BBQ, Butchers and Beef. Can Texas BBQ move the dial in the UK?

At WorldFeast it is our mission to bring people together by promoting community, culture and understanding through quality food experiences. Our chosen vehicle is world cuisines, delivered to peoples’ doors, which is our way of telling the stories of the people behind those foods. Our hope is that in doing so we can share perspectives and allow people an opportunity to embrace other cultures in a way which they may not otherwise be able to do.

So why, then, did we start with Texas BBQ? It is not as if the Americans are struggling to disseminate their culture and nor is BBQ as a food exactly fighting for airtime. Could it be that this author is desperately searching for an excuse to point his head at a BBQ for 12 hours a day instead of getting a real job?     

Or maybe we’ve decided to jump on the growing zeitgeist that is American BBQ?

Is it because the food is, when done well, utterly delicious?

It is all of these things. In small part. But what is the rest?

OK, hold tight.

I am absolutely, unequivocally, and beyond question, passionate about food. But the truth is, if I was ever going to start a business of my own it was going to have to be about more than just product and profit margins. It should, and must, contribute to the world around it in some small way. The reason we chose Texas BBQ as our first menu is as much a signal of intent as anything else, in particular because of where it came from, what it signifies and how we can use it to benefit more than just the man haphazardly bashing on this keyboard.

Pick up any British newspaper of the day and you are almost certain to find three key topics. Let’s address each in turn.

1.      The Rise of Nationalist Sentiment

The inverse of which is the demise of multiculturalism. And it breaks my heart. Look, I’ll be clear; I do not and will never make light of the economic realities of certain demographics in our country and I also understand that residents of certain areas feel they have lost what is perceived to be their British identity, whatever that means.

How is this relevant to BBQ?

BBQ is as indubitably Texan as the Stetson. That is under no scrutiny. But here’s the reality: Texas BBQ is borne out of a collision of cultures over many, many years.

It was Native Americans who started it all, cooking their food for long periods at low temperatures using pits or underground ovens. At this point in time their protein sources would have been anything they could hunt, predominantly deer, bison and turkey. (As an aside, just as soon as I get sign off from my good lady, I’m having a crack at this because it sounds amazing.)

Roll forward to the 1700s and Spanish colonials bringing cattle to the US, which resulted in a transition to beef becoming the main source of protein. These cows were frequently minded by Mexican cowboys known as vaquero, who utilised whole animal butchery, tenderising tough cuts like beef head and flank over low heats for long periods. Sound familiar?  

Now move to the 1800s where, due to various economic and political factors around Europe at the time, there was mass German and Czech migration to Texas with migrants aiming to take advantage of bountiful and cheap farmland, who brought with them smoking and sausage making techniques as well as meat markets (which are still the main purveyors of Texas BBQ today). If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is more or less the actual plot of Paramount+’s 1883 (minus the odd bare-back ride and gun fight, you understand).

These techniques were applied in the oilfields of west Texas where welders, looking for a method of controlling a low and slow fire for long periods came up with the concept of the offset smoker . 

And because Texas is so damn big, double the land mass of the UK in actual fact, swathes of rural areas gradually became powered by propane gas tanks which, once exhausted, just happen to be the perfect shape for transforming into offset smokers. And so, it caught on.

There it is. But for migration, multiculturalism and a few geographical factors, Texas BBQ would probably not exist. As such, and although many might not know it, it symbolises something akin to what WorldFeast stands for. The movement of people falling on hard times is as much a part of the human condition as the need to draw breath. Not only does diversity of experience and perspective make human interaction considerably more interesting but multiculturalism frequently leads to something which is greater than the sum of its parts. Feel free to counter me with the argument that you are a dyed in the wool Anglo-Saxon, just as long as you concede once you learn that the Angles hailed from modern day Northern Germany and the Saxons………. look it up.

2.      The Death of the Hight Street

A little over two years ago in an Oxfordshire market town close to where I grew up, a much-loved butcher shop closed down having been in business for over 50 years. Met with anguish from the local community it is still lamented to this day as a real local tragedy. You need only travel a few miles on the 280 bus to find a similar story from Oxford’s Covered Market where a butcher’s shop with over 40 years’ trade shut its doors. And why? The owners cite a “downturn in High Street footfall” and “people…. leading rather different lives”. So how do you reconcile this with the community grief at the closures? I’m not sure you can. If it is the case that these shops closed due to reduced customer footfall, then it has to be the case that the very people pained by their closures simply did not support them. Look, I am not trying to guilt or blame here. In the current economic climate only a dick would criticise people for turning to cheaper options for their weekly shop. But the phrase “use it or lose it” has never carried more weight, because once these institutions are gone, they really are gone. And I’m telling you now, should the day come when the only meat available comes cellophane wrapped off a supermarket shelf then I am walking into my back garden, crawling into my newly sanctioned underground fire oven, and personally shutting up shop.  

At WorldFeast, we are doing our best to work with local producers wherever possible by procuring all of our meat through our local butcher who works tirelessly to source only high welfare British reared meat from abattoirs he trusts. Which brings me neatly onto…..

3.      The Plight of British Farmers

It would be hard to argue that Britain doesn’t produce some of the finest beef on planet Earth.  We need only hop across the channel to find evidence in the form of the prominent (and French 😘) Master Butcher Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec who said:

“The best rearers in the world are the British.”

“British breeds like Aberdeen Angus, Galloway, Hereford and Longhorn… have better marbling and therefore superior texture and flavour.”

Predictably, that opinion wasn’t received well. In what feels like the only acceptable response the French Butcher’s Federation expelled him. But he’s not wrong.

So why is it then that in BBQ circles, the grass-fed, British breeds get a seriously bad rap? The chief BBQ cut of brisket is often cited as lacking in fat, dry and unpalatable, with many a British BBQ joint seeking to import their beef from fattier sources, such as Spain, Australia and the US.

It is my contention that a properly sourced and cared for grass-fed Hereford brisket is every bit as good as its American grain fed counterpart. You just have to work to find it. Here’s why you should.   

£32,272 is the average income of a farmer in the UK which (inflation adjusted) has not risen since the 1970s[1], with only the top 25% of beef farms in Great Britain turning a profit at all[2]. I do not intend a deep dive into the economics of British farming, but have a guess at the reason cited for these numbers? A reliance on cheaper, lower welfare imported meats, supermarket shopping and ultra processed foods[3]. This means we have some of the finest cattle in the world and, on the whole, we are consuming it less and less. This in turn puts unsustainable pressure on the people and communities who produce it. To reiterate, it is not my place to criticise anyone else’s decisions, but it is not too much of a stretch to think that if farming remains unprofitable, then farmers will eventually have to have to stop farming those lauded heritage breeds. And off I go again into my fire hole.

So how does Texas BBQ help this? I’ll confess, I’m a little out of my depth on this topic, but here’s what I think. Historically speaking, the cheaper, tougher cuts which are the hallmark of BBQ have been largely undesirable in Europe and the UK, being viewed as pauper meat with the middle and upper classes strongly favouring the more tender, less well worked cuts such as the sirloin, fillet, rump and rib. This has meant that many of the tougher cuts such as brisket have not sold, leading to wastage, which in turn has reduced the profitability of the entire cow. This concept is known as carcass balance, and it is this simple: to maximise the value of a cow, for every fillet which is sold, there is a brisket to be sold. And so, the advent of BBQ culture throughout Europe is slowly contributing to the correction of this imbalance[4] which in turn is increasing the profitability of the entire animal. It just happens to come with the added bonus that we get to fill our gorgeous faces with some beautifully smoked and tender meat. Win/win. Am I saying that our little company alone can shift this dial? Well no. But you never know, one day we might be a big company, and using Texas BBQ to shine a light on the very real issues facing our food systems in the meantime seems like no bad thing to me.

So this is what WorldFeast stands for. We will strive to support local communities where we can and we will use any platform that we have, however small, to shine a light on the plights of those who need it. Because if we do not, then what is it all for?

With all that in mind, the question begs: can Texas BBQ actually shift the dial in the UK? Only time will tell. But until it does, we will keep doing anything we can to contribute, in any way we can, however small that change might be. And, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford it, we’d appreciate it if you did too.