For the pork-lover in your life — the perfect gift: a year’s membership in the Bacon of the Month club. It even includes tasting notes on each month’s selection and a toy pig. You know what I want for Christmas… (Tip o’ the apron to BBQ groupie Elaine!)
I’m spending this holiday weekend at my in-laws in College Station, TX (home of Texas A&M University), and since for the second time we are celebrating a wedding (this time my brother-in-law’s and last time mine) with some brisket from C & J Barbecue, I thought I’d post a bit of a primer on Texas BBQ.
First, in Texas BBQ is all about the beef brisket. Compared to the brisket we’ve had around the Bay Area, Texas brisket tends to be leaner and well-trimmed. At C & J’s it has great smoke and it’s very tender. Compared to other times we’ve had it, though, this time the brisket was pretty bland, lacking in meat flavor.
The sauce was good as usual. A lot of Texas-style sauce tends to be tomato based, but I find it to be a pretty good compromise — thick, rich, but with a stronger tomato flavor and less sugar than you’ll find in a molassas-based sauce.
Another unique thing about Texas BBQ is that it is often served with a large plate full of sliced dill pickles, jalapenos, and chopped onions. Tamar says cheddar cheese hunks are also a frequent side.
When Tamar and I had brisket catered to our wedding, we figured it would be better to serve our out-of-town guests some great local fare than some mediocre baked chicken. But we went gourmet with all the other side dishes. This time we celebrated Darren & Christine’s recent wedding with the whole deal. The caterers brought beans, potato salad, and sweet tea (of course). The beans were clearly home-made, and I thought perfectly sweet. The potato salad was a little plain, but well seasoned and chunky style, not like the puree we often get in the Bay Area.
In addition to brisket there was also sausage and smoked chicken. The sausage was decent, nothing to write home about, but I thought the chicken stole the day away from the brisket. Great smoke flavor, tender and delicious.
We didn’t have any pork this time, but I’ve had their pork ribs before. I remember them as decent, but I don’t think the tomato-based sauce goes particularly well with pork.
Just in time for our first annual pig pickin’, you can order your very own “Barbecue is good for us” T-shirt (or baby T, or halter top, etc.) in a variety of colors from our online store. Delivered straight to your door, and with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can also find our logo-wear on aprons, cutting boards, and mouse pads.
You know you want to see and be seen in your very own angry pig T-shirt!
Ladies and gentlemen,
The date is set, the picnic site is rented, and the band is booked. There’s no stopping us now. So put it on your calendar:
July 14th, 2007
2pm
We’ll be sending out an evite with the rest of the details. Really I guess this is just rubbing it in for everyone reading this who didn’t get invited. That’s mean. Sorry.
Needless to say, roasted potatoes make a great addition to any BBQ meal. Joe has posted a nice recipe for Perfect Roast Potatoes. His technique is to add a bit of cornstarch which promotes that nice browning.
My recipe for roast potatoes is quite similar, and I find that the secret ingredient is just a dash of onion powder. A little bit goes a long way, gives the potatoes a tiny bit of piquant richness. Too much, though, and they’ll taste like those crispy onion strings mom used to put on top of green bean casserole. I love green bean casserole. But still…
5th Annual Russian River Beer Revival, August 18th, 2007, Stumptown Brewery, Guerneville, CA
This was the single best even of last summer, I gotta say. If you are in the Bay Area, you love BBQ, and you’re not at this event…I don’t even want to think about. Let me break it down for you:
Dear lord it’s good.
Lilly’s BBQ
705 Divisadero St
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 440-7427
Hours: Mon-Thu 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11am-12am; Sun 11am-8pm
Lilly’s makes a darn good rib – meaty and tender, but with inconsistent smokiness. Their sauce is high quality, though a little thin for our tastes. The sides are very good. It’s also a great value, but plan to do take-out. Some websites say they have seating, but there’s really only about two tables shoved to the side in a waiting area.
We heard that Lilly’s, at the corner of Divisadero and 7th, made some of the best BBQ in San Francisco, so as part of my birthday celebration this past weekend we went over there after a few hours of drinking bourbon and other fancy concotions at Bourbon & Branch (which I highly recommend, but go early). Driving down Divisadero we knew we were close, and I knew we were in for some good BBQ because I could smell the smoke a block away. Extra bonus for Lilly’s: they’ve got their own parking lot.
We intended to stay and eat, but there’s really only a few tables there, and they were full of people watching the de la Hoya / Merryweather fight, so we took our food to go. The employees were nice enough, helped us choose the right amount of food, which turned out to be the perfect amount.
We had ribs. Specifically 1.5 slabs for 5 people. The ribs were meaty, medium tender, not too fatty. There was some disagreement about the smoke flavor – Andrew thought they were ’some of the smokiest ribs he’s had’, but I didn’t think they had particularly good smoke. This leads us to one of the only knock’s on Lilly’s – inconsistency. Some of my ribs were tough, some were bland, some were all bone. Others, though, were wonderfully tender and meaty with a wonderful pink smoke-ring.
We had the ‘medium’ sauce, which had a nice flavor and a good amount of spice. I noticed that medium was accomplished by splashing the ribs with half mild and half spicy – it worked out though. The reddish sauce was a little too thin for my tastes, but we can’t really knock ‘em for that – to each their own on sauce.
The sides at Lilly’s were a pleasant surprise. Their baked beans were nice and sweet with brown sugar and molassas. Just my style, though honestly not better than a number of canned varieties (maybe they were canned?). Their potato salad had a nice balance of mustard, onion, and pickle relish. It was almost smooth, though, like mashed potatoes. The slaw was nicely seasoned, which I’ve founded to be a rarity around here.
Lilly’s is good. Very good ribs, if inconsistent. Good sides. It’s cheap – 5 of us ate very well for about $35. I’m not sure if I’d say they’re the best BBQ in San Francisco though. I’ve certainly had better ribs in the East Bay. Andrew and I agreed that Flint’s ribs are meatier, more consistent, and with better sauce. KC BBQ’s ribs are also superior in my mind.
But I’d go back for sure if I was in the neighborhood. I want to try the brisket (which they were out of) and the chicken, which looked pretty darn good.
(Andrew took some nice pics with my camera, but unfortunately I’d accidentally turned off the auto-focus, so they turned out all blurry. No pork porn this time…)
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