- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- May 2002
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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A CIVIL WAR:
EASTERN VS. WESTERN
I»
V .1 I M M V T
О
M L I N
The battle for superior pork — chopped or s/iced,
rinepur or tomato, ivliole-lios; or shoulder — depends on
и
Inch side
of the barbecue- fi.rins ' line you're on.
Fourscore and 7 billion hush
puppies ago, our North Carolina
forefathers drew the battle lines
for a war that rages still today —
the clash lor barbecue supremacy
in the Old North State. I listorians
who arc paid to know such things tell us the
barbecue battle has been a heated conflict
marked by decades of inflammatory words, but
which, as far as we know, fortunately has never
actually escalated to bloodshed.
Unless, of course, you count the hogs.
Untold millions of porkers have become
casualties in this epic struggle for barbecue
bragging rights in the
Гаг
Heel State — but
no humans. This is. after all, a civil war.
The apparent Mason-Dixon line —
which is marked off in hush puppy crumbs
and will heretofore be referred to as the
barbecue-fixin s line — slices vertically
through the state somewhere around
Raleigh, dividing the land into two distinct,
uncompromising, unapologetic schools of
thought about the hallowed preparation of
barbecue and its mandatory side dishes. And
therein lies the root of the conflict.
A line in the sand(wich)
You see, in North Carolina, barbecue is a
sacred cow — I mean, um, sacred pig. We
learn to eat it a certain way — determined,
of course, by which side of the barbecue-
fixin’s line we live on — and our reverence
for that style of barbecue is almost spiritual.
Poke fun at our particular pork preference,
and. well, them's fightin* words.
Squaring off in the culinary war are
eastern-style barbecue, the barbecue of choice
cast of the barbecue-fixins line (including
Raleigh), and l.exington-style barbecue,
which originated in Lexington and has been
more or less adopted by barbecue joints west
of the barbecue-fixin's line, l ighting for the
honor of eastern-style barbecue are veterans
such as Wilber’s Barbecue in Goldsboro and
the Skylight Inn in Aydcn; carrying the battle
flag for western -style barbecue arc traditional
strongholds such as Lexington’s own
Lexington Barbecue and Stanley’s Old-
Fashioned Barbecue in Greensboro.
While several factors contribute to the
escalating conflict between east and west, one
of the most significant points of contention is
a difference of opinion about which parts of
the pig should be included when cooking the
barbecue. Down east, for example, barbecue
chefs go whole hog — literally — as their
barbecue includes meat from the shoulders,
hams, and loin. l.exington-style barbecue, on
the other hand, is strictly pork shoulders.
Proponents from Kith sides argue passionately
that their particular style — and no other style
— is barbecue as God intended it to be.
Clear cut and complicated
“You might think, ‘Well who would know
the difference?’ But it does make a difference,"
says barbecue historian and connoisseur Bob
60 OurSutc May 2002
