Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket

· University of Texas Press
1 review
Ebook
255
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Explore the world of barbecue as food and culture through first-person stories from pit masters, barbecue joint owners, sausage makers, and wood suppliers.
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.
"This beautiful collection, colorful enough to display as a coffee-table book, contributes significantly to the oral history tradition and the study of barbecue simultaneously." — Journal of American Folklore
"Tar Heels probably shouldn't own up to liking Texas barbecue, but we have no hesitation about saying that we love this book about it. The voices of the folks who make it happen and this book's wonderful photographs add up to a splendid portrait of Lone Star barbeculture." —John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed, authors of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue
Explore the world of barbecue as food and culture through first-person stories from pit masters, barbecue joint owners, sausage makers, and wood suppliers. 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 fe...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

1 review

About the author

ELIZABETH S. D. ENGELHARDTAustin, TexasElizabeth Engelhardt, Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, writes and studies food, gender, race, and class in the southern United States. She and eleven of her graduate st
ELIZABETH S. D. ENGELHARDTAustin, TexasElizabeth Engelhardt, Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, writes and studies food, gender, race, and class in the southern United States. She and eleven of her graduate st

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.