Last Thursday I got the opportunity to attend a Speaker Series hosted by Food as a Verb, about the history of Alabama barbecue at Little Coyote.
Food historian, author, and UTC professor Dr. Mark Johnson was joined by restaurant owner Chef Erik Niel as guests were seated and ordered their favorite meal.
Dr. Johnson said barbecue was brought to America by Spaniards who learned the technique when they landed in the Caribbean Islands.
“When the Spanish people encountered the indigenous people (Christopher) Columbus saw people cooking high above the coals, low and slow, and more than likely cooking iguanas,” he said. “Because they didn't have pigs, they didn't have cows. They’d cook it low and slow because that is what makes tough meat tender.”
Dr. Johnson had researched the history of Alabama barbecue while a grad student at the University of Alabama. It was interesting to learn how barbecue influenced local elections. During colonial times wealthy, white men would use their power and money to “buy” votes by hosting community barbecues.
“They're the ones who could afford to get the food and liquor for hundreds of people, thousands of people,” he said. “They showed their generosity to the people. The people responded by putting them in office.”
He said as time progressed there was a shift in the way Americans viewed these politicians which started an anti-barbecue movement.
“These anti-barbecue reformers didn’t have a favorable opinion of either the people or the politicians,” he said. “They did not expect to see the lower classes at these barbecue partaking in free food. But what really upsets them is seeing wealthier people or aspiring politicians lowering themselves to be with them, to humble themselves to attend these shameless, barbaric feasts. They worried that these events were going to distract men from their duties.”
Dr. Johnson said, despite their attempts, barbecues continued in Alabama because the people would rather get rid of their politicians than their barbecue.
Chef Niel talked about his experience with barbecue which began while he lived in Texas. “The Texas I know is all about beef,” Chef Niel said. “When I moved to the southeast 25 years ago, barbecue here was all about pork and it was shocking. I come from a place where if you order ribs, it was beef ribs.”
As the two men talked about barbecue, guests enjoyed their pork or beef ribs, steak fajitas, carnitas and other fine offerings from the menu. I ordered the brisket dinner, a half-pound of brisket with roasted jalapenos and grilled red onions. It came with their house made tortillas and served with three types of sauces. Everything was cooked to perfection. The brisket was tender, moist, well smoked and cooked as you would expect from a James Beard nominated chef in his Michelin Guide recognized restaurant.
Perfectly smoked meat is what Chef Niel dreamed of when he opened Little Coyote. He said they opened two years ago and he’s still improving their cooking methods each day. “In a kitchen of guys, ironically, a lot of us from Texas, we're very critical of ourselves,” he said.
The two spoke about the cultural impact of barbecue. Dr. Johnson said Texas has a large Jewish and German community which influences the way certain regions of the state cook.
Niel said his main sausage maker grew up you in East Texas cooking and eating Germanic influenced food. “And his sausage is amazing,” Niel said. He said his other cooks also bring their unique cultural background and experience to the table.
Niel said Little Coyote had been on his mind for roughly 10 years. “What I really missed was a barbecue restaurant,” he said. “Growing up in Texas you're inundated with Tex -Mex and all these cultural influences like the Germanic stuff we were just talking about. I just wanted a place to eat that represented that, but I couldn't get past tacos and so we ended up mashing it all together. So, when we talk about this place, it's smoked meat and fresh tortillas because it gives us this wide berth to do a whole lot of different stuff. Full influences from Texas, the southeast, the Caribbean, Latin food, Mexican food, so on and so forth.”
The two men said barbecue influences and is influenced by the economy. Chef Niel recalled when the price of brisket was just 87 cents per pound. Today the price is anywhere between $10-$15 per pound. Dr. Johnson said those amounts don’t factor in costs like transportation, and feeding. Back then butcher stores sold a whole steer, not selects cuts like today’s stores.
Chef Niel said restaurants will need to be creative and, “never sleep on the sides,” if prices continue to get higher.
“I don't think people will ever stop eating meat entirely,” he said. “If it's available there is something deep within us that craves that.”
But he added beef is becoming harder to come by. “Would we have to ration it? I think it will come down to economics,” he said. “When it becomes so expensive that you can't afford it then we go back to what Dr. Johnson said about how do you take the little bit of meat and make it part of your overall meal. Time will tell but the ability to eat protein as a as a main course is probably going to dwindle more for most people as a protein as it gets more expensive.”
The two men said creating an overall dining experience is what will keep guests coming back for more.
Chef Niel also talked about the importance of raising sustainable cattle and moving away from industrialized cattle farming to avoid ending up with what he calls, “candy beef.”.
“If you feed a cow, enough corn, it's going to taste really sweet at the end of the day,” Niel said. “We are conditioned to candy beef as a society at this point. I'm doing my best to try and get away from it. And that's through sourcing. At all three places (Main Street Meats, Easy Bistro and Little Coyote), we buy all our beef from Niman Ranch, which is a huge cooperative throughout the country, but they don't produce candy beef.”
Dr. Johnson said interstate highways opened barbecue establishments to a wider audience. He said at first barbecue joints typically attracted a rough crowd of men.
“To drink a lot of beer after getting out of the steel mills,” he said. “Women weren’t invited. Children were not invited. But after World War II, you got the car, you got the interstate system, you got the family vacation, and that absolutely changed the way a lot these businesses of the 50’s and 60’s was doing business and breaking down all those barriers.”
As an example, he said Big Bob Gibson’s barbecue diner, famous for its Alabama White Sauce Chicken and celebrating a century in business, is on the side of a busy road that runs from Memphis to Georgia.
“So, our mobilization, the interstate was the fastest way to get anywhere,” he said. “That was already changing what people were doing and how they thought about barbeque.”
Dr. Johnson said Bob Gibson invited Alabama White sauce back in the 1920’s. “To add fat and flavor to the chickens,” he said noting farm chickens from back then were gamier unlike today’s industrialized chicken.
As guests enjoyed their meal the two men talked about the evolution of barbecue. While most people recognize sections of the country have their own style of barbecue, like Memphis style, North Carolina style, East Carolina Style, St. Louis style, and Texas style, newer generations of cooks are blurring those lines.
“I see that people are still passionate about their region, but then now there's, places like Curry Boys in Nashville,” Chef Niel said. “They're doing whatever they want, however they want to do it, but it's still barbecue. And I think the sky is the limit as far as the creativity and the ingenuity.”
Curry Boys is Texas barbecue infused with Thai cuisine.
Guests learned Chef Niel does not like using gas grills (ever, full stop), Buc-ees barbeque sandwiches are acceptable although not the highest barbecue standard, and Dr. Johnson is soon releasing his second book American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon, which is now available for pre-order.
Both men agreed everything is better with bacon.