Barbecue is meat cooked slowly with smoke, preferably outdoors. I’m partial to North Carolina-style pork and Western KY mutton, but I’m not picky–I wouldn’t turn down a plate of Texas brisket and links or Memphis ribs. It’s all good.
I’m far more hardcore about nomenclature. I’ll go so far as to concede that cooking in this method is “barbecueing”. But a gathering of people at which food is cooked outside is a “cookout”, and the device on which food is cooked outdoors is a “grill”.
Yes, indeed.
Edit: We meant to take pictures of the pulled pork at Morris Grocery, we really did, but we were so into the orgasmic experience, that all we got was this shot of me enjoying the sandwich in the parking lot. Seriously, this is some frickin’ good barbecue.
Memphis style is dependent on sauces? Really? Have you been to Memphis? There are (at least) two traditions there: dry and wet. Even with the sauced tradition, if you ask for sauce on the side, you’ll realize quite quickly that those folks know what they’re doing when it comes to barbecue.
No BBQ plate or sammich is complete without coleslaw & Brunswick Stew on the side.
I’ve had Memphis dry rubbed ribs. I wasn’t impressed. The Rendezvous is vastly over-rated in my book.
Barbecue is a cooking style. Slow-cooked in a pit, just like the Indians taught us. Pork for true believers, but I am open to other meats. (I take pity on the poor Texans who can’t raise a decent hog in the scrublands.)
As for sauces, I am a universalist. I like 'em all. (Well unless they are just sickeningly sweet.) Tomato/pepper based, mustard based, vinegar based, it’s all good. There’s a restaurant near here that brings out a variety of sauces in a six-pack. Which one I use depends on my mood.
But what’s up with the Carolina habit of serving hushpuppies with BBQ? (I love 'em but it seems a little odd.) In these parts, barbecue is served with white bread. Old-time restaurants would just leave a loaf on the table.
Same for Texas. You get crackers or white bread with your meat. But I’m not complaining…I love hushpuppies!
I was introduced to BBQ in Oklahoma. I wasn’t expecting much when taken to a BBQ place for the first time, but it was a revelation. The meat (I think I had pork the first time) was unbelievably moist and delicious. But what struck me most was the beans-- I had never liked beans in my life until I had them w/ BBQ. I went from thinking I hated beans, to loving them.
There’s a Louisiana style BBQ place in Mt View, and if you can stand the shitty service, it has really, really good BBQ. They have a side which, IIRC, is called Louisiana creamed corn. This is not your grandmother’s creamed corn! Unless, maybe, granny is from Louisiana…
The BBQ that can be described is not the true BBQ.
I’ve lived within 50 miles of Lexington, NC my entire life (OK, maybe 75 when I was at UNC).
BBQ is Lexington Pit Cooked pork shoulder. Tomato-vinegar sauce.
Anything else, as delicious as it is, just isn’t BBQ.
(And I do like a moist brisket- but if it ain’t a pig, it ain’t BBQ).
Stamey’s and Country BBQ in Greensboro are currently the vendors of choice for artery-clogging goodness. I can abide Eastern style BBQ. That’s the same as the oddball cousin who just never seems to fit in at the family reunions, but that you like anyway, in spite of yourself.
But the mustard-based stuff they use just south of Charlotte? If it wasn’t outlawed by the Geneva Convention after WW1, it should have been.
Considering this, I guess the common thread is that they are all whole, and on bone animals slowly and lovingly prepared with some effort and coals. Those Firemen can make some mean BBQ Chicken. Our Ox roast has really devolved into Pot Roast territory.
You’re not going to get any argument from me on that one, although I thought Rendezvous was better than the naysayers would have me believe. Most BBQ aficionados I know say that place is complete crap. I think it’s deserving of some respect, although it’s not quite what I would call BBQ.
I’m going to go right to the essential elements of barbecue…
It must be made from whole or primal cut meat. If it is too processed it cannot be barbecue.
Wood smoke. The source may be from wood fire or charcoal but it must be present as a result of the cooking process and not from a flavoring agent.
Long slow cooking time, if it is quickly seared and served rare it is not barbecue.
All true barbecue require these three things the variation is a matter of seasonings and condiments. The meat and the smoke are the thing, the rubs and sauces at their best simply showcase that sublime union of flesh and flame and at their worst attempt to make something of poor quality somewhat edible.
Sauces and rubs never make barbecue.
My personal preference is for whole hog barbecue over wood coals, preferably hickory and oak.
Well shit, apparently, I drive by a Stamey’s on my way to work everyday and never noticed it. I’ll have to stop by there this weekend and get a sammich.
I grew up in south Georgia and spent some time in both South Carolina and Eastern NC. I have to say I like a slow cooked boston butt over low slow heat (I like Alton’s recipe for a brine and rub). Anything else just isn’t BBQ for me, although I will allow for Texas beef on occasion. Personal preference for me is just enough Eastern NC vinegar sauce to taste, it isn’t meant to be a sauce so much as a flavoring. I don’t put a lot of it on there, I want to taste the meat! I haven’t had enough Western NC BBQ yet to make a decision on it. I spent 8 years in SC and never developed a taste for the Carolina Gold, but that may be because the only convenient place I ever went to get it was Maurice’s which sucked.
I simply believe that the Vinegar sauce in NC is a baste for the barbecue to caramelize and flavor the crust of a barbecue… not a condiment. The guy was probably basting his pork with the sauce, and put some out as extra on request.
I don’t give a hoot any which way, but this song needs to be cited as an authoritative source:
The BBQ Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY
BBQ is what I get from Tops (in Memphis, but I guess it’s a chain). It’s chopped meat with a good sauce sprinkled on, with a spoonful of slaw, on a nice warm bun. Beans and salty Lays on the side. Sometimes french fries.
Whatever else I get is “stuff cooked on the grill”. I’ve never been to any fancy restaurants and don’t know the difference between dry and rubbed. Maybe I should head out to the Memphis in May Barbecue Fest today and learn, but really it’s not that big a deal. It’s just meat. I like it most ways it’s cooked.
Nope, it is meant to be used as a topping/condiment/sauce whatever. It is definitely added to the meat after it has been smoked and pulled and usually there are bottles on the tables in restaurants so you can add as much as you like.
My grandfather-in-law over in Rio Bravo was famous for his barbacoa. It’s hard to find the real cow’s-head-cooked-in-a-hole-in-the-ground anymore, and that’s too bad.
BBQ is just meat cooked outside. Bad BBQ has sauce on it.
This bears repeating. If it is properly prepared barbecue, the sauce is almost irrelevant. The real treat is the sweet, smoky, tender meat, and it would be delicious with no sauce at all. If the barbecue you are getting isn’t like that, if it requires sauce to be edible, it is second-or-third-rate barbecue.
