noted. i see there is one in Houston, but Luling i read is the better and i guess original gonna have to deal with the smell when driving there, lol
Any of our Austinites familiar with Franklin BBQ? http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/the-best-bbq-restaurant-in-america-2497473 Long before most people have had their first cup of coffee, Aaron Franklin is on his third espresso. When you're smoking the best BBQ in the country, your day starts very early. In order to get his impossibly tender brisket and ribs ready for the lunch rush, Franklin arrives at his no-frills restaurant, Franklin Barbecue, in East Austin, Texas, at 3:30 a.m. By ten o'clock a line composed of bleary-eyed college kids, office workers abusing their lunch "hour," and BBQ geeks will form; by 1:15 p.m. the dreaded sign will be posted: "Sorry, Sold Out! Come Back Soon." . . . Franklin's explanation for his overnight success is almost antithetical. "Patience," he says in his understated way—to which I'd add exacting sourcing and technique. First of all, he uses Meyer Angus beef, which is humanely raised in Montana without hormones or antibiotics. The fires in his pits are started using only post oak wood and butcher paper drenched in the tallow that covered the previous day's brisket. Then, after seasoning the ribs with (of course) a secret spice mix and putting them in the smoker, Franklin grabs a lawn chair, checks his e-mail, and usually works on the New York Times crossword puzzle for an hour. Once the meat is done, he wraps it in foil or butcher paper and sets it aside for that day's service. His brisket requires even more TLC. Franklin swears he uses only salt and pepper to season it. Judging by the complex flavors of the finished product, I think he's withholding a spice or two, but he promises it's all about time and the temperature of the pits. Whereas most places smoke brisket for seven hours at a blazing 500°, Franklin cooks his for about 18 hours at 250° to 270°. It goes into the pits around 9:00 a.m. and won't come off until about 3:00 a.m. the next day. The meat emerges with a pinkish smoke ring around the interior—the true sign of cared-for barbecue—that's almost a half-inch thick.
the first bolded statement has to be poorly worded. no way he only smokes the ribs for an hour. the second bolded part strikes me as crazy. 500 degrees? i don't know of any bbq place that does that, at least around kc, that is. the two most important rules of bbq - low and slow. i love the way he starts the fire though. however, i prefer good ol' hickory.
Brisket at 500 degrees wouldn't make for good shoe leather, at 500 degrees for seven hours one could use the brisket as charcoal for the next day's fire. This is why you don't read Bon Appétit for BBQ reviews. It pains me that the author claims to be from Georgia. That poorly written review aside, it is always a good sign when the place sells out by early afternoon.
A bit surprised that we didn't have any 4th of July posts on this thread. So I'll do my part. Here are a couple photos I took of my brother-in-law's bbq from Monday. He smoked up one rack of baby backs and one St. Louis. These were the spiciest ribs he's made to date, due probably to him having mixed a couple different rubs together. He also smoked a whole chicken using the same rub combination. Surprisingly, this turned out even better than the ribs...
Nice BBQ porn. Wow, that does look good! I run the Peachtree Road Race every year and afterwards I'm zonked so manning a grill is out and I rely on charity invites to friend's cookouts for my 4th of July BBQ fix. That works out well, as most of my college drinking buddies have graduated to the Big Green Egg.
So today I had lunch at Community Q in Decatur, GA where I grew up. Community Q is a fairly new BBQ joint run by a local BBQ legend Dave Roberts. Dave is another classically trained chef that loves BBQ, a la Adam Perry Lang. I got to say this well worth my trip across town. I had a crew with me so I got to sample quite a lot… the pulled pork sandwich, the ribs, and the brisket. It was all awesome, but the brisket was probably my favorite (and for sides make sure to get the mac-n-cheese). Anyway, enough of my lunch, here’s what you guys really want – BBQ porn (note I didn’t have a camera with me so I am pilfering this pics from the Intertubes, hope the photographer don’t mind): If you ever find yourself in Atlanta definitely seek this place out: http://www.communityqbbq.com/
So how do I convince my sister to dig up part of her yard for a pig roast? We're moving back home from Arabia next month and nothing would please me more than an insane amount of pork and beer. Maybe if we did a suckling over a garbage can it would work. Anyone done this before?
You inject and rub. Here's how it is done: http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/whole_hog_cooking.html The site even gives you plans for building the cinderblock pit: http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/building_a_hog_pit.html
Just go to a Chinese restaurant that sells barbecue stuff (ducks, pigs) and order from them a roasted piglet. That would be an easy and delicious option.
Where's the fun it that? The reason you cook a whole hog is to drink beer and hang with the crew. If you're going to go the roasted pig route why not go Cuban and get a La Caja Chinese Box? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMYtgDUhPb8"]2008 Roasting Pig in a Chinese box‏ - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7CuBefmmqg"]BBQ with Bobby Flay Featuring La Caja China on the Food Network Part 1 of 2‏ - YouTube[/ame] Yum!
Anyone who had never enjoyed North Carolina, vinegar based, pork barbeque is missing a rare treat. Lexington, NC offers the best . . . one review: Vienna, VA 6/19/2011 1 photo I have a new last meal; coarse chopped brown outside from Lexington Barbecue, smothered in their amazing sauce. This was the second stop on our self-guided barbecue tour of NC, and it made the trip worthwhile all by itself, the other stops were just gravy. http://www.yelp.com/biz/lexington-barbecue-lexington-2
Silly me. I thought the fun was in eating. The roasted piglet in the Bobby Flay footage doesn't look that good. You'll get much more crispy skin from a good Chinese bbq place. In fact, the skin (and the layer of fat below it) is the most important part of a Chinese style roast piglet. The meat of a piglet tends to be too soft and mushy.
The pleasure is eating the meat, the fun is cooking it. I've eaten pork out of the box, it was good (not BBQ great). Not sure it that was due to the cooking method or that the cooks wanted to get drunk. I’d like to go to Miami and try the real thing.
A nice spicy marinade from the Caribbean, works well on Chicken and ribs. 1/4 cup light brown sugar 1/4 cup molasses 1 cup distilled vinegar 2 Tablespoons salt 2 Tablespoons Paprika 3 Tablespoons Cilantro 1 Teaspoon Allspice 1 Tablespoon Black Pepper 5 Cloves of Garlic 1 Tablespoon Mustard Powder 10 Habanero Peppers (de-seeded or suffer) 1 Can of Peaches in syrup 14oz. Place all the items into a food processor or a powerful blender and work until smooth, the resulting marinade with be a bit thin and it gets better when it sits in the fridge for 24 hours. Enjoy!
Tomorrow's BBQ: chicken and pork satay with my mom's secret Norwegian peanut sauce. It doesn't get better than this (well it could if I could find a way to introduce bacon into the mix).
So I thought I would give an update on my co-worker who has entered the competitive barbecue circuit. The season is almost over, although there are events in the fall in the southwest. His team (Huminie's Hogalicious) pretty much has the California rookie championship locked up. I can't find the standings anywhere online, but he says he has a 12 point lead, and there aren't enough events left in the year for his competition to get enough points to catch him. Here are the results from his most recent competition -- it was a smaller event in Placerville (Gold Country, in the foothills near Sacramento), but he came in second (out of 19 teams): http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?year=2011&month=9&id=2678 Prior to that, he went down to Orange County for a competition and came in 7th (out of 48 teams): http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?year=2011&month=9&id=2826 A 10th place finish out of 39 teams the weekend before that: http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?year=2011&month=9&id=2762 He's had some other good results earlier in the summer but I'm not going to dig them all up. The only unfortunate part is that he has his technique down and doesn't make a ton of extra, so he's not bringing the leftovers in to work any more.
Ate some delicious BBQ last weekend in Petersburg, VA. Wrote about it here for those who are interested: http://hungrylikethebear.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/saucys-walk-up-petersburg-va/