On a recent family trip to Dallas, we made a stop in Centerville at the self-proclaimed “Jerky Capital of the World” – Woody’s Smokehouse. We’d heard good things about their barbecue – so I was excited to try them out. Sadly it was not as good as I had hoped. My first concern came as we started through the line to order our meat. I was surprised and saddened to see that they have all their meats pre-sliced and sitting in big stainless steel warming containers. I much prefer seeing my brisket sliced by a skilled cutter right there in front of me. But we pressed forward anyway. The next thing that made me sad was the pushiness of the gentleman serving the pre-sliced meats. He was quite pushy about what he claimed as their most popular item – bacon-wrapped quail breast. He just plopped it down on our tray without waiting for confirmation that we actually wanted it. And by then it was too late. I also asked for and tried their brisket and black pepper sausage.
Brisket – The brisket was ok – not great by any means, but also not as dry as I had expected based on the fact that everything was pre-sliced. It was a hodge-podge of both lean and fatty. So at least I got try both cuts. The bark was a solid black color and the flavor was good. There was a decent smoke ring as well.
Sausage – The sausage had a good flavor. The grind was a little more fine than I prefer. It did have a good amount of black pepper in it.
Bacon-wrapped quail breast – This item was good. The bacon was good and flavorful, and the quail breast was moist enough – but I’m not sure if that was more because how it was cooked or how long it had been sitting in the chafing dish steam bath. It was fine but I would not choose it in the future.
Though I would probably not go back to Woody’s Smokehouse for their barbecue, the store does have a huge selection of meats – be it fresh, cured and/or dried. They also have a large selection of jarred food items, many of which were very interesting. And on a happy note, the store is much less crowded than the gigantic Buc-ee’s that is just 20 minutes farther south in Madisonville.
Smoked Food Addict 