Memphis, explained
Memphis-style barbecue spaghetti is spaghetti noodles tossed in a sweet, tomato-based barbecue sauce and topped with chopped or pulled barbecue pork, usually finished with shredded cheese. It is a side dish and sometimes a plate on its own, built around the same sauce Memphis restaurants use on pulled pork sandwiches and ribs, not an Italian-American … Read more
The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is a judged pork-cooking competition held each May in Memphis as part of the Memphis in May International Festival. Hundreds of teams cook whole hog, shoulder and ribs overnight in a temporary encampment, judges score entries against a fixed set of criteria, and the public can buy tickets to … Read more
A dry rub is a mixture of spices — typically some combination of paprika, black pepper, cayenne, garlic, salt and other seasonings — applied directly to meat before and sometimes after smoking, with no sauce involved. Memphis is identified with it because dry-rubbed ribs, alongside sauced “wet” ribs, are one of the city’s two defining … Read more
Memphis barbecue is pork, cooked slowly over indirect heat, most often shoulder or ribs, and served either “dry” — coated in a spice rub with no sauce — or “wet,” basted or finished with a tomato-and-vinegar sauce. That combination, plus the “plate” as the standard way of serving it, is what sets Memphis apart from … Read more
The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is a multi-day pork barbecue competition held each May in Memphis, organized by the nonprofit Memphis in May International Festival as one of the festival’s three signature events. Teams from across the country and abroad cook whole hog, shoulder and ribs under a formal judging system, competing for trophies … Read more
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