The Daniel Vaughn: The Prophets of Smoked Meat: a Journey through Texas Barbecue signing party at Liebman’s Wine & Fine Foods today is peppered with firsts. Daniel Vaughn has just been named the first Barbecue Editor of Texas Monthly. This is his first book. And this is the first book printed under the new Anthony Bourdain imprint at HarperCollins.
It checks in at a hefty 350-plus pages and is filled with photographs by Nicholas McWhirter (it’s out-and-out barbecue porn, from first page to last). The pair trekked across the state searching out the story of Texas barbecue, from East Texas hickory-smoked brisket covered in sauce to South Texas barbacoa (a beef head slow-cooked whole). Vaughn and McWhirter, both trained architects, claim they traveled some 10,343 miles on their journey, inspecting, eating and digesting samples of the best — and worst — barbecue Texas has to offer. When they didn’t have their mouths full (actually, there were probably a few times when they did), they interviewed pitmasters, chefs, customers and devotees, getting the truth about smoking techniques, wood selection and secret recipes (Vaughn says folks revealed their secret recipes because they know it’s not the ingredients, it’s the cook that makes the difference).
Houston is, of course, mentioned in Prophets of Smoked Meat. There’s a rundown (and we mean that literally) of the three Burns Barbecue restaurants in town. (The late Roy Burns Sr. spent years building up the restaurant’s reputation. His three children, at least according to Vaughn, haven’t quite matched their dad’s skills yet.) Vaughn does have some nice things to say about Gatlin’s BBQ (co-owner Greg Gatlin played football for Rice University) and Virgie’s Bar-B-Que (named after owner Adrian Handsborough’s mother).
Virgie’s will be dishing up plates at today’s signing. 1 p.m. 14529 Memorial. For information, call 281‑493‑3663. Free.
Sat., June 15, 1 p.m., 2013
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2012.