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BBQ

Texas Barbeque: Just Follow Your Nose

You can hardly drive a mile in Texas without hearing, seeing or smelling a Texas barbeque grill. They are as ubiquitous to Texas as the cowboy hat. Thank goodness. One bite of delightfully smoky Texas barbeque and you'll be begging for more. If you ask most Texans, they'll tell you that the best barbeque you'll ever have in your life is defined by three things:

Meat, Heat and Mesquite.

The beef of choice for most Frisco barbeque restaurants is beef brisket. This challenging cut, once eschewed by butchers and chefs as too tough and too fatty has become a Texas barbeque standard. Indeed, a poorly handled brisket is a guaranteed disaster in the hands of an inexperienced backyard chef or amateur cook. Legend has it, however, that an enterprising young cook took this discarded cut and slow roasted it on a closed pit vs. the more popular open grill of the time.  The process rendered the beef brisket fork tender, wonderfully smoky and delightfully juicy.

The trick to the juiciest, most flavorful barbeque is to slow cook it - somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 hours. Frisco, Texas barbeque pit masters know to keep their beef brisket away from direct heat and avoid poking, prodding or flipping - anything that will release those divine juices you'll be sopping off of your plate later (with a sweet and sticky hunk of cornbread or buttery roll - standards of many a Texas barbeque menu). This process, while time consuming, delivers incredible results and creates Texas barbeque fans on the spot.

While most everyone agrees that beef brisket is the traditional meat of Texas BBQ and the cooking process is not to be tinkered with, the kind of wood used to deliver the rich, smoky flavor that infuses the meat is a debate not so easily settled. Old school barbeque aficionados tend to vote mesquite wood all the way. This Texas wood, once considered a ranching nuisance, gained new life and admiration as a flavorful infusion into humble barbeque. However, some barbeque diners swear by a combination of hickory wood smoke and a flavorful dry rub to create the most authentic Texas barbeque experience.

Whether you choose to have your barbeque delivered on a humble sheet of wax paper from a roadside stand or on a china plate at the finest Frisco restaurant, don't leave Texas without enjoying this traditional dish.