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Where was your favorite barbecue born?

Great barbecue can be found in every state, county and town in the U.S.. The traditional American barbecue belt stretches from the Carolina's in the East to Texas and Missouri in the West and from Kentucky in the North down through the deep South, but there are those few places who have made their mark on the BBQ world. They have set standards, styles and tastes all their own and captured generations of faithful followers. They have influenced other pitmasters nation wide and their BBQ creations have influence other barbecue cultures from coast to coast. They have become the Barbecue Icons of America. Whether your from the east, the south, north or west, you probably grew up eating the best BBQ in all the land. You have probably taken a blood oath to uphold, respect and protect that sacred flavor you cherished as a child. But where was your favorite BBQ born? Where are your BBQ roots? Let's take a look at some of the Icons of American Barbecue, and see where your "Barbecue Heritage" began.

 MemphisJump to searc

Memphis-style barbecue is one of the four predominant regional styles of barbecue in the United States, the other three being Carolina, Kansas City, and Texas. Like many southern varieties of barbecue, Memphis style barbecue is mostly made using pork, usually ribs and shoulders, though many restaurants will still serve beef and chicken. Memphis-style barbecue is slow cooked in a pit and ribs can be prepared either "dry" or "wet". "Dry" ribs are covered with a dry rub consisting of salt and various spices before cooking and are normally eaten without sauce. "Wet" ribs are brushed with sauce before, during, and after cooking. Memphis-style barbecue has become well-known due to the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest held each May, which has been listed in Guinness World Records as the largest pork barbecue contest in the world. Memphis barbecue sauce has its own distinctive flavor, as well. Though the specific ingredients will vary from cook to cook, Memphis sauce is usually made with tomatoes, vinegar, and any countless combination of spices. It is generally thin, tangy, and somewhat sweet.

 

Kansas City
Kansas City barbecue is characterized by its use of a wide variety of meats: pork, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, sausage, and sometimes even fish. Just about any type of barbecued meat served in the country's other barbecue capitals, from pulled pork to brisket to beef ribs and pork ribs in a number of different cuts, is served in KC-area barbecue restaurants. Burnt ends – the crusty, fatty, flavorful meat cut from the point of a smoked beef brisket are much in demand. Kansas City barbecue is rubbed with spices, slow-smoked over a variety of woods and served with a thick tomato-based barbecue sauce which is an integral part of KC-style barbecue. Most local restaurants and sauce companies offer several varieties with sweet, spicy and tangy flavor profiles, but the staple sauce tends to be both sweet (often from molasses) and spicy. Kansas City barbecue is also known for its many side dishes, including a unique style of baked beans, French fries, coleslaw, and other Southern-food staples.

North Carolina
 There are two principle styles in North Carolina, and both exclusively feature pork. In the Atlantic coastal region there is the appropriately named "Eastern Style," which is dominated by chopped whole hog barbecue served with a vinegar and pepper sauce. The meat from the entire carcass is chopped up and mixed together, insuring an even product. One of the most compelling aspects of this style is that the cracklin', or pig skin, is also served alongside the meat and provides both a distinct textural contrast to the tender meat and a salty punch.
Western-style or "Lexington style" barbecue, features a rich, sweet sauce typically made with butter, sugar and ketchup. Western-style barbecue features only the pork shoulder, which is 100% dark meat, making it rich, moist and more fatty than eastern-style barbecue. Full-fledged Lexington-style barbecue, or what some refer to as “Piedmont-style", originated during World War I, when barbecue was being sold on the streets in pop-up stands. It was much easier to cart around meat from pork shoulder as opposed to a whole hog.

South Carolina
 South Carolina is best known for whole hog served with a distinctive mustard-based sauce dubbed "Carolina Gold" that originates from the region's early German immigrants. The "mustard belt" stretches from Charleston to Columbia, but other types of sauces abound from a simple vinegar to ones tinged with ketchup. In the eastern part of the state, the barbecue is largely indistinguishable from that of the eastern style of its neighbor to the North (whole hog served with a simple vinegar and pepper sauce). In the west, we find some bleed-over from the "Lexington Style" of North Carolina. And in the Southwestern part of the state, barbecue sauce with a significant ketchup component dominates. Pork is used almost exclusively throughout the region.

 Kentucky
 Kentucky is most famous for mutton (sheep older than one year) barbecue served with "dip," a Worcestershire-based sauce popular in the western part of the state, centered around the town of Owensboro. But pork is equally significant in eastern Kentucky, where shoulder is popular. It comes served with the same vinegar-type sauce found in North Carolina and western Tennessee, again reinforcing the westward migration of the barbecue culture.

Georgia
Georgia has a long and rich barbecue tradition, but paradoxically no distinct style of its own. Barbecue in Georgia tends to incorporate elements from its surrounding neighbors, with pork being the most popular meat.

Alabama
Alabama barbecue is principally focused on pork shoulder and pork ribs served with a tomato based sauce, not unlike Memphis. But the state is also the birthplace of white barbecue sauce, which contains mayonnaise and is traditionally served on chicken. Alabama's barbecue tradition is best exemplified by Big Bob Gibson (Creator of the famous Alabama White Sauce) in Decatur, which dates back to the 1920's.
Tennessee
In the eastern part of Tennessee, chopped whole hog and pork shoulder with a vinegar-based sauce are popular, and reflect the westward migration of the barbecue tradition from the Carolina's. But Tennessee barbecue is most clearly defined in Memphis; it is best known for both "dry" and "wet" pork ribs, as well as pulled pork shoulder served with a tomato-based barbecue sauce. Dry ribs are covered in a "rub" — a mix of spices and herbs — and then smoked. "Wet ribs," on the other hand, are basted during smoking and are then served doused in a tomato-based barbecue sauce. But Memphis is also known for incorporating pulled barbecue into all manner of other foods, including pizza, nachos, and even spaghetti.
 
Texas
 There are in reality several distinct styles of Texas barbecue, drawing on the diverse cultural traditions of the Lone Star State. The most iconic and best known is the Central Texas-style that originated in the German and Czech meat markets during the late 19th century. In combining Central European butchering traditions and the most readily available protein and wood — beef and post oak — this style is as primal and stripped down a form as any you will find. Often consisting of seasoning with salt and black pepper only, then smoked low and slow. While the rest of the nation is busy making barbecue sauces, many places in central Texas remove it completely. Brisket is the most popular cut, followed closely by sausage, and not so closely by beef short ribs. (Pork and even lamb do make appearances on menus.)
In east Texas, we find barbecue traditions closer to those of the deep South. Pork is more prevalent and so is sauce.
In west and southwest Texas, one finds Cowboy and Mexican-influenced barbecue. Cowboy style involves a more direct grilling over open coals rather than offset smoking. Mexican influences bring to the mix bold spicy flavors and slower low heat cooking as with the traditional Mexican barbacoa-style.
Beef, pork, and also chicken are popular. The "Texas Trinity" is a combination of brisket, pork ribs and sausage.

Barbecue outside the Box
The term barbecue is universal and represents different things across the nation. But ultimately, barbecue is in the eye of the beholder, and there are plenty of forms of cooking with fire to go around. Some obvious examples are Santa Clara-style barbecue and Baltimore pit beef, both of which are closer to direct grilling. In Hawaii, we find Kālua-style cooking, which shares much in common with Southern barbecue.
The age old love of BBQ worldwide, may lie in the simple truth, that there is a style and flavor that's just right for everyone.

There you have it.  BBQ from coast to coast and beyond.

So, now that you're familiar with the many diversities of BBQ in America.

Where Was Your BBQ Born?