See the latest & greatest photos of Franklin Barbecue in Austin

My Dallas Morning News colleague Guy Reynolds made a couple of trips to Austin to shoot photos for a page one story on Franklin Barbecue, which has attained cult status in an amazingly short length of time.

Click here to see the slideshow of Guy's work, behind-the-scenes photos of Aaron Franklin & crew from the early hours working the pits to closing time, and everything in between. Above is a photo of Aaron and wife Stacy relaxing in front of the little turquoise trailer that started it all.

Guy describes how he shot the Franklin portrait on his facebook page, "I shot that portrait of Aaron and Stacy on 4x5 film with an 1950's Graflex Crown Graphic just because, well, I can. Real photography: what a concept."

The Morning News story is behind the paywall, but you can see it if you are a DMN customer or digital subscriber.

Photo by Guy Reynolds/The Dallas Morning News

Checking out the smokers at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff

One of the coolest things at a BBQ cookoff is the opportunity to check out everyone's smokers and cook setup. Here's a quick tour of some of the teams the Posse is competing against here at Possum Hollow Camp near Graham.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Smokin' Possum Cookoff a character-building experience for the Posse

We're still processing everything we learned at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff. It will take a while.

We had fun cooking just outside our cabins at Possum Hollow Resort on Possum Kingdom Lake over a nearly weather-perfect weekend.

As for our results, however, the best thing we can say is that it was a character-building experience.

Our first entry into the world of sanctioned barbecue competitions was a crash course in harsh reality. Cooking to maximize the impact of that one bite a judge takes of your food is not the same as cooking for friends and relatives in your backyard. And it's not the same as turing out good barbecue day after day at a joint.

We thought we knew that going in. Now, we really know.

There were about 17 entries in each of the three meat categories -- chicken, ribs and brisket. We didn't place in any, and the places went down to #10.

The really character-building part of the experience, though, came when the I.B.C.A. judge read the order of finish for the rest of the field. We were second to last in each category. That's consistent, if nothing else.

Thankfully, the judge read only entry numbers and not team names.

She also said that one of the chicken entries was raw -- NOT OUR's -- giving us the opportunity to instantly create a new team motto: "Better than raw."

The best part of the weekend was visiting with other cookers, like Brett Davenport of Burleson, who built his own giant smoker that can cook 32 briskets at once. The rig, complete with automatic awnings that shield cookers from sun and rain, weighs about 9,000 pounds.

Saturday evening, well after the judging, we visited with Troy and Amber King, married cookoff veterans from Wills Point who compete separately. Sometimes Troy does better and sometimes Amber, they said. Troy took first in chicken, Amber fourth in brisket.

They passed along some cooking tips and rub recommendations. And they both said that they wouldn't cook their competition barbecue for a meal at home. The taste is too loud, trying to attract the attention of a judge who takes just a nibble. That makes it difficult to eat much more than one piece.

"Competition is all about one bite," Troy said.

"You couldn't eat a whole sandwich made of my brisket," Amber said.

For now, we'll take some comfort in that.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

It's turn in time at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff

Gary J's famous chicken & ribs have been turned in to the judges, now it's down to the biggie - brisket. That's a 3 p.m. turn in time.

Marshall cooked three briskets to choose between for our entry. Out of that we'll enter just seven slices for the judges to taste test. Win or lose, we've had a great time last night and today. What an amazing day out here at the second annual Smokin' Possum Cookoff.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Fear & Loathing at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff at Possum Kingdom Lake

It's less than 11 hours til our first check in time at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff. This is the second year for the competition, which has been named as a Texas state championship by the I.B.C.A.

We're missing two members of our cook team, Bryan Gooding and Gary Barber, who were key members of the award winning run at last year's Blues, Bandits & BBQ Festival in Oak Cliff. This is our first cookoff since then.

We're cooking ribs, chicken and brisket against a tough field of seasoned competitors. We'll be live blogging during the day, for better or for worse. Either way, the Posse is having a great time being part of the Texas BBQ competition circuit.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Posse favorites: Beef ribs at Lockhart Smokehouse

Beefed Up Wednesday is something you're going to want to check out at Lockhart Smokehouse in Oak Cliff. Posse member Jim Rossman came back after a recent lunch raving about the beef ribs, a menu item available only on Wednesdays. And Jim eats there one or two times a week.

Not a lot of joints serve beef ribs, though I've tried them at several places including Louie Mueller BBQ, Gonzales Food Market and Smoke in Dallas. The ribs from Louie Mueller have been amazing every time I tried them and Gonzales was really good as well. I probably won't order the beef rib the next time I dine at Smoke, it was underwhelming compared to Mueller and Gonzales.

A group of ten from the DMN headed over the viaduct today to find out for ourselves. Arriving at 11:30 am, the line wasn't long yet and we got down to business.

The rib is giant, almost making you think of prehistoric days. They normally cut if from the bone for you, throwing some sweet pickles and white bread on top. It looked great.

Irwin Thompson ordered his "animal style," ie: still on the bone. It was fun to watch him devour one-plus pounds of meat off that big rib bone.

Bottom line, most of us have been here numerous times and this is one of the best things we've ordered at Lockhart. It was cooked perfectly, with good rub, texture and smoke. One rib could easily feed two people, unless you come in with a huge appetite.

Open only three months, Jeff and Tim are understandingly still knocking out some of the kinks of starting a BBQ joint from scratch. However, Beefed Up Wednesday will keep you coming back for more......

Lockhart Smokehouse, 400 W. Davis, Dallas, 214-944-5521. Open every day from 11am till they're done.

Photos by Chris Wilkins