Food guides · Texas
How to order Central Texas BBQ: lines, cuts and the butcher paper
The first time you walk into a Lockhart pit room, nobody tells you the rules. Here they are, from someone who has eaten at every counter between Austin and Luling.
By Cody Alvarez, Host, Texas, Kansas City and Memphis
· 3 min read
Lockhart, Black's Barbecue Photo: Heather Cowper, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Central Texas barbecue grew out of German and Czech meat markets in the late 1800s. Butchers smoked the cuts they could not sell fresh and sold them to farm workers by the pound, on butcher paper, with crackers and pickles. More than a century later, the best pits still work that way, and if you know the old rules, ordering is easy.
When to go
Barbecue is cooked once a day, and when it is gone, it is gone. The most famous pits in Austin draw lines an hour or two before they open, especially on Saturdays. In Lockhart and Luling the lines are shorter, but brisket can still sell out by early afternoon. The best time is opening or a weekday mid-morning; the worst is Saturday at 1 pm. Many pits close one or two days a week, so check before you drive.
Ordering at the pit
In the old pit rooms you order meat at one counter, by the pound, and sides and drinks at another. The cutter slices in front of you, weighs it and lays it on butcher paper. A quarter pound of brisket is a fair tasting portion; a pound feeds about three people when you add ribs and sausage. Do not be shy about asking for a taste of the burnt end of a brisket or a slice of the point.
- Lean brisket comes from the flat: sliced thick, beefy, it should still be juicy.
- Moist or fatty brisket comes from the point: richer, softer, with rendered fat. Most regulars order it.
- Pork ribs are sold by the bone or the pound, usually rubbed with salt and pepper.
- Sausage is the Czech and German inheritance: beef or beef and pork, sometimes with jalapeño and cheese, often served as a ring.
- Shoulder clod, the old-school Texas cut, is leaner than brisket and found in Lockhart more than in Austin.
The cutter will ask “lean or moist?” before you have finished reading the board. If you cannot decide, say “half and half” and you get a few slices of each, which is the best way to learn what you like.
Sauce, bread and the rest
Some old Lockhart pits do not offer sauce at all, and a few still do not offer forks. That is not rudeness: the meat is meant to stand on its own, and a sauce would hide the smoke. Most Austin places do put a thin, tangy sauce on the table. Sides are simple: white bread or saltines, pickles, raw onion, sliced jalapeños, and at the newer places potato salad, beans, slaw and mac and cheese. Peach cobbler or banana pudding is the classic finish.
To drink, locals order a Big Red, a bright red Texas soda, a Dr Pepper or, for those 21 and over, a cold Shiner beer. Water is free, and you will want it.
Pacing a barbecue day
On our Texas Barbecue Trail the Lockhart day visits three pit rooms in a row, then a fourth stop in Luling for sausage. The trick is to share. A group of four orders one pound of mixed meat at each stop, everyone takes a few bites, and the leftovers go home in foil. Skip the bread until the last stop. Walk around the courthouse square between pits. Drink water, not soda.
If you want to compare styles across the country, the Great American Barbecue Trail starts with Kansas City burnt ends and Memphis ribs before reaching Texas. By the time you get to Lockhart, you will have opinions.
Talking to the pitmaster
Pitmasters are usually happy to talk if the line is not out the door. Good questions are about wood (post oak is standard in Central Texas), about how long the brisket cooks (twelve to eighteen hours is common), and about the stall, the long plateau when the meat stops rising in temperature. Bad questions are about how they do it at a chain restaurant back home.
Ask, too, what they eat when the line is gone. More than one pitmaster has told me the answer is a sausage wrapped in a slice of white bread with a pickle, eaten standing at the cutting block. It is the best lunch in Texas, and it costs almost nothing.
Questions about Texas barbecue
Is Texas barbecue served with sauce?
Sometimes on the side, rarely on the meat. Some old Lockhart pits offer none at all.
How much brisket should I order?
About a quarter pound per person for a tasting, half a pound for a meal with sides.
