Happy New Year, A Tad Early.....

I know I am a few weeks early there but it is time to get back on this horse.  Stepped away from the blog for a bit but now I am back.

So what has been happening with Trinity BBQ?  Well quite a bit.  The Ol' Pitmaster had to have his shoulder pretty much rebuilt.  If you ever have to do it, reach out to me and I will recommend a great ortho and the best physical therapy team in the world.  Shoulder is back 100% and I have been firing up the ol' VooDoo Child.  

Thanksgiving gave me a chance to try some new recipes.  A buttermilk brine is the bomb on a fried turkey.  I then smoked a turkey with a new herb butter rub and 24 hour brine.  A-Mazing!  

So new things are coming from Trinity BBQ so keep an eye on the blog. It is going to be a great new year.   We will be doing some upcoming events and getting back in the swing at Farmersville Farmers and Fleas in February.  Come by and see us the first Saturday of every month.  Grab a bbq sandwich and just shoot the bull.  

So let me be the first to say, "Happy New Year!"  Going to be a great year folks.

Oh and never forget.....  KEEP ON SMOKIN!!!!!

Great BBQ in DFW? Yes Please!

Father's day was last weekend and it was a great day.  The day was filled with messages from the kids, a great movie, wonderful time with my wife and some great BBQ.  

If you read my blog, you know I am a huge fan of Central Texas BBQ.  Just love the way it is smoked and the simple flavors combined with excellent make it good enough to eat without sauce.  I think that is the best way to judge great BBQ.  Do I need sauce to make it good, if so then it may be good but not great. (note to sauce lovers out there.  Nothing against sauce just like it better if I don't have to use it.  I do love a good sauce though).

So let's talk about great BBQ in DFW.  Dallas/Fort Worth has some good BBQ but I think there is definitely a gap between D/FW and Central Texas.  Well I made a little adventure for Father's Day.  Shannon and I headed down to Pecan Lodge in the Farmer's Market in Dallas.  We walked in to see quite a line.  A 2 hour wait in line later revealed the wait to be worth it.  Pecan Lodge is a little unique in that they have things besides BBQ like fried chicken.  So to use Shannon's words (she got the chicken.  She is a huge fan of fried chicken and maybe I will get her to write a blog about Gus' in Memphis someday), the chicken was ok which is code for,"I should of gotten BBQ".  Now on to the good stuff.  The BBQ.  I will start with the brisket. It has a generous amount of rub on it to form a very nice bark.  This brisket is by far the best I have had in DFW.  The rub was almost a little too thick but it had great flavor.  I will say that Franklin's is better in my opinion but it was very good.  Now let's go to the ribs.  The ribs were spare ribs and they were phenomenal.  I really liked the ribs because they didn't have sauce on them and the flavor was outstanding with a lot of meat on the bone.  The rib sauce that is served on the side (nice!) was really good.  Vinegar based sauce with just a right mix of sweet and heat.  Really enjoyed that!  Last meat was the pulled pork.  Again, the meat was great.  They make their pork meat a little more salty and that taste is just so good with the pork.  The pulled pork was super tender and juicy.  I won't say much about the sides because honestly they were nothing spectacular.  Just your ordinary BBQ sides.

Summing it up, the food was very good and by far the best BBQ in DFW in my opinion.  However, the experience left a little to be desired.  I'm not talking about the wait.  That is expected with good BBQ but the overall experience felt a little cold.  I love watching the slicer slice my order up and serve it up. At Pecan Lodge, the order is placed and then sent to a back kitchen and produced through a door. You can't tell them  lean or moist or anything like that so you lose the experience somewhat.  Would I recommend Pecan Lodge?  You better believe it!  Great food and great BBQ in Dallas.  Finally!

Thanks and let me hear what you think.  Keep on Smokin!!!

I'm Back!!!

So I have been out of pocket for a while and now I am back.  Look for regular blogs from me. If I haven't traveled to  a new BBQ spot, look for opinions on BBQ tools or rubs or sauces or I just may ramble on about Texas.  You never know.  So let me know some things you want to talk about.  Let's see what kind of stuff we can't get going on this internet thing.

I did have a BBQ over the holidays.  Had a little soiree for my daughter who recently graduated from Sam Houston State.  It was definitely a good time and I have finally perfected my sausage recipe.  I think my menu is complete now.  Take a gander at what we did!

So anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics and I hope everyone had a great holiday!!

Talk to you again soon and Keep on Smokin!!!

Rootin around in Razorback land....

Well this has been an interesting week.  I have been in Little Rock, AR.  I will tell you that downtown Little Rock is pretty nice.  They have some nice bars and restaurants there with some interesting people.  I did go to one BBQ place called The Whole Hog Cafe. http://www.wholehogcafe.com/   The ribs were very good.  Moist and tender and cooked just about perfect.  I was with a co-worker and she got herself a brownie for dessert but this boy went the the ribs for dessert!  Nothing like some smoked pork for dessert.   Well Whole Hog has several sauces and if you know me, I am not a fan of the sauce so much.  Some good Carolina Vinegar sauce on a pulled pork sandwich is great but that's about it.  Whole Hog had six sauces.  Now call me crazy but isn't that a little excessive?  They were all ok but none of them made me say, "Wow!  That was awesome.  Can I have that as a drink?"  


I make  three sauces.  I have what I call Shannon Sauce which is sweet and spicy (hence the name), a savory sauce that I haven't been able to name yet and Kakk's sauce.  Kakk's is very spicy and was handed down to me from my mom who had it handed to her from my grandfather and he had it handed to him from an old BBQ man in North Fort Worth.  I think I have spoken about sauce before but it can be such a huge topic, it never hurts to marinate a bit (I know...poor joke but couldn't resist)  I didn't touch on the potato salad but I think that is a topic for another day.....


Thanks for listening and keep on smokin!!

Road trip!!

I haven't been to the best city in the world in a while so I think it is time for a road trip and research.  Heading to Austin this weekend to see my awesome mother and stepdad.  We are going to help out the VFW Auxiliary (VFW is an amazing organization that helps veterans.  They do a ton for cancer research and you should help them out.  Check out their Facebook.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-VFW/124432532534).  After we do some work for them, I am going to go and try to hit a couple of BBQ places for research. Yeah, that's what I will call it. Research.  Research is just a way to make me feel better about eating a lot.  I love to drive around and try new BBQ and get new ideas.  Every time I watch a show or go to a new BBQ shack, I get a new idea of what to do or what not to do.  What are some of your best cooking ideas and how did you get them?  I can tell you that the basis of a lot of my cooking is around how my family cooked.  My grandfather was one heck of a BBQ guy and I loved it. Still use some of his recipes.   


So drop me a line and let me know how you learned to cook.  If you have a great idea, let me know and I will give it a shot.  


Keep on smokin'!

Some more thoughts on Europe and the smoke...

So it is time for another weekend and I am sure I will be firing up the smoker.  I fired up the ol' girl last weekend (the smoker, not Shannon!) .  I tried something new with my brisket.  I discovered something in Europe that really opened my eyes.  Less is truly more.  The dishes we ate in Italy, France and Spain were very simple.  They were simple but very delicious.  The portions were smaller and the seasoning simple.  I thought a lot about this on the very long flight back from Spain.  I put it to the test last weekend.  I went with a simpler brisket that was trimmed as opposed to untrimmed and went with my simple rub.  Didn't inject it.  Didn't wrap it.  Didn't mess with it a lot.  Just rubbed it, smoked it, cut it and ate it.  I have to tell you that the European people got it right!  That brisket was great.  So besides all of the wonderful architecture, art and history I learned about, I came home with new theories about BBQ and cooking.  Excellent Texas beef, sharp mesquite smoke and a simple savory rub is my key to a wonderful brisket.  I hope everyone had a great 4th and keep on smoking!!


A few pics of wonderful food we had in Europe.