You may think that as a Texan, you know beef and smoking and barbecue and such. Friends, you don’t know anything about it until you’ve attended the smoking of a whole,  entire, big honking steer.

At Vaca y Vino, set for Sunday, April 22, from 1 to 6, three Austin chefs are coming together to do an afternoon of beef, wine, song, and camaraderie in the great outdoors at the Bridges Ranch eight miles south of Driftwood, outside Austin. A whole steer (basted in chimichurri) will be slow-roasted over oak coals, and ample vittles will be supplied, including empanadas, veggie caldo, cheese and cured meats, new-potato salad, grilled escarole and other veggies,  tres leches cake, and more. Wine will flow. And of course, this being Austin, there will be live music, by Latino-­funk masters Brownout  and classical Argentine tango maestros Glover Tango.

To cut to the chase: Tickets are now on sale for $75. If there are any left by April 1, they will go up to $95. The price includes food, wine, and music amid the live oak trees on the ranch. Also, bus transportation from downtown. Only 300 tickets are being sold, so don’t procrastinate.

The co-conspirators who dreamed up Vaca y Vino are Emmett Fox (of Fino and Asti), Lou Lambert (of Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, among others), and Larry McGuire (of Perla’s and Elizabeth Street Café, among others). Also involved are Will Bridges, a scion of the family that owns the ranch, and music maven Rose Reyes.

I attended the dress rehearsal for this event about a week ago, on a blustery Sunday afternoon, and I have to say that although my hair, clothes, eyelids, shoes, socks, fingernails, and iPhone were completely and totally smoked before it was all over, I can’t remember when I’ve had more fun.

About 80 people gathered round to watch the three chefs wrestle with half a steer on the crazy swinging grill (more formally known as  a cantilevered parrilla-style grill) that they had had custom-built by a trailer hitch company in Austin. To tell you the truth, the contraption reminded me of some old bedsprings and a piece of tin roofing welded to an upright pole, with half a steer sandwiched in between, but it worked beautifully.

Every half hour (for more than sixteen hours) they swung the bedsprings (excuse me, the parrilla) out from the pole, flipped the half steer over to ensure even cooking, and swung it back over the coals.

I privately thought there was less than a 50:50 chance the meat would be cooked halfway evenly, much less be tender. After all, it takes barbecue pitmasters years to get it just right. These guys were doing it on the fly. (Of course, Lou (pictured) has plenty of experience with barbecue at Lamberts, but still—he’s not working with a whole animal).

But the results were perfect: tender, smoky, juicy, and amazing. They did take out the key cuts, like tenderloin and ribeye and smoke them separately, just to be sure there was something to eat in case the half steer went to hell in a hand basket, but it turned out there was no need to worry.

We sat down to eat family-style at long tables covered in checked tablecloths under the live oaks. Everyone proceeded to baste themselves in Malbec, overload their plates, eat until they couldn’t see straight, and wonder why no one ever thought of this before.

Tagged: Bridges Ranch, Emmett Fox, Larry McGuire, Lou Lambert, steer roast, Vaca y Vino

Editor’s Note: The Texas Monthly BBQ Festival is almost here! Each day until then, we’ll be talking to one of the featured pitmasters, with questions from TM staffers, esteemed BBQ experts, Twitter followers and you, the readers of this blog.

Today we’re featuring Lou Lambert of Lamberts Downtown Barbecue in Austin. For more info, visit their page on TMBBQ.com.

Photo by Ralph Lauer

What is the heat source you use at Lamberts?

Wood. Oak Wood.

Where did you learn your barbecue craft from?

Number one, just growing up in a barbecue culture in West Texas. Number two, just trial and error and doing a lot of cooking. I learned the basics of barbecuing just growing up around it and learning it from family and friends and then refined it by doing it as a chef. It’s something that I love to do.

You grew up on a ranch. Was barbecue something you guys ate pretty much everyday?

I wouldn’t say everyday, but it was a major factor in how we ate. A lot of grilling, a lot of smoking.

Did you have any idea how influential it would become in your life?

Not at the time. But looking back now as a chef and restaurateur, you just see how that influenced the foods that I love to cook and the way I cook because we do a lot of grilling, a lot of smoking, and a lot of wood roasting. I think it was the influence of growing up around those big, bold foods of West Texas. (more…)

Tagged: 23 pitmasters, austin, barbecue, Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, Layne Lynch, Lou Lambert, Texas Monthly BBQ Festival

Tailgate season is upon us. Since a Texan can never have too many recipes for queso and cheese dip, herewith are three magnificently gooey ones from three great new Texas cookbooks published this fall.

Fort Worth chef Lou Lambert’s Big Ranch, Big City, cowritten with collaborator June Naylor ($40, Ten Speed Press), is an outgrowth of Lambert’s cooking classes, catering, and two eponymous restaurants, in Austin and Fort Worth. Lambert calls his style “elevated ranch cuisine”; another way to describe it is refined but full of gusto and big flavors. (Lambert and Naylor will be doing book signings and some Central Market cooking classes this fall: Sept 15, A Real Book Store, Dallas; Sept 19, Central Market Fort Worth; Sept 20, Central Market Dallas; Sept 21, Central Market, Austin; Sept 22, Central Market Houston; Sept 23, Central Market San Antonio; Oct 1, Texas Fall Fest, Horseshoe Bay; Oct 13, Market Street, Colleyville; Oct 22, Texas Book Festival, cooking tent, Austin; Oct 29, Fresh, Tyler.) Photograph, left, by Ralph Laurer; used by permission.

Seventh-generation-Texan Lisa Fain blogs from her home in New York City under the moniker “the Homesick Texan,” and her sassy, popular website, which centers on how much she misses Texas, especially Texas foods, has now given rise to The Homesick Texan Cookbook ($29.99, Hyperion). (Fain will do book signings on Sept 22, Cookbook Gala, San Angelo; Oct 20, Le Crueset on Lovers Ln, Dallas; Oct 22, Texas Book Festival, at the Capitol, Austin; Oct 24, BookPeople, Austin; Oct 25, Twig Book Shop, San Antonio; Oct 26, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston.)

Journalist Ellen Sweets had the fortune to be a great friend and cooking chum of the late liberal columnist Molly Ivins. Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir With Recipes ($29.95, University of Texas Press) focuses on personal stories and anecdotes but still has plenty of recipes, fancy and plain. (Sweets will do book signings on Oct 23, Texas Book Festival, at the Capitol, Austin; Nov 4, BookPeople, Austin; Nov 13, Savory Spice Shop, Austin.) (more…)

Tagged: Big Ranch Big City, Cookbooks, Ellen Sweets, Homesick Texan, june naylor, Lisa Fain, Lou Lambert, Molly Ivins, Queso