Charles:

I'll have to revisit some of the big 10 before too long, which is mostly the ones mentioned in that thread, but the more I read other people's evaluations of Q, the more I realize how different people expect totally different things from their Q. Therefore, I'll have to struggle on (tough job but someone has to do it) and evaluate each joint on it's merits according to my tastes. My tastes lean towards more smoke flavor, heavier char on the brisket, more pepper or vinegar in the sauce (or both) and, in general, I prefer a heavier hand than subtle in Q. I try to adjust to the joint's style, but I just don't prefer really sweet sauces or rubs or glazes that produce the equivalent of chinese appetizer style ribs, that is basically red looking and sweet flavored.

No doubt you have tried the direct path of making your own? My wife and I disagree on how much bark is ideal on a brisket, so I let her make the last one, but she definitely likes plenty of smoke flavor.

I like plenty of bark and do not mind cooking it long enough that you can pull the point and make sandwiches.

As you said, sauce in Texas tends more toward the tomato and sugar in most places. Of course, you can make your own too.

Of course, I've made my own, and it's not bad, but to be honest I'm not patient enough to really be a GOOD Qer. To really get good, you've got to cook a LOT of meat and pay attention to results. For one thing, any family, including me and mine, only has so much tolerance for Q, you just can't cook it 3 times a week for weeks on end. Same goes for sauce, the people who have made great sauces often try different combinations for 2 years before settling on one.....2 years!!!!!!I've been through relationships, mostly successfully (which means the end may have been rocky, but basically when either of us thought back on it, post facto, it was mostly a fine time together), with several women in that time frame when I was younger, cooking Q sauce just doesn't seem like as much fun, but a worthy goal no doubt......patience is certainly a virtue, but I'm not shot full of virtues anyway, and patience is way down my list......another reason I never plan hunts a year or more ahead of time.

There are exceptions, of course, but a lot of the best Qer's had parents that either were in the business or did it for fun for many events in their community or church, learning at Daddy's knees, so to speak. I wasn't that lucky, my parents were married, and worked for a living.....("that's a joke, son" ) and I was only subjected to the very occasional family Q in my formative years. BTW it was very good, my recently deceased uncle (his was the funeral I went to above) was quite a cook, but the process didn't really take with me, while they were cooking, I was usually shooting or hunting.

You guys are starting to piss me off. I need to know where the best damn BBQ joint is in Perth. I'm about four months away from sinking my teeth into ANY Texas BBQ.

This thread is just making me hungry.

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
You guys are starting to piss me off. I need to know where the best damn BBQ joint is in Perth. I'm about four months away from sinking my teeth into ANY Texas BBQ.

This thread is just making me hungry.

Tough situation. I'd post on the Aussie forum and ask. Personally, BBQ made with eucalyptus doesn't sound very tasty.......

Of course, being in the business you're in, you might be able to find some US pallets made from oak laying around somewhere, and get a covered "barbie" and make your own. No good "barbie"? Any good oil field hand can scrounge about 5 or 6 feet of some big pipe and have a friend weld up a decent pit in a little while. Doesn't have to be fancy, pipe stack on one end, separate fire box on other, and some brackets to lay racks across in the middle with a pipe hinged cut out lid. You'd be a hero with the hands.......

.........and as a side benefit you might teach the Aussies some good habits....for a change.

This is a funny country. Customs threw-out my wife's nativity scene, and a couple of other items made of natural material. They allowed my smoker through which was encrusted with a great deal of animal by-products, and my hunting boots which I forgot to clean. They had a great deal of Indonesia stuck to the bottom of them.

I told my wife she just wasn't livin' right.

I'm fixing to fire up my smoker in a week or so.

You say Bar-B-Q here, half the people think you are talking about Korean food.

Rudy's in Round Rock is very good. Never had a bad rib yet.
I'll be going there again in about a week.

Smokey Mo's in Round Rock was good also.

Neely's in Memphis was ok.
The first bite of rib was a blast of flavor with the rub but the rest were rather bland.
The sauce was good. I tried the hot and regular. The hot wasn't very hot.
I caught the tail end of the major lunch rush so maybe the cooks were tired.
I've heard Interstate and Rendevous in Memphis are much better.
Stopped at Rendevous but they're closed on Mon.

Gates in Kansas City is also very good. I like it better than Bryant's
They have a combo sandwich with beef, pork and ham that's amazing. Good ribs also.

Cooper's in Llano wasn't as good as I was led to believe. The sauce wasn't what I was expecting for Texas. I liked it but prefer Rudy's.

Tried the Carolina stuff a few years ago for the first time. It's definately an aquired taste. I didn't care for it.
I did try it again last year at a place in Troy NC. Had a pulled pork sandwich. The waitress asked if I wanted slaw on it.
I decided to try it. I was surprised and found it to be very good.
There wasn't a lot of sauce on the pork but it was flavorful and the slaw somehow complimented the taste. I'd definately eat it again.

I usually try some with and without sauce on all bbq if possible.

Race:

Good post, appreciate the insights.

Book Review:

Legends of Texas Barbecue Cook Book by Robb Walsh 2002 250plus pages with many pictures

This read was recommended by Duggaboye and he was right. I'd seen it around, but had never gotten a copy. I ordered this and a few others (reviews to follow as I read them) from Amazon. It cost $12.89 and shipping was free since I used their "free shipping" option.

In short, this gives a great overview of all types and areas of Texas Barbecue accompanied by detailed instructions, insights, and many recipes by multiple famous Texas Q cooks in a very readable format. If you didn't know Texas Q before reading this book, you're an expert after reading it. While there were a couple of minor factual errors in his text ("The cattle industry got its start in 1867...."....not true), the Q tips and recipes are absolutely peerless. While there are several meat recipes I want to try, I was really interested in several of the vegetable recipes, such as Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway Rice Salad, Jalapeno Potato Salad, and others. Makes me hungry typing it.

While I had a fairly extensive knowledge of much of what was discussed in the book, there was some history and details that were completely new to me......barbacoa in extreme South Texas is not just "barbecue" (the spanish def. of the word) but specifically a pit cooked cow's head. Other interesting tid bits are a recipe for BBQed Cabbage.

Besides some of the non-meat recipes, I'm putting the recipe "Jim Goode's Plugged Brisket" on my to do list at home, along with trying several of the various rub or mop recipes.

Overall grade A++, highly recommended read and reference cookbook for Texas Qphiles or anyone who wants insight into Texas style Q.

Quick and easy Q sauce:

This recipe originates from my butcher buddy who got it from his father....it goes back at least 60 years.

I'm going to use parts in this since it varies with how much sauce you want to make.......

Start with roughly 8 parts Kraft's Original or one of it's Flavored Varieties BBQ Sauce(not the only possibility, but a decent quality sauce that works for this recipe and can often be found on sale at local groceries).

Add about 1 to 2 parts vinegar or a bit more and mix with Kraft's, add brown sugar to taste, more if you like it sweet, less if you just want a touch of sweetness.....this is the basic recipe, I use more vinegar because I like a somewhat sour sauce......you can customize it anyway you want, add pepper, cayenne, a bit more salt, garlic, or garlic powder, etc. You can adjust this easily by adding more vinegar or more sugar. START WITH LESS VINEGAR, it is easier to add more and harder to overcome it, but really all you have to do if you've overdone it is add some more of the Krafts Q sauce and work up again. Like anything with spices, if you add any significant spices to it, it is better if you refrigerate it for a day or so and let the spice flavors blend, but it will work freshly done. When you're finished, the sauce should be less viscuous than the original.

In spite of how easy it is, this is an excellent sauce, easily made to your tastes, and will do for anything, especially if you don't have the time to really make a homemade sauce.

Sometimes, or rather, almost all the time, I'd rather sit back and drink a few beers with friends while waiting for the Q to finish up instead of standing over a hot stove stirring up some sauce.

My first experience with Barbacoa was at a small mexican body shop I did business with. The owner invited me to stay for lunch , they had a 55 gal. oil drum grill going and the smell was great.so I stayed -they had beans- guacamole fresh homemade tortillas salsa- pico etc.I got a plate and went to get some meat- the cook opened the grill-and there was about five or six cow heads- skinned but otherwise complete I got some of the jowl meat it was good but when they started on the eyeballs and cracking the skull for the brains I had business elsewhere

Depends on what you are looking for.

Ribs 'N Bibs
5300 S. Dorchester Ave.
Chicago, IL 60615

This joint put me at the following address on an IV drip for 36 hours one time in my not too distant past.

University of Chicago Medical Center
5841 S. Maryland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637

To this day, I cannot eat, and can hardly look at, BBQ ribs.

Now those are ribs with some kick......

It's kind of like going into a Tex-Mex restaurant in a small town in Texas and ordering the ONLY fish item on the menu. Not smart........

Equally, I ain't going to Chicago or other major N. cities to eat BBQ ribs, even tho, somewhere, someplace, they're probably some good ones. Now if I want a good deep dish pizza, I'm in for Chicago......

They poisoned me!

But the ribs did taste good.

Gato,

Did that book you mention have Bar-B-Q lamb recipes?

Well, not really, they have a goat recipe which is pretty simple, coat outside with rub, Q until tender, meanwhile brushing with butter about every 30 minutes, he said it would take 3 to 4 hours, lamb would probably take less.

Rub mentioned is pretty basic......

Rankin's spicy dry rub

1/2 c salt
1/3 c grd black pepper
1/4 c paprika
1/4 c chili powder
1/2 c garlic powder
2 Tablespoons MSG (note, author says to substitute a meat tenderizer which has no MSG if your prefer.)

There is also a Boston Butt recipe where lamb can be substituted, but it uses a water tray under the meat. If it sounds interesting, I'll post it, not all that complicated.

I ordered 5 Q books total, others don't really have any lamb recipes per se. But one has two Lamb marinades. I can also post them if it would help.

As I'm sure you are aware, lamb is going to have significantly faster cooking times until tender than mutton. I like my lamb chops rarish.

Book Review:

Peace, Love, and Barbecue by Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunnicliffe 2005 300plus pages with many pictures

This is one of the trilogy of "best" Q books that most people recommend, the other 2 being the Walsh book reviewed above, and Smokestack Lightning by Lolis which I am reading now.

I thought it would be tough to beat Walsh's Legends of Texas Barbecue and it is, but this book did it fairly handily IMO.

Mike Mills, the principal author, is the owner of 17 St. Bar and Grill in Murphysboro, Ill. He and his team, The Apple City Barbecue Team, are the winningnest team ever on the competitive Q circuit. He retired more or less undefeated in 1994 with among other things 2 perfect scores at Memphis in May (first time ever), 4 x World Champion at Memphis in May, and 3x World Champion at MIM (first time ever). In other words, he cooks Q, he lives Q and knows more about Q than most people.

Where this book excels is giving a nationwide view of Qing, covering both joints and competitions with tips and recipes for all types of meat and side dishes. Actually his Texas coverage is a bit weak IMO, the Walsh book covers that aspect of the world of Q far better but then again, it is only about Texas Q. This book is a national overview with many specifics.

Frankly it started off a bit slow with a bit of family history and reflections, but was excellent and easily read from there on.

Mike Mill's view of Q is all encompassing, it is a lifetime committment for him, costing him marriages and relationships over the years. It is not a stretch to say that he views the process and the people involved in it, with religious fervor.

One recipe in the book alone, the author's justly famous Magic Rub (whether he told ALL is subject to interpretation), the rub which was one of the keys to his winning Q team, is worth the price of the book.......$14.93 at Amazon. There are numerous recipes and cooking directions in here, good stuff and I can't wait to try the recipe for among other sides, Sweet Potato Salad and Blue Smoke Deviled Eggs.

It will be very hard to find a better overview of Q as well as a Q cookbook than this. Highly recommended. Overall Grade: A+++

Damn, I hate to drive all the way to Murphysboro, Il to eat at his home joint but it is a must do. You can order his magic dust and Q sauce on line, and I was going to but 2 gal of Sauce cost $39.98 and they wanted something like $26.00 for shipping. Sauce price was okay at $19.99/gal, but the shipping/handling charge struck me as being kind of outrageous so I didn't complete the order.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
Clarks BBQ on 377, Tioga TX. Gotta try the dry ribs. and save room for the Coconut pie.

I have made the drive a couple times from Dallas, but it is a haul.

Dang, I am hungry.

Ate there once. Sure looks like a dump, from the outside. Couple of people, with us, refused to enter, for that reason. Food wasn't exceptional either.
Grizz
Grizz

Grizzly:

I tend to agree with your evaluation of Clark's, see my review above, but you're hanging around with way too snooty a crowd for my tastes if they wouldn't go into Clark's because of it's exterior appearance. They are not real Q people, tell them to stick with holding their T cups with their little fingers stuck out in downtown Dallas.

Gatogordo, you need to go to the Hard 8 in Stephenville. They serve their Q at the smoker and on wax paper. The pork chops are great. I guess I'll run down there tomorrow and sample some more. The beer is cold too. JC

James:

Thanks for the suggestion, Stephenville is kind of off my normal beaten path but I'll sure put it on the list. I used to shoot at the gun club over there, at the time run by David George (I think, been quite a while), nice place and back then they had a restaurant in town that claimed to serve the "best chicken fried steak in the world" and it may have been. Lip smacking good.

Book Review:

Smokestack Lightning, Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country by Lolis Elie with photos by Frank Stewart 200plus pages, many photos.

This is the first of the "trilogy" of most recommended Q books and is the earliest written as well. It was researched in the early 1990s and published in 1996.

Basically it is the story of two young black guys who were working for the Wynton Marsalis Septet band as front men, etc who decided to quit their jobs and crisscross the country in search of the true Q. They used a 1981 Volvo, nicknamed the "Living Legend" to accomplish their version of this endless quest.

The book is somewhat more heavily weighted towards a social commentary than I'd prefer but Elie treats it with a light and erudite hand with some humor thrown in. Because of their color, many of their best interviews are with black Q cooks and several other attempted interviews were obviously refused or cut short due to their race. A notable exception was Edgar Black of Black's Barbecue in Lockhart, Texas who desegrated his business, started by his father in 1932, in 1949. A brave move in the Texas of that era. His ideas about equality spread to the community and helped get one high school built for all the students instead of the "standard" then of one for blacks and one for whites back then. Unfortunately, quite a few of the aged cooks, black and white, in here are gone now, so the interviews have some historical interest but often little or no relationship to Q that you can obtain today.

The title, "Smokestack Lightning" is from a 1956 Howlin' Wolf song which actually has nothing to do with Q but probably relates to their Q journey in some metaphorical manner, or, maybe it just sounded like a good book title.

During the time spent driving around researching this book, they found a lot more bad and mediocre Q than good, which is a reflection of today's reality that I find as well. While there are a few historical inaccuracies mentioned....."James Bowie who died at the Alamo was from Tennessee"....WRONG, in general the book is a good read albeit a bit slow in places for WASPS. There are two notable quotes in the text that will extend the length of this review but sum up the whole book in one way or another, one historical, and one from the book.

The historical one:

quote:

"The people in this part of the country, bordering upon James River, are extremely fond of an entertainment which they call a barbecue. It consists in a large party meeting together, either under some trees, or in a house, to partake of a sturgeon or a pig roasted in the open air, on a sort of hurdle, over a slow fire; this however, is an entertainment chiefly confined to the lower ranks, and, like most others of the same nature, it generally ends in intoxication." Isaac Weld, "Travels through North America during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797"

Some things don't change much, sounds like any decent Texas barbecue today to me......

The quote from the book:

quote:

".......both serve barbecue, the excellence of which can scarcely be overstated.

In the end, it was made deliciously clear that, whether your taste be for barbacoa, brisket, or ribs, you'll find no better quality and variety than that in Texas."

This book, unlike the other two reviewed above, which basically have recipes and cooking tips interspersed throughout the books, has a separate 50 recipe section at the end, which has some good recipes in it, and makes them a bit easier to access. However, the more modern two books have a more readable and enjoyable style IMO.

All in all, I found this book to be well worth reading albeit a bit dated. Recommended, but mostly due to its age, I wouldn't call it a must read for Qphile, overall rating: A--

Book Review:

BBQ Joints subdescribed as "Stories and Secret Recipes from the Barbecue Belt" by David Gelin 150plus pages with many pictures 2008

I'm not going to make this a long and drawn out review. I bought this book because it was a more current "road map" to various Q joints that the author visited and liked. It may be worthwhile as a general guide as it's arranged by states but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't agree with many of his choices, for instance he likes Coopers in Llano (which I have been to recently, but not since I've started these reviews and I find Cooper's to be decent plus but not great) and kind of neglects to find out that they use gas for part of their cooking. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but he rants against the practice in other parts of the book. Another thing I didn't like was he gave no real review of the type or quality of Q that each of the places he liked offers, rather he gives a brief history of each and a biography or similar of most of the people who currently own them. Not uninteresting but not something that is all that helpful. It would be nice to know if it has a sweet rub, hot rub, smoked only, etc.

I equally wasn't impressed when he found 8 notable Q places in Georgia compared to 9 in Texas. Yeah right.

There are 60 recommended Q places in the 13 more or less what we'd call southern Q states. All the recs are accompanied by a recipe which usually has little or nothing to do with what the place actually serves. Some of the recipes are interesting and might make it a worthwhile purchase on that basis alone to some Qphiles but not in my opinion.

In short, I think it is a usable guide as a starting point if you're traveling thru unexplored to you Q territory, and it reads very easily but it has at best, a very tepid recommendation by me. Not bad, and probably worth the $10 plus it costs at amazon, but you won't be missing much if you don't have it. OTOH if I'm in new Q territory, I'll be sure to visit his recs, what's to lose, most Q in joints that have been around a while is decent or better, hopefully much better. When I get to one of his lesser known recs I'll be sure to report. One such lesser known, Uncle Buck's Smokehouse in Shreveport, La will be visited before long, for sure. Overall grade: B

Anyone know if Saeed has tried BBQ?

Nice touches with the reviewer's pen, Gato.

I may have to grit my teeth and tighten my . . . ahem . . . and give them ribs just one more try.

Like the man said: "Some day . . . some day, baby . . . I ain't gonna worry my life any more."

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
Nice touches with the reviewer's pen, Gato.

I may have to grit my teeth and tighten my . . . ahem . . . and give them ribs just one more try.

Like the man said: "Some day . . . some day, baby . . . I ain't gonna worry my life any more."

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it. Just doing this for fun and hope someone else can find the true Q, whatever that means to them, as a result.

As far as your trying Q again, come on back to the dark side, plenty of Q to go around. But I've got one suggestion, if you want some ribs again, I'd try a different place.

Seriously, did you get some kind of food poisoning, that is bacterial, or do you think they actually had some foreign substance in the ribs which did you in? Did you report them to the health dept?

In general, given excellence in both, I prefer brisket to ribs. Even tho brisket is reputed to be harder to really cook well, I think that I find more acceptable brisket than ribs, assuming they use a real smoker type Q pit. Ribs being such a smaller piece of meat with the bone in there, which spreads the heat and speeds the cooking time, have a fairly narrow window between being just right and overcooked. That's why most of the ribs that people rave about have spent at least part of their cooking time in water (parboiling) or wrapped in foil. Those methods make it a lot easier to present a decent tasting and tender rib, but aren't really the old style of Qing. Although I have to admit, that parboiling meat to tenderize it, before it's final cooking probably goes back nearly as far as the first stew pot.

I also don't particularly like chopped anything. It obscures the actual cooking tastes to me. Nothing wrong with it on a sandwich but then you are usually buying the sauce flavor and not just the meat. Even on sandwiches I prefer sliced meat. Unless their claim to fame is specifically a type of sandwich, I rarely order sandwiches at Q joints. So far in my limited reviews above, none of the places was really a sandwich Q joint.

There is a section which is probably about as enlightening as any, in "Smokestack Lightning" where the author, Lolis Elie, is asked to be a judge at a Q rib competition. He does his best and finds that, by comparing notes, after the fact, that he more or less completely disagrees with most of his fellow judges. Regarding judging, he also notes how poor or actually bad many of the entries were in his opinion, and these entries are from people....... true, some are amateurs, but many of these entrants do this as a full time avocation and a good many of them have Q restaurants.........who spend a lot of money to compete. That's why I don't particularly like some of the Q places others find wonderful, each person brings his own idea of the perfect Q with them. I try to be fair, but objectivity and Q are rare companions. I find in visiting Q joints, some are good, most are Ok, some are really poor, and only very occasionally is one great. But then, think about it, that's true of most of our daily restaurant dining experiences, and contrary to most dining, the rare great Q is usually about the same price as the ordinary. The search continues........

Book review:

Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces subdescribed as "175 Make-Your-Own Sauces, Marinades, Dry Rubs, Wet Rubs, Mops, and Salsas" by Paul Kirk, 250 plus pages 1998

Paul Kirk is a 7 times World Champion at various major Q competitions and did, or does, teach classes that have introduced quite a few people into either competitive Q or business Qing. I suspect that the classes and the feedback he got from them helped him formulate this book. He has at least one of his students recipes in here (Bill's Beef Power Rub).

It didn't really take long to "read" this book, I read the text and skimmed the recipes. There are probably 30 or so pages of instructions and tips for customizing sauces, rubs, etc (which those alone would probably be worth the price of the book) followed by recipes which each have a little blurb by Kirk about best uses, etc. The rest of the book is devoted to the recipes which are divided up into the appropriate sections, dry rub, sauces, etc. which mostly seem excellent or at least pretty good at a glance. Of course, as in just about any cookbook I've ever "read" there are some of them that I probably wouldn't allow to cross my palate.....West Indies Guava Barbecue Sauce would likely be one, but those few are the exception and most of them seem to be anything from interesting to "gotta try this right away" delicious sounding. One of these, "Sam's Special Mustard Sauce", is what he says resulted in the best brisket that Kirk ever ate, made by a Texas Qer, Sam Higgins. I'm not normally enamored with mustard bases sauces but this sounds like a "gotta try".

While I'm not a Q sauce book or a Q cookbook expert, I'd say this one is a heckuva a good start if you want to pursue making your own sauces, etc for your style of Q and well worth the $10.86 it costs at amazon. Highly recommended for home Qers. Overall rating: A+ (could be higher but I haven't read enough other similar books to have a really valid basis for comparison)

Living north of the Mason Dixon line, I guess I'm not an expert on Q. However, on one trip to San Antonio we went to County Line BBQ and had the "Cadillac" along with some Shiner Bock. Best meal I've had in a long time.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to Texas, y'all come back, ya hear!

Book Review:

The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue approximately 400 pages, some color photos, line drawings 2005

I really made a mistake when I bought this book for $23.10 from Amazon. The title was a head fake and combined with my thinking that the magazine "Cook's Illustrated" is one of the finer cooking magazines ever, at the same time I was in kind of a rush choosing a few books to read besides the above "trilogy", so I ordered it.

I should have known that any outfit based near Boston, Mass. (where their test kitchens are located) wouldn't have a clue about Q.

In fact, the use of the term "barbecue" in their title is one of the secondary meanings, that is "to grill or cook over hot coals", mostly referring to what we call backyard cooking or, as the term is widely used, barbecueing, but it ain't really.

There is only the briefest of nods in the whole book towards real Q cooking, nor do they obviously know anything about it, and, based on that alone, it would not be worth buying.

However, it is an exhaustive guide to grilling (according to them they built over 6000 fires to test and cook on for this book) just about anything you can think of, with quite a few taste tests, steak supplier comparisons, etc in the text. One notable one, which I don't agree with is when their Yankee tastebuds tested three "Texas" Q woods.....hickory, mesquite, and (get this) green oak......green oak and hickory were okay according to them but "Mesquite, on the other hand, had a fake, pungent flavor that tasters universally hated." Maybe they had fake Yankee mesquite.....we send a lot of old railroad ties up that way...... Most real Qers won't use green wood EVER for smoking since it has a tendency to impart some of the volatile flavors found in fresh wood to the meat and make it somewhat bitter. If you're really jammed up for smoking wood you can use it sparingly mixed with some older, dried wood and probably get by with it.

At any rate, as a grilling guide for someone who wants to cook on their gas grill, Weber, or similar in the backyard it is an excellent source with hundreds of recipes. Recommended for that purpose, and given an A rating for that. As a Q guide or recipe book it is nearly worthless and I give it an overall rating of C--- for that use. The only reason it is that high is that it has many recipes for dishes and rubs, etc that could be crossed over to true Q uses.

OK I may be relocating to HOUSTON any good place's there???? for bar B que thats is

I'll let the locals answer since I haven't tried any Q in Houston in years. I only go there very infrequently for an expedition to Spec's Downtown Warehouse to restock my wine cellar (best wine prices and selection in all of the South BTW) and just the thought of Houston traffic gives this country boy the heebie jeebies.

Houston--
I Loved Thelmas--gone


Try:
Piersons

Burns

Goode

piersons (: got it will try it thurs when i go for interveiw

Thanks Duggaboy

Salt Lick near Dripping Springs (if not mentioned already). Now in Round Rock near the Dell Diamond. Have not tried this one yet.

Pit in Georgetown Texas. Piggy's in Brownsboro
Texas. PokiJoes in Austin. I hear the Iron Works in Austin is good, but never been there.

when I helped out at the pits during our church-festival, we only did shoulder-clods.started about dark-30 the night before with a trailer of wood,made a big fire of mesquite and only the coals from it were shoveled into the long brick pits. plenty smoke and our pit-master decided when to add more. typical STx Church BBQ and the ladies came early with tater salat, cole slaw. the bean-cookers started at 4am. Mass at 10, bingo at noon. cold beer after the Padre sed Amen. gets hot early here.

If you are ever in Victoria, Mumphord's BBQ on Juan Linn is great for brisket and ribs... servings are generous and it is authentic. Hell, even the pits have their own names like his biggest, Goliath and they are the real thing, stoked every morning at 4:00 am with oak and pecan. Ask for the owner Ricky Mumphord and have him give you a tour! Tell him Russell sent you.

I always enjoy Hinzie's in Wharton when traveling to Houston around lunch. Great Q and sides but the pies will keep you coming back!

Kreuz's, Smittys and Luling CM have already been mentioned but I worry myself sick as to which establishment's door I will darken when I am traveling to Austin... decisions, decisions but no wrong choice. LOL!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
If you are ever in Victoria, Mumphord's BBQ on Juan Linn is great for brisket and ribs... \

I always enjoy Hinzie's in Wharton

Darn, you're right, I forgot about them, on the duck and goose hunts the local boys took us to both on different trips.

As I recall Mumford's bests Hinzie's though.

Yep... I also noticed no one mentioned Joe Cottens in Robstown. Well known and sturdy Q served on butcher paper and you can eat all you want, they keep bringing it until you say "no mas'!