My favorite pulled pork Q is Eastern Carolina(vinegar-based sauce). It is an acquired taste which I er, uh, acquired while living in Durham. I personally think that it masks the taste of the smoked pork the least. Tomato-based sauces get more tomatoey as you move westward. Western NC has a mild tomato-based sauce. The tomato content seems to get heavier and thicker as you go towards KY, TN, etc. It even gets more tomato-based as you go North(witness Pierce’s wonderful product in Williamsburg, VA.)
Next, I will provide some links for anyone interested.
Oh, dear. Our cultural differences have never been more obvious than now.
Okay, here’s the normal Aussie BBQ.
You call all your mates and say “We’re having a BBQ tomorrow night. Do you wanna come?”
And they reply with “Sure, whaddya want me ta bring?”
To which you say “Grog (alcohol).”
On the night of the BBQ, people will arrive. The actual BBQ (barby) will be stationed outside under the verandah. All males will gravitate toward the barby even if it has not yet been lit.
Each male will have a beer in his hand and The Chosen one will hold the tongs in readiness for The Cooking of the Meat.
Females are not permitted to gravitate around the barby, they must be inside preparing the food. Usually:
-sausages
-hamburgers
-chicken wings (can be marinated if you feel like being fancy)
-onion
-steak
Females are also not allowed to be involved in the cooking (charring) of the food, this is strictly up to the men, as we would have no idea about such complicated topics such as who won the footy on Saturday night and why Tom’s Torana is misfiring.
Upon eating the burnt offerings the females must comment on what a good job the men did.
The meal is then followed by a game of backyard cricket and drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
Seeing as I live in the self proclaimed BBQ capital of the world…hickory smoked pork shoulder is the only way to go.
The vinegar based sauce on the chopped meat is the best, bar none. Served with bbq slaw and hush puppies…
and a tall glass of very sweetened Iced Tea. That’s the best eating there is!
Don’t know what Okies think barbecue is. Oklahomans generally know better than to sneer over the state line at anything in Arkansas. You could take a New Yorker like yourself, drop him on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, spin him around a couple dozen times, and he’d still be able to tell you what was Arkansas and what was Oklahoma – the really ugly part’s Oklahoma.
But equating barbecue with beef brisket is just one of the most obvious examples of the degradation of culture that happens when you cross from Arkansas into Texas (for further exhibits, see: Ross Perot, both George Bushes, the entire city of Dallas but especially the f-ing airport) – in Arkansas, barbecue equals pork – pork shoulder, most of the time, pulled. Ribs have their fans (and Lord, I know I’m one) but when you say barbecue, an Arkansawyer’s going to assume you mean pulled pork shoulder. Beef brisket’s all well and good in its place (and I love carrot tzimmes with brisket), but it ain’t barbecue.
This is a "ring’ of so many sites on BBQ, your head will spin. Some are commercial, many are trivial, all can teach you something. When you have a spare evening, and some patience, go surfing. You’ll be a better person for it.
BBQ tofu? I haven’t searched, but I’ll bet that it exists on the “smokering.”
Ahh. Montana person? That explains it. (Sorry, can’t help but make a dig at Montana every so often. I swear that state has it out to get me…)
The main problem with the mustard based sauces is that they tend to be too heavy, and applied too thickly. I wanna taste roasted/smoked dead animal flesh, damn it, not mustard! :mad:
I will admit, if it’s a light mustard sauce (even more so if it’s a spicy/honey mustard) applied sparingly, then yes, it can be good. Plop some pulled pork on a bun, put a bit of that sauce on top, with slaw. Odd, but good. Not something I’d want often though.
But get me (beef) ribs… yum.
There is a place here in Memphis that does lamb ribs. Yummy. (No, you don’t get mint-based sauce for it.)
My favorite Barbeque restaurant recently closed:(. This was quite upsetting considering how great it was. They had this pork in a perfect tomato-based sauce. This sauce was so good; it was very spicey but the spiceyness did not overpower the flavor at all, but alas they were basically located in a small some what run down building that obviously did not attract many costomers. How unfortunate.
For those in the Greater Boston area, there is actually good BBQ to be found. The two places that consistantly get good marks are Redbones and Blue Ribbon BBQ. There’s another place I’ve had pretty good BBQ, I think it’s called Jakes, somewhere in JP.
I am of the opinion that there are many great barbecues, and we should be thankful for such diversity rather than fight endlessly over what constitutes the One True BBQ. I think the tensions in the Middle East started like this.
Besides, such discussions almost always neglect to mention Western KY barbecue, and its primary ingredient–mutton. If you’re ever in Owensboro, stop by Old Hickory BBQ (Moonlite is overrated) where they’ll give you some sliced mutton off the pit with pickles, red onion slices, and a piece of white bread. Have a cup of burgoo to start it out. It will mess up your BBQ world.
In my travels in NC, the first time I got some barbecue (there were several; I had a lot of interviews there) I got it to go, and didn’t inspect the dish before I drove away. When I did, I found it to have no sauce on it. It didn’t need sauce–it was some of the tastiest and most tender meat I had ever eaten, even without the sauce. The next time I ordered some up, I added the sauce, and it was that much better. I like to think the BBQ wasn’t a primary reason for my impending move to Greensboro, but deep down, it may have been.
Forget the sauce, or the meat, or the cooking equipment - barbecue is Secret Men’s Business; where they can get away from the womenfolk and release their emotional burdens amongst likeminded football fanatics.
We all have overlooked a very important ingredient in the BBQ experience - the setting. Just as a real BBQ consists of pork on a bun with the sauce of your choice, a lime ade or sweet tea, and onion rings (puppies will also work), a REAL BBQ has to be served in a REAL BBQ establishment.
There has to be lots and lots of formica (easy to clean). The floor has to be well worn linoleum. A couple of framed newspaper articles about how good “Joe’s Barbecue” is have to be on the wall. Waitress is Dot, Dottie, or Florence. You place your order with Dot, Dottie, or Florence (“Two sliced, all the way, a large lime ade, and some rings please.”), who will jot it down on a pad, turn around to the window and yell “Two sliced, all the way,” put the ticket on a little revolving thingy and go about getting your drink. Meanwhile, you’re grabbing extra napkins and listening to the creaky overhead fans whirl. Your order is up, Dot, Dottie, or Florence brings it to you in a white paper bag, you pay and Dot, Dottie, or Florence says, “Thank you, sugar. Ya’ll come back and see us.”
BBQ in the mid-South (VA) is Carolina Style – pulled pork with a vinegar based sauce and some slaw. Unless you’re going to a chain place like Red Hot and Blue or Famous Dave’s this is the 'Q of choice. I can’t eat it any other way – I swear I could drink vinegar sauce.
When I went to Albuquerque in August we stopped at a pretty well-known bbq joint called County Line Barbeque. Not ONE pork sandwich anywhere on the menu. NO pork ANYWHERE! Thick tomato-based sauce, tons of beef and chicken… I was in serious pork withdrawl when I came back to Virginny. So glad I live here.
Actually, my favorite BBQ setting was up in Putney VT. It was served out of the back of a converted school bus, up on blocks in a small field next to the road. Some picnic tables, a few 55 gal drums for trash, and a window on the side of the bus where you got napkins.
Sacrilege. I refuse to read any more of this thread.*
Kreuz’s Barbeque in Lockhart Texas was used by The Economist magazine as an economic index. The LBI, or Lockhart Barbeque Index, measured oilfield drilling activity in the Austin Chalk–if you had a good day then you went to Lockhart for barbeque, no matter how far away you were working. Has any other junk that dares to call itself barbecue been used to predict the economy? I didn’t think so.
You make barbecue out of things that go moo.
Sauce is on the table or at the counter.
Yes, you baste it while cooking, but not with that ketchup junk. That stuff is used for… I don’t know what you use it for. Ballast, I suppose.
You can make barbecue out of cabrito; mutton ribs are good (i.e., Sam’s on 12th Street) and I’ll give you pork ribs, but real barbecue is beef.
*
Well, this site supports Uke’s stance on BBQ. I’m from Chicago, and barbecue for me has always meant slow-cooking over a low fire for a long period of time, as opposed to grilling. Then again, my father seemed to be the only one who really made this distinction. For most people, barbecue referred to any old meat tossed on any old fire.
Then I went to college. There I discovered, according to some enlightened North Carolinians that BBQ is pulled pork, and nothing else. My culinary weltanschuung was shattered. Lies, I’ve grown up with nothing but lies, I thought.
And they were right. BBQ is pulled pork. In North Carolina.
As you can tell from this thread, there’s no such thing as real BBQ, except for Ukelele Ike’s definition.
My faith in the foundations of my childhood have been reaffirmed.
I believe the best bbq in Lexington isn’t in Lexington but in Southmont down #8 a bit in Southmont. Speedy Lohrs bbq. Truly hickory fired, no electric cooker for them.
(Sorry, can’t help but make a dig at Montana every so often. I swear that state has it out to get me…)