BBQ Joint Reviews
April 1, 2021
The Pitmaster at Bandit BBQ is Betting Big on House-Made Sausages
But the real winner is a burger that almost didn't make it on the menu.
Sausage
BBQ
September 26, 2019
At Smitty’s BBQ in Brownwood, the Smoked Sausage Is a Loving Memorial
The legacy of Smith McArthur Jr., the man who built the joint from the ground up, is carried on by his children.
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 10, 2019
Banger’s Goes Whole Hog With Its New Smokehouse
Thanks to a recent expansion, the Austin joint now regularly offers a Carolina barbecue pork tradition in the heart of Texas brisket country.
Pat's Pick
August 24, 2018
Macellaio in Dallas Puts a Texas Accent on Mediterranean Classics
Italian sausages and charcuterie are the meat of the matter at the new restaurant from the owners of Lucia.
The Texanist
May 19, 2018
The Texanist: Who Uses Tortillas in a Sausage Wrap?
A Plano couple is feuding over what kind of bread product should encase a hot link.
BBQ Recipes
December 20, 2017
The Best Wurst Christmas Tree Ever
Move over, fruitcake. Turn sausage into the hallmark of your next holiday party.
Food & Drink
May 22, 2017
The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas
Welcome to the golden age of Texas barbecue.
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’s Owner: 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…
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.
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,…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Eat My Words
October 31, 2011
TMBBQFest Photo Gallery
Mouse over for captions, or click for full-size image. See ya next year (or tomorrow at your favorite joint)!…
Eat My Words
October 29, 2011
TMBBQFest, “23 Pitmasters in 23 Days”: Bertram’s Closing Puts Us One Man Down
Photo by Trey Kazee Make that 22 pitmasters. Since Bertram Smoke Haus made our Top 50 in 2008, a lot has happened with the joint northwest of Austin. Pitmaster and owner Jim Wallace moved out of his original location, a 100-plus year-old former mercantile and lumber store,…
Eat My Words
October 14, 2011
TMBBQFest, “23 Pitmasters in 23 Days:” Louie Mueller BBQ
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 bring you Wayne Mueller, 46, of Louie…
Eat My Words
October 12, 2011
TMBBQFest, “23 Pitmasters in 23 Days”: Big Daddy’s Roadhouse BBQ
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 bring you Joe Arriago, 33 of…
Eat My Words
October 11, 2011
TMBBQFest, “23 Pitmasters in 23 Days”: Cousin’s Bar-B-Q
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 bring you Cliff Payne, 58, of Cousin's…
Eat My Words
October 6, 2011
Photo Preview: John Mueller’s JMueller BBQ Is (Finally!) Almost (Really!) Here
It's been a long time in the making (a VERY long time in the making): John Mueller, sometimes called the black sheep of the Taylor smoked meat family, is almost back in business here in Austin. Mueller, who used to have a…
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,”…
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…
Sports
August 31, 2001
Earl Campbell
He has moved from pig skin to pork sausage, but he's still trying to score.