I remember that......they got a group of cowboys to judge the BBQ. Cowboys..........from California! Bwaa haa haaah! California Cowboys!!!!!!!! I remember one woman (apparantly, the toughest cowboys in California are women) tasting one of the BBQ's and remarking, "Oooh.....that's spicy! I don't like spicy." I've had BBQ it Memphis; it was so marginal that I can only expect there must be better in your city. And I enjoy a good pork rib or even a shoulder or butt every once in a while, but I know I could find better here in Texas...........if I don't feel like driving, I can just get it in my backyard. But this is still Texas; if you aren't making beef brisket.........well then, you're culture is just now learning how to make BBQ. You got a ways to get yet........unless the judges are cowboys from California.
Different strokes for different folks. I love ribs and pork more than beef myself but I believe it's because of where I was raised (around the Memphis area). If you are from any of the other regions or that is all you have had then you probably will like it better than the others.
I know, I read it. I was just saying that although Memphis was voted the best BBQ, I really think it depends on what you like. Pork/Ribs...memphis for sure (and most of the sauces I have had there were sweet...which I liked), but I didn't really care for the brisket that I had there.
So I was watching the Foodnetwork a while back and that cute italian broad Gida De laurentis did a special on Austin. She went to a place somewhere around round rock. Anyway, she bought her stuff, sat down and started giving a talk. One thing that she mentioned was that originaly, in TEXAS, BBQ was made without sauce. It wasn't untill northerners came down and started asking for it that sauce became an ingrediant. A suaceless BBQ, paticularly how we cook it and the exclusivity of using beef ribs, would make our style very similar to the Argentine Asado. I like beef ribs btw. Any oldschoolers care to comment?
It's also comparing apples to oranges. Memphis does make some awesome pork ribs. One of the few reasons I enjoy going there. However, I can still get a damn good pork ribs in Houston, along with every other Type of BBQ. In Memphis, you can't get good Beef brisket (or decent Mexican food) anywhere. Hell, my ex-wife is from Memphis, and before she came to Houston, she'd never even heard of a BBQ stuffed baked potato.
Blacks is good, but it has gone down hill in the last decade....Salt Lick for me baby. And Giada is HOT ! DD
I love sweet BBQ.... which is probably why I don't like too many of the sauces in Texas. I love Carolina BBQ. I love a lot of Memphis stuff, too. I don't like the stuff that tastes like somebody took a bottle of ketchup and threw in spices. Blech. Unfortunately vinegar and ketchup is usually what I taste a lot of in many Texas BBQ sauces. I took a few months off from work not too long ago and had some time to waste. I was flipping through channels and came across the Food Channel where this guy goes around eating at hole-in-the-wall places... my favorite types. He said he loved the BBQ at a place in Oklahoma City called Leo's BBQ. I drove from Dallas to OK. City to get me some Leo's BBQ. They had the best ribs I've ever tasted. The brisket was kinda dry, but still tasted pretty good. Their sauce was one of the most unique sauces I'd ever tasted - it kinda tasted like it had apple juice or apple cider in it. Great, different taste. Texas is still king of brisket, though.
Do you realize how many "Wolrd Chamipionships of BBQ" there are? They have them in Tennessee and Texas, too.
I dont use sauce....period If you feel the need to use sauce, you arent a very good smoker. My motto is to get the taste in the meat long before any sauces can even come near it...its all about the rub and the smoke flavor. pecan and red oak are my woods of choice tell them BBQ amateurs from Mem and KC to let me know when they can make a tough cut of meat like a brisket practically burst with flavor and fall apart as soon as you put the knife to it....till then....Texas BBQ >>>> *
