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1 teaspoon chili powder. 5 Southern Pitmasters Share Their Secrets to Making Restaurant-Quality Barbecue at Home Sometimes it’s crisis central. The Texas native is just not in a rush. “I was constantly looking for containers,” he said. 1 teaspoon onion powder. Trust me, it’s so worth it. “That’s why I started building pits.” Lewis started building pits in 2006, not in El Paso (where he was born), or Austin (where he moved when he was 18), but in Denver, where he lived and worked as a pastry chef for three years. His great, great, great grandfather operated a butcher shop in New Mexico in the early 1900s. 75g honey. (Photo ©Darren Carroll)Would you like any sides with that?
Most of the time it’s just management.”In the world of smoked meat, the term “legend” sometimes gets tossed around too easily. “We’re open 11 hours a day. But that’s not what slowed him down. (Photo ©Darren Carroll)Briskets are trimmed at Lewis Barbecue. “That was it,” he said, remembering the first brisket he made in it.Lewis was hooked, but knew he could do better. MyRecipes is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. “Because it wants to equalize itself.” When he had the design he wanted, he lit up the smoker for the first time the same day he put the smokestack on. There’s not much fat but there’s a lot of connective tissue to break down. He built the four main, 1,000-gallon, pits in use at Lewis Barbecue, as well as the sausage cooker and two back-up pits. 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped. Nope.One concession: “Anyone telling you they are using just salt and pepper for seasoning, it’s b.s.,” he said.John Lewis admits that through trial and error on the barbecue competition circuit he learned some “finishing touches” that he uses at his restaurant.“A few secrets that happen once the meat comes off the pit,” he allowed, unspecifically. “Anything made of steel that was fireproof.” This led him down a black hole, where he was continually making smoke boxes and modifying them -- spending all his time and money on this singular quest. And none of it is wasted. He tells me about brisket and the challenges of cooking it as his feet move slowly over dirt and one hand glides, also slowly, along the length of a long, midnight black, zeppelin-shaped steel smoker made from a repurposed 1,000-gallon propane tank. Winning his first trophy for a whole turkey he’d cooked back in 1991, he’s been honing his knack for smoking the perfect bird ever since.
The key is to make sure you have enough salt, heat, and sweet to balance out the flavors, says Lewis. “We have a real passion for turkey and because of that, we treat it with as much love and respect as the brisket, ribs and pork shoulder.” Here’s how to get that made-with-love flavor and coveted juicy texture on the grill. (Photo ©Darren Carroll)John Lewis uses meat cleavers as damper handles on his hand-made pits; this one belonged to his grandfather.
(Photo ©Darren Carroll)In interview after interview over the years, Lewis has emphasized the importance of cooking on a good pit. Specializing in beef including brisket and giant beef short ribs, these meats, merch, sauces, and more can be shipped directly to your door. The first thing you’ll notice when you pull up to Lewis Barbecue are the massive, custom-made smokers, welded by the pitmaster himself. A few years ago, Lewis signed on as pitmaster at Austin’s La Barbecue. It’s twice as big on one side than the other and it’s tricky to get it to cook evenly.” Lewis unraveled this discovery over time, a construct he perceives differently than the rest of us. He smoked his brisket there for 15 hours before leaving earlier this year. All Hail The King! He broke. When I asked Lewis what that diameter was, he demurred.
A green Hatch chile sauce was served on the side in a small ramekin. Smoke stacks are rolled to a specific diameter. He turned a key into the underside of a Master Lock and let the weight of the door swing it open. He built the four main, 1,000-gallon, pits in use at Lewis Barbecue, as well as the sausage cooker and two back-up pits. He put a chair down 10ft away from it, opened a beer, and lit a cigarette. “I knew what I wanted to make and I knew there was nothing out there that would produce that.” The last attempt was with an old, giant restaurant oven. Specializing in beef including brisket and giant beef short ribs, these meats, merch, sauces, and more can be shipped directly to your door. Lewis walked me to his smokehouse, past dumpsters and stacks of wood.
He can’t be. After months of tweaks and tests, it didn’t give him the brisket he wanted. “Someone once told me that if you like the purple lure, you’ll fish better with it,” he says. Inside you’ll order at the counter, where John Lewis is slicing up true Central Texas barbecue, cut-to-order. “After that, I decided I wanted to live here,” Lewis tells me, surrounded by four 16ft smokers under a tin roof favoring one leg.This was March, and Lewis Barbecue was just a plywood frame and cement walls raised from a dirt lot with poured concrete.