Franklin barbecue : a meat-smoking manifesto

284 Pages·2015·23.22 MB·English

by  Franklin

Copyright © 2015 by Aaron Franklin
Photographs copyright © 2015 by Wyatt McSpadden All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of
Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
With the exception of this image: Photo copyright © Jeff Stockton, all other photos are by Wyatt McSpadden.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Franklin, Aaron.
Franklin barbecue : a meat-smoking manifesto / Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay ; photography by Wyatt
McSpadden.
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Barbecuing. I. Mackay, Jordan. II. Title.
TX840.B3F698 2015
641.7′6—dc23
2014036177
Hardcover ISBN 9781607747208
eBook ISBN 9781607747215
Design and illustrations by Betsy Stromberg v3.1_r2
a
DEDICATION
To my wonderful wife,
Stacy,
our beautiful daughter,
Vivian, and our little dog
too!

Contents
•
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Coauthor’s Note
Introduction
BEGINNINGS
One
THE SMOKER
Two
WOOD
Three
FIRE + SMOKE
Four
MEAT
Five
THE COOK
Six
SERVING + EATING
Seven
Resources
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Coauthor’s Note
•
The first question people always asked when they heard I was working on a book
with Aaron Franklin—the man whose Austin restaurant is as famous for its
incredibly long lines as it is for its food—was, “Is it really that good? Is the barbecue
that much better than everyone else’s?” And, I always answered, Yep, pretty much.
The second question was always the same too. “What does he do that’s so different
from everyone else?” And my answer to that was always the same too: Not that
much.
So what is the secret? That’s what everyone really wants to know. It’s true that
Aaron uses more expensive and higher grade meat than almost everyone else. It’s
also true that he has a talent for designing and tinkering with his smokers to get the
optimal smoking action he desires. And, yes, he has an almost demented attention to
detail when it comes to cooking meat—every log on the fire, every rib, every brisket
is treated individually and given discreet consideration as it cooks and becomes
barbecue. But I can’t answer the original question by describing any specific
maneuvers or secret techniques I learned while working with Aaron. What I can say
after having spent hours and hours cooking with him at all times of day and night is
that the reason his food is so successful seems to lie in his personality, his work ethic,
and his remarkable talent for comprehending how things work.
During our time together, I jokingly referred to the latter as his ability to “think
like smoke.” When he constructs a smoker, burns wood in a firebox, and puts meat
in the cooker, Aaron appears—in his own completely intuitive form of consideration
—to calculate the way heat and smoke will curl and bounce around the insides of the
smoker, around the meat, and ultimately swirl out of the stack in his desired perfect
“vortices.” He understands how it all works, and consequently he wraps and pulls his
meats at just the right moment. It’s impressive.
But even more impressive—and what I most admire about the man and what I
think is his greatest asset and the greatest secret of his success—is the absolute, utter
commitment he has to the customers who truly humble him every day by waiting
for hours in line for his food. His obsessive dedication to the happiness and
satisfaction of every person who eats at Franklin Barbecue is awe inspiring,