Central Texas: Austin & Surrounding Hill Country
Here, it’s all about the ascendancy of the meat, experienced simply with salt and pepper and smoked over oak wood.
East Texas: Dallas & Around
Lesser-known than Central Texas ’cue but now as scrumptious, East Texas BBQ uses sweet-tangy sauces.
Kansas City, MO
This much-loved BBQ capital is well-known for its sweet tomato-and-molasses-based sauce, poured on the whole thing from pulled pork sandwich and beef and pork ribs to smoked chicken and turkey.
St. Louis, MO
The opposite side of Missouri special treatment grilled meats, lavished with a tomato-based, sticky-sweet flame sauce.
Western North Carolina: Lexington & Around
Western Carolina BBQ, alias Lexington-style after the city that popularized it, is directly focused on wood-smoked pork shoulder, chopped or sliced.
Eastern North Carolina: Raleigh, NC & Around
Eastern Carolina BBQ makes well thought-out use of the whole hog, quite literally—the entire pig is gradually smoked over hardwood coals, its tender meat delicately chopped and mixed with bits of crispy cracklings.
Central South Carolina: Columbia & Around
The make bigger of South Carolina from approximately Columbia to Charleston is known as “the Mustard Belt.”
Memphis, TN
Pork is king in Memphis, in rib form or chopped. The city is recognized for its dry ribs, rubbed with a tongue-tingling grouping of garlic, onion, paprika and black and cayenne pepper, slow-smoked over hickory wood.
Nashville, TN
Nashville’s ’cue is less rigid than other cities’. With no strict style to stick on to, Music City’s offerings are more diverse.
Owensboro, KY
Western Kentucky is the capital for unsung mutton barbecue. The logically tough meat, which comes from a sheep older than a year, is controlled by low and slow wood-smoking and standard applications of vinegar-and-pepper embroidery liquid.