Lines, lines, everywhere we go there are BBQ lines

Long lines at Franklin BBQ in Austin, top, and Pecan Lodge in Dallas. (Photos © Daniel Goncalves)

Aaron Franklin has made it cool to stand in a long line for barbecue. That has been the norm at his joint in Austin going back to its trailer days in 2009.

Now, the phenomenon appears to be spreading, as we discovered on our recent Best of Texas BBQ Tour.

A respite from brisket, ribs and sausage on the Best of Texas BBQ tour

The Posse digs into a Brother-in-Law sandwich at Stanley's. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves)

Discipline and portion control were the guiding principles of our recent Best of Texas BBQ Tour. They have to be when you eat at 10 places over a period of about 48 hours.

But while we focused on -- and scored -- only brisket, pork ribs and sausage, we did manage to sample other fare on the first day of the tour, when we visited only 3 places.

Snow's brisket is only meat to score a perfect 10 on Posse's Best of Texas BBQ Tour

Our perfect 10 brisket from Snow's BBQ in Lexington. (Photo by Tom Fox/DMN)

During our recent Best of Texas BBQ Tour, we traveled nearly 700 miles over three days and tasted brisket, pork ribs and sausage at 10 top places in the state.

Each meat was scored on a scale of 1 to 10 (best) by 6 members of Texas BBQ Posse.

Just one received a perfect score: the brisket at Snow's BBQ in Lexington.

Fargo's BBQ - New digs, same great BBQ

Fargo's BBQ co-owners Belender Wells & Alan Caldwell in front of their new sign on 720 N. Texas in Bryan. 

We dropped in on Fargo's BBQ's new location in Bryan as our third of 10 stops of the Top 5 BBQ Tour. They were in their old location five blocks north for 13 years, which didn't have a dining room.

Co-owner Alan Caldwell says the move went smoothly, including moving the original brick pit from the old location, which got broken but was put back together with a little masonry work.

It’s the Super Bowl of BBQ tours for the Posse

As we prepared for our biggest tour ever this weekend, members of the Texas BBQ Posse faced their biggest controversy yet:

Should sausage count as much as brisket in determining the best barbecue joint in the state?

On our organized tours and smaller excursions over the past 4 years, members of the Posse have visited hundreds of places in search of the best smoked meats in Texas.

Now, to determine the very best – at least for this one trip -- we plan to visit our 10 favorites over three days, covering nearly 700 miles. Then, we’ll rank the top 5, in order.

My crash course in smoking with the Knights of Columbus

Tom Rossman loads the pit with pork butts.

This weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with my dad Tom Rossman and the Knights of Columbus Council 6950 in Katy for a full day of smoking meat.

Several times each year the Knights sell barbecue as a fund-raiser. They presell briskets, ribs and pork butts, cook on Friday and customers pickup on Saturday. This time they prepared 42 briskets, 75 racks of ribs and 12 pork butts.