Regional Guide to Texas Barbecue

By theadmin

There’s a reason why Texas is home to the only full-time barbecue editor in the country (Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn). It’s not that barbecue is important to Texas, though it is. It’s not that Texas is big and there’s a lot to write about, though there is. It’s not that Texas is one of the four major barbecue cultures in the U.S., though it is. It’s not even that Texas likes to ride tall in its saddle and claim its primacy over all things barbecue — though it does.

The real reason is that barbecue in Texas is unlike, and has more history, diversity, and regional particularities than, barbecue anywhere else (and yes, that includes you, Memphis, North Carolina, and Kansas City). Texas is like a barbecue nation unto itself. In Texas, barbecue isn’t just a slab of smoked meat or a rack of ribs smothered in sauce. Each cut represents a melting pot of ethnic traditions, a confluence of technology and ingenuity. The constantly evolving approach found in Texas barbecue traces its roots as far back as the Caddo Indians, incorporates aspects of nearly every culture that has settled Texas, and continues to break new ground in the hands of young pitmasters today.

Legendary Central Texas barbecue joints still serve German butcher-shop-style. Photos by Elizabeth Lavin

Central Texas: The Texas Original

When most people think of Texas barbecue, they think about beef. That somewhat unfair reputation owes itself to the regional style that developed in the central part of the state. Central Texas barbecue is about beef — big, fatty strips of smoked brisket — but it is also about pork spareribs and smoked sausage. These days, you’re also likely to find chunks of beef clod with salt and pepper bark, massive beef ribs, and specialties like mutton, pork chops, pit ham, chicken, and turkey — just like back in the early days, when game and poultry were all part of the barbecue menu.

Old World Roots
Central Texas barbecue traces its roots back to the German and Czech immigrants who began settling Texas in the mid-19th century. At community celebrations, cuts of beef, pork, and game were slow-cooked over long open pits. In Czech and German meat markets, meat was smoked in Old-World smokers and served to farmers and travelers by the pound in butcher paper. This style of service impacted how the barbecue was prepared, Robb Walsh writes in his book Legends of Texas Barbecue.

“Meat market barbecue is cooked and seasoned differently from Southern barbecue, too,” Walsh writes. “In East Texas, pork is often rubbed with a spice mix containing salt, garlic powder, and red pepper and served heavily sauced. Meat-market pork is seasoned with nothing but salt, pepper, and smoke.”

Barbecue Renaissance
Today, when you visit Central Texas’ most legendary joints, you’ll be greeted by long lines that lead to a counter where slices of fatty brisket, moist pork chops, and smoked sausage are weighed and served on squares of butcher paper. Often there are no plates or knives or sauce, just like the German butcher shops began serving it more than a century ago. It’s that tradition that has really helped Texas barbecue develop its own identity. Popular restaurants and well-regarded pitmasters serving Central Texas-style barbecue have spread to Austin, Dallas, Houston, and even Paris, France.

Texas BBQ Temples
Smitty’s Market, Lockhart
The lowdown: Get the authentic Central Texas barbecue experience, complete with century-old brick pits. Expect long lines and intensely good barbecue at this no-nonsense, cash-only spot.
What to order: Beef shoulder clod, sausage

Black’s Barbecue, Lockhart
The lowdown: Since 1932, Black’s has been cooking brisket its own way: starting in a wood-smoking rotisserie and finishing the meat in brick pits.
What to order: Brisket

Louie Mueller Barbecue, Taylor
The lowdown: The fatty brisket and tender beef rib served up for more than a half-century have earned recognition from Texas Monthly as Central Texas barbecue’s “Platonic ideal.”
What to order: Beef ribs

Kreuz Market, Lockhart
The lowdown: The original Texas barbecue joint deserves a spot on every Texan’s bucket list.
What to order: Pork chops

West Texas: A Disappearing Act

The one thing that clearly distinguishes West Texas barbecue (also called Hill Country or cowboy barbecue) from its better-known Central Texas cousin is how the meat is cooked. In the Hill Country, pitmasters developed a style of cooking over direct heat, with the meat sitting on grills high above mesquite coals. Some pitmasters used a secondary oven to burn mesquite wood, which they’d shovel into steel pits.

Coal-Fired Smoke
No wood smoke is generated in the coal-fired steel pits to flavor the meat. West Texas barbecue owes its distinctive character to smoke from the evaporating fat that drips off the cuts and onto the hot coals. Basting with vinegary mop sauces keeps the meat moist, a method similar to Carolina-style open-pit barbecue. And while brisket is of course available (it’s still Texas, after all), the style of cooking favors other cuts, such as pork chops and goat.

A Vanishing Style
Sadly, with the spreading popularity of Central Texas-style as the Ur-Texas barbecue, West Texas barbecue is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

“It’s a testament to the difficulty, and more importantly the close attention required for cooking directly over wood coals,” Vaughn wrote in 2015, lamenting how even some of the tried-and-true West Texas joints are moving away from the style. “You can’t turn your back on those pits, which is why Dutch pits are being traded in for rotisseries.”

Still, if you find yourself passing through Johnson City, Llano, or Kerrville, you can still sample this treasured type of Texas barbecue.

In Search of Hill Country Barbecue

New Pitmasters on the Block

Franklin Barbecue, Austin
The opening of Franklin Barbecue in 2009 could be called the “big bang” moment of what Daniel Vaughn has called “the golden age of Texas Barbecue.” The only pitmaster to win a James Beard award, Aaron Franklin lives up to the hype; his brisket is worth withstanding the long wait.

Cattleack Barbeque, Dallas
Todd David once served his beloved smoked meats free to hungry building engineers during a monthly lunch. Now, since he opened a catering business and a storefront in North Dallas, legions of his fans must wait in long lines to sample one of the top-rated barbecue joints in the state.

Bodacious Bar-B-Q, Longview
Two graduates of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts turned their training to smoking the perfect brisket and sausage in the revival of an East Texas standby that originally opened in 1968 and was reopened and reinvented in 2015.

East Texas: The Southern Connection

When cotton plantation owners moved from the Southeast to the fertile fields of East Texas, they brought African-American slaves with them, who in turn brought barbecue. As a result, East Texas barbecue has its roots in African-American and Southern barbecue traditions, with a greater emphasis on pork and sauce.

Juneteenth History
In Legends of Texas Barbecue, Walsh explains how East Texas barbecue came into its own after African-Americans in Texas learned of their freedom on June 19, 1865. Since then, Juneteenth celebrations have included community picnics and plenty of barbecue.

“Pork, mutton, goat, and wild game were the original barbecue meats in cotton country,” Walsh writes. “Today, barbecued mutton is still seen in East Texas. But here, as in the rest of the South, pork is the reigning favorite. As with Southern barbecue, the meats are preferred falling-off-the-bone tender and more heavily sauced.”

All About the Extras
Sides — like turnip greens, potato salad, okra, fried green tomatoes, and black-eyed peas — are a central part of the experience.

Cajun Twists
When brisket shows up in East Texas barbecue, expect it chopped and on a bun. In Southeast Texas, the style can take on a Cajun twist, with boudin added to the plate. Even the barbecue sauce may be thickened with roux and heavily spiced.

Where To Go

Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que still makes its barbacoa by smoking whole cow heads in an earthen pit overnight (left). East Texas barbecue has African-American roots, with a bigger emphasis on pork and sauce. Brisket is still served, but chopped and on a bun (right).

South Texas: La Tierra de Barbacoa

Before Texas was Texas, Mexican rancheros developed their own way of cooking meat, modeled from a style that was pioneered in central Mexico. The meat is wrapped in leaves and placed on a smoldering fire in a pit, covered with dirt, and left to blacken slowly overnight.

During the 19th century, ranch hands working white-owned herds along the Rio Grande border were often given the less desirable cuts of meat as their rations. And so, this tradition of barbecue — or barbacoa — in Texas developed to include cooking whole cow heads in pits.

The Last Barbacoa Joint
Today, it is difficult to find true cow-head barbacoa. Because of health codes, most barbacoa joints have switched to other styles of cooking the meat, including in pits over water baths or in the oven. This is the style of barbacoa that can be found in taquerias all over the state. Served on fresh tortillas along with a spicy salsa, it still carries some of the flavor of the traditional style.

There is one place that still cooks tried-and-true barbacoa. Thanks to being grandfathered into the health-code era, Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que in Brownsville still makes its barbacoa by smoking whole cow heads buried in an earthen pit overnight.

Tex-Mex Barbecue
Just as Texas barbecue isn’t all about beef, South Texas-style barbecue isn’t all about cow heads. Order up some barbecue tongue and pork tacos or tortas alongside steaming bowls of borracho beans (pinto beans simmered in pork fat), spicy guacamole, and habanero mac and cheese, and your mouth will be treated to a true showcase of the rich diversity that makes Texas the best barbecue nation on earth.

To Sauce or Not to Sauce

Some styles of barbecue — like Kansas City’s or Carolina’s — are defined by their sauce. You might say Texas barbecue is defined by strong opinions about the need for sauce at all.

Purists argue that the particular character of Texas barbecue, with its moist strips of seasoned brisket and crispy barked ribs, doesn’t require sauce. Kreuz Market in Lockhart makes a point of not even offering it.

But sauce does have a place in Texas barbecue. An account of Texas barbecue sauces printed in The Dallas Morning News in 1937 indicates that ketchup-based sauces were an accepted condiment on Texans’ barbecue plates by the mid-20th century. In fact, Texas barbecue sauces have a rich and distinctive regional history all to themselves.

The Great Texas Sauce Divide

  • Longview: Expect a heaping ladle of hot barbecue sauce on your chopped brisket sandwich.
  • Wichita Falls: Warning: Your sauce may include mustard.
  • Hill Country: Sauces lean heavily on the vinegar used to baste meats over direct heat.
  • North Texas: Brown gravy sauces (like for a roast) sometimes appear.
  • Pecos: Pody’s BBQ serves up a spicy habanero sauce with its barbacoa.
  • Beaumont: Patillo’s reflects Cajun culture in its spiced and roux-thickened sauce.

Hungry for more Texas culture? Check out our guide to Texas’ best historic dance halls.

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