original sauces.

While eating, Arensdorf divulged a few more tips, like how he makes his sausage, what sauces pair best with what meats, the recipe to his potato salad — a class favorite — and how to rig a regular at-home grill into a functional smoker.

Arensdorf’s food truck, KC Que, will be at the Fire and Flavor Festival at Deer Valley again this upcoming weekend, serving plates of his Kansas City-rooted barbecue. And if all goes well, Park City should see him a lot more regularly in the next year, he hinted.

For details on how to see Arensdorf at the next Fire and Flavor Festival event, visit deervalley.com/things-to-do/activities/fire-and-flavor-festival.

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Park City celebrated their mining heritage Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, with a 5K run, the annual running of the balls, parade, BBQ in the park and more. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to full gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-Miners-Day/

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