What is Lockhart BBQ or Lockhart Style BBQ?

Lockhart, Texas is generally considered the birthplace of Texas BBQ and was named the BBQ capital of Texas by the Texas legislature.  For this reason, one of the most popular line of questioning we receive here relates to Lockhart BBQ.  So. let's dive in by asking Crossbuck BBQ’s founder and famed Texas pitmaster, Tim McLaughlin. 

As the co-founder of Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas Texas, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience in smoking "Lockhart-style" BBQ.

Mark:  What is Lockhart BBQ or Lockhart Style BBQ?

Tim:  As you noted, many consider this small town near Central Texas to be the birthplace of Texas BBQ so it naturally garners a lot of attention from BBQ aficionados from around the globe.

Lockhart BBQ is a very minimalistic style of BBQ that features the low and slow smoking of tougher cuts of beef like brisket and shoulder clod using wood-fired pits consisting mainly post oak wood.

Mark:  What are the key characteristics of Lockhart Style BBQ?

Tim:  First, you need to consider that Texas BBQ is best known for beef…and particularly brisket.  So, in central Texas and specifically this little town of Lockhart…in the early 1900s, there were butcher shops that were looking for ways to offer inexpensive meat to their working-class customers.   

Due to the toughness of some of the cuts of meat, the demand was very low.  This was the case for the brisket (the cow’s chest) and shoulder clod.  Looking for a way to utilize these cuts, the butcher shops figured out that if they smoked the meats with indirect heat for a very long period of time at very low temperatures (the complete opposite of how most other cuts of beef are cooked), the meat could become tender and juicy.

While this “low ‘n slow” cooking method was obviously not “invented” in Lockhart or Central Texas, it certainly became very popular.

Mark:  Are there other characteristics besides this low and slow cooking method?  What about the wood?

Tim:  In those days, fire was mainly powered by wood and there was an abundance of oak around so that is what they used.  Since oak does not impart much flavor on meat, using it meant relying on the meat to provide the taste. 

Mark:  So, did they use sophisticated rubs with a lot of different spices to help improve the taste. 

Tim:  My understanding is that they kept it very simple and mainly used salt and pepper.  Remember, these were butchers…not necessarily cooks…and certainly not chefs.

Mark:  That’s it.  Rub the brisket with salt and pepper and cook it low and slow.  Did they trim the fat extensively or wrap the briskets?

Tim:  In all of my research, I found that they did not trim the briskets much and they never wrapped them.  Keep in mind, these butcher shops were trying to keep the cost low so they did not want to spend a bunch of time trimming the briskets or trying to time when to wrap them. 

It seems to me that Aaron Franklin popularized wrapping a brisket or the “Texas Crutch”…decades later.  Wrapping the brisket in butcher paper is a way to help backyard BBQers with smoking their own brisket on a small backyard smoker…and having it ready by the time the guest arrived.

At Crossbuck BBQ, we consider wrapping the meat steaming it…and we avoid this process.  The wrapping process is NOT authentic and we think that “steaming meat” in this manner is both cheating and unnecessary.

Mark:  Once the brisket was cooked, how was it served?  Like…was it sliced and served on nice sandwich rolls with some special type of BBQ sauce?

Tim:  Keep in mind, the guys serving these were primarily butchers.  They typically sold the brisket by the pound wrapped in butcher paper.  Even when their shops evolved into restaurants, the experience remained “no frills.” They typically added some white bread and sliced up some onions, but it remained very no-frills. 

In fact, Kreutz Market, one of the most famous BBQ restaurants in Lockhart, even embraced a slogan of “No forks. No Sauce.” just to emphasize the minimalistic nature of their BBQ offering.

Despite this no-frills experience, certain customers and the media seemed to love the story and the quirkiness of the whole experience and it generated a cult following.  So much so that when Texas Monthly published its first list of the Top BBQ restaurants in Texas, the city of Lockhart had multiple restaurants on the list.

Mark:  So what are your personal feelings on Lockhart Style BBQ?

Tim:  In many ways, I love the Lockhart-style of smoking as it really is a test of the pitmaster's cooking skills.  You can't become good at it by reading a recipe or buying some special rub.  You have to practice...a lot!

What I don't like about it, however, are all the misconceptions and distortions.  For instance, I am a purist in the sense that I feel like Lockhart style BBQ mainly deals with how one can take a tough cut of beef, trim it very slightly to ensure their is plenty of fat to render and then cook it low and slow in a wood-fired pit without ever wrapping it.  

It's not about buying the highest grade of beef, trimming all the fat and then wrapping it.  People may like their brisket prepared that way, but it is not authentic...at least not in my book it is not.

Mark:  So, do you and your pitmasters at Crossbuck BBQ serve Lockhart style brisket?

Tim:  At Crossbuck BBQ, we try to remain very true to using the wood fired, low and slow cooking methods with minimal trimming and no wrapping associated with Lockhart, but we added some fruit wood to our smoke and enhanced our rub to give the meat a little more flavor.

We also custom-built smokers that allow us to achieve much more consistent quality.  Plus, we ditched the basic white bread for fresh baked rolls, created two new BBQ sauces and pair the meats with “cheffed up sides” including some very non-traditional BBQ sides…like salads served with our house made dressings.