My favorite: slightly burned (not to the core, just enough to get a good “al dente” crispy skin going and then with a tart (but not hot) white sauce. Cooked over wood fire, of course.
In front of me. 
I’m rather ecumenical when it comes to BBQ, but I definitely have favorites. We will ignore the Georgia Mustard Heresy as being not truly BBQ, and rank the main variations:
North Carolina (Western)
North Carolina (Eastern)
Texas (Smitty’s rules!)
KC
Memphis
Santa Maria
Everything else.
Chopped with peppery, vinegary sauce. Dreamland-esque. Or maybe Ollie’s, if you remember that.
Inside of me.
I love it all, to tell you the truth.
Dry rub ribs are a particular fave, though. I think that’s Memphis…
The place I loved most of all, Arthur’s BBQ in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, is now sadly closed. Some kind of tax issue, which is a shame, because I sincerely believe BBQ places should be tax exempt, rather than churches.
First one that comes in here talking about grilling gets shot, though. Agreed?
Georgia mustard? That would be South Carolina, thankyouverymuch. We don’t do mustard down here.
I sit semi-corrected, although I have encountered the heresy in Northern Georgia. But border areas are always suspect.
SC is where they do Mustard. But I think that is more of an upstate thing towards the coast you see BBQ that is more like that of NC.
The Q around Winston Salem NC is my favorite. It is pork, with a thin, vinegary and spicy sauce. Best served on the side, with slaw if it’s a sandwich.
I am now in North Texas where the Q is beef, the sauce is thickish and usually sweet. I don’t like it much.
In Atlanta there is a place called Fat Mac’s. The ribs are smoked so long you can practically eat the bones.
You need to head down to Lockhart.
Rules of engagement:
fluffy white bun + pulled pork BBQ + sparingly applied Tennessee Sunshine pepper sauce. Homemade sauce is rarely good here, although no mustard abominations appear on the table. Two bites of coleslaw on the side for appearance’s sake. There is a faction who prefer to eat their Q on a little frisbee of corncake, but that just seems fundamentally wrong to me.
If BBQ chicken, the skin should not fall off the meat in one piece, but rather cooked so the skin is almost dissolved and melds perfectly with the spicy/tangy but not too sweet sauce. I lack the skills to achieve this level of perfection, myself.
What is this white sauce you speak of? I’ve never seen it.
I believe that’s the Alabama mayo-based sauce.
As for sauce styles, I like all the Carolinas: Eastern NC (vinegar & pepper flakes), Lexington NC (similar, but with the sweetness and thickness of added ketchup), and SC (mustard-based.) I’m actually quite a fan of mustard-based sauces and think they marry well with pork (my preferred meat.) My own personal bbq sauce is Lexington-based, with the added fragrance of allspice and cloves. Sauce is always served on the side in this household.
Anyhow, as for the barbecue itself, I tend to like mine cooked in the slightly higher ranges of barbecue (250-275-ish) rather than the lower 200-225. The barbecue develops a slightly more charred flavor, but only just. Pork is my meat of choice, with a preference for pork shoulder, rib tips, spare ribs, and Chicago/Mississippi-style hot links (think spicy breakfast sausage stuffed into Italian sausage-sized natural casings). I don’t mind baby or loin backs, but I far prefer spare ribs. I always dry rub my meat with anything from a simple rub of salt and pepper, to more complicated ones involving paprika, powdered chiles, cumin, fennel, coriander, etc. It depends on my mood. As for smoke, white/red oak and/or fruit wood supplemented with hickory or pecan is my standby.
Like I said, sauce always on the side. If the barbecue needs sauce, it’s not good barbecue. The sauce is just there as an accent. For pulled pork, it needs to be served on the cheapest, most cotton-y bun or white bread you can find. This is the one and only time I ever buy Wonder Bread or Wonder-Bread-like hamburger buns. Slaw is optional, but when I do use slaw, it’s a simple mayo-less, vinegar-and-pepper-and-hot-pepper-flakes slaw.
For choice? Outdoors under the pine trees, please, with a nice beer buzz on, on a crisp October day after a long night of cooking the pig under the stars. Oh, I so miss my grad school department’s annual pig picking.
Failing that, from Allen & Son. In either case, the vinegar and pepper sauce is essential.
Actually,it’s Fat Matt’s, and the ribs don’t see smoke until the very end. They’re braised in hotel pans (in the oven) until falling off the bone, then grilled very quickly over a wood fire.
Good ribs, but not really barbeque. As a general rule, ribs that are falling off the bone have been wet cooked, not smoked.
Like I like my men… sweet, hot, & tangy.
I went back home to North Carolina 2 weeks ago & was told that Allen & Son’s had closed up shop.
Ohhh, barbecue. Barbecue, my love! Alas, I live in a lousy apartment with no grill to speak of. Brisket in the oven is just not the same.
I like a lot of different kinds. Usually beef or pulled pork with a rich, sweet, smoky sauce that’s got some moderate heat behind it. I will usually eat whatever barbecue I can get though.
I thought North Carolina had the Mustard/Brown Sugar sauce, that is my favorite.
Mustard-based is definitely inland South Carolina. Sauce map here.
Does anybody know why the Mustard Heresy sprang up in the first place? What apostate decided to forgo all that is pure and good and slather his meat with a mustard sauce and then try to pass it off as BBQ?