Author

Daniel Vaughn

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Daniel Vaughn is the author of The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue, the coauthor of Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue, and the barbecue editor at Texas Monthly. He has traveled the world sampling smoked meats at over 1,800 barbecue joints, most of which are in Texas.
June 8, 2017

BBQ News: 06/02 – 06/08

Take a trip to BBQ Camp: What’s barbecue camp like? @gregmorago @alisoncook + @jcreidtx discuss in this week’s BBQ State of Mind podcast: https://t.co/Rf3Q33R3rA — Jody Schmal (@jodyschmal) June 7, 2017 Tales from the Pits, a new podcast about Texas barbecue, uploaded

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May 25, 2017

BBQ News: 05/12 – 05/25

– We had a little barbecue joint list come out this week: The 2017 Top 50 BBQ Joint list.– Three new names have been added to the Barbecue Hall of Fame.– The Houston Chronicle had some thoughts about how hard it is to get barbecue lists right.–

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May 9, 2017

Hot Luck Preview

Aaron Franklin’s Hot Luck festival will debut in Austin in a couple weeks. Despite Franklin’s involvement, this isn’t strictly a barbecue festival, but smoked meat fans needn’t worry. There are still plenty of talented pitmasters coming to Austin for the highly anticipated food festival.The Hi Lo and Al Fuego,

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April 21, 2017

John Mueller Is Back

Just when you think John Mueller might be out of the barbecue game for good, he pops up somewhere hitched to a new trailer. And the pitmaster made a big announcement last Saturday on the “Great Outdoors” show on 1300 AM in Austin: His new Black Box Barbecue food truck will

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March 27, 2017

Stuffed Chicken Legs at Baker Boys BBQ

In Luling, Wayne Baker grew up on the basics of barbecue. Brisket, ribs, and beef sausage came wrapped up in butcher paper at City Market, the favored barbecue joint of his youth. “I didn’t really know a barbecue plate existed,” he told me at his barbecue joint, Baker Boys BBQ in Gonzales.

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March 10, 2017

When Barbecue Was Against the Law

A Denison newspaper described Al Hall as “a magnificent specimen of physical manhood.” When a local alderman pistol-whipped him during an argument at Hall’s barbecue joint in 1891, Hall retaliated with two swift punches to the face, sending the alderman home in a carriage. “Blood flowed quite freely,” noted The

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February 21, 2017

Wood Cooking in West Texas

From the view on either side of the highway, Notrees—the town between Kermit and Odessa—seems to have been born of the simplest observation. Not much out here grows any higher than cotton. Heading further north, they don’t even have the luxury of scrubby mesquite. So if you’re going to cook barbecue

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February 13, 2017

Interview: Christine Jones of Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ

Owner/Pitmaster: Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ; Opened 2000Age: 53Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Mesquite and PecanRecords line the wall above the bar at Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ. As soap operas played silently on the television, I asked her where all the good music was. With a smile, as if she thought nobody would

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January 26, 2017

BBQ News: 01/20 – 01/26

– “I think people that have secrets in cooking, I really think they’re a**holes.” – Pat Martin: – The KCBS is now accepting nominations for their BBQ Hall of Fame through March 1st.– Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland is now open for dinner, and they’re planning a second location

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January 25, 2017

Weighing Your Options

Update: Mark Loeffler, communications director for the Texas Department of Agriculture*, provided more details on their enforcement effort. Operation Maverick was launched in June 2015 to target any business buying or selling goods by weight. He didn’t have current numbers, but by March 2016, they had inspected 1,400 barbecue joints.

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December 12, 2016

Christopher B “Stubbs” Stubblefield: A Cook

Lubbock guitarist, Jesse “Guitar” Taylor, was hitchhiking in Lubbock when a Cadillac pulled up. A stranger offered him a ride and Taylor hopped in. They drove for a bit and stopped in front of Stubb’s Bar-B-Que in East Lubbock. “I’ve walked by this place so many times and never been

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December 9, 2016

Gobble, Gobble

Rose Diamond once ruled the world of smoked turkey. In 1938, customers in New York, Miami, and Hollywood enjoyed her smoked turkeys shipped out from her Fort Worth home. According to The Claude News, they brined for at least ten days before being smoked in a brick pit in Diamond’s

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November 10, 2016

30 Years of Railhead Smokehouse

When Charlie Geren opened Railhead Smokehouse in Fort Worth, he had already failed at his previous attempt at the restaurant business. Geren said he had just “lost his ass” in a “steak and beer joint” in north Fort Worth, but decided to partner with a pitmaster friend,

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