Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I am from Sparta,TN. Like most of the South, we called everything "coke" as a generic term, but there was another, even more common term. All soda pops were called "cold drinks" -pronounced "co'dranks." This referred only to soda pop, not to juices or any other, well, cold drinks. I've since lived in South Florida and New York City, where it was "soda," and Illinois, where it is "pop." I usually call it soda, but can never bring myself to call it pop; when I was a kid, everyone made vicious fun of anyone who said "pop" because it marked them as a Yankee (in our eyes- for some reason there was not such a stigma on soda.)

If any of you city folk gird your loins for a journey into the Great White North, you will do yourselves a delicious favor by getting off I91 at Putney VT for Curtis' BBQ!

I had some damn good BBQ last night from Swingbelly's in Long Beach, Long Island. No joke.

In the true southern states BBQ is pork. If we say "let's go get some BBQ we ain't talking bout beef or chicken, we're talking pig. And as others have already pointed out BBQ is a noun and not a verb to describe anything cooked over coals. Some Yankees or Texans might say they're going to BBQ a beef brisket but it wouldn't qualify as BBQ where I live.

As far as our sister state to the North, their BBQ is quite good. I've eaten the best in Lexington, Goldsboro, Rocky Mount, Wilson and Ayden but I'll take our juicier Q with mustard base over their leaner Q with vinegar/pepper/no base any day. They serve Brunswick stew in NC which is not BBQ while in SC you'll get real BBQ hash. I once asked a hash maker what was in her hash? She replied, "pig". I said, "what else?" and she said "mo pig".

When I hear folks bragging about the Memphis Q they obviously haven't eaten SC's best. Corky's, a highly regarded Memphis chain, opened a restaurant in Columbia, SC but soon went out of business due to the higher quality of the local competition. The ribs I had at the famous Rendezvous were so over cooked and dry ( even though they were wet ) I should have sent them back. The four other Carolinians at our table shared these sentiments.

I've also had the highly over-rated Dreamland ribs of Birmingham which were a huge disappointment. They were tough with their membranes still firmly attached and had little flavor even with that strange watery red dipping juice. Luckily they came with loaf bread or I would have left hungry.

I can honestly say that some of the best ribs I've had were at Carson's in Chicago. According to one rumor, too many of those ribs cost "The Refrigerator" Perry his NFL career.

A pig-pickin is also an excuse for grown men to stay up all night by a hot fire and drink cold beer.

I just wrote a long comment and then hit something wrong and apparently lost the whole thing. So if this is a duplicate, just disregard. We moved to eatern NC in 1973 and shortly thereafter I was invited to a pig-pickin. A pig-pickin is a laid-back social event, a noun/verb combination. A whole hog, split down the middle and laid flat on the grill, is smoked/cooked in a pig-cooker--looks like an oil drum cut in half vertically and hauled around on wheels like a trailer. The pig is basted regularly with a clear vinegar secret recipe sauce and cooked usally overnight. Next day when it's done, the cooker is opened and diners file by to pull (pick) their favorite parts of meat off the pig. Heaven has no food better than tenderloin pulled from the backbone! Then you help yourself to additional vinegar sauce and sides, usually a vinegar/sugar based coleslaw, boiled white potatoes (cooked until they are almost creamy), brunswick stew and hush puppies. That's followed (always!) by banana pudding and sometimes peach cobbler and/or a pig-pickin cake--made with mandarin oranges in the batter and the frosting. I've speculated about the vinegar basting and sauce. Might traditionally have helped as a preservative in the hotter climate? As well as being delicious, it is great for cutting the "greasy" taste of the pork. After the pickin is over, the remains of the pig are chopped and seasoned with additional vinegar sauce and the guests can take home any left-overs. Ideally, these are out-of-doors events but the eating can be done anyplace. There are lots of good BBQ restaurants in eastern NC but pig-pickins, large or small, are purely social events--you'll get only chopped pork in restaurants. Around Raleigh and points west, you come upon tomato based sauces, which I know nothing about, but they are delicious too. My daughter lives in Austin TX and everytime we visit BBQ trips are high on the to-do list--brisket is my favorite, but sausages rate high too. They are BBQ fans too and check out all the places recommended by friends and Texas Monthly! In my memory, though, lingers one of the most delicious BBQ encounters--several years ago, a dry-rub slice of tenderloin at the Rendezvous in Memphis. A final word--BBQ IS a noun! The verb is grilling. Thanks to all the posted recommendations--am I drooling?

Our house.... on our junky char-broil barrel grill with side smoker, soon to be improved by a Cookshack. And, The Shack on the Track in St George GA.

Some of South Carolina's best BBQ joints : Sweatman's BBQ in Holly Hill, Schoolhouse BBQ in Scranton, McCabes BBQ in Manning, Browns BBQ in Kingstree, Wise BBQ in Newberry, Carolina BBQ in New Ellenton, Roger's BBQ in Florence ( famous for liver hash Que ) and Hites and Shealy's BBQ of Leesville.

Nestled between the two Brunswick stew states of NC and Ga., South Carolina serves up a unique BBQ hash that you won't find anywhere else and it is always paired with our BBQ pork. It is commonly served over white rice and puts Brunswick stew to shame. Our BBQ pork hash originated in the old hash houses of Greenwood County. SC ETV recently produced a one hour documentary on South Carolina hash.

Many folks in SC have a superiority complex when it come to BBQ as we are the birth place of BBQ on these shores. Since we've had more years to perfect it naturally we believe ours is the best. Twenty years before De Soto, the Spanish made their first contact with the American Indians in 1521 at Winyah Bay, SC . The Spanish brought their pigs and the Indians shared their slow cooking method for the first pig pickin in America.

We have three distinct sauces in our small state which interestingly enough corresponds with the soil type of each region - tomato base is the choice in the Upstate where the soil is red clay, mustard base is preferred in the Midlands where the soil is orange clay and pepper vinegar is the favorite in the Low Country where the soil is sand and loam. There are constant arguments and feuds amongst our citizens as to which is the best sauce.

As one of our state senators once said "South Carolina BBQ is a lot like sex - even when it's bad it's still great!"

I forgot to mention that I've traveled all over the US and there is GREAT BBQ almost everywhere; just ask the locals. I don't get into the regional thing, I like them all, tomato, mustard, vinegar, sweet, spicy, hot, mild and wet or dry. I will say that I've never had a bad piece of brisket in the city of Fort Worth. Something I can't say about Dallas.

Having grown up in East St. Louis, Illinois I'm sorry to report that the best BBQ in the area is now in Belleville, IL just up the hill, but a world away. It's Big Mamma's. I know most of you won't know what I'm talking about, but if you go, try a snoot. The E. St. Louis area is the only place in America that I'm aware of that you can get snoots. If some SE reader knows of others, PLEASE post.

reger60, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for omitting names from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Austin, Texas, Memphis and St. Louis. By the way, what time should we arrive at your place? All the best.

The best Barbecue exisits in Lockhart and Lulling, Texas. period.

Kreuz Market.
Smitty's Market
City Market in Lulling. (Not to be confused with Lulling City Market in Houston)

We recently drove to Jazz Fest from Birmingham, Alabama and stopped at Leatha's in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was spectaclar. The best barbeque I've had in many years. Highly recommended. Worth the trouble to find.