“ Texas BBQ coat-tailed off of the Carolinas, in following their authentic barbacoa
cooking style with wood, but they switched it up when it came to the meat being used.”
Texas BBQ coat-tailed off of the Carolinas, in following their authentic barbacoa
cooking style with wood, but they switched it up when it came to the meat being
used. Texas is known for its cattle, so the meat used here is mainly beef. Texas
takes pride in the flavor of the meat itself, so you’ll notice the main difference in
the flavoring of the wood chips and the overall smokiness of the tender morsels.
The meat in Texas is smoked until it practically falls off of the bone, or until the
brisket turns itself into pulled-pork’s distant cousin. In traditional Texas BBQ, the
sauce is the last thing to go on, after the meat hits the plate steaming. The sauce
does have a similar flavor to Carolina BBQ, in that Texas also had German immi-
grants.
Kansas City, the final BBQ style, was birthed by the Memphis traditions. “In the
early 1900s, a Memphis-born man by the name of Henry Perry settled in Kansas
City and opened a BBQ restaurant. In the restaurant, which Doug Worgul, in his
book on the history of Kansas City BBQ, credits as the origin of the city’s particular
barbecue style, Perry followed the style of his Memphis roots, using a sweet and
spicy BBQ sauce. He did not, however, adhere to the stringent requirements that
called for a pork-only BBQ style, and allowed beef and other meats to be sold as
well. Expert Dotty Griffith refers to Kansas City BBQ as the ‘ultimate amalgamation
of East and West’ BBQ.”
Food Traveler | Summer 2017 | 71