Another transcendent visit to Snow’s Barbecue on a rainy Saturday, with my brother in law and his neophyte guests who had never had this experience before. They first wondered why you would get up early and drive 75 minutes to Lexington, TX and have brisket for breakfast, but soon realized there was no better way to start a day.
Secrets galore were on open display, which is the mark of a champion that has no fear of losing its throne. We got a tour of the smokers from the new young cook who told us the meat is smoked at 350 degrees then transferred to a finish smoker at 160 degrees where it’s done when he can grab the foil package in his gloved mitts and twist it and feel a bit of “give”. This is information worth its weight in gold, no?
I also spied the table with the bean prep and confirmed my previous speculations that they use the large size Toné Chili Powder from Sam’s Club. This plus a generous amount of detritus from yesterday’s smoked meats and plenty of salt once again made for the best pinto beans I ever had.
And, I took a closer look at the rub salt on the shelf next to the restroom and noticed a very substantial amount of black pepper mixed in—perhaps a ratio of 1 part pepper to 4 parts salt compared to just a trace of pepper on my last visit. I asked Kerry if this accounted for a slight difference in the taste of the bark that I’d observed and he said, “never a difference—you may have hit a pocket” of pepper. Yes sir.