Jalapeño cheese sausage at Kreuz Market in Lockhart. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Regular readers know we had some internal Posse conflict before our recent Best of Texas Tour.

Should sausage count equally with brisket and pork ribs when trying to rate the best joints in the state?

Initially, we decided, no, sausage should count less. Then we got an impassioned defense of the sausage maker's art from Posse member Bryan Gooding, the sausage king of Oak Cliff after his victory last fall in the Blues, Bandits and BBQ cookoff.

So, we switched. All three meats, rated on a 1 to 10 (best) scale, counted equally.

Then, because of a crush of work, Bryan couldn't make Day 1 of the tour. That caused more sausage debate, and, frankly, some sniping. Bryan talked the talk, got us walking the walk, but he didn't follow.

In the end, Kreuz Market in Lockhart had the best sausage (9.16 average score) and we found that weighting scores differently for different meats wouldn't have made any difference in the overall results for this trip.

The Sausage King himself did show up for our last tour stop, at Pecan Lodge in Dallas, wearing an appropriate t-shirt.

And those Posse members who also tasted his winning links last October had to admit that he probably would have won our Best of Texas Tour in that category, too.

Bryan Gooding, aka the Sausage King of Oak Cliff. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)