Kreuz Market’s Legendary Pitmaster Has a Secret Weapon

This Old Thing highlights the stories behind notable Texans’ prized possessions. Enter Kreuz Market, the historic barbecue joint in Lockhart, and you’ll see post oak logs burning next to brick smokers, beef-cooking fumes wafting to the ceiling, and employees in aprons portioning out orders. Look behind the meat counter and you’ll notice an array of implements that look like steel spikes—and that’s what they are. They’re also the trademark tools of Roy Perez, Kreuz’s pitmaster for almost forty years. The spikes are custom built and made from a sharpened, approximately thirteen-inch-long stainless steel rod that’s about the width of a pencil, then fitted inside a slightly thicker, approximately three-inch-long base. Perez has used them for nearly four decades to check meat for doneness—“I’ve never used…

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