Franklin Barbecue’s Housemade Sausages Are In The Works

Franklin Barbecue will soon be serving housemade sausage, as Aaron Franklin revealed to KERA, the North Texas NPR affiliate, this week. The barbecue hero has all the equipment set up, but he’s still perfecting the process. Currently, Franklin sells specially made pre-cooked sausages from Texas Sausage. He previously told Eater that the recipe would remain the same, but the casing would be different. During his radio conversation with Think’s Krys Boyd, he geeked out over firewood, regional barbecue, and temperatures. Here are his eight best lines from the interview.

When the popularity of the line inevitably came up, Franklin talked about how it happened all on its own. It was "not intentional" at all, he said. As for the ban, "things have gotten ugly in the past," and he wanted the community of the line refocus on staying respectful and considerate. "Our number one goal with that place is just to make sure every person leaves and just had the greatest time," he explained.

Franchising Franking Barbecue is still out of the question. "We can’t replicate what we do," he said. "It’s a special thing, it’s great that it’s that way, but it’s going to stay that way."

His ideal barbecue serving would be "a piece of white bread in my hand with a chunk of meat on it," and nothing else. "We don’t need no stinkin’ sides," he added.

While he doesn’t prefer drowning barbecue in sauce, "sometimes, it’s nice for the dipping," he explained, which explains his retail barbecue sauce bottles.

Franklin is still humble despite all of his accolades and awards, including that James Beard medal this year. "Yeah, it’s great, but we don’t pay much attention to it," he said. "We keep our heads down."

Rather than using purposefully-cut firewood, Franklin prefers to use already-fallen trees, "dregs from droughts" from the previous year. There’s already a "carbon footprint issue" with barbecue, so he’d rather "reduce, reuse" and not cut down trees. The quality of the wood, though, isn’t always consistent. On Mondays, three giant trucks come to Franklin Barbecue full of wood.

Despite the quality of the cuts of meat he receives, he’ll still work with it. "A cow gave its life for that," he said. You have to cook it.

Out of context quote: "I like my barbecue to taste like barbecue."