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Pitmaster Chris Fultz and Pitmistress Alex Graf of ZZQ. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Each brisket receiving a mustard wash. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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A marvelous hunk of pork, straight from the smoker. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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The final brisket, ready to serve. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
A lot of time and effort went into that barbecue on your plate, so we spent a day at ZZQ’s smoker to learn just how the meat is made.
9:30 a.m. ZZQ’s wood-fired smoker, Mabel, heats to 275 degrees on a warm spring morning. Inside, pitmaster Chris Fultz is trimming thick, glossy cuts of brisket, removing excess fat and stray pieces of meat for a large catering order.
10:45 Fultz massages a mustard-based wash over five briskets before whisking his dry rub mix — vibrantly red, peppered and fragrant — and sprinkling it over each cut.
Each brisket receiving a mustard wash. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
11:30 Each hefty brisket gets placed at the far end of the smoker, fat-cap-up, where it slowly cooks and remains there, untouched, for two hours.
1:30 p.m. Fultz rotates the briskets, shuffling them inside the smoke chamber for even cooking. Each cut is losing water and beginning to curl (and smelling fantastic).
3:00 Back in the kitchen, the pitmaster trims marvelously marbled Duroc pork, and “pitmistress” Alex Graf — his wife and business partner — begins prepping sides like buttermilk potato salad.
3:25 Fultz rubs a wash into the pork’s crevices. “This meat is so succulent and sweet, all you can taste is the meat and the smoke, really,” he says, shaking homemade rub onto the shoulders — a heavy dose of brown sugar, cayenne pepper, chili powder and other spices to create bark.
4:00 The pork hits the smoker, nestled amongst the curling brisket.
4:40 Spraying the brisket and pork with a secret solution, Fultz explains that this adds a layer of flavor and helps enhance and set the bark — that outer layer of smoky spice.
5:50 The brisket gets wrapped in butcher paper. It’s an old-school practice that insulates areas that might otherwise burn, and helps retain fat, which will reabsorb when resting. Then the beef returns to the smoker from whence it came.
8:50 Fultz and Graf remove the pork, wrapping each piece in aluminum foil to trap moisture. They place the pork back in the smoker and rotate the brisket again, this time in the dark.
10:10 Fultz rotates the brisket and pork once more.
A marvelous hunk of pork, straight from the smoker. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
11:26 With flashlight in mouth, Fultz grabs a fully relaxed brisket, squeezing to see how much the meat gives. He removes a pork shoulder next, unfolding the foil. “See how the bone is giving? How the meat’s pulling away from the bone?” He probes the pork with a thin ice pick. “It’s done.” From there, both will rest for hours in a low-temperature holding oven until they’re cut and pulled to order the next day, served with sides like heavenly jalapeño mac ’n’ cheese.
The final brisket, ready to serve. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
