Does the weather affect barbecue?
There’s an old saying that everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. That’s certainly true in Houston — this past spring was one of the wettest on record, and most of us wondered if it would ever stop raining.
Including pitmasters at local barbecue restaurants. Weather’s effect on barbecue production isn’t often discussed, at least among the dining public, but it’s a wellknown issue for many pitmasters. Indeed, if you visit your favorite joint and the brisket seems “off,” maybe over- or under-cooked, the previous night’s weather could be the culprit.
Even the most famous Texas barbecue joints can be affected. Back in 2010, I led a trip of food writers to a relatively new place called Franklin Barbecue that was set up in a series of trailers in a parking lot off Interstate 35 in Austin. The weekend was rainy and windy, and after placing our order, we huddled around a picnic table under a tarp. The barbecue turned out to be slightly overcooked and certainly not as stellar as it was on previous visits.
More recently, during a trip to Seattle, pitmaster Jack Timmons of Jack’s BBQ made a seemingly curious statement to me about making barbecue in the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s the air. The quality of air in the Pacific Northwest is perfect for making great barbecue.”
What did he mean by that? With the recent monsoons in Houston, I decided to ask a couple of local pitmasters how our weather influences their work.
Scott and Greg Moore are the pitmasters at Tejas Chocolate Craftory in Old Town Tomball. In addition to making great chocolate, they are gaining a reputation for making some of the finest barbecue in greater Houston. The Moores use an offset barrel smoker made from an old industrial propane tank, much like the smokers used by Franklin and Timmons. More significantly, their smoker is mostly open to the elements — covered only by a wooden shed. I asked Scott if there are any adjustments to his cooking procedure to account for the weather.
“Lots of adjusting,” Moore says. “Most recently, as the humidity went high last week, our (cooking) times decreased.”
According to Moore, one of the most important factors in cooking barbecue is humidity, the amount of moisture in the air. This is the same issue alluded to by Timmons when he mentioned the air in the Pacific Northwest — among other factors, a consistent humidity level is ideal.
The higher the humidity, the faster the meat cooks, Moore says.
Neither I nor Moore can claim to know the exact physics associated with this, but you might think about it in terms of “wet” heat. The “heat index” is a measure of temperature and humidity together. This is important in Houston because the moisture in the air makes it more difficult for the human body to shed heat through sweating, thus preventing us from cooling off and creating a higher chance of heat-related illness.
The process is similar when cooking barbecue. The retention of moisture in the meat prevents evaporative cooling, raises the temperature and thus expedites cooking. Depending on the rain forecast, Moore may reduce his cook time by as much as two hours to prevent his brisket from overcooking.
Wind also has an effect. The speed of airflow through a smoker will alter the temperature in the cooking chamber. Higher wind conditions will create a faster “draw” — meaning the faster flow of air will cause the fire in the pit to burn hotter, raising the temperature inside the smoker and potentially causing the barbecue to overcook.
Moore adjusts for wind speed by opening or closing mechanical dampers in the smoker.
Of course, not all pitmasters go to the lengths that Moore does to ac- count for the weather. Which may explain why some joints are known for making great barbecue one day and middling barbecue the next.
So don’t be surprised if the next time you ask a pitmaster for his brisket recipe, one of the ingredients is “tomorrow’s weather forecast.”