When It Began: The N.C. BBQ Trail

Most of the bbq histories I've read discuss the introduction of the pig to the Carolinas and the role that played in the creation of what we now call barbecue in the United States. As folks moved on from the Carolinas in search of new opportunity elsewhere around the country, they took the bbq with them.

Well, the North Carolina Barbecue Society has connected the dots of their culinary history and created the official North Carolina Barbecue Trail. There are 25 stops on the trail that runs from Eastern North Carolina all the way to Tennessee.

While many establishments have moved away from the traditional methods of cooking over open fires w/ wood (mainly hickory down there) embers, the locations on the trail all maintain the old way of doing things and all proudly display an emblem that identifies them as purveyors of the lost art of wood cookery.