Johnny Walker BBQ
If I had to choose a food product that most reminds me of Texas, the answer is clear: beef! It doesn’t matter in what form—steak, brisket, ribs, Mexican cuisine specialties, or Tex-Mex. Beef reigns supreme in Texas. The best I’ve ever had, because the cows live semi-wild and graze naturally. Many of them have never seen a barn in their entire lives. Why build one? In Texas, there’s no long, harsh winter, and the ranches are large enough to feed the herd, so there’s no need to clean up after them. A Texan doesn’t have much work with their cattle. The cows roam freely, reproduce, and are easy to make a profit from. Beef from “free-range” cows is much better than that from farmed animals fed with grains. The smell and taste can’t be compared. It’s to the point where whenever I’m in Poland or anywhere else in the world, I always think twice before ordering a steak, because Texans have set the bar so high that I’m afraid of being disappointed. It’s not about the seasoning, cooking method, or presentation. It’s about the meat. In Texas, it’s better!
Beef dishes are prepared in thousands of different ways, but only BBQ has become widely regarded as an art form. Along with ribs, the cornerstone of BBQ is the roasted brisket, whose preparation takes many hours and requires no small amount of skill. According to research by scientists from the over 150-year-old Texas A&M University, eating brisket (which is full of fatty beef meat) is healthy. Isn’t it symptomatic that these studies were conducted right in Texas and led to such a conclusion? The argument behind this claim is that brisket contains a high level of oleic acid, which helps produce HDL, the “good” type of cholesterol. This is the same effect that comes from eating olives. Furthermore, studies have shown that this also applies to ground beef made from brisket, which delights me due to my personal love for hamburgers. So eat up and enjoy, because not only salads, fruits, and vegetables, but also hamburgers and roasted brisket, are important for our health. All we have to do is listen to American scientists, because they surely know what they’re talking about.
There are plenty of books on BBQ in Texas, TV programs to watch, BBQ schools to attend, competitions to participate in, and even online courses to learn from. There are online forums where people are constantly debating what true BBQ should look like. What is tradition, and what is sacrilege? Recipes that were once closely guarded secrets are now widely available on the internet, allowing the BBQ craft to evolve dynamically. The more people get involved and start cooking on their own, the better the business around it thrives, from equipment manufacturers to RV trailers for competition participants, cookware, tools, spices, clothing, and so on.
It’s necessary to explain the difference between BBQ and grilling. In Poland, on products like charcoal, grills, or pre-seasoned meat, we often see the term BBQ. The English would also call our grilling BBQ. But in Texas, it’s different. Grilling is placing products on a grill (grate) and cooking the meat relatively quickly. It’s a short process, suitable for a family gathering or a get-together with friends. BBQ, however, is a slow and prolonged process. In a smoker, whether gas or wood-fired, we maintain a steady, relatively low temperature for hours while roasting meat coated in a thick layer of spices. It’s a process that can last from several hours to over ten. To summarize: if we put a steak on the grill over burning charcoal or a gas burner and sit down at the table after a relatively short time, we are grilling. If we wake up at 3 a.m. to light the smoker, reach a certain temperature, insert the products, and then monitor the temperature and turn the meat over for 12 hours, we are doing BBQ.
BBQ is part of the Texas identity. During my travels, I was keen to meet people who do it professionally to understand what it’s all about. I also wanted to try it myself, so I arranged with one of the recognized masters to show me how to practice the craft.
Jose Vanez, a BBQ master and restaurant manager in Lampassas, Texas, shared his BBQ secrets with me. He serves as BBQ master, managing director, HR manager, and handles everything that small business owners do—literally everything. Jose is Mexican. He comes from the border town of Ciudad Acuña, which borders the American city of Del Rio. He is 53 years old, tall, and looks very fit, which is remarkable for a chef specializing in cooking meat.
One time, we arranged to meet at 5 a.m. and began preparing a meal for the restaurant guests who wouldn’t arrive until later in the morning. We started by taking a few smoked briskets from the freezer, which had been smoked the day before. Apparently, meat that has been frozen for a few days tastes even better than freshly pulled from the oven. Jose wraps several kilos of brisket in multiple layers of kitchen foil. Each one is wrapped the same way, repeating the same movements precisely. I feel like I’m watching a virtuoso or an athlete performing actions they’ve done so many times that no finger is allowed to make a wrong move. Everything is perfectly repeatable. Lay the meat on the table, pull the foil, wrap one side, then the other, turn it over, repeat the steps, cut the foil, and grab the next piece. In just a few minutes, Jose wraps 8 briskets in this way. He makes an incision through the center of the meat’s longer plane, so that during the heating process, the brisket can “breathe.” It’s 5 a.m. In two hours, it will go into the oven and stay at a temperature of about 75°C for the entire day, until the last piece is sold. The secret to defrosting meat lies in wrapping it, applying the right heating temperature, time, and placing a bowl of water in the oven to evaporate and prevent the meat from drying out. The right combination of these elements, along with the correct type of oven, ensures the meat remains tender and aromatic. Later, I would learn that everyone freezes the cooked meat, but some profane it by reheating it in the microwave. Freezing and defrosting significantly affects the taste. Freezing also plays a crucial role in the logistics of the entire operation. Ovens have limited size. If we expect more customers than we can serve with a single round of cooking, we need a reserve to support daily production.
Jose starts cooking briskets every day around 3:30 p.m. when he places them in the ovens. The ovens are electric and maintain a steady temperature for 14 hours. The meat sits on metal shelves that continuously rotate up and down, ensuring it cooks evenly on all sides. At the back of the oven, in a designated chamber, Jose places several pecan wood logs. Their aroma influences the flavor and smell of the meat. Purists argue that real BBQ should be made in smokers powered only by wood, and the art lies in maintaining a consistent temperature on your own. In the old days, people used to bake meat in holes dug in the earth, or in brick ovens fueled by wood. Today, gas ovens serve this purpose.
For several hours, the meat circulates in a tightly sealed oven, filled with the aroma of pecan wood. People who prepare BBQ once every few weeks, or on weekends, or at competitions, may spend the whole night by the oven, controlling the temperature and flipping the brisket every few hours. In a restaurant, this would be torture.
Jose tracks all subsequent tasks with a marker on a board hanging on the wall. Above it hangs a Japanese digital clock, which helps monitor time. The large red digits are hard to miss, relentlessly counting down the minutes and hours. Everything here is done according to a schedule. Every task has its own designated time, and failing to follow the rules can ruin the product. The board shows the times when the meats were placed in the oven. This way, there’s no doubt how long they’ve been inside. The brisket cooks the longest—14 hours—then the ribs for about 4 hours, and finally, the sausage. After wrapping the frozen briskets and placing them in the ovens/heaters, it’s time for the first check on the meat that Jose placed in the oven the previous day. The brisket is not removed from the oven, always after the same cooking time. The right moment is key but not predetermined. Jose puts on black rubber gloves, opens the oven, and lifts the meat, first from one side, then from the other, checking its elasticity. If it bounces back properly after being lifted and dropped, it’s ready to be taken out. The brisket has much more fat on one side, so each side is assessed differently. Jose tried to teach me this, but I couldn’t understand what a good consistency is. It requires experience, knowledge, and intuition that you can’t gain from just one lesson. Every piece of brisket is different, so they behave differently, and each piece has to be evaluated separately. When ordering, the customer decides if they want the brisket with fat or without. Jose decides how it will be prepared and whether the meat will melt in your fingers or be slightly drier. Usually, both versions are prepared due to customers’ different tastes.
A key to success is also choosing the right spices. The rest of the process, while following the basic principles and avoiding shortcuts, is similar in most such places. The flavor, however, is given by the spices. Traditionally, but let’s not kid ourselves, not by choice but necessity, BBQ meat was prepared with just salt and pepper. There were no other spices. Today, with the availability of products, every master has their own spice blends and chooses flavors according to their preference.
Seasoning meat prepared for BBQ, whether it’s brisket or ribs, is not the process we associate with preparing a meal at home. A few pinches of seasoning rubbed into the meat, and you’re done. No. Here, the seasoning covers every millimeter of the meat, like paint on a wall. A thick layer of the spice mixture sticks to the meat. First, the sides, then the flat surfaces. Once finished, the entire process is repeated. For 5 packs of ribs, Jose uses exactly two kilograms of seasoning. The meat, enveloped in these aromas, then goes into the oven, where it bakes, absorbing the flavors and scents of the spices and pecan wood. The brisket bakes for fourteen hours at a temperature between 88 and 98 degrees Celsius. The ribs bake for four hours at around 80 degrees.
At the restaurant, customers can order brisket in slices or chopped. Fatty or lean, depending on which part of the meat the staff cuts. Along with that, traditional Texas sides: potatoes, coleslaw, greens, and beans. “Greens” are a real flavor feast. Traditional cabbage, turnip, and Galician cabbage, shredded and seasoned in an intense marinade, served hot.
The ribs go into the oven around 7:30 a.m. Jose will check them around 10:40 a.m. Then, he’ll decide whether to take them out or leave them in longer. He will assess their appearance, touch them, and judge how they respond to his touch. His experience will tell him what to do. He places long pieces of ribs (a dozen or so ribs per piece) into a plastic container. Then, he covers them with a thick layer of the same seasoning that was used for the brisket. Again, I have the feeling I’m watching a violinist, pianist, or painter. Every movement is economical but maximally effective and precise. All of them are perfectly repeatable, practiced to perfection. I believe he’s been doing this since he was a child. Jose works quietly, neatly, and quickly, but not in a hurry or racing against time. Everything has its time, it’s calculated, and logistically perfectly organized. Every minute between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m., when the restaurant opens, has its purpose and is used according to the schedule. Perfection is the best word to describe Jose’s work. The sign “remember the brisket” on the kitchen door only confirms this. Never forget anything. Everything according to the schedule, on time, exactly, and in the proper way. There’s no room for error here. While seasoning the ribs, I asked Jose about the spice mix.
“I’m not going to tell you…” he smiles. “It’s a secret. It’s what sets us apart from other BBQ places. It’s our treasure, our competitive advantage.”
Modern ovens have digital thermometers. A quick glance and you know the internal temperature. However, Jose has learned not to trust them. He believes that at the tolerable temperature limits, a few degrees of error can ruin the final result. That’s why, inside the oven, alongside the meat, rotates an analog thermometer. A true old-school solution that he trusts 100%.
Just before taking the meat out of the oven, it becomes less elastic. It’s still soft, but after the “test” of lifting, it no longer bounces back as strongly. Jose checks it carefully and decides it’s time to take out the next brisket. He places them on a metal table he brought to the oven. Each brisket weighs just over 5 kg, and after baking, around 2.5 kg. It’s wrapped in foil to prevent it from drying out. Then, it’s placed into the same warmers where the pieces of meat taken out of the freezer at 5 a.m. are kept. Jose emphasizes that the key is the incision in the foil, which allows the meat to “breathe.”
“Remember, dry heat is not the same as moist heat,” he says. “There has to be the right humidity in the oven. Otherwise, the meat will be dry and won’t be worth anything.”
Beef is not beaten before baking. After being seasoned, it goes into the oven and, by rotating in the oven for several hours, gets heat from every side. This gives it optimal tenderness, aroma, and flavor. At cook-offs, there are no rotating shelves. Traditional wood-fired smokers require chefs to rotate the meat and monitor the temperature. Every two to three hours, they have to flip it.