Regional variations of barbecue

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Barbecue has many regional variations, based on several factors:

the type of meat used
the sauce or other flavoring added to the meat
when the flavoring is added during preparation
the role that smoke plays in preparation
the equipment and fuel used to cook the meat
how much time is spent cooking the meat

At its most generic, any source of protein may be used, including beef, pork, poultry, and fish. The meat could be ground, as with hamburger, processed into sausage or kebabs, and/or accompanied by vegetables. Sometimes the cut of meat (e.g. brisket or ribs) matters; sometimes the cut is irrelevant. Even vegetarian alternatives to meat, such as soyburgers and mushroom caps, can be barbecued. The meat may be marinated or rubbed with spices before cooking, basted with a sauce or oil before and/or during cooking, and/or flavored in numerous ways after being removed from the heat.

Typically meat is covered with barbecue sauce. Vinegar-base sauce is typical of Southern United States barbecue, while tomato-based sauce is Western United States style.

Many forms of barbecuing involve tough cuts of meat that require hours of cooking over low heat that barely exceeds the boiling point of water. Some forms of barbecue use rapid cooking over high heat, being barely distinguishable from grilled meats to those who would make such a distinction. With high heat barbecuing (often called grilling), the food is placed directly above the flame or other source of heat. With low heat barbecuing, the food is off to the side and almost always under a cover, frequently with added smoke for additional flavor. It is generally agreed among the many regions of North America that indirect heat constitutes "barbecueing," while direct heat is the mark of "grilling." Outside of the US this distinction is rarely observed.

Sometimes an open flame is required, with the fuel source irrelevant. In other cases, the fuel source is critical to the end result, as when wood chips from particular kinds of trees are used as fuel.

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Australasia

In Australia and New Zealand, barbecues are a popular summer pastime. Coin-operated, and increasingly free, public electric barbecues are common in city parks. Australasian barbecues do not usually involve the smoking or sugary sauces of an American barbecue; instead, plain or marinaded meat, sausages or Lamb chops are cooked on a grill or hot plate.Barbecuing chicken has become very popular in recent years due in part to the negative health effects attributed to fatty, overcooked red meat. The barbecuing of prawns ('shrimp' in the USA) was virtually unknown before being popularised by an American TV commercial featuring Australian actor Paul Hogan. However seafood barbecuing is increasingly popular, especially as an outdoor Christmas meal, more luxurious than meat barbecue, and more appropriate to the Southern Hemisphere summer than a "traditional" roast turkey cooked indoors.

Caribbean

Jamaican jerk chicken is an example of barbecue. So is the Taíno method of slowly cooking meat over a wooden mesh of sticks.

Hong Kong

Outdoor barbecues (usually known simply as BBQ) are popular among Hong Kong residents on short trips to the countryside. These are invariably coal-fired, with meat (usually beef, pork, sausage, or chicken wing) simply marinated with honey, then cooked using long, hand-held forks. In these sense, the style and atmosphere is closer to fondue and hot pot, perfect as an outing among friends

Korea

Bulgogi (불고기) is thinly sliced beef (and sometimes pork) marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and chilli pepper, cooked on a grill at the table. It is a main course, and is therefore served with rice and side dishes such as Kimchi. Bulgogi literally means "fire beef" and is often called "Korean BBQ."

Mongolian

A style of cooking falsely attributed to the mobile lifestyle of nomadic Mongolians. Having its origins in Taiwan in the mid to late 20th century, "Mongolian" barbecue consists of thinly sliced lamb, beef, chicken, pork, or other meat, seasonings, vegetables, and noodles, or a combination thereof, that are quickly cooked over a flat circular metal surface that has been heated.

South Africa

The braai (abbreviation of braaivleis, Afrikaans "meat grill") started out as a major social tradition amongst the Afrikaner people of Southern Africa, though the tradition has since been adopted by South Africans of all ethnic backgrounds. The word braai is very popular in South Africa; it replaces the standard English word barbecue, which is almost never used in South Africa, except on chips packages. One won't find barbecue wood or wood for the barbecue in the supermarket; instead one will find braaiwood.

South Pacific

Every country has its own version of cuisine a la pit but some of the most legendary and continuously-practiced examples can be found in the South Pacific. In Hawaii, it’s the luau. New Zealand’s Maori have the hangi. Tahitians call it hima’a. And a thousand miles away in the Marquesas Islands, there’s the umu.

United Kingdom

Barbequing started in the UK in the 1980's, influenced by American and Australian television and visits by Brits to Florida and California. Nowadays, many British have barbeque if they have a garden, mostly a "kettle"-style barbeque which has a lid and wheels to move it out of a shed, although permanent brick barbeques are becoming more common.

The main foods to go on a barbeque are chicken, burgers,sausages, corn-on-the-cob, beef steaks, fish, kebabs and vegetarian soya or quorn based products. Other things to go are salads and relishes. Soft drinks and lager beer are the most common drinks for barbeques.

United States

Although regional differences in barbecue are blurring, as are many other aspects of U.S. regional culture, variations still exist, and it is still possible to get into heated discussions of the superiority or inferiority of particular regional barbecue variants.

Alabama

In Alabama, barbecue most often consists of pork ribs or pork shoulder, slow cooked over hickory smoke. Pork shoulder may be served either chopped or sliced; some diners also specify a preference for either "inside" or "outside" meat. Alabama barbecue is typically served with a spicy, tomato-based sauce. Two Documentary films have been made concerning the Alabama barbecue phenomenon, "Holy Smoke over Birmingham" and "A Taste of Hog Heaven", the latter stating that Alabama has more barbecue restaurants per capita than other US states.

Alabama is home to [Dreamland], which serves what many people consider some of the best ribs in the world. In the original restaurant in Tuscaloosa, there are no side dishes, only ribs, bread, and sauce.

Alabama is also home to Big Bob Gibson's BBQ in Decatur. The people from Big Bob's have won many world championships in pork and chicken as well as for sauces. They are particularly famous for their unique "white" sauce with a mayonnaise and vinegar base.

This style of barbecue was well-documented in Fannie Flagg's bestselling book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was cooked and served at the cafe that is at the centre of the story.

Arkansas

Arkansas is in some ways the crossroads of American barbecue, and, in the opinion of many, the finest. This is largely due to its location -- firmly rooted in the Deep South but close enough to the Midwest and Texas to incorporate Kansas City and Texas-style barbecue traits.

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 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. Barbecue chicken, Arkansas-style, is always marinated with a "dry rub", smoked, and divided into edible portions only after it is completely cooked. Barbecue sauce is only applied by the eater.

Another unusual characteristic of Arkansas barbecue is that a barbecued pork or beef sandwich is always 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. Unlike in other states, onion rings appear frequently as an accompaniment to an Arkansas barbecue sandwich.

The best illustration of the confluence of culinary influences that come together to make Arkansas barbecue is the sauce. Most restaurant 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 degree, Arkansas sauces contain a sweetener (usually sorghum molasses), but they are never thick and never taste syrupy. They are, however, noticeably smoother (i.e., less acidic) than eastern sauces, particularly those from North Carolina.

Arkansas sauces 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.

Notable barbecue establishments include [McClards] in Hot Springs, which developed a national reputation decades before one of its most loyal patrons, Bill Clinton, was elected president. [Whole Hog Cafe] in Little Rock also has developed a national following in recent years, winning dozens of national competitions.

California

Barbecued oysters are served at the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival, near Eureka, California, at the beginning of every summer.

In northern California many BBQ restaurants serve tofu, tempeh and Portobello mushrooms for vegetarians. Oakland is a center for traditional BBQ and other soul food side dishes.

The most famous California barbecue is Santa Maria style, in the central part of the state, with its unique 2-3 inch cut of top sirloin or Tri-tip steak, pinquito pink beans and salsa. The steak is rolled in garlic salt and pepper just prior to cooking over red oak wood or coals.

Florida

Both pork and seafood are barbecued in Florida, with butter and lemon or lime juice as the base for the sauce.

Georgia

In general, it can be said that Georgia barbecue is based on pork, which is slow-cooked over an open pit stoked with oak and/or hickory and served with a sauce based on ketchup, molasses, bourbon and other ingredients. The reality, however, is that Georgia barbecue is more of an amalgam of other states' recipes. In northwest and central Georgia, including Atlanta, Columbus and Macon, Alabama-styled barbecue is the most popular, with slow-cooked pork and thick, tomato-based sauce most common on tables. In 2001, the venerable Alabama franchise Dreamland successfully opened restaurants around Atlanta, and the Alabama-born Williamson Brothers have several locations in the area. Columbus shares many restaurants with nearby Phenix City, Alabama, where Mike & Ed's Barbecue challenges Country's for the most popular in the city. Between Atlanta and Columbus, in the town of LaGrange, Hog Heaven has become a destination for barbecue lovers. In the town of Newnan, Sprayberry's was the favorite restaurant of the writer Lewis Grizzard, who often referenced it in his newspaper columns.

South and East Central Georgia barbecue is very much like that found in South Carolina. Mustard-based sauces are very popular in Augusta, Savannah and Statesboro - though it is interesting to note that Sconyers' Barbecue, Augusta's best-known and oldest continuously operating barbecue restaurant, serves barbecue that can be almost exclusively characterized as "eastern North Carolina style" (see below.)

Northeast Georgia barbecue, centered around the city of Athens and its neighboring counties, has much in common with eastern North Carolina barbecue. Most restaurants in the region serve a more finely-chopped pork with thinner, vinegar-based sauce. Many also serve hash instead of Brunswick stew. Some of the more popular barbecue joints in this region include Carrither's in Athens, Paul's in Lexington, and Zeb Dean's in Danielsville.

Georgia's principal contribution to barbecue culture may come from Brunswick stew. Many Georgians believe that the stew comes from the city of Brunswick, although a wider-held view claims it was first concocted in Brunswick County, Virginia.

Kansas City

Main article: Kansas City barbecue

In Kansas City, barbecue is extremely popular. Backyard barbecues and tailgating are considered pastimes in the city and its surrounding area. Almost every type of barbecue is popular including beef, chicken, pork, sausage, ham and ribs.

Kansas City is the home of barbecue restaurants such as Arthur Bryant's, founded in the early 1920s, and Gates Barbecue. Renowned author Calvin Trillin declared in Playboy magazine that "...the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant's Barbeque at 18th & Brooklyn in Kansas City." The city is also home to Rosedale, BB's Lawnside, Zarda, L.C.'s, Smokestack in Martin City and many others. There is usually a restaurant every few square miles. Styles and favorites vary greatly throughout the city. The area also hosts numerous barbecue competitions such as the "Largest Barbecue Contest in the World" The American Royal.

Kansas City is particularly well known for a sauce named after the city. Typical KC BBQ is basted heavily in sauce during and after cooking. KC BBQ Sauce usually is rather rich, tangy and spicy. KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce was invented in the city by Rich Davis. However, KC Masterpiece is thicker, sweeter and darker in color than most Kansas City sauces.

Like the city itself, barbecue culture exists on both sides of the Missouri/Kansas state line. While most of the city is in Missouri, there are many popular restaurants like Oklahoma Joe's and Rosedale on the Kansas side. Lenexa KS, is home to the annual Great Lenexa Barbecue Battle.

Since Kansas City incorporates styles from all over the country, Dry Rub is used extensively as well. Oklahoma Joe's barbecue restaurant, famous for its gas station home, is one of the city's most well known establishments. It serves a pork based rib cooked slow with a dry rub variation. The slow cooking lends this particular meat its pleasant aroma and flavorful bite.

The Kansas City style is also found in central and northwest Missouri communities of Columbia, St. Joseph and Warrensburg and eastern Kansas communities of Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan.

Kentucky

In Kentucky, barbecue also has a long and rich tradition and history. Mutton, pork, beef, chicken, and ribs have been smoked for years in the state. Mutton is one of the most notable specialties in most of Western Kentucky, where there were once large populations of sheep that were slaughtered for the mutton. 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 the traditionally served with the meat, though not always used in cooking. The Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro is the most famous of Kentucky BBQ places and Owensboro hosts an International BBQ Festival every year in the spring. 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 gathered widespread favor.

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. 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.

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 dinner. 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.

Famous barbecue joints include [The Little Dooey] in Columbus and Starkville, Sonny's in Starkville (both favorites of Mississippi State University students), Sonny's Real Pit BBQ (no relation) in Jackson.

Missouri

In Missouri, beef is the dominant meat for barbecue, especially in St. Louis and 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.

St. Louis-style barbecue 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. 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.

Nevada

The city of Sparks plays host each Labor Day weekend to the Best of the West Rib Cook-off in Victorian Square. To denizens of the Reno/Sparks area, this is an event of quasi-religious significance and proves that when it comes to BBQ in Nevada, ribs are king.

North Carolina

Within North Carolina, there are multiple regional traditions, all based on the slow-cooking of pulled or chopped pork. On the east coast, the dominant ingredients to the sauce are vinegar and hot peppers. Proceeding west into the Piedmont (as in Lexington), the sauce (called "dip" by the locals) becomes more tomato- or ketchup-based, but usually never as thick as commercial (Texas-style) sauces.

In the eastern part of the state, the whole hog is typically used; in the west, sometimes only pork shoulders are used for barbecue. But under any circumstances, North Carolinian use of the term "barbecue" will refer to slow cooked pork, and not to backyard cookouts, or any sort of beef, chicken or other meats, regardless of how they are prepared. Some North Carolinians will deny that "barbecue" exists outside of North Carolina.

In general, a hog half (Eastern) or shoulder (Lexington) is placed in a "hog cooker" over wood coals and cooked slowly, usually overnight. What wood to use is subject to some debate (often oak or hickory; never pine). In modern times, gas, electric, or charcoal heat are often used for convenience, although most will agree that the long exposure to hardwood smoke improves the flavor of the final product and is generally preferred.

Other variations include cooking times, turning during cooking, and how finely the meat is chopped after cooking.

For both Eastern and Lexington style, hushpuppies, barbecue slaw, boiled potatoes, and collard greens are commonly served as side dishes at North Carolina barbecue restaurants.

Lexington's Annual Barbecue Festival is well known within the state and normally held on one of the last 2 Saturdays in October of each year.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma barbecue 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, and pecan. Some of the most popular barbecue joints in Oklahoma include Bad Brad's in Stillwater & Pawhuska, Elmer's in Tulsa, Head Country in Ponca City, Earl's Rib Palace in Oklahoma City, and [Van's Pig Stands] in Shawnee, Norman and Moore.

South Carolina

South Carolina is the only state to have 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 Pee Dee and Lowcountry coastal region, a vinegar and pepper sauce is prevalent, though the region is home to Sticky Fingers, a rib house who uses all four sauces. In the Midlands area around Columbia, a mustard-based sauce sometimes referred to as "Carolina Gold" is the predominant style. Such establishments as [Melvin's] (2 locations in Charleston, SC), Maurice Bessinger's "Piggy Park", [Shealy's] (located in Batesburg-Leesville) and Dukes BBQ (3 locations in Orangeburg, SC) use gold sauce made from mustard, apple juice, pear juice, and other ingredients. In 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.

Tennessee

Memphis is known for

wet ribs, made with a mild, sweet barbecue sauce that's basted on the ribs before and after smoking;
dry-rub ribs, made with a spice rub applied during or right after they've been cooked; and
pulled or chopped pork sandwich topped with sweet, finely chopped coleslaw and served on inexpensive 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.

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.

It is also home to over 100 barbecue restaurants, including [Corky's], [Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous], [the Germantown Commissary], [Leonard's], [Pig-N-Whistle], [Central BBQ], [the Bar-B-Q Shop], [Hog Wild Barbecue], [Neely's], Gridley's, Three Little Pigs, Tops Barbecue, and Cozy Corner. Several have been so successful that they have branches dedicated to shipping barbecue overnight via FedEx (especially convenient for these restaurants, as the primary hub for FedEx is Memphis International Airport).

While Memphis dominates the culture of Tennessee barbecue, some other restaurants in other cities have achieved some notoriety outside of their local markets. Jack's Barbecue in Nashville is a popular destination for tourists, and Sticky Fingers, a chain based in Charleston, South Carolina, but whose founders hail from Chattanooga, has overcome the stigma that hardcore barbecue fans tend to attach to chains and is widely regarded throughout the southeast for its ribs.

Texas

Sliced brisket, sausage, and pork ribs are the most popular meats in Texas barbecue. Central Texans often refer to these three meats as The Holy Trinity. Chicken, beef ribs, and chopped beef are also often found. Even more exotic variants such as turkey, pork loin, pork chops, prime rib, mutton, and cabrito are sometimes available. The Mexican name often seen on signs is barbacoa and is most often barbacoa de cabeza--barbecued head(cow). This is very popular to eat on Sundays in the hispanic community.

In Texas, barbecuing refers to what others call "hot smoking"—cooking with both smoke and low heat for hours over woods such as oak, mesquite, or pecan. Cooking with direct heat, such as a propane-fueled flame, is not referred to as barbecuing, but is instead known as grilling. Meat prepared by Texas barbecue often has a red tinge even when fully cooked, and a pink smoke ring around the edges of the meat. This is caused by myoglobin in the meat reacting with carbon monoxide in the smoke to form a heat stable pigment. The pink smoke ring is very tasty and a major focus of fans of this style.

If used, traditional sauce consists of tomatoes with a vinegar base. It can be sweet or spicy and thick or thin, depending on the chef. At barbecue cookoffs in Texas, however, meat is generally judged without sauce, as sauce can cover up for poor-quality meats and cooking. Commercially available sauces usually bear little resemblance to traditional barbecue sauce, and are frequently made from tomatoes and corn syrup.

Since creating proper barbecue requires considerable expense of money and time, in that one needs a specialized smoker and has to start smoking many hours before the meat is ready, most Texans simply visit a local restaurant known as a barbecue joint. Such establishments typically serve the meat in a no-frills manner, on a plastic tray and butcher paper with white bread or crackers, or, to-go, in a brown paper sack. Traditional side dishes include potato salad, coleslaw (mustard or vinegar), pinto beans, which are often spicy. Banana pudding, peach cobbler and Blue Bell ice cream are popular dessert options. However, they are not always available—the film [Kreuz Market: No Sauce, No Sides, No Silverware] depicts a popular barbecue joint in Lockhart that lacks the three items mentioned in the title.

Slight regional variations in Texas barbecue exist. In Central Texas barbecue is more likely to consist of leaner meats, while East Texans prefer more fatty cuts. It is possible, however, to find both kinds of meats all over the state. In South Texas, beef fajitas, beef briskets, beef ribs and chicken are probably the most popular, along with small cuts of pork called 'carnitas', of course all cooked over a mesquite fire. Side dishes include flour tortillas, pinto beans, Mexican rice, potato salad, and of course pico de gallo (a garnishment made with cilantro, jalapenos, onions and tomatoes.)

In Texas, barbecue, and the best barbecue joints, are popular topics both in individual discussions and the media. The documentary film [Barbecue: A Texas Love Story] depicts the culture associated with Texas barbecue. [Texas Monthly] magazine periodically performs roundups where they rate scores of barbecue joints across the state. The [most recent roundup] was in 2003.

Upper Midwest

In northern Illinois (including Chicagoland), Wisconsin, Minnesota, 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. Most of these bone-in meat cuts are beef and pork spareribs, 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 Michigan 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 (potato crisps in the British terminology).

Virginia

It is arguable whether Virginia has a BBQ tradition of its own--other than to realize that BBQ is a noun, never a verb. 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 himself whether there is a genuine variation or not.

Washington State

In the Pacific Northwest, barbecue is approached using different smoking techniques, and centers its focus on a beast with no legs - the 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 can be cheaper than hamburger in the market, grills are crowded with the tender flesh of salmon. A few places in 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. Some of the best practicioners of this method are the Northwest Coast Indians at [Tillicum Village], on Blake Island in Puget Sound eight miles from Seattle. Visitors get a boat trip to the island and a salmon dinner inside an Native American longhouse. Reservations are required in the summer.

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