Barbecue Spaghetti

[kayb]

This weekend is the International Barbecue Cooking Championship in Memphis. You can smell it from the time you cross the bridge until you’re out past the medical center. Only time in my life I ever saw 250,000 people drunk in one place.

 

The Daily Memphian has been writing of all things barbecue for a couple of weeks. Today, they published the recipe for authentic Memphis barbecue spaghetti. If anyone has an interest, I’ll post it.

[chromedome]

18 hours ago, kayb said:

This weekend is the International Barbecue Cooking Championship in Memphis. You can smell it from the time you cross the bridge until you’re out past the medical center. Only time in my life I ever saw 250,000 people drunk in one place.

 

The Daily Memphian has been writing of all things barbecue for a couple of weeks. Today, they published the recipe for authentic Memphis barbecue spaghetti. If anyone has an interest, I’ll post it.

Not gonna lie, "barbecue spaghetti" is not a phrase I'd ever expected to read. Adding "authentic" to the mix makes it even better, though.

[Smithy]

10 hours ago, chromedome said:

Not gonna lie, "barbecue spaghetti" is not a phrase I'd ever expected to read. Adding "authentic" to the mix makes it even better, though.

 

What he said. I'm curious too!

[kayb]

I hope this is not behind a paywall.

https://dailymemphian.com/section/food/article/36270/memphis-recipe-barbecue-spaghetti

 

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, kayb said:

I hope this is not behind a paywall.

https://dailymemphian.com/section/food/article/36270/memphis-recipe-barbecue-spaghetti

 

 

I'm afraid it is. Rough translation / description, please?

[blue_dolphin]

@Smithy,  I surrendered an email address so I could see it and will message it to you. 
Basically a spaghetti with pulled or chopped pork in a sauce made with both BBQ sauce and tomato sauce. Proportions vary, that one is 2:3 BBQ:tomato sauce with some other stuff thrown in. Here's one recipe that cites the same sources but is a bit different. What seems unique to the recipe that @kayb shared is that after simmering the sauce on the stovetop for 30 min, the whole pot goes out on a grill that you’ve heated up with wood chips or pellets to basically smoke the sauce for another 30 min. 
 

That newspaper recipe calls for a pound and a half of chopped pork shoulder for a pound of pasta so it would be quite meaty. It also doesn’t specify that the pork is already cooked (or else I missed it) but all the other recipes do so I assume it’s the case. Especially since she says you can reserve half the pork to serve on top!

 

Editing to add one more recipe link.  This one, Memphis Barbecue Spaghetti, is from the Washington Post and instead of combining prepared BBQ and tomato sauces, it adds the seasoning for both types of sauce to one batch of tomato purée to make a hybrid sauce.  Seems like this would be more easily tweak-able to suit personal tastes and complement the seasonings used in the meat. 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by blue_dolphin
to add WaPo recipe (log)

[kayb]

I had hoped you could read it just to get a sense of the history and how it developed.

 

Yes, the meat is cooked. It’s chopped pork shoulder.

 

It is perhaps worthwhile to note that in the South, outside Italian restaurants, “marinara” sauce is simply tomato sauce with some salt, pepper and garlic. Barbecue sauce is, well, barbecue sauce, with vinegar, chile powders, etc., combined into a tomato paste base (or left as just the vinegar-Chile mix, if you’re only using it to baste while smoking). The addition of tomato paste makes it suitable for glazing or use as a “table sauce.”

 

The original barbecue spaghetti came from a meat and three place, Brady and Lil’s, where spaghetti with the “sauce” as described above (no meat) was prepared and the noodles stirred into the sauce, and served as one of the sides. Lore has it that one day, Brady warmed up the previous day’s sauced spaghetti, cooked some fresh to add to it, and found himself out of sauce. He added barbecue sauce and some chopped pork shoulder and moved it to the “meat” column.

 

Brady and Lil’s sold to Vernon Jordan, whose barbecue restaurant, The Bar B Q Shop, is one of Memphis’ finest. Note to @Kim Shook, they also do excellent barbecued bologna.

[FeChef]

I am not a spaghetti snob by any means. I love olive oil based sauces, alfredo sauces, tomato sauces, egg/parm sauces. But the thought of barbeque sauce sounds disgusting.

[heidih]

51 minutes ago, FeChef said:

I am not a spaghetti snob by any means. I love olive oil based sauces, alfredo sauces, tomato sauces, egg/parm sauces. But the thought of barbeque sauce sounds disgusting.

It is just anothr carb vehicle for a tasty sauce.  I don't care for BBQ sauce but if ya want to eat with pasta instead of bread or whatever on the side - what the hey   I never get the marinara sauce with calamari or fried mozz - but...seems popular

[FeChef]

3 minutes ago, heidih said:

It is just anothr carb vehicle for a tasty sauce.  I don't care for BBQ sauce but if ya want to eat with pasta instead of bread or whatever on the side - what the hey   I never get the marinara sauce with calamari or fried mozz - but...seems popular

But Barbeque sauce is potent and something you use in moderation. Like a light glaze on ribs, or a light drizzle on a pulled pork or brisket sandwich. The thought of smothering spaghetti noodles in barbeque sauce....shivers*

Edited May 27, 2023 by FeChef (log)