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Originally posted by Mikelravy:
When people ask me how I liked living in Texas, I tell them I don't know, I lived in Austin.

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New York Times

SundayReview | NEWS ANALYSIS

Would You Want to Smell BBQ All the Time?
By KATE MURPHYAPRIL 18, 2015


CITY COUNCIL meetings in Austin, Tex., tend to be droning, low-drama affairs, but that wasn’t the case earlier this month when barbecue was on the agenda: specifically, the smell of barbecue and a proposal to control it, in response to some citizen complaints.

The suggestion that a smell some would dab behind their ears if possible should be mitigated by special exhaust systems called smoke-scrubbers provoked local outrage, with opponents accusing the complainers of being from California (in Texas, that’s not a compliment).

But that’s the thing about smells. One person’s putrid is another person’s pleasant, and local governments around the country are having a hard time regulating what’s in the olfaction of the beholder.

If you time-traveled back 200 years or so, you’d likely scrunch up your nose. Our forebears threw sewage out their windows, and the primary mode of transport — horses — relieved themselves all over the street. And let’s not even discuss the pervasive smell of rotting food in the prerefrigeration era.

These days there is a product called Poo-Pourri (toilet odor inhibitor), and people place their dogs’ business in knotted plastic bags. Moreover, food that is mildly bruised, wilted or minutes past its sell-by date is dispatched to a landfill long before it can produce the slightest offending odor.

“We have so reduced the level of background odor pollution, we are becoming more sensitive to anything we smell,” said Pamela Dalton, an olfactory researcher at Monell Chemical Senses Center, a nonprofit group in Philadelphia that studies smell and taste.

Just 20 years ago, you might not have noticed someone smoking in the same restaurant where you were dining, whereas today you’d likely detect the residual odor of cigarette smoke on the clothes of someone simply walking past your table.

Over the years attempts by states and municipalities to regulate odor have led to a patchwork of legal guidelines subjectively enforced by inspectors who sniff the air and determine whether to make a stink about a stink.

In the past the offenders were typically livestock operations and wastewater treatment plants, but more recently odor inspectors are getting calls about smells emanating from ethnic restaurants, coffee roasters and candle and bath shops.

In an effort to be more objective, a growing number of locales have begun using a device called a Nasal Ranger, which looks like a megaphone for the nose and measures the intensity of smells according to a so-called dilution ratio. An odor is considered intrusive if the average person can smell it when it is diluted with seven parts clean air — a decades-old threshold of stinky, the origin of which no one I spoke to can quite recall.

“Unless we’re talking a rendering facility or asphalt plant, it’s rare to find anything that exceeds a seven to one ratio,” said Ben Siller, a licensed smell investigator with the Denver office of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

His city’s odor ordinance also considers it a violation if his department receives more than five complaints from different households about a smell within a 12-hour period. And that has been happening more often lately because of marijuana growing operations, recently made legal in the state.

“It has a strong musky, skunky odor when they are drying and curing the leaves,” Mr. Siller said. “But even that only registers two to one on the Nasal Ranger,” which he added is the same ratio registered when his neighborhood bakery bakes cinnamon rolls, and “I never get a call about that.”

That’s because whether we like or dislike a smell depends primarily on the context and associations we have with it. Unlike other senses, smell has a direct and immediate link to the limbic system, the part of the brain that produces emotions. Thus, smelling something triggers overwhelmingly strong feelings before we are even consciously aware we smelled something. As Rudyard Kipling said, “Smells are surer than sights or sounds to make your heart-strings crack.”

Which brings us back to the complaints about the barbecue smell in Austin. Although you might love the smell of slow-smoked brisket because of its association with satiation and good times with family and friends, you can come to hate it if you are forced to smell it when and where you don’t want or expect to.

“The smell becomes highly offensive because of the distress of being exposed against your free will,” said Rachel Herz, a psychologist and neuroscientist at Brown University and author of “The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell.” “It’s similar to your neighbor blaring a song you once liked loudly and constantly.”

A spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection said that of the more than 10,000 odor complaints that came in last year, many were from residents upset about cooking smells wafting into their apartments from restaurants and coffeehouses — smells that might be pleasing when patronizing those same establishments.

“A lot of it has to do with tolerance level in neighborhoods that are getting gentrified,” said Mr. Siller in Denver. “People at lower socioeconomic levels may tolerate something much better than someone who moves into the same area and buys a house, sinks a fortune into remodeling and then goes out in the backyard and smells a pot grower, charbroiler, pet food manufacturer or something stinky like that.”

If a smell is part of a plume that contains particulates or other irritants, then it can cause inflammatory- and allergic-type reactions. But researchers said, for the most part, it’s the stress of smelling something you don’t want to that makes people feel sick. Physiological symptoms might include headaches, nausea, vomiting and high blood pressure. Psychologically, it tends to make people feel depressed, anxious and irritable.

Case law on odor liability is mixed, with courts sometimes finding in favor of plaintiffs (sniffers) and other times defendants (emitters), as well as ruling for and against insurance companies, which typically claim odors are pollution and thus not covered under many policies.

Recent cases in Manhattan pitting apartment building residents against odoriferous downstairs restaurants have ended in undisclosed monetary settlements and improved ventilation systems. But there are also cases that went to trial, like that of Maxine Furs in Birmingham, Ala., which failed to recoup $350,000 in cleaning costs after its inventory was infused with the smell of curry from a neighboring Indian food restaurant.

“The smell of Indian food makes me sick now,” said John Pechi, owner of Maxine Furs.

While there are technologies to control and deodorize odorous emissions, they are often prohibitively expensive, particularly for small businesses. That’s why Austin’s City Council decided to study further the proposal that would require barbecue joints to install them.

At Franklin Barbecue in Austin, where on a recent Saturday lines started forming at 9:30 a.m., the owner, Aaron Franklin, said the solution is for businesses to be good neighbors. “Our smokers are on the second floor so the smell dissipates before it drifts down, and we make sure our fires have a complete combustion so you don’t get that gross-smelling creosote,” he said. “And we make sure kids in the neighborhood get food for their birthday parties” so the positive emotional associations with the smell of his barbecue get imprinted early.

Kate Murphy is a journalist in Houston who writes frequently for The New York Times.

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Police: Texas Man Stole BBQ, Torched House, Led Cops On Corvette Chase

Patrick George
4/15/15 9:50pm

This is a crime story out of Texas, but it’s so insane it’s downright Floridian in nature. A man in my hometown of San Antonio faces multiple felony charges after cops say he stole brisket from a barbecue joint, evaded police in a stolen truck, set a house on fire, escaped in a stolen Corvette, and then was finally arrested after crashing the sports car.

Did I mention he’s accused of swallowing heroin? He’s also accused of swallowing heroin.

TV station KSAT 12 has the scoop on Alan Meneley, 34, who was arrested Sunday on charges that he stole brisket (the sacred centerpiece of all Texas BBQ) from Augie’s Barbed Wire Smokehouse back in February. Never been there but now I have to try it.

Authorities say State Troopers found Meneley in a stolen truck, and he led them on a chase but managed to lose them. He then set a house on fire, police say, but they didn’t elaborate on whose house it was or why.

From there Meneley stole a red Corvette Stingray convertible at gunpoint and led police on another chase, as one does in a Corvette, before he wrecked into a Mustang and was taken out of the game. He then tried to swallow some heroin during his arrest and was taken to an area hospital, which he unsuccessfully also tried to escape from, cops say.

Meneley may be connected to other brisket thefts in town.

Texas, everybody!

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Committee Votes Against Requiring Scrubbers For BBQ Food Trucks/Restaurants

Updated: Monday, May 11 2015, 09:26 PM CDT

A debate is firing up Monday afternoon, about the future of BBQ in Austin. City code could be changed to reduce the impact of smoke from restaurants and food trailers on residential areas. The Economic Opportunity Committee is taking a hands off approach to regulating Austin BBQ. The four members voted unanimously this afternoon not to require BBQ food trucks and restaurants located near residential areas to install smoke scrubbers.

Scrubbers remove gases and particulates from smokestacks. This afternoon the owner of The County Line BBQ Restaurant said an estimate he recently got for a scrubber came in at $56,000. Maintenance is higher, costing an estimated $100,000. Skeeter Miller says no BBQ food trucks or restaurants can afford that. "It would cost a restaurant an unbelievable amount of money. It would really stymie growth in the restaurant industry in this city,"said Miller.

The Economic Opportunity Committee voted not to pursue a city ordinance requiring scrubbers.

Members also voted against developing a nuisance ordinance targeting BBQ smoke from food trucks and restaurants near residential areas. They are recommending to the Austin City Council that each situation be evaluated on a case by case basis. By: Bettie Cross

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Southern Living

A BBQ Pitmaster Is Now the Southwest’s Best Chef
May 7, 2015
By Robert Moss

He’s not wearing whites or a tall toque, but per the James Beard Foundation Aaron Franklin is the Best Chef in the Southwest

On Monday night, Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, took home the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southwest. My first reaction upon hearing the news was to think back to another unlikely winner from the South. In 2008, Robert Stehling, the chef/owner of Charleston’s Hominy Grill, won the Best Chef Southeast award, and it was a rather controversial pick at the time.

Stehling, after all, wasn’t running some high-end white tablecloth place with a lot of foie gras and truffles and all the other trappings then considered essential for fine dining. It was (and still is) a neighborhood restaurant in an old converted barbershop. You pick your veggies meat-n-three style from a big chalkboard on the wall. It’s open for breakfast, serving sausage and pancakes and a concoction called The Charleston Nasty—a fried chicken breast on a biscuit doused in sawmill gravy.

Stehling’s award was a shot across the bow that down-home Southern-style cooking—the kind not unlike what one’s grandmother might have served—could be and should be taken as seriously as things with high falutin’ French names. It paved the way for the national vogue of Southern cuisine and the success of other Southern-centric chefs like Sean Brock and Ashley Christensen, and it helped usher in a much more casual mode in our fine dining restaurants.

Two months ago, when Aaron Franklin’s nomination for Best Chef Southwest was announced, I admitted to having mixed feelings about it. After all, slow smoking brisket and ribs on a wood-fired pit isn’t exactly the same as leading a large brigade-style kitchen and meticulously plating elegant courses.

But then, a few weeks ago, I ate at Franklin Barbecue for the first time, getting there at 7:40 a.m. to get a good spot in line (just 20 back from the front) Before I even had my first bite my reservations about the Beard nomination had already started to fade.

Not because I like standing in line for barbecue (I certainly don’t!). But I could see right off that Franklin is not just serving food but orchestrating an overall dining experience, one that starts with the hours-long wait just to get in the door and ends with the big roll of brown butcher paper with which you can wrap up your leftovers to take home.

All the elements combine for that overall experience: the community “take-a-chair, leave-a-chair” bin (for those who neglect to bring their own folding chairs for the line), the periodic staff announcements building that sense of anticipation, the whiff of post oak smoke occasionally wafting over the line and making our stomachs growl.

The barbecue, as I expected, was remarkable. The brisket was flawless, especially the lean version, whose thin fat cap had a captivatingly tangy edge to it. The sausage had the ideal crisp snap to each bite and wonderfully rich flavor inside, and even the spicy, beef-studded beans in their savory broth were beyond reproach.

The real key was this: Aaron Franklin wasn’t there that day. He was off in San Francisco, cooking at an event to promote his recent best-selling cookbook (sounds a lot like a celebrity chef, doesn’t it?). But except for the fact that he didn’t come out and work the dining room as he normally does, you wouldn’t have known it. (Benji Jacob, Franklin’s general manager covered the guest-welcoming duties quite capably). It’s a testament that Aaron Franklin not only knows how to manage a pit but also how to lead a crew—to ensure the same consistent level of quality even when he’s not there. That sounds an awful lot like the definition of a chef to me.

I think Franklin’s winning the Beard Award is a big thing for barbecue—another step in its progression from being an unheralded everyday kind of food to being recognized as one of America’s great culinary traditions. I also think that, like Robert Stehling’s award back in 2008, it’s part of a larger trend that is breaking down the once-rigid boundaries with popular cooking and high-end cuisine.

And that line at Franklin’s isn’t likely to get any shorter any time soon.

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Forget dive watches – GrillTimer is a barbecue watch
By Ben Coxworth May 13, 2015

In the past, Michigan-based outdoor cooking enthusiast Jon Stein used his dive watch to time the cooking of foods on his barbecue. Once he realized that he barely ever used the watch for its actual intended purpose, however, he set out to make one that was specifically designed for use by his fellow grillers. The GrillTimer is the result.

Like a retro dive watch, the GrillTimer has a bezel-style timer – the big difference being that it displays cooking times for eight popular barbecue items.

To use it, you just twist the bezel so that the watch's minute hand lines up with the start of the cooking time for the food you're cooking. As the hand progresses, the bezel display will indicate when you should flip the item, how "done" it's getting, and when the cooking is complete. Needless to say, individual grill temperatures and meat cuts will vary, but Stein is confident that the suggested times will serve as a good guide.

The bezel only turns in one direction, so it can't accidentally be bumped back to an earlier point in the cooking time. Additionally, an accompanying guide lets users know what other foods the displayed cooking times can be applied to – for instance, if you're cooking scallops, lobster or shellfish, you can use the watch's "shrimp" setting.


The GrillTimer itself has a stainless steel case, Seiko quartz movement, a scratch-resistant mineral crystal, and is water-resistant to 10 m (33 ft). It's also reportedly "sauce resistant" to three tablespoons.

Much as we think it could be handy for cooking, we particularly like the idea of it being worn in non-grilling situations. Imagine the looks it would get if you were wearing it in a board meeting or while arguing a court case, for instance.

If you're interested in the GrillTimer, it's currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. A pledge of US$40 will currently get you one, when and if they reach production. The planned retail price is $50.

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“The most important thing about barbecue is sauce.” Governor Abbott

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I had to make a quick trip to Cotulla Texas last Thurs and Fri to look at a ranch I was considering buying. I could have flown with a friend who was considering partnering the deal with me, but I elected to drive so I could visit a few more Q joints. I was lucky and went to two of the top 5 in Texas Monthly's rating last year. It killed me to drive right by 3 or 4 more really highly rated places but there is such a thing as Q overdose and I'm doing this for fun, not profit.

First place I visited was:

23) Louie Mueller Barbecue, 206 W. Second, Taylor Tx. Tied in Texas Monthly's ratings with 4 others at a perfect 5.0 for second best in Texas. Mentioned in almost all Q books which cover Texas Barbecue.

I got there after a pretty long drive at 5 after 6 PM Thurs aft. Pulled into parking lot and my heart fell, sign said, 10-6, Mon-Sat. I though, "This is a real bummer, missed it by 5 minutes.", but I saw someone inside so figured maybe I could beg a brisket out the back door.....went in and found that they had extended their summer hours and were open until 7:30. That was the best news of the day, closely followed by their having Shiner Bock on draft. Even tho alone, I wanted a good sampling so I ordered a pound of brisket, a pound of ribs (they only had a 1/2 pound left so I took that), a pound of pork loin, and a ring of sausage. Nothing like a light repast.

Place is huge, used to be girl's basketball court way back when, has walls about 18-20 feet high and has 3 pits stuffed with post oak in back. They've been cooking great Q on this spot since 1959, started by current owner's Daddy. He hasn't lost the family touch.

They serve their draft beer in frozen pint jars. Worked for me. The bartender/cashier, a very friendly lady named Sonja, served me a couple and a smile.

Now to the point of this, the Q. They cook their Q with a rub of cracked or very coarsely ground peppercorns and probably a bit of salt. It comes out a helluva lot better and more complex than that would indicate. Brisket was heavily smoked and very tender. Just about as good a Brisket as you can get. I wouldn't say the best I've had, but certainly a very strong contender. You can eat different styles that you may appreciate more, but it would be hard to eat better pure Texas Brisket. Surprisingly, the ribs, cooked with the same rub were nearly as good, athough the Brisket was the star of the ball, without doubt. I don't recall any place I've visited yet that had the main two meats so close in quality. The pork loin was somewhat disappointing, possibly because of the dryness of the meat initially (meaning they can't smoke it for very long or it will really dry out) it had little real smoke flavor or penetration. Good meat, but not great Q. The sausage was good but not great. I'm not a real sausage aficionado, I make my own, and, while I still haven't perfected my processes, I am not fond of the overly fatty products sold commercially. This was good but not great. I should have tried the jalapeno style, but you can't try everything in one trip. I will be back. Only real bummer was the barbecue sauce. It was basically drippings, with little added flavor or spice. I didn't hate it, but it didn't add much or change the meat impact for the better. The quality of the sauce was not approaching the quality of the meat and was best left off for my tastes.

I guess, taking it all into account, atmosphere, history, and, of course, by far the most important item, the Q, I'm going to give it a solid A for an overall grade, my highest so far. Better sauce would have added a plus, for sure.

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While in Taylor, and being only 3 blocks from Louis Mueller's at the Taylor Cafe, it would have been un-Texan not to stop in for some Q, so here is.......

#23 addendum) Louie Mueller Barbecue, 206 W. Second, Taylor Tx. Tied in Texas Monthly's ratings with 4 others at a perfect 5.0 for second best in Texas, behind Snow's. Mentioned in almost all Q books which cover Texas Barbecue. I originally graded it A, but based on my latest visit I am downgrading it slightly to A-.

Don't get me wrong, it is still extremely good, but the brisket, moist variety, was just a tad overcooked and just a tad less than perfect. I bought 6 sausages to take home, 2 each or original, jalapeno, and chipotle, but my crew ate them before I could get a taste. Mad I did try something different, which was the Qed Beef ribs which were absolutely wonderful. These things are HUGE, weighing between 1 1/2 and 2 1/4 pounds each. They are, to my tastes, without doubt better than the brisket.
A solid Q eater might be able to eat one on his own, but he better plan on sleeping it off somewhere.

OTOH fame has its priviledges, I suppose, and Mueller's prices are the highest I've found for Q, running $14.59/lb for brisket and the beef ribs and $3 each for fairly small sausage links. Considering that a beef rib has a huge rib in it, homer , that weighs at least 6 to 8 ounces IMO, that makes a beef rib meal of one rib costing about $20/lb and at least $25 for the whole thing. Well worth it, better than most ribeyes you'll ever have, but certainly on the high side for Q costs in rural Texas. Of course being only 30 miles or so from Austin may not make it truly rural anymore.

You won't be disappointed if you go to Mueller's and I hope my very slightly less than perfect brisket was not a trend. As anyone who cooks Q knows, each brisket is a story unto itself and one brisket whether extra good or not up to the usual standard is only a sentence in the whole story. Don't get me wrong, I'd go back for brisket or, especially, a beef rib in a NY second, nearly drooling as I think about it now.

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:
4) Coleman's BBQ in Clarksville, Tx (604 N. Martin Luther King, phone 903 4275131) overall rating B++ (see description) (Tx Monthly score 4.0 on 5 pt scale)

Wow, this was some good Q! I only live about 25 miles from the place but their hours are THEIR hours and I'm rarely in Clarksville when they are open, plus it is located a bit off the main drag and you just don't think about it as you drive by, so this is (hang my head in shame) the first time I've tried their Q. It won't be the last.

At any rate, this thread inspired me to run over there....and I do mean run......looked up and it was after 5 and they close at 6 or when they feel like it......#1 Daughter and I jumped in truck and took off, getting in door at about 5:30.....they put the "closed" sign up 10 minutes later.

I guess I liked this so much because it is the style of E Tx, N La Q that I grew up with, real smoke, real wood, no pre-cooking, no electric burners.

Clarksville is the county seat of Red River County, which is the NE Tx equivalent of a third world country. Coleman's was started by Dwayne (sp?) Coleman's father 36 years ago and is a local institution. Dwayne, who owns the place now (I suppose, didn't ask), is a somewhat rotund 50ish black man that really knows his Q.

As mentioned, they have kind of odd hours for a food service business.....M 11-3, T-Th 11-6, F 11-7, and closed Sat and Sun. They also close when they feel like it, as mentioned they put the closed sign up today at 5:40.

Daughter and I order a pound of sliced Brisket and a pound of pork ribs. The Brisket was the star but the ribs were also quite good. I think, that if we had been there earlier in the day, the overall rating could easily have been B+++ but by this time, the ribs had probably been out since mid-day and were not as prime as they could have been. Brisket has good if somewhat thin smoke line, was nearly cut with a fork tender (which is REALLY tender for smoked brisket with no pre-cooking or wrap) with a thin but distinct smoke line and good bark with a heavy smoke but not burnt flavor. Yummmmmm..... Ribs were just a bit dry on outside, solidly smoked and good. Sauce was really outstanding, much different than almost all other Tx Q sauces I've had so far......you just don't ask ingredients, but it is a watery thin semi-clearish tan sauce, with meat drippings (I think), vinegar, brown sugar, black pepper and whatever else in there. Vinegar and sugar are undertones, not overbearing.....EXCEPTIONAL to my taste. I debated a while whether to give this place two pluses or 3 and finally decided I'd be conservative and settled on 2. Daughter is not a big eater normally but between the two of us we ate ALL of the brisket and had one rib left and she probably ate more than I did. Being the prince that I am, I ordered 2 pounds of brisket for rest of family to carry home (they were at #2 daughters softball practice).

Dwayne uses straight hickory for his wood, only thing electric is a damper which controls heat levels all night.....most briskets are cooked about 15 or more hours.....I didn't think to ask about the ribs. He fires it up when he quits for day, puts the meat on, and takes it off sometime the next morning.

Seems odd but this is a really different style of Q than most of what I've had in Central Texas, not like another planet, but more like another region which, duh, it is. Also, my comments on the sauce are, obviously, to my taste and someone who is just as fanatic about Q as I am might not find it to be to his tastes. Hard to describe but sort of a Q equivalent of au jus sauce. It is different, but the meat is without doubt excellent. I wouldn't call it wonderful but really quite good. I'll be better able to evaluate it after a few more stops on the BBQ trail. That sounds kind of odd for someone who's been eating BBQ for almost all of his 60 years but it is different when you're eating for grades/comparisons. Most of the time, you just think, well, this sucks, it's ok, it's good, or it's great and don't really try to analyze why. I'm not claiming I'm any good at it, but I'm doing it the best I can.

Finally, Coleman's reputedly has excellent homemade on sight tamales. They were out by the time I got there as they were the only other time I tried to buy some a few years back, so I am reporting this based on word of mouth (pun intended). Tamales are about $10/doz.

I dunno why you'd be in Clarksville, but if you're there when they're open Coleman's is certainly worth a stop.

Update: June 8, 2009 My whole family and I revisited Coleman's today and ordered 2 pounds brisket, 2 pounds ribs, and 1 pound pork......It was a very close call, and I couldn't argue with someone who rated the pork better, but I think the sliced brisket was still the star followed by the sliced pork (which we didn't have on the first visit) with the ribs running a fairly distant third. They're good, but are full sized pork ribs and just aren't quite as good as the brisket and pork. Rating remains same, but well worth a visit if you can catch them open and are in the area.

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Originally posted by Mikelravy:
Maybe you just hit them on a bad day.

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#81) Stanley's, 525 S. Beckham Ave. (155S), Tyler, Tx. Texas Monthly rating 4.5/5. My rating, based on brisket alone, B+++

Stanley's reputation is based on their ribs. However, the brisket was as fine a breakfast as one could wish for.

The young man at the cash register was really friendly, a pleasure to talk with. He told me the sad news about no ribs, but threw in a few extra ounces of brisket to make up for my grief.
I was really impressed by the sign on the cash register saying, more or less, "Order brisket your way, fat, no fat, lots of bark, trimmed, etc." Not a direct quote, but you get the idea. That sign comes from people who understand Q and brisket.

I ordered fatty brisket, with all the bark they could deliver. It was truly excellent.

Sauce was a homemade, tomato based, slight vinegar tones, somewhat thin, very good.

I hope to go back and try their famous ribs before long so I can give a complete review. However, if they didn't have ribs, the brisket (cut thick, fat side, with bark) is worth the 2 hour drive. Highly recommended.