A BBQ Primer

By Someone From North Carolina

This is not a complete primer, but it should help you understand the differences, though a lot of it is subjective and regional.

Introduction

First, let’s talk about what BBQ is.  I define BBQ (or Barbeque) as either the act of, the resulting food, or an event where this food is served, of cooking food over low, indirect heat using smoke as the fluid to cook the food.  I say food because while it is primarily used for meat, really cooking anything like this counts, ex: mushrooms, jackfruit, tofu, or veggies.  Additionally, I count it to mean the food produced cooked in this method (Though in NC we consider “BBQ” with no modifiers to be pulled pork, but I won’t hold everyone to our standard here), and with BBQ as an event, you had better be serving something smoked, or it is just a cookout.  

I also want to point out that grilling is not BBQ.  Grilling, like you would burgers or steaks, generally involves direct heat, or a mix of direct and indirect.  Additionally, a grill is a grill, and not a barbeque.  There is no device named a ‘barbeque’ that is used to cook food.  By default, gas grills don’t produce a lot of smoke, so it only really works with charcoal grills, and then you have to be careful with the indirect heat and keeping it low.  You also can do things to make a gas grill function as a smoker, and if you are interested, look into them.  I am willing to concede the point that you can call your food BBQ if you are trying to reproduce the same style of food, but without actually using a smoker (IE pulled pork in a crockpot).  I rather everyone enjoys BBQ even if they can’t get access to the right equipment.

Asian BBQ tend to be marinaded and grilled meats, and while delicious, I don’t count as actual BBQ.  However, I do concede that their sauces/marinades trend along the same lines as US BBQ sauces, but BBQ sauce does not make it BBQ.

BBQ developed because there are a lot of ‘choice’ cuts of meat on an animal, but then there are more tough cuts.  To break down the connective tissue in these cuts, people oer the millenium have learned to cook them low and slow.

BBQ, as best as anthropologists can tell (from when I last looked into it), originates either from the Carolinas regions or the Caribbean, depending on how you define it.  It originates from the word ‘barbacoa’ which is (as best anyone can tell) originally a Caribbean word for cooking something under a little shack over an open fire with lots of smoke.  It is speculated that it was carried from the Caribbean over to the mainland by Native Americans eventually who settled in the swampy lowlands on the coast of modern-day North and South Carolina (Roughly the Charleston area).

Now why we Carolinians argue it comes from the Carolinas is from the following story.  When the Spanish first visited the US, they brought a bunch of pigs who promptly escaped into the wild, and they spread up and down the east coast, going native.  The Native Americans had no idea what pigs were, and so just left them alone.  However, they would cook venison (deer) by building a little hut, and dangling the venison over the open flame, and dousing it in a vinegar made from the local grapes (Muscadine).  Eventually, permanent European colonies sprung up, and at one point, a group of Europeans (some say it was English Colonials, some say it was French Colonials) saw how the Native Americans were cooking their venison, saw the wild pigs, and thought “Oh, we like pigs, and that way they are cooking the deer is tasty” so they tried it out.  Thus, the original ‘modern’ BBQ was born. 

Now, as I mentioned before, you can BBQ a lot of stuff, and a lot of it is just the same process, done to different meats, and with different seasoning, sauces, and priorities.  And now I will try to explain the differences between classifications.  The most common meats to BBQ are (in no order) Pork, Beef, and Chicken.  However, that doesn’t stop you from BBQ’ing other stuff.  I won’t really touch on vegetables here, but I highly recommend trying it out if you can.

Cuts of Meat

Most of these cuts of meat apply to both Pork and Beef (But not chicken and other poultry). However, it can apply to anything with 4 legs.  Chicken and other poultry use the same cuts in BBQ as in anything else, and you can do a whole bird or just parts.

Shoulder, Butt, Chuck, or Round: These are all the same part of the animal, the upper leg or muscles attached to it.  This is typically what is used for anything ‘pulled’ or ‘chopped’.  It has a good mix of fat and meat to it, but it is typically fairly tough (chewy) since it is muscles the animals use a lot if you don’t slow cook it for a long time.

Ribs: These are the ribs of the animal.  There are a ton of different ways to cut ribs each with their own merit, and I won’t go into it, except for one.  ‘Country Style’ ribs are not actually ribs but another part of the animal cut into the shape of ribs. 

Loin and Tenderloin: Both are cut from the center of the animal for a cut that is boneless and very lean.  They also tend to be long and thin.  Tenderloin is smaller, leaner, and more tender.

Brisket: This is a beef only cut.  It comes from between the front two legs of the cow, and is a fairly tough cut of meat that requires a lot of cooking to make it tender

Belly: This is, typically, a pork only cut, and comes from the actual belly of the pig, which is primarily fat.  This is the cut of meat used for bacon.

Sausage: Sausage is a classic BBQ thing (if smoked), though technically isn’t a cut of meat, but I’m including it here.  It is ground meat, flavored and stuffed into some sort of casing to hold it into shape.  Often, they use intestines of an animal (not always the same animal), but there are many artificial versions of casings now.

Burnt Ends: Typically beef but sometimes people will duplicate this with pork belly, this is taking the well-cooked ends of brisket or pork belly, cubing them, and serving them on their own or cooking them further in a sauce to serve.

Preparations

I’m touching on the major ones here, there are others that usually are only used in competitions (such as injection), and you can mix and match to your preferences.

Sauces

Sauces play up to three parts in the process of making and eating BBQ.  First, during the cooking process by coating the meat in sauce while it cooks, especially towards the beginning.   This is also known as mopping as restaurants will use a literal mop to coat the meats.  This is used to add flavor, but also helps the smoke penetrate and develop into a bark (outside crust).  Second, it can be added to finish a cook, by adding a layer of a thicker sauce that then partially carmelizes, creating that sticky layer that people love or hate.  Finally, it can be served as a side sauce on a finished product, either as a dipping sauce, or drizzled onto the meat directly.  This is the sort of sauce you are given to dip your nuggets into.   Each of these steps may use a different sauce (or not be used at all).

Sauces themselves tend to compose a mix of vinegar, sugar, spices, other component sauces (Ketchup, Worcestershire, Mustard, etc) and other stuff in general.  The flavors tend to be sweet and/or tangy, but there is a broad variety out there, though a good sauce will try to have a balance of flavors.

Rubs

This is a preparation used before cooking the meat, taking a mix of salt, sugar, and spices, and then coating the outside of the meat with it, then letting it sit in that coating overnight, and then cooking it on.

Brine and Marinade

I’m not going to go very deep into this, but you can either brine or marinade your meat ahead of time to imbue more flavor into it.  These are both liquids that you submerge the meat into for a long period of time so that it penetrates into the meat.

Styles

Now While I will classify the styles, everyone’s BBQ is different, and it is, at best, a good approximation as to what you can expect. 

Texas Styles

Texas and Oklahoma are both huge beef raisers and have it in abundance.  If you get Texas Style, it is typically beef, and is usually just flavored with salt, pepper, smoke, and time.  The true classic Texas Style BBQ (at least to me) is either a smoked brisket or smoked beef ribs.  However, they smoke a lot of different meats there and know what they are doing.  Use of sauce is optional.

Central Texas

I believe this is likely what most people think about when they think of “Texas Style BBQ” with the classic brisket.  Typically, only using a dry rub (Often just salt and pepper) and time.

Western Texas

Also known as ‘cowboy style’, This typically uses a higher temperature (almost grilling) to cook the meats as well as often using mesquite wood for their smoke.

South Texas

This uses a mix of Mexican and US traditions.  They also often use the parts of the animal that others don’t (Tongue and cheek, for example).  Carnitas are a good example of this style.

East Texas

This is where Carolina style meets Central Texas style BBQs, and is a blend of the two.  Its where you’ll find more pork BBQ in Texas, but still done some in the central style.

Memphis Style

Memphis is best known for dry rubbed ribs.  They typically use a heavy dry rub, and then smoke them.

St Louis Style

Also known for their ribs, this tends to be a heavily sauced rib, not quite a BBQ per my definition, as they tend to be grilled more than they are smoked, and then finished heavily in sauce.

Kansas City Style

This style is associated more with a sauce style than any particular BBQ.  It’s best classified as a thick brown sweet sauce that many typically associate with ‘BBQ sauce’.  Most typically this is on pork, especially ribs.

Carolina Styles

The Carolina styles are typically pork and use a vinegar-based sauce during the smoking process (Mopping).  As described in the story above, this was the original BBQ.  The three different styles more relate to composition of the sauce than any difference in cooking style.  The vinegar flavor often comes through in the meat.

Eastern Carolina

This style uses a mostly pure vinegar-based sauce, with a little bit of spices and sugar mixed in.

Western Carolina

This style takes the eastern style sauce and adds a significant amount of ketchup to the mix.  This is also known as Lexington Style

South Carolina

This takes the eastern style and adds a significant amount of mustard into the mix.

Alabama Style

This takes Carolina style BBQ and mixes Mayonnaise into the sauce, rather than ketchup or mustard.

Hawaiian

Traditionally, A Luau is slow cooked pig, surrounded in charcoal, and buried in a big pit overnight.  It doesn’t use as much smoke as other styles, but still is the same principle.

Other Styles

These are styles that are primarily US based (at least that I know of).  There are many other styles that do count as BBQ from other countries and generally involve cooking low and slow over indirect heat with some mix of smoke involved.