What Is "Texas Barbecue?"

There are four essential regions/styles associated with American Barbecue: Memphis, Kansas City, Carolina and Texas. Each region claims its BBQ is “the best,” and all have delicious evidence to back their claims. But, of the four major regions, Texas Barbecue is the most evolutionary. Its influences stretch from Northern Europe to Spain to the Carribbean to the deserts of the Southwestern United States.

Texas Barbecue includes cooking techniques passed down from European immigrants--especially those from Germany--who came to Central Texas and continued practicing the art of trimming, seasoning, grinding, and then perfectly smoking a wide variety of sausages. These days, smoked sausage is almost mandatory for a restaurant that associates itself with Texas Barbecue.

Other essential contributors to Texas Barbecue traditions were former slaves, who settled in Southeast Texas after the Civil War and brought with them the expertise to transform a whole hog or a tough cut of pork into extraordinarily tender, delicious table fare. Their skills were enthusiastically adopted by local settlers of European descent, and found their way into dining rooms and barbecue restaurants throughout Eastern Texas.

Of course, the most iconic association with Texas Barbecue is the Cowboy. And this association goes all the way back to the Spanish conquistadors, who trained local native populations throughout Northern Mexico (which--at the time--included what we now call Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California) in the art of horsemanship and in the skills of raising domesticated cattle on the open plains. The generations of Mexican cowboys--Vaqueros--who had mastered Spanish cattle-raising techniques, began sharing their knowledge with Europeans who settled into Texas throughout the early and mid 1800s, and the legend of the "Texas Cowboy" was born. For cowboys, life on the plains was not as glamorous as Hollywood Westerns have portrayed. Long days, unpredictable weather and marginal pay meant most cowboys lived and ate simply. Daily trail fare was often only beans and pan bread: items that, in one form or another, found their way onto the menus of most Barbecue restaurants. And, when available, many pots of trail beans or meat stew were enhanced by the addition of dried, powdered, Mexican chilis--the forerunner of today's spicy, meaty "Texas-Style Chili."

Perhaps the most important Texas Barbecue contribution from the Vaqueros was imparting their knowledge for how to cook an entire steer in a single day. For special occasions, people would be invited from near and far to share in an extraordinary experience. A steer would be slaughtered and halved or quartered, then seasoned, wrapped and placed in a large, makeshift oven that had been dug out of the ground and lined with hot coals and rocks. Many hours later, what emerged was some of the most tender, smoke-laced beef that folks had ever eaten. Today, the term Texas (and other) barbecue joints still use for an oven where large cuts of meat are slow-cooked is "pit." And, thanks to the Vaqueros and Cowboys of the Southwestern plains, beef is still the star of Texas barbecue.

No discussion of Texas Barbecue would be complete without acknowledging the traditions of grilling meat over open fire and coals. Many historians believe this practice is not unique to a certain geographical region or civilization; they believe that humans who included meat in their diets developed ways to use fire to cook meat for immediate consumption or to dry it as a means of preservation. Both cooking and drying meat over fire or coals was part of life on the plains. Cowboys carried strips or chips of dried beef on cattle drives, and ate them on the trail or added them to cooking pots. Over time, people have continued developing and experimenting with various cooking utensils, grates, fire pits and even blends of hardwood in pursuit of perfectly grilled meats. And, throughout Texas and most other parts of the U.S., a barbecue joint or steakhouse with ties to the grilled beef of cowboy campfires is never far away.

So, then, what is Texas Barbecue? It is certainly not a single list of menu items. It is not one set of recipes for spice rubs or sauces or beans or chili or pan bread. Texas Barbecue is the combination of preparation and cooking methods--in all its local and regional variations--that result in tender, smoky, succulent beef, pork, sausage (and, these days, even poultry, Elk and venison) that came from indigeneous and migrant populations in and around Texas. It is the ever-evolving recipes for beans and chili that came from the trails of cattle drives. It is, when done with skill and care, an extraordinary eating experience.