Sweet chocolate brownies are universal. Savory brownies are a specialty of Kansas City barbecue parlors. Known also as burnt ends, brownies are analogous to Creole debris—the shreds, nuggets, strips, and chunks of meat that fall off the barbecued brisket (or ham) as it is sliced and chopped. Most are outside pieces with crusty-crunchy areas and thick ribbons of melt-in-the-mouth fat. They are to pit-cooked meat what clotted cream is to milk—the distilled essence—and they are flush with wood smoke and oozy protein satisfaction. Brownies come on a plate or in a sandwich, but because they are so bold flavored, a straight brownie meal can fatigue the brain’s pleasure center to a point of ravished meltdown. Therefore, novitiates are advised to make their Kansas City barbecue experience at least a half-and-half affair, if not a trio: brownies sided by chopped pork, sliced brisket, or spare ribs, all three of which seem positively ascetic by comparison.
Brownies, aka burnt ends, garnish chili at the Woodyard in Kansas City.
Brownies to go, sopped with sauce.
As barbecue’s star has risen in the last decade or so, brownies have appeared on menus beyond Kansas City, usually listed as burnt ends. Because they are so alluring to smoke-pit aficionados, many restaurants mass produce them by slicing off outside chunks of a brisket and cutting them into cubes. While such strategies may yield extremely succulent mouthfuls, they bypass the variegated texture and raid-the-kitchen mischief that make cutting-board brownies always seem like such a special treat.