Being from Texas we of course know that we have the finest barbecue on the planet. I say that because the best compliment for any style of cooking is imitation. I'm always interested in seeing our Central Texas style of bbq in other places outside of Texas. It does exist and is spreading from New York City to Los Angeles and all parts in-between. I caught a fairly new series on YouTube highlighting some of these places, its well worth watching. Enjoy and keep the smoke rolling !!!
I run across youtube channels showing Texas BBQ in Asia periodically - restaurants that look similar to the hole in the wall Texas places. We're worldwide!
No doubt, the brisket in central Texas is top notch.
But there's more to barbecue than brisket. A whole lot more.
I enjoy savory S/P Texas style whole spares. But I also like baby backs that are sweet and sticky. When I'm buying ribs, its a tough decision. I also enjoy pulled pork, as a sandwich, on nachos, or on tacos. I've not found anything special about Texas pork butt, which is really a blank canvas for seasoning and sauces, theres' so much that can be done with it. Direct heat pork steaks are delicious.
I've also got a shelf full of barbecue recipe books that made me a lot of great barbecue. Lately, I've been following Tuffy Stone closely. He's got a great poultry brine that makes yardbird super juicy and flavorful. I did his wing recipe all last football season. And his cherry barbecue sauce recipe is my favorite.
I can't limit myself to brisket, as much as I enjoy it.
Steven Raichlen was doing international fusion barbecue 15 years ago when he wrote the book Planet Barbecue.
That's nothing new.
I would say that Texas barbecue is evolving, for the same reason John Lewis left for Charleston, he said there were 50 other people doing the same thing he's doing.
To survive, they have to evolve.
And brisket is so high priced now, they can't make money off of brisket, its a loss leader. So they evolve into sides, which have much greater profit margin
And btw, I'm fine here in " Okie Land " where we have a variety of barbecue, we've got some central Texas brisket, but we also get Kansas City barbecue. And we have some great comp cooks who've opened up joints and are turning out some very good food.
But really, all of that is out the window as regional styles in the US have fused due to sites like this one.
And also, go to Tuffy Stone's Instagram, just this winter he's done live fire cooking in Brazil at a huge festival. He was invited to a large barbecue festival in the UK, and he makes regular trips to conduct classes in Sweden.
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