Posted on 07/16/2025 5:18:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
From whole hogs to smoked fish and brisket, this all-American smoke-infused cooking style is as diverse as the US itself – and just as rich in history.
In the US, "barbecue" is both noun and verb – a familiar siren, calling from a squat cinder block building with its smoky aroma of meat and char. Depending where it's prepared, it could be a multi-napkin pulled pork sandwich, a tray of hand-sliced brisket or smoked chicken wings tangy with mayonnaise, accompanied by a litany of rib-sticking sides.
The country's wildly diverse barbecue canon evolved from a single style born during the 17th-Century colonial period in slaveholding states. "Barbecue required the hands and minds of enslaved Americans," said Dr Howard Conyers, a South Carolina-based aerospace engineer, pitmaster and barbecue historian. "They took Indigenous, European and African techniques and, through trial and error, put them all together."
While fire and meat are a global phenomenon, it was the enslaved workers in the US South who turned barbecue into something distinct. They dug trenches, filled them with hot coals and slow-cooked whole animals for plantation feasts, basting – or "mopping" – the meat with vinegar sauce.
As is so often the case, their innovation was born of necessity. "You could feed 50 people to 10,000 people in a day at a time when you didn't have refrigeration," said Conyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Well, this (native) Floridian has had hush puppies with lots of meals, including both fried fish and barbastrew, but other things too. Maybe it was because Mama made great ones.
There’s good BBQ here in Arizona, though I much prefer Hickory smoked over Mesquite, which dominates around here.
“The Top 10 Best Places for BBQ in the South”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqfSrlsAGI
Courtesy Matt Mitchell of “It’s a Southern Thing, Y’all.”
That’s what I was thinking. I know corn fritters are a popular BBQ side but not hushpuppies.
Now once upon a time there was a place called Flint's on Shattuck Avenue on Oakland.
“Southern BBQ, meaning Northern Florida/ Georgian BBQ. It’s so darned good! “
I second that notion! We’ve got lots of BBQ joints. Their flavor is meat! No fancy spices and slathered sauces. Just simple rubs and sauce on the side.
I don't wrap, but if you do wrap, you might try butcher paper. It allows the moisture to escape, making for a better bark.
Other than my own and my son-in law's, where is there good BBQ in AZ?
Fast Fact #1. If it ain't pig, it ain't barbecue. Sorry Texans. It may be barbecue STYLE chicken or barbecue STYLE beef. Real barbecue is pig and nothing but.
there are 4 main styles
North Carolina - pulled pork with a vinegar based sauce. They frequently pile the cole slaw on top of the pulled pork sandwich (which I disapprove of).
South Carolina - pulled pork with a mustard based sauce.
Memphis style dry rub ribs. (simply divine if they know what they're doing)
Kansas City style - heavy tomato sauce on ribs
there is also Alabama style white sauce on pulled pork but that's not as common.
There's also Texas style beef brisket....and its close cousin Mesquite brisket. Yummy, but this isn't technically barbecue.
It has long been known that if you want to get Southerners fighting each other instead of outsiders, the two time honored subjects for this are college football and barbecue. :^)
Since I'm from Jax originally, I agree with you....but darlin' you're gonna start a fight talking like that. :^) Nobody else in the South is ever going to agree that somebody else's barbecue style is better than theirs. You might as well tell them their college football team sucks and your team is gonna kick their butts.
BTW, you're absolutely right about the hush puppies but substitute cole slaw for those nasty collard greens.
(look of horror) NOOOO!!!!! Barbecue is as Southern as it gets.
omit the rosemary.
That’s for sure...rosemary has no place in barbecue. In Italian porchetta, yes. But not in bbq.
Nice.
I sometimes use a MAPP gas torch. This plus the yellow gas cylinder.
https://www.amazon.com/Bernzomatic-TS4000-Trigger-Start-Torch/dp/B00008ZA09
The tallow is interesting. Will have to try that.
You’re right about everyone thinking their style of bbq is the best, and I I like your analogy with football teams.
I make dandy coleslaw, but my husband, who has never liked greens of any kind, enjoys my collards.
I started my BBQ journey at Big Sister’s BBQ on Lincoln Ave. in the heart of the hood. A ghetto BBQ sandwich is a slab of pork ribs laid on 3 pieces of white sandwich bread, a cup or two of BBQ sauce on the ribs and then 3 pieces of white bread on top. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil. BBQ sauce soaked white bread is the children’s dinner - the adults eat the meat.
I couldn’t get within 300 yards of that location today (now long gone from the riots) without getting jacked or jugged.
My brisket is damn good but it takes a lot.of work and I don’t want to do it every day.
I was in a ghetto area of northern new Jersey and came across a bbq joint called Welcome to the South.
Walked in. Four amtables and a counter.
A massive black man with a deep Teddy Pendergrass voice asked what I wanted.
I asked what was good. And he said “EVERYTHING.” With a deepntimbre.
I replied that I liked a man proud of his job. He proceeded to tell me about his smoker and how he made his BBQ.”
Said he had the best brisket ever. So that what I ordered
When he dropped it a my table he told me that if I didn’t think it was the best it was free.
I took one bite and yelled out “Save your money Brother.”
Sadly the restaurant didn’t survive covid lockdowns.
Lived both in Texas and California. When I lived in San Francisco the best ribs were at a place in Cloverdale up in Sonoma county. Easily the best I have ever eaten.
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