method of cooking barbecue involved either making a pit with brick or stone and cooking the meat over coals or digging an actual pit in the ground, filling it with coals, and cooking the meat on top of that fire.
Over the years, barbecue has evolved. It went from holes in the ground to stone pits; then to brick pits, smokehouses, metal pits, gas-assist pits; and now even wirelessly controlled pellet pits. A lot has changed over the years. One thing remains constant: Fire is the element that ties the evolution of barbecue and the tools used.
As of late, due to the increasing popularity of sanctioning bodies and competitions on cooking shows, barbecue is popping up all over the United States, with thousands of enthusiasts located in various regions across the country. In fact, barbecue has become such a phenomenon in the United States that excellent barbecue places are now popping up in areas that traditionally never had a barbecue heritage.
Going for a Regional Spin
Barbecue tends to be a tradition throughout the South, but four premier regions known as the Barbecue Belt really define barbecue in the United States: the Carolinas (North and South), Kansas City, West Tennessee, and Texas. That’s not to say that there isn’t great barbecue all around the country. More and more great barbecue joints are popping up everywhere, but these regions, more than any other, really define the nature of barbecue in the United States.
I look at each of these regions (and some others) in the next sections, talk about the distinct flavor profile of each region, and fill you in on what each considers true barbecue.
The Carolinas
Although the Carolinas started out as one province, the area was settled by people from all over Europe, leading to several distinctive barbecue styles in the two modern-day states. I explore these differences in the following sections.
North Carolina
North Carolina is known as the first region in the United States with a distinctive barbecue style. North Carolinians started eating barbecue very early on in the country’s history. The barbecue tradition expanded from here west to other regions, including West Tennessee, Texas, and on into Kansas City.
In a state defined by barbecue, North Carolina has not one but two distinct barbecue flavors and styles: an eastern North Carolina vinegar sauce and a red, Piedmont-style or Lexington dip sauce.
GOING WHOLE HOG IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Eastern North Carolina is the land of whole-hog cooking. Typically the barbecue sauce used on that hog is vinegar based with added ingredients such as salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, or a hot sauce.
Sometimes the sauce is mopped on the hog as it cooks, but often the whole hog is chopped so that parts from all over the hog blend together sometimes even including the skin. After the meat is chopped and blended together, it gets doused in the vinegar hot sauce so familiar to the area.
Sandwiches are topped with a chopped mayonnaise coleslaw.
DIPPING INTO PIEDMONT STYLE
A Piedmont-style or Lexington dip sauce also starts with a vinegar base — apple cider vinegar to be exact. You add tomato ketchup and other ingredients to sweeten the sauce and give it a red color.
The Piedmont style isn’t as sharp as the eastern Carolina style — it’s more akin to a Memphis-style red barbecue sauce.
Lexington-style North Carolina barbecue is typically a whole shoulder of the hog — what’s called a pit dip. The red sauce used in Lexington-style barbecue is typically also used for the slaw, in order to make a red slaw that tops a sandwich.
South Carolina
The style of cooking barbecue in South Carolina is similar to that of North Carolina, but mustard prevails thanks to the many German settlers in this area. Whether for whole-hog barbecue or pork shoulder, mustard sauce rules.
Mustard sauce is typically a yellow-mustard base along with apple cider vinegar and spices added to inject a certain level of kick.
Kansas City
If West Tennessee–style barbecue and Texas-style barbecue had a baby, it might be called Kansas City. Kansas City is the first big region to marry two styles of barbecue into one uniquely regional style.
The Kansas City barbecue scene started when Henry Perry from Memphis moved to Kansas City in 1907. By 1910, he had saved enough money as a porter to open the Eat Shop, where he took the tradition of West Tennessee barbecue, which consisted of pork and chicken, and added in beef. That business later evolved to be Henry Perry – King of BBQ, and at one point he had three locations. Upon Perry’s death, his apprentice Charlie Bryant took over; he later sold the business to his brother, Arthur Bryant. Bryant changed the name of the restaurant to Arthur Bryant’s and the name remains today. Another protégé of Perry started the famous Gate’s BBQ in Kansas City as well.
Kansas City barbecue is typically thick, sweet, and tangy. A Kansas City sauce starts with a tomato base but often adds ingredients like molasses, brown sugar, or even Worcestershire or soy sauce. The sauce tends to be a thick, dark, rich sauce familiar from most grocery-store brands.
Kansas City–style ribs are generally wet and sticky. The uniquely different burnt ends from the point of a brisket, doused in sweet and sticky sauce, make this a special region with multiple styles, including some of their own.
West Tennessee
West Tennessee barbecue is typically pork shoulder that’s been slow-cooked, typically over charcoal, with a tomato-based sauce. Sometimes that sauce is sweet; other times it’s tangy.
The West Tennessee–style sandwich is made with pulled pork topped with sauce and coleslaw. Pulled pork (pork cooked to a temperature that’s hot enough to allow the meat to literally be pulled apart in your hands) originated in West Tennessee. (Meat’s collagen breaks down at 192 degrees, and the absence of collagen makes it very tender.)
Cities in West Tennessee, including Lexington and Henderson, have a long tradition of whole-hog barbecue. To cook a hog Tennessee style, you need not one but two fire pits — one to burn the coals and one to cook the hog. You burn down live coals and then shovel the coals under the hog to smoke it.
The fire pit to make the coal can be a burn barrel or a separate chimney dedicated to burning down wood. A pit is usually crafted with a grated, elevated bottom so that the coals fall through. You put wood in the top, and the coals fall through the grated floor as the wood burns. You then scoop out the hot coals and shovel them under the hog.
The difference between a West Tennessee whole hog and Carolina hog is the fact that, in West Tennessee, portions of the hog are pulled off as they’re requested. You may want part of the ham or shoulder or, if you really know what you’re doing, you ask for some middlin’ meat or belly.
These two different styles of cooking a whole hog produce two different results but make equally delicious sandwiches.
In Memphis, which is about as far west as you can go in Tennessee, the sauce is tomato based, typically with added ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, and other spices to make it a tad bit sweet or give it a tangy bite. A Memphis barbecue sandwich has sauce and slaw and is typically middle of the road with a hint of savory.
Texas
In Texas barbecue, beef