Digging Deeper...

It may not be considered news to Kansans and Missourians living in the greater Kansas City region that our metropolis and its surroundings can legitimately lay claim to being the center of the global BBQ culture and industry. That’s probably because most of us just assume it’s always been case. But it wasn’t always that way. “While Kansas City didn’t invent barbecue, it did perfect it,” Kansas City-based American barbeque historian Doug Worgul has said.
By Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC – Sources: Doug Worgul, Grand Barbecue: A Celebration of history, Places, Personalities and Techniques of Kansas City Barbecue; Allyssa King, American Royal; Rod Gray, CEO, Kansas City Barbeque Society; Smithsonian Magazine, July 3, 2023 (updated from July 18, 2013); Texas Monthly, September 17, 2023; Joseph R. Haynes, From Barbycu to Barbecue: The Untold History of an American Tradition; Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol, VA.

The Global Epicenter Of BBQ

If there is anything BBQ epicureans might love more than eating barbecue, it’s talking and writing about it. Accurate stats on the number of books published about the origins, history and heroes of the cuisine over are iffy, if non-existent. But if we’re just talking about BBQ cookbooks, we could guestimate the number is in the range of at least 8,000 volumes. That’s based on the more than 17,000 BBQ restaurants in the U.S., and on the not-so-outlandish but officially undocumented presumption that it seems as though half the proprietors of these eateries have published a book of their favorite recipes and methods of preparing them.

But a better picture of the love Americans have for barbecue is drawn by data from the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association. In a recent survey, HPBA claimed 80% of all homeowners and 70% of all households in the United States own at least one grill or smoker. What’s more, many Americans use their grills and smokers year-round, not just during the summer months. “This is because barbecuing is not just a cooking method,” says the association, “but also a social activity that brings people together.”

The global barbeque grill market size was valued at $4.59 billion in 2021, according to San Francisco-based Grand View Research. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% from 2022 to 2030. Changes in lifestyle and eating habits among young consumers along with the growing trend of outdoor parties and social gatherings have increased the demand for low and slow-cooked recipes such as brisket, pork shoulder and pork ribs.

More Than Meat

Barbecuing is more than cooking meat in a smoker or on a grill. It’s also a spiritual exercise that teaches valuable lessons about patience and fortitude, notes Kansas City resident and American barbecue historian Doug Worgul. He is the author of The Grand Barbecue: A Celebration of the History, Places, Personalities and Techniques of Kansas City Barbecue published in 2001. His novel Thin Blue Smoke (2009) set in a Kansas City barbeque joint was a 2010 finalist for The People's Book Prize (UK). The Englewood Review of Books named Thin Blue Smoke its Novel of the Year in 2012.

During a lecture Worgul delivered in 2012 at the annual Buechner Lecture Series presented by King College, Bristol, Tennessee, he said, “The spirit of barbecue is that even when you’re given a fatty pork butt or a tough brisket to put on a grill, if you’re patient and diligent you can end up cooking something that’s really great and memorable.” And he added, “That same fatty old pork butt, that same tough brisket aren’t going to be any good at all unless you have that patience, that sense of commitment.”

But there appears a higher message in what Worgul told King College students, faculty and the Bristol community at large. “I really think barbecuing symbolizes, in a real spiritual sense, what life is about in general.” He added that in addition to rewarding patience, the act of barbecuing has another, often-overlooked spiritual benefit: It fosters a sense of fellowship and togetherness.

Done properly, according to Worgul, barbequing is a slow, gradual and labor-intensive activity. “And there’s no point doing it if you’re the only one that’s going to eat.” It really only works when it’s being done for lots of people and when there’s a sense of community about it. “That’s why barbecuing is the ultimate family activity,” he said. “It’s all about gathering together and eating together; and just enjoying some good barbecue.”

How We Got Here

For more than 30 years Worgul (who has spoken at Kansas City Agricultural Business Council meetings), has researched the origins and growth of barbecue as an American pastime – a tradition that continues to have “its strongest heartbeat in the South.” In an interview with the Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol, Virginia, he said, “It’s clear that barbecue’s heaviest influence, still, comes from its roots in the South.”

Based on his research of the origins of BBQ in North America, Worgul suggests settlers arriving several centuries ago from Europe and Africa figuratively lit the first fire pits that served up the first BBQ feasts. These folks brought thousands of pigs across the Atlantic Ocean that would be fed and bred to feed a growing population of Americans. Pigs were a perfect food source for the settlers, Worgul points out, because the animals were self-sufficient foragers who quickly gained weight and could be cooked with the hardwood that was abundant in North American forests.

This past July, barbecue author and award-wining cook, Joseph R. Haynes – who is also a Kansas City Barbeque Society Master Certified Barbeque Judge – published From Barbycu to Barbecue. The book argues that commonly held understandings about BBQ’s origins often embrace half-truths and misconceptions. Haynes refutes the “Caribbean Origins Theory” – which holds that the original southern barbequing technique was developed and imported from the Caribbean to what is today the American South. Rather, he says, the southern whole carcass barbequing technique that defines American traditional-style barbeque emerged via direct and indirect collaboration among Native Americans, European settlers in the New World and free and enslaved people of African descent in the 1600s. Haynes describes southern barbequing style to be uniquely American as “jerked hog is to Jamaica and barbacoa is to Mexico.”

Worgul’s notion of the origins of American barbeque seems to jibe with Haynes’ concept. When black slaves were kidnapped and shipped to America, he said, they were forced to do the cooking for households. That meant creative African and Caribbean techniques for barbequing were infused into developing “new world” tastes.

Kansas City Rising

While barbeque cuisine is available in most states and cities across the country, the area stretching from the South Atlantic Coast to the Gulf of Mexico constitutes the “barbeque belt” that binds four distinct barbeque traditions: Carolina, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City.

Early on, Carolina barbeque moved westward, eventually entering Texas, where German immigrants had plenty of land to cultivate cattle. They applied Carolina techniques to a different sort of animal entirely different from the pigs. In Memphis, the regionally unique sweet, tomato-based barbeque sauce was born from the city’s status as a popular port along the Mississippi River. According to an article originally published in Smithsonian Magazine, (July 2013; updated July 3, 2023), Memphis residents could easily obtain a variety of goods, including molasses, which provided the region’s sweet barbecue taste. Memphis barbecue genes determined the last of America’s four main barbecue styles – Kansas City ‘Cue.’

In the early 1900s, Memphis-native Henry Perry settled in Kansas City and opened a barbeque restaurant. That, Worgul declares was the birthplace of the city’s particular barbeque style. Perry followed the style of his Memphis roots, using a sweet and spicy barbeque sauce. But Perry did not adhere to the stringent requirements that called for a pork-only barbeque. He promoted the use of beef and other meats. Revered Texas food journalist Dotty Griffith, who passed away in 2021, referred to Kansas City barbeque as the ultimate amalgamation of East and West (Texas) barbeque. Worgul concurs: “It’s the capital of barbeque, because it’s the one town that actually brought all of the historic traditions of BBQ together in one place.” A footnote: When Perry – best remembered as the Father of Kansas City-style barbeque – died in 1940, Charlie Bryant took over the business and later sold it to Arthur Bryant.

While Kansas City pit masters, grill kings and backyard smokers might consider themselves accomplished practitioners of barbeque, the city itself occupies the “corner office” of the entire global barbeque community and culture. The Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), a nonprofit organization, sanctions over 300 barbecue contests a year in 44 different states. Despite the "Kansas City" name, the KCBS judges all styles of barbecue, says Rod Gray, KCBS CEO. He breaks them down into classes for ribs, brisket, pork and chicken. Its membership is close to 15,000.

KCBS also hosts educational classes across the nation to improve barbecue techniques and certify barbeque judges. But it is also involved in advising international barbeque competitions. Gray says that organizers of some 40 events in Mexico, Europe and Africa have consulted with KCBS. “We have also been in contact with organizers of South Korean barbeque events.” That is something of a feather in KCBS’ cap since Korean barbeque is savored and well-respected around the world.

The Crown Jewel

Kansas City’s American Royal World Series of Barbecue® underscores the importance of barbeque to the region and adds a dash of regality to the culture. Competitors come from around the world to participate in the world’s largest smoking, grilling competition. The purse this year – $124,485 – was the largest of any such event ever. This year’s event took place September 27 to October 1. There were 487 teams plus 80 kid’s teams cooking for a share of that purse. The competition included 13 international teams from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Panama and Costa Rica. Overall attendance was 35,000.

Proving that the redolence of barbeque – with its rich, languid, sweet smoke – can be more than meets the eye, Blind Butt Limitless – the first ever blind team to compete in the event – placed 106th overall and 30th in the pork competition.