Stephen Joseph arrived at his barbecue joint, Joseph’s Riverport Bar-B-Q, in Jefferson, Texas early in the morning to find all of his briskets and pork butts burnt to a crisp. Here’s how he recovered.[View the story “Smoking Hot and Fast in East Texas” on Storify]
I’d seen this joint from the highway a couple of times, and I finally took the giant Texas U-turn required to visit. If you’re headed north on US Highway 287 through Decatur you’ll need to exit at US Highway 380 and go around a couple of cloverleaf ramps to get
The International Chefs Congress (ICC) is in its eighth year, but this weekend in New York they hosted their first ever barbecue competition. It was simply called Smoke @ ICC. Ten teams from six states were competing for the grand prize of a trip for four to South
Feast Portland, an enormous four day culinary event, was held this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. The main purpose of the event was to highlight the bounty of culinary talent in the area and to showcase food producers from the Northwest. The organizers certainly met their goal.
– Two weeks ago the Carnivore’s Ball was held in Austin. It was a great party with barbecue from John Mueller. These photos by Robert Strickland will make you wish you were there.– The TCU football team is playing for more than just the game this weekend. If they win,
Brian PattonThis isn’t so much a pitmaster interview as it is a discussion with a few Europeans who hope to learn the ways of Texas barbecue. Brian Patton is from Dublin, but he operates restaurants in Vienna, Austria. He is in Texas on a barbecue pilgrimage which
The rise of Austin’s barbecue culture has been led by food trailers. The mighty trio of John Mueller Meat Co., la Barbecue, and Franklin Barbecue (which began as a food trailer) lead the local scene and have made patrons all too familiar with the “Sold Out” sign. These joints all
Every month we’ll bring you a profile of a photographer who has captured the people, the food and the spaces that make up the world of barbecue.Wyatt McSpadden – Austin, TexasI’ve been shooting pictures at BBQ places around Texas for better than 25 years. I’ve had the pleasure of
If Alanis Morissette re-wrote her hit song “Ironic” today, she might include a line about buying an Arby’s smoked brisket sandwich in the middle of Texas, a state with just shy of two thousand barbecue joints that serve sandwiches stuffed with smoked meat. It’s like putting one of those Wonder
– On the proliferation of roadside barbecue joints as seen in Newsweek.– Brooks Place BBQ in Cypress is planning a move from their trailer to a brick and mortar location at FM 529 and Queenston in Houston. They’re also going to have to make some repairs
Photo by Nicholas McWhirterPitmaster: Two Bros. BBQ Market, opened 2009Age: 29Smoker: Wood-fired Offset Steel SmokerWood: OakThe creation of Two Bros. BBQ Market doesn’t follow the usual narrative of a Texas barbecue joint. There was no backyard cook or barbecue competitor that had decided to open up a barbecue joint. Jason Dady
Back in 1978 Joycelyn and her then-husband Joel Kubesch were smoking meat at area parking lots on the weekends. They then moved into this current building around 1980. Joycelyn runs the place now, but the building looks like it came from another century. A tin roof over a clapboard exterior
Over the weekend the final scene for Of Blood and Brine was filmed in a small café in Venus, Texas. A group of five seniors from the Art Institute of Dallas created the film and assembled a team of roughly thirty-five students to shoot it all
“Barbecue isn’t supposed to taste like smoke. Real barbecue is cooked in a traditional open pit, not in a smoker.”You may expect to hear these words from a North Carolina barbecue zealot who believes that cooking a whole hog over direct heat is the only permissible definition of barbecue. You
– Here’s a fascinating look at the many effects of foil wrapping on briskets and pork shoulders from food scientist Greg Blonder.– More food science – Should the fat cap stay or go? Meathead’s answer is that it should stay, or at least some of it, but not for
Big Jim with his smoker. Photo by Nicholas McWhirterOwner/Pitmaster: Hashknife on the Chisholm, opened 2006Age: 51Smoker: Gas-fired Rotisserie SmokerWood: Oak and pecanJim McLennan and his wife have run a barbecue joint at the southwest corner of highways 281 and 284 for over a decade. Shortly after he bought the place in 2005 he
Update: This joint is permanently CLOSED.2013: This is the second in a dual review. It’s rare to find two barbecue joints with food so similar to one another, but Cotten’s Catering in Calallen and Cotten’s Barbecue in San Antonio are nearly dead ringers. It all goes back to
This is the first in a dual review. It’s rare to find two barbecue joints with food so similar to one another, but Cotten’s Catering in Calallen and Cotten’s Barbecue in San Antonio are nearly dead ringers. It all goes back to 1947 when Joe Cotten starting selling
In today’s “Eat Like a Man” blog post, Josh Ozersky received a request from a reader for cooking tips to improve his backyard brisket. Instead of anything helpful, he got this reply:“The larger point about brisket…is that brisket sucks. There, I said it. It’s gigantic, it’s misshapen, and
Title: Barbecue Crossroads: Notes and Recipes from a Southern OdysseyAuthor: Robb WalshPublished: University of Texas Press, 2013If you’re familiar with Robb Walsh through his decade-old book Legends of Texas Barbecue, then you’ll likely enjoy the great writing in Barbecue Crossroads. You’ll also get more of
Free beer. There isn’t much that sounds more enticing when you’re standing in a long line in the hot sun waiting for the perfect beef rib. It’s just one of the gratis items that barbecue joints across the state are offering alongside their smoked meat. In Louisiana that little something
– Lolis Eric Elie laments the “golden age of barbecue.” He aptly compares barbecue’s spread to that of the Blues, and equates barbecue in cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Atlanta as the work of cover bands.– AFAR magazine offers this tour of BBQ around the world. If you can
Owner/Pitmaster: Pody’s BBQ, opened 2011Age: 38Smoker: Various indirect heat steel pitsWood: Post Oak, Cherry, Pecan, and MesquiteA few weeks back someone tweeted to me that they’d spotted Israel “Pody” Campos in line at Pecan Lodge in Dallas. That’s a long way from his home in Pecos. I tried to get him to stick
State Highway 290 runs right through the middle of Brenham, Texas, a town know more for ice cream than smoked meats. Its location makes it a perfect mid-point stop for road trips between Houston and Austin. Living in Dallas I don’t travel this route much so I made a point
To start off this summer we released our list of the Fifty Best BBQ Joints in the World in the June issue of Texas Monthly. All summer we’ve been keeping track of all the other barbecue lists we could find. They aren’t all in Texas and many are
The Texas Trinity combo plate—beef, ribs, and sausage—is probably the most commonly served dish at Texas barbecue joints, and usually, the beef brisket gets all the glory. But we should shine a little more light on pork ribs, which are often a joint’s better tasting meat (it’s difficult to perfectly
UPDATE: All tickets to the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival are SOLD OUT.Tickets for the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival are available for purchase. VIP tickets have already sold out, but there are General Admission tickets remaining. If you’re unfamiliar with the festival, here are a few key details:When – Sunday,
– Tickets for the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival are sold out.– In an interview in Scientific American, Richard Wrangham says that barbecue is what made us human starting back a couple million years ago.– The US Open tennis tournament in New York will be serving barbecue this year from
We wrote about Bohemia Chips a few weeks ago when the Czech snack company announced plans to send a contest winner from the Czech Republic to Austin for the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival. The company has sent an emissary to Texas in the form of Kazma Kazmitch.
Photo by Nicholas McWhirterOwner/Pitmaster: Big Boys Bar-B-Que, opened 2000Age: 57Smoker: Direct heat steel pitsWood: MesquiteI’ve been out to Sweetwater twice for Gaylan Marth’s barbecue at Big Boys. The first time I was with my wife and kids. They stayed in the car while I got a to-go order. Eating in the car we
If you’re headed south on Highway 77 you won’t see the sign for Harris Bar-B-Que, but it doesn’t matter. A huge, black offset smoker will likely be blowing smoke across the road just south of downtown Waxahachie. Kelvin Harris used this smoker when he was darting around Cedar Hill and
Southwest of Austin is a farmhouse brewery called Jester King. They make unconventional beers with unique names and sometimes sinister looking labels. It’s considered a farmhouse brewery because they allow their beer to take in wild yeasts floating in the air during the brewing process. Their facility also looks a
It was pouring outside for the third day in a row. “We’re not in Texas anymore,” I thought to myself, despite the fact that sitting before me was a plate of sliced brisket, hot links, potato salad, and pinto beans. I was south of Nashville at Martin’s Bar-B-Que
– Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News sat down with Pecan Lodge and their new landlord to try and bring the two together (there’s a well-documented frustration between the two). He brought along a tape recorder too.– Here’s a profile of five joints that are
Owner/Pitmaster: Hatfield’s BBQ, opened 2013Age: 53Smoker: Wood-fired rotisserie pitWood: Oak and mesquiteNo sooner had we put the original Hatfield’s BBQ in the Top 50, than a disagreement between partners meant he was out of the business. We wrote about the controversy while Kenny was still between the old and new joint.
Sifting through old Texas newspapers, I found the first mention of commercial smoked meat from the Brenham Weekly Banner, which announced that a Bastrop butcher "keeps on hand at his stall a ready stock of barbecued meats and cooked sausages."
Always seeking a route away from the interstate, I found myself driving the back way into Mathis, Texas on FM 666. When I saw that the state had failed to skip that number when naming farm-to-market roads I just had to take it. It was a humorous detour until I
Josh Ozersky announced the line-up for Meatopia Texas today at a press conference in San Antonio. That it was held at the Pearl Brewery made it no secret that the Granary, which is located at the Pearl, would be featured. Well, that and the fact that Ozersky has
Every month we bring you a profile of a photographer who has captured the people, the food and the spaces that make up the world of barbecue.Robert Strickland – Dallas, TexasIt happened fast — wildly fast. As that first bite of truly great brisket faded away, I found myself drowning
As is true throughout the South, the public barbecue was commonplace in Texas long before there were any restaurants serving commercial barbecue. As soon as a little town had enough population to consume a whole steer, the fourth of July celebrations at the center of town or the political rallies
– Get some Franklin Barbecue brisket infused bourbon at CU29 in Austin.– Behold the Widowmaker:@BBQsnob new barbecue cut? The Widowmaker beef rib roast! only 2 per carcass, but sexy as hell! pic.twitter.com/VTC35AuqKP — Salt & Time (@saltandtime) August 8, 2013 – Amy Evans of the Southern
Photo by Jeff BergusThis is an extended version of an interview with Mr. Bewley that ran in the New York Times on August 4th. I visited with Mr. Bewley in his house along with his daughter Rhonda and her husband Larry Lewis who now runs
Update: This joint is permanently CLOSED.2013: A meat cutter stood next to a cutting block loaded with smoked meat. It was all illuminated by a heat lamp. This was where the cafeteria line commenced. A plate was stacked with sliced brisket, pork ribs and warm, buttered Texas toast. I placed
Paula Lambert has been making cheese at the Mozzarella Company in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas since 1982. The store/factory produces a wide variety of cheeses, but mozzarella is the flagship as the name suggests. After mastering fresh mozzarella Paula started smoking it. The smoked
If you’ve spent any time on the interstates of Texas, then you’ve probably had a similar thought – Is that barbecue worth exiting for? You see a billboard, a collection of restaurant logos on a blue board, or a sign for BBQ right along the access road. Instincts would tell
– They take their BBQ pits pretty seriously in Lone Star, Texas. A pit dispute led to shots being fired in a convenience store parking lot.– Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin needed someone to choose their food vendors. They chose Austin pitmaster John Mueller. This should be
Owner/Pitmaster: Longoria’s BBQ, opened 1995Age: 50Smoker: Wood-fired lazy-susan style smokersWood: Post oak and pecanDavid Longoria runs a joint started by his parents in a small town just south of Fort Worth. On the other side of town is Hickory Stick Barbecue which is owned and operated by Mark Jones. There are plenty of
Since 1989 Jamie Geer has been manufacturing barbecue pits for his company Jambo Pits. These days, many of the smokers that come out of his welding shop in Burleson are destined for the competition circuit. You can find the shiny custom paint jobs of famous barbecue competitors
Title: Smoke: New Firewood CookingAuthor: Tim ByresPublished: Rizzoli, 2013Tim Byres and I have known one another for a few years now. Before I knew him the owners of Smoke, a restaurant in Dallas where Byres is the chef, asked me to come in and try their barbecue. They were
Since 1960, A.N. Bewley Fabricators has been bending, slicing and welding steel for high-quality barbecue pits that can easily cost $20,000.
