[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
Fiasco BBQ is my barbecue food truck,<\/p>\n
and I’m the owner and pitmaster.<\/p>\n
I am literally the only employee,<\/p>\n
I’m the only one who works here.<\/p>\n
The vast, vast majority of my career<\/p>\n
is on the wine side and the beverage side,<\/p>\n
and it turns out I could make it all the way to the top,<\/p>\n
becoming the beverage director<\/p>\n
for a three-star Michelin restaurant called Jean-George,<\/p>\n
and then, I took a step away from hospitality,<\/p>\n
then when we moved to Austin,<\/p>\n
that’s where I started teaching myself how to smoke meat.<\/p>\n
I opened Fiasco BBQ because, number one, I love barbecue,<\/p>\n
number two, I love cooking barbecue for other people,<\/p>\n
number three, I love a challenge,<\/p>\n
and number four, I’m not afraid of it.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
Good morning, it’s 4:25,<\/p>\n
my name is Eric and this is Fiasco BBQ,<\/p>\n
my food truck in East Austin.<\/p>\n
First thing we have to do is get the fire lit<\/p>\n
so we can get the meats on the smoker by five o’clock.<\/p>\n
Let’s go.<\/p>\n
[upbeat funk music]<\/p>\n
[crickets chirping]<\/p>\n
So I use post oak,<\/p>\n
which is very traditional in Central Texas.<\/p>\n
Little tip and trick for you folks at home,<\/p>\n
if you’re having a hard time getting your fire lit,<\/p>\n
you get a leaf blower,<\/p>\n
because you’re adding oxygen to the firebox,<\/p>\n
which is what fire needs,<\/p>\n
and as you can see right now, this fire is going.<\/p>\n
It is 4:39 AM and the current temperature is 80 degrees,<\/p>\n
81% humidity.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I’m already sweating.<\/p>\n
I could start a little bit later,<\/p>\n
but then I’d be here later and I’ve got kids at home,<\/p>\n
and I already get up at 3:30 in the morning<\/p>\n
to get here and get this started at 5:00,<\/p>\n
so I’d rather just get it over with.<\/p>\n
I wanna make sure that I keep this door closed<\/p>\n
so I don’t lose all the heat.<\/p>\n
Definitely still plenty enough space<\/p>\n
to get oxygen coming in to keep that fire going.<\/p>\n
Now we’re gonna go pull the meat out of the refrigerator<\/p>\n
and we’re gonna get ready to put it on the smoker.<\/p>\n
[upbeat funk music]<\/p>\n
Brisket number one, brisket number two.<\/p>\n
So these briskets will be for tomorrow,<\/p>\n
I’m also cooking one rack of pork ribs for today,<\/p>\n
I never really have any way to know when people are coming,<\/p>\n
so I just make sure<\/p>\n
I got everything ready to go at 11 o’clock.<\/p>\n
And I’ve got clean smoke coming out of my chimney.<\/p>\n
The smoke that you can barely see<\/p>\n
lets you know that you’ve got good smoke.<\/p>\n
They call it blue smoke.<\/p>\n
Right now you can’t tell that it’s blue,<\/p>\n
but later today, you’ll be able to see it.<\/p>\n
I’m gonna give a quick check on the temp<\/p>\n
just to see what it’s at.<\/p>\n
Right now we’re sitting at 250\u00b0.<\/p>\n
Oh, I’m ready to put meat on now,<\/p>\n
even if it was under 250\u00b0,<\/p>\n
as long as I’ve got that clean smoke, I’m good to go.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I trimmed and seasoned the briskets<\/p>\n
to dry brine overnight.<\/p>\n
They really take on a lot of flavor.<\/p>\n
The longer you can season these things,<\/p>\n
the better off you are.<\/p>\n
This is the second brisket going on the smoker.<\/p>\n
We moved to Austin in 2020,<\/p>\n
that’s where I started teaching myself how to smoke meat,<\/p>\n
was in the parking lot of our apartment on a Weber kettle.<\/p>\n
If you look back in my Instagram,<\/p>\n
you can see untrimmed briskets<\/p>\n
and meat pointed in the wrong direction,<\/p>\n
but, you know, I just kept going and going and going,<\/p>\n
and trial and error, and research, and asking questions<\/p>\n
and brisket was not something I did a lot at home<\/p>\n
because I would have to start<\/p>\n
at basically three o’clock in the morning<\/p>\n
with my smoker right outside the bedroom window.<\/p>\n
And last, but certainly not least,<\/p>\n
probably my favorite, the ribs.<\/p>\n
They’re the first ones<\/p>\n
that I was able to do well consistently.<\/p>\n
First, I like cooking ’em, I like eating ’em.<\/p>\n
So this is the pit at Fiasco, it’s a big offset smoker,<\/p>\n
the fire is in the firebox here,<\/p>\n
gets pulled through the smoker by the chimney,<\/p>\n
that’s what makes this the warmest part of the smoker.<\/p>\n
I was incredibly lucky to find this smoker<\/p>\n
on Facebook Marketplace<\/p>\n
because it is in a trailer fully enclosed,<\/p>\n
which is a requirement of the city of Austin<\/p>\n
so the general public<\/p>\n
can’t come up and touch it and get hurt.<\/p>\n
So in the warmest chamber right here, I’ve got the briskets,<\/p>\n
and in the the middle chamber I have the pork ribs.<\/p>\n
This chamber is more consistent in temperature,<\/p>\n
this chamber, it’s hotter towards the back<\/p>\n
than it is towards the front.<\/p>\n
Every smoker is different,<\/p>\n
they all have their own idiosyncrasies,<\/p>\n
warm spots, cool spots,<\/p>\n
a very common practice is to get some Pillsbury biscuits…<\/p>\n
[indistinct]<\/p>\n
The can, pop it open, and fill your smoker with biscuits,<\/p>\n
and that will tell you where the warm spots are<\/p>\n
and the cool spots depending on how those biscuits rise<\/p>\n
and if they start to burn.<\/p>\n
I’m gonna head into the smoker trailer,<\/p>\n
and then, we’ll continue on with our day.<\/p>\n
[upbeat drum music]<\/p>\n
All right, it’s just after seven o’clock,<\/p>\n
so we’re in the Fiasco BBQ food trailer,<\/p>\n
as you can see, it’s not very big.<\/p>\n
It’s big enough for me.<\/p>\n
Once I have another employee,<\/p>\n
we’ll have to see how that works,<\/p>\n
but when I got this food trailer<\/p>\n
this was the only shelf in here,<\/p>\n
so I added these shelves here,<\/p>\n
I added this shelf here and I added this shelf here.<\/p>\n
So right here is my protein refrigerator,<\/p>\n
all my protein goes in here,<\/p>\n
and then, this is my basically produce cooler over here<\/p>\n
where the sides and the pickled things come from.<\/p>\n
The warmer’s one of the most important pieces of equipment<\/p>\n
for barbecue, because what it does is it allows you<\/p>\n
to hold the meat at 140 to 150 degrees,<\/p>\n
that way, it keeps it out of the temperature danger zone<\/p>\n
for bacterial growth,<\/p>\n
but it doesn’t continue to cook the meat.<\/p>\n
The only downside is this door swings this way,<\/p>\n
but I’ve been able to navigate that without any real issue.<\/p>\n
At this point, what I’m gonna do<\/p>\n
is pull the turkey out of the refrigerator,<\/p>\n
get it seasoned and ready to go on the smoker<\/p>\n
in about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
[relaxed rock music]<\/p>\n
I love having turkey on my menu<\/p>\n
because it smokes really well,<\/p>\n
it’s probably the most popular meat that I serve.<\/p>\n
I think that turkey<\/p>\n
is gaining a larger footprint in barbecue,<\/p>\n
it’s great to have a lighter option for a smoked meat,<\/p>\n
it is great to have something<\/p>\n
that is just jam-packed with protein<\/p>\n
and very lean for people that are more conscious<\/p>\n
about what they’re ingesting.<\/p>\n
I just love how tender it is,<\/p>\n
how great it takes smoke flavor<\/p>\n
but never seems overwhelmingly smokey,<\/p>\n
and how it absorbs the flavor of the rub.<\/p>\n
Proteins with low fat content<\/p>\n
will tend to cook a little bit faster<\/p>\n
because we don’t need to worry about rendering the fat.<\/p>\n
So what we’re gonna do now is season the turkey.<\/p>\n
This is a fairly simple rub,<\/p>\n
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne,<\/p>\n
couple other ingredients I won’t share.<\/p>\n
The purpose of the rub on the turkey<\/p>\n
is not to create a bark,<\/p>\n
what it is is just to provide some seasoning<\/p>\n
for the turkey itself.<\/p>\n
A bark on proteins takes hours of smoke contact,<\/p>\n
this is only gonna get an hour and a half,<\/p>\n
and then, it’s gonna get wrapped up,<\/p>\n
basically, like, finishing in the oven at a low temperature.<\/p>\n
Because it’s a little bit cooler,<\/p>\n
I wanna put the turkey on the middle chamber.<\/p>\n
This also gives us our opportunity<\/p>\n
to look at our ribs and brisket for the first time today,<\/p>\n
and I see that the ribs are looking really good,<\/p>\n
I’m gonna hit it with a little apple cider vinegar<\/p>\n
just to keep the top moist, keep it from drying out,<\/p>\n
and I’m now…<\/p>\n
Oh, these are heavy.<\/p>\n
Gonna check those briskets for the first time,<\/p>\n
I can see that our temperature’s dipped a little bit,<\/p>\n
so I need to add some more fuel to the fire,<\/p>\n
but these are looking really good<\/p>\n
for only two and a half hours.<\/p>\n
There is some thought<\/p>\n
that adding apple cider vinegar helps develop the bark<\/p>\n
because the smoke will stick to it.<\/p>\n
So the downtime is starting to reach its end for the day,<\/p>\n
we’re gonna start getting some of the sides prepped,<\/p>\n
and we’re gonna get going and ready for service at 11:00.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
All right, 8:40 in the morning,<\/p>\n
I’m gonna start prepping my potato salad.<\/p>\n
For all of you actual chefs and line cooks out there,<\/p>\n
avert your eyes.<\/p>\n
And these are sides that are built on lightness,<\/p>\n
freshness and acidity.<\/p>\n
Instead of using mayonnaise or sour cream,<\/p>\n
we dress it with Greek yogurt.<\/p>\n
These recipes were developed over weeks<\/p>\n
of tinkering, and trial and error,<\/p>\n
and what was going to be something that would be reasonable<\/p>\n
for a one-person barbecue food truck<\/p>\n
to execute on a daily basis,<\/p>\n
because these are made fresh every day.<\/p>\n
So basically how I get my supplies right now<\/p>\n
for the most part is by shopping on my own.<\/p>\n
I have a larger vendor that I use,<\/p>\n
but the order minimums are often times larger<\/p>\n
than what I require.<\/p>\n
My brisket, I buy it at Costco,<\/p>\n
it’s less expensive than what you can find<\/p>\n
from a food vendor.<\/p>\n
Literally everything for this business I do by myself<\/p>\n
because not only am I the pitmaster, and the prep cook,<\/p>\n
and the cashier, and the dishwasher and the porter,<\/p>\n
I’m also the purchaser, I’m also the accountant.<\/p>\n
What happens on Monday is I gotta balance my books,<\/p>\n
Tuesday I am back at the truck<\/p>\n
to see what I need to order for the weekend,<\/p>\n
and then, on Wednesday I’ll go pick up my briskets,<\/p>\n
and then, on Thursday I’ll get everything else,<\/p>\n
whether I’m picking it up or it’s delivered,<\/p>\n
and then, I start prep for the weekend.<\/p>\n
There’s no rest for the wicked in this business.<\/p>\n
All right, it’s 9:00 AM now, it’s a perfect time<\/p>\n
to put a pin in the potato salad,<\/p>\n
we’re gonna go wrap the ribs and the turkey.<\/p>\n
[upbeat reggae music]<\/p>\n
So now the turkey’s been on for an hour and a half,<\/p>\n
I’m gonna wrap it up right now.<\/p>\n
It’s taken on about as much smoke<\/p>\n
as it’s really gonna take on,<\/p>\n
and I don’t want the exterior of the turkey<\/p>\n
to get too firm, so I’m gonna wrap it.<\/p>\n
When it’s wrapped, it retains moisture<\/p>\n
so it doesn’t start to dry out.<\/p>\n
This turkey is not gonna take on any more smoke,<\/p>\n
it’s just basically gonna finish<\/p>\n
like it’s cooking in an oven.<\/p>\n
And now, we’ll get set up to wrap our rack of ribs.<\/p>\n
So the ribs take a little…<\/p>\n
A few more steps to wrap<\/p>\n
because we’re gonna add a glaze to them.<\/p>\n
I’m gonna pull the rack out,<\/p>\n
I’m gonna lay down some brown sugar.<\/p>\n
The brown sugar will caramelize<\/p>\n
and add a really nice texture.<\/p>\n
It’ll give it a little more sweetness,<\/p>\n
but that’s not really what it’s for,<\/p>\n
and then, using the barbecue sauce<\/p>\n
will enhance the color of the rack of ribs as well,<\/p>\n
so it’s gonna give it more concentrated<\/p>\n
sort of deep red color with the glaze.<\/p>\n
It is a ketchup-based sauce, like most barbecue sauces,<\/p>\n
with black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder,<\/p>\n
again, a little cayenne because I like a touch of heat.<\/p>\n
I don’t want the meat to pull too far from the bone,<\/p>\n
but I want that process to have started<\/p>\n
because if it’s pulling too far back,<\/p>\n
that means it’s getting really close to being done,<\/p>\n
and at that point, I might have to make the decision<\/p>\n
to just finish the ribs unwrapped,<\/p>\n
but that also means that, at least for today,<\/p>\n
I don’t have the glaze that I wanna use<\/p>\n
because I didn’t have the time to do it.<\/p>\n
So that’s wrapped up, ready,<\/p>\n
you can see it’s already starting to bend,<\/p>\n
that’s a good sign<\/p>\n
that it still has more cooking time to go,<\/p>\n
and I’m just gonna put it back in the smoker meat-side down.<\/p>\n
[upbeat drum music]<\/p>\n
All right, it’s 10 o’clock,<\/p>\n
time to get the burgers on the smoker.<\/p>\n
There’s five of them, I make ’em by hand every day.<\/p>\n
I only make five every day.<\/p>\n
They’re magically delicious,<\/p>\n
but I’m not trying to be a burger joint.<\/p>\n
What I love about a smoked burger<\/p>\n
is just the absolute juicy, tender,<\/p>\n
smoky flavor and texture,<\/p>\n
it’s not grilled over high heat or seared,<\/p>\n
it’s definitely gonna be much softer<\/p>\n
and more tender than anything like a smash burger,<\/p>\n
because the idea behind that<\/p>\n
is sear the outside so you don’t lose the fat,<\/p>\n
whereas what I’m trying to do is render some of that fat out<\/p>\n
and keeping it well integrated<\/p>\n
throughout all of the meat.<\/p>\n
Burger’s not something you’re gonna find<\/p>\n
in every barbecue joint in Austin, but you can find them.<\/p>\n
I wanna give somebody an option<\/p>\n
of something that’s not barbecue.<\/p>\n
If they’re in the neighborhood,<\/p>\n
they wanna get a quick lunch,<\/p>\n
I can bang out a burger from the food truck in no time,<\/p>\n
so they’re still getting a great lunch,<\/p>\n
but it’s not necessarily barbecue.<\/p>\n
So the burgers will smoke for about 45 minutes,<\/p>\n
at 10:30, I’m gonna flip ’em,<\/p>\n
and then, I’ll pull ’em at 10:45<\/p>\n
and they’ll go in the warmer.<\/p>\n
[upbeat drum music]<\/p>\n
All right, it’s 10:15,<\/p>\n
now I gotta write my menu on my butcher paper<\/p>\n
so I can get it posted up to social media<\/p>\n
so people know what I got today.<\/p>\n
I don’t have the same menu every weekend<\/p>\n
because one of the sides changes,<\/p>\n
I always have the potato salad,<\/p>\n
sometimes on Friday I have brisket, sometimes I don’t,<\/p>\n
so if I don’t have brisket, I need to have something else,<\/p>\n
a lot of times, I’ll do beef back ribs,<\/p>\n
but I’m fortunate enough to have some brisket today,<\/p>\n
so we’re just gonna get it set up.<\/p>\n
If I misspell any of these words, I’m…<\/p>\n
I got bigger problems.<\/p>\n
High-tech, real high-tech.<\/p>\n
Like, this is legit Fiasco.<\/p>\n
This guy’s writing a menu every day. What a mess.<\/p>\n
It’s not so much<\/p>\n
that things could go wrong at any moment,<\/p>\n
though of course, they can,<\/p>\n
it’s just more of it being a one-man operation<\/p>\n
and everything that you’ve seen throughout the day,<\/p>\n
it’s just kind of a fiasco doing it by yourself,<\/p>\n
but I love it.<\/p>\n
All right, now, I gotta get a photo of that<\/p>\n
so I can get it posted.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
All right.<\/p>\n
[camera snapping]<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
All right, 10:30, time to start<\/p>\n
getting some meat off the smoker.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
You never see me with a tray that doesn’t have a foil wrap,<\/p>\n
that’s because it saves a ton of time<\/p>\n
on wear washing at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
You don’t wanna be humped over a kitchen sink<\/p>\n
at the end of a long day scrubbing pans<\/p>\n
when you can just wrap ’em in foil,<\/p>\n
and then, throw that foil out.<\/p>\n
I am also the dishwasher, that is correct.<\/p>\n
First thing we’re gonna do is flip our burgers,<\/p>\n
also gives me an opportunity<\/p>\n
to check on the briskets, which looks good.<\/p>\n
So as you can see, you do start<\/p>\n
to get some grill marks on there just because this grate<\/p>\n
has been sitting in the heat all day long,<\/p>\n
it’s in no way caramelizing the meat,<\/p>\n
it’s just some grill marks.<\/p>\n
All right, and now, these are done,<\/p>\n
ribs are off, they’re right here,<\/p>\n
turkey’s not quite ready yet, so we’re gonna leave that<\/p>\n
on the smoker for a little bit longer.<\/p>\n
The distance between the wood<\/p>\n
and the smoker is a new phenomenon,<\/p>\n
but that’s where my wood’s gonna live for now,<\/p>\n
I bought a little cart to haul it back,<\/p>\n
but obviously, I forgot about that.<\/p>\n
Now I’m gonna build my workstation.<\/p>\n
So for most of this day, this has been a prep kitchen,<\/p>\n
but at this point, we’re 20 minutes from opening,<\/p>\n
I gotta have everything ready to go at 11 o’clock.<\/p>\n
Always thinking about working as cleanly as possible<\/p>\n
and having as little breakdown,<\/p>\n
so I will line this with plastic<\/p>\n
before I put the cutting boards on,<\/p>\n
it doesn’t prevent me from having to wash it,<\/p>\n
but it generally prevents juices<\/p>\n
from soaking into the cutting board.<\/p>\n
All right, 10:45, time to pull the burgers off the smoker<\/p>\n
and get the cheese on ’em,<\/p>\n
get ’em in the warmer so that cheese gets nice and melty.<\/p>\n
After 45 minutes between 265\u00b0 and let’s say 280\u00b0,<\/p>\n
they come out about medium, they’re gonna go in the warmer,<\/p>\n
so they’re gonna cook up a little bit more,<\/p>\n
but they’ll never get to well-done.<\/p>\n
Good old American cheese.<\/p>\n
The best for cheeseburgers<\/p>\n
because it melts without splitting.<\/p>\n
All right, it’s 11 o’clock,<\/p>\n
we’re gonna pull that turkey off the smoker,<\/p>\n
it’s where I want it to be at 150\u00b0,<\/p>\n
and put it into the warmer.<\/p>\n
Well, if your turkey’s dry, it’s one of three things,<\/p>\n
you either cooked it too long,<\/p>\n
you cooked it too hot or you didn’t wrap it.<\/p>\n
All the prep is done,<\/p>\n
the meats are off the smoker and in the warmer,<\/p>\n
briskets are still cooking for tomorrow,<\/p>\n
I’ll keep an eye on that, keep an eye on the fire,<\/p>\n
we’ll wrap those a little bit later this afternoon,<\/p>\n
but as of now, I’m open for business.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
All right, let’s get some tunes.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
Just some blues rock and roll all day long.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music continues]<\/p>\n
All right, y’all, the lunch rush is over,<\/p>\n
but I still got a lot of work to do,<\/p>\n
I got briskets on the smoker for tomorrow,<\/p>\n
I gotta clean this place up,<\/p>\n
thanks for spending the day with me, now, y’all gotta go.<\/p>\n
[upbeat rock music]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[upbeat rock music] Fiasco BBQ is my barbecue food truck, and I’m the owner and pitmaster. I am…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-303143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}