If you're like most people who are just beginning your adventure with backyard barbecuing, you're undoubtedly looking forward to many years of sharing delicious meals with friends and family. Even if your experience with backyard barbecuing is still fairly limited, you probably also know that choosing the best possible cuts of meat is a good way to optimize the end result. However, you may not be aware that barbecue is very much a regional cuisine that varies greatly by location. For instance, traditional Texas barbecue has its roots in the great cattle drives that helped shape the American West during the 19th century, while Carolina barbecue evolved from Caribbean tradition. Here are just five regional barbecue styles that you can experiment with in your backyard.
Texas Barbecue
As mentioned previously, the focus of Texas barbecue is mainly on beef. The star of the Lone Star State when it comes to barbecue is brisket. Traditionally cooked low-and-slow on the back of a chuckwagon, today's brisket is served everywhere from roadside barbecue stands to upscale sit-down restaurants. Sauces and spices are secondary here — it's the meat that matters.
Carolina Barbecue
Carolina barbecue has its roots in Caribbean traditions, which strove to make low-quality cuts of meat palatable. Cooking meat at low temperatures for long periods of time helped make tough cuts tender, and flavorful sauces and rubs made up for any lack of flavor in the meat. Although barbecued beef and chicken can be found in the Carolinas, pork is the region's undisputed king.
Alabama Barbecue
Home of the pulled pork sandwich, Alabama's barbecue is also strongly influenced by Caribbean culinary traditions, but it also features a Texas twang. Alabama barbecue's signature trademark is a white sauce made from mayonnaise and white vinegar.
Tennessee Barbecue
Tennessee barbecue is characterized by dry rubs containing lots of garlic and paprika and embellished by tangy tomato sauce. Like Carolina barbecue, Tennessee barbecue is big on pork.
Kansas City Barbecue
Kansas City's long-held status as a hub for the meatpacking industry means that no type of meat is off-limits when it comes to this region's barbecue. Trademarks include using extremely low temperatures over fragrant hickory wood for super long periods of time and barbecue sauce containing an entrancing blend of tomato sauce and blackstrap molasses.
Keep in mind that you're not restricted to any particular style — in fact, you can adjust and mix barbecue rubs to create a signature regional style specific to your own backyard. Contact a company like Butcher BBQ to get barbeque ribs in your area.
Share6 August 2019
After our area was hit with a natural disaster, I realized that there were a few things we needed to do in order to make things better. For starters, we needed to work with food suppliers who understood how to make things quickly and efficiently, and we also needed to focus on making sure that we were able to streamline our daily routine. We were able to choose a food supplier who delivered rain and shine, and we even worked with them to sort out a few other details that were holding things up. Check out this blog for more information.