# Fav style of BBQ **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381 "2012-06-17T00:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/41 "2012-06-17T22:35:00Z")
Thanks, and we are actually having his family from the area bring us some Greenbrier’s sauce! I have never had it but my parents and his family all swear by it. Like I said, I tend towards the Dreamland or Ollie’s. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/42 "2012-06-17T22:35:18Z")
The only time I heard of Americans eating goat was one that pulled a cart for my Mother as a child ran away with my Mother and Aunts to be aboard. My Grandfather had it barbecued. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/43 "2012-06-17T23:52:21Z")
If done really well, every one of those styles can be sublime. I embrace the diversity of BBQ styles. I hate that it’s been turned into a competitive sport. BBQ Pitmasters? What a bunch of dicks. They poison their BBQ with that attitude. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/44 "2012-06-18T00:05:05Z")
An Arky, have you eaten at the Whole Hog? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/45 "2012-06-18T00:48:02Z")
I know objectively that mustard-based BBQ is legit, but…somehow it doesn’t _seem_ like BBQ to me. I like to combine KC and NE–I like tomato/ketchup but I want a crapload of vinegar too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/46 "2012-06-18T00:57:22Z")
Say, weren’t you the one that posted the _ **BETTER THAN SEX** _ BBQ recipe a while back? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/47 "2012-06-18T01:01:23Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > If done really well, every one of those styles can be sublime. I embrace the diversity of BBQ styles. I hate that it’s been turned into a competitive sport. BBQ Pitmasters? What a bunch of dicks. They poison their BBQ with that attitude. Meh, its affects on BBQers are the same as the influence of MLB on a backyard game of catch. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/48 "2012-06-18T01:01:45Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I know objectively that mustard-based BBQ is legit, but…somehow it doesn’t _seem_ like BBQ to me. > > I like to combine KC and NE–I like tomato/ketchup but I want a crapload of vinegar too. It was strange for me, too, raised on [The Shack’s](http://www.syncweekly.com/news/2010/jun/29/legend-shack/) vinegar based sauce. But I became a convert! Before the Shack shut down, I dated the daugther of an employee and was privy to a story of rats dragging a rack of ribs across the kitchen floor. She would not eat there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/49 "2012-06-18T01:06:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Say, weren’t you the one that posted the _ **BETTER THAN SEX** _ BBQ recipe a while back? Yes. Which used a ton of vinegar, chili sauce and lime-juice. Only thing I’d change is I now have a smoker, and while you can do wonderful things with propane grills, it simply can’t do true bbq as well as a low-and-slow charcoal smoker. That recipe still makes pretty damned good pulled pork, but if you use a charcoal bbq/smoker, it’ll turn out even better. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/50 "2012-06-18T01:43:18Z")
> [@ShelliBean](#): > > north Alabama white sauce fans I’m afraid to ask, but what the hell is that? What is a white sauce with regards to BBQ? Btw, I picked Texas BBQ, b/c I prefer cow bits, but I’m like many here that said they each have their plusses and minuses and FREE is the best kind ever! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/51 "2012-06-18T01:48:41Z")
The poll is biased in the way it asks the question (order of choices is not neutral). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/52 "2012-06-18T02:14:19Z")
[White BBQ Sauce.](http://www.southernliving.com/food/how-to/a-north-alabama-favorite-white-bbq-sauce-00400000007610/) Now go find some brain bleach to get rid of the image. **Shibb** - That’s your quibble? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/53 "2012-06-18T03:30:20Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > …Out here in the SF Bay Area bbq is mostly Texas-style which I like just fine, but I find the most convenient local joints maddeningly inconsistent. The same place can be pretty good one day and dried out crap the next, which tends to put me off it a bit… Where in the Bay Area did you go? I was never impressed by any of the Texas-style places I’d tried, in either the Bay Area or in the Monterey area, and I never made it out to ‘Doug’s under the bridge’ before he closed. I always wondered, “What’s the point again? Why do people rave about this stuff?” And then I found Kreuz, Smitty’s and Luling… > [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Oh, yeah. There is bad stuff out there. For too much of the Midwest BBQ can be pork cooked in a Croc Pot with a bottle of sauce stirred in. And then you’ve got people who call direct grilling barbecued… There are a lot of places in Texas that consider this 'que too. Unfortunately. Agree with **silenus** and **pulykamell** : There is a lot of bad bbq, or at least bbq that makes you dislike spending the money. If it’s someone’s backyard, OTOH, you’re not really there just for the food, are you? > [@silenus](#): > > But you can try. 😃 > > Bad BBQ is everywhere… > > …I like Calvin Trillin’s ideas for finding good BBQ while traveling: he first asks if the place has plates. If the answer is “Of course!” then he keeps looking. He knows he’s hit paydirt when someone says “Well, there’s this old black guy out off Loop 7, who is only open 4 days a week…ornery cuss.” And related to that, I am waiting and hoping for [Pierson and Company](http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2011/11/pierson_company_bar-b-que_like.php) to open back up in Houston. (though he was the furthest thing from ornery.) [Gatlin’s BBQ](http://gatlinsbbq.com/) and [Thelma’s](http://www.29-95.com/restaurants/thelmas-bar-b-que) (who _is_ ornery) will just have to fill the void. Thelma really isn’t that bad; you just have to know the rules, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/54 "2012-06-18T04:18:19Z")
BBQ is a noun. BBQ is pork shoulder. If you have to ask what kind (beef, ribs, chicken, pork?) then you are in the wrong place. Sauce is a thick tangy tomato base with a bit of vinegar, a bit sweet but not like ketchup at all. More a mix of KC and East Carolina styles. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/55 "2012-06-18T10:07:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > An Arky, have you eaten at the Whole Hog? No, but it looks good! I kind of wonder where Arkansas BBQ falls in this list…of course, it depends on the place, but generally speaking, it seems somewhere between Memphis and Kansas City with a smidgeon of Texas, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/56 "2012-06-18T22:12:17Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > No, but it looks good! > > I kind of wonder where Arkansas BBQ falls in this list…of course, it depends on the place, but generally speaking, it seems somewhere between Memphis and Kansas City with a smidgeon of Texas, but I could be wrong. It’s good, but they don’t cook in sauce, they have various bottled selections. The shack had vinegar and lots of pepper; Sims has gone badly downhill. Sort of tomato vinegar. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/57 "2012-06-19T01:25:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And here, I didn’t know that there was anywhere in the country where mutton or goat was a standard dish. I’ll definitely have to try those, if ever I get the chance. If you never make it out this way, Steve Raichlen has a pretty good write up of the technique and the sauce in _BBQ USA_ so you can try it at home. Fair warning, though: mutton can make pork barbecue seem pretty flat and dull because the flavor is so much more complex and intense. If you do make it out this way, I highly recommend going to Old Hickory and getting a combo plate: sliced mutton off the pit (this is important, you get a drier, smokier-tasting meat this way), mutton ribs, and either pork ribs or some chicken. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/58 "2012-06-19T14:10:53Z")
This isn’t a poll about barbecues, it’s a poll about sauce. Eastern NC is traditionally whole hog cooked over wood, while western NC is whole shoulder. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/59 "2012-06-19T14:17:56Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > This isn’t a poll about barbecues, it’s a poll about sauce. > > Eastern NC is traditionally whole hog cooked over wood, while western NC is whole shoulder. I’m confused. What does your second comment have to do with sauce? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381/60 "2012-06-19T14:31:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I’m confused. > What does your second comment have to do with sauce? 🙂 Whoops, sorry for the hijack. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fav-style-of-bbq/625381.md?page=4)