"Maybe I don't like Texas BBQ" (Austin, Round Rock: appointed, live)

[OpenD]

I'm starting this thread as a humanitarian effort, in response to a statement made in another thread that just tugged at my heart-strings. The poster said: "We were very disappointed. It made me feel like "well if this is one of the best, maybe I don't like Texas BBQ."

//www.city-data.com/forum/25814246-post24.html

And of course a whole posse of Texas 'cue lovers jumped in to try and save the day... but unfortunately it derailed that particular thread, and if you were looking for this information you probably wouldn't search for it in a thread about Italian fish stew, so I'll see if we can pick it up here.

Because it is IMPORTANT STUFF!

Here's the basics: poster likes "fall-off-the bone tender, juicy, saucy meat" including pork and chicken, "Memphis style," "3 styles of sauce," and "sides included fresh veggies, thinly sliced and sauted in garlic, sweet potato fries, garlic fries and spicy greens, as well as other traditionals."

In addition this nice lady lives in SW Austin and is looking for something conveniently close, because long travel doesn't work well for her husband.

OK? Got the picture? How can we turn this around? How can we redeem our much beloved Texas style BBQ in her eyes?

[la60336]

I thought Memphis style was all about the dry rub...Franklins and JMueller are the 2 best in town. If she has tried those and still doesn't like it...then she just won't like Texas BBQ. Plus, some of what you are describing is not Texas Style BBQ.

[Adamson865]

I was always partial to the Turbo or the T-Man at Bert's. Can't wait to try their new location on 24th.

But, that's about as far away from Memphis as I am.

[TexasHorseLady]

There's a new place in Jarrell that I didn't have high hopes for but now that they're open and I've been there a couple of times, they've knocked my socks off. Not only because the brisket is so tender and juicy (which it is), and the sauce is tasty (which it is), but these people really know how to do sides - they give them the same attention that a good pitmaster gives the beef. Or the pork ribs. Or the chicken. Heresy though it might be, I've actually considered going there and just getting a bunch of sides, they're so good!

So send her up this way. It's about an hour from Ben White & South Lamar, if she takes Mopac - maybe shorter if she doesn't head north at I35 in Round Rock but takes Mopac to 45 to 130 and up to I35 that way, less traffic.

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm also afraid Memphis style isn't going to be Texas BBQ, so that wouldn't solve the problem of her not liking Texas BBQ.

[OpenD]

So I'll kick in by talking a little about what Texas BBQ is, and what it is not.

First, to answer the question the late Clara Peller once asked in a famous advertising series, "Where's the beef?," the answer, quite simply is IN TEXAS! So while pork and turkey and mutton and chicken and goat and of course sausage are all featured by various and sundry pitmasters around the state, the one absolute requirement to be considered Texas BBQ is beef.

The second is the dry rub. There are others styles of BBQ that work with wet mops, worthy styles to be sure, each with its own charm, but the quintessential Texas style is a dry rub of salt and pepper and other spices.

Third is the oak fire, or possibly mesquite. Other regional styles use other kinds of wood, like maple or hickory or applewood, but in Texas you really expect oak.

Fourth is sauce. Texas BBQ does not slather sauce all over everything, if it even offers sauce. Kreuz Market in Lockhart, one of the giants of the "Ring of Fire" BBQ circuit, famously has no BBQ sauce at all, and features explanatory signs that say "We have nothing to hide!" That's a common attitude at Texas BBQ joints, where you will typically be served meat without sauce, or asked if you want sauce if you don't seem local. Black's (also in Lockhart) was in business 6 years before they started offering BBQ sauce, and finally added it "because Northerners kept asking for it."

Get the theme so far? It's all about the beef. Having good beef, cooking it well in a way that highlights, but does not mask the taste of the beef itself.

And that focus extends... in my view, it least... to the sides offered. It's not about the sides, it's about the beef. So the sides tend to be seen more as the punctuation to the meal, rather than as the meal itself. So they run to the simple and the traditional for the most part. Potato salad, pinto beans, cole slaw, sliced raw onions and pickles, thick white bread or saltine crackers.

And the beef is served on brown butcher paper, to be eaten with your hands. It's all very evocative of an entire ethos... campfires and chuckwagons and the big outdoors on the open range. Or at least its supposed to be. If it's done right, anyways.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I'm starting this thread as a humanitarian effort, in response to a statement made in another thread that just tugged at my heart-strings. The poster said: "We were very disappointed. It made me feel like "well if this is one of the best, maybe I don't like Texas BBQ."

//www.city-data.com/forum/25814246-post24.html

And of course a whole posse of Texas 'cue lovers jumped in to try and save the day... but unfortunately it derailed that particular thread, and if you were looking for this information you probably wouldn't search for it in a thread about Italian fish stew, so I'll see if we can pick it up here.

Because it is IMPORTANT STUFF!

Here's the basics: poster likes "fall-off-the bone tender, juicy, saucy meat" including pork and chicken, "Memphis style," "3 styles of sauce," and "sides included fresh veggies, thinly sliced and sauted in garlic, sweet potato fries, garlic fries and spicy greens, as well as other traditionals."

In addition this nice lady lives in SW Austin and is looking for something conveniently close, because long travel doesn't work well for her husband.

OK? Got the picture? How can we turn this around? How can we redeem our much beloved Texas style BBQ in her eyes?

Y'can't change some of those communists' minds.

[twange]

Originally Posted by OpenD

So I'll kick in by talking a little about what Texas BBQ is, and what it is not.

First, to answer the question the late Clara Peller once asked in a famous advertising series, "Where's the beef?," the answer, quite simply is IN TEXAS! So while pork and turkey and mutton and chicken and goat and of course sausage are all featured by various and sundry pitmasters around the state, the one absolute requirement to be considered Texas BBQ is beef.

The second is the dry rub. There are others styles of BBQ that work with wet mops, worthy styles to be sure, each with its own charm, but the quintessential Texas style is a dry rub of salt and pepper and other spices.

Third is the oak fire, or possibly mesquite. Other regional styles use other kinds of wood, like maple or hickory or applewood, but in Texas you really expect oak.

Fourth is sauce. Texas BBQ does not slather sauce all over everything, if it even offers sauce. Kreuz Market in Lockhart, one of the giants of the "Ring of Fire" BBQ circuit, famously has no BBQ sauce at all, and features explanatory signs that say "We have nothing to hide!" That's a common attitude at Texas BBQ joints, where you will typically be served meat without sauce, or asked if you want sauce if you don't seem local. Black's (also in Lockhart) was in business 6 years before they started offering BBQ sauce, and finally added it "because Northerners kept asking for it."

Get the theme so far? It's all about the beef. Having good beef, cooking it well in a way that highlights, but does not mask the taste of the beef itself.

And that focus extends... in my view, it least... to the sides offered. It's not about the sides, it's about the beef. So the sides tend to be seen more as the punctuation to the meal, rather than as the meal itself. So they run to the simple and the traditional for the most part. Potato salad, pinto beans, cole slaw, sliced raw onions and pickles, thick white bread or saltine crackers.

And the beef is served on brown butcher paper, to be eaten with your hands. It's all very evocative of an entire ethos... campfires and chuckwagons and the big outdoors on the open range. Or at least its supposed to be. If it's done right, anyways.

Great explanation! I took one of my friends who lives in Nashville to Smitty's and he was blown away by the sheer authenticity and "ethos" of the whole thing. I'm not sure if he still prefers BBQ of the southeast or not but he came away from there with some real admiration for Texas BBQ.

Man, did we get down to business that day This pic about sums it up!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by twange

Great explanation! I took one of my friends who lives in Nashville to Smitty's and he was blown away by the sheer authenticity and "ethos" of the whole thing. I'm not sure if he still prefers BBQ of the southeast or not but he came away from there with some real admiration for Texas BBQ.

Man, did we get down to business that day This pic about sums it up!

Good one. One of the niceties of Smitty's that I appreciate, besides the fact that it really has an authentic 1890s-1900 feel that is unbeatable... is that the table legs are taller than most places, which is nice when you are eating with your fingers, because it puts the food up closer to your face.

Another is that when you enter from the highway side, where the parking lot is, the first thing you really notice as your eyes adjust to the dark, smoky cave of a room it is where you order, the open fire feeding the updraft smokers is right there, right on the ground to your side. It's the real deal, in a world where that is increasingly hard to find.

[twange]

Yeah, that place is ALL about eating!

More pics from that Smitty's outing.