Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q in Lockhart: Where the locals eat

Finishing our I-10 BBQ roadtrip in Lockhart was never the plan. We pulled away from our fourth stop, Family Tradition Bar-B-Q in Waelder, without a destination in mind.

Jeff and I headed west on Hwy. 90 toward Luling, where we had started the day with a 10:30 am BBQ breakfast at City Market. Passing through town we saw the sign: Lockhart - 17 miles. You gotta do what you gotta do.

We headed north up Hwy. 183 and were in Lockhart in no time. Carl Ellis, a former Dallas Morning News sports editor who now lives in Lockhart, had told me about Chisholm Trail, the fourth and least famous of Lockhart's famous BBQ joints.

Carl and I were talking BBQ one day when he came back to visit the DMN. He was raving about Chisholm Trail and asked if I had been there.

"The tourists go to Kreuz, Smitty's and Black's," Carl said. "The locals go to Chisholm Trail. Just as good but costs less."

I put the joint on the top of my must-visit list from that day on. After four joints in six hours, this would be the icing on the cake of our BBQ daytrip.

We stepped up to the counter and ordered a half pound of brisket and a ring sausage, there wasn't much room left in the tank at that point.

We had previously agreed that our last stop at Family Tradition Bar-B-Q in Waelder was the best overall of the day, but the meats at Chisholm Trail were nothing short of spectacular. Both the sausage and brisket were perfectly cooked, making us wish we had a little more room for meat.

We split a peach cobbler with Blue Bell vanilla on top as a nightcap, then headed back to San Antonio.

Five joints in seven hours, 225 miles roundtrip from San Antonio. Just another little BBQ roadtrip, as we continue searching for the finest smoked meats in the greatest state in the union......

Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q, 1323 South Colorado Street, Lockhart, TX, (512) 398-6027. Open daily 8am-8pm.

Photos by Jeff Haynes & Chris Wilkins

BBQ Signs of our Times - Chapter 3

Back by popular demand, our BBQ signs series continues. A rule of thumb: The more homemade the sign, the down home the barbecue. Here are some signs from our recent East Texas II BBQ Tour and a couple of other recent BBQ roadtrips. You can click to see the first BBQ Signs of our Times post or BBQ Signs of our Times II. Thanks to new posse member Phil Lamb for his contributions to this chapter.

Family Tradition Bar-B-Q, Waelder, TX

Baby J’s Bar-B-Que & Fish, Palestine, TX

Lonnie Ray's BBQ, Harrisburg, MO

Stanley's Famous Pit Bar-B-Que, Tyler, TX

Stacy's Barbecue, Jacksonville, TX

Baby J’s Bar-B-Que & Fish, Palestine, TX

City Market, Luling, TX

Gonzales Food Market, Gonzales, TX

Baby J’s Bar-B-Que & Fish, Palestine, TX

Cripple Creek BBQ, Athens, TX

Smok'n J's Butt Nekkid BBQ, Montalba, TX

Baby J’s Bar-B-Que & Fish, Palestine, TX

Photos by Philip Lamb & Chris Wilkins

If we're the posse, he's the sheriff

The tough part about always being the guy behind the camera is that you're never* in the photo.

Chris Wilkins, the driving force behind the Texas BBQ Posse, is a professional photographer. So are a lot of posse members. But Chris is the guy who's always ready with his lenses and flash when we pull up to a new joint. He's the guy who's always walking in with at least two cameras around his neck. He's the guy who's always in perfect position to record the moment when a pitmaster agrees to take us around back and show us where the magic happens.

Which means, as I said, that he's seldom in the shot.

So here's my amateur-shooter's** gift to readers of the Posse blog: A Portrait of the Artist as a Hungry Man. (Looking closely, it appears that Chris might have three cameras around his neck.)

*One exception is the group picture that Chris always makes when we go on a tour. For those, he uses the shutter timer and joins us in the frame. Once, to get this shot, I saw him use a beer can as a tripod.

**Want to know just how amateur a shooter I am? Well, I count four telephone poles in the background in photo above, and I'm impressed that I don't have a single one growing out of Wikins' head. (OK, one's close...)

Cool photos from the East Texas BBQ Trail

Photos by Ahna Hubnik, Gary Barber & Mike Barber, shot on iPhone 4 with Hipstamtic app

Pit Talk: Smoking brisket in a grocery sack

Jason Hoskins writes:

First of all, I enjoy your blog. Check in on it everyday.

I have one question. I am planning on smoking a brisket this weekend and I wanted to try the butcher paper method you all wrote about. The problem, I can't find any plain brown butcher paper and I don't have time to order it.

I was wondering if you all thought a plain brown paper sack (grocery bag) would work? I figured it is basically the same as butcher paper but I'm not totally sure.

Thanks for your time.

Posse Pitmaster Marshall Cooper responds:

Interesting question Jason. I had always heard of family members using paper grocery sacks to roast turkeys in the oven.

The day we returned from the Central Texas Tour I didn't have enough butcher paper from City Market to wrap the size brisket I had, so I chose to try a paper bag from Whole Foods (organic right!).

Looking back, and comparing the paper bag experience with subsequent cooks with butcher paper:

1. The large-sized grocery paper bag wasn't big enough to fold over to obtain a reasonably tight seal on the brisket. This resulted in smoke entering the bag and way oversmoking the brisket (aka meteorite). Then again, while waiting for the butcher paper to be delivered in the mail, I tried it a second time with two paper bags, taped and stapled. But, again, too much smoke seeped into the bag!

2. Using the paper grocery sack also meant an extremely long cook time for the brisket. Maybe the paper sack was too thick, which may have over-insulated the meat causing it to cook slower, which compounded the over-smoke issue.

So I've tried using the paper grocery bag on two separate occasions and the results were very similar, long cook times and way too much smoke. The brisket was much drier using the paper sacks compared to butcher paper.

I suspect there is something to being able to tightly wrap and fold the brisket three times, producing a decent seal to keep smoke from directly seeping inside. But my experience is based on using my offset BBQ pit, which surely produces unique results compared to someone else's pit. The butcher paper method does not work well in a direct heat smoker like a Weber bullet and WSM. It works best in an offset, stick burner.

If your pit is efficient, burns clean and maintains steady, even temps, it might work with a paper grocery sack. But the 25-30 hours of cook time I spent ended with poor results. If you have the patience and time it takes to spend smoking briskets, I say be a little more patient and just mail order some butcher paper.

Photo by Chris Wilkins

Best name ever for a barbecue joint? Smok'n J's Butt Nekkid BBQ

We were driving on Highway 19 between Palestine and Athens when we spotted the smoke.

No one wanted to cram an extra stop into our East Texas barbecue tour last weekend. We were stuffed after eating at three places and we wanted only to sample the Hog Wings at Cripple Creek in Athens before returning to Dallas.

But the smoke on the side of the highway in Montalba was enticing. We drove past, but Posse co-found Chris Wilkins said, "We probably should turn around." Wheelman Marshall Cooper obliged.

And so we pulled into Smokin' Jay Galloway's Butt Nekkid BBQ.

"We don't put anything on our brisket except smoke," Galloway said, explaining the name.

Open about a year, Galloway said he cooks every night and sells out every day. He offers a chopped beef sandwich special with chips and a drink for $5, sales tax included.

He was out of ribs when we arrived about 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. We sampled his brisket and sausage and decided it would be nice to visit again when he still had ribs.

The joint itself, with its loose brick entryway and hand-strung, lighted "BBQ" sign, is unique. I would call it cute or quaint. Tour veteran Sheilagh Cooper called it "eclectic." Bruce Tomaso said "faux rustic."

However you describe it, it's one of a kind.

Smok'n J's Butt Nekkid BBQ, Hwy. 19 at FM 321, Montalba, 903-373-2956. Open Wed-Sun 10 a.m.-7 p.m. or when the meat runs out.

Photos by Chris Wilkins