Abrief history of Texas barbecue
For Texans, the tray of smoked meats we order at our favorite barbecue joint is considered a birthright. Brisket, pork ribs, sausage and all the accouterments seem as old and established as the state itself. But the prototypical “three-meat plate” we see today, aka the “Texas trinity,” has had a long evolution that parallels the earliest history of the Lone Star State all the way up to contemporary times.
The oldest barbecues in Texas were community celebrations. As far back as the early 1800s and the establishment of the Austin Colony near present-day Sealy, communities would gather for celebrations of American independence on the Fourth of July, political rallies, crop harvests and even the establishment of railroads.
Trenches were dug in the ground, where wood was burned down to coals, and a grating placed over the top. Local farmers provided beef, pork and lamb, among other meats, to cook and then serve on long tables to the gathered community members.
Many of the earliest Texas colonists were lured from Southern states such as Virginia and Mississippi with the promise of fertile land for crops such as cotton and sugar cane. They brought with them enslaved Africans to produce those crops. The colonists and slaves brought with them the “trench” method of direct-heat barbecue that would be used to serve large community gatherings throughout the 1800s and early 1900s.
With the Emancipation Proclamation announced in Texas in 1865, former slaves traveled from cotton plantations along
the Brazos and Colorado rivers to Houston using the San Felipe Trail that ran next to Buffalo Bayou. These “freedmen” settled in what is now Houston’s
Fourth Ward, also known as Freedmen’s Town. The tradition of African-American, urban commercial barbecue — often referred to as East Texas-style barbecue — originated in this area of Houston and retained its Southern characteristics of pork- centric barbecue served with a sweet tomato sauce.
At the same time the freedmen were traveling east along the San Felipe Trail, immigrants of German, Czech and Polish heritage were arriving in Galveston, taking riverboats to Houston and heading west along the trail to establish Central Texas cities including New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.
Many of these immigrants were butchers, and they established Central Texas meat markets to take advantage of the prosperous cattle industry that was well suited to the region.
In the days before refrigeration, these meat markets would cook any unsold raw meat at the end of the week to feed both locals and itinerant workers. Eventually, they would transition from meat markets to exclusively serving commercial barbecue.
This rural, beef- centric barbecue cooked in brick pits, with the fire offset from the cooking chamber so the meat was cooked with indirect heat and smoke, became the basis for the Central Texas style of barbecue. Southside Market & BBQ in Elgin, established in 1882, is one of the oldest extant barbecue joints in Texas that can trace its history to this tradition.
Today, the Texas trinity plate embodies the traditions established by the East and Central Texas-styles of barbecue. Beef brisket derives from the German-style meat markets, pork ribs from African-American and Southern U.S. cooking traditions and sausage from Czech and Polish influences.
Other traditions that can be found on contemporary Texas barbecue-joint menus come from South and Southeast Texas.
Barbacoa, the Mexican and Tejano technique of cooking whole cow heads in underground coal pits, can be found as smoked beef cheeks on many menus. Additionally, Mexican-American-influenced tacos filled with smoked meats have become standard menu items across the state.
Another dish unique to Texas barbecue, smoked boudin, originated in the Cajun and Creole areas of southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas in the 1920s. Today, Houston barbecue joints including Triple J’s Smokehouse and Ray’s BBQ Shack serve some of the best contemporary versions.
Beaumont-style beef links, originating in the Pear Orchard neighborhood of that city, is also a unique dish of the state. Gerard’s Bar-B-Que still handmakes and serves a traditional link of this type.
More recently, Asian-American influences, especially in Houston at places such as Blood Bros. BBQ, have added menu items like Korean-inspired go-chuchang beef-belly burnt ends to the Texas barbecue canon.
Far from being static, Texas barbecue menus have been constantly evolving since our earliest history, reflecting the ever- changing nature of the Lone Star State.