What is “Texas Style Pit Barbeque”?

“Barbeque” is actually a word used interchangeably to describe two different cooking styles. When most folks barbeque, they fire up the grill, let the charcoal briquettes glow white and slap on a steak. This process is quick, but it does little to enhance the flavor or tenderize the meat. Although Texans utilize this method (substituting mesquite wood for briquettes) for grilling steaks, they barbeque brisket, ribs, pork loin and other select cuts using an entirely different style. In Texas this style is called “pit” barbeque.

Texas style pit barbeque is an art form. It requires patience, understanding, and time to master, but the rewards are well worth the trouble. The meat is seasoned and cooked in an enclosed pit at low temperatures, usually in the 200 to 275 degree range using indirect heat that's produced by a slow burning hardwood fire. The meat is both smoked and cooked at the same time. Good barbeque is almost always cooked well done. Many Texas “Pit Men” cook their brisket 20 hours or more. This type of cooking produces some very flavorful meat and tenderizes even the toughest cuts.

One very popular misconception is that BBQ sauce is put on the meat while it's in the pit. This is totally untrue, and most Texans would be very suspicious of meat that was served with the sauce already on it. Real Texas Style Pit Barbeque is served with the sauce on the side so that it can be applied as the diner wishes. In fact, there are many barbeque joints in the Texas hill country where sauce is not served at all.

One way to positively identify real pit barbeque is by the “smoke ring”. This is the dark pink ring that shows on the outside edges of meat cooked in the pit. Sometimes smaller cuts of meat like ribs will be dark pink all the way to the bone. When you see that “smoke ring” you're eating real pit barbeque.

When any Texan worth his salt talks about barbeque, one of the first words out of his mouth will usually be “Brisket”. He's talking about beef brisket, a cut from the breast of a beef just behind the foreleg. A brisket is made up of two pieces of meat separated by a seam of fat. It's this fat that bastes the brisket during a long, slow barbeque. Brisket has a reputation for being a tough cut of beef, but what happens between brisket and barbeque is almost magical. The two were made for each other. If barbequed by someone who really knows what they're doing, there is no better eating on this earth.

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