Good Day

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[scatman]

Minus the beef, I'm doing the same.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Nice presentation.

[Ember]

I can't help but wonder about the logistics of eating such a thing. Firstly how does one get one's mouth around it to take a bite? Secondly, how does one manage to take a bite without the contents squeezing out everywhere? There's more, but those two are the main ones.

[HomeRacingWorld]

1. Shove it in. You can take a little from top, then tilt and shove the bottom in.

2. You can't. That is part of the magic.

For the next bite, rub the sandwich into the wonderful juices that flowed out from previous bite.

Num nums.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I will resist the temptation to expound for two or three pages (who am I kidding? ten or twelve pages), about the natural superiority of Memphis Barbeque. I promise.

1. Real barbeque is PORK! (fresh, untreated whole pork shoulder (19-28 pounds), cooked at 200 degrees for 1 hour per 2 pounds, usually 12 hours or a little more, over a charcoal and hickory fire, with the lid closed as much as humanly possible (if you're a'lookin' you ain't a'cookin'). Cooking sauce (high in vinegar to keep it tender), is usually injected into the deepest part of the shoulder with a four inch heavy gauge cardiac needle. The shoulder is placed skin down, so the fat that is rendered out fries the skin into a crispy treat to eat. It is served with unsweetened Cole Slaw, chopped so it will stay on the sandwich, and Sweet Sauce on a fresh bun. Sweet Sauce is an art form. I worked on mine for many years, and I won 3rd place at the Memphis in May BBQ Contest out of over 700 entrants after competing for 5 years with lesser finishes. There are many similar versions of the dish in the Deep South, but this is Memphis style.

2. There are many kinds of barbeque, with regional traditions that are complex and varied. I like the pork best, but in places away from the Deep South, they cook beef, chicken, lamb, baby goat, crawfish, lobster, fish filets, shrimp, and Arkansas Round Steak (bologna, a huge log of it at a time- its very good).

3. The meat may be pulled (picked off the shoulder in chunks and left in the big chunks), chopped (soaks up more sauce this way), or open faced on a slab of French bread.

Oh, and Lynne, I pack it on that way, spread a lot of slaw and sweet sauce on, and then I cheat. If the chop has been done well, I can smoothly cut the sandwich into four quarters without mushing it at all. Each quarter is about half the size of a good burger (not a slotburger of course), and that's a mouth full. Good frosty beer, a little potato salad and some baked BBQ beans rounds out the meal. And soon thereafter, the diners are round, too.

[FootScoot]

The only major problem I see is there is only one on that plate. One would just tick me off, then I would have to eat another because I was mad. :lol:

[Ember]

I must admit, it sounds pretty darned tasty. But then anything slow cooked is usually the goods. Actually, I think it was better when I didn't know what it was. I wasn't quite so jealous then.

[Czar]

[quote="waaytoomuchintothis"]I will resist the temptation to expound for two or three pages (who am I kidding? ten or twelve pages), about the natural superiority of Memphis Barbeque. I promise.

I think those of us in North Carolina will give Memphis a run for their money any day of the week ...ain't skeered!

1. Real barbeque is PORK!

This is a fact that cannot be challenged.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yes, the North Carolina version is the most vinegar-ed of all, and is very distinct. The sauce is as thin as water, and the condiments are BBQ, too, which nobody else does. You can't imagine how tasty BBQ Cole slaw is until you taste it. Strange, and addictive. The sauce used for serving isn't as thin, but it still isn't as sweet as others. North Carolina BBQ is always pulled, not chopped. Its really interesting.

Alabama has very sweet sauce and the shoulders are parboiled before cooking, Mississippi is much smokier and drier, which is great for soaking up sauce, Louisiana BBQ has more hot sauce in the serving sauce, which is good for the seafoods they cook, and Arkansas and Kentucky use sweet sauce on lots of different kinds of meat. South Carolina and Georgia tend to adopt the adjacent state's methods, so coastal Georgia is like SC, and SC is almost indistinguishable from North Carolina, except for amazing unique condiments and side dishes. Half of Georgia likes that, and half is just like Alabama. Middle and eastern Tennessee are like Kentucky, western TN is all Memphis style. Its too hot in Texas every summer for good pork, in fact, its hard to keep pigs alive in most of the state, so they cook beef all the time, to the extent that lots of people in Texas think BBQ pork is odd. Their sauce is so sweet it will "candy" to the metal parts of a pit, so the meat is dry rubbed and they cook cuts of brisket exclusively. Low and slow is particularly important there, so the very fatty cut (brisket), will render the huge amount of fat off. The BBQ is served in thin slices and the sauce is added then. I liked it when I moved there, but it made me miss real BBQ something awful. Texas BBQ smoked sausage is incredible, and everybody should adopt it.

Yes, I wrote an article about this. I have always threatened to do a book about all the various and wonderful versions, along with the origins of BBQ in the Caribbean.

[Ember]

OK. This is enough to make me want to find a bbq drum/kettle/smoker thinggy.

[moparjenny]

Man, I want BBQ now.

[ourwayband]

Dang,after hearing what BBQ is,makes me want to run over to Milan to a little local BBQ hut and get some of the tenderest (is that a word?) around....One thing west Tennessee does have going for it is Good BBQ!!
Rusty

[waaytoomuchintothis]

That little place is still there? Holy crap, that place has been around a long time. I think Jeremy said the old BBQ place in Humboldt, Bozo's BBQ is still there, too. I hope the place in Moscow with the silver dollars in the floor is still there. It was the owner's name but I can't remember it. That was a mandatory stop on the way to Grand Junction and Ames Plantation.

[FootScoot]

My personal preference for BBQ is all of it! It doesn't matter where it comes from, or who made it, if it's good I go for it. Not much better than good BBQ. I make some good coleslaw. Fresh red and green cabbage,a little carrot, grated apple, (I like the envy variety) chipotle peppers finely chopped and a tablespoon of the sauce they come in, zest of half a lime, juice from the same half lime (use the other half in a cocktail perhaps) about 3/4 jar of Marzetti's light slaw dressing (usually found in your produce section). This makes about 2 pounds or so. Let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours, then enjoy. Great with BBQ as it has just enough smokiness from the chipoltes and the adobo sauce. Yum Yum. :)