Thursday, September 9, 2010

J&R Manufacturing Tour

The folks at J&R Manufacturing were nice enough to give me a tour of their facility in Mesquite, Texas a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to include some pics here. They manufacture the famous Oyler Pit, which to their knowledge is the only commercial, all wood-fired rotisserie pit on the market. When I see one at a BBQ joint, I can generally expect some good 'cue.

Several Oylers in production


A nearly complete Oyler Pit


In addition to the Oyler, J&R manufactures a number of other meat cooking apparatus including this upright smoker.

Model 250 FS Smoker


For Santa Maria style BBQ, the Woodshow broiler is what you need with its adjustable height grill surface.

Woodshow Broiler


After the tour was completed, we went into their demo kitchen where Keith was kind enough to share some beautifully smoked meat. Killer glazed ribs were served along with some fine brisket and great pulled pork. This was truly a testament to what those pits can churn out.



I really appreciated the tour, and the food was a nice way to cap off the long lunch hour. It was obvious that they take their pit building seriously. There are no assembly lines with robotic arms putting these pits together. They are essentially hand made to order with strict quality control, and high standards of construction. If only more local joints used these pits instead of the gas-fired wannabes, then we might be able to find great 'cue all over DFW.

- BBQ Snob

4 comments:

Joob said...

You wouldn't happen to know who in DFW uses the Oyler would you?

Anonymous said...

Tillmans Roadhouse in FW does.

Big Country said...

Glad to see some insight on this place. I have always heard that the Oyler pit produces the best smoked meats.

My buddy has a place and he has that black upright place and it does pretty good as well.

Thanks

Crazy Jeff said...

Backcountry BBQ at Greenville and Park uses an Oyler.

DISCLAIMER:

Each joint is judged on the essence of Texas 'cue...sliced brisket and pork ribs. Sausage is only considered if house made. Sauce is good, but good meat needs no adornment to satisfy. Each review can only be based on specific cuts of meat on that particular day. Finally, if the place fries up catfish or serves a caesar salad, then chances are they aren't paying enough attention to the pits, so we mostly steered clear.

-THE PROPHETS OF SMOKED MEAT