Where's the lie. Memphis is undefeated
OT: BBQ map of America
- Thread starter onewoof
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I remember when I first moved to Texas, I was at a place with a food truck selling barbecue sandwiches.
I walked up and ordered “barbecue sandwich, no cole slaw”.
The woman said “why the hell would I put cole slaw on it?”
I said “well I don’t want you to, but people do it for some reason”
She said “well, I’ve never heard of that”
I said “ok, cool. Barbecue sandwich”
So, I get the sandwich and go over to one of the picnic tables and take a bite and I was like “what in the blue hell is this?”
I didn’t realize until then that the ‘default’ Texas BBQ sandwich is brisket, not pulled pork.
Since then, I’ve found good barbecue in different areas of the state, but having never really spent a lot of time outside Mississippi, I had no concept of “regional BBQ”.
I walked up and ordered “barbecue sandwich, no cole slaw”.
The woman said “why the hell would I put cole slaw on it?”
I said “well I don’t want you to, but people do it for some reason”
She said “well, I’ve never heard of that”
I said “ok, cool. Barbecue sandwich”
So, I get the sandwich and go over to one of the picnic tables and take a bite and I was like “what in the blue hell is this?”
I didn’t realize until then that the ‘default’ Texas BBQ sandwich is brisket, not pulled pork.
Since then, I’ve found good barbecue in different areas of the state, but having never really spent a lot of time outside Mississippi, I had no concept of “regional BBQ”.
I said “well I don’t want you to, but people do it for some reason”
The same reason people put cheap ketchup, A1, or Heinz 57 on a good steak: Something ain't right upstairs.
Whatever the vinegar based BBQ in Eastern NC is called (Carolina BBQ?), it is the worst in the world.
Yep.I remember when I first moved to Texas, I was at a place with a food truck selling barbecue sandwiches.
I walked up and ordered “barbecue sandwich, no cole slaw”.
The woman said “why the hell would I put cole slaw on it?”
I said “well I don’t want you to, but people do it for some reason”
She said “well, I’ve never heard of that”
I said “ok, cool. Barbecue sandwich”
So, I get the sandwich and go over to one of the picnic tables and take a bite and I was like “what in the blue hell is this?”
I didn’t realize until then that the ‘default’ Texas BBQ sandwich is brisket, not pulled pork.
Since then, I’ve found good barbecue in different areas of the state, but having never really spent a lot of time outside Mississippi, I had no concept of “regional BBQ”.
I was here for a good 8 months and didn't know why people liked bbq here so much. Finally a coworker asked why I ordered pork at Rudys and I asked What else is there?
That was the moment that I realized, you get brisket in Tx and pork in Tn,Ms,etc. BIG regional differences.
Ribs may be better in south as well. I've never been blown away by Tx ribs. But the brisket here is pure gold.
If you don’t like slaw on your que sammich, you just ain’t cultured.
I'll take pork and chicken over brisket but there are some good brisket places in Texas and those places tend to have good sausage too. Never had anything other than average ribs in TX. Memphis, and North MS bbq is the best. East Carolina vinegar sauce is fine with pulled pork but not my first choice. I've had a couple of good mustard sauces too but not my first choice. Don't think I'll ever get a white sauce for bbq ever again.
Girlfriend ordered one at petty’s one time “without slaw”. Boss man said “ok, you don’t want a bbq sandwich so what do you want?”
Here's my Hot Take, but it's the truth.
I love a charcoal cooked rib eye, and I love every piece of cast iron cookware I have (which is dozens with an "S", but don't give me any of that reverse seared beef in cast iron or souse vide crap.
I love my mom's pot roast w/ carrots and taters, and I love a grilled hamburger. But I have yet to find any beef brisket that I liked no matter where I got it or who cooked it. You can try but you won't change my mind
I love a charcoal cooked rib eye, and I love every piece of cast iron cookware I have (which is dozens with an "S", but don't give me any of that reverse seared beef in cast iron or souse vide crap.
I love my mom's pot roast w/ carrots and taters, and I love a grilled hamburger. But I have yet to find any beef brisket that I liked no matter where I got it or who cooked it. You can try but you won't change my mind
I generally like any of the styles as long as the place doing it knows what they're doing. Many don't.
Disagree. Mustard based in SC and Mayo Based in Bama are the worst. This map is garbage considering KC is not on it. It clearly was done by a Tennessean.
You sir are not a connoisseur of fine NC BBQ.
In TX you get brisket and sausage ( jalapeño) and maybe some pulled pork.
In KC you get ribs and burnt ends.
In Tennessee you get dry rub ribs, pulled pork and bbq bologna.
In Alabama you get pulled pork, wet ribs, sausage and smoked chicken with or without the white sauce - (overrated)
In NC you get chopped pork and vinegar based sauce along with Texas Pete sauce for some weird reason.
In SC you get pulled pork with a mustard based sauce.
End of discussion!
In NH, they told me they were making barbecue for lunch. I was expecting pulled pork, but it was all burgers and hot dogs. I moved as fast as possible
I actually had some really good BBQ in Portsmouth New Hampshire last year. The owner was from Texas & it was Texas style, but they had good pulled pork Memphis BBQ too.
My impression is that Texas Pete is a misunderstood brand. It is a North Carolina produced hot sauce that was created almost 100 years ago at a BBQ restaurant in response to customers requesting a spicy sauce. The Texas name was used to represent spicy.
Clear as mud??
I think Carolina BBQ is just as good as Memphis. I honestly don’t even consider brisket when I’m thinking of BBQ.
There’s more going on in the south of the state than where I was at. There was a place near me in VT that was decent for pulled pork. It was mostly people referring to “cooking out” as “barbecue” that threw me off
Alabama white sauce made with a little apple cider vinegar on smoked dark meat chicken is the way. Sauce should be warm and the chicken hot. Avoid it on any other meat though. It will make good pork taste less than optimal. Also don't judge white sauce based on the bottles left on the table at the 'name' bbq places in Decatur.
I'm right there with you. I'm sure there is a version that might be ok but I'm not trying it if there are other options on the menu.
Alabama white sauce is overrated.
When I had lived in Texas about a year, I finally found a place serving pulled pork sandwiches. I went in, asked for my sandwich and asked for slaw on it. The guy said, "You want slaw ON the sandwich?" Yes. "On. Like ON the sandwich?" Yes. He proceeded to scoop what I can only describe a a metric **** ton of slaw on my sandwich. That day I ate a slaw sandwich with some mediocre pork on it.I remember when I first moved to Texas, I was at a place with a food truck selling barbecue sandwiches.
I walked up and ordered “barbecue sandwich, no cole slaw”.
The woman said “why the hell would I put cole slaw on it?”
I said “well I don’t want you to, but people do it for some reason”
She said “well, I’ve never heard of that”
I said “ok, cool. Barbecue sandwich”
So, I get the sandwich and go over to one of the picnic tables and take a bite and I was like “what in the blue hell is this?”
I didn’t realize until then that the ‘default’ Texas BBQ sandwich is brisket, not pulled pork.
Since then, I’ve found good barbecue in different areas of the state, but having never really spent a lot of time outside Mississippi, I had no concept of “regional BBQ”.
My idea is that you want to always try food the way you are "supposed" to at least once. But put whatever the hell you want to on any food you want to. Life is too short for food rules.
Folks saying there isn't great bbq in KC remind me of those fbi agents a few years ago who spent 2 years looking for prostitutes in New Orleans and said they couldn't find any.
I cook steaks and chops sous vide with a cast-iron sear fairly frequently, and they're great.
You must not be doing it right.
The sauce can be trash though, but you are right, the BBQ dry rub is the way to go. Memphis sauce is thinner and just the right way to do BBQ sauce. So tell anyone in KC no thanks to the sauce or get it on the side, and you will be ok. And yes that Bama white sauce is drastically overrated unless it is on street taco chicken like 2 Brothers do it (in Mississippi).
Beef BBQ is to pork BBQ as a ribeye is to a pork chop.
Love me a good pork chop, but a ribeye blows it out of the water. You can't beat beef flavor. The best flavor you can get with pork is to salt and cure the fat and make bacon.
Beef sausage > pork sausage
Brisket > pork shoulder
Beef ribs > pork ribs
Texas (particularly central Texas style) BBQ has taken over the country. You don't see hardly any Memphis, Carolina, or Kansas City style BBQ joints opening out of their little regions. Everywhere you go somebody is opening up a new Texas style BBQ joint.
Hell, the number one BBQ place in South Carolina isn't Rodney Scott's anymore, it's now a Texas Style BBQ joint. Lewis BBQ in Charleston is owned by John Lewis who was the first pit master Aaron Franklin hired nearly 20 years ago.
Love me a good pork chop, but a ribeye blows it out of the water. You can't beat beef flavor. The best flavor you can get with pork is to salt and cure the fat and make bacon.
Beef sausage > pork sausage
Brisket > pork shoulder
Beef ribs > pork ribs
Texas (particularly central Texas style) BBQ has taken over the country. You don't see hardly any Memphis, Carolina, or Kansas City style BBQ joints opening out of their little regions. Everywhere you go somebody is opening up a new Texas style BBQ joint.
Hell, the number one BBQ place in South Carolina isn't Rodney Scott's anymore, it's now a Texas Style BBQ joint. Lewis BBQ in Charleston is owned by John Lewis who was the first pit master Aaron Franklin hired nearly 20 years ago.
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Have y'all had the brisket at The Joint? I don't know how it compares to Texas, but damn it's as good as anything I've had around here.
I went to a BBQ place in Fairbanks, AK. It was better than that mustardy Carolina crap.
You can find good BBQ all over, it’s just not as prevalent as those of us in the south are used to. Some of the best BBQ I’ve ever had was at a little place in Minnesota of all places. I’m more partial to the heavy vinegar based sauces in the Carolina’s. I like both mustard and tomato based. I like Texas BBQ and KC BBQ both. Memphis style is probably my least favorite of the regional BBQs. It’s probably more from being burnt out from growing up on it and eating so much of it.
If its cooked in a skillet, it's missing the wood smoke flavor and tastes like a restaurant steak instead of a grilled steak. Searing it doesn't give it wood smoke, it gives it burned (seared) meat smoke flavor.
As for sous vide, I've got better things to do rather than sitting around waiting for meat to warm up by heating it in a bag and pot of slowly circulating water in the house. My sister gave me one for Christmas, I tried it a few times and gave it back to her. It worked good for some veggies but I can steam them much faster than heating them slowly in a bag with circulating water. I asked her later how she liked the sous vide, said she hadn't tried it and would most likely donate it to a thrift store. Its just not my thing.......
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You happen to be right with this take, but it's just a lucky guess. You have no credibility here skinny OMAD man. One meal a day and I would eat the balls off a low flying duck and enjoy it.
It's nasty stuff. We spent a decade up there one year. Being from the 'Sip, we take good BBQ for granted.
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