When it comes to barbecue beef sausage in Texas, we think there’s none better than the extravagantly juicy links to be found in Elgin, at Southside Market & Barbeque. In fact, we have a couple of packages of the stuff in our freezer at this very moment (having eaten our way through an entire smoked brisket!). We’re particularly fond of the one they call 1882 Recipe, which harkens back to the meat market and smokehouse’s founding. Over the decades, Southside has tamed the heat in their sausage but, if you want to enjoy it the way it was made and served about a century ago, at the original heat level (which is still not all that scorching), 1882 Recipe is for you.

For their Road Trippin’ series, KEYE-TV in Austin takes a look at Southside’s Bastrop location, opened two years ago. As owner Bryan Bracewell says in the piece, “There’s no secrets in barbecue, right?” It’s not so much the ingredients in the rub or the sauce that separates one Texas Q from another, it’s the skill of the pitmaster combined with time-honored techniques that make the difference. Have a look at the video.