Ships are often called “ladies”, and there is a cocktail of linguistic reasons why other machines, such as aircraft, automobiles and complicated mechanical devices, are often given female names and treated with delicacy, admiration, and respect.
Some might say it’s because they’re complicated, challenging, ….even temperamental at times.
Most, feel that their “she’s” are beautiful and a wonder of engineering style, and grace.
Cattleman’s Lucille, our in-house cooker/smoker, fits all of those descriptions, and a work horse of precision-controlled heat and smoke.
Lucille, is responsible for the many barbecued meats that are offered at our Centerline’s Smoke House Café each day.
And, like a woman whose intoxicating perfume wafts in the air, long after she’s exited the room, Lucille’s aroma of hickory smoke, extends as far as out as our parking lot off of Van Dyke Road in Centerline.
Her smoky “perfume” welcomes all of our carnivore loving customers to enjoy some of her signature ribs, briskets, wings and candied bacon.
Currently overseeing Lucille’s voracious appetite for cooking and smoking these expertly trimmed and well-seasoned meats is Mark Saur, who is under the culinary direction of our Executive Chef, Michael Keys.
Mark has been with Cattleman’s for approximately 4 1/2 years and has worn, many “hats”, including in our Prepared Foods department, and on our Café’s “hot line”, preparing our menu of made to order sandwiches, salads and barbecue favorites.
To say that Lucille works hard, is an understatement. She has a 24/7 appetite for well-seasoned hickory and is kept fed around the clock to keep her temperature at a constant 205 F. Which, as professional cooker/smokers go, is body temperature.
Mark spends a good portion of his day trimming beef briskets, pork baby back and traditional spare ribs, and massaging them with Cattleman’s proprietary rubs and seasonings before handing them over to Lucille.
At the rate of thousands of pounds, week after week.
Of course, beef briskets and pork ribs aren’t the only meats that Lucille enjoys. On many days, you’ll find her cooking and smoking bacon, chickens, turkeys and other carnivorous treats.
But beef briskets are one of her favorites and allowing her to showcase her skills and to do her magic, which in the case of beef briskets, can take as long as 14 hours.
That’s a long magic trick. But one worth the wait.
