If You Ask Me: America’s Best BBQ. Period.
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a blogumn by Travis Randall
A question I get a lot is “What is the best style of BBQ?” That’s hard to answer because there are so many sub categories of BBQ. People around this country can’t even decide which spelling is the right one [BBQ, Bar-B-Q, Barbecue, etc].
BBQ [my preferred spelling] styles are broken up by region. Entire books have been written on the specific breakdowns of styles so I am going to generalize BBQ into broad categories. These styles are: California [Santa Maria Style], Hawaiian Style, Missouri Style [I am lumping together St. Louis & Kansas City Styles], Texas Style, Tennessee Style [Memphis Style is most prominent], and Southern Style [Carolina, Georgia, Alabama].
The easiest way to pick a winner is to pick the losers out first. Let me say that all of these styles are really good and if done correctly I am pleased as a pickle to be eating any of them, but for the sake of your taste buds I will pick the best.
First let me tell you what BBQ is. Purists define it as meat cooked by indirect heat using hardwoods for fuel as well as for flavor. Traditional BBQ in this country was once considered slave food. Slave owners would often give the undesirable cuts of meat to the slaves and they developed it into a delicious cuisine. Another factor I sometimes take into consideration is side dishes.
Right off the bat I will eliminate California and Hawaiian styles from the running.
California’s Tri-Tip fits in somewhere between grilling and BBQing. It is cooked over a flame, higher and cooler than grilling but still not BBQ. Hawaiians do up the pit pigs but this isn’t truly the American way and most of their BBQ, and other cuisine for that matter, is pieced together from other cultures and styles.
Next on my chopping block is the Missouri styles. It is generally served with a tangy sweet sauce. For me the meat is a bit too sweet and saucy. I feel like their flavoring overpowers the meat and it almost turns it into dessert. The sauce is like fancy ketchup. They are famous for being the region that brought you KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce and they have a nationally recognized BBQ restaurant in Arthur Bryant’s BBQ.
Next to go is Tennessee style. One of my favorite BBQ items is Memphis Dry Ribs. The East is big on pork and they do a mean pulled pork in these parts. Their sauces are sweetened with molasses and parts of the state use a slightly spicier or higher vinegar variation of their standard ketchup based sauce. The sides aren’t super exciting but they make good beans here. Generally you get fries, mayo-mustard based tater salad, or creamy coleslaw as a side. Memphis is host to the BBQ World Championship each year.
It’s getting hard now…I have to let Texas go. I just spent the last week in Texas and I ate amazing BBQ. I ate lunch in Lockhart three times in three hours and that ain’t no joke. Texas isn’t big on sauce or complex rubs. It isn’t uncommon to have a Texas style brisket rubbed with just salt and pepper. They let the meat and the smoke do the talking. They love hickory and pecan wood and so do I. The saying “Everything Is Bigger In Texas” is true with their BBQ. They sell it buy the pound at most old school places. A popular item in Texas is breakfast tacos made with the previous days BBQ and egg in a small tortilla.
Brisket is king in Texas but they like their pigs too. They make excellent smoked sausage in central Texas which shows off their German influences. Sides aren’t a big emphasis in Texas they are all about the meat…big juicy piles of it. On the side you usually get white bread, crackers, pickles, and onions. The Mexican influence on southern Texas BBQ is seen near the border. Mexican farm hands helped develop the style here much like the African American slaves did in the South. Ranchers took the less desirable cuts and passed them on to their workers who added their own flavors and made delicious food of it. In Texas there is a Mexican BBQ’d treat that is awesome. It’s called Barbacoa. They wrap and bury a cows head to slow cook it with hot coals until they can peel the meat off easily and make tacos.
Trust me, it’s awesome.
You probably figured it out by now that my #1 favorite is Southern style [specifically I like South Carolina style]. This is where BBQ as we know it was developed. The sauces are thin and strong with mustard and vinegar which add a great acidity to the meat. They specialize in pork and as we all know pork fat is one of the tastiest things on earth. Pulled or chopped pork is all the rage down south. Sides like Brunswick stew and hush puppies are popular. Most sides are soul foods favorites and I love soul food, too.
From top to bottom Southern BBQ reigns supreme. It has heritage, flavor, and delicate as well as bold flavors. Another great side to Southern BBQ is Southern hospitality. I am stereotyping here but a lot of people in the south have a laid back friendly demeanor that makes dining there all the better.
I am a sucker for an old lady calling me “honey”…sue me.
Oh Travis… you are so wrong about this. Missouri BBQ is obviously the best BBQ in the history of ever. It's not too sweet. It just isn't completely dependent on vinegar — like certain styles you choose to exhalt. Also, Missouri bbq is no-b/s, here's-your-rib-tips, we-don't-have-to-be-nice-to-you-when-we-serve-it-b/c-our-bbq-stands-on-its-own. ON ITS OWN. Eff southern hospitality. BBQ is too serious to be all hospitable about it. Also, as far as I've found, Missouri BBQ is the only bbq that tastes good the next day, even if you heat it up in the microwave. Even A MICROWAVE can't keep a good Missouri rib down.
Let me tell you a story. Last spring my Uncle Cornelius, my favorite uncle and one of the best BBQers I know, kept on ordering the vegetarian options while he was out here visiting us. I kept on expressing surprised that he always went for the vegetarian dish, and then I just started out-and-out pressing him about why he wasn't eating any meat — I was afraid he had been diagnosed w/ some medical condition that he didn't want to tell us about.
But then he confessed that he had never really liked meat. My 65-year-old uncle has been a closet vegetarian all of his life and still he cooked and ate BBQ — b/c it's that dang good. And also, b/c he didn't want to disappoint his family since he's the oldest brother and expected to handle the grill at all family picnics. But mostly because St. Louis BBQ is THAT DANG GOOD.
I'm through.
Oh Travis… you are so wrong about this. Missouri BBQ is obviously the best BBQ in the history of ever. It's not too sweet. It just isn't completely dependent on vinegar — like certain styles you choose to exhalt. Also, Missouri bbq is no-b/s, here's-your-rib-tips, we-don't-have-to-be-nice-to-you-when-we-serve-it-b/c-our-bbq-stands-on-its-own. ON ITS OWN. Eff southern hospitality. BBQ is too serious to be all hospitable about it. Also, as far as I've found, Missouri BBQ is the only bbq that tastes good the next day, even if you heat it up in the microwave. Even A MICROWAVE can't keep a good Missouri rib down.
Let me tell you a story. Last spring my Uncle Cornelius, my favorite uncle and one of the best BBQers I know, kept on ordering the vegetarian options while he was out here visiting us. I kept on expressing surprised that he always went for the vegetarian dish, and then I just started out-and-out pressing him about why he wasn't eating any meat — I was afraid he had been diagnosed w/ some medical condition that he didn't want to tell us about.
But then he confessed that he had never really liked meat. My 65-year-old uncle has been a closet vegetarian all of his life and still he cooked and ate BBQ — b/c it's that dang good. And also, b/c he didn't want to disappoint his family since he's the oldest brother and expected to handle the grill at all family picnics. But mostly because St. Louis BBQ is THAT DANG GOOD.
I'm through.
southern bbq is by FAR the best. so glad to have the bbq expert on my side in this very important matter. while south carolina is probably the most famous representative of southern style bbq, the best places to get southern bbq, in my opinion, are in georgia and north carolina. of course, as a georgia native who spent tons of time in north carolina, it could just be that i know those places better.
my husband thinks the hushpuppy is what completes great bbq. i tend to agree. supposedly, the scraps of fried bread (later cornmeal) were invented by southern cooks to keep in the pockets of their apron as they went back and forth from the kitchen to the smokehouse. the cook would throw a hushpuppy or two to keep the dogs from jumping up and snatching the meat — hence the term "hush puppy." THAT'S how good southern bbq was — they invented one of the best side dishes ever in order to keep the dogs from devouring the main dish.
I LOVE THIS STORY! I hope you are right about the Hush Puppy…never heard that and I'm gonna started using it and spreading the word…true or not :)
it's true as far as i'm concerned :) i heard it a long time ago in south carolina at some bbq place. if you look up the etymology of hushpuppy, you'll see similar stories, but there doesn't seem to be a definite answer. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hus1.htm)
in another life, i'd put everything aside to write a book on the history of hush puppy, and i'd die happy.
southern bbq is by FAR the best. so glad to have the bbq expert on my side in this very important matter. while south carolina is probably the most famous representative of southern style bbq, the best places to get southern bbq, in my opinion, are in georgia and north carolina. of course, as a georgia native who spent tons of time in north carolina, it could just be that i know those places better.
my husband thinks the hushpuppy is what completes great bbq. i tend to agree. supposedly, the scraps of fried bread (later cornmeal) were invented by southern cooks to keep in the pockets of their apron as they went back and forth from the kitchen to the smokehouse. the cook would throw a hushpuppy or two to keep the dogs from jumping up and snatching the meat — hence the term "hush puppy." THAT'S how good southern bbq was — they invented one of the best side dishes ever in order to keep the dogs from devouring the main dish.
I LOVE THIS STORY! I hope you are right about the Hush Puppy…never heard that and I'm gonna started using it and spreading the word…true or not :)
it's true as far as i'm concerned :) i heard it a long time ago in south carolina at some bbq place. if you look up the etymology of hushpuppy, you'll see similar stories, but there doesn't seem to be a definite answer. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hus1.htm)
in another life, i'd put everything aside to write a book on the history of hush puppy, and i'd die happy.
It's meat, with sauce and/or dry rub. As far as I'm concerned, it's all good.
It's meat, with sauce and/or dry rub. As far as I'm concerned, it's all good.
Watch it with the Santa Maria BBQ dig I'm sure Betty will love the stuff.
Watch it with the Santa Maria BBQ dig I'm sure Betty will love the stuff.
I love all BBQ and agree that eating it were it was created is the only way to go. I think my favorite BBQ of all times was in Nashville.
I love all BBQ and agree that eating it were it was created is the only way to go. I think my favorite BBQ of all times was in Nashville.
If I can ever get my show going and get a budget for someone of your skills…you will then see the world of BBQ and I believe I can convert you. I know a place in Atlanta where they put liquid hot pork fat on salads as dressing. I don't care what anyone says…I am willing to die for that kind of awesomeness
If I can ever get my show going and get a budget for someone of your skills…you will then see the world of BBQ and I believe I can convert you. I know a place in Atlanta where they put liquid hot pork fat on salads as dressing. I don't care what anyone says…I am willing to die for that kind of awesomeness
I would also like to add to this article for your readers who might not know this already, that it is impossible to properly enjoy a regional BBQ outside of it's region. I tried St. Louis ribs in a California restaurant once, and I won't give you the grisly details of that story, but I never did it again. When I'm in Texas, I eat Texas BBQ — and I still haven't had Memphis BBQ, b/c I've never been to Tennessee. And now the only BBQ I eat out here is Santa Maria Tri-Tip. It's inferior, but this is where I've chosen to make my home, so I just have to make do til the 2010 family reunion in St. Louis.
100% agree. BBQ MUST be eaten in it's own region fresh made! I love the vibe of the BBQ in St Louis, the people have so much passion. If they one day acquire the skills of the south they might be on to something :) More acid to the sauce please!!!
I would also like to add to this article for your readers who might not know this already, that it is impossible to properly enjoy a regional BBQ outside of it's region. I tried St. Louis ribs in a California restaurant once, and I won't give you the grisly details of that story, but I never did it again. When I'm in Texas, I eat Texas BBQ — and I still haven't had Memphis BBQ, b/c I've never been to Tennessee. And now the only BBQ I eat out here is Santa Maria Tri-Tip. It's inferior, but this is where I've chosen to make my home, so I just have to make do til the 2010 family reunion in St. Louis.
100% agree. BBQ MUST be eaten in it's own region fresh made! I love the vibe of the BBQ in St Louis, the people have so much passion. If they one day acquire the skills of the south they might be on to something :) More acid to the sauce please!!!
are you talking about Harold's? if not, where is that pork fat dressing??
are you talking about Harold's? if not, where is that pork fat dressing??