where
there’s smoke If you’ve got a hankering for smoked pig parts and
don’t have six-plus hours to spare, fear not: We wandered the highways and byways of
Central Maryland and turned up several contenders to compete with your own backyard
offerings. The hickory fumes blanketing the parking lot will tell you that Andy Nelson’s doesn’t skimp on the smoke. Nelson burns straight hickory logs, and they give his Northern-Alabama-by-way-of-Memphis barbecue an intense smoke kick. Big, meaty spareribs are perfectly trimmed and deeply smoky, and they pull neatly from the bone. The accompanying Memphis-style sauce—dark, peppery, and smooth—tastes strongly of molasses. Nelson’s pulled pork is equally accomplished, with
delicate threads of shoulder doused in an Eastern North Carolina vinegar-and-red-pepper
sauce. All the sides—slaw, beans, corn bread, and potato salad—are present and
accounted for, and the recent menu addition of a Texas-style smoked brisket makes Andy
Nelson’s the area’s most complete barbecue purveyor, whether you’re
grabbing a slab of ribs to go or catering a whole-hog affair. Dotson’s BBQ For sheer aesthetics, it’s tough to top down-home
Dotson’s, a ramshackle outbuilding by the side of a Glen Burnie highway. You pick up
your meat in a little storefront across the street, though. Our ribs looked terrific, a
big crusty half-rack that got a quick shot of bright red sauce on their way out the door.
But the big kettle where the cooked ribs had been warming all afternoon did a number on
their texture, which was overcooked and ropy. It’s a shame, because the sauce—a
simple, thin, and very spicy vinegar-and-tomato brew—was a winner, as were the slaw
and the collard greens. Dotson’s also gets extra credit for providing every diner
with the quintessential accompaniment: a couple of slices of cheap, spongy white bread to
sop up the extra sauce. Red Hot & Blue This 30-strong Arlington chain was co-founded by the late
Republican archfiend Lee Atwater, a native Tennesseean whose small handful of redeeming
qualities included an enthusiasm for blues music and barbecue. Both are exhibited at
RH&B’s Annapolis outpost (housed, incongruously, in the windmill-shaped former
Old Mill Pancake House), where the walls are festooned with blues memorabilia and the
kitchen’s smoker-ovens crank out reasonably authentic Memphis-style barbecue. Pulled
pork was the highlight of our trip—the meat came in big chunks rather than thin
shreds, and was nicely smoky. The smallish ribs, ordered dry, arrived nearly dried-out
instead, with meat as pink and dry as Smithfield ham on the end bones and a chewy crust
that was almost inedible. Larger middle pieces were better, especially when given a
rejuvenating bath of tangy sauce. BBQ beans were a hit, cole slaw just OK. Avoid the
brisket: dry, tough, and chewy. Famous Dave’s
From the barbecue hotbed of Wisconsin comes Famous
Dave’s Northwoods Grill & Barbeque, a growing national chain that has recently
taken over the former Red River Barbecue locations in Annapolis and Columbia. The décor
is faux fishing lodge, with stuffed muskies and wicker creels on the walls, but the menu
is pure barbecue, a near-Xerox of the successful Red, Hot & Blue formula. Ribs looked
like mid-sized loin backs, shiny with glaze and only faintly smoky despite their deep
smoke ring, but tender and nearly greaseless. “Georgia Chopped Pork” was fine as
well, a crusty mix of chopped pork shoulder in a sweetish sauce. Famous Dave’s sauce
won a trophy at Kansas City’s American Royal Barbecue contest, and it is arresting
stuff, very thick and sweet in the Kansas City style, with a cinnamon/clove undertone. Use
with discretion. North Carolina Barbecue Corral The specialty of this storefront, as one might guess, is
NC-style barbecue, which means smoked pork finely chopped and served on a bun with cole
slaw. The “Little Piggy” sandwich offers a fine introduction to the art
form—a flavorsome heap of chopped meat, abuzz with vinegar and red pepper, topped
with a spoonful of mustard-dressed slaw. In contrast to the pork sandwich’s strict
minimalism, the ribs offered drippy excess: They were tender, fall-off-the-bone affairs
soaked with a syrupy abundance of sweet sauce. Smoky, soulful collard greens on the side,
long-cooked with bacon, were nearly a meal in themselves, and the sweet potatoes could
double handily as dessert. Smokers Catering & Carryout In the parking lot of Spring Meadow Farms Market
you’ll find Smoker’s, a pit beef stand with a difference: Proprietor Kurt Kraus
gently smokes his beef for three hours instead of charring it in traditional Baltimore
sidewalk fashion. Pulled pork is on the menu too, along with the usual slaw ’n’
potato salad (plus a Maryland crab soup that is highly touted). On weekends only, Kraus
smokes a mean rack of ribs. For fuel, he uses mostly oak, with some hickory and cherry,
and he gets a rib that might well be the best of the lot: sweet, tender, and juicy, with a
subtle smoke flavor that doesn’t overpower the meat and a prominent kick from the
crusty rub coating. Make sure you get plenty of sauce on the side: it’s a feisty
tomato-based concoction, with a spicy, citrus-y freshness. Kraus, a former corporate
logistician who turned to barbecue after a mid-life crisis, says it took him eight years
to perfect the recipe. |
