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.
I had BBQ at least once a week for the 20 years I lived in Texas. I don't understand how any article mentioning BBQ could omit Texas. On visits to Texas the first thing on the menu is BBQ and the second is Mexican (Tex/Mex) food.
If you must have sauce on it, the barbecue isn't any good.
Ha! Mom-and-pop pizzerias in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and especially Chicago will take you to task on that one.
As for the sauce, mustard based but never a sauce without brown sugar.
It's astounding the ignorance of this post. North Carolina existed long before any of those places and as such righfully defines what is barbecue in the United States. Barbecue is pork. The best is here.
ROTFLMAOPIMP!
I still love BBQ!
Save your stereotypes, please. I'm what you'd call a "yankee" (born and raised in East Cleveland, Ohio), yet I know the difference between grilling and barbecuing. The difference is huge.
And I knew that before I ever left the state of Ohio.
Yes there is. I ordered BBQ in Los Angeles once. They brought me sliced baked ham with ketchup on it.
Yuck.
I've tried SC's BBQ and it does not compare in any way shape or form to a good vinegar and pepper BBQ. As for Texas, y'all need to stop using so much sugar in your sauce and stop BBQing everything in sight. The only thing you're supposed to BBQ is pork. Beef if right out
Hey, those Memphis in May BBQ cookoffs are spectacular. Great food right on the Mississippi.
BUMP for that!
If you're not cooking the whole pig you're wasting your time. And if you're using mustard you're wasting your money.
Ain't it the truth!
I called Parker's, which is right up the road, and they're apparently closed.
:(
Absolutely true. I'm from Roanoke and now live in Philly area. When I go home, I mostly eat BBQ. We just had a BBQ restaurant open near us from the Outer Banks. It's ok, not like what I find in Roanoke. Then I discovered that the owners were originally from this area, moved down there and are now back up here. Their Yankeeness shows through. They did not bring back honest-to-good southern BBQ. Vinegar and pepper rules!
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