Alabama

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- Alabama barbecue most often consists of pork ribs, pork shoulder, and chicken slowly cooked over hickory smoke. Pork shoulder may be served either chopped, sliced, or pulled. Some diners also specify a preference for either "inside" or "outside" meat, a reference to the particular section of the shoulder the meat is taken from. "Inside" meat is considered to contain more moisture while "outside" meat is usually drier. - - While Alabama barbecue is typically served with a spicy, tomato-based sauce, a mayonnaise and vinegar based sauce is also popular in the northern parts of the state. Known as "White Sauce" or "Alabama White Sauce," this particular barbecue sauce is predominantly served with chicken and pork. This style of barbecue sauce is often attributed to Bob Gibson of Decatur, a well-known barbecue chef. Additionally, the barbecue in the eastern sections of the state often serve barbecue with a sweet and spicy mustard and vinegar based sauce. Much like the barbecue styles of neighboring Georgia and Tennessee, Alabama barbecue is usually considered a variation of the broader "Memphis Style" of barbecue. Barbecue in Alabama is generally served with a uniquely wide range of "country style" vegetables, as well as traditional sides of french fries, baked beans and coleslaw. - - "Whole-hog" style preparation is also common in Alabama, where a whole pig is cooked without being separated by parts prior to its preparation. Because of the nature of "whole-hog" preparation, this style is usually found at private gatherings and homes rather than in barbecue restaurants. Whole-hog barbecue is usually served to groups on a common table in a picnic-style setting and can be traced back to the social gatherings in rural towns associated with the hunting and preparing of pigs and hogs from the countryside, an event that routinely attracted large crowds. - - ==== Arizona ==== - Located between California and Texas, Arizona barbecue is similar to Texas barbecue, but also takes Californian and Missouri-style traits. Ribs, chicken, steak, and sausage are popular in this state. There are many barbecue restaurants in Arizona that serve Deep Southern-style barbecue as well, adding to Arizona's barbecue influences. As Arizona is a southwestern state, the barbecue style is also influenced by southwestern cuisine. The barbecue sauce used in Arizona is tomato-based, as are all western states. - - ==== Arkansas ====

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- - Arkansas is in some ways a crossroads of American barbecue. This is largely due to its location—firmly rooted in the Deep South but close enough to the Midwest, Texas, and Tennessee to incorporate Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas-style barbecue traits. It is one of three states that act as a crossroads for American barbecue; the other two are Oklahoma and Louisiana. - - Like all true southern barbecue, meat is never exposed to high or direct heat. Instead it is smoked at low temperatures for long periods of time (over 6–24 hours for many cuts of pork). - - Pork and beef appear on almost all menus, although pork is more popular in the Delta than in the Ozarks. Arkansas-style ribs are a key attraction and similar to those had in Memphis, which lies across the Mississippi River from Arkansas. - - A unique feature of barbecue in Arkansas is prevalence of chicken, evidence of a particularly strong poultry processing industry led by companies including Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, as well as ConAgra and Pilgrim's Pride. Barbecue chicken, Arkansas-style, is sometimes marinated with a "dry rub", smoked, and divided into edible portions after it is completely cooked. Most has sauce applied within the last few minutes of cooking. Barbecue sauce can be applied by the diner. - - Another characteristic of Arkansas barbecue is that a barbecued pork or beef sandwich is usually served with a thin layer of cole slaw atop and/or underneath the meat. Arkansas cole slaw, which is not as sweet or creamy as found in other states, provides a toothsome crunch and prevents the sauce from soaking into the bread. Barbecue sandwiches are traditionally served on slices of white bread. Additional cole slaw and potato salad are traditional side dishes. - - The best illustration of the confluence of culinary influences that come together to make Arkansas barbecue is the sauce. Most restaurants have a thin tomato base sauce that is vinegary and peppery, much like its Deep South ancestors, but incorporates some of the sweetness found in Kansas City-style sauces. To varying degrees, Arkansas sauces contain a sweetener (usually sorghum molasses), but many are not thick and never taste syrupy. They are, however, noticeably smoother (i.e., less acidic) than eastern sauces, particularly those from eastern Carolina. - - Arkansas sauces sometimes tend to be spicier than those found in other states. Most restaurants serve at least two different sorts of sauce — “regular” and “hot”. The “hot” variety incorporates more pepper into the already spicy “regular” sauce. - - ==== California ====

- In Northern California, Oakland is a center for traditional BBQ and other soul food side dishes that are popular in other regions of the country such as Kansas City and Memphis. In Southern California, the African American communities of the Southern Los Angeles are the home to many a storied barbecue restaurant. - - Santa Maria has a style involving a 2-3 inch cut of top sirloin or tri-tip steak. More popular is the whole cut of the tri-tip rump, which resembles a roast, smothered with barbecue sauce and served with pinquito pink beans, plantains, grilled French bread, and salsa as a garnish. The tri-tip is rolled in garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper just prior to grilling over red oak wood or coals. Some old timers soak their tri-tip in a flat beer marinade the night before grilling, while others use a red wine vinegar, tomato, and oil basting barbecue sauce during the grilling. ^{[1] [2]} The most common seasoning when preparing the tri-tip for the pit is a commercial blend, Susie Q's. It is usually liberally applied and rubbed deep into the meat to assist in the searing process. Other common items grilled on a Californian barbecue include chicken, ribs, and other types of beef steaks. The barbecue sauce used in this state is tomato-based, as with all other western states. Pork baby back ribs are popular for barbecue in the Western region in comparison to the popular use of spare ribs in the Southern United States. - The California barbecue scene is influenced by the southwestern regional styles from Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as the national cuisines of Australia and Mexico. - - ====Florida==== - There are three variants of barbecue in Florida, based on the parts of the state. The first is the Deep Southern style, found mainly in northern and inland Florida, which is influenced by the barbecue styles of states such as Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia. The second is Floribbean barbecue, found in some coastal Florida areas, which is an amalgam of Deep Southern, Australian, Mediterranean, and Indo/Afro-Caribbean barbecue styles. The third is tropical barbacoa, found in southern Florida, which is Floribbean barbecue further mixed with Latin American cuisine. Barbacoa was brought to southern Florida by immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American countries, and blends Mexican, Cuban, Brazilian, Argentinian, Jamaican, Bahamian and American Deep Southern barbecue traits. Overall, Floridian barbecue as a whole is best described as a mix of Deep Southern and Indo/Afro-Caribbean styles, with occasional Mediterranean, Australian, and Latino influences. The Latino-Floribbean barbacoa is loosely comparable to Tex-Mex cuisine in that there are some Mexican influences in Latino-Floribbean cuisine, as Mexican dishes such as fajitas and nachos are popular in Florida as they are in Texas. - - In northern and inland Florida, the southeastern pulled pork style of barbecue extends from Georgia into Florida with minor variations. Texas, Tennessee, and Louisiana barbecue styles, as well as Native American Tribal cookery styles (particularly the Seminoles) also influence the Northern Floridian barbecue style. In addition to pulled pork, baby back ribs, pork patties (sausage patties, rib patties, or spam), pork fillets, short ribs, chicken, steak, brisket, burgers, string sausages, and shish kebabs, local Floridian meats such as mullet, a type of fish, are also smoked. Other seafoods such as other kinds of fish, as well as shrimp and lobster, are also routinely grilled over direct heat or baked with both direct and indirect heat. Barbecue sauces in this state tend to blend tomato and vinegar bases, drawing influences from Kansas City, Memphis, Louisiana, and Texas-style sauces. In some cases, the meats may also be cooked by combining a dry heat charbroil grill with a broth-filled pot for moist heat to braise, a technique known as barbecue-braising. - - In some sections more torward the central and southern coasts of Florida, the local barbecue style mixes traits of northern/inland Floridian (Deep Southern and Native American) barbecue with traits of Indo/Afro-Caribbean barbecue, particularly from Jamaica and the Bahamas, due to their proximities to the Florida coasts. As Cajun and Australian peoples sometimes move to this area as well, their cuisines have also influenced some Floridian cuisine. It basically takes the same items grilled on a Deep Southern barbecue and mixes it with tropical flavors. The meat may also be marinated with an olive oil and citrus juice mixture, and also garnished with persillade or other herb and spice mixtures. In addition, the dishes can also sometimes be decorated with fruits, similar to a mix of Hawaiian and Australian barbecue styles. Plantains are also commonly grilled in this region. - - In southern Florida, the influx of Cuban immigrants has brought with it a style of cooking pork shoulder outdoors in which the pork is marinated in mojo, a marinade including sour orange juice and garlic, and then placed in a caja china, (literally "Chinese box"), a wooden box clad on the inside with metal, and with hot coals placed in a tray on the top. When the pork is completely done, the resulting texture is very similar to Deep Southern American-style pulled pork, and the meat is then smothered with barbecue sauce. In addition, Mexican immigrants have also introduced fajitas and barbacoa tacos, similar to their Texas counterparts, and Argentinian chimichurri, an herb and spice mixture similar to persillade, is also sometimes added as a garnish. Rodizios are also common in this region's barbecue style. - - ====Georgia====

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- - Georgia barbecue is based on pork, usually a shoulder cut or "Boston Butt" which is slow-cooked over an open pit with oak and/or hickory and served with a spicy, tomato-based sauce. Georgia variants of this Memphis-style sauce may contain some combination of ketchup, molasses, bourbon, garlic, cayenne pepper, and other ingredients. - - Barbecue in the eastern part of Georgia (from St. Simons Island to Augusta) usually consists of finely chopped pork served with a side of hash (a thick, tomato-based stew often flavored with meat drippings and other vegetables) over long grain white rice. Pork ribs, chicken, or beef brisket accompany pork on many menus, slow cooked "bare" (i.e. without the addition of spice rubs or sauces) over wood coals and served accompanied by "hash and rice" and sweet pickles. Mustard-based potato salad or traditional mayonnaise-dressing coleslaw are often served as a side dish. East Georgia barbecue is also known for the exotic flavors found in many of its sauces. Barbecue in central Georgia is most often served with Brunswick stew instead of hash, along with a wider selection of more traditional side items than in other areas of the state. Northeast Georgia barbecue is known to serve finely chopped pork most often taken from a slow roasted whole hog, rather than individual pork shoulders. The meat is served with a thinner, vinegar-based sauce similar to the sauces found in South Carolina. Barbecue found in the western sections of the state greatly resemble Alabama-style barbecue. Restaurants in this area typically serve a mustard and vinegar based barbecue sauce which often features the addition of jalapeños or other hot peppers. Meats in West Georgia barbecue are more typically cooked over oak (particularly White Oak) coals, and are often served along with dill pickles and/or grilled slices of Vidalia onion. This area also features the greatest variety of side dish offerings, often including "country vegetables" such as sweet potatoes, collard greens, lima beans, and corn. West Georgia barbecue is sometimes served with cornbread, although the more traditional offering of white bread as an accompanying starch is still most common. Other, smaller areas of the state feature numerous variations of these styles of barbecue including dry-rubs and hickory smoke sauces. Vienna, Georgia is notable as the home of The Big Pig Jig, one of the Southeast's largest pork barbecue cook-offs, which has been featured on the Food Network. - - The most easily recognized feature of Georgia is Brunswick stew, named after Brunswick, Georgia where tradition holds that it originated. - - ====Hawaii====

- In Hawaii, the local barbecue style is mainly influenced by those of the South Pacific Islands of Oceania. However, many immigrants from the mainland, as well as other immigrants from Australia and the Caribbean, brought their own styles into Hawaii and mixed it into the Hawaiian barbecue scene. In addition to meats, plantains are also grilled, glazed with honey. Likewise, the meats are glazed with sauce, cooked over Kiawe and Guava wood, and decorated with fruits when it is served. Overall, Hawaiian barbecue is best described as a mix of mainland American, Australian, Caribbean, and Pacific Island barbecue styles. - - ====Kentucky====

- In Kentucky, barbecue also has a long and rich tradition. Mutton is the most notable specialty in Western Kentucky, where there were once large populations of sheep. However, mutton is virtually unknown in The Purchase of the extreme west, where "barbecue" without any other qualifier refers specifically to smoked pork shoulder. A vinegar- and tomato-based sauce with a mixture of spice and sweet is traditionally served with the meat, though not always used in cooking. The Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro is the most famous of all Kentucky BBQ places, and Owensboro hosts an International Bar-B-Q Festival every year during the second weekend in May. Western Kentucky BBQ (more specifically, Purchase BBQ) has also been transplanted to Lexington by way of Billy's BBQ near downtown, a favorite among University of Kentucky basketball and football fans. A great deal of "Kentucky barbecue" has found its way into southern Indiana, where it has earned widespread favor. Traditionally, a combination of hickory and oak is burnt. - - ====Louisiana==== - Louisiana is another crossroad point in American barbecue. The local barbecue style mixes Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, and Deep South barbecue traits with additional influences from Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine, which makes for a unique style that is distinct from the rest of the Deep Southern States. Chicken, ribs, steak, and sausage are very common in the state, as well as plantains. In addition, skewer stick dishes called brochettes or souvlakis, both of which consist of meat, vegetables, bread, and sometimes plantains on a stick, also known as shish kebab or frigărui, is also cooked in the Louisiana barbecue due to the influences of Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisine, of which the former is in turn influenced by French cuisine, a major branch of Mediterranean cuisine, and the latter, in addition to French cuisine, is also influenced by Spanish cuisine, Albanian cuisine, and Greek cuisine, three other major branches of Mediterranean cuisine. As with other states, the meat is rubbed with certain seasonings (and sometimes bread crumbs as well), and barbecue sauce is spread over the meat when it is cooked, but Louisiana in particular sometimes marinates the meat in an olive oil and citrus juice mixture before cooking, and then adds a garnish known as persillade, which consists of garlic, parsley, and olive oil, and sometimes other herbs and spices. In addition to smoking, baking, and grilling, a special braising technique called barbecue-braising is also used to prepare meats, by combining a direct dry heat charbroil grill with a pot filled with broth for moist heat. When barbecue-braising, the meat is first grilled directly on the grill surface, then put in the broth-filled pot to braise, and then taken out and grilled again to finish, effectively cooking the meat three times, starting out fast, then slowing down, and speeding up again. Overall, Louisiana barbecue is best described as not only a crossroads of barbecue within the United States, but also as a crossroads between the American Deep South and Mediterranean Europe, particularly the countries of France, Spain, Albania, and Greece. - - ====Mississippi==== - Like its neighbor Alabama, Mississippians prefer pork to other meats, usually pork shoulder, or whole hog. Most restaurants serve only pulled pork, though some also serve chicken halves and beef steaks. Unlike the surrounding states, a purely vinegar-based sauce is preferred; in fact, many sauciers take a great deal of pride in using absolutely no tomato in their creations. Honey and/or Brown Sugar are frequently used as a sweeteners in Mississippi-Style Barbecue Sauces. - - Though most barbecue in Mississippi is pork shoulder slow-cooked in a smoker (either a drum, or a converted shed), special events call for open-pit barbecue, which is still common practice in some parts of Mississippi. A whole, freshly slaughtered hog is brought to the site very early in the morning while a pit, generally half a foot deep by several feet wide and broad, is filled with hickory wood. The wood is allowed to burn to coals before a grill is laid down, and the hog is smoked whole over the embers. The process usually takes an entire day, and if begun early enough, is ready for a special kind of buffet meal known as a " Pig pickin'." There are numerous pig-cooking competitions throughout Mississippi each year, one of which is the "Pig Cookoff" at April's Super Bulldog Weekend at Mississippi State University. Another, held during the annual Rivergate Festival in Tunica is one of several qualifying preliminary competitions for the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in nearby Memphis, Tennessee. - - ====Missouri==== - - In Missouri, beef is a popular meat for barbecue, especially in the Ozarks. Often the beef is sliced and a tomato-based sauce is added after cooking. About half of the supply of charcoal briquets in the USA is produced from Ozark forests (e.g., Kingsford brand), with hickory "flavor" being very popular ^{citation needed}. - - =====St. Louis=====

- Barbecue in St. Louis often uses pork and features a sauce that is typically tangier and thinner than its Kansas City cousin, with less vinegar taste. It somewhat resembles the Memphis style sauce. Maull's barbecue sauce is representative of the St. Louis style. The most famous barbecue competition in St. Louis is held annually during the July 4th holiday at Fair St. Louis. - - A quick and easy Missouri-style barbecue sauce can be made from mostly ketchup, some brown sugar, a little mustard, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. - - =====Kansas City=====

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- - Kansas City is sometimes referred to as the "world capital of barbecue." There are more than 100 barbecue restaurants in the city and the American Royal each fall claims to host the world's biggest barbecue contest. - - Kansas City barbecue typically consists of brisket and burnt ends, pork, lamb, and beef ribs, steaks, chicken, and turkey. Meat is more often sliced than shredded. Kansas City barbecue is served with the sauce on the side, or mixed into the meat, depending on the establishment or personal preference. Kansas City style uses a sweet, spicy sauce with a tomato base. - - The classic Kansas City-style barbecue was an inner city phenomenon that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry from the Memphis, Tennessee area in the early 1900s and blossomed in the 18th and Vine neighborhood ^{citation needed}. Arthur Bryant's was to take over the Perry restaurant and added molasses to sweeten the recipe. In 1946 Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q was opened by one of Perry's cooks. The Gates recipe added even more molasses. - - In 1977 Rich Davis, a child psychologist, test marketed his own concoction called K.C. Soul Style Barbecue Sauce. He renamed it KC Masterpiece and in 1986 he sold the sauce to the Kingsford division of Clorox. Davis retained rights to operate restaurants using the name and sauce. Only one of the restaurants remains in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas. ^{citation needed} - - ====Nevada==== - In Nevada, the local barbecue style blends traits from Texas, Arizona, and California, as well as from the Deep South. The sauce is vinegar based, and chicken, ribs, sausages, and steaks are the most common items cooked, either grilled or baked. - - ====North Carolina==== - Within North Carolina, there are two regional barbecue traditions, both based on the slow-cooking of pork, served pulled, or chopped. ^[3] In Eastern North Carolina, typically the whole hog is used, and the dominant ingredients in the 'sauce' are vinegar and hot peppers. In the Piedmont, in western North Carolina, Lexington-style (or "Western") barbecue is the norm. It is prepared from primarily pork shoulder and served with a sauce that contains tomato sauce in addition to vinegar. The tomato-based sauce, called "dip" by some, can be made with ketchup and is thinner and less sweet than most bottled barbecue sauces available nationwide. Except for the "whole hog" preparation, hams are not generally barbecued. ^{[4] [5]} - - Throughout the State, as a noun, the term "barbecue" refers to slow cooked pork. It is almost never used to refer to a backyard cookout, although any meat basted in a barbecue sauce and cooked over heat can still be considered "barbecued," as an adjective; for example, "barbecued chicken," "barbecued steak," or "barbecued ribs." A common home preparation called "chicken barbecue" is oven-braised chicken pieces with a sauce, usually thin and slightly spicy, although it can also be braised on the grill by putting a broth-filled pot on top of a charbroil-grill or gridiron-grill, a technique known as barbecue-braising. ^{[4] [5]} - - Common side dishes include hushpuppies, coleslaw, french fries, boiled potatoes or potato salad, green beans, corn sticks, Brunswick stew, fried okra, plantains, and collard greens, followed with cold sweet tea, peach cobbler, and banana pudding. In the popular North Carolina State Legislative Building cafeteria, accompaniments include fried pickle. Also popular is the "barbecue sandwich," consisting of barbecue, vinegar/pepper sauce, and sweet coleslaw served on a hamburger bun. A "barbecue tray" is a thick paper rectangular bowl with barbecue and french fries or hushpuppies served side-by-side. The meat may already have sauce mixed in, or the diner may add his own. ^{[4] [5]} - - The state's best known annual food festival is the Lexington Barbecue Festival. It is normally held on one of the last two Saturdays in October. Attesting to its popularity, Carolina-style barbecue restaurants are scattered along the Eastern seaboard and tubs of NC chopped barbecue can be found in many grocers. ^{[4] [5]} - - ====Oklahoma====

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- The third crossroad point of American barbecue, the Oklahoma barbecue style reflects the state's geographic location. Located south of Kansas City, north of Texas and west of Memphis, Oklahomans like the beef brisket favored by their neighbors in Texas, the sweet spicy sauce typical of Kansas City and the pork ribs that are found in Memphis. However, Oklahoma barbecue also includes pork, chicken, sausage, and bologna. In Oklahoma, barbecue refers to meat that has been slowly cooked over wood smoke at a very low temperature, for a very long time. The woods most commonly used for smoking meat include hickory, oak, mesquite ,and pecan. - - ====South Carolina==== - South Carolina features four types of barbecue sauces: mustard, vinegar, heavy tomato, and light tomato. The meat used in South Carolina is consistent throughout the state, slow-cooked pulled pork. In the Palmetto State, the term "barbecue" is most commonly a noun, meaning hickory-smoked, pulled pork. Most South Carolinians usually refer to grilling or baking steaks, sausages, or other meats as a steakhouse or picnic meal as opposed to a barbecue meal, although they sometimes tend to overlap. Barbecued pork is cooked at low temperatures for longer times than grilled or baked meats, which are cooked relatively quickly at high temperatures. - - In the Pee Dee and Lowcountry coastal region, a vinegar and pepper sauce is prevalent. Examples of this vinegar-based sauce can be found in establishments like McCabe's BBQ in Manning, SC. In addition, the Charleston-based chain, Sticky Fingers, uses a style much more similar to Memphis BBQ, offering a variety of different sauces. - - In the Midlands area around Columbia, a mustard-based sauce sometimes referred to as "Carolina Gold" is common, a sauce made from mustard, apple cider, brown sugar, and other ingredients. Another side to go with the barbecue pork is pork hash, made of pork, potatoes, and spices, served over rice. The German immigrants, who first concocted mustard-based sauce, often used beer in place of apple cider. - - In the upcountry, around Rock Hill, one finds the light tomato and the rest of the upcountry stretching down past Aiken is home to the heavy tomato sauce. In addition to pork, other popular BBQ dishes include hash and ribs. South Carolina Barbecue is often served over rice, and with such sides as fatback, cracklins, hash, cole slaw, hush puppies, potato salad, etc., with sweet iced tea often served to drink. ^{[6] [7]} - - ====Tennessee==== - - Traditional Tennessee barbecue is saucy, slow-cooked pork ribs or pulled/sliced pork shoulder, though beef brisket (and sometimes sliced roast beef served with sauce) is also popular. The molasses content in the sauce usually becomes less pronounced in middle and east Tennessee, causing the sauces there to be thinner and less sweet. These eastern varieties more frequently use ketchup as a base, sometimes adding small amounts of Tabasco sauce or jalapeño for flavor. - - While Memphis dominates the culture of Tennessee barbecue, some other restaurants in other cities have achieved some fame outside of their local markets. In recent years, it has become increasingly common for restaurants in the far eastern part of the state to serve the meat "dry" and offer customers a choice of either tomato or "Eastern Carolina-style" vinegar-based sauces. The use of cole slaw as a condiment on sandwiches varies from location to location. Typical side dishes include french fries, baked potatoes, potato salad, corn on the cob, barbecue beans, cole slaw, green beans, white beans, dinner rolls, and collard greens. Most barbecue restaurants are locally owned, no-frills establishments, though a handful of fast food chains (such as Buddy's BBQ in the Knoxville area) and several more upscale "rib houses" have proven popular regionally. - - One particular area of interest is Robertson County (i.e. Springfield and surrounding areas, or the northern middle portion of the state, approximately 30 minutes to an hour north of Nashville), in which the norm is to serve pulled pork shoulder (or sometimes, pulled whole-hog barbecue) or a half- or whole-chicken with a finishing sauce consisting of almost pure apple cider vinegar, with a bit of ground cayenne pepper (sometimes with more pepper in a mild, medium, or hot choice), and perhaps some Coca-Cola for a little sweetening, depending on the establishment. While vinegar-based, the sauce is still rather different from the eastern North Carolina style of sauce, primarily due to the exclusion of ground black pepper, but is also different than much of the rest of the state (especially Memphis) in the lack of any tomato-based ingredients. Sometimes, the sauce may also be used as a "mop" sauce, applied during cooking, often with the addition of a vegetable oil (usually canola) to help adhesion to the meat. Common side dishes include a choice between a mayonnaise-based coleslaw or a mayonnaise-and-mustard-based potato-salad, as well as either slow-cooked white beans (usually Navy or Great Northern beans, usually cooked slow and low with bacon, ham, or other fatty pork meats) or "baked beans" which are again usually a white bean slow-cooked with pork, and then baked with a sauce of tomatoes, vinegar, and sometimes with brown sugar or molasses (but less frequently than in other parts of the country). The usual bread accompaniment is mass-produced "brown-and-serve" dinner rolls, or a cornbread dish, which can vary from cornbread-griddle-cakes to slices of sweetened cornbread baked in an oven in a cast-iron skillet. - - ===== Memphis ===== - Memphis-style barbecue is known for - *wet ribs, made with a mild, sweet barbecue sauce that's basted on the ribs before and after smoking; - *dry-rub crusted ribs, made with a spice rub that forms a crust on the surface, applied during or right after they've been cooked; and - *pulled or chopped pork sandwich topped with sweet, finely chopped coleslaw and served on hamburger buns, which some locals insist is Memphis barbecue's highest form. - - For people who simply can't get enough barbecue, there's also barbecue spaghetti, barbecue pizza, and barbecue nachos. ^tone - - Memphis is also home to the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (WCBCC), an annual event which regularly draws over 90,000 pork lovers from around the globe. The title of "the largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the world" was bestowed on the WCBCC in the 1990 Guinness Book of World Records [3]. - - ====Texas==== - Texas has four main regional styles of barbecue, all with different flavors, different cooking methods, different ingredients, and different cultural origins. - - East Texas barbecue is an extension of traditional southern barbecue, similar to that found in Tennessee and Arkansas. It is primarily pork-based, with cuts such as pork shoulder and pork ribs, indirectly slow smoked over primarily hickory wood. The sauce is tomato-based, sweet, and thick. This is also the most common urban barbecue in Texas, spread by African-Americans when they settled in big cities like Houston and Dallas. ^[8] - - Central Texas was settled by German and Czech settlers in the mid 1800s, and they brought with them European-style meat markets, which would smoke leftover cuts of pork and beef, often with high heat, using primarily native oak and pecan. The European settlers did not think of this meat as barbecue, but the Anglo farm workers who bought it started calling it such, and the name stuck. Traditionally, this barbecue is marinated but served without sauce, and with no sides other than saltine crackers, cucumber pickles, and onions. This style is found in the Barbecue Belt southeast of Austin, with Lockhart, Texas as its capital. ^[8] - - The border between the South Texas Plains and Northern Mexico has always been blurry, and this area of Texas, as well as its barbecue style, are mostly influenced by Mexican tastes. The area was the birthplace of the Texas ranching tradition, and the Mexican farmhands were often partially paid for their work in less desirable cuts of meat, such as the diaphragm, from which fajitas are made, and the cow's head. It is the cow's head which defines South Texas barbecue, called barbacoa. They would wrap the head in wet maguey leaves and bury it in a pit with hot coals for several hours, and then pull off the meat for barbacoa tacos. The tongue is also used to make lengua tacos. Today, barbacoa is mostly cooked in an oven in a bain-marie ^[8] - - The last style of Texas Barbecue also originated from Texas ranching traditions, but was developed in the western third of the state by Anglo ranchers. This style of "Cowboy" barbecue, cooked over an open pit using direct heat from mesquite, is the style most closely associated with Texas barbecue in popular imagination. The meat is primarily beef, shoulder clods and brisket being favorite cuts, but mutton and goat are also often found in this barbecue style. ^[8] - - ==== Upper Midwest ====

- In northern Illinois (including Chicago), Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northern Indiana, and Michigan, barbecue typically means a cut of meat with bone-in, either slow-cooked or cooked over an open flame. No-bone cuts of meat are usually said to be grilled, and are almost exclusively seared using dry direct heat. Fire, in the Upper Midwestern style, is necessary for barbecue; similar slow-cooked meat dishes prepared in an oven or a Crock-Pot are quite tasty, but not barbecue, unless combined with a charbroil grill. Most of these bone-in meat cuts are beef and pork spare ribs, and chicken quarters (thigh and drumstick together). Beef brisket has become increasingly popular in recent years. Restaurant chains named "Carson's Ribs", " Famous Dave's", and "Robinson's" use these meats with a variety of sauce styles. In portions of the Midwest barbecue is also a name for a sloppy joe sandwich. - - Upper-Midwesterners typically serve barbecued meat with corn on the cob and baked potato (with butter, sour cream and chives) as side dishes, and sometimes baked beans and potato chips. - - ===== Chicago ===== - Chicago is an exception to the rule in the Midwest. It has a very large population of African Americans who migrated from the Mississippi Delta in the middle of the 20th century. The million or so African Americans who live in Chicago today inherited the food, music, and religion of their parents and grandparents. The barbecue described in the Memphis, Arkansas, and Mississippi sections of this entry has become a part of the Chicago landscape and has evolved since leaving the South. South- and West-side Chicago is noted for smoked ribs and Deep South style rib sauce. - - Many of the migrants to Chicago came for jobs in the meatpacking industry at the time Chicago was still known as the hogbutcher to the world. Pork spare ribs served with hot or mild sauce are a product of this happy cultural confluence. While barbecue is typically associated with tough cuts of meat, barbecue ribs in Chicago tend to be from very good cuts of pork, perhaps because of the abundance of good meat and resulting higher expectations in this meat industry town. - - ==== Virginia ==== - Much of the BBQ that exists in Virginia is found near the Tidewater region. Pork is the main offering, but chicken is often available, as are pork ribs. Meat from pork shoulders--"Boston butts"--is pit or smoker cooked. The more North Carolina-inclined places serve the meat dry and offer vinegar-based and tomato-based vinegary sauces. Some places offer smoked, minced pork in a light tomato/vinegar sauce, perhaps best fitting the appellation "Virginia BBQ" although very similar to some North Carolina BBQ. Most will, however, serve cole slaw on the sandwich as part of the deal. Given how many restaurants and stands offer "North Carolina BBQ" it is permissible to let the reader decide for him or herself whether there is a genuine variation or not. - - ==== Pacific Northwest ==== - In the Pacific Northwest coast, barbecue is approached using different smoking techniques and is primarily used for cooking salmon. In early spring, Native Americans living near the Columbia River celebrate the first appearance of returning Chinook salmon with outdoor feasts, which are repeated, in backyards and restaurants, until the middle of fall. - - Through the summer, when silver and pink salmon is especially affordable, grills are crowded with the tender flesh of salmon. A few places in Vancouver and Seattle cook salmon the ancient way (on cedar sticks), while others add twists of their own. - - Traditionally, the salmon are cut in long, wide strips along either side of the backbone. Then the fillets should be speared on skinny cedar sticks, while smaller twigs are used to stretch the fish sideways. When completed, this looks like a rib system, but it keeps the salmon from curling while cooking. - - The fish-on-a-stick is then placed upright, about three feet from the firepit, and cooked slowly for about half an hour. This method keeps the juices intact; placing the fish any closer to the fire dries it out. When finished, the meat will break away in moist layers. - - Bacon-wrapped tuna is another common seafood dish. Grilled oysters in garlic butter is popular on the coast. Other items cooked on a British Columbia, Washington or Oregon barbecue include chicken, sausage, steak, and portabella mushrooms, and may be grilled, baked, or both.