NC BBQ Association

Linkdown: 10/1/14

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– NC barbecue guru Bob Garner has a new book out that *gasp* isn’t completely about barbecue

The 187-page book does mention the state’s signature varieties of smoked meat and sauce, but it also explores other North Carolina food traditions, including fish stew, Ocracoke fig cake, banana pudding, collards and even Moravian chicken pie. The book is part cookbook, part essay collection, part dining guide.

– TMBBQ interview with friend of the blog Barbecue Rankings

– So there’s this:

– BBQ Jew with a short write up on The Great NC BBQ Map

– Q 4 Fun interviews a board member of the NC BBQ Association

What makes you different than the other associations, societies and networks?
We train our judges to recognize and appreciate NC-style BBQ. Teams will be judged on their ability to produce traditional NC-style BBQ. I don’t think other sanctioning bodies concentrate on regional BBQ styles. Furthermore, we not only sanction competitions, but hold cooking classing and are beginning to work on projects that will promote NC BBQ to the general public. We don’t see the other bodies as competitors. We see them as partners and can hopefully jointly sanction some events as with this year’s comp in Washington with the NC Pork Council.

– Arrogant Swine failed their construction inspection, but trudges on anyways; the blog post does have this great photo

– The Whole Hog Barbecue Championship is this weekend

– Diva Q visited Barbecue Bros fave Ed Mitchell’s Que (our 5 hog review) earlier this week

Linkdown: 9/3/14

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– This posted just after last week’s linkdown so is a little old by now, but The New York Times spends 36 hours in Charlotte and gives props to Midwood Smokehouse

8. ‘Cue & Brew | 7 p.m.

Charlotte has never been known as a big barbecue town, but Midwood Smokehouse’s pitmaster and executive chef, Matt Barry, seeks to change that with this noisy, popular restaurant. Mr. Barry cooks his chicken, pork and turkey over North Carolina hickory in a computer-controlled smoker. His hand-pulled, chopped pork is lightly covered with a vinegar-based sauce. The chicken is tossed with a delicious house or mustard sauce. Texas-style brisket is smoked for 12 to 14 hours, and is delicious dry or slathered in sauce (barbecue plates run $8 to $15). Pair with collards and baked beans and chase with a Red Ale from NoDa Brewing Company ($5).

– Speaking of Midwood, they are bringing barbecue into the 21st century with its new online ordering app

– The folks behind the Great NC BBQ Map have 5 tips for planning a barbecue tour

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Wiley’s Championship BBQ in Savannah, GA

– This showed up in our timeline recently even though the original article is from July 2012, but in any case here’s Rodney Scott’s BBQ Mixtape featuring a mix of rap, hip hop, and funk

– Here’s how to make the Korean-Southern ribs a la Heirloom Market BBQ

– Eater Austin spends a day with John Lewis of la Barbecue (via)

– Short interview on barbecue and grilling tips with Hugh Mangum of Mighty Quinn’s BBQ (via)

– The NC Barbecue Trail is in good company on this list of other trails worth visiting which include cheese, bourbon, and beer

– The NC BBQ Association is looking for judges for the Q City Charlotte Championship in October:

– Slaw is the most distinctive food in North Carolina, according to this infographic:

What you’re looking at isn’t the most popular food by state. It’s the food that most distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.

From Co.Design

Linkdown: 8/20/14

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– Wayne Monk, Sam Jones, and other “old-school pitmasters” weigh in on how the barbecue industry is changing

“To cook pork shoulders the way we do it, it’s a 10-hour process. It’s hard these days to find young men to learn a trade like this that they’re proud of, that have 10-hour days. People take shortcuts, like gas cookers. But the more gas cookers there are, the better my business gets.” – Rick Monk, Lexington Barbecue (Lexington, NC)

– You may remember this bill from a few months back due to its dubious claim to South Carolina being “birthplace of barbecue,” but in any case its finally official: barbecue is South Carolina’s “southern picnic cuisine”

– Speaking of South Carolina, would the Senator Frank Underwood from House of Cards really be eating ribs instead of pulled pork?

– Registration for the 2014 Q City Charlotte BBQ Championship is now live until slots fill up; also, it is now a NC BBQ Association event rather than a Memphis BBQ Network one as it had been in years past

– According to Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor of Texas Monthly, “[t]he brisket I’ve had in New York lately is better than a lot of places in Texas”

– Vote for best barbecue (as well as other cuisines) in Creative Loafing Charlotte’s Best of 2014 survey

– On September 7, five Louisville chefs will compete in a whole hog challenge to determine who will be crowned the “BBQ King or Queen” (via)

At the stand-up tasting reception, they’ll serve six dishes that illustrate entire animal usage, scored on utilization, presentation, barbecue influences and flavor. The perfect plate spotlights the whole pig and can ultimately inspire restaurant owners to greater support of local agriculture, according to event founder Brady Lowe.

– This Eater guide to the best pulled pork in Austin features a couple of the usual suspects plus a few I hadn’t heard of before (via)

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Papa Joe’s BBQ Pit and Cook Out in a review from last week

– This month’s Carolina ‘Cue feature from Our State is Big Mike’s Barbecue, a food truck out of the Raleigh area

At this writing, there is but one place you can find Big Mike’s Barbecue: It’s indeterminate, location at present unknown, its setting determined by demand, a roving outlet for the conveyance of pork in its various guises. Big Mike calls it the Red Barn. You would, too, if you saw it, because that’s exactly what it appears to be. No room for towering bales of hay or horse stalls or tractors, though, just big enough for a sink and a counter and a little smoker toward the back, on what looks like a screened-in porch, and small enough to be pulled behind a GMC Sierra 2500HD. You order through one of the barn windows. On the window is a drawing of a pig holding a fork and knife, a pig with a big smile on his face, as if he’s happy to be eating himself. And, on any given day, the Red Barn could be in the parking lot of the building where you work, near a bar you frequent, or at a party where you’re the guest of honor.

– Brooks Sandwich House, home of Charlotte’s best burger, has barbecue available seasonally and it is back; I’m not sure what to expect from it but when I try it I’ll at least get a burger as well

– A preview of things to come from Buxton Hall?