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.
The BBQ thread of days past was one of the best I've seen here.
Stay safe.
Kansas City has some of the best Barbeque in the world, and I don't believe it is considered to be below the Mason-Dixon line.
Nuke 2 tablespoons for 1 minute ( 1/2 of a 1/4 lb of butter ) ( NOT margerine! )
While it is still bubbling, add in this order:
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
6 - 10 good dollops of cayene pepper sauce ( think Tabasco ) if it doesn't smell like cayene sauce add more
The same amount of Worchestershire sauce
The same amount of any decent Teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons ( generous dollops ) of any hickory flavored BBQ sauce
Juice of 1/2 lime
Oh yeah...add a bunch of ground pepper....
This works great on steaks, chicken, pork, etc....
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use MESQUITE CHARCOAL!!!!!!!
I've had the Carolina BBQ, and it is delicious.
China is much older than N.Carolina, but; that hardly gives them claim to a superior BBQ.(incidently; the area known as Texas was settled far earlier than the Carolinas).
As with chili, BBQ was born in Texas. Texas is the benchmark to which all others compare(however admirably).
Chicago and K.C. are also highly ranked due to their historic, and continuing, place as major cattle stockyards. Pig and vinegar, although tasty, are the poor-mans substitute.
In the end; good eating is a treat from heaven. Always enjoyable(with or without ignorance).
Isn't that the truth. Slow cooked over hickory coals, vinegar based sauce. Then just dig in, pulling off what you want. Oh man, I'm hungry now.
An old fashioned Pig Pickin'.
You left out Virginia, the pork capitol of the south! My daddy (a Kentuckian) always used to say he liked Virginia 'cause it was the only place you could get a decent BBQ.
" while their neighbors on the western border favor a thick, sweet-sour, ketchup-based sauce.
That stuff is just plain nasty!
"Mustard based BBQ is the best"
Amen to that. I grew up in Virginia and BBQ was a staple; in fact, hamburger was fairly unfamiliar to me until I was a bit older. At least once a week we would eat at this little local diner called Hilltop BBQ. That was the standard, the point of comparison. There was also Gene's BBQ; one in Colonial Heights and one in Dinwiddie county. These too were small local diners but the BBQ was out of this world.
When I was in college in Georgia there was a place called Barbeque Bill's that I liked a lot. It wasn't really the same but it was a mustard based sauce and it was very good. And once, driving back from Florida late one evening and tired of eating fast food I stopped at a place just north of Brunswick, GA as I recall, right off the highway that looked like it had been an old Tastee Freeze. I ordered a BBQ and Brunswick Stew. It turned out to be one of the most memorable meals I ever ate! The BBQ was fantastic as was the stew. I wonder if its still there.
There are also several good BBQ places in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I personally think the Smokehouse is the best of the ones I've eaten at. Its certainly the closest to Virginia BBQ.
I'm glad you posted this. I have a tendency to start trouble every time I mention BBQ on a thread. I'm glad somebody else started it this time!
I love mustard based sauce.
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. If WindMinstel thinks of BBQ as hamburgers and hot dogs, I can't help that. That's more of a hibachi grill-out to me. Not pork butt or shoulder marinated for 24 hours and then smoked for 7 hours with a mesquite wood/Kingsford charcoal blend over apple juice as perpetual baste. That's barbecue.
"Put-outness." What on earth is that?
See what I mean? This is always how it starts!! Always!
If it ain't PORK it ain't BBQ!
Yes! That too.
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