Three Top BBQ Competitions in St. Louis, Missouri

When you talk barbeque you have to be talking about pork. Despite the prevalence of beef in the Texas area and even mutton in some other parts of the country, if you look at the history of barbeque, pork is the animal of choice. And some people still confuse barbequing, which is slow cooking over a wood or charcoal fire, with "grilling" which is cooking over an open flame at a high temperature. The other thing is, if your cooker has a big round gas cylinder thing attached to it, you're grilling not barbequing, plain and simple, no matter how much sauce you pour on the meat.

Barbeque actually originated in Colonial times when pigs were allowed to roam semi-wild in the forest and then harvested for food. A pit was usually dug into the ground and the animal was cooked whole. Barbequing became popular in the south when the plantation owners would hold big get togethers. The slaves were allowed to "pick the pork" afterwards to try and salvage the best leftover pieces. That's why things like barbequed pig's snouts became popular. Barbeques were also popular with church groups and at political rallies. (www.xroads.virginia.edu)

There are regional differences in barbeque. In North Carolina the pig is usually chopped and the sauce is heavy with pepper and vinegar. In Memphis, barbeque is usually either pulled pork shoulder or ribs and the sauce has more ingredients and is sweeter. As you travel further south the sauce gets a little spicier.

Here in Missouri our style of barbeque is probably closest to that of Memphis, but we definitely have our own style. Our sauces are sweet and we like a lot of it. And nothing says St. Louis more than a barbequed pork steak. The thick fatty steak is perfect for barbequing because the dripping fat produces a lot of smoke and you can cook them for a long time without drying them out. The preferred method of cooking is to add the sauce right onto the meat at the end of the cooking cycle so a nice crusty shell of sauce forms on the outside of the meat, rather than soaking them in the sauce after cooking.