Blondie’s BBQ
In Texas, barbecue is part art, part science and all passion. But I'm not in Texas. I'm at blondies in Walpole, Massachusetts.
I find a lot of the pit masters start as chefs, then teach themselves barbecue. Peter Crowley is like that. He's been operating Cafe G at the Gardner Museum for a couple decades. Now he's running Blondie’s “I had been interested in barbecue my whole cooking career, mostly on weekends or just for friends and family… I really enjoyed the hands-on process and the full contact cooking that it was. It was constant tweaking of the temperature, the size of the wood, the size of the fire… And when this opportunity came up to move into this space, I thought it was just a perfect opportunity. “
The nerve center of any Texas style barbecue restaurant is the smokehouse. It's outside open air. Lot of restaurants say they're cooking with wood, but they're really using gas or electric. Here they're feeding the wood into the firebox every 20 minutes. They have two massive smokers. Over here they're making brisket, wings and sausage. Over here they're making ribs and pork butt. “make a brand new fire. Get that going for about 45 minutes, wait until the coal bed builds, and then start to build a smoking fire. Load the smokers. And then we're smoking throughout the day all of our items. The brisket, the ribs, the turkey, the sausage, et cetera”
These chicken wings are spectacular. They are smoked, then fried, then dry rub so you have the smoke inside and that frying crispiness on the outside.
I got to admit, I absolutely love a Twinkie, but I also like a Texas fried Twinkie. This dish originated in Texas, but it's moving nationwide. “A Texas Twinkie is a cheese stuffed jalapeno pepper that's wrapped in bacon and then smoked.” “The first bite is a little bit of the crispy, smoky bacon, and then you get this wash of kind of ooey goozey cream cheese, and then the heat of the jalapeno pepper.”
Blondie’s does something really fun on Instagram, every day they do a tray of the day. That means a customer comes in, orders some huge combination of foods, they look at each other and go, that is the tray of the day. But I asked Peter what it really should be. “pulled pork, sliced Turkey, sliced brisket, two smoked sausages. And then I probably would add a couple of Texas Twinkies, a little bit of cornbread, and then some fresher sides…. “ “We have, of course, coleslaw, shells and cheese collard greens. “ “We also regularly have steamed beets with a sesame and miso dressing and a little cilantro. So something a little bit lighter, a little bit unusual as well.”
In Texas, everybody competes to make the best brisket. That is the pride and joy of every barbecue restaurant here, it's the specialty of the house. “We use prime grade meat which has a high fat content, which helps keep it moist…the offset smokers that we use are designed to cook those briskets really well. So one side of the meat is a little bit fatter than the other. We use that side pointed towards the fire, and then as the smoke and the heat rolls over the brisket, it cooks the whole thing very slowly and gently. So it's all cooking at the same time, finishes at the same time.”
Keep in mind, true Texas barbecue does not come with sauce on it. Peter does offer three different kinds of sauce at the sauce bar, but I got to tell you, I think he gets a little tear in his eye. Every time you load it up with sauce, it's like putting ketchup on the Mona Lisa, “After spending so much time sourcing the meat and treating the meat and smoking the meat that that should be the feature… rather than spending all that time and then covering it with sauce and then all you taste is sauce.”
They call the sausage here ‘hot guts’. Not the most appetizing term I've ever heard in my life, but it is delicious. And this is what's known in the business as the ‘sausage snap’. music to my ears.
Blondies make some great sandwiches, all served on a sesame seed roll. If you're craving a barbecue Thanksgiving any time of the year, get the smoked turkey breast. This features that delicious turkey with cranberry mayo, house pickles and gem lettuce. The pulled pork sandwich has Carolina sauce, coleslaw and tobacco onions, The beef brisket sandwich has pepper jack and horseradish cream. “You get this bite of a sandwich that's peppery, fatty, a little spice from the horseradish, gooey cheese. It's pretty mind blowing.”
I think the perfect end to the meal. Here is something small and sweet, the cherry cheesecake, just like your grandma used to make… You have that cream cheese a little bit of sugar, vanilla and those sweet, sweet cherries.
If you're anywhere near Gillette Stadium, just look for that smoke and get real Texas style barbecue at Blondie’s. “If you're driving down Route one, you look over you see the smoke billowing while we're smoking. And, of course, smell it. And yes, that is kind of a call. Hey, come in. We're actually really smoking. We're really here. It's It's lively, it's fun. It lets people know, hey, there's real, real barbecue here.”
