Posted on 01/03/2002 5:04:58 AM PST by aomagrat
You heard it here first: Mustard-based sauce is best for barbecue. No, ketchup-based — no, vinegar-and-pepper . . . In S.C., the debate never ends. But here are some places to eat while you argue.
If you enjoy fireworks, just say the word “barbecue” in a crowd of Southerners and sit back and enjoy the show.
Barbecue rouses unshakable convictions about what’s the best, and most folks are more than happy to voice an opinion.
Yet, despite all the passion it arouses, the debate really isn’t even about barbecue, said Chuck Kovacik, a professor in USC’s Department of Geography and author of the “Barbecue Map of South Carolina.”
“This will never be about barbecue. The passion is about place. Wherever I’m from, it’s obviously the best. ... You’re not arguing about the quality of the barbecue. You’re arguing about the quality of the place,” he said.
The owners of local barbecue restaurants agree barbecue is about much more than food.
It’s also about family ties, said Fred Mathias, co-owner of Four Oaks Farm in Lexington. “We were all kind of raised on it. When families get together, it’s just a tradition,” Mathias said.
For Carolyn Myers, co-owner of Myers Barbeque House in Blythewood, barbecue represents a way of life. “(It’s popularity) has to do with the country-time atmosphere we’re in,” she said. “Lots of South Carolinians, in particular, are country at heart.”
The styles of barbecue are numerous. What someone likes often depends on where he grew up. Here in what’s known as the Barbecue Belt — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas — the meat of choice is pork.
But travel the Carolinas and you’ll find a range of sauces. Toward the eastern shore of North Carolina, they finish their Q with vinegar sauce, while their neighbors on the western border favor a thick, sweet-sour, ketchup-based sauce.
In South Carolina, there are at least four barbecue regions, Kovacik said.
“The (barbecue) debate is even greater here than what we’ve been led to believe by our neighbors to the north,” he said.
“You hear so much about North Carolina barbecue. æ.æ.æ. They like to say that North Carolina is a valley of humility between two mountains of conceit. When it comes to barbecue, North Carolina is an incredible mountain of conceit.”
In South Carolina, vinegar-and-pepper sauces are popular in the northeastern corner of the state. In the Upstate along the border with North Carolina, tomato-based sauce combining sweet and sour flavors is the standard, while along the western border with Georgia, ketchup-like sauces reign.
Here in the middle part of the state running to the southern coast, mustard-based sauces rule, an observation borne out by the notes and e-mails we received when we asked for readers’ favorite barbecue restaurants.
“Mustard base is the way to go. ... (It) takes my vote for the best that there is,” wrote Marti Olivarri of Columbia in a note that summed up many of the recommendations we received.
But it takes more than good sauce to make a restaurant special. Many readers mentioned a family atmosphere, friendly service and touches such as checkered tablecloths.
“The country setting and friendly atmosphere, plus the great barbecue, combine for a winning combination,” Stacey Charles of Saluda said of Wise Bar-B-Q House in Newberry.
Please note the above statements are simply examples — and are not meant to be interpreted as any type of barbecue resolution. This debate will never be settled, so perhaps it’s best to heed one reader’s philosophical approach.
“Sauce is everything ... (but) different sauces for different sections,” said James Alford of Dillon, who prefers the “red gravy” at Country Cousins in Scranton.
Besides, if you don’t like the sauce where you live, drive a few miles, and it will change.
Driving thru SC in Sept. - I went out of my way to visit Piggy Park, bought some goodies, and came home with a case of BBQ sauce for my buddies. Best thing I could have done! If the liberal, yellow-bellied yanks have it their way, he would be out of bidness. Maurice makes a really great sauce. Have any of you read Maurice's book?
You are correct about Sheally's. Best BBQ around.
The article is wrong, however. If BBQ-ing pork, almost everyone in SC will use mustard-based sauce. Tomato-based sauces usually don't get used for anything but beef, and that is a kind of BBQ one just doesn't see around here.
As I've said before: Barbeque is a noun that means pit-smoked hog with sweet mustard sauce. If you say "I think I want barbeque for lunch," everyone will know that you want the aforementioned substance. Noone will think you want something red, noone will think you want beef or chicken.
Not in SC.
The word you are looking for is grilling.
I can make allowances for Aussies, who use the term "Barbie" to describe a grill.
But in SC, you will have to adjust to the dialectic reality that BBQ is a noun which means pit-cooked hog with a sweet mustard-based sauce.
Anything else must be qualified as to the type of meat or sauce. You might say "Barbequed chicken," or "Barbequed beef with some kind of red stuff all over it," but if you say "Barbeque," you mean pit-cooked hog with a sweet mustard-based sauce.
Period.
My personal favorite cut of meat is a medium-rare rib-eye. I'm sure you have had one yourself, or a similar T-Bone or New York strip.
As delicious as that rib-eye is, try telling the chef that it was BBQ without insulting him.
BBQ, by definition, has sauce applied while being cooked.
You are right about that. I went to Shealy's a few years back and they had a pan of red beef BBQ on the buffet right beside the real BBQ. I didn't touch it. I don't think many other people touched it either. While they had to refill the real BBQ pan several times while I was there, I didn't see them refill the red stuff once!
Same here my friend. Florida crackers are fast becoming a rare breed down there these days.
Anybody who likes mullet can't be all bad. The snowbirds who move to FL turn up their noses at it you know. I was raised on mullet and grits, and could still eat it every day if I could get it. In the old days anybody who could spread a cast net would never go hungry down there, there were too many good things free for the taking. My dad always said if it hadn't been for mullet, guavas, and swamp cabbage he wouldn't have made it through the depression.
You're right! You've got to watch out for those guys that eat coots (black birds), and 'possum. Incidentally, I just saw a recipe in my Florida Outdoors magazine for squirrel bog - doesn't sound too good, though.
BTW: there is a good marinade sauce out of St. Aug. called Pirate's Gold. Excellent with pork!
Main Entry: 1bar·be·cue Pronunciation: 'bär-bi-"kyü Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): -cued; -cu·ing Date: 1690 1 : to roast or broil on a rack over hot coals or on a revolving spit before or over a source of heat 2 : to cook in a highly seasoned vinegar sauce - bar·be·cu·er noun
Main Entry: 2barbecue Variant(s): also bar·be·que Function: noun Etymology: American Spanish barbacoa framework for supporting meat over a fire, probably from Taino Date: 1709 1 : a large animal (as a steer) roasted whole or split over an open fire or a fire in a pit; also : smaller pieces of barbecued meat 2 : a social gathering especially in the open air at which barbecued food is eaten 3 : an often portable fireplace over which meat and fish are roasted
You said yourself, that's what yankees say.
Taking a wild guess, I would say that ol' gal Miz Mirriam Webster ain't from around here.
My friend, that sounds like a perfect recipe for burning the meat. The only thing applied to the meat while it is cooking/smoking is a baste, not a sauce.
I seriously disagree with that definition of barbecue.
By the way, I like that username of yours.
The very best eating fish is.
SNOOK......
I have had baked mullet, very good. Pompamo is great also.
There are a few places that still serve the product:
Jocko's in Nipomo;
Far Western in Glaudiupe (? spelling) Guadalupe;
Hitching Post in Casmalia and Solvang.
I urge you Californians to lookup these places and try it.
I was thinking about posting about Santa Maria-style BBQ, but was afraid I'd get flamed, although my former son-in-law (a South Carolinian) fell in love with SM-style.
The restaurants you mention are pretty good, but even better are the parking-lot BBQs sponspored by civic and social groups on weekends all year round.
Just drive down Broadway in Santa Maria any Saturday or Sunday and look for the smoke - a great meal of tri-tip, chicken or ribs, along with pinquito beans, salad, and garlic bread for $5.00.
I expect it would be a hot spicy sauce. All the hot peppers in the world originate from that region.
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