A Cheat Sheet to 10 State BBQ Styles (Including the State with the Mayo-Based Sauce)
From coast to coast, American BBQ is not only a cooking style but also a social institution.
And it’s one with a history dating back to colonial days. At that time, “You wouldn't [have a barbecue] unless you had a large crowd of people getting together—enough to eat a pig, which is a lot,” said Robert Moss, a southern food correspondent, a barbecue editor, and the author of Barbecue Lover's the Carolinas: Restaurants, Markets, Recipes & Traditions. Early American farmers donated entire animals to the events, and without refrigerators, groups had to finish every bite.
Over the years, barbecue spread westward with American settlers. However, “up until the early 20th century, barbecue was pretty much the same, whether you were in North Carolina, Texas, or all the way out in California,” Moss said.
That’s when restaurants arrived, establishing regional American BBQ styles.
The cook at each barbecue joint specialized in specific meats and cooking methods. “Then younger folks would come work for them, learn how to cook under that technique, and would often go off and open their own restaurants,” Moss said.
Today, however, barbecue is no longer bound by regions. You can find Texas-style barbecue on the West Coast, Kansas City–style barbecue sauce on the East Coast, and just about everything in between. So if you’re interested in sampling all that the American BBQ landscape can offer, check out the 10 regional varieties listed below, along with some key characteristics to help you identify each style.
North Carolina
Eastern North Carolina embraces the traditional whole-hog cooking method, and pitmasters add a spicy vinegar-based sauce that is similar to the mixes of vinegar, salt, pepper, and ground red pepper used in early barbecue. In the Piedmont region, the vinegary sauce also tends to include ketchup or tomato.
South Carolina
The barbecue around the Pee Dee region shares many characteristics with the eastern North Carolina style. Down in the Midlands and Lowcountry, though, the bright red, mustard-tinged sauce is sweeter and tangier.
Georgia
“I think Georgia often gets a bad rap for not really having a barbecue style,” Moss said. “I think it very much does, but you've got to get a little bit outside of Atlanta and get to some of the older places to figure it out.” Key to the region’s barbecue is its thin, savory sauce, which contains significantly more tomatoes than Carolina sauces.
Alabama
Moss described Alabama barbecue as a hodgepodge for the most part. The key exception is northern Alabama, where the region’s iconic white, mayo-based barbecue sauce was born and barbecue chicken reigns supreme.
Tennessee
Memphis is “one of the great barbecue cities in America,” Moss said. However, the city doesn’t represent all Tennessee has to offer. The farther west you travel, the more likely you are to encounter whole-hog barbecuing traditions and thick, red, spicy-sweet sauces.
Kentucky
Kentucky barbecue styles vary from county to county. However, Moss singled out Owensboro and western Kentucky, whose iconic dish is burgoo: a hearty stew filled with roasted meats, most notably mutton.
Kansas City
Mimicked by KC Masterpiece and Heinz, Kansas City barbecue sauce is unmistakable. Molasses adds a distinctive sweetness and brownish hue to the thick, rich sauce.
Chicago
Technique is what distinguishes Chicago barbecue from its counterparts. Fish-tank or aquarium smokers (pictured above) are made of tempered glass here, rather than brick.
Texas
Texans embrace the barbacoa tradition, which originated in Mexico and involves slow-cooking a whole cow’s head in a pit covered with maguey leaves. Thanks to its size, however, the state is home to many styles of barbecue. In western Texas, for example, the cowboy tradition of cooking over open fires inspired the area’s continued use of direct heat when barbecuing. In addition, the smoking and sausage-making techniques brought to central Texas by German immigrants still influence the region’s style.
California
California’s Central Coast may be best known for its wine, but its Santa Maria–style barbecue stood out to Moss. This type of barbecue uses smoked tri-tip beef, a cut of meat rarely used in other regions.
Photos by Andrew Nawrocki, Groupon
You can never have too many smoked meats:
Nine Restaurants on Our BBQ Bucket List
