Barbeque

[AlanC]

Brad, you need to try some good Memphis ribs and you'll find there's both plenty of meat and it's well worth the trouble. Still, the pulled barbeque there is first rate. Go downtown to Rendezvous if you get the chance; Corky's is a more than adequate substitute, though. I believe the August Memphis FL gathering is going to pay Rendezvous a visit.

If anyone gets down to Birmingham or Tuscaloosa you've got to have Dreamland Barbeque. It's hardcore vinegar based that blows the pansy sweet KC stuff out of the water.

On your barbeque odyssey, get thee to Moonlite in Owensboro, Kentucky for a taste of the local mutton barbecue. MmmmmmMmmmm.

If you're in Blytheville, Arkansas swing by the Dixie Pig for the name alone.

And for Hem's South Carolina mustard based, stop by Maurice's in Columbia.

And if there's no pork around, you can always have some brisket, I guess.

 

[KittyT]

Has anyone here ever used a homemade terracotta smoker?

 

[Nathan Flowers]

We don't just have mustard-based barbeque in SC. There are four known different styles of South Carolina barbeque.

I am firmly ensconced in Vinegar Territory, and have a strong preference for it over the others. Mustard-based is a close second, but the ketchup/tomato styles are too sweet for my taste.

 

[scotrace]

I'll just put in a vouch for Zohar's vinegar 'cue. We shared a lunch of it and it was some of the best eats ever.

 

[Big Man]

In North Carolina there is "eastern" and "western" (as in east/west NC)barbeque. Eastern barbeque is a vinegar based sauce, and Western is a tomato based sauce. I might add that those flat-landers from down east don't know how to cook real barbeque (I think they add sand to their food ). If you want really good barbeque, come to the mountains!

For about 25 years, I did an annual 4th of July Pig Pickin' at my house. We used to have 200 or more people attend, and began on the 3rd of July by killing and dressing a big hog. We would start cooking about 9:00 pm and cook all night. The meal would be ready the following day at 4:00 PM. We would end up with around 200 lbs of barbeque.

It was great fun, but it was a lot of work. Eventually, all my friends that helped with the killing and cooking (and drinking) "grew up" and would only come around for the eating. So, another tradition slowly bit the dust.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

We don't just have mustard-based barbeque in SC. There are four known different styles of South Carolina barbeque.

I am firmly ensconced in Vinegar Territory, and have a strong preference for it over the others. Mustard-based is a close second, but the ketchup/tomato styles are too sweet for my taste.

You know, I wrote this thread with you in mind, so I am going to need a bit more information that that!

I agree, sweet barbeque is not to my taste. Tell me about the vinegar based barbeque; how's it done, what is the taste senation compared to? Are we speaking a malt based vinegar?

How did SC become so distinctive in four different styles with such clear geographic distinctions?

Do you agree with the adage that barbeque was invented in SC?

 

[KittyT]

How did SC become so distinctive in four different styles with such clear geographic distinctions?

There is an interesting article on the history of SC BBQ on the website for the South Carolina BBQ Association - http://www.scbarbeque.com/History.html

It states that the mustard BBQ developed along the lines of German settlements that popped up in SC in the early to mid 1700s.

As for vinegar BBQ, it states, "The Scottish families who settled primarily in Williamsburg County in present day South Carolina low country are the most famous South Carolina preparers of Vinegar and Pepper barbeque. The most prominent present day Scottish barbeque family is probably the Brown family, but there is also McKenzie, Scott, McCabe and many others who have remained, like the German families, true to their heritage. This simple Vinegar and Pepper sauce is the first, and therefore the oldest, of the South Carolina basting sauces."

Check out the article. Interesting read!

 

[scotrace]

I tried to replicate what i had in SC, but it's not easy. This cookbook has a decent starting point, but you have to actually add vinegar to the resulting sauce. That can't be too authentic?

 

[Big Man]

When I was doing "living history" a lot, we cooked several pigs in the 18th century style. You take a whole hog, place it on a spit, and cook over hardwood coals for 18 or so hours. The "sauce" used for this kind of barbeque was a mixture of yellow malt vinegar, salt, black pepper, and butter. The pig was continually basted with this mixture while being cooked.

Yum, yum ... :eusa_clap

 

[Mike K.]

I spent several years in Memphis during grad school and can honestly say they have every right to claim the best BBQ around. If anyone ever gets the opportunity, you've got to visit for the giant BBQ festival during the Memphis in May celebration.

As I mentioned on the "rattlesnake, etc. ...who ate what thread" I get to remove unwanted pests like wild hogs from the wildlife sanctuary where I work. Some people complain about having to take their jobs home with them, but I get to eat mine! Typically, several times a year I will host a hog roast. Depending on the size of the hog (the last one was about 300lbs!) I'll prepare a BBQ for up to 50 people.

My favorite recipe goes something like this:
1 half gallon BBQ sauce (preferably hickory smoke or mesquite) - as the base
1 can (12oz) of cheap beer
2 cups vinegar
2+ tablespoons of El Yucateco XXXX Hot habanero sauce (add to suite your own tastes - I like mine with just a bit of zing on the tongue, but a nice long & slow afterburn)
Cook the hog, wrapped in foil to maintain moisture, on low heat. The best BBQ is a slow-cooked hog. Baste with the sauce mix and keep another batch handy to drizzle over the meat once it's on the table.

Another really neat BBQ we tried several years ago was with a 300+ pound boar. We butchered the hog, stuffed it with pineapples, mangos, etc. then wrapped the entire thing in banana leaves and burlap. We did a Hawaiian-style pit BBQ where we built a fire pit, let the fire burn down to hot coals, the put the wrapped hog into the pit, buried him and let it cook on the hot coals underground for 12 hours straight. The meat literally slid right off the bone! Mmmmmmm!

 

[Atticus Finch]

Hi Folks,

I have started at least six replies to this thread, and I've abandoned them all. Try as I may, I simply can't do justice to the topic within the confines of a single post. Maybe not even within the confines of a single book. For me, writing generally about barbeque is much like responding to the question, "Religion---what do you think?"

Barbeque is deeply rooted in Eastern North Carolina culture. Many historians agree that white Europeans first tasted pit-cooked pig here almost two centuries before our county was even founded. And we've been cooking "Q" pretty much non-stop ever since. I'm thinkin' that four-hundred years and millions of pit-cooked pigs later, we've about got the proper recipe down-pat.

And that recipe dang sure doesn't include choped up tomatoes or tomato ketchup.

In nineteen-seventy nine, National Geographic Magazine conducted a study to determine the location of best barbeque in America. Mr. Pete Jones' Skylight Inn, in Adyen, was proclaimed the clear winner. And Ol' Pete (God rest his soul) served only hard-core, vinegar-and-pepper, Eastern North Carolina style barbeque. Let me tell you folks, National Geographic was right. Pete's is the best in the nation. http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail_pages/skylight_large.html

I'm not saying that other regions don't serve up good barbeque. They do. I've tried most of them and I've yet to find a real barbeque house that I didn't like at least a little bit. Heck, once, when I was in Memphis, I ate some beef burnt ends that nearly made me forget about North Carolina pig. And Texas briscuit, done well, is mighty darned fittin'. But there's only one true barbeque for me. Its the oldest and, for my taste, its still the best. And it can only be found within a two-hundred mile circle drawn around my humble, little Eastern N.C. hometown.

Here's some vintage photos of how we used to do it (and sometimes still do).

And two of the Nation's best Q-Joints: Pete Jones' and Wilber's.

Atticus

 

[Miss 1929]

Barbacoa!

The Mexican version of BBQ... deep pit, lined with stones, big fire inside until hot, place big bowl to catch drippings on the bottom and slow-roast a goat in it. The drippings get made into a soup. The meat gets eaten with tortillas, avocado, chilis, cilantro etc.
Out of this world tasty.
Just a slight off-topic to show that there is more than one way to eat the meat...

 

[rumblefish]

Writing generally about barbeque would be much like responding to the question, "Religion---what do you think?"

Atticus, So true.

The photo at the pit inspires me.

I had a book of Italian cooking (not necessarily just a recipe book) that has a photo in it of a huge barbeque. It shows a man standing next to about six pigs (around a hundred pounds each), all on their own stake, stuck in the ground in a circle, at a 70 degree angle, pointing toward the fire in the center. I hope I can find it. That kind of cooking very much appeals to me.

Two years ago I bought a Char-griller with a fire box to cook things like the pigs, briskets, shoulders, or beef, venison, and pork ribs and such,,,nice and slow. I now keep all kinds of wood (hickory, cherry, peach, hazlenut, apple, etc.)behind my shed for the cooking and the smoking. My favorite is the shoulders, or picnic. They're real cheap, require no tying or turning and just a few squirts of cider vineagar and apple juice while they're cooking is all the attention they get. Shorter cooking time I'll slice it like a ham, and if it cooks over 7 or 8 hours, more likely 10 or 12, it's pulled pork(it depends on how early I want to get uplol ). I've done as many a four at once on my grill.

The sauce topic.....well....I like em all; vineagar, tomato, mustard, (how about chimichurri?:essen: )I think they all have a place. When I've made one style a few times I'll change to another to keep it interesting, or make two and let the guests apply.

I also enjoy the drive down to Florida just for the sights and smells of the roadside barbeques in the Carolinas. All else is a pain in the rear, I'd much rather fly.

Seeing your photos gets me going. Thanks for that post.

I'm looking foward to seeing more pics here!

 

[rumblefish]

The Mexican version of BBQ... deep pit, lined with stones, big fire inside until hot, place big bowl to catch drippings on the bottom and slow-roast a goat in it. The drippings get made into a soup. The meat gets eaten with tortillas, avocado, chilis, cilantro etc.
Out of this world tasty.
Just a slight off-topic to show that there is more than one way to eat the meat...

another post while I was writing!
ooooh, that sounds good!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

There is an interesting article on the history of SC BBQ on the website for the South Carolina BBQ Association - http://www.scbarbeque.com/History.html

It states that the mustard BBQ developed along the lines of German settlements that popped up in SC in the early to mid 1700s.

As for vinegar BBQ, it states, "The Scottish families who settled primarily in Williamsburg County in present day South Carolina low country are the most famous South Carolina preparers of Vinegar and Pepper barbeque. The most prominent present day Scottish barbeque family is probably the Brown family, but there is also McKenzie, Scott, McCabe and many others who have remained, like the German families, true to their heritage. This simple Vinegar and Pepper sauce is the first, and therefore the oldest, of the South Carolina basting sauces."

Check out the article. Interesting read!

Thanks Kitty!
This is perfect! Thanks for posting it... just what I was looking for.

 

[drjones]

my thoughts exactly

see, i know nothing about american barbecue, but i love barbecue food. mmmm, meat.

I SOOOOOOOOO Agree! Strongly!

DRJONES

 

[KittyT]

Thanks Kitty!
This is perfect! Thanks for posting it... just what I was looking for.

No problem, thanks to you for posting this thread! I was not even aware that there was BBQ other than the dark tomato kind. Now I really want to try the others (I love both mustard and vinegar, how could that go wrong?) but have no idea when I will ever possibly have the chance

 

[Tomasso]

Coincidentally.....

As I type, The Travel Channel is airing a program covering the best BBQ in America, it's called Barbeque Paradise. :essen:

 

[KY Gentleman]

I love Barbeque (or barbecue, BBQ) just as much as the next person!
In Dallas ,Texas the Smokehouse on HWY 10 used to be a favorite of mine. While in Georgia "Lee and Eddies" in Macon was a super treat. If you find yourself in Owensboro, KY the "Moonlite BBQ" is famous! Presidents have eaten there and people come from all over to get BBQ mutton sandwiches and burgoo. I need to plan a road trip to Owensboro......

 

[dnjan]

I wish I could find barbequed suckling pig. I'd honestly prefer to have it out at a restaurant than make it myself (way to much work), but a few times a year I tend the grill for 12 hours to make some friends and family happy.

Your picture brought back fond memories. When I was in grad school (Illinois), a friend roasted a pig to celebrate his graduation. Not a suckling pig - more like a 200-pounder. A big stock tank full of charcoal, the pig on a spit powered by what looked like an old furnace motor geared-down with belts and pulleys. I think he tapped the keg (and lit the charcoal) around 8 or 9 in the morning. Stopped the spit every hour or so to inject the meat with beer. Don't remember when he tapped the second keg, but we were all stuffed with the best pork we had ever eaten by the time it got dark.