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Feb 21, 2018
10:46:53am
whirl All-American
How well do you know your USA BBQ geography

 

Can you name the region/area of the country that originates these BBQ styles?

 

Region #1

BBQ in this region is not uniform. It has 3 main varieties that delineate by 3 varieties:  Eastern, Western and Southern.  In all three varieties pork is slow-cooked over a wood-fired pit or grill. The meat is pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich with homemade coleslaw. But while Eastern uses the whole pig, and dresses its pulled pork with vinegar and sometimes a touch of hot pepper, Western uses the shoulder of the pig and adds a thick tomato-based or ketchup-based sauce to its pulled pork, which it serves with red coleslaw. The Southern variety uses the whole pig, shoulder, butt (the upper shoulder) or ham (the hind quarter), and the sauce varies between a tomato-based or ketchup-based sauce, a vinegar and hot pepper, and a mustard-based sauce.

The Carolinas (Eastern, Western, and South Carolina)

 

Region #2

While pulled pork sandwiches (using pork shoulder and served with coleslaw) can be found in most of this region’s barbecue joints, ribs are the city’s specialty. Dry rub ribs, seasoned with salt and spices, are the shinning star of the barbecue here, though wet rub ribs, covered in a tomato-based sauce, are also ubiquitous. In all cases, the pork is slow-cooked over a wood-fired pit or grill.

Memphis TN

 

Region #3

In this region, beef reigns supreme but pork barbecue is not hard to find. The state is especially known for its beef brisket, often served with no sauce. As with the Carolinas, barbecue styles shift through the state.

In the central part of this region, where many German and Czech immigrants settled in the 1800s, beef (brisket and sausage) and pork (ribs and sausage) are dry-rubbed and slow-cooked over a pecan or oak wood-fired grill. Ribs are often served with a thin tomato-vinegar sauce. In the eastern part of thie region, pork shoulder, ribs and sausage are slow-cooked over a hickory-fired grill, sometimes with a tomato-based sauce. In the southern part, certain places serve a style of barbecue, or barbacoa, in which the head of a cow is slow-roasted over a mesquite-fired pit and served with tortillas and salsa.

Texas (or Rise Against's house)

 

Region #4

BBQ here is known for its sauce-heavy barbecue and its “burnt ends”, or brisket tips, which come from a slow-smoked batch of beef brisket. Ribs are slathered in a tomato-and-molasses-based sauce and slow-cooked over a fire or grill, while burnt ends are smoked until crisp and charred and then served with the same sauce, which is usually very sweet and can be slightly sour and spicy as well.

Kansas City, Missouri

 

Region #5

In this region, pork steaks rule. Steaks are cut from the shoulder or butt, cooked on a grill and then covered in a sweet, tomato-based sauce. Unique to this region is its crunchy “snoot”, which is meat from the jaw/cheek and nose area of the pig’s face, accessed by cutting off the nostrils of its snout. Snoot is grilled until crispy and served in a sandwich.

St. Louis, Missouri

 

Region #6

BBQ ribs, slow-cooked over a wood- or charcoal-fired pit or grill, are the popular faire in this region.  They all about the finger-licking sweet, tangy and smoky tomato-based sauce that they’re drenched in. In addition to pork rib platters, barbecue joints serve up rib tips, the juicy cartilage ends of the ribs that sometimes get cut off and thrown away.

Chicago, IL

 

Region #7

The wool industry in this region gave way to mutton as the popular meat for local barbecue — especially in the west of the state — since aging sheep are of more use for their meat than their fleece. The sheep meat is slow-smoked, either in a smoker or over a hickory wood fire, and brushed with a sour, tangy sauce. It is pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich, often with “Mutton Dip”, a local blend of water, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, pepper and spices  and sometimes even bourbon.

Kentucky

 

Region #8

Barbecue here is known for its distinctive white sauce – a mayonnaise-based accompaniment made with vinegar, salt and pepper, and devoid of tomato flavours. In this area, either chicken or pork (shoulder, butt, ham or ribs) is slow-cooked over a pecan wood fire or grill, then pulled, chopped and served in a sandwich, covered in sauce. Sometimes the chicken is cooked in the sauce as well.

Alabama

 

Region #9

This region is more localized than the others and is America’s stronghold for tri-tip beef barbecue, often served with salsa on the side. The tri-tip, the triangle-shaped bottom sirloin portion of the cow, is dry rubbed and then slow-smoked over a red oak wood fire. Its tradition began with early American cowboys who would slow-cook skewered meats over fires fuelled by red oak wood.

 

Santa Maria, CA

 

Region #10

This region’s lively celebratory feasts of traditional foods, is kalua pig – pork cooked all day long in an imu, an underground oven made by simply digging out a hole in the ground. The meat is dry rubbed with sea salt and spices, covered in banana leaves and cooked over a fire at the bottom of the imu. This barbecue is not served with sauce.

Hawaii

 

Region #11 

BBQ here involves slow-cooked pork, beef or chicken. But as Michael Karl Witzel mentions in his book Barbecue Road Trip, one popular barbecue dish from this region is prepared using local, wild-caught specialty, salmon, which is placed on cedar planks and then smoked over a fire or a grill. The sauce, which typically uses the tomato-and-molasses base found in barbecue sauces throughout the country, is usually used to baste the fish, and the remainder is poured on top.

Alaska

 http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120823-travelwise-the-geography-of-american-barbecue

This message has been modified
Originally posted on Feb 21, 2018 at 10:46:53am
Message modified by whirl on Feb 21, 2018 at 10:51:06am
Message modified by whirl on Feb 21, 2018 at 10:59:02am
Message modified by whirl on Feb 21, 2018 at 11:00:01am
Message modified by whirl on Feb 21, 2018 at 11:00:31am
whirl
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