Food, Home & Lifestyle

Aaron’s Journey to Pitmaster

Lesson time 15:54 min

Aaron’s journey began with a botched brisket cooked on a $99 smoker. Follow the unlikely path Aaron took to become a pitmaster, and learn what sparked the birth of the most famous barbecue joint in the country.

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Topics include: Aaron’s Journey to Pitmaster

Aaron Franklin

Teaches Texas-Style BBQ

Aaron Franklin teaches you how to fire up flavor-packed Central Texas barbecue, including his famous brisket and more mouth-watering smoked meat.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - I was born in Bryan, Texas, which is only a couple hours from Austin. I would spend a lot of time at my grandparents' house. They owned a record store. Loved being over there. We lived super close. So in the evenings, they would go play dominoes with their friends at this barbecue joint. Dirt parking lot. Old pit. It was built in the early 1900s. And I just remember being, like, four or five years old and kind of be sitting on my grandpa's lap. He's playing dominoes. I'd knock them over and stuff. But I could always smell the smoke in the air. It smelled like your classic barbecue joint. There's grease, and you could kind of smell it, and it's kind of hazy, it's kind of smoky. You kind of go back into the kitchen and you could see the fire in the floor, and you could see the brick pit, and you could see the patina up the wall. You could hear the squeaky door when you walk in and you could see how the ceiling tiles were kind of yellowed from the smoke. But that was kind of my first barbecue experience. It wasn't so much eating it. It was just kind of the ambience of it, like, the feeling of it. When I was about 10, my parents ended up operating a barbecue restaurant for a few years. It was a restaurant that had this old red brick fire pit. And it had a fire in the floor. And it was a real small place. I think he probably cooked 12 briskets a day. And I thought that was just an insane amount of food. They were only open at lunch. And my mom ran the front. She waited the tables. And I found myself doing food prep at about 10 years old. And I was really into it. I loved it. I loved sitting back by the fires. And then I would cut onions and I would slice lemons. And then during lunch, I would do the sides. And I ended up really loving to work there. Although it is exhausting for my parents and they quickly realized that it was way too much work, I found that I enjoyed it so much. And I just loved the smell of the fire and I loved hearing it. And then when I was 24, my then girlfriend, now wife Stacy, and partner, in Franklin Barbecue, we had gotten our first little apartment together. We had a tiny little backyard. Moving in, I was really excited. I'm like, I'm going to go buy a grill. So I go to the sporting goods store. And I'm looking around. And I see this offset barbecue pit. And it was a $99 thing. It wasn't good. Flawed all over the place. Thin metal. All this stuff. But I didn't know any better and it didn't matter, because I probably only had about $100 anyway. So I call up my dad, because he used to own a barbecue place. And I was like, hey, I got this cooker. I bought a brisket at the grocery store. How do I cook it? He was like, ah, boy, I don't know. Just throw it on the cooker, and cook it for a really long time. And when it's really black, it's probably about ready. I'm like, OK, that's some good directions. So I take that and I kind of run with it. I put it on, I cook it, and it was black. But ...

About the Instructor

Once a backyard hobbyist, Aaron Franklin is now the James Beard Award-winning owner of Franklin Barbecue, where the line for his famous smoked brisket is hours long. Now the Central Texas barbecue specialist teaches you his meticulous low and slow process for mouth-watering ribs, pork butt, and brisket. With perfectly seasoned cuts and optimal temperatures, you'll learn to handle an offset smoker like a true pitmaster.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Aaron Franklin

Aaron Franklin teaches you how to fire up flavor-packed Central Texas barbecue, including his famous brisket and more mouth-watering smoked meat.

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