We all wondered how this year’s Foodways Texas Symposium would top last year’s amazing event in Galveston. But there is no doubt that the 2nd Annual edition was bigger, better and even more delicious than the first.

The Foodways Texas Symposium theme this year, “Texas Preserved,” was intentionally ambiguous. Our speakers talked [...]]]> We all wondered how this year’s Foodways Texas Symposium would top last year’s amazing event in Galveston. But there is no doubt that the 2nd Annual edition was bigger, better and even more delicious than the first.

The Foodways Texas Symposium theme this year, “Texas Preserved,” was intentionally ambiguous. Our speakers talked about preserving Texas food history through new oral history initiatives and documentary films, preserving heritage breeds through a new approach to agriculture, and, well, preserving fruit and vegetables in Mason jars.

Preserved meats served up at the Artisan Market didn’t last long…

–we also heard about brewing and distilling as a way of preserving grains by making them into alcoholic beverages.

We learned about the effects of this year’s devastating drought on the cattle herds, the oyster reefs and the cotton and wine grape growers.

We all considered the reality that our priorities for water allocation in Texas currently favor suburban landscape watering at the expense of agricultural irrigation and getting sufficient freshwater to the wetlands where our seafood is produced. The discussions were riveting, the company was delightful and the food was amazing!

Our meals were served outdoors by outstanding barbecue pitmasters and famous chefs. Salads were made from greens and vegetables and flowers picked the minute before they were served.And delicacies like goat chops, ribs and goat liver mousse were whipped up in the middle of the farm to a soundtrack of clucking chickens and lots of laughs. We also heard some stirring words about preserving Texas food culture, especially some of disappearing ethnic traditions like old-fashioned soul food.

We ate well, we learned a lot and we made a lot of new friends.

I wish you could have been there!

Thanks to my daughters Katie & Julia Walsh for the photos!

For a much more complete account of the 2012 Foodways Texas Symposium, and much better photos, check out this post by Kelly at the MeaningofPie.com

Oyster and wine pairing events are pretty popular, I’ve done three of them in the last couple of weeks. But in Texas, we are also fond of drinking good beers with our oysters. That’s the theme of the party on March 27, Oysters, Brews and Blues at Armadillo Palace will feature a variety of [...]]]> Oyster and wine pairing events are pretty popular, I’ve done three of them in the last couple of weeks. But in Texas, we are also fond of drinking good beers with our oysters. That’s the theme of the party on March 27, Oysters, Brews and Blues at Armadillo Palace will feature a variety of oysters from specific Texas reefs with great local beers.

Expect oysters from famous Galveston reefs like Pepper Grove and Redfish Reef and some new brews from local Texas microbreweries like No Label Brewing Company and Southern Star Brewing Company. (There will be Texas wines on hand too.)

The event is a benefit for Foodways Texas and a book signing event for my new book, Texas Eats. The book features a map of the most famous oyster reefs in Galveston Bay. Buy your tickets at FoodwaysTexas.com now–we expect a sell-out!

On Monday, I was in New Orleans leading an oyster and wine tasting that featured oysters from Redfish Reef and Slim Jim Reef in Galveston Bay; Pointe aux Pins rack-grown oysters from Mobile Bay, Alabama; and oysters from Christmas Bay in lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. We tasted the oysters with Girard Sauvignon Blanc [...]]]> On Monday, I was in New Orleans leading an oyster and wine tasting that featured oysters from Redfish Reef and Slim Jim Reef in Galveston Bay; Pointe aux Pins rack-grown oysters from Mobile Bay, Alabama; and oysters from Christmas Bay in lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. We tasted the oysters with Girard Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, Crossings New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and two Pinot Grigios from Barone Fini. The crowd liked the big oysters from Slim Jim Reef the best.

On Tuesday we repeated the tasting at Oceanaire Seafood in Houston with the same wines, but slightly different oysters. This time we had creamy Resignation Reef oysters and spectacular Pepper Grove oysters. The oysters were from Jeri’s Seafood in Smith Point and they are available from seafood wholesaler Louisiana Foods in Houston.

It was the first time Gulf oysters have been included in this wine and oyster pairing format. This traveling oyster and wine tasting show is organized by the Deutsche wine group which represents the three vineyards. The tour usually tastes West Coast oysters with their wines, but the organizers asked me to step in and help when they discovered that it was illegal to ship West Coast species like Kumamotos and gigas to Texas. I was more than happy to drink their wine and wax poetic about Texas oysters.

Sacred Heart Past President, Dominic B. Cuccerre

Skinner [...]]]>

Sacred Heart Past President, Dominic B. Cuccerre

Skinner Pasta started selling spaghetti in Texas in 1912. For most of the last hundred years, it was the only brand widely available in Texas grocery stores. To celebrate their anniversary, Skinner has hired me to help publicize the “100 Years of Mealtime Memories” Essay Contest. The writer of the winning essay gets a Grand Prize of $10,000. Four “First Prize” winners will receive $1,000 each. You’ll find the contest rules here.

$10,000 is a nice chunk of change. But there’s another reason you might want enter Skinner’s “100 Years of Mealtime Memories” essay contest. After the winners are announced, Skinner will share the essays that describe Lone Star food memories with Foodways Texas. Collecting stories about Texas food history is what that organization is all about.

Foodways Texas won’t make the essays public, but the oral history group will sift through the entries looking for information about Texas food traditions that might be worth exploring further. So even if you don’t win, your essay about your grandpa’s spaghetti sauce might end up changing food history. It’s a pretty cool contest. Skinner Pasta is giving away fourteen grand in prize money for family food stories and helping Foodways Texas at the same time. I’ll be giving a portion of the money Skinner pays me to Foodways Texas to help fund the oral history projects.

It was the Italian-Texas chapter in my new book and some of the stories about Italian food in Texas that brought my name to Skinner’s attention. I collected a lot of those stories at the spaghetti lunch over the years. The late Dominic Cuccerre told me about how the Houston produce industry started out with Sicilian-Americans growing vegetables in gardens in the Fifth Ward of Houston and bringing them on horsedrawn carts to Market Square downtown. Dominic’s family had a grocery store too. I could have listened to that man all day.

Here’s one of my own mealtime memories and a couple of family recipes that start with Skinner pasta. Too bad I’m not eligible for the ten grand, right?

Nana’s Lasagna
Years ago, I heard an Italian pasta authority give a talk. He said Americans didn’t know anything about lasagna. It was supposed to have 12 layers, etc.,etc. I tried a bunch of gourmet lasagna creations. But the first time my kids tasted my mom’s lasagna, they demanded that I learn to make it the way “Nana” did.”

My Mom layered three curly-edged Skinner noodles into the bottom of a glass baking dish with her homemade red sauce, spooned in smashed meatballs and ricotta and then repeated the layers with noodles on top. I thought it was crazy to make meatballs and then smash them up–why not just use ground meat. But I don’t ask questions anymore, I just follow Nana’s recipe. It’s wonderful when family recipes get handed down through the generations. I’m sure my kids will want to learn Nana’s recipe someday.

Here it is. Be forewarned it takes all day.

Nana’s Red Sauce

First you make an old-fashioned red sauce or “red gravy” as we say in Texas. Mom got this one from an Italian lady down the street when I was a kid–that was 50 years ago.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
4 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup grated carrot
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup white wine
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 46oz can tomato juice or V-8
2 6oz cans tomato paste
2 15oz cans tomato sauce
1 cup chopped parsley
Half cup coarsely chopped celery leaves
1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
2 tablespoons dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the beef and sausage in batches, transferring the browned meat to a bowl with a slotted spoon. When the meat is all browned, reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, celery and carrots. Use the vegetables to deglaze the pan scraping up the browned meat the stuck to the bottom. Cook for three minutes until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and stir to mix well. Cook another two minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the white wine and turn the heat to high stirring constantly for three or four minutes or until the white wine is reduced by half. Add the tomato juice, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste, mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine.
Simmer for two hours stirring every fifteen minutes.

Nana’s Meatballs

I always thought you were supposed to bake the meatballs or at least brown them on the stovetop first, but that’s not the way Nana does it.

One and half pound ground meat
half a cup bread crumbs
cup and a half finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
quarter cup loosely packed chopped parsley
2 tablespoons dried ground oregano
2 eggs
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons parmesan
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Nana’s Red Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well, blending all ingredients into a uniform texture. In your cupped hand, form 34 to 36 small (one ounce) meatballs. Drop meatballs gently into Nana’s Red Sauce. Simmer, stirring gently every fifteen minutes to avoid breaking up the meatballs. Cook for 45 minutes to one hour or until meatballs are well done.

Nana’s Lasagna

Finally, after all that work. You get to make the lasagna. If you buy get the one pound package of lasagna noodles, you will have enough noodles to make 2 big 9 x 13 baking dishes. That’s the way Nana does it. She cooks one right away and puts the other one in the freezer for unexpected guests–like me and my kids.

8 oz box Skinners Lasagne noodles
18 Nana’s meatballs
6 cups Nana’s Red Sauce
15 oz container ricotta cheese
Three quarter cup frozen chopped spinach
One bunch green onions
Salt and pepper to taste
One tablespoon chopped serrano peppers (optional)
One cup plus three tablespoons grated parmesan
One pound mozzarella cut into 18 slices (or one pound grated mozzarella)

Boil and rinse noodles in cold water. You should have nine noodles. Crush the meatballs in a bowl with the sauce that adheres to them. Pour 2 cups of red sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange three noodles across the bottom of the dish. Spoon half of the meatballs onto the noodles.
Spoon the ricotta into a mixing bowl. Squeeze the spinach to remove as much water as possible. Chop the green onions finely using a little of the green part. Add the spinach to the green onions on the chopping board and chop together mixing well. Add the spinach and green onion mixture to the ricotta. Add one cup parmesan and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper and chopped serranos if desired. Spoon half of the ricotta mixture in with the crushed meatballs dotting it evenly around the baking dish. Top the filling with 9 mozzarella slices or grated cheese. Add more sauce and another layer of noodles and repeat ending with a layer of noodles. Top the noodles with some sauce and three tablespoons of parmesan. Bake in a 350°F oven for half an hour to 45 minutes or until the cheese melts and the lasagna is bubbling. Allow to sit for a least a half an hour before cutting into squares and serving. Serves 12.

From Foodways Texas: Over the course of 2 1/2 days during Texas Preserved , our second Foodways Texas symposium, we will explore the ways we preserve Texas (as a region, as an idea) in our food and the ways we preserve food in Texas. We’ll talk about preservation in our pastures, on our [...]]]> From Foodways Texas: Over the course of 2 1/2 days during Texas Preserved , our second Foodways Texas symposium, we will explore the ways we preserve Texas (as a region, as an idea) in our food and the ways we preserve food in Texas. We’ll talk about preservation in our pastures, on our farms, in our kitchens, and in the stories we tell around the dinner table. We’ll discuss what we literally preserve in the mason jars in our cupboards and witness some of those preservation techniques. The weekend’s sessions will include a broad range of topics faithful to our theme, including a canning demo by Confituras owner Stephanie McClenny along with a little history regarding fruits and vegetables unique to Texas. We’ll hear from the folks behind the Shrimp Boat Projects out of Houston, and a group of intrepid Austin historians out to collect stories from iconic restaurants around the state. Experts from around the state will update us on this historic drought and its effect on different segments of our food economy, while an expert panel of craft brewers will discuss the world of Texas breweries and help us launch our Craft Brewery oral history archive. Along the way we’ll sample artisanal wares from all across the state of Texas.

Registration includes lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday as well as a Sunday Chuck Wagon Brunch from Tom Perini of Perini Ranch Steakhouse. In addition to Perini, our chefs for the weekend include Justin Yu of Oxheart Restaurant in Houston cooking up the week’s catch from Louisiana Food’s Total Catch Market, Matt McCallister of Campo Modern Country Bistro in Dallas who will teach us a bit about charcuterie, and Sonya Cote of East Side Showroom in Austin who will treat us to an 1840s farm dinner onsite at Boggy Creek Farm in east Austin. Plan to be well-fed and satisfied when you trek back home on Sunday.

$225 Members
$250 General Public
$85 Panels Only (no meals) limited availability

Snow’s brisket is famous. It comes with the somewhat dubious Calvin Trillin seal of approval. Ever since Texas Monthly rated Snow’s the best barbecue joint in Texas, I have felt it my duty to join the crowd and make a pilgrimage to the hamlet of Lexington. Yesterday, I got lucky–I scored a sample [...]]]> Snow’s brisket is famous. It comes with the somewhat dubious Calvin Trillin seal of approval. Ever since Texas Monthly rated Snow’s the best barbecue joint in Texas, I have felt it my duty to join the crowd and make a pilgrimage to the hamlet of Lexington. Yesterday, I got lucky–I scored a sample of their brisket at the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival without a pre-dawn drive in the country.


But I was called out in public for not sampling Snow’s until now: “What took so long, Robb?” asked @BarbecueSnob Daniel Vaughn via twitter.

Back in 2008, I explained my recalcitrance and questioned Calvin Trillin’s judgement at length in a post on the Houston Press blog. To sum it up–Snow’s is only open briefly on Saturday mornings. To insure a place in line, I have been told I need to be there by 8 am. The joint is better than two hours from my house in Houston, so that means getting up on Saturday morning at five something to go stand in line for brisket. Not an appealing prospect, especially when you have a wife and kids with their own Saturday morning agendas. And then there are the doubts. My inner curmudgeon finds something a little suspect about a barbecue joint that is open so seldom. “Anybody can make great barbecue for a few hours on Saturday morning,” Rick Schmidt at Kruez Market scoffs.

But I gave Snow’s brisket a fair chance. And to be honest, it wasn’t nearly as good as Franklin’s brisket which was being sliced a few booths away. Apparently, my opinion was shared by the rest of the crowd who voted for the “People’s Choice Awards.” Franklin’s won the Best Brisket category. And Franklin’s is actually open at lunch time. Kudos to the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival for providing a chance to finally compare the two famous briskets side by side.

A new feature of the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival this year was The Barbecue Genius Counter, staffed by students and professors from the Texas A&M Animal Sciences Department Meat Science Center. At last, an opportunity for barbecue fanatics to find answers to such burning questions as: What is a tri-tip and how do you cook it? And: Where can I find an 80 pound whole pig for my barbecue pit?

The Barbecue Genius Corner was also answering questions about Foodways Texas BBQ Summer Camp which be held again next June at the Texas A&M Meat Science Center in College Station. The event is limited to 50 students and is sure to sell out. Your best bet to get a ticket is to become a member of Foodways Texas right away since Foodways Texas members will get advance word when tickets go on sale.

From Foodways Texas: This Houston Chronicle story by Greg Morago about our 1st Annual Barbecue Summer Camp brings back tasty memories. Stay tuned for details on our 2nd Annual Barbecue Summer Camp planned for Summer 2012 in College Station. We expect the 2012 camp to sell out, so become a member of Foodways Texas [...]]]> From Foodways Texas: This Houston Chronicle story by Greg Morago about our 1st Annual Barbecue Summer Camp brings back tasty memories. Stay tuned for details on our 2nd Annual Barbecue Summer Camp planned for Summer 2012 in College Station. We expect the 2012 camp to sell out, so become a member of Foodways Texas for 10% off registration and to make sure you get first chance to purchase tickets. We had a blast at Texas A&M this year and can’t wait for next summer. Hope to see you there.

Greg’s story after the jump:

Camp ‘Cue

By GREG MORAGO Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

June 28, 2011, 3:50PM

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GREG MORAGO PHOTOS : CHRONICLE A beef brisket is in the smoker at Foodways Texas and Texas A&M’s barbecue summer camp.

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The first thing we taste at barbecue summer camp is defeat.

But if you’re going to get a sobering barbecue reckoning it might as well come in the form of the smoke-burnished brisket at Martin’s Barbecue in Bryan. It is here — the first stop in a three-day immersion into meat and smoke that I signed up for at Texas A&M – that my fellow campers and I realize (as we fill our mouths full of glistening ribs, brisket and chicken) that as amateur barbecuers we’ll never equal the skill of a Martin’s or iconic pits such as Louie Mueller, Snow’s, Southside Market, Smitty’s, Kreuz or City Market. It’s rather cruel, this first lesson; akin to rolling in a Lamborghini to freshman auto mechanics class.

But deliciously humbling. We come to this camp – an experimental first collaboration between Foodways Texas, a year-old organization designed to promote the food culture of Texas, and A&M’s Meat Science Department – to better understand the mechanics of barbecue. We are a diverse group that includes a software developer, attorney, real estate appraiser, CPA, oil and gas man, teacher, construction worker and salesman, to name a few of the professions that make up our meat-loving student body. The class of this inaugural Barbecue Summer Camp consists of about 40 men and one brave woman who possess varying degrees of barbecue skill ranging from none (that would be me) to plenty (intense enthusiasts including some on barbecue teams).

But we all share one thing in common: passion and respect for meat that’s been made long, languorous love to by hot, heavy smoke. We wanted to understand how to take protein from hanging on the hook to falling off the bone. We hungered to understand barbecue. And to eat it.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/7630629.html#ixzz1QhxdMddC

Dr. Jeff Savell, the head of the Meat Science program at Texas A&M, led the whole hog demonstration at the first annual Foodways Texas BBQ Summer Camp last weekend. In fact, the pit was located in Dr. Savell’s backyard. The three day crash course in barbecue arts and science included some thoughts about [...]]]>
Dr. Jeff Savell, the head of the Meat Science program at Texas A&M, led the whole hog demonstration at the first annual Foodways Texas BBQ Summer Camp last weekend. In fact, the pit was located in Dr. Savell’s backyard. The three day crash course in barbecue arts and science included some thoughts about BBQ culture from me, a sneak preview of a new Foodways Texas movie about pit master Vencil Mares of Taylor Cafe, and a whole lot of hands-on seasoning, smoking and work in the meat science lab.

Dr. Davey Griffin’s anatomy lectures featuring a step by step breakdown of a whole side of beef and a whole hog were among the most popular parts of the program. Dr. Christine Alvardo’s talk on brining, marinating, injecting and tumbling was also well received–as was her half day presentation on poultry. Dr. “Nick” Nickerson offered a chemical comparison of smoke from various hardwoods that was the first presentation of its kind.
The involvement of Texas A&M Meat Science professors made the Foodways Texas BBQ Summer Camp a much more sophisticated learning experience than your typical barbecue cooking class. But we still spent a lot of quality time cooking, carving and eating barbecued brisket.

Additional catering was provided by Goode Company Barbecue of Houston and Southside Market out of Elgin. Third generation barbecueman Bryan Bracewell from Southside Market was on hand all weekend to help answer questions. Next year’s Foodways Texas BBQ Summer Camp is already being planned.

In the cookbook published years ago by Antoine’s restaurant of New Orleans, the author claims that when the dish known as Oysters Rockefeller was first invented, the French chef was actually looking for a substitute for escargot. Had that chef looked a little harder, he might have found a much closer cousin to [...]]]>

In the cookbook published years ago by Antoine’s restaurant of New Orleans, the author claims that when the dish known as Oysters Rockefeller was first invented, the French chef was actually looking for a substitute for escargot. Had that chef looked a little harder, he might have found a much closer cousin to the European snail.

In a recent post titled Bycatch of the Day: Texas Whelks,we wrote about the oyster-eating sea snails variously known as oyster drills, biganos and whelks. As mentioned, Chris Shepherd served these at the Foodways Texas symposium lunch in Galveston simmered in a spicy crawfish boil. We loved the flavor–but craved a little garlic butter.

Tommy Tollet at Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar in Clear Lake took that idea to it’s logical end. After simmering Texas whelks until tender, he dressed them up like escargot. Each whelk gets wrapped in a spinach leaf and broiled in garlic butter with a topping of parmesan in one of those cute little escargot dishes. The result is amazing. The whelks have a little more flavor and chewier texture than the snails–I ate mine with garlic toast and single malt Scotch.

Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar is considering putting Texas whelks on the menu. Reef and several other Houston restaurants also feature them as specials.

At the Foodways Texas Gulf symposium P.J. Stoops spoke at a bycatch panel. He explained that somebody is interested in eating nearly everything caught in a fishing boat. For lunch, Chris Shepherd demonstrated the point by serving the sea snails variously known as “oyster drills, biganos,” or “whelks.” Shepherd boiled these in crawfish [...]]]>

At the Foodways Texas Gulf symposium P.J. Stoops spoke at a bycatch panel. He explained that somebody is interested in eating nearly everything caught in a fishing boat. For lunch, Chris Shepherd demonstrated the point by serving the sea snails variously known as “oyster drills, biganos,” or “whelks.” Shepherd boiled these in crawfish boil for an hour and a half. They were nice and tender with a flavor not all that different from escargot. I would have liked them in garlic butter sauce–but I applaud Shepherd for allowing us to taste them unadorned first. To eat them, you pull the sea snail out of the shell with a nail and then peel off the tough foot.

Oystermen find these in their dredges quite often. They are known as “oyster drills” because they bore into the shells of oysters and suck out the oyster meat. The oystermen used to throw them in the parking lot to kill them–they were delighted to find out that chefs were willing to pay for them. I have had these in France on fruit de mers platters and in the Virgin Islands where they are called whelks. In the Virgin Islands they quick cook them in a pressure cooker, then slice them thin and sautee them in a little garlic butter–the same way they serve conch.

The panel titled: “The Strangest Thing in the Nets: Bycatch, ‘Trashfish,’ and Gulf Sustainability,” was moderated by food writer Jenny Wang with panelists Bryan Caswell of Reef, Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due Supper Club, and P. J. Stoops of Louisiana Foods weighing in on the impact of current fishing practices in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Many don’t realize that the Gulf of Mexico is the second most productive fishery in the world,” said P. J. Stoops “However, unless we increase awareness and change our harvesting methods, access to seafood options we enjoy today will be drastically reduced in as few as 5 to 10 years.”