Page 30 - Barbecue News April 2020 Issue

roadtrip
A Texas BBQ
Road Trip
Two BBQ buddies met up in early December on a mission to sample eight of the top BBQ joints in the area. Mark Tuttle from Boise, Idaho and Ross Tillbury , Louisiana Area Coordinator for Operation BBQ Relief, sampled eight restau- rants in three days and are sharing their re- views with you — and us here at the Barbe- cue News Magazine and written by Mark. They met when Mark became a weekly cus- tomer at his BBQ place, Road House BBQ in Eagle, Idaho for nine years.
According to Ross,
Mark is a tough BBQ
critic when judging one
of his favorite delicacies — BBQ.
Terry Black’s BBQ — December 5, 2019
Overall Score: 4 out of 5
Brisket - strong beef flavor, very light smoke, very strong salt - too strong. Overcooked. A little dry and definitely crumbly- even from the point.
Ribs - Great cook and tenderness. Not very porky, and a slightly off taste from some mop or smoke on the surface. A little unpleasant. Very light smoke fla- vor.
Sausage - A nice medium grind, but large chunks of gristle (not fat) that wouldn’t chew. The outside had a very strong smoke, that would have been fine, but some bitterness in the smoke from bark or sooty fire. Decent Flavor inside. A little greasy.
Cole slaw very good. Creamy, with some vinegar. It cut the fatty meat very
Mark Tuttle
Ross Tillbury
By: Ross Tilbury and Mark Tuttle
well.
Sauce was very good. Thin Texas style, and more orange than red, and with extra vinegar. Spicy sauce also good. Some of the staff friendly, and some not.
Franklin BBQ, Decem- ber 6, 2019
Arrived at 7:05 am. 14 people ahead of us. Not many locals. A filmmaker from Montreal, 3 senior UT ladies who are about to graduate and thought they couldn’t leave Austin without going to Franklins. A couple from Wisconsin, and a couple from New York City. Got into restaurant at 11am. Excellent brisket!! Worth the wait. The point was
perfectly cooked, the flat
was a touch overdone. Very beefy flavor, but not roast beef flavor.
Extremely moist, but too much salt and too much black pepper for my taste. Not as much salt as Terry Black’s. The flat was a little drier and salty, and peppery, but still excellent. Small briskets from Creek Stone Farms. Overall- the best brisket I’ve ever had, as long as you don’t include the bark. (Secret - they use Lawrys Seasoning Salt!)
Ribs were good, but overcooked a little. Extremely moist, but fell off the bone in some places. Good flavor from the rub, and ok pork flavor. Good ribs, but I’ve had better.
The standard house sausage was excel- lent! A finer grind than most Texas Sausage, and excellent meat, spice and smoke balanced flavor. Casing was a little tough, but ok. As good as any sausage I’ve ever had.
I got talked into Turkey by the line
BarbecueNews.com - 30
APRIL 2020