Sausage

BBQ |
April 19, 2016

Interview: Karl Kuby Sr. of Kuby’s Sausage House

Karl Kuby Jr. (left) and Karl Kuby Sr. (right) outside of Kuby’sOwner: Kuby’s Sausage House; Opened 1961 Age: 84 If you’ve had breakfast at Kuby’s Sausage House in Dallas’s Snider Plaza, chances are you’ve seen Karl Kuby Sr. canvassing the dining room looking for kids so he can pass

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ Joint Reviews |
March 4, 2016

Vincek’s Smokehouse

Gary Vincek seems to do it all. He doesn’t run a just a barbecue joint, a sausage factory, a meat market, a processing facility, or a bakery. As owner and pitmaster at Vincek’s Smokehouse, he and his crew provide the Southeast Texas town of East Bernard with all of those things.

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
March 2, 2016

Interview: Tim Mikeska of Mikeska Brands

Owner: Mikeska Brands Texas Bar-B-Q; Founded 2008 Age: 56 Smoker: Brick Smokehouse Wood: Oak wood with oak and hickory sawdust Tim Mikeska has had enough with running restaurants. He’s traded it in for the wholesale sausage business, and now his family’s Czech sausage recipe can be enjoyed in Texas, New York,

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
March 1, 2016

Smoked in Texas: Sausage at Galvan’s Sausage House

After more than thirty years of doing laundry for the local school district, Clemente Galvan Jr. chose a second career: barbecue. It hasn’t been easy. The pit room at Galvan’s Sausage House has burned down twice, most recently in 2014. He works long hours at the small restaurant along Highway 90 in

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ Recipes |
February 29, 2016

A Glossary of Casings

Smoked sausage is a pillar of Texas barbecue. We talk a lot about the staggering sausage varieties—pork, beef, fine-grind, coarse-grind, hot guts, jalapeno-cheese, macaroni and cheese—but what’s discussed less frequently is what we stuff those fillings into: the casings. Last week I went on a barbecue tour with Greg Mueller

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ Recipes |
January 5, 2016

Sausage Making, Freedmen’s Style

When a process is notoriously complicated and unpleasant, people tend to trot out a time-worn idiom: you don’t want to know how the sausage gets made. While the saying is especially useful when it comes to any political bureaucratic dealing, it’s a bit derogatory and it slightly diminishes the art of the craft,

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
October 6, 2015

The Modern Marvel of Kuby’s Sausage House

When we marvel at the endurance of family-run barbecue joints in Texas, it becomes noteworthy when one hangs on for four—hell, even three—generations. So if someone deciding to make a living in the same way as their great-grandfather is pretty rare, but in the middle of Dallas, there is a business that’s

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
June 1, 2015

On Sausage Wraps

The sausage wrap is underrated. It’s too simple to get much attention, but it deserves more than bottom-of-the-menu status. At its most basic, a sausage wrap is a link of sausage wrapped in a single slice of white bread. You can call it a wrap, a roll-up, fold-over, or sandwich.

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
May 18, 2015

All the Sausages

Making sausage ain’t easy. There’s the trimming, grinding, seasoning, stuffing, and then the smoking. For barbecue joints, buying a few boxes of cheap sausage from your food distributor is a tempting prospect when compared to the hours required to make your own. But Texas is a place where smoked sausages are a

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
May 6, 2015

A Sausage Evolution

Sausage. It’s one of the signatures of our state’s barbecue style, but the time intensive process of grinding, stuffing, and smoking sausage fell out of favor when barbecue left the meat market. With the rise of commercial sausage makers, many barbecue joints were (and are) happy to purchase their sausage

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
November 17, 2014

The Longest Sausage in Texas

The Guinness World Record for the world’s longest sausage, from the UK, checks in at just over thirty-six miles. The longest smoked sausage, from Germany, was 1,581 feet, 5 inches, but the longest smoked sausage in Texas (probably) was on display yesterday at Meat

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
October 20, 2014

Smoking Sausages

The Rabrokers have been selling their family recipe German sausage out of Westphalia Market since 1963. The tiny town of Westphalia sits between Zabcikville and Lott on Highway 320 (about twenty minutes east of Temple), and the market is a great reason to take a detour. They make several

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
October 14, 2014

What Is Texas-German Sausage?

Last week I spent some time in West Texas eating barbecue. I’ve done a few tours through the area already, so I know not to get excited when I see “German sausage” on a menu, but I had a temporary memory lapse. The prospect of finding a coarsely ground and smoky beef

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
July 14, 2014

A Tour of Houston Sausages

As one third of the Texas barbecue trinity, smoked sausage has important stature in Texas. Central Texas has its beef sausages, East Texas has got hot links, and you’ll find plenty of smoked boudin along the Louisiana border. In Houston, they have it all as J.C. Reid and Michael Fulmer

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
October 14, 2013

Smoked in Texas: Nolan Ryan Brisket Sausage

The sausage section at our local Kroger is well-stocked with dozens of sausages. Several weeks back my wife brought home a gift of the latest option: Nolan Ryan Beef Brisket Sausage. It was introduced to Kroger shelves back in July, and as Nolan Ryan Beef CEO Charlie Bradbury

By Daniel Vaughn

Food & Drink |
January 21, 2013

Ode to Sausage

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

By Texas Monthly

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

Ode to . . .

Ode To Brisket When 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

By Texas Monthly

Food & Drink |
April 30, 2011

How to Make Venison Sausage

Watching lawmakers bicker over the state budget in Austin reminds us of the old adage about what politics and sausage have in common. Fortunately for sausage, its approval ratings are through the roof. “It’s become easier to stuff sausage at home, since more places are selling small grinders and stuffers,”

By Andrea Valdez

BBQ Joint Reviews |
May 16, 2009

City Meat Market

Thousands of drivers a day pass through Giddings along Texas Highway 290 on their way between Austin and Houston. They would all do themselves a favor if they stopped right in the center of town to sample the fine meats smoked at City Meat Market. This is a true meat

By Daniel Vaughn

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Knockwurst Wieners

All kids like frankfurters, but many parents are uneasy about the ingredients in store-bought wieners. Here is a simple recipe that will please all parties. Two people can complete the procedure in 45 minutes. These sausages won’t be as pink as the purchased variety because they contain no nitrates. If

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Garlic Sausage

This recipe is one of several featured in the article The Missing Link by Linda West Eckhardt [Dining In, August 1978]. French bistros in New York have lately offered as an appetizer saucisson a l’ail, a hearty garlic sausage. The french stuff them into large beef casings, but you may

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Bratwurst

Another excellent summertime sausage is bratwurst, a traditional German sausage, light in color and delicate in taste. 2 1/2 lbs lean veal 2 1/2 lbs lean pork 2 t dried sage 3 t salt 1 t white pepper 1 1/2 cups water 1 cup white bread crumbs 1/2 cup milk

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Moroccan Lamb Sausage

This recipe is one of several featured in the article The Missing Link by Linda West Eckhardt [Dining In, August 1978]. Middle Easterners added their twist to sausage making by skewering sausages and cooking them on a brazier inside their tents. 3 lbs lean lamb 1 cup chopped parsley 1

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Boudin Blanc

It comes as no surprise that when the French turn their attention to sausage the results are elegant. Don’t confuse this version with Louisiana’s Cajun-style boudin made from rice and pork scraps. The ingredients of the original French version are pristine and subtle. 1/4 lb bacon fat 3 cups

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

All-Beef Salami

For people without a grinder or stuffer I recommend this spicy salami. The seasonings in it are so heady, I’d have to class this sausage as strong. 4 lbs ground hamburger beef 1 t garlic powder 1 t onion powder 1 t ground cumin 2 t

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Texas Turkey Ring Sausage

Another popular sausage indigenous to Texas is turkey sausage. The most famous purveyor of this local delicacy is Inman’s in Llano. They case theirs fresh, then barbecue it. If you do the same, your sausage will be somewhat drier than if you smoke it first. Smoking also produces a more

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Smoked Venison Sausage

Sausage making has come to be one of the prime activities of the deer season in Texas. One of the best recipes I’ve found is a German link sausage, smoked to give it added resonance. Don’t be shocked by the quantity in this recipe. It assumes you are on good

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
July 31, 1978

Bernhard’s Sausage Seasoning

The Bernhard brothers are Hill Country butchers from Ingram who have been making sausage since the days when their father took them to far-flung ranches for butchering jobs. They sell a seasoning for venison or pure pork sausage that you can make yourself. This quantity will flavor fifty pounds of

By Linda Eckhardt

Recipes |
June 30, 1978

Toad-in-the-Hole

This recipe is one of several featured in the July 1978 article Tots and Pans. The English have always been graphic to a fault. The name of this dish is destined to delight children of all ages and raise grave doubts in the eyes of adults. Think of it as

By Linda Eckhardt