A guide to Texas barbecue for newcomers

Barbecue. Freshly charred meat dripping with Barbecue sauce and juices, and lots of side dishes. Brings to mind sunny summer days in the back yard, or company picnics, doesn’t it? Barbecue, which is actually spelled Bar-B-Q in Texas, is more than a picnic, or occasional treat in Texas. It is an entire food culture and genre. And, its spelled Bar-B-Q, unless you want to be branded immediately as a tourist.

Texans take their Bar-B-Q seriously. Very seriously. Everyone has their own special recipes for sauce, meat rubs, and techniques for grilling, smoking and generally cooking their meat, jealously guarded and handed down in the family. Just about any meat can be Bar-B-Q; brisket, sausage, chicken, ribs, turkey, pork, you name it. The emphasis, however, is on the meat. Bar-B-Q is not the flavor of a potato chip, it’s a whole way of cooking in Texas.

In Texas there are Bar-B-Q restaurants. No mixture of Bar-B-Q menu items and other items here. You eat Bar-B-Q, or you go somewhere else. There are even rivalries over which restaurant has the best Bar-B-Q, and people drive for hours to get their favorite. Take Taylor, Texas for example. On one side of Main Street you have Mueller’s, on the other side of the street you have Mikeska's, and each has a loyal customer base that swears their place has the best Bar-B-Q around. In the Austin area, people will drive for an hour to get to the Salt Lick, which has been likened to a barbecue epiphany.

Not fancy and with no attempt to put on airs, good Bar-B-Q relies on good preparation, good ingredients and the skill of the person making it, rather than fancy plates and things like silverware. Sometimes, when you order a plate, it comes on a plastic cafeteria tray covered with white butcher paper, a pile of fragrant meat surrounded with side dishes in little white bowls like satellites. You heard me. That’s no joke. I have seen it with my own eyes, and enjoyed every morsel.

A big part of a good meal of Bar-B-Q concerns the side dishes that come with it. Fried okra, potatoes, vegetables, corn on the cob, cornbread, potato salad and slaw are often on the plate with the meat. Fresh bread, pickles and onions always accompany your meat, so that you can make a little sandwich if you want to. The bread is usually good old sandwich white bread, nothing fancy. Sauce can be ladled from a large community vat sitting on a warmer, or in squeeze bottles sitting at each table, or poured all over the meat before serving, or put in a bowl on the side. Sauce is a big deal—it can make or break a meal.

Afterward, in many places you can get a nice peach cobbler or some other home made treat to top off your meal, if you have the room for it. Depending upon the restaurant, there might be live music to enjoy during your meal, and there’s no rush—sit back, have a nice cold drink, and digest. Great Bar-B-Q should not be rushed—in any fashion.