South Texas barbacoa gets its turn in the national spotlight
Barbacoa de cabeza de res is one of the oldest techniques in the beefcentric Texas/Mexican barbecue tradition. Literally translated as “barbecue from the head of a cow,” it called for an entire cow’s head to be skinned and cleaned, wrapped in burlap, placed in an underground pit over wood charcoal, covered with soil and then cooked for 6-8 hours.
Once cooked, the heads were removed from the burlap, and the rendered fat and meat — especially the cheek meat, or cachete — were stripped off and mixed into a wondrous concoction of silky, fat-laden chopped beef.
Although barbacoa certainly pre-dates the rise of the Central Texas-style of barbecue that dominates most of the headlines today, it’s been something of an also-ran when it comes to recognition in the current wave of mainstream barbecue coverage. Indeed, there is even the occasional debate about whether barbacoa is even really barbecue in the modern sense of the term because it is cooked by direct heat, rather than indirect heat and smoke.
That also-ran status came to an abrupt end this week when the James Beard Foundation — whose awards are often referred to as the Oscars of the food world — recognized Vera’s
Backyard Bar-B-Que in Brownsville as one of the six recipients of its 2020 America’s Classics Award.
That an obscure barbecue joint on the TexasMexico border can garner
Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que
2404 Southmost, Brownsville; 956-546-4159
Open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays national attention is the best evidence yet that South Texas is becoming more influential in our state’s recent barbecue history often monopolized by Central and East Texas traditions.
Vera’s richly deserves the accolades. Opened in 1955 by the family of current owner Armando “Mando” Vera, it is the last restaurant in Texas to use the in-ground technique for cooking barbacoa.
Modern American health departments ban the cooking of meat underground because of the prevalence of bacteria in soil. That’s not to say it can’t be a safe way to cook — indeed, cooking barbacoa the traditional way in dug-out trenches and burlap bags or maguey leaves is still a backyard tradition in South Texas.
But for commercial establishments, cooking underground is prohibited. Except at Vera’s. Because the restaurant has been cooking this way for so long, it is “grandfathered in” from recent health department requirements.
Still, Vera’s uses a more modern technique for cooking barbacoa the old-fashioned, in-ground way. Instead of a temporary dirt trench, the staff uses a brick-lined underground pit filled with mesquite charcoal. And instead of burlap or maguey leaves, it uses foodservice-standard aluminum foil to wrap the heads when they cook.
The resulting barbacoa is as authentic as you can get at a commercial establishment in Texas. Unlike other contemporary barbacoa vendors that are required to steam the cow heads in above-ground pots, Vera’s barbacoa retains the hint of smoke that comes from the coals over which they are cooked.
The recognition of South Texas as an influential player in Texas barbecue has been a long time coming. Central Texas-style barbecue has gotten its fair share of recognition in the past — Louie Mueller Barbecue was named an American Classic by the Beard Foundation in 2006, and Austin pitmaster Aaron Franklin took home the Best Chef Southwest award in 2015.
But starting in 2013, when pitmaster Miguel Vidal of Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ tapped into his San Antonio roots to bring a taste of South Texas barbecue to Austin, TexMex barbecue has flourished across the state, especially in Houston.
New-school joints and pop-ups such as El Burro & the Bull, JQ’s Tex Mex
BBQ, Eddie O’s Texas Barbecue, and Texas Toros Barbeque have joined with old-school joints including Gerardo’s Drive-in to make Houston a center of South Texas barbecue traditions. Inspired by Vera’s, maybe there’s James Beard Award in the future for Houston’s flourishing Tex-Mex barbecue scene.