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Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Vond, Barbecue editor at Texas Monthly. And this

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this Fire and Smoke at Texas Monthly Barbecue podcast, brought

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to you by YETI. I'm an open minded guy when

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it comes to barbecue, and I certainly could use a

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few more vegetables in my life. So when I got

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the email from Rice University asking me to come by

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and check out their chef's new plant based versions of

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vegan barbecue brisket, I didn't dismiss it outright. It might

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have taken me a couple of days to respond back,

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but when I got back to him, well, we had

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a tour all set up. I got on campus and

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I met some of the pr folks for Rice University

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and Suzanne Glenn, she's the manager of communications for Housing

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and Dining at Rice University. The first thing she said

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to me is, are you ready to start your plant

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based journey? They even have a hashtag on campus called

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hashtag our plant based Journey, so you can check out

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all their different vegan options that they serve on the

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dining halls right there on Instagram. The vegan brisket that

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I got, or the plant based brisket that I got

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wasn't much to instagram, but it was certainly interesting to try,

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and it was fun to talk to the chef about

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how he developed it. So let's head to Rice University.

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So it's safe to say I was dubious walking into

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one of the many dining halls on the Houston campus

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of Rice University recently. I was here on a mission

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to visit Senior executive Chef Roger L. Koori. He had

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recently developed vegan versions, that's right, vegan versions of Texas barbecue,

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although he uses the term plant based to describe them.

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As I entered the dining hall, I was skeptical, and

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of course I have plenty of misgivings about appropriating meat

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terms to make vegan dishes sound more appealing, like so

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many other culinary misnomers. There's there's no faheita on a

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grilled shrimp, and almonds certainly don't produce milk of their own.

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You are really deceptively using the word brisket.

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Speaker 2: As well, because yeah, yeah, you know, just that you

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can come off an animal, you know, yeah, just that

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soy American, I'm American, cassu American and all that stuff,

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you know.

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Speaker 1: So one of the its like shrimp fijetas I guess

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the phrasing here of a vegan plant based brisket is

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a way to sell a less familiar alternative. I guess

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vital wheat gluten loaf likely wouldn't make it off the

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shelves in Texas, but plant based brisket has a shot.

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I guess here at rice, the culinary team admits it's

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a marketing tool to get students to try new items

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before dismissing them. I mean, exploring new ideas is what

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college is all about, right.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, people hate culiflower and college shooting. They hate

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cult flower with passion. So I'm gonna go in ginea

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a recipe that make people wait in line for cauldiflower

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every Monday. So I did, and then we'll do it. Oh,

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that's a year and a half ago. People line up

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for it.

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Speaker 1: It looks el Koori began his own plant based brisket

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journey a year ago. He'd already developed plant based versions

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of meats, including ham, turkey, and sausage at rice, and

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he wanted to add a new barbecue dish to the menu.

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When his first plant based brisket emerged from the oven,

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looking suspiciously purple. He knew some adjustments were in order.

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Along with the taste and texture, it had to mimic

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the look of brisket as well.

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Speaker 2: Spoke about a year assault. Yeah, and a lot of

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testing and a lot of crying.

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Speaker 1: You know, there some cryingold He didn't really cry over

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at the.

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Speaker 2: Gym, not over it the way home.

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Speaker 1: After many failed iterations, he settled on a recipe that's

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ninety five percent vital wheat gluten. That's wheat with all

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the starch removed, leaving behind only the gluten, and that

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is mixed with water, spices and the secret ingredient porcini

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mushroom powder for that umami flavor. There's also some liquid

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smoke in there. That's because it's not smoked, it's baked,

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although there is a smoker on site that he uses

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for chicken and the occasional beef brisket. At the serving line,

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we walked right past the beautiful prime rib carving station

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to read the plant based menu. Barbecue smoked brisket sliders

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were the day's selection, and it was only the second

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time they had been offered. I tried to slice a

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vegan brisket without the bun. It pulled apart easily enough.

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El Koori said the biggest challenge was to keep it

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from becoming rubbery. Black pepper was the most pronounced flavor.

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There wasn't really much else that stood out, thankfully. The

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liquid smoke had been used sparingly. Essentially, this was a

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blank canvas. The texture was far more important than the flavor.

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Since the finished product was covered in a thick barbecue

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sauce and a pile of caramelized onions, the quote unquote

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brisket didn't have to really stand on its own. It

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ends up not being really much more offensive than a

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passable chopped beef sandwich and an average barbecue joint that's

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covered with sauce and pickles and raw onions.

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Speaker 2: And then the favor was the biggest thing. You know,

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how you're going to convince people they're eating almost the

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experience of the brisket. We fooled a lot of people

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with the brisket. We gave him to the brisket's already

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made and they eat it and they say, oh, this

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is very good brisket. What do the smoke it? And

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they said, we did it al side in the smoke

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with we don't have.

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Speaker 1: Now, before you get too worried about university indoctrination, el

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Koory's stress that he's not really trying to turn students

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into vegans or really even eliminate the meat from the menu.

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Rice's campus food is highly rated, and the dining team

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would like to keep it that way. The plant based

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options are a result of inclusivity, not exclusivity. Many of

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Rice's international students don't eat meat at all, so el

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Koury's brisket might be their only option for a bite

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of Texas barbecue, however distorted it might be. For that reason,

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he also creates plant based dishes that don't rely on

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peanuts or cashews for texture, so diners with nut allergies

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can enjoy them. I guess the gluten free folks are

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out of block for now. El Kouri attributes his philosophy

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about non traditional meat dishes to his upbringing in Lebanon.

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We never thought of hummus and peeda bread as vegan,

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he said. Instead, his family saw the many plant based

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dishes that they served alongside grilled and roasted meats. It's

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just what they were food. He hopes RICE students will

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be equally open minded el Kouri considers it a success

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when they have both the meat option and the plant

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based protein on their trays. When I see that, I

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think the mission is complete.

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Speaker 2: He told me, this is for everybody that's not only

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for vegan, because when you say vegans, they came to

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the life. I said, would you like to try that?

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She said, they ate a lot of meat. I'm not vegan.

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I experienced this, you know when I start doing this.

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And then I looked and I said, well, this is

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for everybody that's not for vegan. Because it's for vegan,

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we'll probably say the ten fifteen sandwiches. We're saying about

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four hundred hundreds a day in here, So this is

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for everybody. This project was made for everybody.

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Speaker 1: El Kouri sees a broader transition towards less meat consumption

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as something that's inevitable. The future is plant based, he said.

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Since products like nutritional yeast have hit the shelves at

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grocery store chains, he reasons meat replacements have officially made

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their way into the mainstream.

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Speaker 2: We wanted to reduce the intake of the SII meat

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redmating all the a replace it or something plant based.

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That's it. Yeah, We're not trying to cancel their diet.

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We're not trying to do any of that.

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Speaker 1: His perspective is backed up by science, as the warming

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planet requires significant changes to meat production. According to a

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recent dire report released by the UN's Inner Governmental Panel

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on Climate Change, halting the warming of the planet to

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a non catastrophic level would quote require rapid, far reaching,

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and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society end quote.

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That means we'll likely see many more plant based meat

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substitutes rather than less. Meanwhile, El Koori will continue innovating

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with his contributions. At the end of lunch, he headed

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back to the kitchen to work on new versions of

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plant based pork ribs and pork belly, the latter of

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which is particularly difficult because of the layers of fat

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and meat that will need to replicate. The pork belly

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is two dimensional set the frustrated chef, it needs a

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lot of work. In the end, I can't imagine that

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this plant based brisket is going to convince any Texas

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carnivores out there to abandon their beef brisket. But I

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will say I'm interested to see where this develops and

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how some of these mock meats might develop into something

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that who knows, might even one day fool me. Texas

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barbecue is built from the ground up, from the wood

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to the smoke to the meat. You have to have

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the right tools to create a masterpiece on butcher big

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YETI coolers have you covered? Built to be indestructible, keep

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ice for days, and keep a brisket hot for hours.

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Yetti is built for Texas barbecue. You've been listening to

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Fire and Smoke, the Texas Monthly Barbecue Podcast. I'm Daniel Vaughan,

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and I'll see you out there on the barbecue trail.