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| Want another sandwich Tony? |
"Big" John Youk's cooking philosophy is simple: "If you make good food, guys are going to show up and eat it." For more than 25 years, that technique has worked pretty well as a crew member and cook for some of NASCAR's top drivers, including Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sterling Marlin, and Kyle Petty. Now he's releasing a book of his favorite recipes and stories from his days on the circuit,
Big John's Speedway Grill. Obviously, nothing goes better with NASCAR than drinking cold beer and yelling obscenities at the Busch brothers, but eating good food runs a close third. I caught up with Big John to find out who eats the most—and to steal his best recipes.
The NASCAR crowd appears to be a picky bunch. What's your most popular recipe in the book?
Aunt Sue's Sloppy Joes. That's Sterling Marlin's favorite, too. It's a pretty unique recipe. It has a lot of things you wouldn't think to put in a recipe, but it gives it just the right twang.
What do you feed Tony Stewart so he maintains his figure?
My wife owns a deli, so whenever we are near my home in Pennsylvania, I bring a sack of sandwiches over to Tony's hauler. He and [crew chief] Greg Zipadelli each eat a two-foot hoagie at every meal. I'd like to think that helps Tony win some races. Junior loves the sandwiches, too. For a while, he was eating five 14-inch hoagies at a time.
Maybe that's why Junior was so slow last year. He had a lot of extra drag.
They stopped ordering from me because he was packing on too many pounds. It was getting to be too much.
I always thought Kyle Petty looked a little scruffy, possibly homeless. According to your book, he actually eats from the garbage.
We had a truckdriver who was so irate about leaving food around that he threw a pan of my pecan bars away. Kyle came back after the race looking for the bars and the driver told him all the food was in the trash. So Kyle goes over and starts digging through the dumpster and finds the pan. The bars hadn't fallen out of the pan, so he ate them. A year later, a guy came up to him and said, "I know you—you are the guy who ate out of the trash at Michigan." He didn't even know who Kyle Petty was. He just thought he was some guy who ate out of trash cans.
I get mistaken for a guy who eats out of the trash too, but it's only when I'm panhandling.
| Dumpster Divin' Pecan Bars |
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FOR CRUST |
FOR FILLING |
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3 cups flour |
4 eggs |
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1/2 cup sugar |
1 1/2 cups light/dark corn syrup |
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1 cup margarine |
1 1/2 cups sugar |
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1/2 tsp. salt |
3 Tbs. margarine, melted |
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2 1/2 cups pecans, chopped |
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| | 1. Preheat grill to 350ºF. Mix crust ingredients until crumbly then press into a pan. Bake crust in grill 20 minutes or until golden brown.
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2. While crust is baking, mix pecan filling ingredients until well-blended. Spread filling evenly over hot crust. Bake for additional 25 minutes or until set.
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3. Cook on a wire rack, then cut into two-inch squares. Makes about 30 bars.
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| Aunt Sue's Sloppy Joes |
3 Tbs. butter
1 onion diced
2 lbs. ground beef
8 oz. chili sauce
3 Tbs. ketchup
3 Tbs. yellow mustard
3 Tbs. sugar
3 Tbs. white vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
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1. In a large skillet, melt butter and cook onion over medium heat until translucent.
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2. Add the ground beef and cook until brown. Add the remaining ingredients one at a time and mix well.
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3. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes.
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