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Rick Perry “Unfit For President” After BBQ Road Kill Remark

  • Spence Cooper
  • September 29, 2011

Rick Perry “Unfit For President” After BBQ Road Kill RemarkNorth Carolina newspaper columnist Jeffrey Weeks recently expressed his revolting disfavor for Rick Perry — but not over politics. Jeffrey Weeks is appalled by Perry’s reprehensible comments on Southern cooking.

“Rick Perry is not fit to be president of the United States. In fact he is apparently not fit to be a guest in my house.”

Weeks is an award-winning columnist who posts on saltwater and freshwater fishing, southern seafood cooking, and fisheries politics and management.

He is the author of Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas – a complete guide to fishing at the coast, and posts a blog that contains many articles about southern recipes at A Dash of Salty.

According to “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue,” a book Weeks describes as a comprehensive and near-Biblical scale book about the great culinary art and history of delicious pork manna from heaven, Rick Perry tried some Eastern Carolina BBQ in 1992, served to him at the Republican National Convention in Houston.

When Perry was asked how he liked it, he answered, “I’ve had road kill that tasted better than that”

Good Ol’ Southern boys don’t take kindly to wanton attacks on their cherished Southern Cooking — especially BBQ. “This man is done as a candidate for any office beyond dog catcher, and I would not lower myself to vote him into even that post now,” writes Weeks.

To make matters worse, weeks claims Governor Perry prefers something know as Texas-style barbecue. “What did I find out about this Texas-style barbeque?” asks Weeks.

“Get this, America. They make it with cows. Go ahead, roll on the floor in laughter. I did. People of America, you make steaks out of cows. Read my lips, BBQ comes from a gosh-darned pig.”

Furthermore, adds Weeks: “In NC we have the good sense not to actually eat ‘road kill’ which is apparently a dish that ‘Governor’ Perry is intimately familiar with. I don’t plan to be dining in a Texas restaurant anytime soon after hearing that news.”

I feel confident Mr. Weeks would want me to include the following information on regional variations of barbecue:

Regional Variations of Barbecue
courtesy of barbequekansascity.com

While the wide variety of barbecue styles makes it difficult to break barbecue styles down into regions, there are four major styles commonly referenced (though many sources list more). The four major styles are Memphis and Carolina, which rely on pork and represent the oldest styles, and Kansas City and Texas, which utilize beef as well as pork, and represent the later evolution of the original deep south barbecue. Pork is the most common protein used, followed by beef and veal, often with chicken or turkey in addition. Lamb and mutton are found in some areas, such as Owensboro, Kentucky, and some regions will add other meats.

Memphis
Memphis barbecue is primarily ribs, which come “wet”and “dry”. Wet ribs are brushed with sauce before and after cooking, and dry ribs are seasoned with a dry rub. Pulled pork, from the shoulder, is also a popular item, which is served smothered in a hot, sweet, tomato based sauce.

Carolinas
Carolina barbecue is usually pork, served pulled, shredded, or chopped, but sometimes sliced. It may also be rubbed with a spice mixture before smoking and mopped with a spice and vinegar liquid during smoking.

Two styles predominate in different parts of North Carolina. Eastern North Carolina barbecue is made by the use of the “whole hog”, where the entire pig is barbecued and the meat from all parts of the pig are chopped and mixed together. Eastern North Carolina barbecue also uses a thin sauce made of spices and vinegar. Western North Carolina barbecue is made from only the pork shoulder, which is mainly dark meat, and uses a thicker sweetened tomato-based sauce. Western North Carolina barbecue is also known as Lexington barbecue, after the town of Lexington, North Carolina, home to many barbecue restaurants and a large barbecue festival, the Lexington Barbecue Festival.

South Carolina
South Carolina has three regional styles. In western parts of the state, along the Savannah River, a peppery tomato or ketchup-based sauce is common. In the central part of the state (the Midlands), barbecue is characterized by the use of a yellow “Carolina Gold”sauce, made from a mixture of yellow mustard, vinegar, brown sugar and other spices.[2] In the coastal “Pee Dee”region, they use the whole hog, and use a spicy, watery, vinegar-and-pepper sauce. In Piedmont area of the state shoulders, hams, or Boston butts are used.

Kansas City style barbecue
Kansas City has a wide variety in proteins, but the signature ingredient is the sauce. The meat is smoked with a dry rub, and the sauce served as a table sauce. Kansas City style sauce is thick and sweet (with significant exceptions such as Arthur Bryant’s, which is significantly less sweet than others in the region, and Gates, notably spicier than other KC-style sauces) based on tomatoes and molasses. This is perhaps the most widespread of sauces, with the Kansas City recipe K. C. Masterpiece being a top-selling brand.

Texas
There are four generally recognized regional styles of barbecue in Texas, East Texas style, which is essentially Southern barbecue and is also found in many urban areas, Central Texas “meat market style”which originated in the butcher shops of German and Czech immigrants to the region, West Texas “cowboy style”which involves direct cooking over mesquite and uses goat and mutton as well as beef, and South Texas barbacoa, in which the head of a cow is cooked (originally underground).

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