In our recent post about Baby J's Bar-B-Que & Fish in Palestine, we promised to tell you why Jeremiah "Baby J" McKenzie padlocks the cooking chambers on his brisket pit.
Well, that wasn't the only instance of brisket burglary we encountered on our recent East Texas barbecue tour. Taste and temptation must be the devil's work.
Ron Davis, who runs Stacy's Bar-B-Q in Jacksonville, told us that "every now and then" someone breaks into the small building that houses his two big gas-fired smokers and grabs some meat.
"They don't wear gloves and the briskets are hot so they usually drop them right outside the door," he said.
McKenzie, also the pastor at One Way Apostolic Church in Palestine, keeps the cooking chambers locked on the brisket smoker outside his joint.
That may be for the sake of the tempted as well as the temptation -- the meat.
When we visited, he told a story about a woman who swiped a foiled brisket from the pit. As she tried to get away in her car, the hot juices started leaking through the foil, scalding her. That caused her to mistakenly hit the gas and crash, he said.
The lord works in mysterious ways. Either that, or she's a fan of Texas BBQ.
Photos © Gary Barber & Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse
