Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket

Winner, Barbara Sudler Award, Colorado Historical Society, 2010 It's no overstatement to say that the state of Texas is a republic of barbecue. Whether it's brisket, sausage, ribs, or chicken, barbecue feeds friends while they catch up, soothes tensions at political events, fuels community festivals, sustains workers of all classes, celebrates brides and grooms, and even supports churches. Recognizing just how central barbecue is to Texas's cultural life, Elizabeth Engelhardt and a team of eleven graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin set out to discover and describe what barbecue has meant to Texans ever since they first smoked a beef brisket. Republic of Barbecue presents a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the world of barbecue in Central Texas. The authors look at everything from legendary barbecue joints in places such as Taylor and Lockhart to feedlots, ultra-modern sausage factories, and sustainable forests growing hardwoods for barbecue pits. They talk to pit masters and proprietors, who share the secrets of barbecue in their own words. Like side dishes to the first-person stories, short essays by the authors explore a myriad of barbecue's themes—food history, manliness and meat, technology, nostalgia, civil rights, small-town Texas identity, barbecue's connection to music, favorite drinks such as Big Red, Dr. Pepper, Shiner Bock, and Lone Star beer—to mention only a few. An ode to Texas barbecue in films, a celebration of sports and barbecue, and a pie chart of the desserts that accompany brisket all find homes in the sidebars of the book, while photographic portraits of people and places bring readers face-to-face with the culture of barbecue.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Plotting the Barbecue Republic, by John T. Edge Acknowledgments: We Raise Our Glasses Sidebar: Twenty-four Hours of Barbecue Introduction: The Life and Times of Central Texas Barbecue Section 1: Food and Foodways Stories from Joe Sullivan, House Park Bar-B-Que, Austin, Texas The Central Texas Plate A Pie Chart of Desserts Sidebar Miles of Hanging Meat: Legacies and Linkages of Sausage Things You Could Make A Smoker Out of If Your Name Is MacGyver Sidebar Drinking Texas History In Homage to Big Red Sidebar Stories from the Archie Family, Church of the Holy Smoke, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue, Huntsville, Texas Stories from Marvin Dziuk, Dziuk's Meat Market, Castroville, Texas Section 2: Ideas of Place Stories from Ben Wash, Ben's Long Branch Barbecue, Austin, Texas Stories from the Inman Family, Inman's Ranch House, Marble Falls, Texas The Bridge to Ben's: Connecting City Politics to Neighborhood Barbecue Planes, Trains, and . . . Kayaks? Sidebar Red Dust, White Bread, Blue Collar at the Edges of Small-Town Texas Barbecue on Screen Sidebar Stories from the Meyer Family, Meyer's Sausage Company and Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse, Elgin, Texas Stories from Terry Wootan, Cooper's Old Time Pit Barbecue, Llano, Texas Section 3: Dreaming of Old Texas and Original Barbecue Stories from Vencil Mares, Taylor Cafe, Taylor, Texas Stories from Rick Schmidt, Kreuz Market, Lockhart, Texas Keep Your Eye on the Boll Timeline of Political Barbecues Sidebar Barbacoa? The Curious Case of a Word Authenticity: The Search for the Real Thing Stories from Aurelio Torres, Mi Madre's, Austin, Texas Stories from the Bracewell Family, Southside Market, Elgin, Texas Section 4: Ways of Life Stories from Nicole Dugas, Barbecuties, Austin, Texas Stories from Richard Lopez, Gonzales Food Market, Gonzales, Texas Cavemen and Fire Builders: Manliness and Meat The Feminine Mesquite Brides and Brisket Sidebar "No Son Sandías": Girlhood on the Ranch Stories from Bobby Mueller, Louie Mueller Barbecue, Taylor, Texas Stories from Joe Capello, City Market, Luling, Texas Section 5: Bright Lights, Barbecue Cities Stories from Pat Mares, Ruby's Barbecue, Austin, Texas Stories from Waunda Mays, Sam's Barbecue, Austin, Texas Eating Meat to the Beat: Music and Texas Barbecue Barbecue Melodies: Post Oak Smoke Gets in Their Eyes? Sidebar Thinking Locally, Barbecuing . . . Globally? Foreign Barbecue Sidebar Placeless Barbecues: The Strange but True Story of Chains, Stands, and Interstates Barbecue Haute Cuisine: Brisket Gets Fancy Sidebar Stories from Danny Haberman, Pok-e-Jo's Smokehouse, Inc., Austin, Texas Stories from Art Blondin, Artz Rib House, Austin, Texas Section 6: Modern Barbecue, Changing Barbecue Stories from Jim McMurtry, Smokey Denmark Sausage Company, Austin, Texas Stories from Ronnie Vinikoff, Forestry Management, Rockdale, Texas It Ain't Easy Being Green When You're Smoked (But Barbecue Is Trying!) Fun With Numbers, or How Much in a Year? Sidebar Techno-cue? Barbecue in the Postindustrial Age Stories from Don Wiley, D. Wiley, Inc., Buda, Texas Stories from Tyler Graham, Graham Enterprises, Gonzales and Elgin, Texas Daring to Go There: Sports and Barbecue Sidebar Personal Barbecue Histories: Who We Are and How We Got Here Methodology Appendix: Fancy Words for How We Did What We Did Sidebar As You Digest: Recommended Reading Beginnings, Not Endings Sidebar Index