Smoke is the not-so-secret ingredient
As Texas barbecue continues to evolve, I’ve noticed a couple of trends. I’ll call the first one “Speakeasy Barbecue.” In this case, a bar that serves craft cocktails, wine and beer hires a pitmaster to take up residence and cook barbecue for its patrons. Gone are the days of sketchy bar food menus filled with bland pizzas and toaster-oven sandwiches.
I’ll call the other trend “Let’s Smoke Anything.” This is where the blurred lines between chefs and pitmasters result in experimentation with the process of cooking and flavoring food with smoke and heat. We all know that meat and fish fare well in the smoking process, but what about other ingredients such as cheese, vegetables and fruits?
Such experimentation can be treacherous. Although you can argue that any food can be smoked, the success rate of this process greatly depends on the skill of the pitmaster.
The most successful example of these trends is at Freedmen’s Bar in Austin. Freedmen’s was conceived as a bar/barbecue joint and the owners brought in chef/pitmaster Evan LeRoy to develop the menu and cook the barbecue. LeRoy grew up in Austin and went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu there.
LeRoy fully embraces the “Let’s Smoke Anything” mantra. Freedmen’s offers smoked meats, vegetables, desserts and even cocktails.
In addition to the smoked offerings, Freedmen’s provides a comfortable environment to taste some of Texas’ best barbe- cue without the long lines and crowded dining rooms of other Austin barbecue joints.
On a recent weekday, Freedmen’s cool, dark bar area — called the “saloon” — was filled with families, students and office workers enjoying a quiet and relaxed lunch. Table service, rarely seen in Texas barbecue joints, is the norm here.
The menu is straightforward and, not surprisingly, permeated by “smoked everything.”
Start with the “Holy Trinity Plate” of traditional brisket, ribs and sausage. LeRoy’s brisket can hold its own with the best in the state.
I could tell even before I tasted it. This giant flap of beef sliced from the “point” of the brisket was easily three-fourths of an inch thick.
There’s an old saying among those who eat a lot of brisket: A pitmaster’s skill is directly proportional to how thick he cuts his brisket. Thinly sliced brisket will often belie an undercooked or tough piece of meat. Slicing it thin makes such shoeleather easier to chew.
LeRoy’s thick slice of brisket was perfectly cooked. I could pick it up without it falling apart, but I easily pulled it apart with my fingers. A precise quarter-inch strip of fat and bark crowned the top. LeRoy is known for the bark, or outside crust, on his brisket. The peppery rub is cooked until crispy and crystallized, offsetting the buttery layer of smokeinfused fat beneath.
Big, meaty pork spareribs are cooked until they’re “pull off the bone” tender. Big chunks of cracked pepper suggest a simple dry rub, but these ribs are also glazed with a vinegary sauce and a sweet jalapeño jelly.
The house-made sausage skillfully balances the rich savoriness of the beef-and-pork filling and the cutting aromatics of garlic, pepper and jalapeño. It’s all stuffed into a sufficiently snappy casing and lightly smoked.
Side dishes are more refined than what you get at a typical barbecue joint. Standard coleslaw is transformed by lightly smoking/grilling the cabbage, shredding it, and dressing it with a tart cider vinegar mixed with cilantro and caraway seeds.
For an appetizer, a creamy scoop of pimento cheese is made from smoked cheddar and grilled jalapeños and red bell peppers and served with focaccia bread. There’s a calibrated sequence of flavor and heat with the rich cheese providing a base for the sweet peppers and a slow burn of jalapeños on the back end.
How about a smoked dessert? I usually roll my eyes when I see smoked desserts — they rarely live up to the hype — but LeRoy pulls it off. He places chocolate chips in the smoker just long enough to melt and absorb some smoke flavor and then whisks it into a silky mousse topped with flakes of sea salt.
For barbecue lovers, the offerings at Freedmen’s Bar will be both novel and familiar. Far more than just a flash in the pan, I expect such creatively smoked dishes will gain further acceptance and popularity on barbecue joint menus.
Applying the fundamental techniques of the smoking process to different ingredients is a natural and welcome evolution of Texas barbecue.