Why is Franklin BBQ in austin so good?

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I was intimidated and never had much luck with brisket until I watched Aaron's videos. After cooking 3 briskets now in my RF smoker,  I'm much more confident and the briskets have turned out great. I'm not from Texas, but I had several people over for a party a couple of weeks ago that used to live there and they know and love their brisket. They told me it was some of the best they've had. I know it's probably no where near as good as Franklin's but I'm happy with how it turned out. Can't wait to cook another one.

Love the thread in general.  I agree with GEOThermal, that by employing some of Aaron's method's, your BBQ can dramatically improve.  It was the simplest of things, but they work.  Watched the PBS series shortly before an annual competition we do and made some minor changes.  1st Brisket win for the Big Easy BBQ team.  

 
 
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Wow that brisket looks fantastic  You hit it out of the park Nice Job       
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Here are a couple of links I posted on brisket  But from the looks of yours you don't need any help.

Like the trophy too  

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...r-the-misconception-of-the-1-to-1-5-hour-rule

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...st-on-misconception-of-the-1-to-1-5-hour-rule

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/174019/east-texas-style-brisket-ribs

Gary
 
 
So, how does he compare to Salt Lick BBQ ?? Several of my friends have raved about this place. Not as expensive either.

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There is absolutely zero comparison.  Salt Lick is a destination restaurant, with a great location, and amazingly mediocre bbq.  It's a fun place to go for dinner (especially on Fri/Sat night), it's byob, and it's huge, but the bbq is nothing special - and the brisket is by far the most mediocre of the bunch.  Franklin's brisket is seriously one of the best pieces of meat I've ever eaten.  It is the holy grail of the holy grails of TX bbq.  If you're down this way, the second best piece of brisket I've had in years is at a little truck called Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ.  Unbelievable smoked meats coming out of this little food truck.
 
Well I guess I will get to try. He sent me Brisket, sausage, turkey, beef and pork ribs for my birthday.  I did hear Franklins over does their Beef Ribs though. Would have a hard time standing in line for that.
 
I gotta ask ...For those that bought Franklin's new book, of which I just received a copy but have not cracked open, I wonder how well the book leads you to creating great brisket? Anywhere near what comes out of the restaurant??

Brian
 
I probably said this before    CONSISTENCY    He Buys from a great supplier, uses seasoned wood and does the same exact thing day in and day out.

Gary
 
 
I personally think simple is better.  You get all these wannabe BBQ joints coming up with all sorts of concoctions to slather on the Q and you end up tasting the sauce, mop, rub or whatever they overload it with instead of the beef.  A good brisket doesn't need more than some salt and pepper to be fantastic. 

Best Brisket I ever had was at Slick's BBQ in Muscogee, Ok back in the 80's.  He was an old Black man that converted a rundown house beside the road to BBQ joint and served it on wax paper and those tacky rattan paper plate holders.  The old guy had tour buses detour miles out of the way to eat there!
 
Man I miss Slick's. When the old man passed away it just wasn't the same anymore. His daughter and son-in-law tried to keep it going but they made the decision to "upgrade" to a better spot and just killed the whole thing.

It always cracked me up to walk in to that rundown old building at lunchtime and see nothing but suits and ties eating off butcher paper.
 
 
 
I personally think simple is better.  You get all these wannabe BBQ joints coming up with all sorts of concoctions to slather on the Q and you end up tasting the sauce, mop, rub or whatever they overload it with instead of the beef.  A good brisket doesn't need more than some salt and pepper to be fantastic. 

Best Brisket I ever had was at Slick's BBQ in Muscogee, Ok back in the 80's.  He was an old Black man that converted a rundown house beside the road to BBQ joint and served it on wax paper and those tacky rattan paper plate holders.  The old guy had tour buses detour miles out of the way to eat there!
 
Man I miss Slick's. When the old man passed away it just wasn't the same anymore. His daughter and son-in-law tried to keep it going but they made the decision to "upgrade" to a better spot and just killed the whole thing.

It always cracked me up to walk in to that rundown old building at lunchtime and see nothing but suits and ties eating off butcher paper.
LOL!  There were always a good crowd of "suits" there at lunchtime.  You ever notice that no matter how busy they were, he never allowed the help to run the register?

Slick's is the yardstick I use to see if other Q joints measure up, and very few even come close.  When we moved here in '09, there was a little BBQ place 1/2 mile down the road from us that was the closest thing to Slick's I had found.  Unfortunately, he just couldn't get enough business to survive and finally closed down.   I picked his brain all I could and picked up many good pointers that I adapted to my cooking.

I bet Slick's could give Franklin's and all the other fancy Q joints a real run for the money if he were still around!.  I was blown away the first time I saw tour busses pull in for lunch!
 
I had Snow's at the Texas Monthly barbecue fest in Austin.  It was very good and I did see Tootsie there, from what I hear it is actually better when they are back in their place in Lexington.  Franklin's booth was too crowded and I was hungry, the best I had at the festival was from Pecan Lodge.  
 
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LOL!  There were always a good crowd of "suits" there at lunchtime.  You ever notice that no matter how busy they were, he never allowed the help to run the register?

Slick's is the yardstick I use to see if other Q joints measure up, and very few even come close.  When we moved here in '09, there was a little BBQ place 1/2 mile down the road from us that was the closest thing to Slick's I had found.  Unfortunately, he just couldn't get enough business to survive and finally closed down.   I picked his brain all I could and picked up many good pointers that I adapted to my cooking.

I bet Slick's could give Franklin's and all the other fancy Q joints a real run for the money if he were still around!.  I was blown away the first time I saw tour busses pull in for lunch!
He owned that register. Not sure if he didn't trust anyone else or if he just wanted to touch base with everyone but it was noticeable. I've never eaten at Franklin's but if it is even close to Slick's I'd be amazed. 
 
Been loving the info on this thread.  And, I too have watched all of Aaron Franklin's videos.  I also consider myself as somewhat of a brisket fanatic, if not a snob.  I do a pretty good brisket myself, as I think most Texans probably do.  And, as much as I'd like to try Franklin's brisket, I'm not standing in line 4 hours for anybody's brisket...and I absolutely love brisket...once again, as I think most Texans do.  In Texas, beef is king...brisket, plate short ribs, chuck short ribs, and beef clod...as well as sausage.  And, who could turn down a good 1 1/2" thick medium-rare Ribeye?  Beef is king!  And, when you say the word "barbecue" in Texas, it's about the meat...not some ungodly sauce.  We only put sauce on crappy barbecue.  Good barbecue requires none...just as a good steak requires no steak sauce.

IMO, anybody can do pork...and I mean anybody.  If the joint has a moniker with BBQ, Barbecue, or Bar-BQ in it, they better know how to do pork...as pork is just easy.  And, even if your pork butt doesn't turn out well...say it's a little dry...just drown it in barbecue sauce and nobody will know the difference.  And, I think my pork ribs are better than any joint I've ever eaten them in.  We actually have a couple of very good joints in Texarkana, TX/AR now...after not having a decent barbecue joint in the entire NE Texas/SW Arkansas area in forever.  Naaman's Championship Barbecue and Fantasy Barbecue.  Both have great brisket, and Naaman's even has some Louie Mueller-worthy beef plate ribs on Fridays and Saturdays.  I mean, good stuff.  And, I had a couple of friends try Naaman's when they first opened.  I asked what they thought of it, and they both said, "so-so".  So, I asked them what they ordered...and they both said pulled pork sandwiches.  So, I'm like...GET OUT OF TOWN...I ASKED WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE BARBECUE!  If you want pulled pork, run on down to Sam's and get a frozen bucket, take it home, thaw it out, and drench it in barbecue sauce.  No more than you know about barbecue, that would be good enough for you!  LOL!

So, what I'm trying to say is it takes real brisket snobs to know good brisket, or bad brisket for that matter.  I've eaten at a ton of barbecue joints in my lifetime, and I have smoked a ton of it as well.  I have to say that most barbecue joints in the world DO NOT know how to smoke a brisket...especially once you get out of Texas.  And, some of the worst brisket I've ever eaten has been at some of the famous Memphis barbecue joints.  They're all about pork...and just can't comprehend brisket.  It's a little better up in Kansas City...but still not Texas-good.

Two places on my list to eat at now are Snow's in Lexington...as "The Smokewagon" mentioned.  And, Pecan Lodge in Dallas...as "Aggie94" mentioned.  Actually, my son-in-law lives in College Station and works for the 12th Man Foundation.  He is a barbecue connoisseur, same as me, and has eaten at Franklin's.  He said he likes Pecan Lodge and Snow's even better.  So, my next trip down there, we are going to Snow's. 

And, now that we are talking about other joints, let me put my two-cents-worth in for Louie Mueller's in Taylor.  Once again, simple is better, and Wayne Mueller loves pepper as much as I do.  His beef rub, he says, is 9 parts pepper to one part salt.  I really doubt it's that much, but you get the idea.  I have to say, his brisket and of course beef ribs are the best for me of any barbecue joint that I've tried.  However, my wife doesn't like so much pepper...so, to each his own, and that's why there will always be debates about who has the best barbecue.  But, I think the best joints in Texas do put a lot of pepper on their brisket and beef ribs.

A couple of other places that I think are excellent is La Barbecue and Stiles Switch...both in Austin.  The reason...at Stiles Switch, pitmaster Lance Kirkpatrick once worked for Louie Mueller's, and La Barbecue, which was once JMueller BBQ, is owned by Wayne and John Mueller's sister, Leann.  And, pitmaster John Lewis once worked at Franklin's.  And, then there's John Mueller Meat Company, with brother John back in business in Austin...once again, excellent.  And, Aaron Franklin used to work for John Mueller.  So, you have all these outstanding barbecue joints that all trace their lineage back to Louie Mueller's.  And, I have to say at one barbecue fest I went to this year, Stiles Switch actually had better beef ribs than Louie Mueller's did on that particular day...and that's saying something.  Shane Stiles is a great guy, and when I told him their beef ribs were better than Wayne's that day, he introduced me to Lance and said Lance worked for Wayne for 10 years before he stole him away. Some more outstanding beef ribs and brisket can be found at Freedmen's Bar in Austin.  So, there are some outstanding barbecue joints in Austin today, without having to stand in line at Franklin's for 3-4 hours.

And, then there's the whole Schmidt clan...and all of their joints are excellent as well.  First, you've got Smitty's Market...right downtown Lockhart and where Kreuz Market was located forever.  When Rick Schmidt built the new huge Kreuz Market just out of town in 1999, his sister Nina took over the original place and named it Smitty's after their father.  Keith Schmidt took over at Kreuz Market in 2011 when Rick retired.  Both are great...and as always, no sauce and no forks.  The Schmidt family has also opened Schmidt Family Barbecue in Bee Cave, as well as Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.  All serve high quality brisket and beef ribs.  And, I haven't even mentioned Black's in Lockhart, since they're not in the Schmidt family, but they are also outstanding....what a barbecue town.  Lockhart, the barbecue capital of the world.

And, the thing I like most about all these joints is the owners and pitmasters are all such great people, who enjoy showing you their pits and talking about barbecue.  Well, except John Mueller...he's a little different.  :-)
 
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I've lived in Austin my entire life, never had Franklins. Had everything else but not worth standing in line. It probably is good, but still not waiting in line.
 
If you order beef in Memphis, you know very little about BBQ. If you think all pork = frozen shit from Sam's you know even less.

Brisket is no harder than a butt if you have patience, the butt just makes it easier to hide issues.
 
I feel I've perfected my technique for making a superb brisket in my MES 30 using my AMNPS for the smoke source. I've never eaten BBQ brisket in a Texas BBQ joint but I and my family are very happy with what I've been turning out in my backyard. And that's really all that matters. We do have a Famous Dave's and a Dickey's BBQ Pit in my area. I know that what's produced in my electric smoker over wood pellets surpasses anything that comes out of their smokers and ovens.
 
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I feel I've perfected my technique for making a superb brisket in my MES 30 using my AMNPS for the smoke source. I've never eaten BBQ brisket in a Texas BBQ joint but I and my family are very happy with what I've been turning out in my backyard. And that's really all that matters. We do have a Famous Dave's and a Dickey's BBQ Pit in my area. I know that what's produced in my electric smoker over wood pellets surpasses anything that comes out of their smokers and ovens.
Ate at famous Dave's one time in Springfield, Mo, and it will be the last time.  Sent the food back and still had to pay for it.  Don't know what caused it, but it was the worst tasting brisket I ever tried eat.  Dickey's here isn't a whole lot better.  A new place opened a month or so ago and I intend to try them my next trip to town
 
Dickey's is out of Dallas when he first started it was pretty good, but when he started Franchising the Quality went way down, One opened here in Tyler a couple of years ago, I eaten there 2 times mediocre, Too many kids and no consistency  

Gary
 
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