For years, Texas barbecue joints have made innovations to classic barbecue dishes at an attempt to set themselves apart and make a name for themselves.
But recently, many joints are opening with young pitmasters intentionally turning away from trying to reinvent the wheel and instead embracing tradition, simplicity and the roots of classic Texas barbecue.
Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor for Texas Monthly, recently wrote about these new old-school joints and joined the Standard to dish on the details. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: All right, so let’s define this. What do we mean by “old-school Texas barbecue”?
Daniel Vaughn: Well, when I talked to Travis Crawford at Mum Foods, which is in Austin and definitely a new-school barbecue joint, I asked him to define “old-school” and he said, well, it’s tough to call it anything but just “Texas barbecue.”
I think if you have been to a place like Kreuz Market or Smitty’s in Lockhart or City Market in Luling, you certainly know it when you see it. You go back and order in the pit room, you’re going to smell like smoke, certainly, and it’s all going to come on butcher paper.
But for Travis, one of the main things that old-school barbecue is that is missing these days from a lot of the new joints is cooking hot and fast, that is cooking at higher temperatures. That is not trying to get your ultra-tender brisket, still allowing it to have a little bit of chew to it.
And really simple seasonings as well: Going back to salt and pepper and maybe a little bit of cayenne pepper as well.
I mean, I can see the argument for “I don’t need that spicy sauce” or whatever fancy honey you’re putting in there… But the chewier meat… That seems to kind of go away from what I’ve heard, which is like, barbecue-lovers want this slow, tender feel.
Is that not true? Or what’s the motivation behind that?
I mean, it is true that we’ve come to value like ultra-tender fall-apart brisket. But you know, I think if you can appreciate the brisket at a place like a like Kreuz Market, then you’ll appreciate some of this old-school barbecue.
It’s not that it’s tough. It’s just that it is not just that like fall-apart tenderness. It makes you actually use your teeth, which we all have them right.
So what’s the motivation behind this? I mean, is it more cost-effective for pitmasters to cook a little faster?
Yeah, I mean, honestly, there’s the nostalgia part of it, right? But if you just talk about the numbers, I mean, if you’re cooking briskets for 16 hours and somebody’s got to be there to watch them, that’s going to be a whole lot more expensive in labor and just require a whole lot more time of your staff than if you do it hot and fast and getting those brisket done in five or six hours.
Basically, if you’re talking the old-school method, these are folks like the late John Mueller. He’d wake up early in the morning and get his briskets on, and they’d be done by lunchtime, rather than these overnight cooks that we’re so used to seeing from a lot of the newer places.
Yeah, I mean, it does seem antithetical to sort of what we’ve felt like we’ve talked about for a while in Texas barbecue and Michelin coming in and rating these restaurants for the first time and that sort of thing. We’re just going to go back to the roots.
But what do you think that this means for Texas barbecue? Is this a good thing, to sort of embrace these roots?
I mean, I think it is a great thing. I mean Cole Parkman is a pitmaster I talked with and, speaking of Michelin, he’s worked at LeRoy and Lewis who has a Michelin star and is currently working at Truth Barbeque in Houston, who is Michelin-recognized as well with a bib gourmand and he grew in the business learning from these new-school barbecue places.
But his plan, he and his wife Kasey will open one of these old-school-focused barbecue joints in Houston. And he’s hoping by the end of this year, he wants to just really put a lot of care and attention into each individual cut of meat that they’re cooking, no matter the style that they are cooking in. He’s trying to bring that level of attention that he learned in these Michelin pit rooms to old-school barbecue, which oftentimes if you go into some of these older spots, they might not be so worried about consistency.
And that’s what he wants to bring to it so that it can be talked about amongst the best-of-Texas barbecue joints, no matter what style he’s cooking.
You know, I think it’s perfect to use the word “style,” because in my head, I’m thinking about fashion, about how new is old again and old is new again. You know, all of a sudden that back-to-the-basics is something that the most innovative chefs are embracing again.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there’s nothing wrong with your sides just being beans and a mustardy potato salad and some good old coleslaw, too.
