The Definitive BBQ Poll

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Poll question: The Definitive BBQ Poll

[evlbstrd]

1. Pork!

Spareribs and baby back. Brisket is a very close second.

[Flying Dream Blues]

2. I like it all, being from Texas and all, but I wanted to give that

Memphis pulled pork sandwich some love. Try it on a bun with bbq sauce, coleslaw (the mayonaisse-y kind) and a little tabasco. Talk about good...make you bark at the moon.

[trof]

5. You put the cole slaw ON the bun?

WITH the bbq?
I don't think I could do that.

[William Bloode]

7. Thats the standard mid Atlantic way.

It's done in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, parts of South Carolina and Georgia. I can't eat a bbq samich without the slaw. Sauce in this region is also not tomato based, it a vinegar and pepper sauce for the most part.

[Flying Dream Blues]

49. In Memphis you have to say, "Hold the slaw" if you don't want it...

I would add that many people who felt the way you do have become converts to the slaw on the sandwich method of eating pork barbeque. :)

[William Bloode]

53. I agree with slaw on my samich.

Thats what my post states ;) I also like it on my burgers along with chili, mustard and onions like any good Carolinian.

[Flying Dream Blues]

54. Oops, meant to reply to Trof... ;)

[William Bloode]

56. Ohhhh tay!

I know a lot of folks not from the region are not familiar with bbq slaw, maybe thats why he does not get it. In Carolina we have slaw for every occasion, we have mayonaise slaw that left a bit bitter for bbq, we have vinegar slaw for fish fries, and we have sweet slaw made with mayonaise, vinegar and sugar for eating with at the table with all meals.

[salin]

3. no chicken?

though that might be an ignorant question for one who is only a casual indulger in the art of bbq.

[evlbstrd]

4. Sure, you can bbq chicken

when we run out of pigs.

[Flying Dream Blues]

50. Exactly! nt

[leftofthedial]

6. It's all about pork

unless you're from Texas. then it's about crap. of course, everything "Texas" is about crap. Except for a few songwriters.

Pork rules. Ribs are tops, but pulled pork, memphis style, with cole slaw on the bun . . . that's the real deal.

[johnnie]

8. Hehe

:popcorn:

[johnnie]

9. Being from Cleveland and all

I like all BBQ. Pork is the best, followed by everything else.

Best ribs ever: The Rendezvous in Memphis Tenn.

[Flying Dream Blues]

51. I like the Rendevous ribs, too! Leonard's has the best sandwiches. nt

[skygazer]

10. Just ribs?

Man, I kinda lean toward the whole pig. Now THAT'S a bbq!~

[GOPisEvil]

11. One more time - from a resident of Texas: IT IS ALL GOOD

I've tried every style there is, and I love it all. Bring it on! :9

[johnnie]

13. Out of curiosity

What does being a resident of Texas have to do with BBQ? :shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

14. Because there is a "Texas style" of BBQ.

And most Texas folks think Texas style is best. There is a North Carolina style, Memphis style, blah, blah, blah. They're all different, but delicious in their own way.

[johnnie]

15. What's Texas BBQ?

And how is it different from any other ways?

[jobycom]

17. It's either Texas BBQ, or it's just a dead animal.

There is no real BBQ outside of Texas.


(Umm, I'm just trying to start a fight. I'm actually a vegetarian, so my favorite is Gardenburger BBQ Riblets). :-)

[GOPisEvil]

18. Here's a good summation.

"Texas barbecue is piles of sliced beef brisket, German-style sausage, and meaty ribs with tangy, tomato-based sauce carefully spooned over the meat or placed on the side. Many of the finer establishments here focus entirely on the food - so much that many respected BBQ joints in small-town Texas will serve their food on butcher paper with paper towels and plastic utensils. We've even seen restaurants use old school desks in lieu of tables. But the result is tremendous - Texas barbecue is delicious!"

A lot more beef here in Texas, especially beef ribs.

[johnnie]

22. Honestly

That sounds like how we BBQ up north. But, oh well... I guess everyone thinks they do things differently.

Last year in Texas I wanted to try a "Texas" steak and it was dryer than most I have had in my life. Maybe it was just the wrong restaurant. :shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

35. There's excellent steak all over TX. That's one thing they really do know

how to do well here. There's certainly enough beef walking around. You just hit a bad place.

[Xipe Totec]

19. Quite different, actually

Texas BBQ is smokier, more tangy, and less sweet. It is my second favorite next to true Mexican Barbacoa.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. I do also think they're all good. But I guess I never understood the

elevation of brisket to such a high status in TX BBQ. I've had some very good brisket, maybe I just haven't had really awesome smoked brisket so I just don't "get it", I think good pork ribs, and pulled pork, are way better...

I never really "got" the whole thing with prime rib, either, until I had a really sublime one at the House of Prime Rib on Van Ness Street in S.F. One of those meals you just remember years later.

[evlbstrd]

36. Try some KC style brisket

with some bunt ends and a wad of greasy fries. Mmmm-mmm good.

[Flying Dream Blues]

52. We eat ALOT of BBQ in Texas, I think that's all it means.

[Xipe Totec]

12. Barbacoa, what else?

The real Mexican deal. A whole side of beef cooked in a brick lined pit for 14 hours, till the meat just falls off the bones. Eat it on flour tortillas.

It's a Sunday thing. Every Sunday... :9

[evlbstrd]

23. I thought it was the head.

[Xipe Totec]

25. Head is included.

Along with the spinal chord, and the tail.

I love sesos (brains).

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

28. It seems that eating the central nervous system (brain/spinal cord) of

mammals, particularly bovine, might not be such a good idea now...

[Xipe Totec]

34. Depends on what the animal was fed.

But I hear you.

BFE is always a concern, now days, since cattle raising has becomes an industrial process where animals unfit for human consumption are just recycled as cattle feed. That has really screwed the pooch for most of us.

Ah well. too good to last.

[evlbstrd]

29. I've never had the chance to try it.

But I did see a documentary on bbq that included barbacoa. All they put in the pit was the head. It made sense to me, since bbq originated as a way to cook cheap or undesirable cuts of meat.

[GOPisEvil]

31. Where I grew up in Texas, it was just the head.

I suppose there are micro-regions within the state. :shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

39. Pretty big regions outside the state too

Like down South, where other 'Texan' thangs came from like:

Buckaroo - Vaquero
Lariat - La Reata (The Rope)
Rodeo - Same word
Hoosegow - Juzgado
Chaps - chapas


:hi:

[GOPisEvil]

41. Heh...you mean REALLY South Texas.

:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

43. That's right, cousin!

South Texas is a whole 'nother country. Part USA, Part Mexico, and pretty much separate from both.

That's where fajitas came from too; that's where Ninfa learned how to cook before she moved to Houston.



:evilgrin:

[GOPisEvil]

45. I grew up in San Antonio, which is so different from the Valley.

That's one thing I like about Texas. Spend a few hours in the car and go from Poland to the Czech Republic to Germany to Mexico to the American South to all points in between.

[Xipe Totec]

46. You DO know that Monterrey Mexico is a German Settlement?

Right? Third largest industrial center in Mexico. Major industrial products are paper, glass, and steel. Why? Because the local Germans needed paper for the labels, glass for the bottles, and steel for the bottle caps for the beer industry.

There's a lot of German, Czech, and Dutch settlements on both sides of the Rio Grande (as well as Spanish). And that's why Mexican beer, as well as some Texas beer like Shiner Bock, are soo good.

[GOPisEvil]

47. I dated a blonde from Monterrey.

No one would believe her when she would tell people she was from Mexico. :)

[Xipe Totec]

37. All I can tell you is what I've personally seen

The way we prepared barbacoa, for my sister's Quinceañera (Cotillion) was a whole calf, a whole sheep, and a whole hog. All went into the pit. The animals where slaughtered and dressed, of course, but even the organs are cooked, in a way very reminiscent of haggis. The pieces of meat are slathered in a carmel sauce prepared on-site, dropped in a moistened sugar sack, wrapped in maguey leaves, wrapped again in wet burlap, tossed in the pit, and cooked for 14 hours. That was the first time I saw it prepared, and when it came out it was just like the barbacoa we'd had every Sunday, store-bought.

[evlbstrd]

42. The preparation was the same as you describe.

But I don't remember anything about a caramel sauce. What's in that?

[Xipe Totec]

44. You take sugar...

...melt it in a sauce pan until it starts turning brown, quench it with a little water and mix in other spices; some dry red peppers, some salt. Can't remember the exact recipe now. It's been almost 30 years since I saw it done. Got a chance to watch the whole process; from animals on the hoof to plates ready to serve to the guests. One of the fond memories of living close to my relatives.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. Where can one get these fine items? (drools)

[Xipe Totec]

27. Closest place depends on where you're at

Look for the closest Mexican community in your neighborhood. The closer you are to the south border, the better your chances of getting the real article. But even up here in New England, there's a Mexican community that prepares it in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

[hippywife]

16. All of it!

Yum! Chicken, too!

[RockaFowler]

20. I want my baby back

Just had a great rack of Baby Backs with the hubby. Yummy! Gotta love Blue Front sauce, too

[trof]

21. Possibly interesting (weird?) aside. I used to be a sparerib.

I was a pilot in the air guard in the 60s and 70s.
Our squadron call signs were changed randomly by a Pentagon computer.
That was to keep the Russkies and Chicoms off balance, I guess.
;-)

One day I went out to the guard base to fly and learned our call sign had just been changed to "Sparerib".
Our commanding general liked it and thought it was funny.
From then on, until I resigned, he referred to us as his "Spareribs".

As in "I need three spareribs for a photo mission."

[Mutley]

26. Pulled pork!

Oh man it's been a long time...

[Wapsie B]

30. Oh god Pork Ribs.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[DawgHouse]

33. Pulled pork

with cole slaw, Memphis style!

[bigwillq]

38. Pulled Pork is my fave!

:bounce:

[Scout1071]

40. I'm from Kansas City and I say all of the above! Why limit yourself?

And make sure to add those burnt ends!

[Magrittes Pipe]

48. As long as Bobby Seale cooks it, I'm a'ight.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

55. Speaking as a Vegan...

Oh, who the hell am I kidding!? Bring my a slab of baby backs!!