Snow's BBQ vs. Southside Market: Someone brought a spoon to a gunfight. (Boots in the Oven)

In June 2008, Texas Monthly named little Snow's BBQ, in a town of 1200 people 50 miles from Austin, the best barbeque in the state of Texas.

In a land studded with BBQ palaces, where people will draw down over slight variations in sauce recipes, and will get downright stabby over brisket, this was a big hairy deal. Adding to the mystique, the place is distinguished by scarcity - they open at 8 AM, only on Saturdays, and close when they sell out of meat. This usually happens by 11 at the very latest.

We arrived just before 9:30 this morning. Later than we wanted to, but when you're unemployed, your definition of "freakishly f***ing early" starts to slide.

Snow's sign (they don't even need to put it out by the road any more)

The sign no longer lives out by the road - why should it, when there are lines out the door at 8 AM on a Saturday?

The place is pretty inviting. There's a large outdoor covered area, where the pits smoked away and picnic tables awaited trays laden with meat, but they weren't seeing much use today. Too rainy and cool.

The line was respectable, but we waited less than ten minutes to place our order. This gave us time to check out the various meats on the line (brisket, chicken, pork ribs, sausage, and pork shoulder) and decide how we'd structure our barbecue brunch.

No sissy plates for us, thanks - just meat by the pound. Well, and some wonder bread... and free beans... and onions, because Husbear just NEEDS them with barbecue... and pickles. I like pickles.

We ended up ordering brisket, for which Snow's is most famous; two long links of porky/beefy sausage; a couple ribs; and a half chicken. Husbear asked about the pork shoulder and was told in no uncertain terms that it was the best thing Snow's turns out, and with that recommendation, several slices made it neatly onto our butcher paper.

So, this brings me to the barbecue. First off, the barbecue lady was spot on with her pork shoulder recommendation. We were even lucky enough to get the crunchy, almost burnt ends, which still managed to be moist and succulently porky. Secondly, this was the finest, fattiest, most flavorful brisket I've ever had the pleasure to eat. By no means a sissy, city, trim-the-fat-off-I'm-dieting brisket, it fell apart all over the butcher paper.

(Holy crap this was so face-meltingly good! I've eaten a lot of brisket and I've never had anything quite like this. Girlie had to cut me off when I ended up shirtless rubbing it all over myself. Self control is overrated. -L. Pants)

Which brings us to the middling - the chicken was a little dry, but still with good smoke flavor. We brought most of it home, where I think it will make a great chicken sandwich right around lunchtime tomorrow. The sausage was downright juicy with grease, and well seasoned but the texture was a little mealier than I prefer.

Queue up early or sauce your empty plate with tears.

And the ribs just really weren't worth mentioning on this particular day. (What the hell?! They were rubbery and bland and I don't understand how the same people who put out that brisket let those ribs slip through. -L. Pants)

Sides? Crunchy coleslaw and potato salad, which we didn't try, and free smoky beans you scoop yourself from atop a beautiful old Pioneer stove.

After bagging up our leftovers, we headed out into what had become a soaking rain to check out the outdoor seating and the pits. The pitmasters and mistresses were totally accomodating - we even got to sneak a peek into the pits when it came time to change out the meat. They have a serious operation going behind Snow's, and it was a perfect day to be tending the pits - cool and wet and significantly more comfortable within a few feet of the warm fires.

So, would we go back to Snow's? Deal with the hour-long drive on an early Saturday morning, missing first dibs at the farmers' markets in town, just to stand in line for some cooked meats? You betcha. I'd even try the ribs again.

On the way home, in a misguided effort at comparison-brisket, we stopped by Southside Market in Elgin. I know brisket isn't supposed to be the strong suit of this 123-year-old institution, but Husbear remembered having a good cut there several years back and wanted to hold it up against Snow's.

The place is a barn, and the line at 10:45 nonexistent.

We ordered a few slices of brisket, moist, some of their famous sausages (elgin hot guts. No, really.), and a couple of ribs.

Yes, indeed. Well, no is probably more accurate. The sausage was OK, but considering it's their freaking FLAGSHIP PRODUCT, it should have been way better. The ribs made Snow's underperformers look positively great, and the brisket... oh, the brisket.

Dry. Chewy. Flavorless, with an oddly uniform smoke ring. It tasted like it'd spent the night in the walk-in and been reheated in the microwave several hours before we toddled in, bellies full of GOOD brisket. We won't make this mistake again.

(No seriously- I understand meat can be finicky and everybody has a bad day but this "brisket" was some weakass, plasticky, wal-mart shit that no self respecting bbq joint should have served even at gunpoint. Come on Southside! Scroll up and compare this to the Snow's brisket picture. Quality control guys. -L. Pants)

Plus, their BBQ sauce tasted like... applesauce mixed with tomato paste. With extra sugar. And they charged $.08 per slice of white bread. Whatever.

Then we came home and spent two hours at the gym.

Snow's, 700 Main Street, Lexington TX. 979.773.4640. (Saturdays only.)

Southside Market, 1212 Highway 290 East, Elgin TX. 512.285.3407.

Comments

Wow! I can't believe you had both stops in you!

I really liked Snow's, and we buy Elgin sausage in the store when we can. I agree about the brisket. To. Die. For. I found the drive very pleasant, especially when it's a Saturday morning and you've got the rest of the weekend ahead of you.

See you guys soon!

Posted by: Addie Broyles | Saturday, 21 February 2009 at 21:26

Thanks, Addie! We brought home a lot of leftovers, though we did just about finish the brisket and pork shoulder. We even have a couple slices of Southside's brisket, though I don't know how Logan will be using them...

Posted by: Boots in the Oven | Sunday, 22 February 2009 at 10:22

I loved your description of the food at Snow's and completely agree except the chicken was also kick ass when we were there. The pork butt is the bomb!

Definitely could have skipped Southside market. I think Elgin is completely overrated. I went once and tried all three Elgin cue places and didn't much like anything. For me, Salt Lick serves some of the best sausage around.

Posted by: Jodi | Sunday, 22 February 2009 at 15:10

Thanks, Jodi! I like your post's behind the scenes look at the people and the town from which this great BBQ came. ( http://www.tastytouring.com/2008/12/snows-bbq-in-lexington-texas-smokes-em.html )

I haven't been to the other Elgin BBQ places, and you're making me feel a lot better about it! Also haven't been to the Salt Lick since... 2002? Gotta go back.

Posted by: Boots in the Oven | Sunday, 22 February 2009 at 16:36