Building the perfect barbecue joint: smokers
Editor’s note: This is the second column in a series in which Reid provides advice to would-be barbecue entrepreneurs on “how to build the perfect barbecue joint.” The first column addressed service style; today’s focus is the all-important smoker.
By definition, barbecue is the process and result of cooking and flavoring meat with heat and smoke. In that sense, barbecue is undoubtedly one of the oldest forms of cooking. A cave in South Africa contains archaeological remains that suggests human forebears were using an open fire to cook animal meat some 2 million years ago.
Today, the process is really only slightly more sophisticated. Machines — barbecue “pits” or “smokers” — are used to more efficiently and precisely harness fire and smoke to cook and flavor meat.
For a barbecue entrepreneur, the choice of smoker is the single most important decision in the development of a restaurant. The smoker will not only affect the quality of barbecue, but it will have an impact on how the restaurant is perceived by hardcore barbecue fans.
Image-wise, traditional smokers using manual techniques are more prized over more automated contemporary pits. One of my core doctrines for building the perfect barbecue joint in today’s world of social media saturation is that barbecue is as much performance as it is a cuisine. Quality should always be the most important consideration, but showmanship is a close second nowadays.
Also factoring into the choice of smoker: geographic location, the skill of the pitmaster and the amount of barbecue to be cooked. Location is particularly important. Urban locations usually have stricter regulations with regard to fire and health requirements. Building traditional, nonautomated pits in the inner city is almost always more expensive and time-consuming.
With these factors in mind, here are the types of smokers a pitmaster can choose from:
The brick pit is considered the pinnacle of Texas barbecue. A large rectangular cooking chamber holds the meat, with the firebox on one end and a chimney on the other. A pitmaster who can make world-class barbecue on this type of difficult-to-manage pit is considered highly skilled. Barbecue fans love to take pictures of them and send them out on Instagram. Unfortunately, modern health and fire regulations deter using this type of pit.
The steel barrel pit uses the same smoking process, but instead of a brick cooking chamber, a steel barrel-shaped chamber is used. It’s arguably easier to cook on this pit as the shape imparts more manageable air flow over the meat. With proper fire suppression and smoke-exhaust equipment, fire and health regulation will allow for this smoker in urban areas.
Rotisserie-style pits, made by companies including Oyler and Southern Pride, offer a good balance between quality and automation. Using mechanical dampers, they automatically regulate the heat and flow of smoke. Fire and health regulators love them — they are selfcontained and pre-approved by fire-safety agencies. They also have the benefit of cooking larger volumes of meat on a daily basis.
Now for my advice. Most new barbecue joints feature a skilled pitmaster, cooking larger volumes of meat for both lunch and dinner, in an urban location. In this case, the aspiring pitmaster should split the difference and use a combination of steel barrel and rotisserie-style smokers.
The rotisserie pits can be used to cook big chunks of meat — specifically brisket and beef ribs — for long periods at volume and with great precision. The barrel pits can be used for meats that require less cooking time, such as ribs and sausage. And, of course, the barrel pits make for great pictures.
This is the strategy employed by chef and pitmaster Ronnie Killen of Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland. He uses a combination of barrel and rotisserie smokers to cook world-class barbecue consistently at high volume.
But Killen didn’t stop there. He also built a brick pit inside his restaurant that opened in 2013. It is the only brick pit that I know of that’s been built in an urban area of Houston in the recent past. It’s an impressive sight for even the most jaded of hardcore barbecue fans. But it didn’t come cheap — the firesuppression and smoke-exhaust equipment required by the city of Pearland are some of the most sophisticated I’ve seen in any barbecue joint.