You Can Only Eat One Style Of BBQ For The Rest Of Your Life, Which Do You Pick?

The Main Types of American BBQ Explained. The main thing to know is that American barbecue isn’t one single style, it changes dramatically depending on where you are.

Here are five of the most famous traditions:

BBQ style	Main meat	Sauce / seasoning	What makes it distinctive
Texas	Beef brisket, beef ribs, sausage	Usually dry-rubbed; sauce optional	Heavy emphasis on smoke and meat rather than sauce. Central Texas is famous for brisket smoked over post oak.
Memphis	Pork ribs and pulled pork	Dry rub or thin tomato-based sauce	Memphis ribs can be served dry, coated heavily with spices, or wet, brushed with sauce during cooking.
Kansas City	Pork, beef, chicken, ribs	Thick, sweet, tomato-and-molasses sauce	Probably the most recognisable "American BBQ sauce" style. Famous for burnt ends and using almost every type of meat.
North Carolina	Whole hog or pork shoulder	Thin vinegar-based sauce	Very little sweetness. Eastern NC usually uses vinegar and pepper; western NC adds some tomato or ketchup.
South Carolina	Pulled or chopped pork	Mustard-based "Carolina Gold" sauce	Best known for its yellow mustard, vinegar and spice sauce, especially in central South Carolina.

1. Texas BBQ

Texas barbecue is really several traditions rather than one single style.

The most famous is Central Texas BBQ, where brisket is seasoned simply, often just salt and black pepper, then smoked slowly over post oak. Sauce is frequently served on the side, if at all.

Other Texas traditions include East Texas BBQ, which tends to feature chopped beef and pork with sweeter sauces; South Texas, influenced by Mexican cooking and barbacoa; and West Texas, where meat may be cooked directly over mesquite rather than through indirect smoke.

The philosophy is essentially: the meat and smoke should provide the flavour.

2. Memphis BBQ

Memphis is overwhelmingly associated with pork, particularly pork ribs and pulled pork.

Its signature distinction is between dry ribs and wet ribs.

Dry ribs are coated with a spice mixture containing ingredients such as paprika, garlic, pepper and sometimes brown sugar, then served without much sauce.

Wet ribs are repeatedly brushed with barbecue sauce while cooking.

Memphis sauce itself tends to be relatively thin, tangy and tomato-based compared with Kansas City’s much sweeter sauce.

3. Kansas City BBQ

Kansas City barbecue is probably the most eclectic major BBQ tradition.

Unlike Texas or the Carolinas, there isn’t one dominant meat. You’ll find:

Beef
Pork
Chicken
Turkey
Sausage
Ribs

Its defining feature is the thick, sticky barbecue sauce, normally made with tomatoes or ketchup, molasses or brown sugar, vinegar and spices.

Kansas City is also particularly famous for burnt ends , smoky, fatty cubes traditionally cut from the point end of a beef brisket.

4. North Carolina BBQ

North Carolina barbecue is traditionally almost entirely about pork.

But there’s a major internal rivalry.

Eastern North Carolina: whole hog barbecue, chopped together and seasoned with an extremely simple sauce of vinegar, chilli pepper and spices.

Western North Carolina / Lexington style: usually pork shoulder rather than whole hog, accompanied by a vinegar sauce containing tomato or ketchup. It’s sometimes called a “dip.”

North Carolina BBQ therefore tends to taste sharp, smoky and acidic rather than sweet.

5. South Carolina BBQ

South Carolina also specialises primarily in pork, but it is especially famous for mustard-based barbecue sauce.

Known as Carolina Gold, it typically contains yellow mustard, vinegar, sugar and spices.

However, South Carolina is unusually diverse. Traditionally you can find several sauce regions within the state, including mustard sauce, vinegar-and-pepper sauce and tomato-based sauces.

The mustard tradition is often linked to the influence of German immigrants who settled parts of South Carolina.

Other important American BBQ styles

There are quite a few additional regional traditions worth knowing.

Alabama BBQ is particularly famous for Alabama white sauce, mayonnaise mixed with vinegar, pepper and other seasonings. It’s most commonly served with smoked chicken.

Kentucky BBQ has one of America’s strangest regional specialities: mutton barbecue, particularly around Owensboro. It is often served with a dark Worcestershire-and-vinegar sauce known as a dip.

Western Kentucky stands apart because of its mutton tradition.

St. Louis BBQ is known for pork ribs, especially the rectangular St. Louis cut, often grilled or smoked and covered with a sweet tomato-based sauce.

Georgia BBQ generally centres on pulled pork and ribs, with sauces varying between tomato-, mustard- and vinegar-based styles. Georgia doesn’t have one rigid BBQ tradition in the way that Texas or North Carolina does.

Tennessee BBQ outside Memphis includes numerous pork traditions, while parts of Middle Tennessee are particularly associated with slow-cooked pork shoulder.

Santa Maria BBQ, California is very different from Southern barbecue. Its signature dish is tri-tip beef, traditionally grilled over red oak and served with beans, salsa and garlic bread.

Hawaiian barbecue isn’t traditional mainland pit barbecue but has developed its own American regional identity, incorporating Asian and Polynesian influences such as teriyaki-style meats, kalbi ribs and kalua pork.

One simple way to remember the biggest traditions is: