Big Apple Barbecue

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Rob Young

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It takes a mighty crew to prep, sort, and separate the fat marbling from slow-cooked pork shoulders. Black Jack Barbecue found an able volunteer in Ted Lee, who, with brother Matt, co-wrote The Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook, awarded Cookbook of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 2007.

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Rob Young

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Dan O'Leary tends to the smoke and flames at Baker's Ribs, a Dallas-based outfit that specializes in pork spare ribs. The meat is first given a dry rub, then smoked and finished up on the grill. Joe Duncan, a native Texan, founded the restaurant 21 years ago and also sells wholesale seasonings, sauces, and wood-burning barbecue pits.

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Rob Young

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Pat Martin, pitmaster and proprietor of Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville, inspects one of his group's pigs, soon to be chopped up and served. Martin cooks in a western Tennessee tradition, slow cooking 200-pound hogs for roughly 26 hours so the belly meat and loin meat break down, lending flavor from the fat.

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Rob Young

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A paper tray containing pork cracklings, rugged but flavorful, from Martin's Bar-B-Que.

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Rob Young

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Julian Van Winkle, head of the Old Rip Van Winkle distillery, poured several of his brand's celebrated whiskeys during a tasting over the weekend. His preference? His family's 15-year, 107-proof bourbon, perfect for an old-fashioned cocktail.

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Rob Young

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Garry Roark runs Ubon's Champion Choice, one of the more successful barbecue operations out of Yazoo City, Mississippi. A regular competitor on the Memphis in May competition circuit, Ubon's has won 24 grand championships. "Never trust a skinny cook," Roark says.

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Rob Young

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Meet David Rosen, full-time commodities broker, part-time pitmaster. Rosen, who is Jewish and from New York, fell for barbecue two years ago. His first kiss: a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw from team Ubon's. He quickly made friends with the team, accompanying them to the annual Memphis in May World Championship Cooking Contest and competing in the amateur division. Hence, his team name—Jubon's. The back of his shirt reads, "At least the salt is kosher."

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Rob Young

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Talk about mass appeal. Ed Mitchell, a familiar sight in beard, cap, and coveralls, shows a Fuji Television Network crew how to slice and dice whole-hog barbecue. Mitchell operates The Pit in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Rob Young

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Don McLemore isn't sure what his grandfather, Big Bob Gibson, would have made of all the barbecue grills set on Madison Avenue and legions of hungry New Yorkers waiting in line. When Gibson founded his Decatur, Alabama, restaurant (aptly named Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q) in the 1920s, he couldn't have imagined. "It's hard for me to imagine," says McLemore. By the end of the weekend, McLemore's team will have smoked about 420 Boston butts, or roughly 3,000 pounds of pork. "We've found we can't cook enough," he says.

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Rob Young

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Black Jack pitmaster Jimmy Hagood aboard his "big red rig," a 27-foot, two-story trailer equipped with two huge cookers and a spiral staircase. Looking out at Madison Avenue from atop the rig, Hagood, who calls Charleston, South Carolina, home says, "It's a view of the barbecue landscape like you've never seen."

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Rob Young

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Here's a better look at Hagood's rig, which boasts a five-rack rotisserie Jedmaster and a barrel drum cooker, capable of grilling two 150-pound hogs at the same time.

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Rob Young

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Smoked sausage, pimiento cheese, and diced jalapenos, courtesy of Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q, an Alabama-based restaurant chain. The sausages are hickory-smoked, and the cheese is grated from a giant block of cheddar, then blended with mayonnaise, salt, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

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Rob Young

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John and Dale Reed, authors of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue gave a talk on—what else?—North Carolina barbecue, dissecting Piedmont and eastern styles, and vinegar- and tomato-based sauces. "It's not any of the ingredients that makes barbecue so good because most of it is pretty basic,” Dale says. "It's what folks do with it that makes it transcendent."

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Rob Young

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Documentary filmmaker Joe York (left) and the Southern Foodways Alliance presented a terrific short film on the Skylight Inn, a barbecue restaurant owned by the family of Samuel Jones (right). Situated in the small town of Ayden, North Carolina, the Skylight has traditionally served only three items—barbecue, cornbread, and coleslaw. Good story (not in the film): When the James Beard Foundation designated the restaurant an American Classic in 2003, Samuel's late grandfather, Pete Jones, threw away the invitation to the awards ceremony. He figured it was trash because he had never heard of the foundation. Samuel had to retrieve the letter and convince his family that, in fact, "this awards thing" could have some benefits. "He was acting like it was a pack of peanuts," Samuel says, laughing.

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Rob Young

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Michael Rodriguez and his crew from Driftwood, Texas, made the Block Party's longest haul. They traveled 35 hours, or 1,600 miles, from just west of Austin to cook 4,000 pounds of beef brisket and smoked sausages. No leftovers, either.