Rosemary Kent (author of the 1981 book The Genuine Texas Handbook) has been quoted as saying that Texans barbecue “everything except ice cream.” It’s not known where this phrase ultimately originated.
 
See also Edna Ferber’s 1963 statement: “Texas fries everything but ice cream.”
 
 
Texas Facts
Barbeque: The name barbecue is derived from the Spanish word barbacoa for the grill on which meat is roasted and it is used as a verb by the way of preparing the meat and as a noun in the name of a social event centered around eating it. In Texas everyone barbecues, from Texas millionaire ranchers and oilmen introducing their daughters to Texas society via a barbecue at a big spread to inter-city Texas poor folks that are just getting together and barbecuing in their back yards or front porches. It’s been said that Texas is a place where they barbecue everything except ice cream.
     
1001 Greatest Things Ever Said About Texas
edited by Donna Ingham
Guilford, CT: Lyons Press
2006
Pg. 298:
It has been said that Texas is a place where they barbecue everything except ice cream.
—Rosemary Kent