Old-School American Barbecue: Planked Shad
The history of American babecue is as diverse as the variations themselves, charting the path of a Caribbean cooking style brought north by Spanish conquistadors, moved westward by settlers, and seasoned with the flavors of European cultures.
From the Atlantic to the Gulf, bordered by the western outposts of Texas and Kansas City, the area of the United States known as the “barbecue belt” houses four distinct barbecue traditions – Carolina, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. From where did these traditions come, and how, in a relatively small region of the country, have they evolved along such different paths?
Photo: Barbecue at Marshall Hall, Maryland, in 1893. View full size. Photograph by William Cruikshank. Marshall Hall, an estate on the Potomac opposite Mount Vernon, had a boat landing and was popular with day-trippers from Washington.