Ben, here's some information on mail-order BBQ that just came my way a few days ago.
Rita
From: “The Greatest Hits - The 25 Best Products I’ve Ever Recommended…Revisited!” - The Rosengarten Report, issue #36, May 9, 2005, © 2005 by Salt Pig Publishing, LLC.
(David Rosengarten’s newsletter reviews mostly mail-order foods so enthusiastically that you can almost taste them.) For more information on THE ROSENGARTEN REPORT: Address: P.O. Box 4126, McLean VA 22103-9815; Telephone: 800.832.2330, WEBSITE:
www.DavidRosengarten.com
BBQ PORK RIBS: BLACK’S (LOCKHART, TEXAS)
THE INITIAL CONTEXT: In the very first Rosengarten Report, published on April 30, 2001, I featured a huge roundup of BBQ ribs from all over the country, and demonstrated that already-cooked ribs travel extremely well, right to your door. Two rib purveyors tied for top honors-—Maurice’s Piggy Park, in West Columbia, South Carolina, and Black’s, in Lockhart, Texas. In the subsequent years, Maurice’s has posed something of a problem to us. First, we were unsettled by reports of Maurice’s politics... extreme Good Ol’ Boy, with confederate flags a-wavin’ ... and some other accusations that I won’t air here. At the same time, some readers complained about the state of the orders they received —”messy,” “not carefully packaged,” were phrases that kept coming up. In view of all that — and in view of the super-strong showing Black’s made at our recent re-taste—top honors now, without doubt, go to the awesome Black’s Ribs ($105 for 5-to-6-lbs.).
THE INITIAL WRITE-UP: “The classic Texas rib is a beef rib, but they also make mean pork ribs in that state — and that’s what this classic taste of Texas is. The Texas signature (when the ribs are done beautifully) is redder meat, almost cured-tasting, a little salty, almost a little stringy (like corned beef), but still amazingly juicy. This rib has the perfect proportions of everything, with smoke and salt in some kind of ratio ordained by heaven (they are seasoned only with salt and pepper). The smoke flavor in particular is heavenly; the ribs taste like they were added to what BBQ folks call a ‘mature’ fire, not a ‘green’ fire—which means that the smoke taste is mellow, not acrid or bitter. There’s also a decent, reddish-brown BBQ sauce that tastes like it has a little cumin in it.”
THE 2005 UPDATE: This time around I was particularly struck by the size of these ribs, by their meatiness, and by the layer-cake strata of pork, fat, pork, fat, pork, fat, etc. They arrive at your door with no sauce on them, all crusty-brown on the outside. I like to tent ‘em in foil, heat ‘em for 15—20 minutes in a 300-degree oven, then slather ‘em with a bit of BBQ sauce about 5 minutes before pulling from the oven. Use any BBQ sauce you like-—though there are a couple I prefer to what Black’s sends you. If you want a Texas sauce, my fave is the Red Mud Barbecue Sauce ($20.20 for three 18-oz. bottles) -— sweet-ish, but ennobled by the addition of molasses. Even better, to my taste (less sweet, more complex spicing) is a famous one from a venerable Kansas City chain—-Gate’s Extra Hot BBQ Sauce ($11.55 for a “Gift Pack” of three 18-oz. jars).
BEST STRATEGY FOR ACQUISITION: To order Black’s Ribs, contact Black’s BBQ via phone at
512.398.2712, or log on to
www.blacksbbq.com. To order the Red Mud Barbecue Sauce, contact TexasInaBox.Com via phone at 877.987.3324, or log on to
www.texasinabox.com. To order the Gate’s Extra Hot BBQ Sauce, log on to
www.gatesbbq.com.
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BBQ PORK ROAST: WILLY RAY’S BBQ (BEAUMONT, TEXAS)
THE INITIAL CONTEXT: And more Texas... can’t help it! I went nuts in the August 18, 2003 Rosengarten Report, having discovered that Texas BBQ ships beautifully-—and having become obsessed with my search for the best. I discovered the best, to be danged sure—-but it wasn’t a brisket, as I was expecting it to be, even though Willy Ray’s makes an awesome one!
THE INITIAL WRITE-UP: “Willy Ray’s topped their own brisket in my ratings-—and with an item I don’t usually associate with Texas ‘cue. They call it Pork Roast ($55 for a 6.5-lb. roast), and I’m not entirely certain what cut it is (though the bone structure seems to indicate shoulder). But I am telling you, my friend-—this was the top piece of BBQ in my entire tasting! Once again, the black exterior drew oohs and ahs from my tasting crew-—but not as many oohs and ahs as the amazing, quivering, gray-pink slabs of meat that we hacked off the roast. This was melted, ****ographic pork, ready to fall apart into shreds and shards-—except it doesn’t, surprising you at last with the resilience of the chew. The balance of smoky flavor and deep, gelatinous porky flavor was a miracle of nature. If you serve this stuff plain on a plate with a little BBQ sauce, or on a sandwich, you may find that your life has changed forever.”
THE 2005 UPDATE: There is, perhaps, no item I’ve ever recommended that has the following this one has. I have multi-farious readers-—including many food professionals—-who tell me this is the best piece of pork they’ve ever had, of any kind! I know freezers out there, in readers’ homes, that are perennially stocked with these pork roasts! I tested one again, recently—-and, with delirious dribbles of pork fat all over my face, was blown away all over again. As you’ve noticed, I’ve refrained from ranking my 25 Greatest-—but if I did, this one would be a leading candidate for Best Product Ever!
BEST STRATEGY FOR ACQUISITION. To order, log on to
www.willyraysbbq.com.
