Let the meat speak for itself.

Texas BBQ Posse / Let the meat speak for itself.

Ridgewood Barbecue, a different — and secret — taste

Customers arrive at Ridgewood Barbecue in Bluff City, Tennessee. Photo ©Sherry Jacobson/Texas BBQ Posse) In Bullock’s Hollow, there are culinary…

Tootsie’s barbecue pork steak warms the heart of a Carolina pig cooker

Phillip Townsend shows off his tray of smoked meats at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, one of the highlights of his…

Reflections after a decade on the BBQ Trail

Snow’s BBQ pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz works the smokers during the Posse’s 10th anniversary trip. (Photo ©Tom Fox/Texas BBQ Posse) Anniversaries…

UPDATE: Step-by-step, cooking butcher paper wrapped brisket – See the video

As anyone who cooks knows, the more you cook the more you learn. So since that initial post, I’ve made…

Ridgewood Barbecue, a different — and secret — taste

Gary Jacobson - 01/20/2020 - Joints / Popular - 7 Comments

Customers arrive at Ridgewood Barbecue in Bluff City, Tennessee. Photo ©Sherry Jacobson/Texas BBQ Posse) In Bullock’s Hollow, there are culinary secrets galore. Amid the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Tennessee, you’ll find Ridgewood Barbecue. It opened in 1948 and still attracts a full house of customers, even on a recent Friday not long before New Year’s. That’s when Sherry and I visited with friends Phillip and Trish Townsend, who live an hour or so away in North Carolina. The secrets? Start with the recipe for the tomato-based sweet and sour barbecue sauce, which goes on much of the food the place…

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Zavala’s Barbecue in Grand Prairie is moving down Main Street

Our lunch at Zavala’s Barbecue in Grand Prairie, this is what Texican BBQ perfection looks like. (Photo ©David Woo/Texas BBQ Posse) Barbecue lovers: You have two more Saturdays to head to Grand Prairie for some of the best food, served by some of friendliest people, the Texas BBQ Posse has come across in some time. After that, you’ll have to…

Joints - 10/10/2018

Recreating Valentina’s breakfast tacos with barbecue leftovers

The gold standard of all breakfast tacos in Texas, from Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ in Austin. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) What to do with barbecue leftovers? Always an important question. The best advice the Posse ever received on that front came years ago during a visit to Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Tx. Reheat slowly in the oven with lots…

Cooking - 09/26/2018

Smoking beef short ribs and tri-tip steak on a perfect Sunday

Beef short ribs hot off the smoker. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) A recent Sunday in DFW offered the combination of perfect weather, the start of the NFL season and an interesting package of meats from Texas Beefhouse. So, what a better way to spend the day than smoking beef short ribs and tri-tip steak? After another hot Texas summer,…

Cooking - 09/25/2018

400 miles, or so, to the pork rib on a long road trip

Josh Johnson, left, and friend Cooper Furlong dig into pork ribs at 2M Smokehouse in San Antonio. (Photo ©Tom Fox) Over a decade on the barbecue trail, the Texas BBQ Posse has seen a lot of things. But we ran into a first last Saturday during a visit to 2M Smokehouse in San Antonio: A couple of young guys fueling…

Joints - 09/24/2018

Slow Pokes Brisket Shack, you gotta see it to believe it

Slow Pokes Brisket Shack in Manchaca, south of Austin, one of the most unique BBQ joints the Posse has ever visited. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) We arrived at Slow Pokes Brisket Shack in Manchaca, Tx., a little after noon on a recent Friday. No more than 60 seconds later, Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins declared: “This is the most unique…

Joints - 09/18/2018

BBQuest, a new video series, gets high marks from the Posse

Dishes featured in scenes from BBQuest, a web series from the Texas Beef Council. (Photos ©Beef Loving Texans) If memory serves, and sometimes it doesn’t in my advancing years, no one on the Texas BBQ Posse has ever gone shopping for party clothes, cowboy boots and hats before one of our smoked meat tours. That’s exactly what Kelsey Pribilski and…

Joints / People / Roadtrips - 09/10/2018

Recipe: Smoked Pastrami with Smashed Baby Reds from HangryQ.com

HangryQ.com brings you another great recipe, smoked pastrami and baby red potatoes. (Photos ©Jason Shane/HangryQ.com) Here’s another great recipe and video from the good folks at HangryQ.com. This week’s recipe features smoked pastrami and baby red potatoes, a perfect combo for an upcoming football Sunday. The HangryQ team posts a new recipe and video every week, with some creative ideas…

Cooking - 09/07/2018

Checking in with Smoke Sessions Barbecue in Royse City

Customers order lunch on a Saturday morning at Smoke Sessions Barbecue in Royse City, east of Dallas. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) The Posse first visited Smoke Sessions Barbecue about a year ago, when Jim Rossman saw a Facebook post about a new trailer operation located in a feed store parking lot between Rockwall and Royse City, east of Dallas.…

Joints - 09/05/2018

Why aren’t the lines longer at Brown’s Bar-B-Que?

Customers line up to order at Brown’s Bar-B-Que in Austin. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Call it a continuing smoked meat puzzlement for the Posse: Why aren’t the lines longer at Brown’s Bar-B-Que trailer on South Lamar in Austin? Owner Daniel Brown has been cooking and serving barbecue for more than a decade. His trailer started getting some serious buzz…

Joints - 08/30/2018

Some damn good steaks from Texas Beefhouse

Hot off the grill and sliced, Wagyu ribeye steak, top row, and Black Angus ribeye steak from Texas Beefhouse in Whitehouse. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Jonathan Wilkins, brother of Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins, succinctly summed up our recent test of Black Angus and Wagyu steaks from the Texas Beefhouse: “The lede is this place in Whitehouse produces good beef,”…

Cooking - 08/27/2018