The Meat
The Story

The Ultimate Bar-B-Q Experience

The secret to amazing slow-smoked Bar-B-Q is recognizing that it’s an art and a science. Doing Bar-B-Q well at all our restaurants means having a finely tuned process we can teach. But it also means hiring skilled cooks to make everything from scratch in-house using time-honored recipes handed down through generations. In fact, our original Bar-B-Q sauce is made from a recipe handed down from H.D. Pappas himself, and our cooks take great care to develop the sauce’s complex flavors.

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Our Bar-B-Q Pits Make
All the Difference

It ain’t real Bar-B-Q without talented pitmasters and a finely honed Bar-B-Q’n process that puts hours into perfecting the meat. We use only commercial-quality, wood-burning Bar-B-Q pits ’cause they can each keep about 1,000 pounds of meat constantly moving rotisserie-style so everything cooks evenly – no hot spots here! Our pitmasters skillfully tend the fires 24/7, regularly adding just the right amount of fresh hickory and mesquite to give the meat a slightly sweet smoking and keeping close tabs on all the factors that can affect the pits, like humidity and wind.

Makin' the Cut

We’ve been smoking Bar-B-Q for over 40 years, so we know that great Bar-B-Q starts with top-quality ingredients, distinctive homemade recipes and a time-honored process. We take great care in all the little details, from using the perfect ratio of hickory to mesquite for just the right smoke to making the mayo that goes into our ranch dressing and potato salad ourselves.

Tools

Our moist and flavorful sausage is second in popularity only to our brisket. We make our sausage in-house with our own special recipe that gives it a bit of a garlic kick. It’s darn good!

You haven’t truly tasted mouthwatering spare ribs till you’ve tried ours! We start with large, meaty pork ribs rubbed down with brown sugar and spices. As it smokes, the meat develops beautiful char marks and the sweet rub caramelizes. After about 5 hours in the pit, we take out those tender ribs and top ’em off with a little lip-smackin’ brown sugar glaze. Ooh-whee!

Our beef brisket is sure to please. We start with high-quality Certified Angus Beef® and treat it with a salty spice rub. We load the pits up 3 times a day and cook ’em low and slow so they get that crispy, smoky “candy” ring on the outside while locking in flavor. Resting the meat is just as
important as cooking it. It takes 7-8 hours for
the juices to reabsorb and for the meat to
cool down to optimum serving temperature
– cut it too early and you’re sure to end up
with dried-out hunks instead of moist,
flavorful slices!

Regional Flavors

America’s Bar-B-Q Pit Stops

Bar-B-Q is as American as apple pie, but tastes sure do vary across the South. Bar-B-Q started as a way to keep using tough cuts of meat by slow-roasting ’em to make the meat tender. In some places, Bar-B-Q meat’s gotta be slathered in sauce, but in other places, people have got a taste for dry rubs. In some places, pork Bar-B-Q is favored, while in Texas, beef brisket is king. The types of wood used for smoking and spices vary from region to region, too. Take a gander: