Barrel pits are the new status symbol
Coaxing heat and smoke to flow over a piece of meat for the purpose of cooking and flavoring it is the fundamental puzzle of Texas barbecue.
This “indirect heat” method of cooking uses three linearly arranged components. On one end is the firebox where the heat and smoke are created by burning a fuel source, specifically wood. In the middle is the cooking chamber where the meat is placed and the heat and smoke are channeled for cooking. On the opposite end is a chimney or flue that is used as a mechanism to draw the heat and smoke from the firebox into the cooking chamber and then exhaust it into the air.
This type of pit is known as an “offset” pit because the firebox is on the side, or offset, from the cooking chamber. This is in contrast to a “direct heat” pit in which the fire is directly below the meat. Most backyard charcoals grills use the directheat method.
Over the years, pitmakers and pitmasters have come up with clever devices to implement the indirect-heat method. One of the oldest is the “offset brick pit.” The various components are all made out of brick, most notably the cooking chamber, which is a rectangular box arranged horizontally so that the top opens and meat is placed on racks below.
But there is an inherent problem with brick pits. The rectangular shape is not conducive to the fluid dynamics necessary to efficiently coax the heat and smoke through the cooking chamber. Think about the pipes in your house that channel gas and water — what shape are they? They are round, not rectangular.
In the care of a talented pitmaster, offset brick pits can still produce world-class barbecue. Arguably the most famous brick pit in Texas is at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. In Houston, Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue still uses brick pits that were built in the 1950s.
However, if using the indirectheat method is essentially a problem of fluid dynamics, then the shape of the cooking chamber should ideally resemble the round pipe in your house. On a larger scale, pitmakers could also take inspiration for the jumble of pipes and tubes seen at petroleum refineries that dot the Texas landscape.
And that’s exactly what happened with the invention of the “offset barrel pit.” This type of pit uses a tubular (barrel) shape for its cooking chamber that is better suited to controlling the fluid dynamics of heat and smoke.
In the 1970s, Houstonians Dickie Hartis and Lawrence Whitworth owned a metal-fabrication business that built equipment for oil refineries. In their spare time, they tinkered with building backyard barbecue pits. When the oil glut hit in the 1980s, they started building barbecue pits full time with materials scavenged from oil refineries, specifically the big pipes and tubes used to channel and hold fluids. In 1983, Pitt’s & Spitt’s was born, and is still making barbecue pits to this day.
The offset barrel pit is having a moment in contemporary Texas barbecue. Newer pitmakers including Moberg Smokers in Dripping Springs and Mill Scale Metalworks in Lockhart are repurposing 1,000-gallon propane tanks to build pits for the state’s celebrity pitmasters.
These newer-style barrel pits use mechanical designs that optimize fluid dynamics and assure efficient and consistent cooking. CorkScrew BBQ in Spring, Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue in Tomball and Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland are a few of the Houston-area joints using these newer 1,000-gallon offset barrel pits.
But these pits also offer a less obvious benefit — they are visual showpieces. In the past 10 years, Texas barbecue has become known as much for its visual impact as for its taste. Social media and specifically Instagram have created the need for pitmasters to offer striking visual experiences in the presentation of their barbecue and pit rooms.
On a recent visit to newly opened The Switch barbecue restaurant near Austin, I was given a tour of the pit room. Four massive, jet-black, 1,000gallon Moberg smokers were lined up in a row. It was an impressive evocation of the gritty, visceral image of the smoke, fire and heat that is the essence of Texas barbecue.
But more than just image, there is substance. It turns out these big tubes make some of the best barbecue in the state. J.C. Reid is the Houston Chronicle’s barbecue columnist. He also is the co-host of BBQ State of Mind, a podcast covering barbecue news from Texas and around the world, and co-founder of the Houston Barbecue Festival. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or send barbecue tips and questions to jcreid@jcreidtx.com.