The title “barbecue editor” at Texas Monthly carries a lot of weight. In a state where there is so much great barbecue, there’s no shortage of things to talk about, people and places to visit.
Daniel Vaughn has been looking for the top 50 places for barbecue in the Lone Star State. He stopped by the Standard to share some of his methodology.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: How difficult is this to do every year? I would be tempted to go back to the ones I’d already been to. I mean, everyone knows Franklin Barbecue and all these sort of blue-chip barbecue joints.
Daniel Vaughn: I mean, it’s difficult in many ways, right? Just the sheer amount of great barbecue that we have in Texas, like so many great barbecue joints all over the state. It’s also difficult just the amount of barbecue that I eat, right? I have seven barbecue joints between Galveston and Houston.
How do you do that? I couldn’t do more than a couple.
You just got a sample, right? I’m there to evaluate. I’m not there to try and find a story.
Do they know you’re coming in?
None of them know I’m coming in. I mean, the moment I share the first place on Instagram, they start talking, and people then start to expect me. Like, Daniel’s in Houston, or he’s in San Antonio, or wherever it might be. But there is no call aheads. There’s no appointments. If they have a big barbecue line, I stand in that barbecue line
So you just drop in. And do you ever identify yourself when you visit?
I don’t identify myself, but these days, especially with new barbecue joints, most of them do recognize me. I usually have on the same Yeti hat and the same glasses. I’m that fat white guy who’s got that sort of uniform on. So I tend to be a little recognizable, I guess.
» WHERE THERE’S SMOKE: The latest barbecue news from across the Lone Star State
Okay, so what are you looking for? I mean, it’s like pizza: There’s no such thing as bad pizza, generally speaking, and I kind of feel the same way about barbecue. Now, I know you don’t. But what is it that you’re looking for?
Yeah, I mean, for people who say that there’s no such thing as bad barbecue, you haven’t eaten enough barbecue – maybe you haven’t eaten enough great barbecue – because the differences become really stark.
Now, in this list, like when I’m going out searching, I am looking primarily at the meats, the Texas trinity: the sliced brisket, the ribs and the sausage.
Hopefully they make that sausage. And I’m evaluating those for juiciness, for tenderness, for flavor. That brisket, I’m certainly looking at how well it pulls apart, the smokiness; is it too beefy, too smoky, too salty? All these things. Looking at the sides, desserts, all of it.
So when you do this, do you have like a little data sheet – you’re grading it along the way, taking some notes, that sort of thing?
We have an official score sheet. At this point, really, what I’m doing is comparing places that are on the edges of the top 50 to one another and looking out for places that have potential for our top 10.
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How many places would you guess that you go to in a given year in search of the top 50?
Well, in this particular search, we started it September 1. There’s about 25 people who went out between September and December, and they sent me score sheets. I take those score sheets and really determine what I’m going to do for those next two months.
But in that six-month period, September to March 1, I will have gone to over 180 barbecue joints in Texas. Then the list comes out in our June issue. And we think we’re going to release it the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
Are there going to be any surprises?
There’s always surprises. The thing is, like every time we put out a new list – we do this every four years now – every time we put out a new list, there’s always this big surprise at how much turnover there is. And it’s like, it’s been this way since our first list – 1997, then the 2003 list, there was a huge amount of turnover. And it’s been that way with every list ever ever since.
