To know barbecue, real barbecue, you first have to realize that cooking hot dogs, hamburgers or halibut over charcoal briquettes in the backyard isn't barbecuing. But while barbecue is focused primarily in Southern and border states, it is growing in popularity all around the country. We've gone through all the ethnic foods and now we're coming back to our roots.
Barbecue is the only truly indigenous American cuisine.
Like jazz and the blues, barbecue had its origins in the slave culture of the South with throwaway cuts of meat like pork ribs and jowls. Sauces in North Carolina are vinegar-based, with tomato added in western North Carolina and without tomato in the eastern part of the state. When sauce is used, judicious amounts are added to the pulled and chopped meat before it is served on a hamburger bun, often topped with cole slaw. A mail-order sampling of Maurice's chopped ham revealed rich, lightly sweet meat that reminded me of pork rillettes. The flavor also came through nicely when the meat was combined with cole slaw on a bun.