The Results: BBQ History Quiz #1

Voting is closed, and the great majority of respondents were . . . dead wrong.

Question: What meat was sold at the first commercial barbecue stand in North Carolina?

Responses:

A. Beef: 7%
B. Pork: 42%
C: Mutton: 35%
D: All of the Above: 14%

I'm not surprised that pork would get the most votes, since that is the signature meat of North Carolina barbecue today.  And, I can chalk up the 35% tally for mutton to the fact that I had said in my comments that "the answer might surprise you."

And that answer is . . . D. All of the Above.

In 1899, a notice in the Charlotte Observer announced that Mrs. Katie Nunn had rented a store on South Church St., where she planned to run a grocery store and a barbecue stand, with her husband doing the cooking on a pit he had constructed behind the store.  Two weeks later, this classified ad ran in the paper:

The appearance of mutton is especially surprising, since pork so dominates North Carolina today and mutton is something rarely found outside of Kentucky.  But, it helps illustrate the fact that regional barbecue styles were a 20th Century development, and one driven by the rise of barbecue restaurants.

BBQ Quiz Question #2 is posted now.