Foodie Friday: Lil Bitta Bull BBQ

April 28, 2023

Han Cechini,

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – What do you get when you mix brisket, sausage, cheese, and love? 47ABC WMDT’s next Foodie Friday segment. This week, Foodie Host Hannah Cechini and Foodie Photog Mike check out Lil Bitta Bull BBQ in Cambridge. But, don’t let the name fool you. You’re going to need a whole lot of room in your stomach.

Pastime Turned Passion

For Henry VanDyke, mastering the art of traditional central Texas style barbeque started in his own home; long before the Foodie team visited his brick and mortar store to try its brisket sandwich, topped with jalapeno cheddar house-made sausage, cheese sauce, and colseslaw.

“It actually started as a hobby, and I think I like the process. There are so many different processes and styles of it, that it’s never ending,” said Henry when the Foodie Friday team visited.

It’s been nothing short of a learning process, says Henry; but a fun one, at that. Now, Henry and wife Jeannie serve up delicious dishes to hungry Marylanders.

“The one thing I learned about barbeque is, a lot of people have good barbeque when it comes off the smoker. But, barbeque needs to be good all day long,” explained Henry. “Not all salts and peppers are created equally. There are a whole lot of different mesh sizes, from fine, all the way up to peppercorn. We want to make sure that we get the right coarseness to our pepper. Same with salt.”

Best Quality Brisket

Henry says good barbeque starts with great meat.

“We’ve got a whole pack of brisket here. It’s about 9 to 10 pounds usually. These come from a farm right here in Maryland. They’re locally sourced USDA prime brisket,” said Henry. “We’ll trim this up, get some salt and pepper on it, and get it into the smoker… Too much fat, and your rub won’t stick. It’ll break off, and you’ll get this gelatinous form. You want to get it to render out so there’s a little fat left there.”

Trimming a brisket, is like chiseling a sculpture.

“It allows the smoke to go around it more evenly, and it allows it to cook easily,” said Henry as he carefully cut into the marbled meat. “If you’ve got little pieces of square edges all over the place, they’re going to burn up and have a little different texture than some of the end products.”

Those trimmings don’t go to waste, either. “We’ll take these trimmings that we have here and put them into the collard greens. We try not to have a whole lot of waste,” said Henry.

The Right Rub

If you’re anything like Foodie Host Hannah, you might assume that Henry’s rub mixture is safely guarded under lock and key. But, he explains, keeping things simple can actually bring out even more flavor.

“So, you’re just using salt and pepper,” said Hannah.

“Salt and pepper,” Henry replied. “We just try to keep it simple, and we found that sometimes less is more.”

Henry says good barbeque is also about finding the right ratio of salt and pepper, which he says took a lot of trial and error.

“The ratio has to be correct,” said Henry. “We create a bark on it. But also, the key to brisket is that because it’s a really tough cut of meat, we want to render down the tissues and fats to make it more tender. And, as we do that, it just gives more and more flavor to it.”

Smoke With Oak, Get a Brisket Jiggle

At Lil Bitta Bull BBQ, the choice of wood is also crucial to bringing the Texas taste to Cambridge. Henry uses red oak.

“We find that sometimes people don’t like barbeque because of the bitterness of the hickory. So, we tend to stay with oak. It’s a traditional, central Texas style barbeque,” Henry explained. “Texas is full of mesquite, post oak. The Carolinas have a lot of hickory, and things like that.”

Next, Henry loads the rub-coated brisket into the smoker.

“We have a target temperature internal that we like to reach, and then we’ll pull it, whether it takes an hour or 24,” said Henry as he placed the meat on the smoker’s revolving rack. “Then we have a process where we wrap them, put them back in the smoker, and then we will pull them, wrap them, and hold them for a certain amount of time.”

Thanks to television magic, Foodie Host Hannah and Foodie Photog Mike didn’t have to wait that long. As Henry carefully unwrapped the brisket, he demonstrated just how tender the smoking process makes it.

“Kind of what we want to go for here is a nice jiggle to it. I call it the brisket jiggle. You can see how it bends, but it doesn’t break because it’s not overcooked and falling apart,” said Henry.

The knife goes into the brisket, and immediately, all the juices that have been cooking inside of the meat start pouring out. The few minutes it took to get the brisket sandwich assembled, and to the table, were torturously tantalizing.

“Everything you would want from eating barbeque in one sandwich.”

Before Foodie Host Hannah and Foodie Photog Mike could even sink their teeth into the brisket sandwich, each had to marvel at its size.

“I’ve got to be strategic about this one,” said Hannah as they eyed the towering creation. “First, let’s talk about the verticality. We have built a monument to the barbeque trade. The craft, really,” added Mike.

Biting into the handheld hunger crusher, Hannah opined, “That is like, everything you would want from eating barbeque in one sandwich. The brisket is so smoky, and again it’s just salt and pepper that you’re putting on there, but it’s delicious. The sausage has a really awesome snap on the skin. The jalapeno is delicious, the cheese is delicious, the cheese you put on top of it is delicious. And then, I just think the brioche has a really nice sweetness that kind of pulls it all together. The coleslaw is perfect for this sandwich, too. You almost need that little extra finish of sweetness, freshness, something light.”

Foodie Photog Mike praised the snap of the sausage skin – fresh, and with a nice bite to it – and the tasty, yet subtle, heat brought on by the jalapeno.

“I think the snap on the skin of that sausage, a well-constructed sausage, just adds so much good texture,” said Mike. “It’s only a mild heat. I think most people could tolerate this pretty well. I think he could kick it up a little if he wanted. But, I think [Henry’s] trying to be nice to folks.”

And, if you’re looking for delicious brisket in our area, Lil Bitta Bull is the place to be. “The fat is rendered so well,” said Mike. “The man knows how to cook a good brisket.”

Lil Bitta Bull BBQ

Lil Bitta Bull BBQ is located at 520 Race Street, Cambridge, Md. You can call them at 443-205-2219. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.