Ed Ranks BBQ

Vegetarians might want to just skip this ranking.

Memorial Day is here, time to start up the barbecue! BBQ is usually delicious. But how delicious? I suppose that depends on where you're eating it. Here are the top ten styles of BBQ.

10. Alabama-Style

Mayonnaise-based BBQ? No wonder everyone in the South has diabeetus and Alabama is the third worst state.  

9. South Carolina-Style

Sorry South Carolina! Technically South Carolina actually has three different styles of BBQ, however I'll only refer to the "Midlands" style of South Carolina BBQ because honestly the other two styles are somewhat derivative of the two styles of North Carolina BBQ. And you know what's wrong with Midlands South Carolina BBQ? Mustard, that's what. Get that mustard out of my face. Do I look like I'm eating hotdogs? You're lucky Alabama exists.

8. St. Louis-Style

St. Louis-Style BBQ is largely grilled (e.g. cooked shortly over direct heat) rather than barbecued (cooked and smoked slowly over indirect heat). That in itself would seem to disqualify it even as BBQ other than its somewhat erroneous name. That being said, St. Louis-style BBQ is often drenched wet in delicious tomato-based BBQ sauce, so I'll let it slide. I love BBQ that's dripping wet in sauce! And tomato sauce is obviously superior to mayo and mustard.

You died for a good cause, piggy.

7. Hawaiian-Style

I suppose Hawaiian-Style BBQ isn't actually related to the other traditional U.S. BBQ styles, but was an indigenous creation by the Polynesian natives.  Still, a lūʻau (itself a 19th century creation, but based on the traditional 'aha'aina) is just where the people dig big a hole, stick a whole pig in an underground oven called an imu, and slowly roast it in indirect heat. That doesn't sound too different from an Eastern-Style North Carolina whole pig BBQ to me.

6. East Texas-Style

Typical East Texas-Style BBQ is usually just chopped brisket (usually, this is Texas) or pork, covered in sauce and served between a bun. Sure, it's tasty but it's not that diverse.

5.  North Carolina, Eastern-Style

That's some pig.

All of the top 5 BBQ styles are delicious, so don't think I'm knocking any of these. Eastern NC BBQ is probably the oldest of American BBQ styles and the one which all others are based. It emerged as a new, unique cuisine taking on (mostly) the influences of African slaves on plantations mixed with Spanish Conquistadors (who first brought pigs over to the Americas), English settlers, and probably others. It emerged in the late 17th or early 18th century - and is typified by a whole hog roast smoked over a pit and chopped. The sauce is vinegar and spices though - with no tomato base. Come on man, I need that tomato!

4. Memphis-Style

Similar to all Carolina BBQ styles, Memphis is all pork, all the time. Which I don't have a problem with per-se, because pork is delicious.  Their most famous pork is simply pulled, but they can also do a mean rack of ribs. It's usually heavily smoked (yessss!), cooked with a dry rub, and then served with a thin, sweet/tangy tomato-based (yessss!) sauce. Although, some people say that it doesn't get served with sauce and has to stay dry. Those people are wrong, because BBQ without a wet sauce is like peanut butter without jelly, salt without pepper, or Beavis without Butthead. If you get rid of the sauce and keep this dry rub only, Memphis-style would fall all the way to #9.

3. North Carolina, Lexington-Style

Lexington-style NC BBQ is the best of all Carolina BBQ - hands down. It has a tomato based "dip," which is exactly like it sounds - less of a "sauce" and more of a dip that you dip your meat (pig) into. It also often comes with a slaw that is also tomato-sauce based rather than mayonnaise based, which is similarly awesome. Lexington-style focuses on the fattier, dark-meat shoulder rather than the "whole of pig" concept of Eastern NC. That means it's not mixed with white meat and therefore is juicier. Lexington-style BBQ also has some amazing ribs too, generally with the same type of sauce base. If you want the best pig BBQ you can get - this is what you want. 

2. Kansas City-Style

Our last two styles came later and were heavily influenced by the earlier Carolina styles (and in the case of KC, Memphis-style, as an African American Tennessean is credited as bringing BBQ to KC), but they become champions based on the diversity and range of ingredients they use. Carolina pig BBQ is amazing - but if you're limiting yourself to just the pig then you're cutting out a lot of options. Kansas City BBQ is incredibly varied since KC was a major meatpacking city along the railroad lines back in the day. KC BBQ includes beef, pork and even lamb. It usually starts with a tasty dry rub for the BBQing itself, but then in the end gets a delicious, wet sauce (tomato-based, obviously). Like the meats, the sauces are also wide and varied in KC - with some being sweet, tangy, vinegary, or spicy. They do great pork ribs but the go-to speciality of KC BBQ is the amazingly delicious beef brisket burnt ends.

1. Central Texas-Style

Yeah, some RC Cola will wash that right down.

As with KC, Central Texas BBQ is diverse. BBQ was inherently created by the mixing of cultures - and in Texas this continued and increased. Emancipated slaves after the Civil War brought the already existing African American culinary traditions forward in Texas, such as the BBQ earlier established in the Carolinas. Those traditions mixed with the "Cowboy" beef raising culture of Texas, which itself is actually based on the Spanish vaqueros' culture. All of those further with new emigrants from Germany and the Czech Republic that flooded TX in the late 19th century and brought their own meat smoking techniques, especially the sausage-based techniques from the leftover bits that other cultures didn't know what to do with. I'm not a huge fan of BBQ beef ribs and think pork ribs are infinitely better - but fortunately you can still get pork ribs too in Central Texas because TX isn't a beef one-trick pony. The addition of new fusions of smoked sausage styles really helped pit BBQ-based in Central TX have an amazing amount of variety in their choices. But obviously beef is the big thing in Texas, and there is almost nothing better than a perfectly smoked Texas fatty brisket with that amazing pink smoke ring. As with KC, there is really no "one" definitive Central TX sauce that I can isolate because the real focus is the meat rather than the sauce - but yes the sauces are tomato-based. It's usually somewhat thinner than other sauces and is more for "dipping" (like with Lexington-style BBQ). Part of the thinness is because it relies less on molasses or sugar, which also makes it less sweet. Some have described the sauce as "blander" than other regions because the thinness and lack of sweetness, but I'd instead argue that it allows for the tomato and spice to stand out more (while still remaining secondary to the meat).