The comprehensive, must-have guide to Texas barbecue, including pitmasters' recipes, tales of the road--from country meat markets to roadside stands--and a panoramic look at the Lone Star State, where smoked meat is sacred

Brisket. Spareribs. Beef sausage. Pulled pork. From the science of heat to the alchemy of rubs, from the hill country to the badlands, The Prophets of Smoked Meat takes readers on a pilgrimage to discover the heart and soul of Texas barbecue.

Join Daniel "BBQ Snob" Vaughn--host of the popular blog Full Custom Gospel BBQ and acknowledged barbecue expert--and photographer Nicholas McWhirter as they trek across more than 10,000 miles to sample the wood-smoking traditions of the Lone Star State's four distinct barbecue styles: East Texas style, essentially the hickory-smoked, sauce-coated barbecue with which most Americans are familiar. Central Texas "meat market" style, in which spice-rubbed meat is cooked over indirect heat from pecan or oak wood, a method that originated in the butcher shops of German and Czech immigrants. Hill Country "cowboy style," which involves direct heat cooking over mesquite coals and uses goat and mutton as well as beef and pork. South Texas barbacoa, in which whole beef heads are traditionally cooked in pits dug into the earth.

Including recipes from longtime pitmasters and new barbecue stars, The Prophets of Smoked Meat encompasses the entire panorama of Texas barbecue. Illustrated throughout with lush, full-color photographs of the food, the people, and the stunning landscapes of the Lone Star State, The Prophets of Smoked Meat is the new gospel of Texas barbecue, essential for neophytes and seasoned experts alike.

In Texas BBQ, Wyatt McSpadden immortalized the barbecue joints of rural Texas in richly authentic photographs that made the people and places in his images appear as timeless as barbecue itself. The book found a wide, appreciative audience as barbecue surged to national popularity with the success of young urban pitmasters such as Austin's Aaron Franklin, whose Franklin Barbecue has become the most-talked-about BBQ joint on the planet. Succulent, wood-smoked "old school" barbecue is now as easy to find in Dallas as in DeSoto, in Houston as in Hallettsville. In Texas BBQ, Small Town to Downtown, Wyatt McSpadden pays homage to this new urban barbecue scene, as well as to top-rated country joints, such as Snow's in Lexington, that were under the radar or off the map when Texas BBQ was published. Texas BBQ, Small Town to Downtown presents crave-inducing images of both the new-and the old-barbecue universe in almost every corner of the state, featuring some two dozen joints not included in the first book. In addition to Franklin and Snow's, which have both occupied the top spot in Texas Monthly's barbecue ratings, McSpadden portrays urban joints such as Dallas's Pecan Lodge and Cattleack Barbecue and small-town favorites such as Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Que in Marlin. Accompanying his images are barbecue reflections by James Beard Award-winning pitmaster Aaron Franklin and Texas Monthly's barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn. Their words and McSpadden's photographs underscore how much has changed-and how much remains the same-since Texas BBQ revealed just how much good, old-fashioned 'cue there is in Texas.