Well it may be a regional thing, I'm in Texas and the Q that I grew up with is cooked for 12 to 16 hours with nothing but wood. Take a tour of Lockhart's legendary spots or go to Austin and visit Franklin's or J. Mueller's or go to Lexington and visit Snow's. They all produce some of the best Q in the country and they all have one thing in common,...they use nothing but wood! A lot, (not all) but a lot of the BBQ served on a daily bases in other parts of the country and loved my 1000's simply wouldn't fly here. In central Texas most of the places that are using the big gas or electric cookers are the chain restaurants and cookie cutter franchises, for serious BBQ lovers here the establishments mentioned above are the ones that come to mind for the real deal. Charcoal and pellets are fine for the back yard and you can take them to as many competitions as you like but if I'm going to open a joint, there will be a stick burner on the premises!:wink:
Smoker vs. Smoker for a restaurant
- Thread starter Countryboyswagger
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Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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Thank you. It all makes sense now.
I agree with this. I make some pretty amazing bbq with my Weber OTS and some hardwood chunks.
So, in essence, if you can run wood in the fireboxes and it can run all night, without gas, is there a real difference in the bbq each cooker makes? Other than maintenance, construction, etc, wouldn't this basically level the playing field for the smokers? I want to be able to load it up after I close, go home and come back early in the morning and finish it up. If they can all accomplish this is there a real noticeable difference in meat quality?
I didn't realize Klose made pits like that so I'll definitely check them out, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't have the space that Aaron Franklin does, so the big outside pit with a giant stack of wood and a charcoal barrel won't cut it. This is the reason for trying to find a quality alternative, because the people living in my region deserve something more than crock pot barbecue. I don't wont my ribs to taste oven roasted because even though they would taste good (because they're ribs, and cooked, and being eaten) I want to provide the very closest thing to real good smoked animals that I can manage. If this can be accomplished with my Weber OTS or my modded to hell to make work COS with some Kingsford and apple wood chunks at home, surely I can find something that would work at a downtown restaurant.
Thanks all for the information. I'm learning a ton and I really appreciate it.
Oylers offer great heat control, even when fully wood fired. They have thermostat controlled dampers that will let you dial in temps. But, you need to manually feed the wood. The new E-model allows you to do hybrid cooks with less wood fueling.
Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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Now I don't want to get in a battle of who has the best barbecue because I've never been to any of those places in Texas. I have little doubt that they are delicious because they've been around for years and you can read about them on the internet and Visa commercials and whatnot. I have, however, been to one bbq place in Texas and it was farking terrible. This was before I was acquainted with the BBQ Brethren so give me a little slack--But not much though, because the place I went was given awards for best new restaurant, best of the best and best lunch every year from 2004 to last year. This is the reason I went, and it was a far cry from stellar. I even tried the brisket because I wanted to compare "real" Texas brisket to my own. It was not great. In fact, it was like eating roasted meat. I went in 2010. They've won awards since I was there so that tells me that nothing has changed. I think this means three things: 1. Barbecue tastes really are regional. B. This place sucked. 4. Most places in Texas suck and nobody knows the difference. I'm going to go with the first one and second one because I don't want any of you Texans showing up at my house trying to beat me to death with a chunk of post oak.
Point is that the place I'm sure had a real deal smoker. Probably just didn't put in any real deal time or real deal effort into making real deal bbq. I think there's more to q than just having a wood burning pit.
luke duke
is Blowin Smoke!
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- Dallas, TX
What place was it?
Yeah...which place?
Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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- Gray, GA
What are the chances that they or their friends will read this and I'll be accosted in my driveway on a dark rainy night in November? More importantly, will I be fired from the brethren for crap talking a bbq joint?
Nope...there is a good change they do serve crap. I can think of an old local Dallas joint that I think makes horrible brisket and that is Sonny Bryan's. My 1st brisket was better and that's not saying much.
Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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I see that both of you are from Texas. No hard feelings.
It was the Silverado Smokehouse in Corpus.
http://www.corpuschristi-bbq.com/
(blocks face):boxing:
Never been there but maybe they just started winning awards when Joe Cotton's burned down....and the pics of the brisket just look bad. where is the bark?
Countryboyswagger
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If you can believe it, they dropped a fresh cooked brisket on the counter when I walked up. I was like "Hell yeah!". Then they guy proceeded to cut the bark from the edges, shoved it all down in the little trash hole and then sliced mine and put it on the plate. Not being from Texas I was like :crazy: but who am I to question it, this is Texas bbq right? I'm just a good ol' boy from Georgia that finally found wood.
I was very disappointed.
:twitch::crazy:
Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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Never been there but maybe they just started winning awards when Joe Cotton's burned down....and the pics of the brisket just look bad. where is the bark?
Notice also the lack of any smoke rings. I don't know if that's definitive, but it should be from some place with "smokehouse" in the name.
This clearly points out what I'm talking about though. I want the very best cooker I can afford for a restaurant that can still fit inside the limitations that I'm under. I just don't know what that cooker is. IF an OH or SP or Mak or whatever made bbq like this, I'd just as soon never open up.
luke duke
is Blowin Smoke!
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- Dallas, TX
You got come CrapQ. Sadly many people, even in Texas, don't know what good BBQ is. They don't understand why some places are able to charge $10/lb and why some places have to charge $18/lb.
Cool off brother, nobody's saying that there isn't good Q anywhere else but Texas. I'm simply stating facts about what the great places here use to cook with and for that reason I would use the same thing! I'm sorry that you had a bad experience at one place out of the thousands in the state of Texas but attacking them isn't going to change the fact that you can go ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY and you will find that the top notch joints are using wood fired pits of some kind. You simply will not find too many pits with a bag of lump or a box of pellets sitting next to them. This thread is about the type of cooker that would be best suited for a restaurant, based on what I have seen and know I gave my 2 cents on the subject. If that bruised your ego I'm sorry,.... well not really!
Countryboyswagger
Knows what a fatty is.
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Cool off brother, nobody's saying that there isn't good Q anywhere else but Texas. I'm simply stating facts about what the great places here use to cook with and for that reason I would use the same thing! I'm sorry that you had a bad experience at one place out of the thousands in the state of Texas but attacking them isn't going to change the fact that you can go ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY and you will find that the top notch joints are using wood fired pits of some kind. You simply will not find too many pits with a bag of lump or a box of pellets sitting next to them. This thread is about the type of cooker that would be best suited for a restaurant, based on what I have seen and know I gave my 2 cents on the subject. If that bruised your ego I'm sorry,.... well not really!
It would take a lot more than your post to bruise my ego friend. And I think you took the reply wrong. It was meant to be sarcastic. I was basically agreeing with you about the regional thing and simply pointing out that it takes more than just cooking with a stick burner to make good barbecue, which this one restaurant out of thousands in Texas proved.
I apologize if you thought I was coming down on your opinion. Well, not really. But I would like to point out that I thanked you for your opinion and I still do, even though I specifically stated in the OP that stick burners are a no-go.
I'm pretty young in the barbecue game and I came here specifically for advice from people like you and the others who've replied that have far more experience than I do. Again, I thank everyone for throwing their two cents in, even if it's only worth one. (That was another joke, not to be taken seriously)
LOL! Okay, I guess this has largely been a misunderstanding. I saw the pics. of the brisket looking back over the thread and you definitely were served crap!( I can't believe they cut the bark off!!) Plus for some reason I thought that I was still exchanging posts with CPW, if you read back over the posts you might see what I'm talking about. Anyway, no hard feelings and good luck on finding the right cooker for your needs!:redface::-D
sliding_billy
somebody shut me the fark up.
Looks like meat loaf and roast beef had a baby and named it Crap-a-Q.
cpw
Babbling Farker
Hey now, I got no beef with you either. :biggrin1: I read your post about Texas BBQ joints, and I have to agree with you...I've been to a couple out there and they are very good, especially in comparison to what's around me. Does that quality have to do with them using stick burners? Hard to say, but I do see your point.
I just know if I ever had to run a BBQ restaurant, I wouldn't even want to think about using a stickburner. I know how much work they are.
If I could just interject a few things.
1. I have heard at least one Texas pitmaster, John Fullilove describe his cooking operation, and he is not cooking his meats for 12 to 16 hours, nor do they cook through the night. He run's the pits for Smitty's and he says they fire the pits at 4 or 5 in the morning and are serving by 11 a.m. By my calculations, that is a 6 hour brisket.
2. Countryboy, have you ever cooked in a restaurant situation? I recognize that you have a standard that you want to hit. But, cooking for a restaurant is a lot different than cooking for catering or backyard. If you have, then all kudos to you going forward with a plan. But, my experience has been that you have a lot of compromises along the way, to getting where you want to go.
3. I have had good BBQ off of a Southern Pride and a Frederich, it isn't all about the cooker. You can cook great BBQ off of a gas or electric smoker, if you want it badly enough. But, wood is expensive, storing it is expensive, firing it is expensive. A lot of those folks who are serving bad BBQ, are doing so, in order to stay in business. Believe it or not, most folks, anywhere, can't or don't care. Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't, but, it does mean you will be putting a lot of effort where it has only moderate bang.
1. I have heard at least one Texas pitmaster, John Fullilove describe his cooking operation, and he is not cooking his meats for 12 to 16 hours, nor do they cook through the night. He run's the pits for Smitty's and he says they fire the pits at 4 or 5 in the morning and are serving by 11 a.m. By my calculations, that is a 6 hour brisket.
2. Countryboy, have you ever cooked in a restaurant situation? I recognize that you have a standard that you want to hit. But, cooking for a restaurant is a lot different than cooking for catering or backyard. If you have, then all kudos to you going forward with a plan. But, my experience has been that you have a lot of compromises along the way, to getting where you want to go.
3. I have had good BBQ off of a Southern Pride and a Frederich, it isn't all about the cooker. You can cook great BBQ off of a gas or electric smoker, if you want it badly enough. But, wood is expensive, storing it is expensive, firing it is expensive. A lot of those folks who are serving bad BBQ, are doing so, in order to stay in business. Believe it or not, most folks, anywhere, can't or don't care. Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't, but, it does mean you will be putting a lot of effort where it has only moderate bang.
