BBQ Platters

One way to codify America’s diverse barbecue is by the map. The most basic geographical picture is based on meat. Not that these lines haven’t been blurred by barbecue’s trendiness, but the conventional rule is beef in Texas and the Southwest, pork throughout the South, and mutton in western Kentucky. Significant subcategories exist in the Carolinas, where central South Carolina barbecue is flavored with mustard sauce and where North Carolina has at least three significant styles: eastern, where whole hog gets minimally seasoned with vinegar and pepper spice; Lexington style, in which shoulders are the cut of choice and sauce tends to be somewhat more important; and westernmost North Carolina, where thicker, tomato-based sauce becomes significant. Even these broad subcategories can be divided within the regions, sometimes county by county and town by town. Although traditional styles still do reflect specific regions, that kind of parochial view no longer applies so neatly. It is not at all uncommon to find Texas barbecue in New York or Carolina barbecue in Wisconsin. Much barbecue in the cities of the Midwest and on the West Coast is basically southern or southwestern style, created by African-Americans who came from the South or Southwest with recipes from home, or were inspired by them.