This Woman’s Not-So-Tender Introduction To Texas Barbecue

When Pam LeBlanc moved from Ann Arbor to Austin, her family kept hearing about Texas barbecue.

By Gretchen SandersDecember 13, 2016 8:46 am,

Pam LeBlanc is a reporter with the Austin-American Statesman and Austin360.com. She moved to Austin with her family from Ann Arbor, Michigan, when she was 4 years old.

“One of the very first things my family started hearing about was Texas-style barbecue,” she says.

“Coming from Michigan, we really didn’t know how to cook barbecue,” she says. “But my dad decided he was going to attempt to cook a brisket anyway.”

LeBlanc and her family went to Inks Lake State Park one weekend. Her mom picked up a big brisket from the grocery store.

“So we got to the park, my dad threw the brisket on the grill,” she says. “He cooked it for all of forty-five minutes, he took it off, sliced it up and served it to us. And as you might guess, it was not very tender.”