Regional Barbecue Primer Understand the differences among the various regional styles. By Nancy Ross Ryan

Barbecue is a fighting word in many regions of the country where the traditional meat, method of cooking, and most especially the secret sauces, are ferociously championed. And if you think barbecue sauce is synonymous with the ubiquitous thick, sweet tomato-based substance found in bottles on supermarket shelves -- you've never been to the Carolinas, or had dry Memphis ribs. The four major barbecue epicenters are: The Carolinas In North and South Carolina, barbecue is synonymous with pork, as in pork shoulder. It's slowly smoke-cooked over oak or hickory for up to eight hours, until it's tender enough to be pulled off in little shreds, the centerpiece of the famous "pulled pork" platters and sandwiches. Some folks chop theirs with a cleaver, too. This shredding or chopping allows the pork to soak up the sauces. Carolina barbecue sauces are thin, not thick, and come in three major styles with variations. Northeastern North Carolina favors a vinegar-based sauce spiked with hot red pepper, salt and a bit of sugar. Western North Carolina adds a little ketchup to it, resulting in a thin, tart, reddish sauce, and in southern North Carolina and South Carolina you have the mustard sauce, a thin vinegar-mustard sauce slightly sweetened with honey or molasses. You eat pulled or chopped pork on a bun with the sauce. Unless, of course, you're going to a "pig picking" where the whole pig is pit roasted. Memphis, Tennessee Ribs join pork shoulder as the barbecue meats of choice. The pork is slow hot-smoked and thinly sliced with barbecue sauce, but the ribs are king. Dry baby back or spare ribs are slow hot-smoked, then thickly crusted with a dry spice rub toward the end of cooking. Of course, you can get your ribs wet -- slathered with barbecue sauce at the end of cooking. Kansas City, Missouri As befits a crossroads city, Kansas City barbecue means pork, especially ribs, and also beef, especially brisket. Two Kansas City specialties: rib tips, the seductively charred and chewy burnt spareribs edges; and burnt edges (or brownies), the crisp, caramelized and burned fatty edges of the brisket. Of course Kansas City-style barbecue sauce is tomato- or ketchup-based, thick, sweet, tangy hot and spicy. Two famous sauces, both quite different, are KC Masterpiece (created by barbecue restaurateur Rich Davis), and Arthur Bryant's (the magic concoction of famous barbecue restaurant-owner Arthur Bryant). Texas Not surprisingly, beef is king and brisket is the beef of choice, cooked slowly over oak, hickory or mesquite for up to 18 hours. Sometimes it's mopped, but mostly not. It's served sliced usually with cheap white bread and a thin, hot, tart tomato sauce or just plain hot sauce. Other Texas barbecue specialties include sausage, pork shoulder, ribs and turkey. And don't forget: Kentucky Owensboro, Kentucky, is the nation's barbecue central for lamb and mutton, a tradition that dates back to 1834, when the Dutch pioneer settlers (who raised sheep) held church picnics featuring barbecued sheep, and we don't mean lamb. There's an annual barbecue contest still held in May, and barbecued mutton is still sold at the Moonlight Diner there. During the contest, two other local specialties share the spotlight: barbecued chicken and burgoo -- a backwoods stew of lamb, beef, pork, chicken and -- who knows, maybe even squirrel. Pacific Northwest Well, anyone who thinks Pacific Northwest barbecue is all about salmon slow hot-smoked over alder wood has another thought coming. Bob Lyon, secretary of the 10-year-old Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alberta, Canada and British Columbia), let us know in no uncertain terms that their teams barbecue pork shoulder, ribs, brisket, sausage, lamb and chicken at national competitions -- "Plus, of course, the fish."