Recipes and food are passed down through generations. These are the culinary heirlooms that connect us to past generations. Barbecue for instance is one such food. This links family to their heritage going back decades.
Regular contributor Gabriel H. Sanchez wrote about his family's connection to smoked brisket in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section.Mr. Sanchez is a fifth generation lover of the meat coming from Lockhart ,Texas. Lockhart may be a small city located between San Antonio and Austen but Texas lawmakers decreed t to be the barbecue capital of the state. It has four historic smoke houses which has served many visitors and locals for decades.Most of Mr. Sanchez's family have worked at one Kreutz Market started by the son of German immigrants Charles Kreutz in 1900. To cut down on waste he began smoking the unsold cuts in the tradition of his German heritage. he strung up sausages like Christmas lights over slow burning post oak. Tougher cuts of beef were smoked at low temperatures for many hours or even days until the fats and the coilligen were broken down into a rich aromatic just that saturated each bite. The area had been ripe for this kind of food. It was on the CHisolm Trail where cattle were driven mainly by black and Hispanic cowboys who had a taste for charcoal and barbecue. This was a definite impact on early Texan cuisine.
Five generations of Mr Sanchez' family worked at Kruetz's from his great great grandfather in the early 1960's to his father. Various cousins and uncles also worked in the industry.it was hard work , some having frostbitten noses from filling sausage casing in sub zero freezers to hands singed by flames.Their clothes were always blackened by soot and ash. Yet barbecue was their life and passion.After Mr Sanchez;s father joined the Marines and did a Tour of Duty during the Iraq War he found comfort in being in front of his Weber grill making his own smoked brisket.He showed his son how to trust tongs over a thermometer and the care and attentiveness to cook meat low and slow for hours.The next generation will learn as a new generation was brought to another smokehouse Smitty's. There is a recipe included for those who arent' close to a smokehouseIt's a two day make with the neat being seasoned with salt and pepper the night before for a dry brine.The grill pit itself should be a mix for wood chips and charcoal and cooking it should really take three and a half hours. The cut is also coated in molasses which caramelizes the exterior giving it a nice crunchy coating.
Barbecue isn't just a fun summertime meal.It's an heir loom recipe going back generations. For some it 's what connects the past with the present.
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