A marvelous taste of Texas tradition
By Ari Weinzweig
Ted Ownby, the now-retired head of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, said in his welcoming remarks at a Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium back in the early 2000s, “Origin stories are always disputed.” I’ve found that to be spot-on—every origin story I’ve heard seems to have at least one alternative version! And that’s definitely the case with Texas BBQ. What doesn’t seem to be in dispute, though, is that it’s really good.
Why our Texas Brisket plate is so good!
Lately, the terrificness of Texas BBQ has been front and center at the Roadhouse—and Head Chef Bob Bennett is bringing it to life in truly stellar form. He’s starting with super-premium briskets from Niman Ranch, known for their humane animal practices and exceptional flavor. The briskets are rubbed down with a LOT of the amazing farm-to-table Épices de Cru ´´Tellicherry black pepper from India that many of you will already know well from our wonderful pepper fries. Add some salt, a lot of hours of smoke over whole Michigan oak logs, and even more time in the oven after that, and you end up with a tender, super tasty, smoky, peppery, and ultra-delicious piece of meat!
The finished flavor is so exceptional that I think you really have to taste it for yourself to fully grasp its excellence. The winey, complex, wonderful, mind-expanding marvelousness of the small-farm, super high-quality Tellicherry pepper forms a fantastic, magical crust; the flavor of the Niman Ranch beef is beyond great; and the oak smoke sews it all together. One bite of the brisket will literally linger long and lovingly on your palate for an hour if you don’t put anything else in your mouth. Ask for a taste next time you’re in for dinner!
Right now, the smoked brisket is on as a dinner special: the Texas Brisket Plate, which also includes a housemade East Texas hot link. Here, we make the hot links by hand using heritage pork from Bastian Farms, not far from Ann Arbor. We smoke the fresh sausages lightly over oak. They are, seriously, totally delicious. The quality of the heritage pork gives them a depth, character, and complexity that most commercial meat products will never come close to. The spice is significant but not too over the top at all. The official Hot Link Capital of Texas is Pittsburg—yes, that’s Pittsburg, Texas, not Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The story is that Pittsburg butcher Charlie Hasselbach created them back in 1897. In Texas, they’re generally served with a bottle of hot sauce to shake on the plate as an accompaniment. Smoky, spicy, meaty, super marvelous!
The story behind Texas Brisket
Coming back to the oft-disputed origin stories, these seem to be the most commonly shared bits of historical background of Texas brisket:
- One is that it resulted from Central European immigration into Texas. Czech and German immigrants adapted their home smoking traditions to Texas’ abundance of beef and … Texas BBQ was born.
- A second theory says it was developed for Mexican American farmworkers so they could eat “on-shift,” to speak, in large groups of hungry folks who were working hard together on the ranch.
- A third is that it was developed by African Americans, moving west from the Deep South, who applied pork-smoking principles to beef.
- The fourth is that it actually came from Central and Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Since brisket, cooked for many hours at a low temperature to make it tender, was big in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, Jewish food shops would serve it regularly when Jews came to Texas. At some point, the theory goes, the cooking style shifted from simply oven roasting to cooking over wood. As early as 1916, the Weil Brothers opened for business in Corpus Christi with smoked brisket for sale. The store was owned by brothers named Alex and Moise Weil, whose father Charles was a Jew who emigrated to Texas from Alsace, France, a few years after the end of the Civil War. All of which shifts the frame of reference and got me thinking about Texas BBQ in the same family as corned beef, pastrami, and Montreal smoked meat!
Whatever the origin story, it is darned delicious! It is also much to my surprise, a much more modern addition to Texas eating than I’d have imagined. It’s only in the late ’50s and early ’60s that Texas BBQ took off—right around the time President Lyndon B. Johnson was here in Ann Arbor delivering the U of M commencement address in May of 1964, Texas BBQ was getting really big! It had long been made from various cuts of meat, but the president’s caterer, Walter Jetton, is who seemingly decided that Texas BBQ should be made only from brisket. Over time, the popularity grew and grew and grew. And brisket, once an inexpensive cut that was hard to sell, became highly prized!
Those from Texas will already know, but for the rest of us who aren’t from there, take note that Texas BBQ is typically served without sauce. Of course, you can have BBQ sauce—we have some great ones. But down there, it was eaten as is! Smoke, spice, beef! It also, for what it’s worth, was eaten without silverware! Keith Schmidt, manager at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, shuns the sauce: “People are flabbergasted we don’t use sauce. Some people think that’s the most important part, but why would you want to mask the flavor of the meat?”
The big point is, it’s terrific! If you’re a meat-eater, swing by soon and score some! With the quality of the Niman Ranch beef, that amazing black pepper from India, and the oak smoke … man, oh man, you’ll have a marvelous meal!