Franklin Barbecue Quotes

“Sure, I was poor. But barbecue has never been a rich man’s pleasure. It’s always been a culture of thrift. It’s a poor, rural cuisine based on the leanest, throwaway cuts of the animal being cooked until edible with a fuel that can be picked up off the ground (at least it used to be).”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“The enhancement in question is the common practice of big meat packers to inject solutions consisting mainly of water and salt into the pork and poultry they sell. Other components of the brine might include sodium phosphates and sugar. They might offer all sorts of reasons for this, but they all pretty much mean that it’s an industrial solution to the industrial problem of mass-producing and mass-distributing pork. “Enhancement” adds artificial moisture to pork that’s otherwise dried out, extends its shelf life, reduces the amount of liquid that seeps from meat that’s been sitting around for a while, and, most insidiously, makes meat more profitable by adding weight to something you’re buying by the pound.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“They’re not called spare because they’re thin or left over or not as good as strike ribs or kept in the trunk in case your main ribs get a flat.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“Attached to the loin, which is a lean cut of meat, baby backs are typically leaner than spares. But their meat is still juicier and fattier than the loin, which is one reason for their popularity. Another reason is a certain boppy commercial jingle for a national restaurant that never seemed to go away.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“avoid briskets that sport heavy, compacted layers of rock-hard fat on the outside. In my experience, this kind of fat is a hallmark of a cow that’s been raised industrially on grain and fed all kinds of growth hormones and antibiotics to be brought quickly and unhealthily up to a slaughtering weight.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“Its name when translated from Japanese is much less exciting than when you don’t know what it means—wa means “Japanese” and gyu means “cow.” Japanese cow, that’s all it is.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“You’ll be surprised that when we started we had absolutely nothing—no resources, no knowledge, no image of what we wanted to become. All I had were my own two hands, a work ethic, a positive attitude, a sense of humor, and a fine lady to help it all come together.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

“But the fact that in Texas barbecue, you’re taking one of the worst pieces of the animal and converting it into one of the best is a miracle itself.”
― Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]