I Learned REAL Texas BBQ

When I think about barbecue, I think of one place in the world: Texas. And not only have I never been to Texas… no, that’s not true. I just remembered, I’ve been to Texas. There’s an amazing art behind the barbecue. I’ve heard it’s a food that only

Tastes good if it’s made with love. And I actually feel that way about a lot of food, but come along with me today to learn classic Texas barbecue. For those of you who don’t know, before I head to the airport, we are catching up to Gordon himself. So

If you haven’t already– you know who you are– smash that subscribe button. It is currently 4:30 in the morning. We’ve touched down in Texas and have not gotten much sleep, but we’re ready to go make some barbecue. We are here at Cattleack Barbecue,

Let’s head inside and see what’s in store. How are you? I’m good. How are you? I’m Todd David. Todd, I’m Nick. It’s nice to meet you. This is Manny. Hey, it’s nice to meet you. How are you? You didn’t fire him yet today, right? You can fire him later. Welcome to Cattleack! It’s early.

It’s early for you. We start early. The first guy here today was probably here at 3:00 o’clock. You’ve got to have that passion. If I came into this smell every morning, I’d have that passion.

This is Big Mama, our first smoker. It’s been inside the building since the day we came here. We name all of our smokers. Manny, maybe you’ll have a smoker named by the end of the video. This is our pit room. We’ve got Brutus, Buckwheat, which is hot, be careful, Bandit,

This is Bo, and you’ve already met Big Mama. This is Bam Bam. Oh my God! This has pork steaks on it. Holy (beep). This is Andrew. How are you doing man? This is Babe. Babe was the first pig cooker we bought. Not quite big enough for big pigs, big hogs. That’s what she said.

This is Bubba. So this is the beast, this is where we make our own coal. I can see why it’s called the Beast. It’s over one thousand degrees. All we’re doing is trying to make those fresh coals, and then we’re going to put that on the fire, directly underneath the pool. The flavor

That’s in those ashes is coming out in that smoke. My arm is burning. Why do people want coals versus a more direct sort of flame? If you put a fire like that underneath the meat, you would just scald it.

So the coals give you the same smoky flavor but with more of a sort of gentle, slower cooking process. Some people will cook hot and fast. I just feel that it comes out better if you cook low and slow.

We have a friend named Guga who always tries to skip ahead and cook hot and fast. That’s right. Shame on you, Guga. You can do it, but for us, it works better low and slow. That’s kind of our thing.

It smells so good. Do you know that kind of smoky smell in the middle of the winter? Maybe you’re sitting in front of a fire. Well, this is basically a giant version of that. Even over here, I’m feeling the heat off of, hold on let me think of the name. The Beast. Damn it.

This was the very first one and that was your first love. I meant, um… Big Mama? Big Mama first. Yeah, that was my first love, Big Mama. Not in Big Mama’s house. Let’s go in here. This cooler here is where all of our meats are stored.

Just when I thought we had a big freezer of Wagyu, he’s going to show us up right now, Manny. This is what’s left over from the week. These are Akaushi briskets. That’s a nice brisket, huh? Yes. And now we’re cooking some pork steaks. It’s a direct cook, usually about halfway

Through we start to mop them to kind of give them a little bit of a glaze and a little bit more flavor. Is that tool actually called a mop? Why don’t you grab a mop? So this sausage we make ourselves, we grind it, stuff it, everything. This is our

Mild 17. The reason it’s called 17 is because it took us 17 tries. This was the first sausage we ever made. They are all beef and pork, and then all kinds of great flavors. This is our whole hog. We vary in size of pig, typically around 150 pounds.

I just swallowed that whole. It’s good. It is now 7:24 a.m. We can see that things are starting to come together. We’re finally starting to get to taste things. They must add a little vinegar in there or something, it gets you in the eyes a little bit.

That’s really good! It’s got a ton of different flavors in there, not at all overpowering. You are just getting a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. It’s a journey of flavors. They just brought us out some of these pork crackers called chicharrones.

They’re still making that sort of crackle sound from after you fry them. Light, sort of fatty-flavored rice cake. It’s just delicious. That’s really good. Sausage time! Hey Todd, quick question. You’ve got the smaller sausages right here and the bigger ones, which ones do you like more?

When I’m snacking, I eat the smaller ones. So sausage is a three-day process. On the first day, you’re grinding it and stuffing it. On the second day, you’re going to do cold smoke. Cold smoke means you’re cooking it at 140 degrees or so. On the third day, we’re actually finishing them up right

Now. You really need that entire process to get that good, smoky, snappy sausage. That sort of pop when you bite into it. Right, right. It’s a fun thing because there’s just so much to it. So they have the coolest design details here. These knives right here are how you

Open and close the vent. I mean, I love that. These are all thousand gallons of propane tanks that have been decommissioned. Look at this tank inside. Manny, get inside there. Crawl inside there. Get all the way in. So you’re just going to hang out here now?

I’m watching how my fires are doing. Good barbecue is all about fire manners. It has taken us days to get to this point. I don’t want to screw it up at the end. Time for some ribs. So that was like, four hours of smoke, and this is an hour and

A half of tenderizing. If it’s perfect, you should be able to bend it in half. Bend and it doesn’t break? That’s like a perfect rib. Add sauce and they’re going to glaze for another 30 minutes, and then they’ll be ready. This comes off really easily. Oh, Wow! That’s freaking awesome.

It is usually a chore to keep them in. They have the opposite problem than most people. It’s hot. Oh that’s good! We’re going to shoot back outside and check out those sausages. So the sausages are finishing up. They do look different. They have more of a kind of

Shine to them. They’ve gotten a little bit darker, right? Can you see how tight they’re getting? It’s crazy. How plump they are getting because they’re tightening up. So tight. Do you see what I deal with? Do the smaller ones get tighter than the bigger ones?

Sometimes. It will depend on where you put them. That’s what she said! Be careful because it’s really hot. Wow, oh my god! That was so juicy. I have never loved sausage. In fact, I’ve never liked sausage, but this right here, I

Didn’t know it was possible for a sausage to be this juicy. There’s no movie magic going on here. The sausage is squirting all over me. I had to say it. So, this is a tray of beef-belly burnt ends. Yessir. So, these are only halfway done. These are about…

These are only halfway done? It’s literally like you’re eating a piece of candy. They’re making so much good food here. This is banana pudding. So much good food. So… Manny, you’re fired, get out. I tell him that all the time. In the next stage of finishing these burnt ends, Jacob

Is going to put them back in the smoker for one last smoke to get them caramelized. They’re going to get to lay down for a while, think about their future as a burnt end, and then they’re coming back out.

After all the hard work, it’s finally time now to taste what I would kind of call the king of all barbecue, which is brisket. Absolutely. Check out all that juice. The flavors are melting on my tongue. Especially in Texas, we’re all about the beef. It’s one of my favorite things to try, every time.

Are you ready for this Manny? I’m ready. This is separating the lean part from the fatty part, and that’s what comes out of it. Wow! And look at how perfect the smoke ring is. We don’t go for that smoke ring. We achieve it all the time. Hatchet a slice right from the center.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I learned that to test the brisket, you want to kind of hang it over your hand. Absolutely. Is that one test? Absolutely. If you just tug on it lightly, it’s going to pull apart. The perfect bite. Wow!

Holy cow! See what I did there, I said holy cow. Oh. Holy (beep)! That’s good. Holy cow. Holy cow. It’s 8:30 and they’re already starting to line up. How long is he going to wait? Close to two hours.

He’d be so jealous that we were already getting to taste it. If you knew what that rib that I just had tasted like, you would sit out there with a chair too. So, we’ll start building this Todd Father. We start with Martin’s buns. These are

Some of the best potato buns you can get. I could not agree more. Put a little homemade barbecue sauce and put a little brisket on there. Is this your sandwich? The Todd father? This is our signature sandwich. We’re going to put a little bit of our homemade pulled

Pork and one of our hot links here. We’re going to take some of Ivan’s homemade coleslaw, put it on top, put Martin’s bun back on there, and a homemade dill pickle. And that’s Andrew’s lunch. That’s the Todd Father. Andrew is hungry.

This is probably the best slice of meat that comes off that brisket. Try that. That’s ridiculous! Instead of the edge where you have the separation of the fat and the meat, that’s almost a perfect blend of fat.

The ribs that were inside getting all happy are now coming out and getting ready to go up front. Look at this! Oh my gosh, wow! I might like that better than the brisket. Manny, take a bite. Oh my god! That’s the Texas Trinity. You’ve got the sausage, the brisket, and the ribs.

I’m moving to Texas. The only bologna I’ve ever seen is in that little yellow and red pack, and it tastes like… I don’t know what to say. Dog poop. It’s the first time I’ve been excited to eat bologna and it’s really good. I’m so full.

So now they have a red color to them from all the sauce and the smoke that’s poured in. Todd, can we have you taste a bite and talk about it? Oh, did I not tell you I was a vegetarian?

We keep eating stuff and I think I have the best thing, but then it gets better. These are plain beef ribs and are again, wagyu beef. Beef ribs are big. That’s about the size of your head. That’s a big rib. So, it is extraordinarily tender. Again, you don’t think of this

As a rib because you’re not eating it off the rib like that really, but that might be the most tender thing that we have today. You could eat this with no t-shirts/” target=”_blank”>teeth. You could gum it to death. Do you think that you’re able to make such an incredible barbecue because you love it?

It’s all about how great of an experience we can make this for the people coming in. There’s love in the food. You can taste it. So many of these things take days and to still keep that same passion, it takes a lot. I’ll slice up part of this pork steak for you.

But it’s like a rib eye with pork? Yes. Wow, I’ve never had anything like that. It’s extra, extra smoky compared to all the stuff we had. He just made us a nice big tray, let’s see what this thing weighs.

Over 5 pounds of food right here. These people stand like that for hours, just peeking through the window, but we’ve got it all right here. Kind of like at Salt Bae’s, we’ve got this entire place to ourselves. It is dead empty. Salt Bae might have just

Dry-humped all the customers away. We are the only ones in the restaurant, once again, other than Salt Bae himself. I don’t understand how this place is in business. But I’ve been able to eat the entire day. Manny, give me the camera.

Nick is a little bit boring so Manny is going to review the food now. I’m going to quickly go through each item and give it a rating out of 10. All right, so we’ve got the brisket right here. Get a quick bite. 10 out of 10.

Beef ribs, 10 out of 10. Alright, this is the pork rib, 10 out of 10. Is it really good? It’s really good, yeah. We have the mac and cheese here, 8 out of 10. We got some cracklings, 9 out of 10. This is a banana pudding, 9 out of 10. We got

Some pulled pork. I’m going to put some sauce on top, 10 out of 10. We got our pork steak and we’ll dip it in this plum sauce, 10 out of 10. Alright, this is the crab cake, 11 out of 10. Now we get to the cornbread. You don’t eat cornbread with a fork and knife.

10 out of 10. Alright, we’ve got burnt end beans right here. 10 out of 10 To finish it off, we got the Hatch chili and cheese sausage. 13 out of 10. This is Nick and Manny. Hi, nice to meet you. Hey Nick, I’m the personality in this place.

So, this is how it starts. We always try to let people in early, and we’ll let them keep coming in and coming in until we run out of food. This guy here waited the full two hours. How is it? Worth the wait definitely.

Todd, I have to say that before this day, I don’t think I’ve had a true barbecue. So thank you on behalf of me, Manny, and everybody for showing us true Texas barbecue today. I’m just glad you all could enjoy the Texas experience.

I have never said wow that many times in a row in my life tasting food. So, welcome to Cattleack Barbecue, guys! Alright, who wants barbecue?

Video Tags: BBQ,barbecue,brisket,steak,beef,Nick DiGiovanni,Cooking,Food,Chef,Recipe,Gordon Ramsay,Kitchen,ASMR,MasterChef,Osmo Salt,Salt Bae,Learn To Cook,Knife Drop,Cookbook,Kid-Friendly,Kid’s Recipes,Kid’s Cooking

Video Duration: 00:10:33