The Most Famous Pitmaster You've Probably Never Heard Of

N2Q · 12-31-2014, 06:36 AM

Alright Folks, it's bbq history time. Here's a great article about Mueller's BBQ in TX.

http://www.tmbbq.com/the-most-famous...ever-heard-of/

Fred Fountaine is arguably Texas barbecue’s most influential pitmaster—and you’ve probably never heard of him. For forty years he cooked the barbecue at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, and during his tenure, he helped bring national acclaim to Texas barbecue.

Fountaine, who grew up in Massachussetts, lived in Rhode Island after he completed his service in World War II, but he left for Texas after a doctor ordered him to live in a warmer climate. He arrived in Taylor in 1946, and, according to Wayne Mueller, Louie’s grandson and current pitmaster at Louie Mueller, “Fred walked from the train station to Louie Mueller and asked for a job.” Fountaine started as a stock boy at Louie Mueller’s Complete Grocery, but he encountered trial by fire, so to speak, the day two cooks working the pits both quit. Louie didn’t know the first thing about smoking meats, and as Fred told the Milwaukee Journal in 1984, “Mueller just said, “That’s the barbecue pit.’ I didn’t know how to do it, but I stayed, I learned, and I built up the business.”

By the mid-eighties, Fred and Louie Mueller Barbecue had been written about by The Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly (several times), and the New York Times. The Times’ food critic Mimi Sheraton called it “an essential stop on any barbecue tour,” in 1978. She praised the smoked beef and the “sheer russet sauce.” That thin sauce, very similar to what you’d find at Louie Mueller Barbecue today, was almost as famous as Fred. In March of 1975, the Atlantic Monthly called the sauce “a masterwork twenty years in the making.”

Fountaine’s Sauce Recipe*
1 quart (32 ounces) catsup
3 quarts water
2 onions the size of baseballs, cut up fine (use 1 ½ if they are the size of softballs)
2 beef bullion cubes
2 tablespoons salt, or to taste
¼ cup black pepper, or to taste
In large pan, combine all ingredients, going gently with salt and pepper first.
Bring to boil over high heat and boil vigorously 40 minutes. Reduce heat to low, tast and correct seasonings, and let simmer 40 minutes longer. At end, increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil again. Then it’s done. Bottle in clean bottle or jars and store in refrigerator. Makes about two quarts.
* As originally printed in the October 24, 1984 Milwaukee Journal
If the sauce was praised, Fountaine’s briskets were exalted. In 1981, Texas Monthly’s own Paul Burka wrote that nothing he has ever seen “can approach the ecstasy of seeing thirty briskets bubbling in their own juices under the direction of Fred Fountaine at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor.” But Fred was reluctant to cook brisket when he first started. Louie Mueller asked him to move away from beef clod, but he was stubborn. “Grandpa told me Fred would intentionally under- and- over- cook the early briskets with the hopes grandpa would drop it,” recalls Wayne Mueller. Wayne’s brother, John, laughed, recalling, “Fred told him it would never sell.” Once he got the hang of it, not many could do it better. His technique of wrapping the beef in butcher paper to keep it moist was seen as innovative, and it’s that same technique that Aaron Franklin employs on his famously tender beef.

Between the sauce and the beef, Fred bona fides made him a bit of a celebrity. In 1985, he told the AP, “I can’t go anywhere in Texas that somebody doesn’t know me.” Even as early as 1964, folks in town referred to Louie Mueller as “Fred’s place.” Famous Texas food historian and writer Frank X. Tolbert shared his frustration in finding the place for the first time since there wasn’t a sign that mentioned Fred anywhere, but everyone he talked to told him to go to Fred’s: “The sign says Louie Miller’s [sic], but in Taylor this is usually called Fred’s, in honor of the manager and barbecue chef, Fred Fountaine.” In other articles they called him a “a virtuoso at barbecuing briskets “ and a “barbecue artist.” Along with fellow locals Vencil Mares and Rudy Mikeska, he was a celebrity judge at the Taylor International Barbecue Cook-off in 1982.

Part of his living legacy was that he only cooked with wood—a barbecue tradition that journalists of the time were certain would die with him. Alison Cook wrote in Texas Monthly in December, 1983, that “Fred Fountaine will retire from his hallowed barbecue pit at Louie Mueller’s in four years or so, but it’s a safe bet that hordes of greaseless, preppy County Lines will spring up to take his place.” The Rotarian magazine also weighed in, hypothesizing that “late night television may yet be the downfall of barbecue.” There wasn’t much hope for the future generation of barbecue cooks.

The Texas Food Hall of Fame in the December 1983 issue of Texas Monthly. Fred Fountaine is holding the hunk of beef.

Bobby Mueller, Louie’s son, joined the ranks at the barbecue joint with Fred in 1974. Bobby had worked as a butcher, and didn’t know much about barbecue, but he started working with Fred to learn the craft. In the beginning there was tension; Fred feared Bobby was treading on his turf. “He may have felt put aside or upstaged,” was the observation of Wayne Mueller, but the two men eventually put egos aside, and like a good running back tandem, they understood that a genial partnership meant mutual longevity. “It worked for both of them,” Wayne said. “Both of them knew how to cook, so it gave each of them more time off. They knew they needed each other.”

During that time off, Fred played dominoes and was a member of the Taylor Merchants bowling league where he once bowled a 300 game. A recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his service in WWII, he remained active in the local American Legion Post 39. He was also a thoughtful man, former Texas Monthly editor Griffin Smith Jr. recalled. They weren’t exactly close, but when Smith fell ill in 1972, he received a hand-written note: “Sorry to hear you were ill. Hope you will be feeling better soon. Good luck. – Fred Fountaine”

Both Wayne and John remember Fred fondly too. The brothers worked with Fred at the barbecue joint, and when they were young, they wiped down tables and trays. Wayne described him as “a Claymation caricature. Everything about him seemed exaggerated. He had these stick legs and an oversized belly. He had a bald head with a big, big nose. His personality would jump out at you.” Everyone I spoke with remembered his large, grease-covered hands. He was prone to giving hearty handshakes, almost oblivious to the brisket grease he left behind.

But Fred was mostly passionate about good barbecue, and cooking it the way he deemed right and authentic: over wood. When Burka wrote about Fred in 1981, Burka fretted that Fred’s successor might not follow in that tradition. Knowing what we do now about the Mueller family’s toehold in Texas’s barbecue culture, it’s almost comical to read Burka’s thinly-veiled prophecy from way back then: “Back at the café, I asked Bobby whether he shared Fred’s antipathy for gas. ‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I can’t taste it. Besides, I don’t eat much barbecue myself.’” (Thankfully it has never come to that.)

For Fred Fountaine, the ending was as abrupt as it was tragic. Wayne recalled a confrontation between Louie and Fred. Louie accused Fred of giving some food away to customers. These accusations, true or not, might have been too much to take for the man who considered Louie a father figure. As John Mueller remembers: “My dad came into work one day and there was a note on his desk that said [Fred] had had enough, and he quit.” It was 1987 and Fred was one year shy of his fortieth anniversary as the pitmaster at Louie Mueller Barbecue.

Fred Fountaine wasn’t quite done with barbecue. He went the next town over to Hutto to cook at another barbecue joint. It didn’t last long, and Fred was out of barbecue until his death ten years later at the VA Hospital in Temple. In his time he was the king of Texas barbecue and cemented the position of Louie Mueller Barbecue was one of the greats. A year after he was gone, the New York Times included Louie Mueller in a list of must-visit food destinations. They talked up the barbecue, but urged readers not to leave without “a cup of chef Bobby Mueller’s special sauce…” It took Fred twenty years to perfect that sauce recipe and 39 years to build his legacy, but just a year after his departure, his named had drifted away like so much oak smoke.

ShadowDriver · 12-31-2014, 06:46 AM

Great post, N2Q!

Thanks for the recipe and the background to go with it.

A toast to Fred Fountaine, for both his service to our country and to the art of barbecue, which we also dearly love!

P.S. Why do we not have better emojis with beer involved?

Ol'Joe · 12-31-2014, 08:05 AM

Great article, thanks for posting, the recipe will be tried out for sure..

Wampus · 12-31-2014, 08:16 AM

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

guitargain · 12-31-2014, 08:20 AM

That was a good read. Thanks

Sammy_Shuford · 12-31-2014, 08:27 AM

thanks for posting.

16Adams · 12-31-2014, 08:33 AM

Thank You

Bludawg · 12-31-2014, 08:38 AM

TRY THE SAUCE all I;m sayin. He cooked a great brisket too.

pjtexas1 · 12-31-2014, 08:40 AM

Thanks for posting! It makes you wonder how many other places have forgotten pitmasters that helped cement some of our favorite bbq joints.

Shiz-Nit · 12-31-2014, 08:42 AM

Thanks very cool post!

Will work for bbq · 12-31-2014, 08:45 AM

Great story! Thanks for posting.

Spartan Smoker · 12-31-2014, 08:53 AM

great article. I hear this place is amazing. sold out by 1 everyday

Pitbull · 12-31-2014, 12:17 PM

Well the sauce recipe is so simple I put it together and it's cooking away on the stove. I'll let you know how it comes out..

silverfinger · 12-31-2014, 12:24 PM

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

N2Q · 12-31-2014, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitbull

Well the sauce recipe is so simple I put it together and it's cooking away on the stove. I'll let you know how it comes out..

Let us know how it turns out. I'm gonna give it a go on my next cook as well.

12-31-2014, 06:36 AM	#1
N2Q On the road to being a farker Join Date: 04-30-12 Location: The Lonestar State	The Most Famous Pitmaster You've Probably Never Heard Of Alright Folks, it's bbq history time. Here's a great article about Mueller's BBQ in TX. http://www.tmbbq.com/the-most-famous...ever-heard-of/ Fred Fountaine is arguably Texas barbecue’s most influential pitmaster—and you’ve probably never heard of him. For forty years he cooked the barbecue at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, and during his tenure, he helped bring national acclaim to Texas barbecue. Fountaine, who grew up in Massachussetts, lived in Rhode Island after he completed his service in World War II, but he left for Texas after a doctor ordered him to live in a warmer climate. He arrived in Taylor in 1946, and, according to Wayne Mueller, Louie’s grandson and current pitmaster at Louie Mueller, “Fred walked from the train station to Louie Mueller and asked for a job.” Fountaine started as a stock boy at Louie Mueller’s Complete Grocery, but he encountered trial by fire, so to speak, the day two cooks working the pits both quit. Louie didn’t know the first thing about smoking meats, and as Fred told the Milwaukee Journal in 1984, “Mueller just said, “That’s the barbecue pit.’ I didn’t know how to do it, but I stayed, I learned, and I built up the business.” By the mid-eighties, Fred and Louie Mueller Barbecue had been written about by The Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly (several times), and the New York Times. The Times’ food critic Mimi Sheraton called it “an essential stop on any barbecue tour,” in 1978. She praised the smoked beef and the “sheer russet sauce.” That thin sauce, very similar to what you’d find at Louie Mueller Barbecue today, was almost as famous as Fred. In March of 1975, the Atlantic Monthly called the sauce “a masterwork twenty years in the making.” Fountaine’s Sauce Recipe* 1 quart (32 ounces) catsup 3 quarts water 2 onions the size of baseballs, cut up fine (use 1 ½ if they are the size of softballs) 2 beef bullion cubes 2 tablespoons salt, or to taste ¼ cup black pepper, or to taste In large pan, combine all ingredients, going gently with salt and pepper first. Bring to boil over high heat and boil vigorously 40 minutes. Reduce heat to low, tast and correct seasonings, and let simmer 40 minutes longer. At end, increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil again. Then it’s done. Bottle in clean bottle or jars and store in refrigerator. Makes about two quarts. * As originally printed in the October 24, 1984 Milwaukee Journal If the sauce was praised, Fountaine’s briskets were exalted. In 1981, Texas Monthly’s own Paul Burka wrote that nothing he has ever seen “can approach the ecstasy of seeing thirty briskets bubbling in their own juices under the direction of Fred Fountaine at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor.” But Fred was reluctant to cook brisket when he first started. Louie Mueller asked him to move away from beef clod, but he was stubborn. “Grandpa told me Fred would intentionally under- and- over- cook the early briskets with the hopes grandpa would drop it,” recalls Wayne Mueller. Wayne’s brother, John, laughed, recalling, “Fred told him it would never sell.” Once he got the hang of it, not many could do it better. His technique of wrapping the beef in butcher paper to keep it moist was seen as innovative, and it’s that same technique that Aaron Franklin employs on his famously tender beef. Between the sauce and the beef, Fred bona fides made him a bit of a celebrity. In 1985, he told the AP, “I can’t go anywhere in Texas that somebody doesn’t know me.” Even as early as 1964, folks in town referred to Louie Mueller as “Fred’s place.” Famous Texas food historian and writer Frank X. Tolbert shared his frustration in finding the place for the first time since there wasn’t a sign that mentioned Fred anywhere, but everyone he talked to told him to go to Fred’s: “The sign says Louie Miller’s [sic], but in Taylor this is usually called Fred’s, in honor of the manager and barbecue chef, Fred Fountaine.” In other articles they called him a “a virtuoso at barbecuing briskets “ and a “barbecue artist.” Along with fellow locals Vencil Mares and Rudy Mikeska, he was a celebrity judge at the Taylor International Barbecue Cook-off in 1982. Part of his living legacy was that he only cooked with wood—a barbecue tradition that journalists of the time were certain would die with him. Alison Cook wrote in Texas Monthly in December, 1983, that “Fred Fountaine will retire from his hallowed barbecue pit at Louie Mueller’s in four years or so, but it’s a safe bet that hordes of greaseless, preppy County Lines will spring up to take his place.” The Rotarian magazine also weighed in, hypothesizing that “late night television may yet be the downfall of barbecue.” There wasn’t much hope for the future generation of barbecue cooks. The Texas Food Hall of Fame in the December 1983 issue of Texas Monthly. Fred Fountaine is holding the hunk of beef. Bobby Mueller, Louie’s son, joined the ranks at the barbecue joint with Fred in 1974. Bobby had worked as a butcher, and didn’t know much about barbecue, but he started working with Fred to learn the craft. In the beginning there was tension; Fred feared Bobby was treading on his turf. “He may have felt put aside or upstaged,” was the observation of Wayne Mueller, but the two men eventually put egos aside, and like a good running back tandem, they understood that a genial partnership meant mutual longevity. “It worked for both of them,” Wayne said. “Both of them knew how to cook, so it gave each of them more time off. They knew they needed each other.” During that time off, Fred played dominoes and was a member of the Taylor Merchants bowling league where he once bowled a 300 game. A recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his service in WWII, he remained active in the local American Legion Post 39. He was also a thoughtful man, former Texas Monthly editor Griffin Smith Jr. recalled. They weren’t exactly close, but when Smith fell ill in 1972, he received a hand-written note: “Sorry to hear you were ill. Hope you will be feeling better soon. Good luck. – Fred Fountaine” Both Wayne and John remember Fred fondly too. The brothers worked with Fred at the barbecue joint, and when they were young, they wiped down tables and trays. Wayne described him as “a Claymation caricature. Everything about him seemed exaggerated. He had these stick legs and an oversized belly. He had a bald head with a big, big nose. His personality would jump out at you.” Everyone I spoke with remembered his large, grease-covered hands. He was prone to giving hearty handshakes, almost oblivious to the brisket grease he left behind. But Fred was mostly passionate about good barbecue, and cooking it the way he deemed right and authentic: over wood. When Burka wrote about Fred in 1981, Burka fretted that Fred’s successor might not follow in that tradition. Knowing what we do now about the Mueller family’s toehold in Texas’s barbecue culture, it’s almost comical to read Burka’s thinly-veiled prophecy from way back then: “Back at the café, I asked Bobby whether he shared Fred’s antipathy for gas. ‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I can’t taste it. Besides, I don’t eat much barbecue myself.’” (Thankfully it has never come to that.) For Fred Fountaine, the ending was as abrupt as it was tragic. Wayne recalled a confrontation between Louie and Fred. Louie accused Fred of giving some food away to customers. These accusations, true or not, might have been too much to take for the man who considered Louie a father figure. As John Mueller remembers: “My dad came into work one day and there was a note on his desk that said [Fred] had had enough, and he quit.” It was 1987 and Fred was one year shy of his fortieth anniversary as the pitmaster at Louie Mueller Barbecue. Fred Fountaine wasn’t quite done with barbecue. He went the next town over to Hutto to cook at another barbecue joint. It didn’t last long, and Fred was out of barbecue until his death ten years later at the VA Hospital in Temple. In his time he was the king of Texas barbecue and cemented the position of Louie Mueller Barbecue was one of the greats. A year after he was gone, the New York Times included Louie Mueller in a list of must-visit food destinations. They talked up the barbecue, but urged readers not to leave without “a cup of chef Bobby Mueller’s special sauce…” It took Fred twenty years to perfect that sauce recipe and 39 years to build his legacy, but just a year after his departure, his named had drifted away like so much oak smoke. __________________ Hunsaker Drum~ Letting your meat hang is where it's at...

12-31-2014, 06:46 AM	#2
ShadowDriver somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 11-29-12 Location: ABQ, NM Name/Nickname : Marc	Great post, N2Q! Thanks for the recipe and the background to go with it. A toast to Fred Fountaine, for both his service to our country and to the art of barbecue, which we also dearly love! P.S. Why do we not have better emojis with beer involved? __________________ [B]Hardware[/B] - Weber 22.5 Kettle (Sep '16), OK Joe Longhorn (Mar '17), UUNI 3 Pizza Oven (Jan '18 ), Blue Rhino Razor Griddle (May '19), Cajun Bandit 22.5 Roti (Aug '20), Weber 26.75 Kettle (Dec '20)

12-31-2014, 08:05 AM	#3
Ol'Joe is one Smokin' Farker Join Date: 08-31-14 Location: Wisner, Louisiana	Great article, thanks for posting, the recipe will be tried out for sure.. __________________ Joe

12-31-2014, 08:16 AM	#4
Wampus somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 06-05-09 Location: Mooresville, IN	Very cool. Thanks for sharing! __________________ [COLOR="Blue"][B]"Oh, I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ." -Mahatma Gandhi[/B][/COLOR]

12-31-2014, 08:27 AM	#6
Sammy_Shuford is One Chatty Farker Join Date: 05-17-09 Location: Summerville, SC	thanks for posting. __________________ [LEFT][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] Yoder YS640 PitBoss Copper top series 7 [I][FONT="Arial Black"][B][I]A Pair of Pellet Poopers[/I][/B][/FONT][/I][/FONT][/COLOR] [/LEFT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black][COLOR=magenta]Purple Thermapen:laugh:[/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] MASTER Judge, SCBA Carolina Pit Master [URL]http://patio-q.com/[/URL]

12-31-2014, 08:20 AM	#5
guitargain Found some matches. Join Date: 11-27-14 Location: Sanderson, FL	That was a good read. Thanks

12-31-2014, 08:33 AM	#7
16Adams somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 01-16-13 Location: USA	Thank You __________________ Tiernan SOB34, Primo Oval XL, Oklahoma Joe's Bronco, Oklahoma Joe's Highland, Pit Boss Austin XL, Pit Boss Table Top

12-31-2014, 08:38 AM	#8
Bludawg somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 07-04-09 Location: Jonesboro,Tx	TRY THE SAUCE all I;m sayin. He cooked a great brisket too. __________________ I'm a Proxy Vegetarian> Cows eat grass & I eat cows.

12-31-2014, 08:40 AM	#9
pjtexas1 somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 12-28-11 Location: Belton, Tx Name/Nickname : Texas Pete	Thanks for posting! It makes you wonder how many other places have forgotten pitmasters that helped cement some of our favorite bbq joints. __________________ Paul (aka Texas Pete) SF 24x36 Midnight Edition / Mak 1-Star /Abe's 48" Insulated Cabinet / 22.5 OTG / 28" BS / Jimmy with CB Roti and pizza kit / Red Box on custom cart / Char-Griller Kettle / Barrel House Cooker / Pit Boss Copperhead / Char-Griller Akorn Jr Sign Up for The 2022 Texas BBQ Brethren Fall Bash Here! ([URL="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12NjP4bH3uLyH6-RJnI4gSfDr0nKQ6_4cxdw_GhmrKq0/edit#gid=1935530835"]Link[/URL])

12-31-2014, 08:42 AM	#10
Shiz-Nit Babbling Farker Join Date: 03-06-10 Location: kentucky	Thanks very cool post! __________________ Bluegrass Southern Smokers Instagram - bluegrasssouthernsmokers Deep South GC28 Forno Venetzia wood fired pizza oven Weber Summit S-670 natural gasser Traeger pellet pooper BGE's

12-31-2014, 08:45 AM	#11
Will work for bbq Babbling Farker Join Date: 06-23-10 Location: NorCal	Great story! Thanks for posting. __________________ Chalupa 00 Slowskys Racing Agent 000 (Double O Zero) Certified MOINK Baller When all else fails just ask yourself, WWGALD??? *Super sexy Farkernaut Avatar by N8man*

12-31-2014, 08:53 AM	#12
Spartan Smoker Got Wood. Join Date: 10-21-14 Location: Conroe, TX	great article. I hear this place is amazing. sold out by 1 everyday

12-31-2014, 12:17 PM	#13
Pitbull is one Smokin' Farker Join Date: 02-11-08 Location: Texas	Well the sauce recipe is so simple I put it together and it's cooking away on the stove. I'll let you know how it comes out.. __________________ PitBull Lyfe Tyme 20 Old Country Trailer Pit W/Upright Smokey Mountain-Webber Kettle Kamado-Campfire-Rocket Stove I take nothing for granted. I now only have good days and great days.

12-31-2014, 12:24 PM	#14
silverfinger Babbling Farker Join Date: 08-02-10 Location: Santa Poco.	Great story! Thanks for sharing! __________________ At my age, "A good fire is better then anything" Ten Bears. Dances With Wolves Smoking up the "Fattened Fat Of The Cow". Got a stick-burner! :mrgreen: UDS In Progress: Thank's Q-Junky! :thumb: Blackstone griddle. 50 year Old Imperial Kamado with ears. Fire pit. Weber Kettle.