THE THREE STATES OF BBQ

A few weeks back, alright it was  November 2015 actually, I took an epic road trip to nowhere in particular that saw me pass through 11 states in 9 days. Roughly the path you see in that image to the right.

Now I'm not going to drive through 11 states and not stop and eat some BBQ somewhere. However it will take me almost two years to finally sit down and write about it, and actually since I'm going to be basing this on some notes I've kept on my phone, which I'm about to upgrade, so I figured I'd better write this before I lose the notes and photos, this will be mostly pictorial.... Which is probably good as discombobulated as that explanation was.

THE ONLY THING STICKY AT MAPLE'S IS THE SMOKER

I've never kept it a secret that I'm a fan of Central Texas style brisket. I cook my briskets at home using that style (meat seasoned with salt and pepper and smoked with oak and pecan wood) and heaven forbid I ever end up on death row. My last meal will include brisket from Snow's BBQ in Lexington, TX and a bottle of Big Red... But let's hope that's not how my story ends.

Anyway... I was pretty excited when I heard a new place was opening in the Midtown District of Oklahoma City that was going to bring Central Texas style BBQ to a town dominated by Kansas City style BBQ... Not that there is anything wrong with KC style but it's not my personal choice for a death row meal.

2016 OKLAHOMA CITY BROKEN RIB TOUR

Well we are a little behind with the 2016 version of the Oklahoma City Broken Rib Tour but better late than never I hope.

Nothing has changed from the previous two years except for a couple of judges and a few new locations. As I've always said in the past. This is not intended to be a "Best of" list. I'm not about telling you who makes the best BBQ. I'm about telling you which BBQ tastes the best to me. You and I may have varying ideas on what makes great BBQ and I'm not vain or snobbish enough to claim to know what's best. I just know what I like and my volunteer carnivore rib eaters are instructed to score each slab of rib based on what they like.