Central Texas pitmaster finds inspiration in historical sausage-making techniques

There’s a saying that sometimes it’s better if you don’t get to see how the sausage is made – you know, things can get messy.

Then again, let’s say you’ve embarked on a year long journey to discover the roots of Texas barbecue sausage.

Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor at Texas Monthly, has been on the trail of what you might call a seasoned barbecue historian. He joined the Standard to share the story. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Tell us about John Bates, this barbecue historian. He’s not just a bookish historian, I take it.

Daniel Vaughn: Yeah, that’s correct. John is the owner and pitmaster of InterStellar BBQ in Cedar Park, just northwest of Austin. He is currently number two on our list of the top 50 barbecue joints in Texas. And so we we rather like the place.

One of the things we really love about InterStellar BBQ is how they really push the boundaries of barbecue – really test the limits of what the future of barbecue is. So it was really interesting to talk to John Bates, who, you know, is usually this forward-looking guy, wanting to look back at the roots of Texas barbecue and really study what he was trying to recreate in his restaurant.

In fact, I understand he was sort of focused on Polish sausage, right?

Yeah, we’ve had a lot of immigrant communities come into Texas and bring their sausage recipes and sausage-making culture – the Germans, the Czechs and the Poles.

He’s starting with Polish sausages and a really unique kiełbasa wędzona sausage. So, unique because I think so many sausages these days that you find at Texas barbecue joints, they’re really trying to add more ingredients – whether it’s cheese or chilies or whatnot. This is a really basic one. It’s pork. It’s garlic, salt, pepper and a little paprika.

You know, I always just assumed that a lot of barbecue joints sort of farm out their sausage. They get it from some supplier. They don’t make it on site. Clearly, Bates does and he’s trying to reach back to the tastes of yesterday, I guess, for the taste of tomorrow.

Yeah. That’s right.

You know, there are certainly a lot of sausage suppliers out there, but I think the best barbecue joints are really those who use sausage-making as a way to tell a story about their barbecue background and their barbecue story.

I think there’s only so much you can do to a brisket and pork ribs to really set them apart. But the things you can do with sausage – the different ingredients you can add, the different ways you can smoke it, the different ways you can chill it down, get a crispier casing, and all those different seasonings you can add to it – can really tell a lot about what you value about barbecue and what you love about barbecue.

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So did you get any mouthfeel here? Did you get a chance to sample the goods?

I did. I tried the first one and he’s working now on the kiełbasa krakowska. It’s just simple, beautiful pork flavor is the best way to describe it, right? You know, it’s like when you bite into that perfect pork chop and that pork flavor comes through – not just the seasonings or the smoke or whatnot.

So that’s what I noticed most about the sausage. Also, the fact that it’s incredibly juicy and that perfect snap to the casing when you bite through it.

So does it really pay to dig into the history, given the methods and modalities of barbecue as it’s evolved? I mean, would you notice the difference if you were blindfolded?

Yeah, you absolutely notice the difference.

I mean, if you go to Lockhart and try those old German sausages – that whole recipe that they serve at places like Kreuz Market and Smitty’s – I mean, it does have a unique flavor. It’s almost a little surprising the first time you try it, if you’re so used to pork sausages and you try that heavy beef flavor of those sausages. So just that difference in protein makes makes a big difference in flavor.

And I think, too, when you’re so used to eating jalapeño cheese sausages, trying one that’s just a little more simplified and really goes more to the technique as being the important thing rather than just adding a bunch of ingredients and adding a bunch of flavors into it, you really taste that difference.

For Bates, is this all about the recipe, or is there something more that’s kind of leading him on this quest?

Well, you know, I think when he opened InterStellar BBQ in 2017, I think he was trying to be on that leading edge of barbecue and trying to constantly do what the future of barbecue might have in store, right? Trying to almost predict what’s going to be popular.

And I think he was kind of getting burnout from that and wanted to better understand this tradition that he’s taking on. Where did it really come from?

And, you know, not only just studying it, but actually doing it – making those different sausages from these different communities that made up Texas barbecue and therefore just gaining a greater understanding of Texas barbecue itself.

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