Bringing it all together...

Now that's an impressive statistic. Over 2300 miles traveled! That's roughly equivalent to driving from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA. It wasn't till I was well on my way home that I began to put it all together.

I'd purchased the excellent Legends of Texas Barbecue cookbook at the Alamo gift shop as a souvenir of my trip. In addition to an excellent collection of recipes, the book serves as a short history to barbecue in Texas. It seems that the variety of barbecue so popular in the Hill country (sauce-free, served on butcher paper with minimal sides) has its roots in the significant German immigration to the Austin area at the end of the 19th century. In fact, this diagram shows that many people of German decent still live in this area.

The new immigrants set up shop in the area. German butchers, not wanting to waste meat, would barbecue the lesser cuts and sell them to their patrons. It just so happens that the style of meat preservation practiced in the Old World resembled the practice of barbecue so prevalent in the South and Caribbean! This style appears similar (even to this day), but comes from a completely different part of the world.

The bigger revelation came as I recalled the history of the Shiner Brewery in Shiner, Texas. They too were founded by the same German immigrants. What is amazing to me is that the Shiner - Barbecue one-two punch we'd "discovered" on our pilgrimage was in fact ordained over a hundred years before I was born! Of course it seemed right...it was right!

Thinking even deeper, I recall my favorite recipe of the summer, my beer-simmered brats that have adorned many cookouts in the last few months. Again here was a sizeable German influence in my cooking. If I'd been more astute, I'd probably have caught all these common themes floating through my cooking and research for the trip.

What really gets me excited is thinking that this wasn't simply German fare, but that it was Texan first, German second. The immigrants had settled into a foreign land and integrated into that society. What a metaphor for America! Lockhart's barbecue tradition represents the greatness of our country's growth. You can preserve old cultural traditions and techniques while at the same time enhancing our newfound common culture for the benefit of all!

Whew, that's a headful! On a less sociological scale, I had a great time with my friends. We all decided to make a food pilgrimage an annual tradition, given the success of this trip. This year will be hard to top, but I think that our 2008 2007 pilgrimage to Philadelphia to settle a decades old Cheese Steak fight will be just as awesome!