Got this funny but great email back in May and I wanted to share it. For the most part it is positive, and has some great recommendations.
Brian, a move to or at least a month in North Carolina would probably do you some good. From my part of the world (Georgia), it’s hard to even believe – as you’re already well aware – a dude from Massachusetts has any credibility in this department. I’m not saying that’s what I believe because it appears we’ve only tried a couple of the same sauces. I give you great credit for performing a heckuva service. (Being a property owner in Berkshire County, Mass, I’m quite knowledgeable about how misguided your fellow statesmen are on such an important subject. Barbecue is NOT a verb. It is a noun. And it really means pork pig barbecue.)
Re: Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce: when you’re over yonder in Decatur, Alabama, eating the bbq chicken with Big Bob’s White Sauce is de rigeuer. A phenomenal experience.
Any tastings I’ve had at the house, hands down, Dreamland Sauce from Tuscaloosa is always voted # 1. The original vinegary recipe supposedly had moonshine in it. The Alabama preppies who started franchising Dreamland have ruined its untarnished reputation as far as I’m concerned. You wanna eat the real stuff, do like legions of sports writers who cover the Crimson Tide at Legion Field, go to the original Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, say a prayer in Big Daddy John Bishop’s memory, and wolf down some ribs. Goodgodamighty. (I was there two months ago … heavenly.)
Johnny Harris Sauce is the perfect counter to Dreamland in that it is the height of perfection in a tomato-based sauce. If you go to Savannah, GA, you better go and eat in “the kitchen” at this venerable institution that’s been around since 1924.
But, as I said, a trip to North Carolina is the ticket. You need to see a guy in Charlotte by the name of Bob Garner. I’ve got his book on North Carolina bbq around here, somewhere. Another book I hope you have on your shelf is John Shelton Reed’s HOLY SMOKE. He is a professor of southern studies or something like that at the University of North Carolina. He wrote this biblical tome with his bride and another guy and it will flat make you want to move to North Carolina. A perfect coffee table book for the most enlightened ‘cue enthusiasts among us.
BTW, that mustard stuff in SC is suitable only for chicken (like Big Bob Gibson’s famous white sauce). It’s hard to believe how misguided they are in South Cackalacky, sitting as it does between Georgia and North Carolina. (Obviously, their most sensible men were all killed off during the late unpleasantness, often referred to as “The Civil War.”)
So, there you have it from one native-born wag from way down south.
Thanking you for your noble service,
Jim Connah, age 62
Son of a Savoy, Mass yankee dad & a mom from the epicenter of bbq, NC
Sandy Springs, GA
Site Editor, BBQ Sauce Lover, Family Guy, Hi Tech Marketer by Day. He recently wrote the Ebook “How to Market Your BBQ Sauce” which can be purchased on this site.
Jim, speaking from South Carolina – obviously some form of of age related issues have set in. Thank goodness I am only 60 yrs. old and can appreciate some of our local mustard based and or vinegar based sauces.
We are the best of all worlds with the exclusion of “White Sauces”, you are kidding right?