Low & Slow: ‘Cue the Texas BBQ

With nothin’ but blue skies and breezes this weekend — and a visit last week to Lockhart Smokehouse fresh on my mind — I fired up the Big Green Egg with post oak and hickory, set the grill to low-and-slow, and cooked a 11-pound brisket.

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Like most respectable ‘cue purists in Texas, I like to season my meat simply. I use a blend of one part kosher salt and five parts coursely ground black pepper, occasionally adding a light dusting of paprika for color.

My set-up is pretty simple, with a twist of technobabble.

I start with lump charcoal–no briquets, which contain fillers and binders. (I especially like the products they sell at Premier Grilling.) Once the coals are slightly ashen gray, I throw on a couple of hickory logs and some post oak chunks for their smokey flavor.

When the coals are hot, add chunks of post oak and hickory wood

The best way I’ve found to keep a steady temperature in my Egg is to use a computer-controlled stoker fan called, appropriately, the Stoker, from Rock’s Bar-B-Que.

When combined with an ambient temperature probe and a meat thermometer probe, I just enter the temperature I want to Egg to maintain, and the Stoker does the rest. Failproof. Idiotproof. Just what I need.

Hiller recommends using the Stoker to precisely regulate your BGE

I smoke my brisket at 229F, until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 190F–the magic temperature at which the collagen and connective tissue melts. That’s when the brisket surrenders into tender goodness and becomes magically delicious.

A steady stream of smoke early in the 'cue

This brisket took 13 hours. Hungry?

Getting hungry?

(oh, how about some beef ribs, smoked for five hours…)

Beef ribs, smoked in the Big Green Egg. No rib rack; stand them up with bamboo skewers

A plate of magically delicious beef ribs