Eater: All Posts by Nick Solareshttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52682/favicon-32x32.png2017-08-14T15:32:02-04:00https://www.eater.com/authors/nick-solares/rss2017-08-14T15:32:02-04:002017-08-14T15:32:02-04:00Watch: The Perfect Crispy Pork Belly Takes Three Days to Make
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<p>‘The Meat Show’ heads to Tuome in NYC for the ultimate porcine treat</p> <p id="4pnnci">This week’s episode of <em>The Meat Show </em>takes host Nick Solares to Manhattan’s East Village to partake in the perfect bite of pork. At Tuome, a New American restaurant with strong Asian influences, chef-owner Thomas Chen leverages both his fine dining experience — he’s a veteran of NYC’s hallowed fine dining destination Eleven Madison Park — and his Chinese-American heritage to produce a truly unique dish. Chen takes a pork belly through a three day, multi-step process that transforms it into a dish that evokes classic Chinese dishes like barbecued spare ribs and Peking duck, yet is completely new. Watch the episode above to see Chen make the dish from start to finish, and then stick around for Solares’ tasting notes.</p>
<p id="6T6pJz"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/eater">Click here to watch more episodes of <em>The Meat Show</em></a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eater/">Like Eater on Facebook to never miss a video</a></p>
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https://www.eater.com/2017/8/14/16130876/tuome-nyc-the-meat-show-videoNick SolaresEater Video2016-06-16T14:00:03-04:002016-06-16T14:00:03-04:00The American Barbecue Regional Style Guide
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<p>Everything you need to know about sauce, meat, fat, and smoke from sea to shining sea</p> <p>Barbecue is not like other cuisines. While it is certainly true that the practice of smoking meat has many analogues in almost all other cultures, barbecue as it exists in the United States, and especially in the South, is uniquely American. The word itself describes something beyond, and more profound, than a simple cooking technique or a type of restaurant. Barbecue means different things in different regions, finding disparate geographic expression. And despite the protestations of the most militant adherents to one style or the other declaring theirs the only true 'cue, it is precisely the diversity of form — and the very undulation of the meaning of the word itself — that make it as close to a national cuisine as America has.</p>
<div class="float-right hang-right"> <p> </p> <p><q class="pullquote">It is precisely the diversity of form that makes barbecue as close to a national cuisine as America has.</q></p> <p> </p> </div>
<p>The traditional American barbecue belt stretches from the Carolinas in the East to Texas and Missouri in the West and from Kentucky in the North down through the deep South. While state lines de-mark significant political and civic parameters, <strong>barbecue is not quite so parochial</strong>, despite the common stereotype. What we see in the Carolinas, for example, are wide swaths of a particular style — most significantly defined by the sauce used — that tend to cross states lines. The simple vinegar and pepper sauce of eastern North Carolina is also popular in the the eastern part of South Carolina. And similarly, the tomato and vinegar-based sauce of the western Lexington style bleeds into the Northwestern part of of South Carolina and indeed into Eastern Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.</p>
<p>Here now, a guide to the <strong>barbecue styles across America</strong>, plus where to find exemplary examples of each:</p>
<h3>North Carolina</h3>
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<p class="caption">Pit plate, Skylight Inn; Allen & Sons; pork butts at Hill's Lexington Barbecue.</p>
<p>There are two principle styles in North Carolina, and both exclusively feature pork. In the Atlantic coastal region there is the appropriately named "Eastern Style," which is dominated by chopped whole hog barbecue served with a vinegar and pepper sauce. The meat from the entire carcass is chopped up and mixed together, insuring an even product. One of the most compelling aspects of this style is that the cracklin', or pig skin, is also served alongside the meat and provides both a distinct textural contrast to the tender meat and a salty punch. While wood is the traditional method of preparation, gas and even electricity are often used to cook this type of barbecue, much to the chagrin of purists.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it: </strong>Dating back to 1947 and still proudly family owned, the <strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://www.skylightinnbbq.com/">Skylight Inn</a> </strong><span>specializes in eastern-style whole hog.</span><span> </span><em style="line-height: 1.5;">4618 S Lee St., Ayden, NC 28513</em></p>
<p>Moving westward, we find the "Lexington" or "Piedmont" Style, named after the town which has almost 100 restaurants serving this type of barbecue. While whole hog dominates to the East, Lexington is all about pork shoulder served with a red barbecue sauce, which seemingly takes the eastern vinegar base and embellishes it with tomatoes. Of note is the "outside brown," the caramelized exterior of the shoulder. The barbecue is most often served with a coleslaw made of finely chopped cabbage, vinegar, and tomato ketchup, either as a side item on a composed plate or as topping on a pulled pork sandwich. </p>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Where to eat it: </strong><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Hills-Lexington-Barbecue-Inc-121669244509836/" style="font-weight: bold;">Hill's Lexington Barbecue</a>, which debuted in 1951, </span>claims to be the originator of the term "Lexington" barbecue, and thus serves as classic an example of the form as you can hope to find. <em style="line-height: 1.5;">4005 N Patterson Ave., Winston-Salem, NC 27105</em></p>
<h3>South Carolina</h3>
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<p class="caption">Scott's, in Hemingway, South Carolina.</p>
<p>South Carolina is best known for whole hog served with a distinctive mustard-based sauce dubbed "Carolina Gold" that originates from the region's German immigrants, who make up about eight percent of the population today. The "mustard belt" stretches from Charleston to Columbia. But other types of sauces abound from a simple vinegar to ones tinged with ketchup. In the eastern part of the state, the barbecue is largely indistinguishable from that of the eastern style of its neighbor to the North (whole hog served with a simple vinegar and pepper sauce). In the west, we find some bleed-over from the "Lexington Style" of North Carolina. And in the Southwestern part of the state, barbecue sauce with a significant ketchup component dominates. Pork is used almost exclusively throughout the region.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it:</strong></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ Be warned: The famous </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://thescottsbbq.com/">Scott's Bar-B-Que</a> </strong><span>is only open Wednesday through Saturday, so if you want to consume whole hog, plan accordingly. Also: Do be sure to ask for some barbecue pork skin, too.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">2734 Hemingway Hwy., Hemingway, SC 29554</em></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ Whole hog barbecue served with mustard sauce — aka "Carolina Gold" — is the specialty at </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://www.sweatmansbbq.com/">Sweatman's BBQ</a>, </strong><span>where it is served buffet-style along with other regional favorites like hash. </span><em style="line-height: 1.5;">1427 Eutaw Rd., Holly Hill, SC 29059</em></p>
<h3>Tennessee</h3>
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<p class="caption">Martin's Bar-B-Que; Payne's Barbecue pit; Central Barbecue ribs.</p>
<p>In the eastern part of Tennessee, chopped whole hog and pork shoulder with a vinegar-based sauce are popular, and reflect the westward migration of the barbecue tradition from the Carolinas. But Tennessee barbecue is most clearly defined in Memphis; it is best known for both "dry" and "wet" pork ribs, as well as pulled pork shoulder served with a tomato-based barbecue sauce. Dry ribs are covered in a "rub" — a mix of spices and herbs — and then smoked. "Wet ribs," on the other hand, are basted during smoking and are then served doused in a tomato-based barbecue sauce. But Memphis is also known for incorporating pulled barbecue into all manner of other foods, including pizza, nachos, and even spaghetti.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it:</strong></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ Representing western Tennessee whole hog cooking, </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://www.martinsbbqjoint.com/menu/">Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint</a> </strong>is keeping alive a proud barbecue tradition. <em style="line-height: 1.5;">7238 Nolensville Rd., Nolensville, TN 37135</em></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ It might not be the fanciest joint in town, but </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Payne's Bar-B-Q </strong><span>makes up for it by serving a world-class pulled pork sandwich.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">1762 Lamar Ave., Memphis, TN 38114</em></p>
<h3>Kentucky</h3>
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<p class="caption">The mutton, spare ribs, and pulled pork — plus a look at the dining room — at Old Hickory Bar-B-Q.</p>
<p>Kentucky is most famous for mutton (sheep) barbecue served with "dip," a Worcestershire-based sauce popular in the western part of the state, centered around the town of Owensboro. But pork is equally significant in eastern Kentucky, where shoulder is popular. It comes served with the same vinegar-type sauce found in North Carolina and western Tennessee, again reinforcing the westward migration of barbecue culture.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it: </strong>Representing a near-century old tradition, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://oldhickorybar-b-q.com/">Old Hickory Bar-B-Q</a> </strong><span>specializes in mutton barbecue.</span><span> </span><em style="line-height: 1.5;">338 Washington Ave., Owensboro, KY 42301</em></p>
<h3>Missouri</h3>
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<cite>Nick Solares</cite>
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<p class="caption">Arthur Bryant's; The smoker at L.C.'s.</p>
<p>While St. Louis is associated with eponymous rib cut, it is not a significant part of the city's barbecue. For example Pappy's Smokehouse, arguably the city's best barbecue restaurant, specializes in baby back ribs. Pork steak served with a vinegar tomato sauce is popular locally. At the other end of the state, there's Kansas City, which can be considered to be the melting pot of barbecue because it seemingly draws on the collective tradition of other regions. Rather than focusing on a single protein as in Texas or the Carolinas, pork, beef, chicken, fish, and even beans all find their way into Kansas City pits. Burnt ends, which are double-smoked caramelized hunks of brisket, originated in Kansas City. But the city is perhaps best known for the barbecue sauce developed by Arthur Bryant in the 1920's, a thick molasses and tomato sauce similar to the Memphis style but sweeter and darker, again reiterating the city's diversity.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it:</strong></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ Despite being located in Missouri, </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com/">Pappy's Smokehouse</a> </strong><span>bills itself as Memphis-style barbecue. But it still manages to appear intrinsic to St. Louis.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">3106 Olive St., St. Louis, MO 63103</em></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ In a town hardly lacking in barbecue joints with character, </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="http://www.lcsbarbq.com/">L.C.'s Bar-B-Q</a> </strong><span>might just be the quintessential example. From the patina of the room, to the smoldering smoker, to the ethereal barbecue, L.C.'s has it all.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">5800 Blue Pkwy, Kansas City, MO 64129</em></p>
<h3>Texas</h3>
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<p class="caption">Louie Mueller Barbecue; brisket from Franklin BBQ; Firebox.</p>
<p>There are in reality several distinct styles of Texas barbecue, drawing on the diverse cultural traditions of the Lone Star State. The most iconic and best known is the Central Texas-style that originated in the German and Czech meat markets during the late 19th century. In combining Central European butchering traditions and the most readily available protein and wood — beef and post oak — this style is as primal and stripped down a form as any you will find. While the rest of the nation is busy making barbecue sauces, many places in Texas eschew it completely. Brisket is the most popular cut, followed closely by sausage, and not so closely by beef short ribs. (Pork and even lamb do make appearances on menus.) In east Texas, we find barbecue traditions closer to those of the deep South. Pork is more prevalent and so is sauce. In west and southwest Texas, one finds cowboy and Mexican-influenced barbecue. Cowboy style involves direct grilling rather than offset smoking. Beef, pork, and also chicken are popular. The Mexican tradition introduces<em> barbacoa</em>-style cooking to the vernacular.</p>
<p><strong>Where to eat it:</strong></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ There is no barbecue joint more quintessential than </span><span><a href="http://www.louiemuellerbarbecue.com/" style="font-weight: bold;">Louie Mueller Barbecue</a>, from the antiqued patine from decades of pit smoke to the hospitality to the world-class smoked meat.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">206 W 2nd St., Taylor, TX 76574</em></p>
<p><span class="Unicode">‣ Decidedly urban and new school, </span><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="https://franklinbarbecue.com/">Franklin Barbecue</a> </strong><span>serves up what is arguably the world's best brisket.</span> <em style="line-height: 1.5;">900 E 11th St., Austin, TX 78702</em></p>
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<p class="caption">L.C.'s in Kansas City.</p> </div>
<h3>Other Southern Regions</h3>
<p>These major styles of course do not account for all barbecue; just as they themselves combine elements from other regions, so too do we find barbecue in other parts of the South echoing them, but also reflecting local traditions.</p>
<h4>Alabama</h4>
<p>Alabama barbecue is principally focused on pork shoulder and pork ribs served with a tomato based sauce, not unlike Memphis. But the state is also the birthplace of white barbecue sauce, which contains mayonnaise and is traditionally served on chicken. Alabama's <a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/4/8/8366717/alabama-barbecue-tourism-bbq-america">barbecue tradition</a> is best exemplified by Big Bob Gibson in Decatur, which dates back to the 1920's.</p>
<h4>Arkansas</h4>
<p>Arkansas barbecue draws on the traditions of both Texas and the Memphis, combining beef and pork along with red sauce.</p>
<h4>Georgia</h4>
<p>Georgia has a long and rich barbecue tradition, but paradoxically no distinct style of its own. Barbecue in Georgia tends to incorporate elements from its surrounding neighbors, with pork being the most popular meat.</p>
<h4>Oklahoma</h4>
<p>Given its proximity to Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas, barbecue in Oklahoma draws on the traditions of all three. Both beef and pork are popular and just as the state lies geographically between the places that inform its barbecue, the barbecue itself straddles styles.</p>
<h4>Barbecue outside of the South</h4>
<p>The term barbecue is amorphous and represents different things across the nations. This survey has restricted itself to focusing on the Southern tradition of cooking meat indirectly with wood or charcoal. Barbecue in this context describes a specific cooking technique, but also a broader cultural phenomena. But ultimately, barbecue is in the eye of the beholder, and there are plenty of forms of cooking with fire that might not fulfill the definition as it exists in the South, but are none-the-less considered to be barbecue by its practitioners. Some obvious examples are Santa Clara-style barbecue and Baltimore pit beef, both of which are closer to direct grilling. In Hawaii, we find Kālua-style cooking, which shares much in common with Southern barbecue.</p>
<p><em>This story is an update to the 2014 Eater.com article </em><a href="http://www.eater.com/2014/7/10/6196209/the-american-barbecue-style-guide-meat-fat-and-smoke-from-sea-to"><em>The American Barbecue Style Guide: Meat, Fat, and Smoke From Sea to Shining Sea</em></a>.</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/6/16/11889444/where-to-eat-barbecue-stylesNick Solares2015-12-18T14:13:18-05:002015-12-18T14:13:18-05:00Inside the Process for Making Peking Duck
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<p>How this historic dish is made so crispy and tender.</p> <p>Peking or Beijing duck is one of the world’s most complex foods — both in terms of its preparation as well as its flavor. Chinese chefs have perfected a method for rendering duck skin shatteringly crisp and duck meat ethereally tender. And in addition to the thorough cooking process, the dish itself has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0B1ejGNLDw&list=PLUeEVLHfB5-SXVvGyBE_sAXRuO5t2wape">a pretty extensive history</a>.</p>
<p>It is said that the sign of a good chef is when her or his duck yields 100 pieces of perfectly crisp skin. Here, <a href="http://www.eater.com/meat-show">meat expert Nick Solares</a> narrates Buddakan's 11-step process from a signature dry aging to vertical roasting. Watch the full video, above, to see what accompaniments Chinese chefs typically serve with Peking duck at the table.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUeEVLHfB5-SXVvGyBE_sAXRuO5t2wape" target="_blank" style="line-height: 26.6667px; background-color: #ffffff;">More meat-centric videos from Eater</a><span> | </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRzPUBhXUZHclB7B5bURFXw?sub_confirmation=1" target="_blank" style="line-height: 1.24;">Subscribe to Eater on YouTube</a></p>
https://www.eater.com/2015/12/18/10614676/how-to-make-peking-duckNick SolaresEater Video2015-10-22T11:02:29-04:002015-10-22T11:02:29-04:00Demystifying Steaks and Chops With Master Butcher Pat LaFrieda
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<p><a href="https://instagram.com/nicksolares/">Nick Solares </a> chats with master butcher Pat LaFrieda about what to look for in beef, lamb, pork, and veal.</p> <p>Master butcher Pat LaFrieda supplies meat to over 1,000 restaurants in NYC, including many of the city's top steakhouses. It's safe to say he knows a thing or two about steaks and chops. In this episode of "The Meat Show," host Nick Solares visits LaFrieda's cavernous butcher shop where Pat shows us what to look for when ordering steaks and chops in restaurants or at markets.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUeEVLHfB5-SXVvGyBE_sAXRuO5t2wape" target="_blank">More meat-centric videos from Eater</a> | <a style="line-height: 1.24;" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRzPUBhXUZHclB7B5bURFXw?sub_confirmation=1" target="_blank">Subscribe to Eater on YouTube</a></p>
https://www.eater.com/2015/10/22/9591814/steak-pork-chops-butcher-pat-lafriedaNick Solares2014-10-31T11:46:23-04:002014-10-31T11:46:23-04:00Going Whole Hog With Pit Master Pat Martin
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<figcaption>Pat Martin | Nick Solares</figcaption>
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<p>Pat Martin's family doesn't have a long-standing tradition of smoking meat, but he has become one of the chief proponents of the western Tennessee style.</p> <p>Pat Martin is an unlikely champion of the western Tennessee style of whole hog barbecue, an esoteric — and recently endangered — form of the art. <span>Yet this son of a bond trader, who followed in his father's footsteps in that profession, one day decided to quit his office job and open a barbecue restaurant. Eight years later, he has four restaurants in two states, is a founding member of the barbecue advocacy group the Fatback Collective, has become a fixture at the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in NYC, and was recently invited to cook at The James Beard House.</span></p>
<p><span>Martin didn't come to barbecue because of a long standing family tradition of smoking meat, although, as he rightly points out "you don't grow up in the South and not know about barbecue." Born in Memphis and raised in northeast Mississippi and </span>Connecticut, his family grilled rather than smoked their meat. <span>But if the actual practice of smoking meat had no antecedent in his past, his strict up</span>bringing<span> imbued him with certain traits that would prove invaluable when he picked up the art of smoke. "My dad and both my grandfathers were very methodical, good ol' John Wayne-type American men. Everything they did was done in a certain way — whether shining their shoes or the way they grilled their steaks."</span></p>
<p><q class="pullquote float-right">"I was always touched by live fire." — Pat Martin</q></p>
<p><span>The importance of technique and doing things "the right way" permeated Martin's conscience. "On weekends we grilled steak and hamburgers and it became a very emotional thing for me," he says of the generational bond that was formed. "When I turned 14, I bought my first cookbook, </span><i style="line-height: 1.5; font-size: 16px;">Thrill of The Grill</i><span> by Christopher Schlesinger and John Willoughby. I still have the book, the pages are all tattered with shit all over them. I cooked every recipe. I was always touched by live fire and it goes back to my dad and granddad."</span></p>
<p>But grilling was only part of his fascination with cooking. Martin soon started reading all manner of cookbooks, learning a wide variety of skills and drawing upon the matriarchs of his family, whom he describes as "really, really, really good cooks". "My dad's mom specifically was a legendary church cook in Mississippi." Churches across the nation publish and sell cookbooks for charity; the recipes are drawn from the congregation, usually along strict parochial lines. "T<span>he Baptist only ask other Baptists for recipes because the Presbyterian and the Church of Christ recipes are just not good enough," recounts Martin. "Well, we are Church of Christ and my grandmother's recipes are in the cookbooks of all the denominations down there!"</span></p>
<h4>Face To Face with Whole Hog</h4>
<p>A love of live fire and curiosity about cooking laid the ground work for the pitmaster he would become. But before all that, Martin followed a trajectory more traditional for his family: going to college before becoming a bond trader. It was while attending Freed-Hardeman University in the small town of Henderson, Tennessee that Martin first became exposed to whole hog barbecue. "In this little town of 5,000 or 6,000 people there was something like 20 barbecue joints. The Carolinas get all the credit, but in West Tennessee whole hog barbecue, which no doubt migrated over, is just as important."</p>
<p><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53ee2bd5f92ea13e6c017639/dancing-pig.jpg" alt="dancing-pig.jpg" class="padded float-right">In both places, whole pigs are slow smoked over wood for long hours. The Carolina style of whole hog barbecue differs from western Tennessee style in the way that it is served. In the Carolinas, the hog will be "pulled" all at once, the meat chopped up together and then spices and sauce are added. The western Tennessee style leaves the hog intact, the meat is never chopped up the way it is to the east. Martin explains that the meat "is pulled and then put on a sandwich, then you sauce it and then you slaw it, there is nothing mixed in." Customers are given a choice of which cut the prefer, such as shoulder and ham or ribs and belly meat.</p>
<p>Martin still remembers his first encounter with whole hog barbecue and being instantly fascinated. "In Memphis it is not in your face, the sandwich comes out and it's fricking good and you eat it, but it all happens in the kitchen, behind closed doors. In western Tennessee you order a sandwich and they pull the hog right front of you. The first time I saw that it was all over, my whole world was blown. This guy just cooked a whole fucking pig!" Martin told himself then and there, "I will learn to do that."</p>
<p>Martin credits pitmaster Harold Thomas of Thomas & Web Barbecue in Henderson with teaching him how to cook whole hog. "I started hanging around immediately. I probably bought barbecue sandwiches five or six days a week because I loved [them] so much. I was bound and determined to learn how to cook whole hog." And learn he did. "Harold was nice enough to let me come down at night to the pit and in the spring 1991 I cooked my first hog."</p>
<h4>From Bond Trader to Pitmaster</h4>
<p>After graduating, Martin worked in Chicago and New York City as a bond trader. But soon he decided that Charlotte, NC, where he briefly lived, was as "far north" as he would go. "I didn't want to leave the South," he states unequivocally. He eventually settled in Nashville with his first wife and stayed there after getting divorced. No matter where he lived, he cooked whole hogs.</p>
<p>One day his second wife Martha told him, "You need to be in the restaurant business." Being the dutiful husband, he listened and opened up Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in Nolensville, TN in 2006. "I didn't know what the hell I was doing," he confesses. "I got a Home Depot book, a Dewey drill and a Skill saw set. I hired Bo, my first employee who is still with me, and built my first restaurant in a 950 square foot building." Of course he did know one very important thing: how to smoke whole hog.</p>
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<p class="caption">The menu in Nolensville, TN</p>
<p>Martin never installed a freezer or microwave in his restaurant, his goal was to always sell out of barbecue. "I used to piss off a lot of people, they thought it was weird that I would run out. I thought it was weird that they got upset that we were running out because that's what real barbecue joints do!" Martin's success eventually eclipsed the space he had to operate and he was forced to move across the streets to larger quarters in 2010. The added elbow room allowed Martin "to recreate what I learned" in Henderson: displaying the whole hog front and center in the restaurant, something the smaller confines of the first shop never allowed. He was now free to take his "brand where I wanted it, because whole hog is important to me. It is intimate when it is there in front of you, which is why I build my pits in the middle of the restaurant," he says referring to the layout of all current and future Martin's Bar-B-Que Joints.</p>
<h4>"Their Nuts on the Line, Just Like Mine"</h4>
<p>Martin's second location across the street was really an outgrowth of his first one. He decided that he needed to take on partners because he "wanted to learn how to run a restaurant, but without lowering my standards. I was in [barbecue] for the romanticism of it, but I was also 35, my wife was punching out kids left and right, and I needed to figure out how to send them to college and retire."</p>
<p>So he took on experienced restaurateurs John Michael Bodnar and Nick Pihakis of Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Que as partners, which allowed him to branch out and open third location in Tennessee and his first out-of-state venture in West Virginia. In the same way that he has been mentored by Bodnar and Pihakis, he now does the same with his pitmasters, grooming them to be future partners.<span> "I will spend a year or two working them in the pit but also layering in restaurant operation. </span><span>Then I make them a 20% partner so they have their nuts on the line, just like me, but they also get to eat the cake, just like me."</span></p>
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<p class="caption">Nolensville, TN</p>
<p>The partnership with Bodnar and Pihakis has proved fruitful not just in terms of business but also culturally. Together they formed The Fatback Collective, along with other notable chefs, writers and farmers including John T. Edge, Rodney Scott, and Sean Brock. Initially, the Fatback Collective was a reaction to the homogenization of barbecue via the barbecue competition circuit. Often, competitions reduce ribs, brisket and chicken to a single recipe, stripping away regional identity.</p>
<p>"We would all sit around and bemoan competition barbecue," recalls Martin. "To me competition barbecue has been a really awesome thing, but there has been some bad things too. It has taken barbecue out of the American South and taken it from Seattle to Sweden. That's a good thing, but let's just make sure they are doing it the old way."</p>
<p>"Friggin' chicken breast in muffin pans? I can't see that," Martin exclaims incredulously. He is referring to the technique employed by competition barbecuers, in which perfectly trimmed chicken breasts are individually cooked in muffin pans to ensure that each one meets the judges strict criteria. It is about as far away from cooking a whole hog as one can get. The other competition technique that perplexes him is the injecting of liquid into meat which in his opinion makes the barbecue "taste like bouillon."</p>
<h4>From Competition to Philanthropy</h4>
<p>To prove that such competition techniques were superfluous, the Collective entered the vaunted Memphis in May competition in 2011 using a heritage breed hog and nothing but salt, pepper and smoke. They took third place. "We felt we proved our point, that you don't need to do all that stuff to get on to the winners stage," says Martin. The following year they took seventh place using the same elemental technique. But the Fatback Collective quickly evolved in to a philanthropic and advocacy organizations supporting Southern food culture and better farming policy.</p>
<p><img src="http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2327904/20100625-001-Pat_Martin_BBQ.0.jpg" class="small" alt="20100625-001-Pat_Martin_BBQ.0.jpg" style="line-height: 1.24;"></p>
<p class="caption">A pulled pork sandwich from Martin's</p>
<p>One of the organization's end goals is to replace the packer hogs of commodity feed lots with those raised in the natural pasture system, not just in competition barbecue but for the food system as a whole. Martin, for his part, wants his hogs to have spent their lives walking around in a pasture, not stuffed into a feedlot pen. Martin feels strongly that this leads to better tasting meat. "If you don't think that affects flavor you are an idiot. It is about proper muscle development. Muscle development is collagen, Collagen is flavor and texture." He is a proponent of heritage breeds hogs such as Berkshires and Durocs but recognizes that the "economies of scale are so out of whack" right now that using them exclusively in cost prohibitive.</p>
<p><q class="pullquote float-left">"We are all charged with passing this shit down." — Pat Martin</q></p>
<p>Thus he is a proponent of the heritage / packer hog hybrid. "You get it at packer prices and you are helping the cause by making the farmers use more heritage breeds. I am just as happy to eat a China White that walked around as I am a Berkshire that got to walk around, they both had a good quality of life. But until we can get pricing at the right level that the non fine dining restaurants can afford to buy them we are stuck" with the current system.</p>
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<p class="caption">Whole Hog</p>
<p>Martin feels a sense of responsibility to his craft and the heritage of western Tennessee style whole hog. He wishes to disseminate his knowledge, not hold onto it like a closely guarded secret. "I don't think that real chefs and pit masters have secrets," he contends. Just as he was taught and mentored he feels the responsibility to do the same. "We are all charged with passing this shit down," he says. "I never sat around and formally thought to myself that I want to influence younger guys. But at least at my end, anyone that worked for me that wanted to learn how to cook real barbecue had the opportunity to do so."</p>
https://www.eater.com/2014/10/31/6918067/going-whole-hog-with-pit-master-pat-martinNick Solares2014-07-10T11:30:33-04:002014-07-10T11:30:33-04:00The American Barbecue Style Guide: Meat, Fat, and Smoke From Sea to Shining Sea
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<p>Barbecue is not like other cuisines. While it is certainly true that the practice of smoking meat has many analogues in almost all other cultures, barbecue as it exists in the United States, and especially in the South, is uniquely American. The word itself describes something beyond, and more profound, than a simple cooking technique or a type of restaurant. Barbecue means different things in different regions, finding disparate geographic expression. And despite the protestations of the most militant adherents to one style or the other declaring theirs the only true 'cue, it is precisely the diversity of form — and the very undulation of the meaning of the word itself — that make it as close to a national cuisine as America has.</p>
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<p>The traditional American barbecue belt stretches from the Carolinas in the East to Texas and Missouri in the West and from Kentucky in the North down through the deep South. While state lines de-mark significant political and civic parameters, barbecue is not quite so parochial, despite the common stereotype. What we see in the Carolinas for example, are wide swaths of a particular style — most significantly defined by the sauce used — that tend to cross states lines. The simple vinegar and pepper sauce of eastern North Carolina is also popular in the the Eastern part of South Carolina. And similarly, the tomato and vinegar-based sauce of the western Lexington Style bleeds into the Northwestern part of of South Carolina and indeed into Eastern Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Here now, the American barbecue style guide:</p>
<h3>Major Regional Styles</h3>
<h4>North Carolina</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" src="http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742628/Allen_20and_20Son_20-_20facade.0.jpg" alt="Allen%20and%20Son%20-%20facade.jpg"><br><span class="credit"><em>Allen and Son BBQ, Chapel Hill, NC [Photos by Nick Solares unless otherwise noted]</em></span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" src="http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742630/20100624-001-coopers.0.jpg" alt="20100624-001-coopers.jpg"><br><span class="credit"><em>Cooper's, Raleigh, NC</em></span></p>
<p>There are two principle styles in North Carolina, and both feature pork exclusively. In the Atlantic coastal region there is the appropriately named "Eastern Style" which is dominated by chopped whole hog barbecue served with a vinegar and pepper sauce. The meat from the entire carcass is chopped up and mixed together, insuring an even product. One of the most compelling aspects of this style is that the cracklin', or pig skin, is also served alongside the meat and provides both a distinct textural contrast to the tender meat and a salty punch. While wood is the traditional method of preparation, gas and even electricity are often used to cook this type of barbecue.</p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" alt="20100624-001-Lex.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b4242bf92ea17f8b01671c/20100624-001-Lex.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Lexington Barbecue, Lexington, NC</span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" alt="20100624-001-lex pit.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b4242bf92ea17f8b016718/20100624-001-lex%20pit.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Pork shoulder</span></p>
<p>Moving West there is the "Lexington Style," named after the town which has almost 100 restaurants serving the this type of barbecue. While whole hog dominates to the East, Lexington is all about pork shoulder served with red barbecue sauce, which seemingly takes the Eastern Style vinegar base and embellishes it with tomatoes. The pork shoulder is most often served with a coleslaw made of finely chopped cabbage, vinegar, and tomato ketchup, either as a side item on a plate or as topping on a pulled pork sandwich.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Allen and Son BBQ (Chapel Hill), Deano's Barbecue (Mocksville), Lexington Barbecue (Lexignton), Skylight Inn (Ayden), Wilber's (Goldsboro).</p>
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<h4>South Carolina</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="407" width="660" src="http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742632/20140702-001-Scott_27s2.0.jpg" alt="20140702-001-Scott%27s2.jpg"><br><span class="credit">[<a href="http://thescottsbbq.com">Photo: Scott's Barbecue</a>]</span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="441" width="660" src="http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742634/20140608-001-scott.0.jpg" alt="20140608-001-scott.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Scott's Barbecue whole hog</span></p>
<p>South Carolina is best known for whole hog served with a distinctive mustard-based sauce dubbed "Carolina Gold" that originates from the region's German immigrants. The "mustard belt" stretches from Charleston to Columbia. But other types of sauces abound from a simple vinegar to ones tinged with ketchup. In the Eastern part of the state, the barbecue is largely indistinguishable from that of the Eastern Style of its neighbor to the North (whole hog served with a simple vinegar and pepper sauce). In the West we find some bleed over from the Lexington Style of North Carolina. And in the Southwestern part of the state, barbecue sauce with a significant ketchup component dominates. Pork is used throughout the region.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Jackie Hite's Bar-B-Q (Leesville), Scott's Bar-B-Que (Hemingway), Sweatman's Barbecue (Holly Hill)</p>
<p> </p>
<h4>Tennessee</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="439" width="660" src="http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742636/20100626-001-cctn.0.jpg" alt="20100626-001-cctn.jpg"><br><span class="credit">[Cozy Corner, Memphis,TN]</span><br><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" alt="20100625-001-Rendezvous.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b4242bf92ea17f8b016714/20100625-001-Rendezvous.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Dry ribs at The Rendezvous in Memphis,TN</span></p>
<p>In the Eastern part of Tennessee, chopped whole hog and pork shoulder with a vinegar-based sauce are popular and reflect the westward migration of the barbecue tradition from the Carolinas. But Tennessee barbecue is most clearly defined in Memphis; it's best known for both "dry" and "wet" pork ribs as well as pulled pork shoulder served with a tomato-based barbecue sauce. Dry ribs are covered in a "rub" — a mix of spices and herbs — and then smoked. "Wet ribs," on the other hand, are basted during smoking and are then served doused in a tomato-based barbecue sauce. But Memphis is also known for incorporating pulled pork into all manner of other foods, including pizza, nachos, and even spaghetti.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Central Barbecue (Memphis), Cozy Corner (Memphis), Martin's Bar-B-Cue Joint (Nashville, Nolensville), Payne's (Memphis).</p>
<h4>Kentucky</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" alt="20110311-002-KY.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b42429f92ea17f8b016700/20110311-002-KY.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Old Hickory Bar-B-Que, Kentucky</span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" src="http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742638/20110311-001-Kentucky.0.jpg" alt="20110311-001-Kentucky.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Mutton, pork ribs and pulled pork from Old Hickory Bar-B-Que, Kentucky</span></p>
<p>Kentucky is most famous for mutton barbecue served with "dip," a Worcestershire-based sauce popular in the Western part of the state, centered around the town of Owensboro. But pork is equally significant in Eastern Kentucky, where shoulder is popular. It comes served with the same vinegar-type sauce that is found in North Carolina and Western Tennessee, again reinforcing the westward migration of barbecue culture.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Billy's Bar-B-Q (Lexington), Ole Hickory Pit (Owensboro).</p>
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<h4>Missouri</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" src="http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/742640/20100628-001-AB_20KC.0.jpg" alt="20100628-001-AB%20KC.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Arthur Bryant's, Kansas City, MO</span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="495" width="660" alt="20100628-001-LC.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b4242af92ea17f8b016708/20100628-001-LC.jpg"><br><span class="credit">L.C.'s Barbecue Kansas City, MO</span></p>
<p>St. Louis is best known for its eponymous ribs, the St. Louis cut ribs. St. Louis is also known for pork steak that's served with a vinegar tomato sauce. At the other end of the state, there's Kansas City, which is considered to be the melting pot of barbecue because it seemingly draws on the collective tradition of other regions. Rather than focusing on a single protein as in Texas or the Carolinas, pork, beef, chicken, fish, and even beans all find their way into Kansas City pits. Burnt ends, which are double smoked caramelized hunks of brisket originated in Kansas City (<a href="http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/08/burnt-ends-kansas-city.php">see Bonjwing Lee's guided tour of burnt ends</a>). But the city is perhaps best known for the barbecue sauce developed by Arthur Bryant in the 1920's, a thick molasses and tomato sauce based on the one found in Memphis but sweeter and darker, again reiterating the city's diversity.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Arthur Bryant's (Kansas City), Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue (Kansas City), Gates Bar-B-Q (Kansas City), L.C.'s Bar-B-Q (Kansas City), Oklahoma Joe's (Kansas City), Pappy's Smokehouse (St. Louis)</p>
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<h4>Texas</h4>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="440" width="660" alt="20100327-001-Kreuz.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/660x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53b42428f92ea17f8b0166f4/20100327-001-Kreuz.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Kreuz Market, Lockhart,TX</span></p>
<p><img class="bigpic" height="325" width="500" alt="brisket-mueller.jpg" src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/500x/http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53bee480f92ea15e71003420/brisket-mueller.jpg"><br><span class="credit">Beef brisket from Louie Mueller</span></p>
<p>There are in reality several distinct styles of Texas barbecue, drawing on the diverse cultural traditions of the Lone Star State. The most iconic and best known is the Central Texas style that originated in the German and Czech meat markets during the late 19th century. In combining Central European butchering traditions and the most readily available protein and wood — beef and post oak — this style is as primal and stripped down a form as any you will find. While the rest of the nation is busy making barbecue sauces, many places in Texas eschew it completely. Brisket is the most popular cut, followed closely by sausage, and not so closely by beef short ribs. (pork and even lamb do make appearances on menus). In East Texas, we find barbecue traditions closer to those of the deep South. Pork is more prevalent and so is sauce. In West and Southwest Texas one finds cowboy and Mexican-influenced barbecue. Cowboy style involves direct grilling rather than offset smoking. Beef, pork, and also chicken are popular. The Mexican tradition involves barbacoa-style cooking.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Black's Barbecue (Lockhart), City Market (Luling), Franklin Barbecue (Austin), Louie Mueller (Taylor), <a href="http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/07/pecan-lodge-barbecue-dallas-texas.php">Pecan Lodge</a> (Dallas), Snow's Barbecue (Lexington).</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Additional Regional Styles</h3>
<p>In addition to the major styles listed above there are also plenty of other places that have rich barbecue culture, but with less clearly defined styles, often drawing on several traditions.</p>
<h4>Alabama</h4>
<p>Alabama barbecue is principally focused on pork shoulder and pork ribs served with a tomato based sauce. But the state is also the birthplace of white barbecue sauce which contains mayonnaise and is traditionally served on chicken.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Big Bob Gibson (Decatur)</p>
<h4>Arkansas</h4>
<p>Arkansas barbecue draws on the traditions of both Texas and the Memphis.</p>
<h4>Georgia</h4>
<p>Georgia has a long and rich barbecue tradition, but paradoxically no distinct style of its own. Barbecue in Georgia tends to incorporate elements from its surrounding neighbors with pork being the most popular meat.</p>
<p><strong>Notable Locations:</strong> Fresh Air Barbecue (Flovilla)</p>
<h4>Oklahoma</h4>
<p>Given its proximity to Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas, barbecue in Oklahoma draws on the traditions of all three.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>· <a href="http://eater.com/tags/barbecue">All Barbecue Coverage on Eater</a> [-E-]<br>· <a href="http://eater.com/tags/the-five-days-of-meat">The Five Days of Meat on Eater</a> [-E-]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2014/7/10/6196209/the-american-barbecue-style-guide-meat-fat-and-smoke-from-sea-toNick Solares2014-05-20T19:28:00-04:002014-05-20T19:28:00-04:00An Epic Texas Barbecue Tour With the Brotherhood of Smoke
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<p>Every year for the last five, a group of six New Yorkers have boarded a plane to Austin to meet up with seven Texans for the purposes of exploring the area's legendary barbecue establishments. </p> <p><span>They are a disparate, motley crew with little in common aside from a deep and abiding love of debauchery and barbecue. An RV stocked with beer, booze, antacids, and fiber pills picks them up at them the airport, a large rented vacation home awaits them at day's end. Each tour has its own logo and graphics, emblazoned on t-shirts, temporary tattoos and stickers, much like a touring rock band. They call themselves </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">The Brotherhood of Smoke</b><span>.</span></p>
<p>This smoky dozen leave in their wake a trail of greasy butcher paper, empty beer cans, and tour stickers plastered on most every available surface. They barrel through the Texas countryside, pulling into pit after pit to sample the best barbecue the state has to offer, devouring whole menus, visiting as many as seven places in a day.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 1.65em; margin-bottom: 0.83em; line-height: 1.35;">MEAT, Smoke, AND TIME: A TEXAS BARBECUE PRIMER</h2>
<p><img class="float-left" height="330" width="330" src="http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/778554/20130330-001-tour_202013.0.jpg" alt="20130330-001-tour%202013.jpg">For the uninitiated, Texas style barbecue is as primal and stripped down a form as you will find. It was born largely from the German meat markets that took root in Texas in the late 19th century. The style revolves, not unexpectedly, around beef. Brisket is the most popular cut, followed closely by sausage and not so closely by beef short ribs. Pork and even lamb make appearances on menus but, quite frankly, beef is king in Texas, and brisket is king in Texas barbecue.</p>
<p>The meat is generally rubbed only with salt and black pepper and smoked for long hours over post oak. When finished, a dense crust forms on the outside of the cuts. Called the "bark," it is the result of the dry rub absorbing the smoke. Ideally the bark reaches the color of the darkest mahogany.</p>
<p>The finest slice of brisket can be effortlessly peeled from the whole with the slightest pressure from the carver's knife, leaving lithe, tender ribbons of beef. Immediately below the bark, one finds a thick pink/purple line known as the smoke ring. It is the result of gases from the smoke interacting with liquids on the meat's surface. This is one of the hallmarks of great barbecue and is an indicator that the smoke has penetrated the meat, imbuing it with its essence.</p>
<p>Despite the dense application of salt and pepper and the infusion of smoke, the best barbecue still tastes supremely beefy. The simplicity and primacy of the process yields a product that is more complex than the sum of its parts.</p>
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<p class="caption"><span>Short ribs and brisket from La Barbecue in Austin</span></p>
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<p><span>Echoing this primacy, the meat is served in a rudimentary manner: sliced by hand on battered butcher's blocks and sold by the pound. While many restaurants — like Kreuz in Lockhart and Southside in Elgin — have added sides like macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and coleslaw to the menu, the purest of form like </span><a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/2/25/8101569/smoked-snows-bbq" target="_blank">Snow's in Lexington</a><span> might only offer you some pickled jalapeño and some beans. And sauce is less de rigueur here than in any other barbecue region. It is, in fact, completely eschewed at many places in the Lone Star state, although its absence is perhaps not as rare as legend would have one believe.</span></p>
<p>Texas barbecue is most frequently served on large sheets of brown butcher paper, reiterating the origins of the form. The paper helps soak up the copious juices that stream from freshly cut brisket. Order brisket, sausage, short ribs, and some pork spares and they will be tightly bundled together in butcher paper and handed to you in a neat package. This form of packaging is ideal for the tour as the barbecue can be laid out on the large communal tables that proliferate in the spartan barbecue dining rooms. These bundles of meat are then set upon by the tour members, each of whom carries their own knife.</p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">DAY 1: Austin's New School and Taylor's Old School</h2>
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<p class="caption">Clockwise from top left: Aaron Franklin, Hands on at La Barbecue, <span>Barbecue at Franklin</span></p>
<p>The Brotherhood's tour starts in Austin and follows a similar path each year, although the restaurants visited change over time. For the last few years, and for the conceivable future, the tour begins at <b>Franklin Barbecue</b>, a decidedly new school pit that has in many ways dragged barbecue into the 21st century. Parenthetically, the first tour commenced the year Franklin Barbecue opened up shop in 2010.</p>
<p>Owned and operated by pitmaster <b>Aaron Franklin</b>, the restaurant has grown to prominence on the back of truly exceptional barbecue. <a href="http://eater.com/archives/2013/05/16/texas-monthly-names-franklin-barbecue-the-best-in-texas.php">Last year the influential <em>Texas Monthly</em> named</a> Franklin the best barbecue in the state (which to a Texan means the best in the world). This year <b>La Barbecue</b> was added to the schedule. Pitmaster <b>John Lewis</b> is an alumni of Franklin Barbecue and is giving his former boss a run for his money. He turns out some world class brisket and short ribs.</p>
<p>Leaving Austin, the tour generally heads to Elgin to visit <b>Southside Market</b> and <b>Meyer's </b>. Both places have storied pasts — operating for 125 and 65 years respectively — and are renowned for producing Elgin hot guts, a natural casing sausage stuffed with coarsely chopped beef. You can find sausage from both Southside and Meyer's sold in supermarkets throughout the state, but nothing beats eating them right from the smokers in Elgin. While the beef sausage is the main draw, the jalapeño cheddar sausage, which contains a pork and beef mix, is equally delicious.</p>
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<p class="caption">Louie Mueller Barbecue, brisket at Louie Mueller</p>
<p>From Elgin the tour rolls up to Taylor. While the Brotherhood has certainly enjoyed plenty of delicious barbecue up to this point, the environments they have done so in are decidedly modern — Franklin and La Barbecue are situated in densely populated urban areas and both Meyer's and Southside, despite being decades old, occupy relatively new buildings.</p>
<p>But in Taylor one finds true old-school places, steeped in nostalgia, petrified in pit smoke and, for the most part, unsullied by the glitz and gleam of the modern world. Taylor looks like a ghost town, with thrift and antique shops (mostly indistinguishable from each other) lining the main street nestled between empty store fronts, where one imagines banks and groceries must have once stood. A train track runs through town and both the places the tour visits seem to be decidedly on the wrong side of it.</p>
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<p class="caption"><span>Sandwich at Taylor Cafe</span></p>
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<p><span>First stop is </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Louie Mueller Barbecue</b><span>, for what is the purest, most stripped-down expression of Texas barbecue. The room is stained a dark brown from decades of inadequately ventilated pit smoke circling the building. The barbecue here is consummate, with textbook brisket and ribs. It is the place that the Brotherhood has visited the most times, often as many as four visits during the tour.</span></p>
<p>Equally beloved is <b>Taylor Cafe</b>, where the day wraps up with beef brisket sandwiches and ice cold beers. Taylor Cafe is operated by the venerable and legendary pit master <b>Vencil Mares</b>, who just turned 95 and holds court at the end of the bar.<br></p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">DAY 2: City Market and Lockhart's Finest</h2>
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<p class="caption">Obligatory shot of Kreuz pitmaster Roy Perez</p>
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<p><span>The second day of tour traditionally commences at </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">City Market</b><span> in Luling, which for many of the Brotherhood represents the quintessential Texas barbecue experience, offering an incomparable combination of food, hospitality and environment. It is hard to choose between the brisket, sausage, and pork ribs here; the mustard-laced sauce that sits in little bottles on each table is wonderful on them all.</span></p>
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<p class="caption">Barbecue from Kreuz's</p>
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<p><span>From Luling the bus heads to Lockhart — once the undisputed epicenter of Texas barbecue — to visit some of the state's most famous establishments. </span><b style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: inherit;">Kreuz Market, Smitty's,</b><span> and </span><b style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: inherit;">Black's</b><span> have long histories and are mandatory destinations for anyone embarking on a serious exploration of Texas barbecue. But a stop at </span><b style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: inherit;">Chisolm Trail</b><span>, the other-other-other barbecue joint in Lockhart, rarely disappoints. It is a cafeteria-style restaurant that serves locals and happens to serve more than decent barbecue, including beef back ribs, which are curiously not that common.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">DAY 3: SNOW's, Zimmerhanzel's, Prause Market</h2>
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<p class="caption">Tootsie Tomantez, Snow's Barbecue</p>
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<p><span>Saturday mornings are principally dedicated to </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Snow's Barbecue</b><span> in Lexington, which is another contender for best barbecue in the state and was actually deemed as such by </span><em style="line-height: 1.5;">Texas Monthly</em><span> </span><a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/lexington-snow%E2%80%99s-bbq" style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: #ffffff;">back in 2008</a><span> (Snow's remains in the top four). Snow's is only open one day a week and </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Tootsie Tomanetz</b><span>, who runs the pits, turns out some masterful brisket, sausage, pork ribs, and pork steak.</span></p>
<p>From Snow's the tour heads south to <b>Zimmerhanzel's</b> in Smithville. The restaurant, with its bright orange exterior and matching Formica chairs, dates back to 1980, but seems far older. And there is a timeless quality to the barbecue as well — especially the sausage and brisket which has all the hallmarks of great barbecue.</p>
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<p class="caption">Slicing brisket at Snow's</p>
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<p><span>Next up is </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Prause Meat Market</b><span>, which serves as a butcher shop selling fresh meat as well as smoking it in the back, echoing the origins of Texas barbecue. The tour might end up at </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Gonzalez Meat Market</b><span> for brisket and lamb ribs, or </span><b style="line-height: 1.5;">Novosad's</b><span> for some delicious sausage, but this year we chose to double back to Louie Mueller.</span></p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">DAY 4: Cooper's and One Last Trip to Franklin</h2>
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<p class="caption">The haul at Cooper's</p>
<p>The final day sees the Brotherhood trekking out to <b>Cooper's</b> in Llano and the massive pits stuffed with all manner of meats before doubling back and ending up in Austin. Most of the old-school places are not open on Sundays, but Franklin most certainly is and the last stop before heading to the airport is to pick up pre-ordered brisket.</p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">How to Eat This Much Barbecue in Four Days</h2>
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<p class="caption">The Brotherhood of Smoke</p>
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<p><span>One of the keys to victory on the tour is to not overeat at any one stop, a goal that is reached to varying degrees of success. Leftovers are always taken to go and usually consumed at night for dinner, along with the fresh sausages.</span></p>
<p>One might imagine that consuming that much barbecue over the course of several days would dull the senses, reducing perception to a single smoky, salty note. But actually the opposite is the case. One becomes acutely aware of every aspect of the craft. A brisket just slightly past due or a bark that veers ever so slightly towards flaccidity will cause immediate offense, where otherwise it might go unnoticed. Over- and under-seasoning are brought into stark relief, and the vivid memory of the day's best brisket is at most hours old. In many cases there is a slab of it sitting in the RV.</p>
<p>While there is no formal ranking on the tour, there is robust discussion about favorites, with poor showings being suffered most un-gladly. Some places are worthy of return visits, some jettisoned from future itineraries after a single visit. But the barbecue itself is only part of the experience, the hospitality and the immersion in Texas culture — especially in the less touristy areas — is as much a part of it as the food itself.</p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0.83em; font-size: 1.65em; line-height: 1.35;">A Road Map For a Grand Texas Barbecue Tour</h2>
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<p>The most frequently asked question about the tour is "how do I join?" to which the answer is invariably "you can't." Like the rub and smoking technique on the finest brisket, the tour is a delicately balanced beast. The members are, to a man, dysfunctional miscreants that happen to get along within the context of consuming alarming amounts of barbecue in a compressed time frame, crammed together on a bus. Really, no rational person would board the barbecue tour bus.</p>
<p>But that doesn't mean that you can't engage in your own tour. Year Six awaits the Brotherhood of Smoke next March, and maybe you will cross paths on the tour you should be planning right now with eleven of your best friends. Here is a map of some of the tour's favorite stops and what to order to help you along:</p>
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https://www.eater.com/2015/3/14/8015579/texas-barbecue-tourNick Solares