Roscoe's Smokehouse, Burleson, Texas

Sampled about 5 pm, 1/26/10

This place was started by some ex-North Main BBQ folks and as that is my favorite local joint I have been meaning to give them a try. Some of the current NMBBQ people work there during the week, so it's a friendly spin-off. I had a 2 meat plate which was about $12 with tea. The ribs are just as good as NMBBQ, which means they're as good as it gets, in my book. The ones I had today were just a tad dry but I still wish I had another bunch of them to scarf down. Same rub, same tenderness. The brisket was very moist and tender but not a lot of smoke flavor except around the smoke ring. They use the same sauce formula as NMBBQ which is a great spicy tomato sauce and it made for excellent dipping. The sides were average tater salad and beans but I enjoyed the nice slice of Texas toast.

On the plus side, the ribs here are as good as North Main, they have schooners of cold beer, and they are open 7 days a week 11-9, 11-10 on Fri and Sat! On the minus side, they don't have all you can eat for $12 and they're more than 2 miles from my house. Still, a good joint to sample if you're in Burleson looking for some Q.

more home brisket

The Mrs hit a couple of more home runs with her brisket tonight. She did one trimmed brisket and one un-trimmed brisket just to see if there was much of a moisture difference in the two. Despite all the propaganda to the contrary, I couldn't tell any major difference. Both were smokey, moist, tender, and flavorful. No marinade on these, either, and they were just as tender as those she marinated last time. I think the bottom line is, low and slow is all you really need for great brisket.

Home brisket - Home Run!

The Mrs hit it out of the park last night with a dynamite brisket. It had deep smoke flavor, was perfectly moist, and was so tender it fell apart while slicing. Unfortunately, she's taking half of it to work! Wah! Now, on to ribs!

Smartass of the month WINNER!

David Besonen is the first, and so far, only winner of this award for sending me this:

Family BBQ - Quitman, Texas redux

resampled around noon 11/16/09

I made another stop at this joint this past week and still find it to be well above average. Both the brisket and ribs had a very nice deep smoke flavor, however the brisket was a bit dry and the ribs were a bit chewy. The brisket was so tender the slices were crumbling apart. Click on the pix below for a nice close-up that will make you HUNGRY. The potato salad had a bit more mustard this time but was still nice and creamy and better than average. I got an extra pound of that brisket to go and it made for some dynamite sandwiches with some Dr Pepper BBQ sauce.

UPDATE 3/31/10 This place has moved south of Quitman on Texas 37. I will check them out again next week.

Home Brisket number 3

The Mrs made her third home brisket attempt today and we're closing in on the real deal. Today we used a trimmed brisket and a mix of hickory and pecan for a 5 hour smoke. We finished with 2 1/2 hours in the oven at 250. The result was a deep penetrating smoke flavor which was just about perfect. Check out the smoke ring below. The tenderness was ok, but not quite to perfection standards. We decided it needed at least 5, maybe up to 7 additional hours in the 250 oven to get the desired tenderness. Regardless, it sure is fun eating the experiments! We're close, durned close! We shall be experimenting on ribs soon enough!

Family BBQ - Quitman, Texas

sampled 10/19/09 about 4 pm

I had passed by this place a couple of times on the way to Lake Fork and finally got a chance to sample it one afternoon when my fishing trip ended a bit earlier than usual. It looks pretty funky from the outside but the inside was clean and cavernous. I was the sole customer and the friendly lady behind the counter quickly filled my order of brisket, sausage, ribs, baked beans, and tater salad. The meat was pulled out of a warmer wrapped in foil, but being 4 pm that was really no surprise.

The sausage was average Ekrich and immediately forgettable. The brisket and ribs were another matter. The brisket had a nice smoke ring and gave way easily to a poke from a plastic fork. It had excellent smoke flavor but was a tad dry, probably due to sitting in a warmer til 4 pm. The ribs were juicy and falling-off-the-bone tender and also had an awesome smoke flavor. No dryness there at all. The baked beans were tasty with big chunks of bacon floating in them. The tater salad had a creamy mayo base and was also better than average. The sauce was a little weird. It tasted like chili powder in honey and was not to my taste at all.

Two out of three on the meats at a 4 pm stop is not bad at all. I need to try this place again during lunch or dinner and try some fresher cuts. They also sell East Texas style hot links. I'm hoping they do a big lunch or dinner business because it was sure lonely when I was there! With food this good they should be doing a much better business.

UPDATE 3/31/10 This place has moved south of Quitman on Texas 37. I will resample next week.