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meat don't lie

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Truth.

Went to Lockhart today to try "the best BBQ in Texas" or as I read it from a thread on epicurious. Our intention was to sample from the four in town: smitty's, kreuz, black's, and Chisholm trail; only 1/4 lb of brisket, 1/4 lb of ribs, sausage from each. We had eaten at Chisholm awhile back and decided against it today because of this and because we were stuffed after only eating at smitty's and black's. kreuz was closed on Sundays. Our verdict:

Smitty's: brisket was ok. Ribs tasted like they had way too much salt, sausage was underwhelming. Brisket tasted like someone who had just made brisket for the first time. The sausage casing was dry and the regular and jalapeño cheddar tasted exactly the same. No sauce or forks as is their custom but I bought jalapeños, pickles, onions and cheese to help with the taste. Seriously, it was very plain and not something that will wow you, at least not us. Gave it a 5 out of 10. Just average.

Black's: brisket was very good, tasty and definitely not in need of sauce although they do offer it (and forks). Ribs were tastier as well, jalapeno cheddar sausage tasted like jalapeño cheddar sausage although it was very greasy (had to dry it with a napkin). The ribs did have a smaller bone compared to smitty's and seemed to have less meat on them. Mac and cheese was ok (we only tried this one side). Cornbread was plain even though it was "jalapeno cheddar". Gave them a 7/10.

Kreuz was closed. If I remember distinctly Chisholm trail was just ok when we ate it last (about a year ago). In total spent about $50 and we had more than enough for two people even though we only ordered "sample" amounts. I left completely stuffed.

Will go on an "Austin BBQ run" in about a month and report back then.

For the umpteenth time. If you go to Smitty's or Kreuz, don't order brisker, order shoulder clod, the original BBQ meat.

Stanley's (Tyler)

Pork Ribs: Very good texture and flavor. East Texas sweetness to them. Very good.

Brisket: Had great flavor, but the pieces I got were very fatty. So little meat that I couldn't actually tell you if it were cooked correctly because all I had was fat.

Sausage: Pretty good. I'd put it slightly above average.

Potato salad: Excellent

Beans: Not best I've had, but they were very good.

Sauce: Great

Going to Stanley's today since I'm still in town and have never been. Thanks for the report.

I was at Stanley's today for lunch. I bet I was in line with you

Brisket and turkey were both great. Ribs were pretty solid. Pulled pork and chopped beef were decent/good.



[This message has been edited by Aggie09derek (edited 5/28/2014 3:54a).]

The bro and I took down $50 of food at Kreuz last weekend. Wish i had known to order the shoulder clod, as the brisket was fine but a bit bland. The jalapeno sausage, however, was the best i've ever had. Overall it was definitely a nice consolation since we didn't make it to Snow's as we had originally planned.

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we didn't make it to Snow's as we had originally planned.

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You've gotta try it. Close to Franklin's on brisket IMO. Go talk to grandma (pitmaster) too and she'll show you around her pits. Great atmosphere. Sometimes old man selling honey across the street too that's very good.

My buddy and I loaded up on the Texas Monthly Houston BBQ bus Saturday for a tour of 4 Tine bbq joints: Corkscrew, Virgie's, Killen's, and Gatlin's. Each restaurant had food ready for us so there was no waiting in line. With Lone Star beer sponsoring the trip, it was all you could drink. Some of us brought our own beer, too.

Here are some pics and a quick review:

The bus


Corkscrew
They served us smoked turkey and beef rib. The turkey was amazing and the beef rib was very good, but a rib later in the day would edge it out as my favorite. I was disappointed that we didn't get brisket so I'll have to go back someday.









I took one if my own beers to start the day off right


Virgies

The next stop was Virgies for a little bit of everything: brisket, ribs, and sausage. The pitmaster, Adrian, was a very nice man and everything was good. Not great, but good, and well worth the stop.





Killens

Next up was the long trip down to Pearland to visit Ronnie Killen's place. Killen rolled out the red carpet and impressed the hell out of all of us. I mean they knocked it out of the park with the very tender beef rib, the pork belly on the bone, brisket, pork ribs, turkey, sausage, sides, and dessert. I mean hell, we had drinks on the bus but he had a keg and a few ice chests of other drinks out there for us. The food and experience was awesome.








Gatlins

Last up was Gatlins. I didn't get pics as we were caught up in discussions with new friends but as always, it was a good meal. The brisket was very good on this day.



All in all, it was a great Saturday of food and fun.

What stage diabetes do you have, between all that BBQ and what has got to be a horrific beer?!?

Looks like a fun trip.

Luckily, I don't drink Lone Star. I actually just had one beer and then drank water. But the bbq coma...oh man. I was in bed at about 8:00pm.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Shame you did not get to try the brisket or pulled pork at Corkscrew.

Killen's is slinging some of the most delicious AND photogenic BBQ out there.

I still want to know how fat you are Cdub.

I weighed 153 this morning.

Awesome genes are awesome.

[This message has been edited by CDub06 (edited 6/4/2014 3:10p).]

Hit two places in Corpus on Saturday:

Howard's BBQ in Flour Bluff:
I've never had meat quite like this. The pork ribs, beef ribs and brisket all had the same flavor. And that flavor was NOTHING. There was absolutely no flavor to any of the meats! I knew I was chewing something but no flavor registered. No flavor or smoke whatsoever.

The sausage was fine and the pickles tasted like pickles.

Grade: D





Miller's BBQ on Weber (Not Bill Miller's):
I grew up eating at the one on Leopard and it's just ok. This location has beef ribs so I thought I'd give it a shot. The pork ribs were the high point, slight sweetness. The beef ribs were a bit dry and disappointing. Sausage is worth a try (I forgot where they get it). Brisket is poor; stick to the ribs and sausage if you're in the area.
Grade: C-

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I weighed 153 this morning.

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At 4'2" you're still a fatass.

You wanna see something nasty?

This church in Conroe operates a "restaurant" during the week. I've heard decent reviews of their catfish and such but they're always flying these "BBQ" flags out front. I could not find anyone that had ever actually tried the BBQ. After years of seeing this, I finally bit the bullet...

This is ALLEGEDLY ribs and brisket (smothered in Kraft BBQ Sauce)...



[This message has been edited by CDub06 (edited 6/6/2014 9:26a).]

That looks horrific

I ate at Kerlin BBQ today, and other than some flies and the heat, it was was top notch. There was no line when i got there around 11:30 as well. Tried the brisket and sausage, which was kinda like chorizo actually. Brisket was on par with Micklethwait's but with less salt. The roasted corn on the cob with some white cheese on it was also a great side. I look forward to eating there again.

Tonight I had the rare opportunity to have dinner at Franklin BBQ and tour the new pit room. This was an event sponsored by Texas Monthly as part of their Behind the Pits dinner series. What an experience! Aaron talked to us about each of the smokers (including the new rib rotisserie), the new pit area, the business side of things, and a few other random items. And we had a nice dinner of brisket, beef rib, and his first smoked prime rib he's served at the restaurant. As always, the food was amazing. I didn't take a lot of pics but here is what I have:









I gotta say it was a good day.

quote:

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Hit two places in Corpus on Saturday:

Howard's BBQ in Flour Bluff:
I've never had meat quite like this. The pork ribs, beef ribs and brisket all had the same flavor. And that flavor was NOTHING. There was absolutely no flavor to any of the meats! I knew I was chewing something but no flavor registered. No flavor or smoke whatsoever.

The sausage was fine and the pickles tasted like pickles.

Grade: D





Miller's BBQ on Weber (Not Bill Miller's):
I grew up eating at the one on Leopard and it's just ok. This location has beef ribs so I thought I'd give it a shot. The pork ribs were the high point, slight sweetness. The beef ribs were a bit dry and disappointing. Sausage is worth a try (I forgot where they get it). Brisket is poor; stick to the ribs and sausage if you're in the area.
Grade: C-

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I have had Howard's bbq, and agree 100%.

The only place I have enjoyed the bbq in corpus is Rudys, but I am always looking for others. Any recommendations in the area?

Very awesome BSD. I'm jealous.

As far as Corpus proper, Julian's has good beef ribs. Everything else needs work. B - -

All the good stuff is outside the city limits.

Mac's BBQ in Portland - Good pork and beef ribs. B-

Hatfield's in Rockport for brisket & ribs. B++

Cotten's in Calallen for pork ribs, brisket is decent. B-

Smolik's in Mathis is my favorite in the area. Excellent beef ribs & sausage. Brisket is pretty good as well. Might make a trip down there this weekend. B++

The list of bad BBQ in corpus is pretty lengthy.







[This message has been edited by CDub06 (edited 7/16/2014 7:57a).]

I forgot mention a few things on the Franklin dinner.

First, it was very warm back in the pit area. That's expected, of course, but the room is brand new and there is currently little ventilation while they wait for new fans to be installed in the ceiling. And summer is really starting to kick in. He made several comments on how hot it is back there at the current time and cant wait til it's finished. They are building another smoker to put in the new room and still use a smoker out back. They also had a freight elevator installed so they don't have to haul thousands of lbs of meat and wood up and down the stairs.

He has plans to update the original BBQ trailer in some way to use at the restaurant, as it still sits out back. His initial thoughts are to make it available to serve meat out of and have two lines so that things move faster but he'll see how it goes.

As far as meat sources (some of this is already known):
Brisket: Creekstone farms for hormone free, all natural Angus. He has always wanted a humanely raised product and for a while when he first started, he was getting hormone free cattle, but not the most "organic" (my terminology) beef he wanted. As he grew and wasn't paying for beef on a day by day basis anymore, he could finally afford to serve what he wanted.

Pork ribs: Niman Ranch. They have a hybrid breed of 3 pigs that he likes for the thickness, taste, and fat.

Beef Ribs: 44 Farms in Cameron, TX

Sausage: sourced locally, I think.

While he was cutting our meat, we talked about the new show he is doing for PBS. There is only one more episode to shoot and that will be a competition in Kansas City next month. After that, they will edit it and plan for it to air in February of next year.

After all that, I asked him about the best way to reheat a brisket so it wouldn't dry out. He said sous vide and gave me a look as if the next thing out of my mouth would be "what the hell is that?". But my response was "great, i have two immersion circulators" so we talked about that for a while. He offered me a fully cooked and chilled brisket to take home but I respectfully declined, as we had a 2.5 hours drive ahead of us and didnt want to go find a cooler. Looking back, that was a dumb move on my part. He did say no worries, as they are now selling a few of those on a daily basis and a walk up window...no wait.

Like I said, it was a good night.

Edit: he also mentioned that he is moving towards using greener wood (still post oak with some live oak in the winter).

[This message has been edited by BSD (edited 7/16/2014 2:18p).]

BSD, that is awesome. Makes me even more pissed I wasn't able to go. That brisket looks amazing, as it was when I went.

McKenzie's BBQ in Huntsville

Absolute dog crap.

We were directed to a counter with pots of "free beans" to eat while we waited for our order. They were straight out of the can with a few hunks of bacon and a jalapeño slice thrown in.

Strike one.

Brisket had all the bark trimmed off of it with no smoke ring present.

Strike two.

Sauce was available in bottles from Bodacious BBQ, but what they served in house tasted like they added a bunch of tomato paste to the mild version and a bunch of black pepper to the spicy version.

Strike three.

I didn't try them, but my coworker said the cole slaw and potato salad were beyond terrible.

Bennie J's is the best I've found in Huntsville.

Unfortunately in Conroe, McKenzie's is about as good as it gets...

CDub, do you have a report card (spreadsheet) with all of your restaurants on them? I'm curious who your tops in the state are.

Soon... I'm working on something.

My top 5 (in order) are Franklin, Snows, Louie Mueller, Blacks (Lockhart) and Kreuz.

Writing a book are we??? I'll buy that **** even though I hate your #4 and #5!

Heading to ft worth Friday and am wanting to eat at one of the top places in dfw. I'm thinking Cousins? Would also stop at Lockhart if it was vastly better. Already had pecan lodge and thought it was great. Brisket was fantastic.

Just my opinion, but I consider Cousins a chain BBQ joint on par with spring creek or dickeys.

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Heading to ft worth Friday and am wanting to eat at one of the top places in dfw. I'm thinking Cousins? Would also stop at Lockhart if it was vastly better. Already had pecan lodge and thought it was great. Brisket was fantastic.

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Had the original cousins last week and it was some of the worst BBQ I've ever eaten, seriously. I will not go back. I haven't tried Longoria's (the other FW joint in the TM 50) though. If you are a big rib person, Railhead has great ribs (rest sucks).

Haha, no book deal...yet.


In Fort Worth, Longoria's is just a notch ahead of Cousins.

I've not had any GREAT BBQ in Fort Worth...

BBQ on the Brazos is a bit of a drive but worth it.

You'll have better luck in Dallas with Lockhart Smokehouse.

My favorite in Cowtown is Texas Pit BBQ in Saginaw. We call it "Smiley's" because of the smiley face sign outside. I live near Cousins on Bryant Irvin and it is ok (really love their fried okra). Will try out Longoria's next week.