Texan cuisine facts for kids
Texan cuisine is the delicious food from the state of Texas in the Southern United States. It's a mix of many cultures, like Southern, German, Czech, African American, and Mexican. Because Texas is so big, its food has been shaped by lots of different traditions! Even food from nearby states like New Mexico and Louisiana has influenced Texan dishes, using ingredients like chile peppers and Tabasco sauce.
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Special Texan Foods
Texas Barbecue
Texas barbecue is famous! It was inspired by an old cooking method called barbacoa. This is where meat is cooked slowly in a covered pit, often wrapped in leaves.
In the 1800s, cowboys learned how to cook tough beef over coals. Later, people started using "closed pit" barbecues. These use indirect heat and smoke to give the meat a super smoky flavor.
Texas barbecue is usually served with white bread, spicy sauces, pickles, sliced onion, and jalapeños. Popular side dishes include pinto beans, potato salad, and cabbage slaw. For dessert, you might have fruit cobbler, banana pudding, or pecan pie.
Beef and Steak Barbecue
Texas loves beef barbecue! Beef brisket is a favorite. It's cooked slowly in smoke in a wood-fired "pit."
Steak is also a big deal in Texas. Many restaurants, like The Big Texan Steak Ranch, are known for their steaks.
Pork Barbecue
Later in the 1800s, people from Germany and Eastern Europe came to Texas. They brought their own cooking styles, including how to make sausage. Smoked sausage is now a very popular dish at Texas barbecues. Early American barbecues also used pork, especially whole hogs and ribs.
Sweet Treats and Pastries
Czech immigrants brought their love for pastries. They introduced fruit-filled kolaches and sausage-filled klobasniky. The towns of West, Texas and Caldwell, Texas are even called "Kolache Capitals"!
Sopapillas are simple fried pastries, often sweetened with sugar and cinnamon. This dish has old roots, going back to the Tigua Pueblo people and Franciscan friars in New Mexico around 1682.
Pecan pie is the official state pie of Texas. Another local favorite is peanut butter pie. It has a crust made from crushed vanilla wafers and peanuts, and a creamy peanut butter filling.
The name "Texas sheet cake" might come from its large size or rich ingredients like buttermilk and pecans. This cake became popular across the United States after a recipe was published in 1957.
Peach cobbler is the official cobbler of Texas.
The Hamburger's Texas Roots?
Some people say the hamburger was invented in Athens, Texas! A man named Fletcher Davis claimed he served a "burger" of fried ground beef with mustard and onion between two slices of bread in the 1880s. He and his wife even had a sandwich stand at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Southern Comfort Food
Early settlers and African Americans brought Southern cooking traditions to Texas. These include dishes like biscuits, red-eye gravy, pan-fried chicken, black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and sweet tea. Desserts like peach cobbler and pecan pie also came from these traditions.
African American cooks were known for making simple ingredients like greens and beans taste amazing. They used salt pork, hog jowl, peppers, and spices. These dishes were often served with game meats, fried chicken, and fried catfish.
Some people believe the corn dog was invented by vendors at the Texas State Fair.
Vegetarian Options
Texas has become very welcoming to vegans and vegetarians in recent years. In 2021, a magazine reported that Texas has over 200 vegetarian restaurants! Many plant-based dishes have roots in the traditional diets of Black Texans. Cities like Austin, Irving, and Lubbock have even been ranked among the best cities for vegans in the U.S.
Mixed-Up Cuisines
Texas has a rich food culture because different groups of people have shared their cooking styles. They've borrowed ingredients and ideas from each other, creating unique "hybrid" cuisines.
Tex-Mex is the most famous mixed cuisine from Texas, but there are many others! For example, Korean donut shops might sell jalapeño kolaches, and Indian restaurants might make fajitas with chutney. You can also find dishes like bulgogi and banh mi burgers.
The origin of chicken fried steak is a bit of a mystery. Some say it came from Lamesa, Texas, which even hosts a Chicken Fried Steak Festival! Others think it's a Texas version of German schnitzel.
Tex-Mex Cuisine
Tex-Mex cooking mixes traditional Northeastern Mexican food with Texan flavors. It often uses beef and tiny, hot chiltepin peppers.
You'll often see "combination plates" with tacos, enchiladas, and tostadas served with rice and beans. This style developed when Mexican-American cooks made bigger plates for customers who liked a full meal.
Chili con carne is the official state dish of Texas! Texas chili is usually made with hot peppers and beef. Some people like to add pinto beans, while others believe true Texas chili should not have beans. It can be topped with jalapeños, raw onions, or soda crackers.
For breakfast, you might find scrambled egg tacos called migas, huevos con chorizo, or huevos rancheros.
King Ranch casserole is a popular dish made with chicken, cream soups, cheese, and tortilla chips.
Pan de campo is the official state bread, also known as "cowboy bread." It's a simple recipe traditionally baked in a Dutch oven.
Desserts include flan, tres leches cake, sopapillas, and pralines.
The famous fajitas (grilled skirt steak) have their roots in the 1930s. Mexican cowboys, called vaqueros, would receive cuts of meat like skirt steak as part of their pay. Modern fajitas became popular after Sonny Falcon introduced them at a county fair in 1969.
Other popular Tex-Mex dishes include guacamole, chile con queso, tortilla soup, nachos, quesadillas, chimichangas, and burritos.
Food Businesses in Texas
The first drive-in restaurant in the United States, Kirby's Pig Stand, was in Dallas. You could order and eat without leaving your car!
Many famous food and drink companies started in Texas. Dr Pepper was founded in Waco, Texas. The Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas makes Shiner Beers, including Shiner Bock. The machine that makes frozen margaritas was invented in Dallas.
Frito-Lay is based in Plano, Texas. Frito pie, a dish with Texas chili topped with corn chips and cheese, is a popular snack at big events.
Blue Bell Creameries, a well-known ice cream maker, is located in Brenham, Texas.
