|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
It includes plenty of recipes, but the best part is the fascinating lore about the history and folkways of Texas barbecue. The cliche about Texas barbecue is that it's about beef - open pit mesquite barbecue. Actually, Texas barbecue is a mixture of Southern, Midwestern and Southwestern elements.
So in east Texas, people make classic Southern pork barbecue, in the west, there's a lot of Mexican goat or cow head "barbacoa," and this tradition has spread beyond the Latino population. As Walsh says, no matter how much cowboys like beef, it wasn't worth slaughtering a cow for a meal, but a single goat was about enough to feed four or five cowboys.
In the center of the state, there's a sizable colony of Germans and Czechs, who follow their own European tradition of smoking pork, though sometimes in Texanized form. The famous Elgin sausage (the "gin" pronounced as in "begin," not as in the liquor) is basically a smoked German garlic sausage with extra red pepper.
This has given a unique spin to Texas barbecue. The German and Czech places were originally markets that only sold their barbecue out their back doors. The reason was that their barbecue customers were migrant cotton pickers who went to the shops for something to eat because regular restaurants wouldn't serve them (or, to put it another way, because the cotton pickers wouldn't have to take off their dirty coveralls and dress up if they were just eating a handful of barbecue behind a butcher shop).
To go with their hot smoked meat, they'd buy a few things like crackers, pickles or canned peaches. In a few old barbecues, that's still all you get. Kreuz Market in Lockhart, one of the most revered barbecues in Texas, serves your order on a piece of butcher paper with nothing but bread and crackers - and not a drop of barbecue
THE PITMASTER SQUINTS INTO the smoke as he opens the giant steel door. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Drive Down 90A- With Book In Hand,
By A Customer
This review is from: Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses (Paperback)
Last Saturday, I took off for Austin, but, instead of taking I-10 to 71, I made my way up 59 to 90A to 183, knowing that this would take me through some great barbecue country as described in the book.I missed Novosad's in Halletsville, but did stop on the outskirt's at Janak's to pick up sausage. The stop in Shiner was at Patek's where I picked up an ice chest full of all beef frankfurters. Patek hot dogs may be the best on the planet. My first real barbecue stop was in Gonzales at the Lopez's, recommended by Robb for their ribs. Without the book, I wouldn't have discovered this place. I was in luck. I had a sample of both pork and beef ribs, which were tremendous, but the real winner was the smoked link sausage. Juicy? I bit into it and it squirted all over my t-shirt. First war wound of the day. Soon to be followed by more stains. Next was Central Market in Luling. A slice of brisket was incredibly tender. The sausage,too, was great. On to Lockhart for stops at Black's and Kreuse's. Feeling full by this time, even with just eating a little bit at each place. Brisket was the winner here. And on to Austin. Great book. Great information.
5.0 out of 5 stars
So that's how they did it!,
By David Machlan (Leesburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses (Paperback)
I grew up in S. Texas and BBQ was as much a part of the fabric of life as Tex-Mex food. In all those years of eating brisket off the butcher paper at Joe Cottens in Robstown, I never appreciated how they did it. Now I do. The simple recipes in the Legends book are not surprising (BBQ is basic stuff) but the descriptions about the various techniques, processes and variations demonstrates where the art really is. I've "done et" at several of the joints mentioned in this book (Coopers in Llano is "killer")and many more like them on the city squares in small towns across the state and at the road side stands. It is interesting to me as a transplanted Texican to know how the differences in BBQ flavor and texture come to be. It has certainly given me some additional pointers to try on my next BBQ adventure. The book is great for the cooking techniques, tips, and recipes alone. If you like Texas lore it's also great - I finally know why the tradition of serving BBQ on butcher paper exists. One final thing - Anyone can cook good BBQ - I have even found some up here in Mid Atlantic - but don't go looking for anything close to BBQ in Oregon. They don't know lengua from a latke.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stories; Conflicting Methods,
By
This review is from: Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses (Paperback)
Legends of Texas is a wonderful little journey through the history of Texas Barbecue. Filled with anecdotes and recipes from several of Texas' most famous pitmasters, this book is quite an enjoyable and informative read. Many of the recipes actually look interesting enough to try. Some of these recipes won't likely be found in many other books, for example, barbacoa (cow head) or lengua (tongue), either because of the difficulty in obtaining the ingredients or because of their potential to nauseate the uninitiated in the ways of true Q. But these are the ones that I find most intriguing, and are the ones that I am most eager to try. While the stories are amusing, and the photos really help bring them to life, the recipes are definitely not for the novice. There are many conflicting methods and theories contained inside the book, and I believe that is intentional. Robb Walsh is not trying to pull one over on you, he is simply trying to be an objective writer and present all the possibilities so that the reader can make his/her own informed choices. For example, some pitmasters swear by wrapping a brisket in foil for the last few hours, while others claim it turns the brisket into an unappetizing mush (I fall into the latter camp). Someone who is just learning the fine art of Q could very easily become confused and discouraged by the wealth of conflicting information. I would advise learning at least the basics of Q before taking anything in this book to heart. You should have a firm grasp of how the Q process works, and know how you like your own Q first. Then this book will give you new ideas...you can simply discard any information that conflicts with your own personal experiences and go from there.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
|
