- [Leonard] So it's about 7:30 in the morning.
We get our briskets, pork ribs,
all of our proteins for the beginning of the week.
We go through upwards of 500 something briskets a week.
I feel bad.
It's gotta go somewhere.
(laughs)
I'll probably be vegan sooner or later.
So this literally just came off the truck
and now we're just loading all the inventory back up.
They're just gonna unload all these.
This is all of our storage for our brisket, sausage, turkey
all of our proteins go in here.
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So this is a prime packer brisket.
We like to use Creekstone, all around great product.
Whatever they're feeding, those things they make 'em nice
and fatty, and it's a lot more beefy flavor.
I want this to taste like a good steak with an accent
of smoke on there.
All this fat is gonna be trimmed down
but we're gonna leave a good amount on there.
Not only make it moist, but it helps protect it
through those long, long cooks.
So that's kind of what we're looking for.
Everything's nice and smooth.
These are all the briskets that are gonna go for tomorrow.
We use mustard, but it helps as a binder
for the the seasoning.
This helps it like really, really set in
and help develop that bark on there.
For tomorrow, we got 50 getting prepped up and ready to go.
And if you'll notice, he's not like rubbing the seasoning
in, even though it's called rub, you don't really
want to rub it, you wanna pat it in.
If you rub it, it tends to clog up the pores
and it'll start to get really, really salty on you.
So you'll see a lot of people like rubbing in
then it gets kind of pasty and kind of like a gross texture.
We try to keep everything like pretty uniform.
So you're getting the same bite throughout the cook
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So it's 7:00 AM.
We're getting the briskets on for service.
We'll put the, like a row of big briskets
in the back because they're gonna be rotated first
to the front and then we'll keep the deckle
off of the walls and the doors.
And we'll just kind of repeat that three
off the entire process of loading this thing up.
We're kind of placing them
to where the bigger ones will cook
at the same rate as the little bit smaller ones.
You gotta know the basics and really get
to understand like the fire
and like how heat is transferred.
I always tell people it's better to learn
like on a shitty pit than it is like to go
and get something like this right out the bat.
It's like going from a, you know, Toyota to a Ferrari.
You can't just hop on the racetrack.
So you want to keep it nice and humid
because heat is gonna pull out
whatever moisture is in the pit.
And if there's nothing to pull it out of
then it's gonna pull it out of the meat.
You don't want too much dry, dry heat in there.
So I like to use post oak 'cause it's milder wood.
A lot of people don't realize with wood.
It has to be cured properly.
It can't be a dead tree out in somebody's field
for two years.
The wood has to be split and stacked and aged
like that for 12, 14 months.
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So the logs will help redistribute the heat
and they'll absorb the heat, but it'll also deflect it
from hitting the front of the briskets.
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That's it.
This is our pit room.
We have five 1000 gallon offsets made out
of old propane tanks.
These are all custom built.
And I think there's like so 16 hoods over all of these pits.
It was up to me this whole room would've been screened
in and no bent hoods.
The learning curve on the pits in here was huge.
But this is like cooking in a lab.
It's so controlled
that you have to like taper it back a little bit.
So these guys have been on for four hours.
We usually check to see if the bark is set.
It's important to protect the a front ends of 'em.
So they're just not taking that beating that entire time.
This is Reid.
Who's been with us at this location since it opened.
Definitely cooks some of the best ribs in the state.
If not the best ribs in the state.
All these little steps there's always a reason behind it.
Ultimately, our goal is to let the customer
everybody gets the same bite of brisket.
So consistency across the board.
That's the only way that's gonna happen.
If you see these leans over here,
they're kind of popping up a little bit.
You want to get 'em to lay down flat.
The same as a steak, like, you know
a thin piece and it seizes up,
You don't wanna do that over course of 12 hours.
So that'll help it taper it back down
and it'll take less heat.
We didn't always do this, but we were always
like trying to think about how we can make a better product.
I think what's good about Truth is we're not really stuck
in our ways.
We know that what we do is good, but we're always open
to like, hey, we can do like this a different way.
That's the only way that you can stay
at the top is to evolve.
Like if you get stuck in your way,
somebody's gonna pass you up sooner or later.
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I always to like try to keep an eye
out on how the meat is changing.
Like throughout the cook.
It's always trying to get that little tweak
to get that perfect brisket.
This is about five hours
in the cook is when we start rotating these guys out
and we try to keep 'em as consistent as possible.
It's a lot more work and some people will keep 'em in place.
If there's heats just coming right here
it's gonna keep on coming right here.
And it's not gonna feel --
like this side is not gonna feel the same
as this side or this side, if that makes sense.
So on the wall, off the wall into the center
usually we'll have 'em in rows of four.
So the ones on the outside will crisscross
and go in the center.
And the ones on the center will crisscross
and go to the outside
and then moving the ones in the back to the front.
We keep on rotating until they're wrapped
and then we'll do one last rotation
at wrap to keep every thing consistent.
And so what he's doing there,
like if you can see the fat pulling up,
we'll like tip it over and dump that fat out
'cause if it sits there
it'll just start to wash out that bark.
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What he is doing is spritzing with apple cider vinegar.
What usually spritz the parts that
like this part of the top of the brisket...
Like imagine if your elbows are sticking out like
and there's a bunch of heat.
Like these, these wings are gonna get fried pretty quick.
Taking that in mind,
we kind of keep those like try to keep that area moist.
And it's a little bit more tedious work, but I mean
if we're gonna spend, you know
12, 15, 16 hours on a brisket cook,
you might as well put in a little bit of extra work.
So all the end product is better overall.
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So this is our trimmings from our brisket.
This is all from pork ribs.
We really don't wanna have any waste.
Only thing we can really do
with it is to use it for sausage.
We got 40 pounds brisket, 40 pounds pork.
I like to have a little bit more pork
because I like the fat content on it.
You know, there's different spices,
it's mustard seed, paprika, garlic, onion.
It's a very simple sausage just to kind
of compliment the rest of the meats.
This is a grinder and mixture saves a lot of time.
This helps get the season all throughout the sausage.
So that way you're not getting a bite
of like this straight garlic and onion
or like a super salty bite or anything like that.
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So these are all natural lamb casings that are
a little bit smaller.
You don't want like a giant salami-sized sausage.
This is like our standard house sausage.
It's pretty equivalent to like kielbasa.
Poking it with like the little sausage poker needle
just so that it fills all the space in there
when you're rolling it up, it won't bust.
We try to keep 'em like a third pound per link.
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So all these sausages that we just got done stepping
we're hanging 'em up to dry.
So that way that the casings nice and dried out.
If you put 'em in like a can container or anything,
they'll start to change colors.
And the casing won't set very well.
This will help extend the life of sausage.
These are gonna hang up and dry out for about 48 hours
- Sausage time.
It's about 8:15, and we have our house sausage,
our jalapeno cheddar and our pepper jack.
And I like to start from the back
that way I know how a much room I have.
Cooking a full pit of sausage.
You want to kind of squeeze it together just
so you can fit as much as you can on there.
That's why I like to put in these rows
and I make sure the rows are nice and straight.
That way you can put more on.
So these sausage right here will go
on for about 30, 45 minutes.
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- [Leonard] I think if you spend more
than 10 hours on anything, it becomes art.
Same way with whole hog.
Carolinas are so passionate about their whole hog.
And it's kind of like, it's that same journey
for that cook just a different animal
and a different process.
Ultimately, you're still cooking around maintaining fire.
So we'll pull the pig, we'll pull it out of the van
and then we'll get the saw and we're gonna half split it.
This is our whole hog.
I guess I was intimidated by like, you know,
a whole animal like 120, 140 pound pig
is pretty intimidating.
It's a big, big animal.
We need to split it open
because it's gonna be splayed out like that on the pit.
(tool whirs)
Brisket, we can do in our sleep pretty much.
And it's gonna be the same, just repetition.
I was looking for something.
I was looking for a new hobby and my therapist was
like you need just do something new,
go bowling or something.
And then two weeks later I got a brick pit
in my backyard and I'm cooking another animal.
It's like back to where I started.
(tool whirs)
When we cook whole hog,
we'll usually start the burn barrel like two,
three hours ahead of time and get a nice,
nice thing of coals going.
(tool hums)
So this is basically one giant box of hell.
All this wood it's gonna break down
and it's gonna fall down into of charcoal on the bottom.
And that's what we'll be shoveling out
and shoveling over the cooker.
When we're starting to pit up,
we'll kind of line the coals all
over the place to just get the temp up.
Coals, they burn off a different kind of heat.
And since it's direct heat,
you're not really wanting all the flavor of the smoke
and everything like you would with the briskets.
That's the way they do it in the Carolinas.
And I didn't really wanna change it up too much
'cause I wanted to be respectful of those guys.
And I really appreciated the way
that they were cooking out there.
(plastic crinkles)
So this is a little guy really just wanna get the shoulders
and the ham spread apart.
These are gonna be the hardest parts
to break down and take the most time.
This is just your traditional table salt
and you'll want to coat pretty heavily
the skin of the pig.
This is not for seasoning.
This is just to protect the skin
and pretty much pull all the moisture outta there.
So that way we can get that nice crispy skin
at the end of the cook.
Now we just keep on shoveling coals
under the ham and the shoulders and wait to finish it up.
I don't know why more people don't do it.
I think it's because like right now
like barbecue is so almost oversaturated.
Like everybody's focusing on brisket.
Like they're just so like dialed in,
like trying to figure out out
how to cook that perfect brisket
and they lose track of like
there's more barbecue outside of Texas.
Barbecue movement still going in other places.
(fire rustles)
So this is about 11, 12 hours in this cook.
You really wanna see this skin detaching
from the muscle, nice and soft, fat that's rendering out
and the belly will start to puddle up
and it'll start to boil.
So we'll check the temp on this.
We're looking for about 190 in the hams
and the shoulders because it's gonna spike up pretty quick.
Once we start crisping that skin, it's gonna go past 200
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(metal rustles)
- Hang on.
- Let's take this guy out.
The heat's different off of that plate versus the coals.
And we wanna kind of get it back down
before we crisp the skin.
So we're not like shocking the skin.
It'll turn colors pretty quick.
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These coals are so hot.
You gotta be very careful.
This is the most difficult part of this cook.
You wanna direct the coals under the skin.
This is all finesse on the tail end.
You can see it boiling up pretty slowly
and sometimes you'll have to finesse it with the shovel.
Sometimes the skin will crisp up like immediately
and sometimes the skin won't crisp up at all.
I mean, anything can happen.
It's kind of wild cooking.
Cooking the pig is not a difficult process.
It's this part.
Did you see where the skin's like starting to puff up,
starting to pull away from the rebar?
That's what you're looking for.
So this is done.
Just the plate to flip the pig over on to.
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All this skin is nice and hardened up.
A good color.
It's got a little too dark
but that's what we're looking for.
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Pig's gotten down to temp, probably sat for like two hours.
You wanna detach the skin first,
pick out the stuff that
it's not gonna be able to chew very nice.
Sometimes it'll get a little rubbery.
Belly meat, they call it, pig spaghetti
as it kind of pulls apart and see all the fat on there.
So you kind of wanna mix
and match like the ham and the shoulders.
And so you're getting like some fatty meat, some lean meat.
Now we just need to chop it all up.
Instead of that pulled texture like on whole pork
we're gonna have a little chunk set it.
The way Texas barbecue is to the rest of the us Carolina,
like whole hog, should be like that
for the rest of the US as well.
So we'll just add some salt and pepper just for flavor.
'cause we didn't season while it was on the pit.
This is like at your traditional Carolina vinegar sauce.
It just enhances the flavor of the pork.
We're gonna mix in some of the skins
but you got the hams, you got the shoulders,
you got the loins, you got the belly
all those are different textures.
And then this adds that crunchiness and it's like,
I love like how many different flavors
you can give in one bite.
So this is done.
Take it to guys through the front
so they can serve it up and turn it
into sandwiches or buy the pound or however people want it.
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- These are sausage that I put on earlier.
And they've been on
and you want to go by temperature and feel.
So the temperature you want it 155, 160 and on the feel,
you just want to make sure it's nice and tight.
That way when you bite into it, you get a nice snap.
And that's what people go for.
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We're gonna have these ready, right when service starts
just 'cause you don't really
want these to be sitting in the warmer for too long.
And then they'll go into this pan for service right here
by our cutters and they'll pull 'em out and serve 'em up.
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- [Leonard] Truth came from,
I always wanted to say true to Texas barbecue.
We don't use gas, we don't use rotisserie pits
or whatever.
I always wanted to do it like authentic
and stay true to Texas barbecue.
Just doing it the way that it had been done.
You know like places like Lockhart,
places like Louis Mueller
places that actually like paved the way for people like us.
I could have put my name on the front door
but ultimately if you want to grow,
you're gonna have to have people with you.
And I can't cook all the brisket of in the world,
all the time.
So it's luckily we have a great team here
and Truth is all of us versus just one person.
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