The tabletops are worn out from dominoes

The ribs are outstanding at Martin’s Barbeque in Bryan. The brisket I sampled was very moist and tender, although it had that slightly steamed texture of a brisket that had been held for awhile in foil or a sealed hotel pan. The German potatoes are a favorite here, but [...]]]>

The tabletops are worn out from dominoes

The ribs are outstanding at Martin’s Barbeque in Bryan. The brisket I sampled was very moist and tender, although it had that slightly steamed texture of a brisket that had been held for awhile in foil or a sealed hotel pan. The German potatoes are a favorite here, but all the sides are excellent. But the real attraction at Martin’s is the ancient Texas barbecue joint atmosphere. The tile floor in the kitchen has been worn down to the cement and the flues above the old brick pits are covered with creosote stalactites.

Steven Kapchinskie

Steven Kapchinskie is the third generation pit master and propreitor of Martin’s. The place is named after Steven’s grandfather Martin Kapchinskie (left) who started the business in 1924. The barbecue joint has been in this building since 1939. It was owned by Steven’s father Albin Kapchinskie (right) until his death in 1980. Very little has changed in the restaurant, because as Steven explains, the whole thing is grandfathered. “If I change anything, I have to get a building permit, and then I’d have to redo everything to code. Even if I just bought a new stove, I’d have to get a vent hood.”

I say: Perfect! Keep everything just the way it is!

There are two barbecue pits, both made out of brick. The smaller one close to the kitchen is used for normal business, while the big one in the back gets cranked up for busy weekends and catering jobs. The smoky atmosphere was almost unbearable in the July heat. “Sometimes we have to close up for a few days in the summer to recover from heat exhaustion,” Steven told us.

Photographer Wyatt McSpadden immortalized the horseshoe-shaped counter at Martin’s in his handsome book of photos, “Texas BBQ” from University of Texas Press. I highly recommend a visit to Martin’s Barbeque for the ribs and for the atmosphere–the place is a Texas barbecue museum.

Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) film maker Joe York interviewed customers at Taylor Cafe yesterday on the subjects of barbecue and philosophy. York is here in Texas shooting segments for an upcoming SFA movie tentatively titled “Southern Food: The Movie.”

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve spent the last week working with York on getting some [...]]]>

Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) film maker Joe York interviewed customers at Taylor Cafe yesterday on the subjects of barbecue and philosophy. York is here in Texas shooting segments for an upcoming SFA movie tentatively titled “Southern Food: The Movie.”

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve spent the last week working with York on getting some tasty bits of Texas on tape. Hopefully, SFA will allow Foodways Texas (FTX) to reuse some of York’s footage for our own upcoming short films and informational videos.

Stay tuned.

largequantityBBQ

In August of 1969, The University of Nebraska Animal Sciences Department reissued this pamphlet titled “The Large Quantity Barbecue.” (Click on the link to see the whole thing–the photos are amazing!) The booklet contains step-by-step instructions for building the kind of old-fashioned barbecue pit in which the meat is buried under a covering of [...]]]> largequantityBBQ

In August of 1969, The University of Nebraska Animal Sciences Department reissued this pamphlet titled “The Large Quantity Barbecue.” (Click on the link to see the whole thing–the photos are amazing!) The booklet contains step-by-step instructions for building the kind of old-fashioned barbecue pit in which the meat is buried under a covering of dirt. You dig the pit three and half feet deep and determine the length by how much meat you are cooking– six feet of pit for every 200 pounds of meat.

This was always the method used for the XIT Reunion Barbecue. The world’s largest free barbecue will be held on Saturday August 8 this year. If you go, please send me some photos.

The pit at Franklin Barbecue trailer in Austin was once used at John Mueller’s on Manor Road.

The brisket is wrapped in butcher paper after its smoked for 8 hours or so.

You can buy barbecue by the pound or by the sandwich. The Tipsy Texan sandwich with brisket and sausage sounds suspiciously similar to Mustang Creek’s [...]]]>

The pit at Franklin Barbecue trailer in Austin was once used at John Mueller’s on Manor Road.

The brisket is wrapped in butcher paper after its smoked for 8 hours or so.

You can buy barbecue by the pound or by the sandwich. The Tipsy Texan sandwich with brisket and sausage sounds suspiciously similar to Mustang Creek’s Bohemian Special.

Assistant pit man Terrence Henry wears goggles and a respirator when he opens up the pit.He doesn’t want to end up with a persistent cough like his boss, Aaron Franklin.

Aaron Franklin is serious about BBQ

Aaron Franklin grew up around barbecue and country music. His parents owned a barbecue joint in Bryan and his grandfather once played steel guitar for Bob Wills. After high school, Aaron headed to Austin and became the drummer in several rock and roll bands. After he got that out of [...]]]>

Aaron Franklin is serious about BBQ

Aaron Franklin grew up around barbecue and country music. His parents owned a barbecue joint in Bryan and his grandfather once played steel guitar for Bob Wills. After high school, Aaron headed to Austin and became the drummer in several rock and roll bands. After he got that out of his system, he settled down and started cooking barbecue. His barbecue trailer on I-35 near 32nd St in Austin has the Texas Q scene all abuzz.

Frank Mancuso, the Central Texas sales rep for Saint Arnold beer, says he compared Franklin’s brisket side-by-side with the brisket from Snow’s in Lexington at a SXSW barbecue event this spring. Snow’s is much acclaimed as the best brisket in the state, but Frank found Franklin’s brisket superior. I can attest that Franklin’s brisket is amazing, some of the best I’ve ever eaten. But I’ve never been to Snow’s.

The Franklin barbecue trailer opens at 11 am Wednesday through Sunday and closes when they sell out–which happened around 1:30 pm the Sunday I visited. Snow’s is only open Saturday, and they sell out before noon.

Chef Ray

A smoking barbecue trailer was drawing a crowd to a convenience store parking lot in north Houston. It was Friday evening around six and people were ready to party. Some of the customers hung around and joked with the guys passing out the rib and sausage plates. One guy sipped a beer and joined [...]]]>

Chef Ray

A smoking barbecue trailer was drawing a crowd to a convenience store parking lot in north Houston. It was Friday evening around six and people were ready to party. Some of the customers hung around and joked with the guys passing out the rib and sausage plates. One guy sipped a beer and joined in the conversation from the open driver’s side window without getting out of his car.

I walked over to the smoker with my camera and wallet out. “How much is a rib plate,” I asked. Wrong question. It’s not legal to set up a barbecue smoker on the side of the road and charge money.

“I’ll make you a plate and you can give me a donation,” the guy doing the cooking said. When I asked the guy his name and raised my camera, he handed me my food, took my money and told me to go away. I kept trying to make a joke out of the whole thing. Finally two large friends of the barbecue man walked over and said, “You best leave now.” The ribs were sensational. But sorry, if I told you where to find him, he and his friends would have to kill me.

“If you want to take pictures, drive over to the next light and take pictures of Chef Ray–he won’t care,” the barbecue man said pointing east down Pinemont Street.

Pinemont and N. Shepherd

Chef Ray Latson was cooking on an elaborate trailer with a roof at Shepherd and Pinemont. Sadly, all of his brisket was gone when I got there. All I got to taste were some crispy rib tips. “They call me Chef Ray, I cook in the Astros clubhouse,” Latson told me. “I barbecue for the sport of it. I come out here on Friday and Saturday at 9 am, and serve until I run out.”

A guy walked up to the smoker and waved some money around. “If want to make a contribution to the church, I am happy to take your money and pass it along,” Ray said pointing at the structure across the street. “I only have one plate of barbecue left, but I also have some of my mom’s tea cakes.”

East Texas tea cakes are oversize cookies made with butter and vanilla, but not a lot of sugar. I guess you are supposed to serve them with tea, but at my house they are eaten for breakfast with coffee.

I asked Chef Ray if he was going to be out on the corner of Pinemont and Shepherd cooking barbecue this Friday and Saturday. “I’ll be there if it ain’t raining,” he said.

On Sunday I blogged and tweeted about smoking a Kobe brisket with Bellville Meat Market rub. @BBQsnob, the guy behind the Full Custom Gospel BBQ website tweeted about how good it sounded and I ended up inviting him and his family over for lunch on Memorial Day.

Sounds lovely, eh? It was…until I noticed something weird [...]]]>

On Sunday I blogged and tweeted about smoking a Kobe brisket with Bellville Meat Market rub. @BBQsnob, the guy behind the Full Custom Gospel BBQ website tweeted about how good it sounded and I ended up inviting him and his family over for lunch on Memorial Day.

Sounds lovely, eh? It was…until I noticed something weird going on in the smoker.

At seven on Sunday evening, after eight hours of cooking, this Kobe brisket wasn’t getting done. After a little probing and a test slice, I deduced that it wasn’t a brisket. I had in fact been barbecueing a Kobe flank somebody sent me. I had grabbed the wrong unmarked package of Kobe meat in my freezer. It had a fat end and a skinny end and a thick fat cap, so I thought it was a brisket. (My friends at the A&M Meat Science Center would be so ashamed of me.) Now I had a famous BBQ critic coming over for lunch and nothing but some really tough meat to serve him.

I went to HEB to pick up some ice and beer and while I was there I noticed the Memorial Day specials. Briskets were on sale for 95 cents a pound. Unfortunately, the only ones left were oversize monsters. I took home a 14 pound brisket, seasoned it up, and threw it on the smoker around 8 pm. At 5 in the morning, after 9 hours of smoking with hickory at 250F, it was only showing an internal temperature of 140 F. So I wrapped the sucker in foil and kicked the smoker up to 300 with a big pile of charcoal. I hit the 180 F mark with a hour to go until lunch.

Meanwhile, I borrowed the smoke-braising technique from my new book The Tex-Mex Grill. I submerged the smoked Kobe flank in a tomato-ancho chile broth in a roasting pan and simmered it in the oven at 250 F for four hours until it hit 180 F. Then I poured off some Kobe fat and tomato-ancho, pureed it, and used it to make barbecue sauce. I also reserved about a cup of the fat and simmered it with garlic and salt to make a finishing sauce for the brisket slices–just like the garlic butter the legendary cook-off competitor Harley Goerlitz likes to pour over his brisket just before he sends it to the judges table–only with Kobe fat instead of butter.

Not only was disaster averted, the whole mess of meat tasted pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. And @BBQsnob turned out to be a real nice guy. So after a little late night Q stress, it turned out to be a pleasant Memorial Day.

Update: Here’s what our Memorial Day barbecue looks like after five and a half hours of smoking. I think the pork is done, but I’m going to hit it with a wine jelly and mustard glaze just for the hell of it.

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day without barbecue, right? So I fired up the smoker at [...]]]>

Update: Here’s what our Memorial Day barbecue looks like after five and a half hours of smoking. I think the pork is done, but I’m going to hit it with a wine jelly and mustard glaze just for the hell of it.

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day without barbecue, right? So I fired up the smoker at 11 am on Sunday and invited people over for lunch on Monday. Usually I cook whole pork shoulders, but these “country-style pork ribs” were on sale for a dollar a pound at HEB. This is just a pork shoulder cut into strips anyway. I got some of John Henry’s Texas Pig Rub at Allied Kenco the other day, so I figured I might as well try it. These will only take three or four hours to cook. We’ll eat some tonight for dinner and then reheat the rest for the barbecue tomorrow.

This Kobe brisket has been out in my freezer for awhile, so I defrosted it for Memorial Day. I sprinkled it with Bellville Meat Market Brisket Rub. I’ll probably bring the brisket in late tonight and finish it tomorrow morning.

I put a water pan on the smoker to keep things moist and avoid burning the end of the brisket closet to the heat. I am burning charcoal in the middle of a square of split seasoned oak logs. The temperature is around 275° F.

A producer for the History Channel named Paul La Blanc put this pilot together for a food history show to be called “A Bite of History.” I don’t think the show ever got broadcast–or at least I never heard anything about it. Here is the Texas segment.

The producer graciously provided me with a DVD. I [...]]]>

A producer for the History Channel named Paul La Blanc put this pilot together for a food history show to be called “A Bite of History.” I don’t think the show ever got broadcast–or at least I never heard anything about it. Here is the Texas segment.

The producer graciously provided me with a DVD. I am using the part of the show I appeared in as a clip–not for commercial purposes.

Pastrami and Eggs at Katz's

I had breakfast at Katz’s Deli on my recent visit to New York. (The Katz’s Delis in Houston and Austin have no association with the original New York Katz’s, by the way.) While I was eating this plate of smoked brisket and eggs, I couldn’t help thinking about a smoked brisket [...]]]>

Pastrami and Eggs at Katz's

I had breakfast at Katz’s Deli on my recent visit to New York. (The Katz’s Delis in Houston and Austin have no association with the original New York Katz’s, by the way.) While I was eating this plate of smoked brisket and eggs, I couldn’t help thinking about a smoked brisket and egg taco I had at the Plantation BBQ trailer on 90A outside of Richmond a few weeks earlier.

BBQ Brisket and Egg Taco at Plantation BBQ

The pastrami at Katz’s in NYC is made from a brisket that has been brined and seasoned and then smoked. At Jewish delis like Schwartz’s in Montreal, they make “smoked meat” from brisket that is rubbed with a curing seasoning and then slow smoked. Robert Sietsama once wrote an amusing comparison of the two.

Sietsama noted that both of these Jewish pastramis bear a strong resemblance to Texas barbecue brisket. The only difference seems to be the use of a little curing salt.

A barbecue competition judge recently told me that the red smoke ring is no longer part of the judging standards for barbecued brisket because some competitors had hit on the bright idea of rubbing the brisket with curing salt to get a brighter red color. There was evidently nothing in the barbecue competition rules that excluded curing salts from the seasoning.

Maybe they need to add a pastrami category to the Houston Rodeo Barbecue Cook-off?