The Prophets of Smoked Meat

"How did a guy from Ohio become so obsessed with Texas barbecue?"

Let's change it up this week. This will be a book "review." I can read? Yup. It surprises me sometimes. Who knew the writer, Daniel Vaughn aka BBQ Snob, and I share such a similar background. That line from the book sums it up for the both of us in a way. I grew up in Parma, OH when I was a kid. My family moved to Texas in 1994, and I have lived in Texas since. My love for barbecue is evident in this blog.

When I heard +Texas Monthly had hired a barbecue editor, I was intrigued. The new editor had written a book about his travels through Texas visiting BBQ joints. One day when +Amber McGee and I were at Costco, we saw his book. We had to buy The Prophets of Smoked Meat. It was under 20 bucks at Costco so I did not feel bad buying the book. I rarely read let alone buy a book. The last book I read cover to cover was Mockingjay, the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy.

Daniel Vaughn fell in love with barbecue and started his own blog. He was encouraged to put his barbecue adventures into print by agent David Hale Smith. It was the first book released by Anthony Bourdain's publishing company. It took me under a month to read the book. I read most of it at night right before bed. The only issue with that was that I went to bed hungry. Writing this "review" was tough because it brought back childhood memories of writing book reviews. That is not a good thing plus I did not find any Cliff Notes for this book. I will try to make it painless for you and me.

The concept of the book is pretty basic. Daniel Vaughn and his friend and photographer, Nicholas McWhirter, would travel through Texas trying various barbecue restaurants along the way. They ended up visiting over 200 restaurants and covering over ten thousand miles in Daniel's Audi. The Audi has been replaced recently after it was totaled. They should put that car in some kind of barbecue museum. Daniel and Nick would eat up to ten places in one day. After reading the book, I wanted to do something similar. I am not sure my wife will not be happy about that. I have an appetite, and I can definitely put away some food. Eating that much food day after day would have to be a drain on the body. When we took our pilgrimage to Lockhart, I was the winner of the day. We ate at three places that day, and I was fine and could have continued. I am not sure if I can do it day after day though. Props to the BBQ Snob for that.

The chapters are broken into regions. Daniel would cover sections of the state at a time. I cannot imagine trying places that are terrible over and over. It would be a waste of dollars and calories. He encountered a lot of places where the food was downright bad. Sometimes the sides/desserts were better than the barbecue. It also seems like there was not any good barbecue west of the Hill Country. There are also four styles of Texas barbecue: Hill Country, East Texas, South Texas, and Central Texas. Hill Country is typically cooked with direct heat at a faster rate. East Texas is mostly about drenching their meat in a thick sauce. South Texas is all about barbacoa. I love me some barbacoa. Barbacoa is a whole cow head smoked overnight in the ground. Central Texas' approach is slow and low with indirect heat. This has to be my favorite style.

The approach of the book is pretty straightforward. Daniel and Nick would visit a location, try their meats, and review it. At certain points in the book, it does get repetitive for me, and I am sure for them as well. You start to run out of ways to describe good or bad barbecue. There are pictures throughout the book of the places they visited. There are snippets in the book that go into details of a certain subject (example: fat and wood). The last part of the book is a profile of pitmasters that they met along the way. It also features how each one would smoke one of their meats. Nick took a lot of quality shots which definitely help break up the book at times.

In conclusion (basically how I concluded every paper in high school), I would recommend the book if you are a big barbecue fan or a "BBQ snob." With Christmas right around the corner, this would be an excellent gift to give. It is an easy read. I would pick up the book, and the pages would fly by. You can stop at any point and pick up the book later without missing a beat. I would advise not to read the book on an empty stomach or not be anywhere close to the state of Texas. I read it while I was in Cleveland for work and was screwed. There was no good barbecue to be found. Some of us believe Texas is the king of barbecue, and this book embodies that idea. The book definitely opens your eyes to the world of Texas barbecue.

I will leave you with a line from the book: "Ohioan by birth, but Texan by the grace of God." Amen.

Until next time, happy smoking...

Cafe Mueller at HEB

+Amber McGee and I were going to grab some Vietnamese food for dinner, but it seems like all the restaurants in that genre close at 9 pm. We live in Kyle so we were looking for a new place to try in Austin at this point. We have had heard good things about the cafe at the new HEB in the Mueller development. Some of our friends have gone as far as saying it is the best barbecue they have ever had. What?!  Whole Food does decent barbecue, but how about HEB? It had opened recently. The cafe at Central Market is pretty good, but Central Market is a step up from HEB. I was not sure what I was getting myself into.

Amber ordered a Cuban sandwich, and I got the three meat plate. I got the usual hat trick of moist brisket, pork ribs, and sausage with sides of potato salad and creamed corn. I bit into the brisket and was surprised. What is this? Good brisket from a grocery store? The bark was nice with a good smoke ring. The brisket was tender and tasty. I feel like the brisket could have been even better if I went there much earlier in the day. I bite into the ribs and was even more confused. Good ribs from a grocery store? They had a nice sweet glaze and smoky. The meat resisted a little bit coming off the bone but still tender. I bit into the all-beef sausage and was brought back to earth. It was just okay. It was very meaty and did not have enough fat content. The grit and casing was ideal though. The creamed corn was okay and not to be confused with the kind you would find at Rudy's. The potato salad was creamy and yummy. As you can see there is a lot of food on the plate, and I could not finish it off.

It was a pleasantly good dining experience. The prices are very reasonable here. You are not just limited to barbecue. They have pasta, sandwiches, pizza, Asian, and the list goes on. There is so much going on here. They have various Texas brews on draft as well. There are flaws for me to review Cafe Mueller after one visit, but their Q is definitely legit nonetheless. Considering my first visit was surprisingly good, I will definitely be back to make sure this is no fluke. Grade: B+

Until next time, happy smoking...

Bowie BBQ at Whole Foods

I am a fan of the Whole Foods. They have all kinds of prepared food for people on the run. I can definitely eat my way through the store. I wish they offered an all you can eat option. Whole Foods even smoke their own barbecue on site called Bowie BBQ. You can smell it instantly when you pull into the parking garage at the headquarters location downtown Austin. The only disadvantage would be it does get really busy in the store, and parking can be a pain.

There is a menu, but you are really not limited to it. You walk around the store and pick up anything else you want. Brisket sandwich and clam chowder? Sure why not? I ordered my usual of moist brisket, pork ribs and sausage this day. The pricing is very good, and it also came with sides of potato salad and macaroni and cheese. There was a lot of food on my plate. The brisket was tender but dry. It was smoky, but the bark was boring. It needed more rub and fat. The ribs had a nice sweet glaze with the meat coming off the bone. It was good, tender, and smoky. The sausage made in house did not have a lot of smoke going on. It was a jalapeno pork sausage with a nice snap to the casing. I really liked the sausage a lot. It had a good flavor with a little bit of spiciness to it. The potato salad was bland. It was mustard based with bits of egg in it. The macaroni and cheese was really cheesy, and they used penne pasta. Of course I still liked it. Bowie does not have any bread, but they gave me a bun that they used on their sandwiches. This is one of the rare occurrences where I was not able to eat everything

While your wife is shopping or you need to grab a few groceries and also need a bite, you cannot go wrong with Bowie BBQ. If you were blindfolded, you would never guess this barbecue came from a grocery store. I have had the pulled pork sandwich in the past, and it is quite tasty. +Amber McGee loves the chicken salad where they use smoked chicken in it. If you go out with people who do not want barbecue (obviously there is something wrong with these types of people), they can grab something else in the store. Grade: B-

Until next time, happy smoking...

Live Oak Barbecue

About two years ago, some friends and I wanted some Franklin Barbecue for lunch. It was around 10 am, but the line was pretty long already. The one of the employees said we would probably not get any brisket. It was time for plan B. Another one of our friends had tried a new place called Live Oak Barbecue close by. He thought it was borderline terrible. I remember when I tried it the first time, I thought it was good. It was time for me to jog my memory. I was able to get there from work and back within 45 minutes so it was ideal for me to go there today.

The prices were very affordable. I ordered a two meat plate with moist brisket and ribs and potato salad and beans as the sides. I also added a link of sausage. The brisket itself was tender. What ruined it was the bark. It had a bitter terrible taste to it. Possibly due to too much smoke? The pork ribs were good. They were tender and smoky. They had a good flavor to  them. The sausage was the highlight of the meal. It had a great casing with snap, and the flavor was great. The fat content and grit was ideal. It was rich and meaty.

This place can be good. It is hard for me to come back when I know there are better options within a mile of Live Oak. They have Saturday specials where they smoke other cuts of meat sometimes even exotic. Grade: B-

Until next time, happy smoking...

TMBBQ Fest 2013

So the New York marathon was this weekend. One of my friends ran his first marathon in it. Congratulations Juan! I had my own marathon on Sunday as well.

I used to think Christmas only came twice a year, the start of the Longhorn football season and obvious the real Christmas. Well you know how this football season started out for us Longhorns. This weekend was the +Texas Monthly's Barbecue Festival. This is their fourth year to put it on. I went to it the second year and was drunk off of meat at the end. I started to feel delirious, and some of the meats just did not taste right at the end. The last thing I tried was Franklin's lean brisket, and it was still excellent (you guys should know by now I am not a lean brisket type of guy). This event might be my third Christmas of the year.

I put in a little training in before the event. I ate a lot of veggies on Friday and had a Chinese buffet for lunch on Saturday. On Sunday morning, I just ate a banana to get my metabolism going. I wanted to maximize my stomach space. I met up with Lisa from the blog Full and Content and Tom of Micklethwait Craft Meats to start the festival off. I had a plan of attack for this year. I was going to skip places I have been to and try everything else. This was going to be a marathon not a sprint. I am just going to recap what I ate at the event and not treat this as a review.

The place I really wanted to try most was Pecan Lodge. They were one of the top barbecue restaurants in the state. The wait here can be just as long as Franklin. I just have not had a reason to go to Dallas as of late. They were the first stop on my list. The brisket was excellent with a great crust. The sausage was good and flavorful. Based on this small sample size, I have to go to Dallas soon. They also apparently have an awesome beef rib. Later when I walked by, they had run out of everything. That makes sense.

Tyler’s Barbeque (Amarillo) was next. The brisket was good and so were the ribs. It had a nice sweet glaze.

We hit up Lockhart Smokehouse (Dallas) next. We were jumping from one line to the next. This was faster that I wanted to go. I was going to have to ditch my eating buddies. Remember, this was 26.2 miles we are talking about and not a 5K. I had to pace myself. The brisket was okay. It was a little chewy and had an interesting rub on it. Not picture was the baby back that I got. It was really good.

At mile/stop 4 was Hutchins BBQ (McKinney). The brisket was good and smoky. The pulled pork was a little salty, but it was still tasty and full of flavor.

Opie’s Barbecue (Spicewood) is pretty close to Austin. I was thinking about doing a road trip there soon. The brisket was smoky and good. The turkey was moist and tender. The jalapeño cheese was spicy but okay.

I thought the ribs at Pody’s BBQ (Pecos) were really good. It had a sweet glaze. The brisket was just okay.

Hatfield’s BBQ (Rockport) did a good job with their brisket and sausage. The sausage casing had a nice pop. The ribs were a little bit too saucy though.

I started to slow down before I got to Miller’s Smokehouse (Belton). Their brisket was really good. It was tender and smoky. The sausage had a nice snap to it.

I was excited about Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue (Tyler). Their ribs were excellent. Yes they were saucy, but it worked out just right. The sausage was just okay.

Buzzie’s Bar-B-Q (Kerrville) smoked good sausage and ribs. The brisket was just a little boring.

I hit the wall at City Meat Market (Giddings). This happens to me around mile 20 or so during my race. This becomes a true test of your character. Do you fight back or just barely finish? Everything I tasted here felt blah to me. The brisket, ribs, and sausage were just okay. This is probably not a true reflection of their barbecue, and I do apologize for that.

I fought on to Austin’s BBQ and Catering (Eagle Lake). Their brisket and sausage were good. This was also the first time at the event that I had barbecue sauce. It was already in the bowl when I got it. I had to grab some lemonade after this to see if I had anything left in tank.

Cousin’s Bar-B-Q (Fort Worth) was the final stop of the joints that I have never been to. Their brisket was really good. I want some more when I think about it. Their sausage was just okay. Not only do I need to make it to Dallas, I probably need to plan some kind of metroplex barbecue road trip. Who is in?

I was starting to see the arbitrary finish line when I headed to La Barbecue (Austin). I was surprised to see John Lewis (pitmaster) slicing up brisket. The last time I saw him slicing brisket was when he was still working at Franklin. The brisket was superb as usual. I felt like I was done eating and could not even muster up some energy to pick up the sausage.

I walked around a little bit, snapped some shots, and talked to people. When I was walking by the Louie Mueller Barbecue (Taylor) booth, I saw that he had brought the sweet jalapeño barbecue sauce. I knew I had to try it with his beef ribs. It was the perfect combination! His tender, peppery, and smoky ribs with the sweet and spicy sauce was the perfect way to end the day on a high note. I was done! My time was just under two hours.

Here are the other barbecue joints I have eaten at and did not get a chance to sample at the festival.

Black’s Barbecue (Lockhart)
Franklin Barbecue (Austin)- The obligatory image of the line at Franklin booth. Even at the festival, there was a long line. Aaron Franklin did have to pull out the sold out sign later. They apparently went through 1600 pounds of meat.

Hays Co. Bar-B-Que and Catering (San Marcos)
Lamberts Downtown Barbecue (Austin)
Snow’s BBQ (Lexington)
Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew (Austin)

When I was leaving the event, I was so full. I was thinking to myself "why do I always do this to myself?" I have the same thoughts go through my head when I am running a marathon. "This is stupid. Why I am doing it?" But the very next morning after the race, I am ready to run another one. As I write this post today, I am hungry for some more brisket. Go figure. As when I was leaving the festival, I saw my eating buddies, Lisa and Tom. They had made it to about 10 places. I would say I reached my goal with this barbecue marathon.

Thanks to Daniel Vaughn and Texas Monthly for getting me into the event. And yes, I did run seven miles Sunday morning.

Until next time, happy smoking...

Schmidt Family Barbecue

I am going to try something new and different with this blog post. This is somewhat a live blog that I did today. I hope it works out okay.

8:38- I woke up. Today is my birthday, so I took the day off. Today is also Meatless Monday and the grand opening of Schmidt Family Barbecue. My worlds were about to collide. I guess I will just have to eat vegetarian tomorrow.

8:45- I got on Twitter, and someone was already in line at Schmidt. I saw that they were going to give the first person in line a free shirt. Kreuz Market and Smitty's Market have joined forces to open a new barbecue restaurant together. Kreuz used to be located where Smitty's is. It was a family business before a falling out that caused them to go their separate ways and have two BBQ joints. Now the Schmidt family has come back together once again bringing over 75 years of experience.

9:07- Screw it, let's go for a run. I did a 10 mile race yesterday, so I should have rested today. I was not going to be first in line, so I had a little bit of time to kill.

10:19- I left the house to head to Bee Caves.

10:57- I finally got to Schmidt Family Barbecue.

10:59- I got in line, and there was about 20 people in front of me.

11:12- I ordered some macaroni and cheese.

11:19- I ordered a slice of moist brisket, two pork spareribs, a ring of sausage, and two slices of turkey.

11:28- I was finally ready to dig in after snapping a few shots. Most of the meats were already cut before I ordered them. I guess they wanted to stay ahead of the crowd. The issue with this is the meats will get cold and also dry out a little bit. In fact, my brisket and turkey were cold when they put on the tray, and the brisket was dried out a bit. All of that aside, the brisket was cut into chunks. It was really good. It had a good crust with a nice smoke ring. I like a pepper heavy rub. The fat was rendered well. The ribs were also peppery. They were tender but not falling off the bone, and they had a good flavor and smoke. I was disappointed in the sausage. It was bland, and I could not taste any smoke. This is surprising given that the sausage that comes from Kreuz and Smitty's is really good. Four dollars for a ring is also steep in my opinion. The sausage was high in fat content and one of the greasiest sausage I have ever had. The grit and casing was ideal though. The turkey was really good. It was juicy and had good flavors. The macaroni and cheese was good. You cannot really mess that up.

11:40- I was finally done eating.

11:45- I finally left. Look at the line when I was leaving. It had wrapped around the restaurant.

11:55- At Starbucks writing this blog post.

First off, they do take credit cards, have forks, and barbecue sauce. Some of this is missing from the other two locations. The sauce is mustard based and different but not bad. There is a lot of potential oozing out of this place. It is currently legit, but once they work out the kinks, the stars could be the limit.

Grade: B

Until next time, happy smoking...