Barbecue. From MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER. May, 2007

Gayla Kirksey-Owen surveys the 1986 Barbecue Cookoff.

In this metro area of more than one million people, you see locals bragging about their individuality, their live music, a growing independent film scene, and their barbecue. Nothing beats a nice day Downtown with a local barbecue lunch in this city by the river.

Sound familiar? Well, this metro area is actually Austin, TX, and though both Memphis and Austin have similar-sized populations and both brag about many of the same things, the two cities illustrate the old barbecue schism: pork or beef. It is the Southeast versus Southwest divide.

Asking why pork barbecue is big in Memphis while beef is big in Austin is sort of like asking why New England clam chowder is not a Southern staple. “Pigs are ubiquitous in the Southeast, but once you get west of East Texas, cattle are more common," says John Reed, a member of the food history group Southern Foodways Alliance. "In the Southeast, pork was everyday and beef was for special occasions. Pigs were easy in the Southeast. You let them forage in the woods and round them up once a year. Turn pigs loose in Central or West Texas, and they'd starve.”

Participants at the 1986 contest

Reed, who has recently written a book with his wife on Southern food titled <<Cornbread Nation IV>>, says barbecue was a food eaten throughout the American colonies, but shortly after the American Revolution, it became a Southern food more associated with the land of Washington and Jefferson than the land of Franklin and Adams. “They barbecued everything in the 19th century,” he adds.

Memphis in May is honoring Spain this year, and in doing so, is honoring the country that brought pork barbecue to the Mid-South. Earlier this year, U.S. Agriculture archeologist Sam Brookes told <<Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal>> that Tupelo hosted the first pork barbecue in Mississippi.

According to the account, conquistador Hernando DeSoto's group of explorers were accompanied by 400 Spanish pigs for food. In 1540, the Chickasaw Indians and DeSoto created an apparatus to cook pigs, and after cooking, they spread a mixture of spices and tomatoes over the well-cooked pork. The exact location was not found, but it is believed to have been south of Tupelo.

The Southern Foodways Alliance also put together an oral history of barbecue. One recurring theme that shows up among the stories is that the barbecue places you remember as a child were probably there when Grandma and Grandpa were ordering off the kid’s menu. What is now the Big S Grill started in 1938, Leonard's Pit Barbecue in 1922, Pig-N-Whistle in 1930, the Rendezvous in 1948, and Topps in 1952, to name a few. And Leonard's Barbecue brags that it has been using the same recipe since 1922.

“Barbecue is the closest thing we have to European wine," says Reed. "You drive 100 miles, and it changes. Memphis-style barbecue is different than what you get in Blytheville, Arkansas, or Lexington, Tennessee." Reed points out that dry ribs are a Memphis invention, though they are now popping up in different locations.

The demand for Memphis barbecue does not stop at the Mississippi River — or even the Mason-Dixon Line. Memphis — the pork barbecue capital of the world and Memphis America’s Distribution Center — ships its 'cue (and sauces, seasonings, and merchandise) all over the States, most noticeably when "hogs fly" from the Rendezvous or Corky’s ships from its 30,000-square-foot distribution center.

Pork barbecue is showing up in other places. For vegetarians, Gardenburger Inc. offers the Riblet , a very tasty "pork" barbecue rib dripping with tangy sauce. McDonald's introduced its McRib sandwich in 1981. And whether you spell it "barbecue," "bar-b-que," "bbq," or any dozens of variations, at least here in Memphis, you're just fine topping it off with some cole slaw.