Barbecue: An American Food Tradition
时间：2018-12-07 作者：英语课 分类：2017年VOA慢速英语(七)月
Barbecue: An American Food Tradition
For some Americans, summertime means visiting the beaches or national parks. For others, it means attending baseball games.
And for many, it means cooking, eating, and generally enjoying American barbecue. Barbecue, or BBQ for short, is a style of cooking meat at a low temperature for a long time.
But, not all American barbecue is the same.
Mike Sargent recently drove almost 2,500 kilometers from Texas to Washington, D.C., to compete in the National Capital Barbecue Battle.
As a Texan, Sargent says his home state makes the best barbecue. But he adds, “The style of barbecue going across the nation is just totally different. And it’s interesting to see, you know, because it’s the culture on what people were raised on.”
Barbecue Belt
Texas is part of America’s so-called “Barbecue Belt.”
The area stretches from Texas to the East Coast. Many people divide it into four main styles of American barbecue: Carolina-style, Memphis-style, Kansas City-style and Texas-style. Each is named after the state or city where the style was formed.
But American barbecue is not actually that straightforward 1.
Robert F. Moss 2 is a barbecue expert and historian 3. He wrote the book Barbecue: The History of an American Institution.
Moss says American barbecue is much more than just the four main styles. He says many areas within the Barbecue Belt have their own styles and flavors.
The state of Alabama, for example, has its own special white-colored barbecue sauce. And California, a state far from the Barbecue Belt, has its own barbecue style called Santa Maria.
“Some people sort of point to like four main regions but it’s really much more.”
“Regional pride”
David Robbins is with Old Town Smokers 4, a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia. He is their pitmaster -- the person who operates the barbecue cooking “pit.”
He says that, for people who come from places where barbecue is popular, there is a lot of “regional pride.”
“Usually not because it’s the favorite flavor, it’s because it’s the thing they grew up with.”
Even Moss, the barbecue historian, says South Carolina’s style of barbecue is still special to him. He grew up in Greenville, in the western part of the state.
“These days it’s hard for me to say I have one particular favorite barbecue style, because having traveled around to eat so many, I’ve sort of come to appreciate them all. I still am a little bit partial to the South Carolina style, just because it is my home state.”
A brief history of barbecue
Moss says American barbecue developed from several cultures in the Caribbean.
Early European explorers observed Taino Indians in the Caribbean cooking whole animals over fire and smoke. They called it “barabicu,” or “sacred pit” in the Taino language.
Spanish explorers called this cooking method “barbacoa.” As they traveled north, they spread barbacoa into the present-day southern American states, like Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
There, “barabacoa” became “barbecue.”
In the 1920s, the restaurant industry grew quickly in the United States. It was this rise in restaurants, Moss says, that helped lead to the creation 5 of regional barbecue styles.
Carolina-style
Carolina-style barbecue is named after the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. Carolina barbecue today is the closest to the early, colonial-style of barbecue of the 1700s, Moss says.
All across the Carolinas, pork is the main barbecue meat. They cook the whole hog 6 over a pit. The pork meat is then shredded 8 or chopped or “pulled.” Pulled pork is meat that is tender - or soft - enough to be pulled from the bone with little effort.
Sauce is a key part of American barbecue. Most sauces in North Carolina have a vinegar base. In South Carolina, the sauces are made with mustard 9. They are yellow in color. The mustard-based sauce is known as “Carolina Gold.”
From the Carolinas, barbecue traditions moved west, all the way to Texas.
Texas-style
While Carolina-style barbecue is all about pork, Texas-style barbecue is all about beef. Texas is especially known for its smoked brisket. Brisket is a cut of meat from the lower chest of a cow, as pitmaster Mike Sargent explains.
“It’s the chest and shoulder muscle. It’s a very thick, tough piece of meat. It has to be cooked for long periods of time at lower temperatures.”
Most Texas barbecue cooks do not use much barbecue sauce. Instead, they flavor their meat with a mix of herbs and spices called a “rub.”
“We don’t put a lot of sauce on anything down here. We’d rather you taste the meat and the seasonings 10 and the woods that we use.”
Texas-style barbecue is often cooked over pecan wood. Pecan trees are found across much of Texas.
Memphis-style
The city of Memphis, Tennessee, is home to another well-known style of American barbecue. Memphis-style BBQ may be best known for its pork ribs 11. The ribs can be served dry, without sauce, or wet, with sauce.
Memphis-style sauce is sometimes very sweet, thanks to molasses – a thick, dark syrup 12 made from raw sugar. Because the city sits along the Mississippi River, it was easy for locals to get molasses from steamboats that regularly carried goods up and down the river.
Memphis-style barbecue led to the creation of Kansas City-style barbecue, because of one man, Henry Perry. The Memphis local worked as a steamboat cook. In the early 1900s, he moved north to Kansas City.
Perry soon began cooking and serving barbecue for people in his new city. He went on to build a very successful Kansas City barbecue business.
Kansas City-style
Kansas City is where Carolina and Memphis pork barbecue meet Texas beef barbecue.
It is, as some food experts say, the best of both worlds.
While it is best known for its pork ribs, Kansas City also does beef brisket. It is known for its thick, tomato-based sauce that is both sweet and spicy 13.
Barbecue has become serious business in Kansas City. It holds the so-called “World Series” of barbecue every fall. The huge contest is called the American Royal.
The fun of barbecue
But barbecue is not about the competition. It is about eating.
If cooked right, barbecued meat falls off the bone. You do not need to use a fork or knife to eat it. Usually, you can eat with your hands.
Rebecca Sansale is from Pennsylvania. At the National Capital Barbecue Battle in Washington, D.C., she said barbecue is one of her favorite kinds of food.
“It’s one of the foods that you can eat that’s really messy and it’s okay to kind of get it all over your face and it’s just really fun to eat.”
A traditional American barbecue usually includes side dishes like potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans or macaroni and cheese.
Chuck Smith is a cook at Smoke Shack 14, a barbecue restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
“I got potato salad, cole slaw, greens, beans, macaroni and cheese. The macaroni and cheese is off the hook 15. It’s off the hook. It’s so cheesy and it's good.”
“Off the hook” means really, really good.
In summer months, people in the United States often invite friends and family members over for a barbecue. They cook meat outside on a grill 16 and prepare side dishes similar to Chuck Smith’s.
Pitmasters like Sargent and Robbins did not learn their trade at cooking schools. Instead, they learned through family barbecues in their own backyards.
Sargent says, in Texas, everybody has a grill in the backyard.
“That's where I learned my passion [from] it. My dad taught me from an early age how to cook on the grill...and that’s where I found my passion for it.”
I’m Ashley Thompson.
And I’m Dan Friedell.
Words in This Story
barbecue - n. an outdoor meal or party at which food is cooked on a barbecue; food that has been cooked on a barbecue grill
straightforward - adj. easy to do or understand : not complicated
pit ?- n. ? an outdoor area where food is cooked
regional - adj. relating to a part of the country that is different or separate from other parts in some way
appreciate ?- v. to understand the worth or importance of (something or someone) : to admire and value (something or someone)
sacred - adj. ?highly valued and important : deserving great respect
hog ?- n. ?a pig
tender - adj. ?easy to chew or bite : not tough
brisket ?- n. ? beef from the chest of a cow
shred 7 ?- v.? to cut or tear (something) into long, thin pieces
chop ? ?- v.? to cut (something) into pieces by hitting it with the sharp edge of an ax, knife, etc.
flavor ?- v. ?to give or add taste to something
best of both worlds - expression.? a situation in which you can enjoy two very different things at the same time
passion ?- n. ?a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something
- A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
- I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。
- Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
- He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
- As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
- He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。
- Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
- Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。
- Language is the most important mental creation of man.语言是人类头脑最重要的产物。
- The creation of new playgrounds will benefit the local children.新游戏场的建立将有益于当地的儿童。
- He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
- Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。
- There is not a shred of truth in what he says.他说的全是骗人的鬼话。
- The food processor can shred all kinds of vegetables.这架食品加工机可将各种蔬菜切丝切条。
- Serve the fish on a bed of shredded lettuce. 先铺一层碎生菜叶，再把鱼放上，就可以上桌了。
- I think Mapo beancurd and shredded meat in chilli sauce are quite special. 我觉得麻婆豆腐和鱼香肉丝味道不错。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- This meat should be seasoned with salt and mustard.这肉里应该加点盐和芥末调味。
- This mustard is hot enough to bite your tongue.这种芥末很辣，你的舌头会吃不消的。
- It emphasizes the use of seasonings, so no two dishes ever taste alike. 它对调味品十分讲究。因此，没有两个菜会有同样的味道。 来自地道口语脱口SHOW 高中超越版
- The food made of flour and various seasonings is called moon cake. 中秋节的食品也是圆圆的，也象征着团圆，这种用面和各种作料做的食品叫月饼。 来自互联网
- He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
- Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。
- I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
- Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。
- The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
- Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。
- He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
- The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。