We Have a Barbecue Editor
We've created what may be the most coveted job in the state and hired the best person for the position: Daniel Vaughn, a.k.a. BBQ Snob.
Texas barbecue, the classic version of which is found primarily in Central Texas and distinguished by its use of beef brisket and its indirect smoking method, is superior to all other regional varieties of barbecue. This is an incontrovertible fact. However, the state boasts tremendous variety of barbecue styles, from the cabrito pits of South Texas to the sweet tangy ribs of East Texas. Over the years, Texas Monthly has written about them all. In our first barbecue story, “The World’s Best Barbecue is in Taylor, Texas. Or is it Lockhart?” Griffin Smith Jr. wrote that, “at first blush, the East Texas chopped pork sandwich with hot sauce has little in common with the slab of Central Texas beef. . . . The emphasis in Central Texas is overwhelmingly on the meat itself—sauce, if available at all, is usually just a side dip.”
We've created what may be the most coveted job in the state and hired the best person for the position: Daniel Vaughn, a.k.a. BBQ Snob.
Robert Sietsema, the Village Voice's food critic, thinks New York can now be considered a "'cue capital." Isn't that cute?
You can’t go home and tell your friends that you came to Central Texas and never ate any barbecue. It would be like going to SXSW and not listening to any music. But there are so many briskets and so little time! How do you sort it all out? No
Carolina pulled pork, Memphis dry rub, Kansas City ribs or Texas brisket? As if there's actually "debate." Video and highlights from Jake Silverstein's SXSW BBQ panel.
Coming to Austin and want a break from SXSW's landscape of rock shows and long lines? Here are a few small towns, just a stone's throw away, offering some of the state's best barbecue and most charming pieces of the past.
Two grease fires destroyed Louie Mueller Barbecue's 1959 brick pit in Taylor this past weekend—just as John Mueller's new trailer opened in Austin.
He's back: John Mueller makes dramatic return to Central Texas barbecue scene with the John Mueller Meat Co. in East Austin.
Daniel Delaney is attempting to do world-class Texas brisket in New York. Our Daniel Vaughn thought he could pull it off, and now Wayne Mueller has agreed.
Daniel Vaughn's top picks for where to get good BBQ in NYC. (And a few places one should avoid.)
Daniel Delaney, a Brooklyn-based blogger who professes a deep and profound respect for Texas barbecue, bought a 200-pound smoker and a truckload's worth of Texas post oak to start Brisket Lab in his home state.
Where there's smoke, there's non-traditional barbecue. Jim Shahin writes about Asian styles in New York City, "pulled squash" in Arizona, and cauliflower, artichokes, and quail in Texas.
Four highlights from "Texas Preserved," Foodways Texas' second annual symposium.
It may have rained where you live Tuesday, but the drought continues to impact everything from butterflies to barbecue and golf to drinking water.
The senior editor on writing about Aaron Franklin and John Mueller, eating brisket five days in a row, and mastering a barbecue pit.
I love living in Texas, but I believe we underestimate our coleslaw, which is usually served in a little cup, off to the side of the meat. I contend it is capable of more responsibility than that. In Mississippi, where I grew up and ate my first barbecue, it was
There was a time in this country when you could eat a wonderfully flavorless slice of this substance and not feel like a villain. But that time is long ago, back in the days before iceberg lettuce, white bread’s vegetable companion in blahness, was driven underground. And though iceberg lettuce
Potato salad is one of my four favorite vegetables, right up there with tuna salad, deviled eggs, and slices of Velveeta. You need a mustardy tang and some starch to balance the overpowering sweetness of barbecue sauce. That’s where the masters in the art of salade de pommes de terre
President George W. Bush will leave Washington, D.C., the city where I, a boy from Houston, now reside, every bit as divided as it was when he first hit town. This is too bad, but a far bigger disappointment is that he has not spent a farthing of his political
The waitress says the man at Table Three is making noises.You’d think she would be used to grunting when the sun goes down at Melvin’s Rib Château,but this one’s whispering amen into his marinade, getting sauce all over his Armani.It could be he’s an escapee from a gated communityof
Though I am proud to claim Texas associations, I am from the South. So when it comes to barbecue, my first thought is not of brisket but of pork. Does a pig have brisket? It may be hard to find, on a pig.A cow spends more time standing up and
Aaron Franklin on how to smoke the perfect brisket.
On the first Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in August for the past 61 years, thousands have converged on a park on the outskirts of Dalhart for the XIT Rodeo and Reunion, celebrating the history of the XIT Ranch, once the biggest ranch in Texas. (This year’s dates: August 7—9.) In
I went; I ate; for the most part I snickered. Of all the alleged barbecue capitals in the United States, the only serious rival to Texas is Kansas City, Missouri. This is because Kansas City barbecues beef, whereas Memphis, the Carolinas, and the rest of the Deep South barbecue pork.
For photographer Wyatt McSpadden, the barbecue joints of Texas are soot-stained temples of meat and their pitmasters solemn keepers of an old-time religion.
Where are the best places to eat barbecue in Texas? Six years ago we published a highly subjective—and hotly debated— list of our fifty favorite joints, and now we’ve gone back for seconds. Ten intrepid souls drove more than 21,000 miles in search of 2003’s worthiest ‘cue. Here’s what they
A Cityslicker's Guide to the Pits.
MANHATTANHill Country Barbecue MarketLast year, word of a new barbecue restaurant spread through New York’s Texas-expat community. Usually, this kind of thing doesn’t cause much of a stir. We see a lot of “Texas barbecue” joints up here where they take a brisket that tastes like pastrami and drench it
Listed alphabetically by city, y'all.
Ode To BrisketWhen you’re a food writer, people are always asking about the best meal you’ve ever eaten. I know they’re expecting tales of an unforgettable lunch at Michel Bras or a poetic kaiseki meal in Kyoto or a beluga extravaganza on the banks of the Volga, but what always
The traditional way to prepare Texas barbecue is in a pit, the more smoke-infused and grease-encrusted the better. The word “pit” harks back to the days when meats were cooked over smoldering coals in an earthen pit or trench, especially for large gatherings. Nowadays, such buried ovens are extremely rare,
The old Kreuz Market was like a one-room chapel. The humble brick building off the courthouse square in Lockhart had turned out divine smoked meat since 1900. But just as churchgoers nowadays worship in larger halls, so too does the visitor to the new Kreuz Market, which opened in 1999
Don’t bother going in the front door. You’ll end up in the parking lot behind the boxy brick building anyway, doing the Smitty’s shuffle: At peak hours, the lines invariably stretch out the back door. Patiently, you inch your way forward, passing the waist-high brick pits and perusing the list
You’ve come for wholeness, for satisfaction deep within your soul. Your searching has brought you here, to the company of fellow pilgrims in the snaking line. Slowly, you advance across the tile floor, past the knotty-pine walls, and up to the inner sanctum: a glass-enclosed chamber where a host of
Forty-nine years of post oak coals in the pit have smoke-cured the building, which previously housed a ladies’ basketball court and a grocery market. Louie moved in with his barbecue business in 1959; his son, Bobby, took over more than three decades ago, but not a thing has suffered from
Some like it hot; Texans like it hotter. That’s why Carl Walker, the chef at Brennan’s in Houston (3300 Smith), branded his barbecued shrimp with black pepper and poblano chiles. Double-daring the Southwest palate, he paired the shrimp with his spicy version of a down-home favorite. “I wanted to make cornbread pudding
According to a story in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, a new barbecue restaurant is coming to Austin in 2013. And this is no ordinary barbecue restaurant; it’s backed by Justin Timberlake. Yup, that Justin Timberlake… The Austin restaurant is part of a 30-city nationwide
The pitmaster at the well-regarded JMueller BBQ trailer in Austin was fired by his sister, who also filed a police report accusing him of theft.
Dear barbecue buffs, fans, mavens, hounds, fanatics, cognoscenti, nuts, addicts, maniacs, aficionados, zealots, enthusiasts, devotes, groupies, and lovers: Do you have a barbecue destination that you think is worthy of being on Texas Monthly’s “The Top Fifty BBQ Joints in Texas” list? Now’s the time to tell us! Next
Austin’s Franklin Barbecue is making a few changes in the coming months, according to an interview owner Aaron Franklin did with Eater National this week. In the detailed interview, Franklin touched on changing
You can’t talk about great Texas barbecue without mentioning Driftwood’s most famous barbecue joint of all time – The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que. Through the years this Central Texas haunt has gained both fame and popularity for its delicious barbecue meats – well known for their
They went as quickly as they came! Sorry, ya’ll! The Texas Monthly BBQ Festival tickets have officially sold out. The VIP tickets were gone faster than the blink of an eye, and now the general admission passes have all been snatched up as
Do you smother your meats in tangy barbecue sauce? Have you ever planned a road trip just to devour some Central Texas barbecue? Would you stand in a three-hour line for a single serving of brisket at Franklin Barbecue? Well, ready your wallets my fellow
APRIL FOOLS! Breathe a sigh of relief, all you extremist carnivores. Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin IS NOT – I repeat, IS NOT – going to host Meatless Monday Vegan Brisket dinners. The TM Daily
Foodways Texas, which was founded in July 2010 “to preserve, promote, and celebrate the diverse food cultures of Texas," held its second annual symposium in Austin this past weekend. A couple of hundred participants listened to talks on the theme of “Texas Preserved”—a deliberately wide-ranging topic that covered
Can you take barbecue out of Texas and still call it Texas barbecue?
A UT study on the traffic intersections of the future, the Perry gravy train is back on the track, and the Spurs lose a game on purpose.
An early look at the cover—and the cover story—of our February issue.
For all the stories that we publish in TEXAS MONTHLY, there are always more that we don’t publish, usually because we run out of space and time. In a state that spans 261,232 square miles and contains 25,145,561 people, it’s a safe bet that the things we could cover
Prevention magazine blames fast food, steakhouses, and barbecue joints for the high obesity rates.
What one man overheard at this year’s celebration of the best pitmasters in the state, righteous smoked meats, and passionate ’cue lovers.