BBQ Differences

I am trying to explain to my students the regional differences of the term BBQ. I know Memphis and the hog well, understand Texas and other such countries use beef, Carolinas have a hankering for vinegar in the marinade and that some places don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Can I get some help to draw a broad regional map for BBQ? Maybe I'll do a doctoral thesis on the subject. Now theres a sabbatical to die for.

FWIW, we wrote this cursory sidebar for a 1997 version of Eat Your Way Across the USA. Some of the specific places may be out of date, but the basic BBQ map is about right. Needless to say, this is a broad overview; the closer you get, the more diversity there is...

Barbecue’s Map
There is no way to chart every different style of American barbecue (although such a quest would be a nice life’s project), but it is important to have a general idea of what gets barbecued where so you don’t commit the embarrassing faux pas of eating beef barbecue in Chattanooga or asking for a pig sandwich in El Paso.
That’s the fundamental disparity: pork versus beef. Pork is king throughout the Mid-South and Deep South. Even if beef happens to be on the menu there, it should be ignored. Look for signs that show happy dancing pigs or “oink” spelled out in neon in the window. Bubba’s of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, announced by a lovely sign in the shape of a pig, is a good example.
Basic southern variations on the theme are found in:
• Eastern North Carolina, where smoked pork is mixed with a spicy vinegar sauce (no tomato in it at all), as at Melton’s
• Central South Carolina, where many of the best sauces are mustard-based, as at the Piggy Park
• Memphis, where pork is hacked into “pig sandwiches” with cole slaw; and where ribs are cooked either wet or dry. (Charlie Vergos Rendezvous and the Cozy Corner are two exemplary Memphis restaurants.
• Georgia, where barbecue is frequently accompanied by Brunswick stew, a hearty gallimaufry of vegetables and pork shreds in gravy. Melear’s is a classic.
In Texas and most of the West, beef is what’s best – brisket, usually, but also succulent sausage links. There might be mounted cow’s heads on walls, John Wayne portraits, and cowboy-theme decor, but the greatest Southwestern barbecues are austere and without any frills to distract you from the meat. Louie Muller’s of Tyler, Texas is the purest such place.
Oklahoma is a great beef state, but local smokehounds also favor barbecued bologna: thick slabs much spicier than the pre-sliced supermarket variety. See Leo’s.
Santa Maria-style barbecue in California is cooked directly over flames (of live oak wood), not indirectly over smoke. Although you’ll find chicken, sausages, even filets mignon cooked this way, the traditional cut of choice is a beef tri-tip. (Good Santa Maria barbecue is available from streetcorner vendors on weekends in many small towns of California cattle country. The Far Western Tavern in Guadalupe and The Hitching Post in Casmalia are two of the best restaurants that serve it)
Western Kentucky is strange. It is mutton country, where mature lamb is slow-cooked over hickory wood and served as part of a ritual meal that includes barbecue-flavored beans, potato salad, onion slices, and white or tan bread suitable for mopping. Barbecued mutton also often finds its way into the Kentucky stew known as burgoo. The Moonlight has been a premier mutton house for decades.
Many Midwestern cities have great barbecue cooked by men and women who learned their trade in the south and serve superb pork (ribs in particular) with a sweet glaze. St. Louis has the added attraction of being the home of snoots – crisp-fried pig snouts bathed in sauce, as served at C&K. Being more Western, Kansas City smoke houses offer good beef brisket as well as good pork, and even mutton. Arthur Bryant’s is the essential K.C. smoke house.

Thanks Michael;

You just gave me reason to request a grant and funds for research on the BBQ project. If succesfull I will will chime in with reports on my experiances and weight along the long road.

Michael pretty much has that topic covered! I was just going to add that McClard's BBQ, in Arkansas, started out by serving bbq goat. It's not on the menu any more, but they just celebrated their 75th anniversary, and to celebrate, they served bbq goat - but for one day only. Unfortunately, I only read about it in the paper. I would have loved to give a review...

What about BBQ Chicken? Where is it smoked and where is it grilled over direct flame? And what about sauces, rubs, beer cans up the...well, you know.

Alirush,
I have seen a Goat BBQ festival in Southern Texas somewhere, on the Food Festivals program on Food Channel. Maybe Bushie can run down there and check it out for us???
AL

I would be more than happy to do whatever research is necessary on "cabrito". Just let me know where that festival is, Mayor, and I'm your man.

I live in Sumter SC where we eat ketchup based b-b-q (wards). 40 miles to the east is Manning, where they make and eat vinegar based b-b-q (D & H). 40 miles to the west is Columbia where everything is mustard based (sikes, Piggy Park, Milendars, Little pigs). So I have the luxury of choosing whichever b-b-q style suites my fancy and only have a 45 minute drive, at most, to get it !

Hey, rumbelly, try this site. Not only the regions, but many recipes as well!

http://bbqcentral.hypermart.net/amregions/overview.htm

Stogie

quote:

Originally posted by rumbelly

Thanks Michael;

You just gave me reason to request a grant and funds for research on the BBQ project. If succesfull I will will chime in with reports on my experiances and weight along the long road.

Were you successful? Did you get the grant? More importantly, do you need help with the research??

Rumbelly, if you can picture a map of the United States, Texas would be shaded one color, and that would indicate genuine BBQ and the best in the world. The rest of the country would be shaded another color indicating also-rans and ersatz “Q”.

Hope that clears things up for you.

There is a BBQ goat cook-off on Labor day in Brady, Texas. Brady is west of Austin/San Antonio and is considered (by Brady, anyway) the geographic center of Texas. I lived there for a year in the mid-80's on a 10,000 acre ranch. Beautiful country!

Following up on Michael Sterns discussion - I do appreciate his explanation. Now, I am wondering when we talk about BBQ "variations" are we really talking "variation" or different food entirely.
ie, What really IS BBQ?
One line, the smoked variety comes from a German tradition of smoked meats in general. The grilled kind is, I think, derived from "barbacoa" which is a West Indian early form of grilled meat on an open flame. The Southern from appears to be derived from an African form of cooking. Then there's the "new-fangled" kinds, like beer-can etc.
So, what's your opinion: do we have different "kinds" of BBQ or are they different foods and histories in their own right that we have somehow lumped together "melting pot style"?

http://www.iabbq.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=90
http://www.iabbq.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=99
here's some interesting history on KC's role.
Wood, meat, and spices are what define the regional differences to me. Once you get outside the 4 main areas, styles seem to be a synthesis or variations on those.
Sauces get intermingled by region too.

Ah, but that is my point. If the wood, meat and sauce can be different, what is the SAME? It seems the only thing that makes something BBQ is cooking outdoors.....but them what about the Forman Grill?
So my question is (rather philosophically) what is essence of BBQ?

quote:

Originally posted by NYNM

Ah, but that is my point. If the wood, meat and sauce can be different, what is the SAME? It seems the only thing that makes something BBQ is cooking outdoors.....but them what about the Forman Grill?
So my question is (rather philosophically) what is essence of BBQ?

When I use the term "barbecue", I mean meat cooked slowly at low temperatures. If I cook meat quickly over direct heat, that's grilling. The use of rubs, marinades, or mops has no bearing on the definition. pb

quote:

Originally posted by NYNM

Ah, but that is my point. If the wood, meat and sauce can be different, what is the SAME? It seems the only thing that makes something BBQ is cooking outdoors.....but them what about the Forman Grill?
So my question is (rather philosophically) what is essence of BBQ?

I'd agree with PB. Slow smoking over indirect heat. Preferably wood smoke.
Everything else makes up the regional approaches to same.

quote:

Originally posted by Alirush

Michael pretty much has that topic covered! I was just going to add that McClard's BBQ, in Arkansas, started out by serving bbq goat. It's not on the menu any more, but they just celebrated their 75th anniversary, and to celebrate, they served bbq goat - but for one day only. Unfortunately, I only read about it in the paper. I would have loved to give a review...

You can get it in Texas!

Tiki is that because there are only "Old Goats" in Oklahoma?

BBQ is cooking the meat over wood coals. The differences are in the meat cooked. Pork, beef, goat, etc.


Sauces, rubs, etc are additives and don't make it bbq.
Good bbq really doesn't need any sauce.

(1) The 32nd Annual World Championship Barbecue Goat Cookoff begins tomorrow in Brady, Texas. I'd planned on going, but the situation in New Orleans has (in an indirect way) forced a change in plans. If anyone here makes it out, I'd love to hear about it and see some pictures.

(2) I've said it before and I'll say it again: though Texas barbecue does include beef, it is not *defined* by beef. Texas has greater diversity in barbecued meats than any other state.

(3) As to the philosophical question of "What is the essence of barbecue," I would reply that the Greek concept of essence is antiquated. I much prefer Wittgenstein, who wrote in the Philosophical Investigations: "Consider for example the proceedings that we call 'games'. I mean board-games, card-games, ball-games, Olympic games, and so on. What is common to them all? -- Don't say: 'There must be something common, or they would not be called 'games''- but look and see whether there is anything common to all. -- For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that. To repeat: don't think, but look!" Barbecue, like "games," is too complex to be reduced to a tidy essence. But we can speak about it meaningfully in terms of (to use Wittgenstein's expression) "family resemblances."

Scott

Going to Cooper's in Llano made me see Texas bbq differently. Up to that point, I only ordered brisket in Texas. But Cooper's, although having great brisket, did not have beef singled out as their primary meat. Pork chops, pork and beef ribs, and chicken was part of the variety that got equal love. They even advertise themselves as, "Home of the Big Chop." It became more about the open pit and the Texas brand of smoking. This is why Cooper's stood out-- everything was perfectly smoked in that way. They perfected the technique for all meats.

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Alirush,
I have seen a Goat BBQ festival in Southern Texas somewhere, on the Food Festivals program on Food Channel. Maybe Bushie can run down there and check it out for us???
AL

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Alirush,
I have seen a Goat BBQ festival in Southern Texas somewhere, on the Food Festivals program on Food Channel. Maybe Bushie can run down there and check it out for us???
AL

The Goat BBQ festival is in Electra, TX. (northern part of the state) It is this weekend and I will be there.

Up north, "barbeque" means to cook outside on the grill.
Around here, "a barbeque" (like, "gimme a barbeque, an orderr of fries and a large coke") is a sandwich on a bun of shredded meat soaked in bbq sauce. The meat is usually not smoked. Coleslaw is usually put on top of the meat.
Cooking outside on the grill is "grilling."

When I get the urge to barbeque, it is primal sort of thing and at some point soon after the urge overtakes me I proclaim "I feel like smokin some meat!" Then I grunt or make some sort of guttoral sound (or is that gutterish sound?). That statement has been known to invoke all sorts of responses, both sincere and sarcastic, but it is alway followed 12 or so hours later with some damn fine tasty well cooked meat. . . usually a lot of it.

The Etymology of Barbecue

The roads of the Southern United States are lined with a succession of grinning pigs, advertising the availability of barbecue in countless restaurants. The origins of barbecue in the South, however, are traceable to a period long before the smiling pig became a fixture on Southern roadsides. The etymology of the term is vague, but the most plausible theory states that the word "barbecue" is a derivative of the West Indian term "barbacoa," which denotes a method of slow-cooking meat over hot coals. Bon Appetit magazine blithely informs its readers that the word comes from an extinct tribe in Guyana who enjoyed "cheerfully spitroasting captured enemies." The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word back to Haiti, and others claim (somewhat implausibly) that "barbecue" actually comes from the French phrase "barbe a queue", meaning "from head to tail." Proponents of this theory point to the whole-hog cooking method espoused by some barbecue chefs. Tar Heel magazine posits that the word "barbecue" comes from a nineteenth century advertisement for a combination whiskey bar, beer hall, pool establishment and purveyor of roast pig, known as the BAR-BEER-CUE-PIG (Bass 313). The most convincing explanation is that the method of roasting meat over powdery coals was picked up from indigenous peoples in the colonial period, and that "barbacoa" became "barbecue" in the lexicon of early settlers.

more good info here:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/MA95/dove/bbq.html

porkbeak hit the nail on the head. barbeque,bbq,barbque or how ever you wan to spell it is always meat cooked by an indirect heat method with a temp no higher than 225f. the wood type, as is the meat type, is immaterial. since wood is always involved the meat will always be to some degree smoky tasting. as much as it will upset the texans the technique was refined in virginia during the colonial and early post colonial days. a sophomoric cursory reading of food history would show that items like tomatoes were added to the sauces at a much later date as it was common belief at the time that in fact tomatoes along with potatoes were poisonness (heck they weren't good for you). most food historians are in agreement that what we call barbecue was an adaptation of what the spanish saw the arawak indians doing in the carribean and simply grew from there.
ok so i know there are some competition cooks out there that for chicken will run the pit to 400f or higher for chicken. let's be honest guys this is done to appease the kcbs and fba judges and if we had any gumption we all would quit doing it and tell them this is bbq and to heck with your judging. i feel so much better now
wvhillbilly,
man i knew there was good reason i liked you. whole time i was typing you was too

quote:

Originally posted by WVHillbilly

Up north, "barbeque" means to cook outside on the grill.

Do you mean like in Canada?

quote:

Originally posted by NebGuy

quote:

Originally posted by WVHillbilly

Up north, "barbeque" means to cook outside on the grill.

Do you mean like in Canada?

Naw NB, I'm referring to New England area. . . northern PA, NJ.

quote:

Originally posted by tybeeguy

quote:

Originally posted by bill voss

I thought the South lost the Civil War. I guess no one bothered to tell them.

I thought this post was just as wierd and more uncalled for.

Do you mean wired or weird?
Either way, I'll stand by my assertion that it's the 21st Century;
Life has advanced beyond the mythical borders of "Historic BBQ", and folks don't care where it was born, they care where it's ended up.