BBQ done right...

[Cabin Fever]

There are many definitions for BBQ. Personally, it is pulled pork. The best pulled pork BBQ place I have ever been to is the Palmetto Pig in downtown Columbia, SC. If you have never had mustard-based BBQ sauce, you are not a true connoisseur. Nobody can compete with Calhoun's in East Tennessee for ribs. You can't deny the numerous championships they have won!

[Lone Wolf]

Bennett's is damn good too http://www.bennetts-bbq.com/

[the goat]

rock- when you get to monson, you gotta try the spring creek cookhouse.

it's some of the best bbq i've had, slow smoked in a huge wood smoker out in front.

[envirodiver]

I'm thinking that a stop at Corkey's on the way home tonight would be an excellent dinner choice.

[Bearpaw]

A nice rub on pork loin or some pork ribs. Then slow smoked in a box (not over the coals) with occasional basting of a vinegar/water with salt and pepper to draw some of that smoke flavor into the meat. Heat until the innards are a nice 190F.

DOGGONNIT Rock! Go easy on that vinegar. One of the biggest disappointments of being assigned to Camp LeJeune was getting my first taste of east Carolina "barbecue". It was smoked and cooked slow and I expected a feast that would make my toungue slap my brains out. Then I dug in and got this dry, bitter pork packed full of vinegar. There's a reason why the Romans tortured Jesus by giving him vinegar instead of water, and those folks in Carolina grabbed onto it in a heartbeat............

I couldn't wait to get back to home and have some juicy, succulent, sweet, smoky, tangy barbecue.

[leeki pole]

I'm thinking that a stop at Corkey's on the way home tonight would be an excellent dinner choice.

Try the BBQ Nachos if you haven't already. Some fine eatin' there and warms you up for those ribs and another cold brew! Go for it!

[envirodiver]

I'll have to try them...I usually get the onion loaf...but they won't sell it to you to go. I tried...they said that the loaf was too greasy when you got it home and that some people had complained. I agreed to sign a waiver or whatever and they wouldn't do it.

[karo]

WOW, finally a thread I can really relate to. I have been BBQing for at least 20 years with friends or on my own pit. I have one in my backyard! Rock, try a mixture of 2parts vinegar to one part lemon juice with salt and pepper added to taste. Remember to taste it before you rub it on, don't want to try it after it is contaminated with raw pork juices. And I did say pork, cause here in TN BBQ means pork, tho I have tried beef brisket which is great also. My BBQ doesn't need any sauce, but you can add it if you want, it just covers up the smoke taste. I smoke it over hickory coals all night. My pit will hold 3 or 4 whole shoulders. One pit we used for the Fourth of July held 18 shoulders one year! We had about 150 people to feed that year. I stayed up all night with the meat as it needs coals added and "sauce" added, the vinegar/water type that is. I would love to set up a portable smoker on the trail sometime. The hikers would come from miles around for sure!

[Lone Wolf]

I'm gonna stop at Fat Buddies BBQ in Waynesville on the way to the Ruck tomorrow and get me a big ass pork sammitch http://www.fatbuddiesribsandbbq.com/menu.htm#lunch

[Critterman]

.......

I recently took a step towards the Dark Side and bought a smoker...an electric smoker. That was quite a step for this former Texan but I took comfort in the fact that this particular smoker has been made in Texas for over 50 years. ......FB

First off forget this stuff they call BBQ on the east coast. BBQ is smoked beef brisket or pork ribs not some weak pulled pork with vinegar sauce. Secondly, what is the name brand of that smoker you got. I haven't had any good BBQ since I left Dallas.

[Dances with Mice]

One pit we used for the Fourth of July held 18 shoulders one year!

I think you need to add more wood, that's cooking a bit too slow.

I'll have a portable baby BBQ pit at the SoRuck. Planning on having a little fun with it.

[RadioFreq]

I agree with you Rock.. A lot of stuff passes for BBQ these days.. A friend who competes nationally showed me this site...

http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail.html

The best BBQ place I know of is Lexington BBQ in Lexington NC....

Shame on you throwing that kind of temptation in front of a guy working on
his thru. This is just the sort of thing might cause lesser souls to leave the
AT and blaze a different "trail"

Stay the course, Sarge.

[karo]

I think you need to add more wood, that's cooking a bit too slow.

I'll have a portable baby BBQ pit at the SoRuck. Planning on having a little fun with it.

We have ditched that old pit for a newer one at our big BBQ on the fourth. Mine at home is lined with fireplace brick that hold in the heat. I usually only add coals 3-4 times, but you still have to keep it moist with the sauce. Some even "cook" their meat for 24 hours. It just depends on how you like it or how much time you have to cook it that slow. The slower the better is usually the way to go. I cringe when people for "other places" say they are goint to BBQ with a gas grill. I have to explain the difference before they get strung up!

[envirodiver]

Ther is a difference in the noun BBQ and the verb BBQ, but I agree that there is a difference in BBQing and Grilling out.

Karo, I don't think you know what you are doing. I live near you and think you should prove it to me.

[Cabin Fever]

Like I said, everybody has a different opinion of what barbecue is.

[chezrad]

If you think things get uncivilized in the politics section, you just unleashed hell Sarge. So from a BBQ moderate-

Fortunately for a boy from Pittsburgh, I embarked on bbq eatin with no biases whatsoever.

That's where I started to really appreciate the finer secrets of slow cooked ribs over a wood fire. There was a little place in between Shadyside and the Hill district that an old black man ran. I don't know where he was from. I was just a kid. But he started around 5:00am every morning. I saw him go in while I was delivering the Post-Gazette. On nights I would collect my weekly paper route money I would get dinner from him. A short rack of ribs cooked moist and tender with a tangy sauce that would blister your lips but taste so good you couldn't resist. God that brings back memories. Thanks.

There's a reason why the Romans tortured Jesus by giving him vinegar instead of water, and those folks in Carolina grabbed onto it in a heartbeat............

Watch it, your gettin personal.....

[Bearpaw]

Watch it, your gettin personal.....

Believe me, I took that first mouthful of vinegar personally too .

To their credit, some of the restaurants offered big pitchers of excellent sauce to pour on their 'que, and I learned to enjoy it after a while.

But it's just not what I grew up with at all.......

[Jack Tarlin]

Well hell Rock, at least you're in Tennessee.

Finding decent BBQ in Northern New England is kinda like looking for a decent lobster roll in Erwin. It just ain't happening.

I've been served some alleged BBQ in these parts that appeared to be charbroiled kittten on a stick, covered with salsa.

Am REALLY looking forward to trying out that new place in Franklin in a couple of months.

[humunuku]

Now putting Buddys BBQ and Calhouns in the same category as a mcribb is a little drastic, I'd be willing to be there are a lot of good BBQ places on magnolia Ave too (if ya go to that side of town)

[SGT Rock]

DOGGONNIT Rock! Go easy on that vinegar. One of the biggest disappointments of being assigned to Camp LeJeune was getting my first taste of east Carolina "barbecue". It was smoked and cooked slow and I expected a feast that would make my toungue slap my brains out. Then I dug in and got this dry, bitter pork packed full of vinegar. There's a reason why the Romans tortured Jesus by giving him vinegar instead of water, and those folks in Carolina grabbed onto it in a heartbeat............

I couldn't wait to get back to home and have some juicy, succulent, sweet, smoky, tangy barbecue.

You can overdo the vinegar. The mix is about 50% water and 50% apple cider vinegar with regular old salt and pepper mixed in. The idea is to keep the meat soft and let the smoke flavor get drawn into the meat so it isn't just on the outside parts. But you are right - some overdo it. I've been in places where they add vinegar to the meat after they pull it and the taste is terrible.

To me the trick is to make the meat taste great without any sauce, then have a variety of sauces based on the taste of the person eating it. That is one reason I like Texas style BBQ is the focus is the meat and the smoke, Carolina BBQ is my most favorite because I grew up on it and I like some of the vinegar sauces. But damn, pulled pork with some tangy sauce with habanero in it is my #1 choice. I have a container of sauce I mix - there is no recipe. I just know what goes in it, so when the container starts getting low I add more ingredients to that - there is never a new batch.