State Wars Day 5 > Famous Food? Texas BBQ, slow smoked & juicy…

These state wars just keep getting better and better for this old man. Texas has been at the top of list or near the top in each of the first three battles, quite honestly I don’t know why the other states are continuing to even participate. You may as well just surrender, if you don’t have a white flag, just use your napkin that you have in your lap. You won’t need it as this meal is not messy, just real tasty.

Ever since the days of wagon trains and cattle drives Texans have been cooking Texas BBQ, what had started out as necessity has turned into a delicacy. There are a lot of factors that make Texas BBQ the hallmark of Texas cuisine, but tender and juicy is what is to be expected from the most popular meat that is BBQ’d here in the Lone Star State, the beef brisket.

Yes we do BBQ all types of different meats, slow smoking anything will almost guarantee a good result, and even vegetables have been known to be smoked. I would almost wager that a good BBQer could take the leather from a boot sole and slow smoke it to the point that it would be eatable.

So, if beef isn’t your preferred meat rest assured that the chicken, turkey, pork loin or the ribs you are craving are better here in Texas than anywhere else in the country as well.

When I say that BBQ originated with the wagon trains and cattle drives that is a fact. Mainly the cattle drives, the chuck wagon and the camp cook would prepare the meals for the cowboys each day. The cattle drives where well planned and had designated resting stops where the cattle could graze a little before night and then bed down for the evening. The camp cooks new exactly where these spots were so they would go ahead of the cattle drive each day and set up camp before the herd and the cowboys arrived.

Cooking meat on the trail wasn’t an easy feat. So in order to make sure the meat stayed warm, but not over cooked, the cooks devised a cooking apparatus that would come to be known as “a smoker”, where the fire box and the cooking chamber were separated from each other, but connected by a tube to allow the heat and smoke to move from the fire box area to the smoking chamber. This set up would become to be known as a “smoker”.

Temperature is critical to Texas BBQ, too high of temperatures can lead to the meat drying out and becomes pretty tough in texture; the optimum temperature is in the low 200 degree range. The amount of meat will determine how long the meat has to smoke for in this type closed chamber cookers, the more meat the longer the time. The temperature doesn’t increase just the time increases. The cooks would sometimes use tin cups with water do determine the temperature, they would make sure the fire stayed hot enough to keep the water very warm but not heated to the point that the water would boil away as steam. This allowed them to keep the meat cooking without overcooking it. This worked well as the mercury thermometer had been invented in 1712 but wasn’t in wide spread use until the 1800’s. Once the thermometer became readily available for use the guess work was taken away and 220 degrees was easily maintained by adjusting the amount of wood that was added to the fire box.

Today smokers vary in sizes and shapes but the physics remain the same and so does the taste and texture. There are smokers as small as a three gallon steel tank and as large as a semi tanker truck, I was in Brenham, Texas last week and I wish I had taken a picture of that smoker as it is parked at a place on Hwy 290 just west of town. That semi unit was for sale a few years ago, the price was $500,000; it is still at the same location but the “for sale” sign is no longer on it.

The wood that is used will determine the flavor of the meat. Typical woods used for cooking Texas BBQ include oak, pecan, mesquite, and hickory. Some folks will even use fruit tree wood; apple wood is the most popular of the fruit tree woods. Mixing the woods increases the available flavors, mesquite is my choice of wood for smoking meat and flame broiling as well. The briskets will also be coated with a combination of salts and spices that help lock in the juices by forming a slight crust over the meat. These are called “rubs”, as the meat is rubbed by hand to get the spices into the crevices of the meat.

BBQ is Texas, the brisket sandwich is the king of BBQ. Competitions for the best BBQ take place damn near every weekend somewhere in Texas. The World Championship BBQ cooking competition takes place in Houston each year at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. You wouldn’t think of BBQ as being a sport but it sure is and being a spectator at this championship has its benefits because a ticket means you have access to the cooking teams and their BBQ for tasting. The 2017 Championships in Houston had over 220,000 people attend the four day event.

I am usually pretty good at describing things in words but taste is a difficult thing to describe, it is something that has to be experienced. You could almost make the analogy that BBQ and sex are very similar; watching doesn’t hold a candle to being involved in it. So looking at these pictures won’t give you nearly the enjoyment that eating some of these beef briskets would. You could say that pictures of Texas BBQ are food porn at its best, makes you lust for a good juicy piece.

I’ve teased you long enough, I’ve shared some of the juicy details of the preparation and the cooking but that is where this ends. Yours state may have a food or fruit pie that you think is great but stop and ask yourself this, “is that item you are saying is great drawing 220,000 people on a weekend as a competitive competition?” I didn’t think so. Texas BBQ is without question the most popular food in the nation. There are several good Texas BBQ establishments that ship several thousands of pounds of smoked Texas BBQ all over the world, are those peach pies in that kind demand?

Nobody is ordering roast beef sandwiches or Chicago style hot dogs and having them shipped in to eat. New York style pizza is just pizza served in New York, putting the state name in front of it doesn’t make it special. What makes anything special is demand; Texas BBQ is in demand in all 50 states and numerous foreign countries like Washington, DC.

So give it up, pick up your white napkin and start waving it as your surrender flag, Texas has whipped your butts again. This war doesn’t need to go on any longer; it will just become more painful for you if it does. We have everything we need to win any battle as we have proven, it is time you realize you are living in an inferior state and concede to that fact.

Now, excuse while I finish my a brisket and fries plate.
Until the next battle,
@sultnpapper

https://sola.ai/sultnpapper