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“Welcome to Texas!” said the enthusiastic, wide-smiling manager as he greeted me at the doors of Longhorn Texas BBQ. The Texas vibe was strong with this place: the restaurant’s name, a longhorn steer statue out front, huge smokers within view, rustic wood-paneled decor throughout, Texas-based sports teams logos adorning the walls, a cafeteria-style service line, a few hightop tables with elevated saddles for seating, and the wafted scent of burning wood.
Then, of course, there was the food. A gigantic beef short rib, sliced beef brisket, pastrami, and a finely ground sliced sausage spiked with cheese topped my steel serving tray lined with butcher paper. I should note that I experienced this in Cairo, Egypt. Not Cairo, Illinois. Or even Cairo Springs, Texas. Egypt.
The scene starkly reminded me of how far Texas barbecue, specifically central Texas-style barbecue, has traveled, and why it has global culinary impact. What began as a regional barbecue tradition has become the dominant barbecue aesthetic in much of the United States and, increasingly, around the world.
Steven Raichlen, author of numerous books on American barbecue and global grilling traditions, has noticed the trend where he lives. “It has definitely spread from Texas across the country. In Miami alone, we have Hometown Bar-B-Que (Billy Durney’s Texas-inspired barbecue outpost inspired by his Brooklyn restaurant), Apocalypse BBQ, the new La Traila Barbecue, and the Drinking Pig BBQ—all proudly self-proclaimed Texas-style barbecue restaurants.” Raichlen added, “I think that has something to do with the primacy of beef (the preferred meat of Central Texas) and the celebrity of pit masters like Aaron Franklin.”
The popularity of Texas barbecue began in the 1820s when European migrants sought land in eastern Texas to cultivate for agriculture and livestock. They brought with them a type of barbecue that evolved from techniques indigenous people, colonists, and enslaved Africans in Virginia used to cook whole animals over shallow trenches filled with rocks and wood set aflame, as early as the 1600s. This “Southern barbecue” was immensely popular in other parts of the South during the time period because it was a practical way to serve delicious food to a lot of people, often numbering in the thousands, who gathered outdoors for civic and social occasions. Thanks to migrants, Southern barbecues moved to Texas and were the height of rural entertainment.
But in the 20th century, as people increasingly moved to cities, Southern barbecue shifted from whole-animal cooking to featuring smaller cuts of meat like beef, chicken, pork shoulder, pork spareribs, and sausages. This shift set the table for a different meat-centric culinary tradition to emerge. Czech and German immigrants ran butcher shops in several rural farming communities near present-day Austin, the area now loosely called “central Texas.” Fresh meat that went unsold was smoked and sold to hungry customers. This “meat market barbecue,” as food writer Robb Walsh called it, transplanted an old European culinary tradition to a new place, creating a new style of cuisine that was different from the already established Southern-style barbecue, even if the name doesn’t make such a distinction.
It was also setting itself apart from other regional barbecue styles. In the Carolinas, cooks continued barbecuing whole hogs and pork shoulders directly over burning wood and seasoned with vinegar-based and mustard-based sauces. In Memphis, barbecue took on a different flavor profile as pork spareribs and shoulders were cooked over charcoal and seasoned and served in a variety of ways. The Kansas City area showed its history as an agricultural crossroads town with a mixed grill of beef, burnt ends, chicken, lamb, and pork cooked over charcoal and flavored with sweet, tomato-based and tangy, vinegary sauces. For Central Texans, beef and other meat cooked using indirect heat and minimally seasoned with pepper and salt became the signature style. Proudly, locals will tell anyone that their barbecue is better than all the versions that exist in the United States ecosystem. More and more people agree.