Want the quick rundown before you dig in?
Quick rundown: This week is about sausage, and what it can tell you about a Texas BBQ joint. We’re looking at why the grind, smoke, snap, seasoning, and fit on the tray can reveal more than people realize. Plus: rising BBQ costs, BBQ internet weirdness, South Texas barbecue on the Spurs Finals stage, two Pitmaster Picks, June BBQ events, Fan Cooks, and the June First Stamp Sticker Pack.
If sausage is one of the things you notice on a BBQ tray, this issue is for you.
What Sausage Tells You
Good sausage can be bought. Great sausage tells you something.
Brisket gets the spotlight in Texas BBQ, and honestly, it has earned it. Brisket is expensive, unforgiving, and usually the first thing people judge when the tray hits the table.
But sausage has a way of telling on a BBQ joint too.
Not because every great place has to make sausage in-house. That would be too simple. Plenty of good BBQ joints serve sausage from respected producers, meat markets, or long-running suppliers. Bought sausage is not automatically bad, and house-made sausage is not automatically better.
The question is not always, “Did they make it?”
The better question is, “Did they care about it?”
That is where sausage becomes a clue.
Look at the grind. Notice the smoke. Pay attention to the snap, the seasoning, the fat, and whether the sausage actually belongs beside the brisket, ribs, turkey, sides, and sauce.
Sometimes sausage feels like filler, something added to the tray because the menu needed another meat option.
Other times, it stops you for a second.
A coarse old-school link with crackers and hot sauce. A creative sausage that actually works. A smoky bite that feels like it belongs to the place, not just the plate.
That is when sausage starts saying something.
It can tell you whether a joint respects tradition. It can tell you whether creativity has a purpose. It can tell you whether the whole tray matters.
And sometimes, sausage becomes the thing you remember after the brisket conversation is over.
We expanded this week’s From the Pit into a full Culture & Identity article on ExploringBBQ.
Then jump into The Pit Forum and tell us:
What Texas BBQ sausage has stood out to you, and where did you have it?
See you at the smoker,
Mike
Co-Founder, BBQ Fandom | ExploringBBQ.com
This week’s Around the Fire moves from the serious math facing Texas BBQ joints, to a little internet BBQ weirdness, to a San Antonio smoke story with a championship spotlight.
Texas BBQ is still doing hard math
Rising beef prices are still putting pressure on Texas BBQ joints, and MySA’s latest look at the issue lands right where last week’s brisket conversation left off. The piece notes that Mija Barbecue in Cedar Hill is preparing to close June 27, and it points to a bigger challenge facing independent smokehouses: beef is expensive, customer budgets are tighter, and brisket still carries a lot of the cultural weight on the tray.
The Bill Dumas section stood out this week because it connects rising BBQ costs directly to sausage. MySA frames sausage as part of the answer, not just another side item. Dumas points back to the old Texas meat-market logic: sausage helped create value from parts of the animal that might otherwise bring less money. The same idea still matters when barbecue prices get tight.
It fits this week’s From the Pit question well. Sausage is not just filler when it is treated with intention.
MySA | June 9, 2026 | Free
The internet invented a BBQ tall tale, and honestly, it was a pretty good one
The San Antonio Current covered a fake viral story about a woman supposedly disguising herself as a man, entering an all-male barbecue contest, winning with brisket, ribs, and sausage, then getting arrested.
The story is not real, but it spread because BBQ people will believe almost anything if brisket, ribs, prize money, and a ridiculous disguise are involved. This one is pure BBQ internet weirdness. No judging notes. No fire-management lesson. Just a reminder that barbecue culture has its serious side, its expensive side, and sometimes its completely unhinged rumor-machine side.
San Antonio Current | June 8, 2026 | Free
South Texas barbecue gets a Finals spotlight
With the Spurs on the NBA Finals stage, Scoop B talked with Adrian Davila about bringing South Texas barbecue into the Frost Bank Center spotlight. Davila’s BBQ has had to translate slow-and-low food into fast arena service, including loaded brisket Frito pie, cowboy mac and cheese, brisket tacos, and signature sausage for a championship crowd.
The local angle is what makes this one worth including. Davila talks about South Texas vaquero barbecue as identity, not just branding. That is the kind of BBQ culture thread we like to follow: family history, regional flavor, arena crowds, and San Antonio showing off what it brings to the table.
Scoop B | June 2026 | Free
If this issue made you look at the sausage on a BBQ tray a little differently, forward it to your favorite BBQ road trip partner. It helps us grow this community one smoke stop at a time.
This week’s Pitmaster Picks stay focused on the people behind the smoke: one conversation about where modern Texas BBQ is headed, and one video about barbecue becoming part of a second-chance story.
Evan LeRoy on New School Barbecue and Texas BBQ’s next chapter
Podcast | June 9, 2026 | Apple Podcasts, Biscuits & Jam
Evan LeRoy of LeRoy and Lewis joins Biscuits & Jam to talk about New School Barbecue, family traditions, Texas pride, and how his Austin restaurant grew from a food truck into one of the most closely watched names in modern Texas BBQ.
Why I picked this: LeRoy is one of the better voices for explaining how Texas BBQ can keep changing without losing its roots. That fits this issue well, especially after talking about sausage as one of the places where tradition and creativity meet.
A combat veteran, barbecue, and a second-chance story
Video | June 6, 2026 | YouTube, Behind The Food TV
Behind The Food TV visits a combat veteran whose barbecue story goes deeper than technique. The video still has the cooking, teaching, and pitmaster detail you expect from the channel, but the bigger pull is the personal side: barbecue as a craft, a business, a community anchor, and part of rebuilding a life.
Why I picked this: BBQ Fandom works best when it follows the people behind the smoke, not just the food in front of the camera. This one feels like a reminder that barbecue can be livelihood, identity, therapy, second chance, and service all at once.
This week’s BBQ Events Radar is competition-heavy, but there are still good reasons to pay attention: a late-June state championship, a Lockhart stop, a San Antonio cook-off and car show, a small-town festival cookoff, and a fundraiser tied to kids and education.
Click the city links below to see BBQ joints in each city and build the stop into a bigger Texas BBQ outing.
Barbeque Capital Showdown [This Week] [Competition]
June 12 to 13, 2026 | Lockhart, TX
Lockhart is already one of the most important BBQ towns in Texas, so even a competition-heavy event has built-in road-trip value. If you are close enough to make the drive, this is the kind of stop that can easily turn into a bigger Lockhart BBQ day.
BCJLS Cookin’ For Kids Cook-Off and Car Show [This Weekend] [Competition] [Car Show]
June 13 to 14, 2026 | San Antonio, TX
This one stands out because it pairs barbecue with a car show, which makes it feel more accessible for general readers than a standard cook-off listing. For San Antonio readers, it is also the easiest local event to build into a weekend BBQ outing.
David Decker Memorial BBQ Cookoff at Holland Corn Festival [Next Week] [Competition] [Festival]
June 19, 2026 | Holland, TX
A BBQ cookoff tied to a local festival always has a little more reader value than a competition alone. Holland Corn Festival gives this one a community setting, and the memorial angle makes it feel rooted in the local BBQ calendar.
S.M.O.K.E, Spending Money on Kids and Education [Next Week] [Competition] [Fundraiser]
June 19, 2026 | Montgomery, TX
This IBCA event is worth noting because the cause is right there in the name. It is a competition event, but the education-focused fundraiser angle gives readers a reason to care beyond the turn-in boxes.
Smoke in the Pines BBQ Cook-Off [Competition] [Road Trip Worthy]
June 26 to 27, 2026 | Livingston, TX
Smoke in the Pines gets the Featured Monthly Event spot because it gives readers a late-June BBQ target with enough time left to plan. The Polk County Chamber lists it as the 7th Annual State Championship Smoke in the Pines BBQ Cook-Off, with cook teams, cornhole, a Kid’s Q, and an auto and bike show.
For readers looking toward East Texas or the Lake Livingston area, this could become more than a cook-off stop. It is the kind of weekend that can turn into a small road trip, especially if you build in a BBQ stop before or after the event.
This week on ExploringBBQ.com, the sausage conversation does not have to stop with the article. You can read the full Culture & Identity piece, try a jalapeño cheddar sausage recipe, learn more about the craft behind sausage-making, post your own cook in Fan Cooks, or log a BBQ stop in your BBQ Passport if a sausage link earns a spot in your memory.
Read it: What sausage tells you about a Texas BBQ joint
We expanded this week’s From the Pit into a full ExploringBBQ Culture & Identity article about what sausage can tell you about a Texas BBQ joint.
Brisket may get the spotlight, but sausage can reveal grind, smoke, seasoning, texture, tradition, creativity, and whether the whole tray gets real attention.
Cook it: Jalapeño cheddar sausage
If this issue has you thinking about sausage, we already have a recipe ready for the backyard side of the story.
Our jalapeño cheddar sausage recipe walks through a bold, smoky link built around beef, pork, jalapeño, cheddar, and Texas BBQ flavor.
Learn it: sausage, curing, and the craft behind the link
If you want to understand sausage beyond the tray, one book I regularly go back to is Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.
It is not just a BBQ book, and that is part of why it is useful. It helps explain the bigger world behind fresh sausage, fermented sausage, curing, smoking, ratios, texture, and technique. If you are curious about why a sausage link eats the way it does, this is one of those books that helps the process make more sense.
Disclosure: ExploringBBQ may earn a small commission from Bookshop.org links, at no extra cost to you.
Share it: Fan Cooks
Cooked sausage, ribs, brisket, wings, burgers, sides, or anything else worth showing off?
Post it in Fan Cooks and let the ExploringBBQ community see what is coming off your pit, grill, or backyard setup.
Stamp it: June First Stamp Sticker Pack
Your next Texas BBQ stop can come with a little road-trip reward.
Log a BBQ Passport Visit Stamp during June 2026, then send us a quick screenshot and mailing address. We will send an ExploringBBQ sticker pack while supplies last. Each pack includes one 4-inch ExploringBBQ sticker and one 3-inch BBQ Passport sticker.
Here is how it works:
Create or log into your ExploringBBQ account.
Visit a Texas BBQ joint and log at least one BBQ Passport Visit Stamp in June 2026.
Add at least one note or detail about your visit, such as what you ordered, who you went with, what stood out, or whether you would go back.
Send an Email to [email protected] with the following:
Subject: June First Stamp Sticker Pack
Body: Include your name and U.S. mailing address.
Attachment: Mobile screenshot showing your completed June Visit Stamp
Promotion ends June 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM CT. To qualify, your BBQ Passport Visit Stamp must be logged in your ExploringBBQ account by June 30, 2026. Your screenshot submission must be received at [email protected] by July 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM CT.
No purchase is required to participate. Sticker packs are limited, one per person, and available while supplies last. Mailing addresses are used only to send the sticker pack.
For the next BBQ run
Supporting BBQ culture does not always mean ordering the biggest tray on the menu. Sometimes it is showing up, bringing a friend, logging the stop, and wearing something that says you are part of the smoke trail.
Know about a BBQ event, new opening, road-trip stop, or story worth following? Send a note to [email protected].
We read every message and may feature reader tips in a future issue. BBQ Fandom follows the people, places, and moments that make barbecue worth following.
If someone came to mind while reading this issue, forward it their way.
Enjoyed this issue? Subscribe to BBQ Fandom for weekly Texas BBQ news, events, worthy stops, and culture.