Barbecue spaghetti is a dish from Memphis, Tennessee, that combines spaghetti with a sauce made from shredded smoked pork or pulled pork, vegetables, and barbecue sauce.[1][2] It is served as a side dish in some Memphis barbecue restaurants.[3] Southern Living called the dish iconic and "perhaps the city's most unusual creation".[4] HuffPost called it "a Memphis staple".[5]
Preparation and serving
[edit]Barbecue spaghetti can be made with pulled pork[6] or shredded smoked pork. The sauce is "half marinara and half barbecue sauce",[7] sometimes with onions and peppers included, and is simmered before adding the pork; the consistency is close to that of barbecue sauce.[6] The spaghetti is cooked until soft, then tossed in the hot sauce.[7][8] This dish is served as a side[2][5] and sometimes as a main course.
History
[edit]The dish was invented by former railroad cook Brady Vincent, who opened a barbecue restaurant called Brady and Lil's.[4] In 1980 Frank and Hazel Vernon bought the restaurant and renamed it The Bar-B-Q Shop. Vincent also taught the recipe for barbecue spaghetti to Jim Neely, who opened Interstate Bar-B-Q in the late 1970s; Interstate modified the sauce recipe adding the "extra back flap meat" from a rack of ribs and cooking it in a pot with peppers and onions.[4]
State Park restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, serves a "Memphis BBQ spaghetti" that uses pulled pork in a marinara that uses a barbecue sauce as its base.[7]
Similar dishes
[edit]According to John Shelton Reed, "Barbecue spaghetti is to spaghetti Bolognese as Cincinnati chili is to the Tex-Mex variety".[9] Filipino spaghetti is spaghetti sauced with banana ketchup and topped with hot dogs.[10]
See also
[edit]- List of foods of the Southern United States
- List of pasta dishes
- List of pork dishes
- List of regional dishes of the United States
- Culture of Memphis, Tennessee
- Cincinnati chili, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish
- Filipino spaghetti, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish
- Haitian spaghetti, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish
References
[edit]- ^ Meek, Craig David (June 10, 2014). Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625850669.
- ^ a b Edge, John T. (2014). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 7: Foodways. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469616520.
- ^ Stern, Jane; Stern, Michael (2009). 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: And the Very Best Places to Eat Them. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547059075.
- ^ a b c Moss, Robert (March 20, 2015). "Barbecue Spaghetti: A Memphis Icon". Southern Living. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ a b "Barbecue Spaghetti, The Memphis Specialty You Need To Try". HuffPost. June 23, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ a b Lindsey, Deb (June 25, 2014). "Memphis Barbecue Spaghetti". Washington Post. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ a b c Shapiro, Steak; Allen, Ted. "Memphis Barbecue Spaghetti". Food Network. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ Stern, Jane; Stern, Michael (2011). Lexicon of Real American Food. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780762768301.
- ^ Reed, John Shelton (2016). Barbecue: a Savor the South® cookbook. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469626710.
- ^ Lee, Sue (April 1, 2017). "Sweet and tangy Filipino spaghetti". Pacific Daily News. Retrieved September 21, 2019.