About This Quiz
Barbecue in America is older than America itself with written accounts of it going all the way back to the 1600s. Even President George Washington spoke of attending a barbecue in Virginia back in 1769 so the tradition, especially in the South, is a long and proud one. They've had plenty of time to develop and perfect different recipes and different styles. So while for people who have don't have a big interest in it, barbecue may just seem like putting a steak on a grill and getting some char on it, for those in the know the world of barbecue is serious business.
Just like any kind of cuisine, regional differences in barbecue can be dramatic, from the kind of meat that's available to the kind of spices people like to use and of course the sauce. Every region has its own iconic dishes that you can probably get anywhere, but you'll never find them as good as in the place where it originated. If you love BBQ why not try your hand at this quiz and see if you can match some of America's iconic BBQ cuisine to the state that made it famous!
One of the most iconic dishes of Hawaiian cuisine is the Kalua pig, which is cooked over hot coals buried underground in what would qualify as one of the most simple but effective barbecue ovens ever made.
Sometimes BBQ is only as good as its side dishes and a Mississippi Delta-style tamale is one of the best. Different than a Mexican tamale, these are made with cornmeal, they're boiled, and they're very spicy if they're made right.
Beef is king in Texas BBQ and the beef brisket is probably the most iconic dish in all of Texas BBQ. Dry-rubbed and then smoked for hours according to an individual pitmaster's recipe, this dish rarely makes it to states where pork is the prime meat, but some other states have tried to master it.
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Texas perfected brisket so there's no way they didn't make the best brisket sandwich as well. You can get these made without sauce or just drowned in whatever kind of sauce you prefer.
Virginia barbecue has been very much overshadowed by the stuff coming from other states, but it's believed that the tradition may have actually taken root in Virginia. President George Washington was apparently a fan.
Nearly all barbecue ribs out in the world are pork ribs but in Texas, they go all-out with beef ribs. They're bigger and meatier than the pork ribs and they shouldn't be made with a rub or a sauce.
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California's cuisine is very eclectic but they do have some of their own BBQ, including Santa Maria-style. Proper Santa Maria-style involved grilling beef tri-tip over red oak with spices like pepper, garlic, and salt.
Whole hog barbecue is a tradition in the Carolinas but North Carolina specifically will do the whole hog, skin and all, in a whole hog tray for you. That means a mix of lighter meat, darker meat, and the crispy skin to give you a lot of texture.
Oklahoma doesn't have a huge BBQ scene compared to some of the other states but they sure know steak. Oklahoma City is famous for its steakhouses — not to mention cowboys and stockyards — and grills up some of the best steaks anywhere.
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North Carolina barbecue is known for Lexington-syle barbecue, from the town of Lexington, which is very much defined by its sauce. It's a tomato and vinegar-based sauce that includes spices and brown sugar.
South Carolina went its own way with sauce, ignoring the tomato base that so many other states use, and opting instead for a yellow mustard-based sauce that's a little tangy and a little sweet thanks to the vinegar, sugar, and assorted spices that get tossed in as well.
The brown gravy sauce you can find in Texas isn't a super common one and it's generally only found in North Texas. It's made like a typical gravy — thickened pan drippings with spices. The difference here is that the drippings in question come from smoked meat so it has that inherent smokey flavor you want in your BBQ.
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Memphis, Tennessee does dry ribs, which are rubbed as opposed to sauced (though you can sauce them later, too, if you like). A typical rub will consist of salt, pepper, garlic, onion, celery seed, and probably something to give it a kick, like cayenne.
North Carolina is home to red slaw, sometimes called Lexington-style slaw. While your average coleslaw is white thanks to mayonnaise being the base of the sauce, red slaw doesn't use mayo. It does have ketchup in it though, which is where the name comes from.
Kansas City, Missouri is home to some iconic baby back ribs and, arguably, is the city that made BBQ ribs famous. The key is the sauce that they use which is much sweeter than the sauce you'll find in other states.
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Good pulled pork exists in a lot of places but Memphis, Tennessee is famous for it. Cooked low and slow until the meat just falls apart naturally and slathered in sauce, it makes a sandwich you won't soon forget.
Arkansas barbecue sauce is a bit zippier than some kinds, made with black pepper and vinegar as well as other spices. Some places will repurpose old ketchup bottles with this sauce and leave it on the table for you.
Brunswick stew comes from Brunswick, Georgia and is so popular they have a festival for it. If you've never tried it, the stew is a tomato-based soup with corn and butter beans then piled full of smoked pork and chicken.
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Most barbecue focused on pork will use a pork shoulder, but some next-level barbecue uses fresh ham like they do in South Carolina. The curing process for ham makes the flavor more complex than simple pork shoulder.
Memphis, Tennessee barbecue is famous for two kinds of ribs: dry ribs, which are made with a dry rub and smoked, and wet ribs, which are, obviously, made with a sauce slathered all over them.
Head to Monroe County, Kentucky and they'll thinly slice some pork shoulder for you and cook it right over some hickory coals. The end result looks like a thick-cut ham or a thin-cut steak.
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Like chicken, turkey has been pretty well mastered by the pitmasters of Alabama. You can get a killer turkey sandwich there served with chow chow, which is a kind of pickled relish that could be made from any number of veggies.
Robert Gibson, owner of Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama is credited with inventing Alabama's white bbq sauce. Using mayo as a base, the sauce includes vinegar, salt, pepper, other spices and sometimes horseradish for an extra kick.
A good smoked pork shoulder should be in any BBQ pit's wheelhouse but the way it's handled after that can vary greatly by region. Chopped pork shoulder served on a bun with dill pickle is something you won't find many places outside of Alabama.
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Texas may be most famous for its brisket and beef ribs but it does a good job with sausage as well. Adding a bit of Mexican flair with some jalapeno makes for some spicy and salty beef sausages that are a staple at many restaurants.
Kentucky does mutton on the barbecue, which is mature sheep as opposed to lamb which is usually younger. It's known for a decent fat content and a gamier taste than beef or pork. In Kentucky, it's also served with black dip, a Worcestershire-based sauce.
Sausage may not get as much love as pork or brisket in BBQ, but in Texas, they do put in some effort to make it memorable. Hot gut sausage is made of a rough-chopped and spiced beef held in a pork casing and generally smoked to perfection.
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Hash made from smoked, barbecue sausage or other meats and served over rice is a solid menu item in South Carolina. Some places make a hash that's chiefly French fries or some other weird ingredient but a good South Carolina hash is just that pure, smokey sausage meat, or maybe a few dozen other meats with some onions and spices ground down almost into a stew and served on rice
St Louis, Missouri is the place to go for some smoked salami which is exactly what it sounds like. It's one of the lesser-known items you'll find on any menu but those who have tried it have seemed to like it.
Even though the rest of the world knows it as sauce and they know what you mean when you ask for sauce, there's a good chance someone at a North Carolina BBQ place will suggest you want more dip when you ask. And, weirdly enough, you're not expected to dip anything in this tomato and vinegar mix. You pour it on because it's a sauce.
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The skin of the pig is often discarded in a lot of BBQ cooking but they let it crisp up in North Carolina and will serve it on the side of a lot of mix plates if you want it. Some people call them cracklins.
Chicago, Illinois is home to a number of BBQ places that specialize in rib tips. As the name suggests, these are just the tips of the ribs, full of cartilage, but they make a tasty, smokey snack if they're done right. Arguably Illinois' biggest contribution to the BBQ scene.
Southern Texas is a place to find barbacoa — a cow's head smoked in agave leaves. The meat is cooked slowly until it can just be shaved off and makes for an excellent barbacoa taco.
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Kentucky is famous for its burgoo, a kind of stew that can be made with just about any meat imaginable including chicken, pork, beef, turkey or more traditional and exotic items like squirrel and possum. It's a staple side dish for any Kentucky BBQ.
Texas barbecue includes any number of famous sides, like baked beans or coleslaw, but there's also the very unique Texas side of onion rings served with a sweet and sticky apricot sauce.
You can get a pork steak if you head to St. Louis, Missouri, assuming you want the best kind you can get. A slice of pork shoulder cut about 2 inches thick and slow-cooked for a few hours until it's almost falling apart.
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Alabama's most famous BBQ contribution is the white chicken, a quarter chicken served with white BBQ sauce. Most sauces have a red or brown hue based on their core ingredients but this sauce is all white thanks to the fact it uses mayo as a base mixed with vinegar and other ingredients.
In parts of Kentucky when you order meat off the pit they know you mean you want it sliced right then and there off the shoulder, still hot from the fire, and served with a side of sauce. It's as close as you can get to table-side service with a massive cut of BBQ meat.
Kansas City, Missouri is famous for its burnt ends: those little cuts of meat taken from the point of a smoked brisket and cubed. They're smoked black on the outside, hence the "burnt" part of the name, and smokey and flavorful inside. Other places make them but Kansas City perfected them.
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Outside brown may not sound appetizing but it's the name they'll use in North Carolina to describe the darkest, crispiest pieces of meat on the outside of whatever was cooking. It's good for adding texture and some intense smokey flavor.