Texas Barbecue
Above: Louie Mueller's, Taylor
When you're traveling Texas, don't be alarmed if you see
a hazy blue smoke wafting above the horizon. What you've got is a beacon
to a roadside barbecue joint: a symbol of Texas as true as longhorns and
longnecks. Best of all, this token of Texas transfers to backyard barbecues
no mater where your smoker may be located.
Throughout Texas, where cattle are king, that edict means search for good
beef. "At a Texas barbecue, no one ever has to ask, 'Where's the
beef?'" says C. Clark "Smoky" Hale, the Houston-based webmaster
of Barbecue'n on the
Internet, named one of the 100 Best Texas Web Sites by Texas Monthly.
"Texas and the Carolinas are at the opposite poles of barbecue. Barbecue
is as porky in the Carolinas as it is beefy in Texas. Mid South, where
I was reared, gets the best of both."
Defining Texas Barbecue
Defining Texas barbecue is no easy task. In a state than spans over 266,000
square miles, this is a debate than reaches from the bayous of East Texas
to the Panhandle prairies to the border communities on the Rio Grande.
Each region, divided by hundreds of miles, feels the influences of other
culinary cultures, from Southern to Tex-Mex to Southwest.
Texas Brisket
Nonetheless, every Texas barbecue joint, whether the jukebox
is playing Cajun or conjunto tunes, features beef brisket. "Texans
love that tough brisket more than any other outdoor cooks that I know,"
notes Hale. The slow-cooked meat is sliced and served up with sides of
pinto beans, cole slaw, potato salad, and white bread, as well as tomato-based
barbecue sauce.
Making the brisket a success is the mark of a true Texas barbecuer. Glenn
A. Nicholas of Arlington, one of the founders of the Lone Star Barbecue
Society, notes that the first step to good brisket preparation is the
selection of good meat. "I feel like a good quality meat is essential.
I prefer a brisket with a lean side with some marbled fat. I usually cook
at 10 to 12 pound brisket. On the fat side, I steer away from knobs of
fat. I put the fat side up so it melts down through the meat and keeps
it moist."
Regional Specialties
Following the brisket, menus might involve some regional variation. Cabrito
or barbecued goat is often spotted in the western portion of the state
while lamb is a more common offering in East Texas. Cooking styles can
vary as well. "In the state of Texas, barbecue is very regional.
East Texas uses a lot of hickory because it's available. South and Central
Texas uses pecan and oak, and West Texas uses mesquite," says Nicholas.
"A competitive barbecue cook has a problem with this because one
area may love a sweet, spicy rib while another likes a plain rib. It varies
from area to area and it's tough to find what area likes what. I often
tell cooks to go to the local barbecue place to see what they're producing."
Hale notes that the varied taste of Texas barbecue "is not only regional,
it is individualistic. It is a personal statement. And, there is a big
difference in the techniques of folk who learned from the old basters
and those who started out in the 'Barbecue Boomer' generation."
Barbecue Belt
Part of that variety results from the fact that, unlike
other barbecue hot spots like Kansas City and Memphis, Texas has no capital
of 'que. Instead it's a title shared throughout a part of the state termed
the Barbecue Belt, stretching from
Llano to the west to Schulenburg to the east. This smoky swath slices
through the capital city of Austin, but also extends to barbecue hotspots
such as Elgin, Lockhart,
Taylor, Llano
and Luling, communities where barbecue
is the hottest action in town.
History of Texas Barbecue
Barbecue got its start in this region in the meat markets and butcher
shops. These pioneer merchants were determined to find a use for cuts
that weren't selling. On the weekends, they began smoking those quickly
aging meats, hoping to make them more palatable with an infusion of smoke.
It worked. Like a gaseous billboard, the smell of barbecue soon permeated
the small towns and captured the attention of those doing their Saturday
marketing. Farmers and ranchers in town for weekend trading came by the
meat market and found an inexpensive lunch served up on the only plate
a butcher had on hand: butcher paper.
Eventually, farm and ranch families began making the meat market a regular
weekend stop, dining off the back of their wagons. Soon some meat markets
began to put up a few picnic tables for customers. Today the best joints
still have a picnic table or two. Some still serve their product on butcher
paper.
Rules of Texas Barbecue
The rules of Texas barbecue are few, whether produced in a smoky restaurant,
a backyard cooker, or a competitor's rig. First, take your time. Professional
pitmasters spend as long as 18 to 20 hours to cook a brisket to smoky
perfection, even when thermometers top 100 degrees. Cookoff competitors
are known to stay up through the night stoking their smokers. "Relax,
getting uptight makes the meat tough," advises Hale. "Keep the
temperature in the grill about 215 degrees and learn how to have fun.
The real measure of a master barbecuer is how well he uses the pleasure
of long cooking periods."
Second, Texan barbecue is always smoked, never grilled. True Texas barbecue
is accomplished in a closed smoker, a treasure chest that seals in the
meats with the smoke to ensure the union of the two. (Just how the smoker
should be arranged, however, is the topic of yet another 'que controversy.
In the community of Llano, pitmasters don't smoke their meats, but instead
use indirect barbecuing. Wood, primarily mesquite, is placed in the firebox
and allowed to burn down to coals, then it's transferred to the main section
of the pit beneath the meat. Here it flavors and cooks the meat to perfection,
imparting a delicate smoky taste that is subtler than that achieved through
ordinary smoking.)
Barbecue Sauce
But with those ground rules in place, it's a cook's free-for-all
when it comes to the preparation and presentation of the meal. In researching
barbecue across this vast state, we also saw a myriad of ingredients tossed
into rubs and sauces. Beer, cider vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire, brown
sugar, Chinese chili oil, celery seed, white vinegar, soy sauce, pancake
syrup, honey, apple jelly, gin, rum, Creole mustard, cayenne pepper, molasses,
chipotles, Jamaican PickaPeppa sauce, orange juice, and even cranberry
sauce have made appearances in Texas barbecue sauces and marinades. One
pitmaster explained his varying recipe by, "It depends what I've
got on hand" while another said his recipe "depends on how much
beer I've had to drink that day."
One point that cooks will agree on, however, is that the barbecue sauce
should be held back until the last stages of barbecuing to prevent burning.
While many cooks continue to mop the meat with a spicy marinade during
the smoking process, the actual barbecue sauce sees the meat only during
its final minutes in the flames, if at all. Instead, cooks baste the meat
with flavorful marinades to keep the meat moist in its trial by fire and
to impart a unique taste. "Texans are deep South traditionalists
in their use of basting and finishing sauces," points out Hale.
Many barbecue joints dish up their meat right of the smoker, sans sauce,
with the tomato-based concoction served on the side, usually accompanied
by a shaker of hot peppers soaking in vinegar to add a tangy kick to the
meal.
Rubs
Rub recipes are similarly eclectic. These mixtures of dry ingredients,
often heavy with garlic powder, chili powder, and black pepper, complement
the meat's tastes without confusing the palate.
Wood
Wood is another matter of personal choice--and controversy. Oak, hickory,
pecan and mesquite chips are the choices of many Texas pitmasters, often
in combination.
No two pitmasters will agree on the ideal wood. "Texans had to overcome
severe obstacles. Like, learn how to cook with an inferior wood and noxious
weed, mesquite. It makes good hot coals for grilling a steak, but is too
strong for the long cooking times in barbecuing," says Hale. "I
use mainly mesquite," points out Glenn Nicholas. "It's fairly
available and it's one I love to use. I like to use some hickory when
I'm cooking pork. I feel like I get a bitter taste if I use too much hickory.
I like to use pecan when I cook chicken."
Backyard cookers using charcoal can impart the woodsy taste in their meats
as well. "You can get a good flavor out of charcoal, but when I use
charcoal I use some chips, soak them in water, and throw them in because
I feel like the taste is vital." The Lone Star Barbecue Society founder
often puts the wood chips in a can in the smoker to help impart the meat
with the wood's taste.
Texas Barbecue Cookoffs
One of the best places to learn more about the culture of Texas barbecue
is at the cookoffs held throughout the state. Around the Lone Star state,
contestants fire up their pits nearly every weekend as they participate
in barbecue cookoffs. Whether it's for cash prizes or just for the glory
of preparing the best brisket, these contestants take their work seriously.
(Their recipes are often guarded like military maneuvers with a secrecy
that could make the Pentagon proud, known only by the handful of people
who make up the barbecue cooking team.)
While cookoff competitors may not be willing to part with their prize-winning
recipes, they are more than happy to talk about their favorite pastime.
Look for tips on smoking techniques, rubs, marinades, and sauces, and
even advice on buying the best cuts of meat.
A cookoff, like a visit to a traditional barbecue joint, is a glimpse
at the phenomena of Texas barbecue. A sign over the counter of one Central
Texas barbecue joint says it all "Bar-b-que, sex and death are subjects
that provoke intense speculation in most Texans. Out of the three, probably
bar-b-que is taken most seriously."
Return to Texas Barbecue Guide
|
|
