Lone Star Pit BBQ Stands Alone

Every barbeque fanatic has a personal preference about which style, or styles, are the best.  Southerners often favor the type of barbeque he or she grew up eating.  Personally, I come from the barbeque wasteland of Ohio.  While many of us Northerners missed out on growing up with a strong and specific barbeque culture, those of us that seek out great regional ‘que are able to choose the best of from each region and adopt it as our own personal favorites!

For me, no barbeque is better than eastern North Carolina whole hog, hickory smoked, vinegar based barbeque.  But if we’re talking beef, I always look to the Lone Star State.  One big reason that Texas produced the best beef barbeque is that they have some of the best beef in the country.  In the Hill Country of Texas, barbeque is everyday food for cowboys and ranchers, and these guys know great beef.

Another factor that makes Texas Hill Country barbeque great is the Mesquite wood that Texans use use to fire up their barbeque pits.  Mesquite is a slow-growing wood that has a long taproot that grows deep under the Texas desert.

Much like the deep roots of a mature vineyard, the deep Mesquite roots imparts the wood (and its smoke) with an earthy terroir, or essence of the land.  This complex and flavorful smoke is perfect for cooking beef.  It is especially good for smoking beef brisket—the fatty and flavorful cut of beef favored by Texas barbeque pit masters.

Beef brisket was originally used for Texas barbeque because it was the cheapest and most readily available cut of beef around.  Texas ranchers were not about to eat their profits for lunch, so they sold all the expensive cuts of beef and kept the cheapest ones for themselves.  The brisket they were left with was a very tough cut of meat, but what the brisket lacked in tenderness, Texans made up for with technique, time, attention, and smoldering mesquite.

Over many years Texans refined a simple and delicious way to turn this tough cut into a moist, tender, and very flavorful delicacy.  The method of cooking they used became known as Texas pit barbeque.  Originally, Texas pit barbeque involved digging a whole in the ground and shoveling in red-hot mesquite charcoal.  Meats would then be dry rubbed with salt, black and cayenne pepper, and suspended over top the open pits to slowly smoke and sizzle to perfection.

Nowadays, Texas pits are built above ground and they have heavy lids that contain the heat and smoke during cooking.  These pits require constant attention from experienced “pit masters” in order to achieve the level of quality that Texas barbeque is known for.

While in western Texas we stopped to talk to the pit master at Cooper’s BBQ in Llano, Texas.  It turns out that a Texas pit master’s day starts out well before sunrise stoking a giant furnace with stacks of mesquite wood.  After the wood burns down the coals are shoveled into the pits and the dry rubbed meats are placed on a rack above.

The beef briskets are the first to go into the pit, followed by a parade of meats including turkey, hams, ribs, cabrito (goat), chicken, sausage and more.  Once the meat is cooked, it can be held warm for the day to be sliced, weighed, and served to order.

For lunch at Coopers BBQ we sampled their beef brisket, turkey breast, and pork ribs along with coleslaw and pit beans along Texas’s favorite BBQ condiment—spicy pickles and jalapenos.  The brisket at Coopers was fairly lean and well cooked, giving the meat a firm yet tender texture.

Amanda loved the turkey breast which was moist and very tender.  The turkey was thoroughly cooked, and it had a beautiful smoky pink interior that comes with freshly smoked turkey.  We also fell in love with the pork ribs.  The ribs were seasoned with Texas’s very simple salt and pepper rub and gently smoked so that the meaty, porky flavor of the ribs could really shine.

Although Texas BBQ is all about tradition, there are still unique differences between the many different BBQ joints around the Hill Country.  One unique feature at Coopers BBQ was the sauce.  This barbeque “sauce” was actually more similar to a broth that had a meaty, spicy, and with a sharp vinegar twang.  This sauce was astonishingly good with the barbeque served here—a quick dip in the sauce kept every piece of meat tasting exceedingly juicy, bright, and flavorful.

Being from the North I have had to do lot of catching up to do when it comes to eating and appreciating great barbeque.  Because I don’t have a built-in bias for any one specific type of barbeque, I am free to choose for myself which ones I like best.

Actually, I love any style of barbeque if it is prepared well and with the time, care, and attention that great ‘que requires.  However, when it comes to choosing which regional styles I like best, I don’t mind choosing favorites.  Carolina pork barbeque will always have a special place in my heart, but when it comes to great beef, Texas stands alone.