Eileen ordered a New Braunfels Smokehouse summer sausage out of one of their catalogs back around 1991, and I remember thinking she'd lost her mind paying for meat through the mail. We've got a freezer in the garage and a neighbor down the road who'll sell you a side of beef. But the box showed up, we sliced into that sausage on a Saturday, and I shut my mouth. Been ordering from them on and off ever since, mostly around Christmas.
If you're sitting here in 2026 wondering how to get one of their catalogs sent to your house for free, the answer is short. Here's how it works.
The Short Version
Go to nbsmokehouse.com/about/catalog, fill in the form, hit submit. They want your name, mailing address, and an email. That's it. The catalog comes in the mail a couple weeks later. No charge, no membership, no funny business. You can also request one through the catalog request page over at Catalogs.com if that's where you landed.
If typing isn't your preference, pick up the phone. 1-800-537-6932. Their hours are weekdays, business hours, Eastern time. A real person will take down your address and send you the book.
What You'll Find Inside
The catalog is built around hickory-smoked meat, which is what they've been doing since 1945. Eighty years this past summer, in fact — the New Braunfels paper ran a piece on the anniversary in July of 2025. The lineup hasn't changed all that much over the years, which I take as a good sign.
- Smoked turkeys, hams, and beef brisket
- Summer sausage and jerky
- Smoked cheeses
- Coffee cakes and breakfast goods
- Gift assortments and gift certificates
The gift assortments are where most folks land if they're shopping for somebody else. You pick a box, they pack it with a little of this and a little of that, and it shows up at your sister-in-law's place in time for the holiday. Out here in Nebraska we get hard freezes from November through March, so a meat box mailed in December is going to arrive in fine shape. They ship cold, but cold weather doesn't hurt either.
One Thing Worth Knowing About the Restaurant
If you've driven through New Braunfels, Texas in years past and remembered the restaurant alongside the smokehouse off I-35, that part is gone. They closed the dining room in August of 2020 during the pandemic. The production plant on Guenther Avenue is still running, and that's where your catalog meat comes from. So the company is alive and well — you just can't go sit down for a plate of brisket on the way to San Antonio anymore. That was a loss. I drove past it once on a trip down to see Eileen's cousin in Austin and we ate there. Good food, friendly room, lousy timing for them in 2020.
How Long the Catalog Takes to Show Up
In my experience, a couple of weeks. The website doesn't promise a date. The old write-ups used to say 10 to 14 business days and that's still about right. If a month goes by and nothing's in your mailbox, call the 800 number and ask. Things get lost. Mail in rural areas isn't what it was.
Skip the Catalog and Just Order Online
You don't need the printed book to buy from them. The website has everything in it — meats, cheeses, pantry items, baked goods, gifts. Categories are laid out clean down the left side. If you've already got a catalog and see an item number you want, there's a spot to type it in directly so you don't have to hunt around.
Why bother with a paper catalog then? Two reasons, the way I see it. First, it's easier on the eyes than squinting at a phone, and you can mark pages with a pencil. Second, a lot of folks I know hand the catalog to their grown kids around Thanksgiving and say here, pick out something for Christmas. That's harder to do with a website.
Ordering by Phone
Same number as for the catalog, 1-800-537-6932. If you're not comfortable putting a credit card into a website, this is the way. They'll take your order, take your shipping address, and tell you when it'll go out. I've done it both ways. The phone is fine. Just have a list of item numbers ready if you've got the catalog in front of you, otherwise the call runs longer.
Restrictions
Shipping is U.S. only. They don't send meat overseas, and I doubt the carriers would let them anyway. If you've got family up in Canada you wanted to send a sausage to, that's not going to work through this catalog.
The free catalog itself is also U.S. addresses only, far as I can tell. No subscription, no auto-renew, no fee buried in the fine print. They send it, you get it, you order or you don't.
If You Like This Sort of Thing
There are a handful of other mail-order food outfits in the same neighborhood worth knowing about. Catalogs.com lists food and gourmet catalogs from MagicKitchen.com, DineWise, and the kitchen-gear folks at Kitchen Universe. Different products, similar idea — print catalog, free for the asking, mailed to your house.
None of those will give you Texas hickory-smoked brisket, though. For that you've got to go to the source.
The Practical Takeaway
If you're sixty-plus and you've got a holiday gift list staring at you, requesting this catalog costs you nothing and gives you something to flip through over coffee. Ten minutes on the website or one phone call. Two weeks later it's in your mailbox. You can order from it, give it to a grandkid to circle what they like, or set it aside and let it sit. Worst case you toss it in the recycling. Best case you've got Christmas dinner figured out by the second week of November. That's a fair trade in my book.
