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Western KY BBQ Recs

No as I posted earlier the samich was thin and it was bad. But beans goes good with a BBQ samich and when I asked they said they did not carry any. That was a piss poor 1-2 punch. I have ate many different places in WKY at BBQ places and that was one of the worst....hoss
 
No as I posted earlier the samich was thin and it was bad. But beans goes good with a BBQ samich and when I asked they said they did not carry any. That was a piss poor 1-2 punch. I have ate many different places in WKY at BBQ places and that was one of the worst....hoss

Ah yes the post where you incorrectly said the sandwich was steamed. You sure you even remember the place? What did you think about the sauce?
 
From Kentucky and I never even heard of western Kentucky BBQ. Never heard of a Paducah festival or anything. I have heard of Owensboro BBQ, but it's surely because of it's uniqueness, not necessarily its quality, although I personally think it's great. I really don't think anyone outside of western Kentucky has ever heard of western Kentucky bbq and just because it's on a tv show - well there are 400 channels with 24 hours of coverage, I guess they have to find something to put on there.
 
From Kentucky and I never even heard of western Kentucky BBQ. Never heard of a Paducah festival or anything. I have heard of Owensboro BBQ, but it's surely because of it's uniqueness, not necessarily its quality, although I personally think it's great. I really don't think anyone outside of western Kentucky has ever heard of western Kentucky bbq and just because it's on a tv show - well there are 400 channels with 24 hours of coverage, I guess they have to find something to put on there.
Paducah has a BBQ on the river.. Every summer.
 
I'm heading to Murray this weekend and haven't been to WKY for years. Will only be there for a couple of days but will have time to hit a couple of good BBQ places. Where should I go? Thanks

If you can find Pilot Oak (about another 15 - 20 miles west of Murray) you can find the best ribs on God's Green Earth. Don't worry about the name of the place. It's there on hwy. 94. Or you can keep moving another 10 miles to Fulton on the Tennessee state line. Find Smokehouse BBQ. The ribs at the Keg at also tip-top. This is the real south of Kentucky.

The person who said Harneds in Paducah sucks is just dumb. Those girls hop to your car like puppies. the BBQ is very good and their milk shakes are excellent. Leighs in West Paducah is hard to locate and they're only open when they want to be but they are superb for pulled pork shoulder. Starnes is the town staple.

Mayfield is all about Carr's Barn, but don't rule out Larry, Darrel & Darrel. Hoskins BBQ in North Graves County is hit and miss (also hard to find but Google and GPS solve all bqq questions). Sometimes their BBQ is dry, sometimes it's the best you'll bet anywhere.

BBQ in Monroe County is served with a spoon - what Westerners call a sloppy joe.
 
If you can find Pilot Oak (about another 15 - 20 miles west of Murray) you can find the best ribs on God's Green Earth. Don't worry about the name of the place. It's there on hwy. 94. Or you can keep moving another 10 miles to Fulton on the Tennessee state line. Find Smokehouse BBQ. The ribs at the Keg at also tip-top. This is the real south of Kentucky.

The person who said Harneds in Paducah sucks is just dumb. Those girls hop to your car like puppies. the BBQ is very good and their milk shakes are excellent. Leighs in West Paducah is hard to locate and they're only open when they want to be but they are superb for pulled pork shoulder. Starnes is the town staple.

Mayfield is all about Carr's Barn, but don't rule out Larry, Darrel & Darrel. Hoskins BBQ in North Graves County is hit and miss (also hard to find but Google and GPS solve all bqq questions). Sometimes their BBQ is dry, sometimes it's the best you'll bet anywhere.

BBQ in Monroe County is served with a spoon - what Westerners call a sloppy joe.

The place in Pilot Oak is good, ribs are great and the best sweet tea ever. I forgot bout it. Don't know why you won't say the name..southern red's. Keg in fulton is solid. Smokehouse has good food but their BBQ is not my favorite. Although it has gotten better the last 2 or 3 times I been there. The best I ever had was Deno's in Fulton. He died bout 2 years ago so I don't if it is still chronic.
 
Stonewall - have you been to Leigh's out in the Heath area? It is the best around IMO.
 
The place in Pilot Oak is good, ribs are great and the best sweet tea ever. I forgot bout it. Don't know why you won't say the name..southern red's. Keg in fulton is solid. Smokehouse has good food but their BBQ is not my favorite. Although it has gotten better the last 2 or 3 times I been there. The best I ever had was Deno's in Fulton. He died bout 2 years ago so I don't if it is still chronic.

I had forgotten the name - haven't been through there in a year or so. I meant to imply that to find Pilot Oak was to find any business operating there (spot in the road town - south Graves). Deno's is a good mention, btw. There's a place in Hickman (the town, not the county - pet peeve against those that just can make that distinction), but I can't remember the name. Fulton County will put you way out west in Kentucky terms. The place in Hickman used to have good mutton.
 
I had forgotten the name - haven't been through there in a year or so. I meant to imply that to find Pilot Oak was to find any business operating there (spot in the road town - south Graves). Deno's is a good mention, btw. There's a place in Hickman (the town, not the county - pet peeve against those that just can make that distinction), but I can't remember the name. Fulton County will put you way out west in Kentucky terms. The place in Hickman used to have good mutton.

Hmm can't think of s BBQ place in Hickman. I have eaten at MeMaws a few times and it is good.
Then there is Hub's but that is steak.
 
From my understanding Carolina and Western KY BBQ's are similar vinegar based sauces.

going back and reading this thread, this is simply the most incorrect and uneducated statement ever made about BBQ from Western Kentucky. Discussion about bbq from the Carolina's is always about sauce. BBQ from W. Kentucky is NEVER about sauce, because we use a real pit and a real fire with real combustible materials to cook BBQ, and THAT is where the smoke flavor comes from, not from a jar. In the Carolina's, they make their BBQ by cooking it (baking it) in gas or electric ovens, supplemented by small amounts of wood chip for mostly visual effect (or to make themselves feel better about what they're doiong), and smother it with either vinegar or mustard based flavoring (sauce). Now you can achieve a damn tasty result this way, but it ain't a pit BBQ, it ain't a smoke house. A Carolina BBQ restaurant doesn't have large piles of hickory and oak piled up around back. It doesn't have a smoke house. It has an electric and / or gas utility service, both of which are completely forbidden components for BBQ in Western Kentucky. Know that.
 
I just googled "Carolina BBQ cooking methods" and pit style was the first thing that popped up. Either way, I'm sure WKY is very good, but most prefer their own regional flavor.
 
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Kinda hard to eat that with a spoon. :rolleyes:
 
going back and reading this thread, this is simply the most incorrect and uneducated statement ever made about BBQ from Western Kentucky. Discussion about bbq from the Carolina's is always about sauce. BBQ from W. Kentucky is NEVER about sauce, because we use a real pit and a real fire with real combustible materials to cook BBQ, and THAT is where the smoke flavor comes from, not from a jar. In the Carolina's, they make their BBQ by cooking it (baking it) in gas or electric ovens, supplemented by small amounts of wood chip for mostly visual effect (or to make themselves feel better about what they're doiong), and smother it with either vinegar or mustard based flavoring (sauce). Now you can achieve a damn tasty result this way, but it ain't a pit BBQ, it ain't a smoke house. A Carolina BBQ restaurant doesn't have large piles of hickory and oak piled up around back. It doesn't have a smoke house. It has an electric and / or gas utility service, both of which are completely forbidden components for BBQ in Western Kentucky. Know that.

My bad KopiKat, I assumed, apparently incorrectly Carolina used hickory as well.
 
Damn it, GrandePdre. Don't be doing that to me. Need to get down there SOON.

I got to reading more about this Carolina gas/electric stuff. So, apparently, there a few eastern carolina places switching over to it...... Because of new ordinances prohibiting/limiting the amount of smoke that is produced. I had heard about something similar going down in Texas just a few weeks ago.
 
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There isn't a specific BBQ place in Hickman. I go there often to visit the in-laws. Deno used to drive over from Fulton some on the weekends and setup his smoker at an old gas station. About the best BBQ there is - no sauce needed.
 
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There isn't a specific BBQ place in Hickman. I go there often to visit the in-laws. Deno used to drive over from Fulton some on the weekends and setup his smoker at an old gas station. About the best BBQ there is - no sauce needed.
Yes he did, at the EW James parking lot.
Deno BBQ would literally melt in your mouth. Best I have had. His chicken on a stick was real good too. Heck I never had anything bad from him.
 
No as I posted earlier the samich was thin and it was bad. But beans goes good with a BBQ samich and when I asked they said they did not carry any. That was a piss poor 1-2 punch. I have ate many different places in WKY at BBQ places and that was one of the worst....hoss
The sandwich is thin because they press it on a griddle so they can get more meat in it.

Why don't you just stick with McDonald's, it's about time for the McRib to come back anyway.
 
From Kentucky and I never even heard of western Kentucky BBQ. Never heard of a Paducah festival or anything. I have heard of Owensboro BBQ, but it's surely because of it's uniqueness, not necessarily its quality, although I personally think it's great. I really don't think anyone outside of western Kentucky has ever heard of western Kentucky bbq and just because it's on a tv show - well there are 400 channels with 24 hours of coverage, I guess they have to find something to put on there.
Just saw Andrew Zimmern pimping West Ky barbeque on his show last night and how great it was.
 
going back and reading this thread, this is simply the most incorrect and uneducated statement ever made about BBQ from Western Kentucky. Discussion about bbq from the Carolina's is always about sauce. BBQ from W. Kentucky is NEVER about sauce, because we use a real pit and a real fire with real combustible materials to cook BBQ, and THAT is where the smoke flavor comes from, not from a jar. In the Carolina's, they make their BBQ by cooking it (baking it) in gas or electric ovens, supplemented by small amounts of wood chip for mostly visual effect (or to make themselves feel better about what they're doiong), and smother it with either vinegar or mustard based flavoring (sauce). Now you can achieve a damn tasty result this way, but it ain't a pit BBQ, it ain't a smoke house. A Carolina BBQ restaurant doesn't have large piles of hickory and oak piled up around back. It doesn't have a smoke house. It has an electric and / or gas utility service, both of which are completely forbidden components for BBQ in Western Kentucky. Know that.
Carolina barbeque is actually pulled too, West KY is chopped. Doesn't change the taste but definitely changes the texture.
 
The sandwich is thin because they press it on a griddle so they can get more meat in it.

Why don't you just stick with McDonald's, it's about time for the McRib to come back anyway.

Right, it is thin but it has more meat on it.

Just think it is overrated and I won't be back unless someone else is buying. McRib or a griddle samich? Toss up.
 
God I hate these threads.

<----- craving any kind of BBQ right now. Hell, I'd eat mutton if I had the chance. Best option I have is texas outlaw here in E-town. Pitiful.
 
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I just googled "Carolina BBQ cooking methods" and pit style was the first thing that popped up. Either way, I'm sure WKY is very good, but most prefer their own regional flavor.

Well, I don't know what Google is prepared to teach you that you couldn't learn from living and working in the Carolinas for many years, which is how I did it. I do not knock the final product of Carolina BBQ. It is very good and I like it. But is has to be smothered in sauce (mustard or vinegar based) or it won't achieve a quality BBQ taste after being heated in a modern commercial-grade, stainless steel gas or electric cooker. Reliably, however, a Carolina BBQ restaurant is a nice, sit-down, order from the menu, out of the kitchen type diner, where rarely will you find a smoke house out back surrounded by organic material (cord wood). This is why the flavor of Western Kentucky BBQ is "heavy smoke" and the discussion of it is never about an additional substance (i.e. "sauce"). Go to Harned's on the south side of Paducah, just upstream of where the Clarks river empties into the Tennessee and ask for some BBQ sauce. See what happens. lol

At Leigh's BBQ in Western McCracken County you sit on a stool and you eat off of wax paper. The burnt offerings are brought in from the smoke house and mangled in front you. You order from memory.
 
Harneds is a weekly stop for my wife and I. They always ask hot, medium or mild I assumed they were talking about sauce?
 
Most places, if you buy a pound or so of pulled shoulder, they might even give you a little complimentary plastic cup of their own hickory style recipe sauce if you want to add some to your sandwich when you get back to the house. At Harneds, this is seems to be a no-no. Each of the girls seems prepared to provide a short lecture. Probably the one place in the area that actually works sauce into the meat after it comes out of the smoke house.
 
Most places, if you buy a pound or so of pulled shoulder, they might even give you a little complimentary plastic cup of their own hickory style recipe sauce if you want to add some to your sandwich when you get back to the house. At Harneds, this is seems to be a no-no. Each of the girls seems prepared to provide a short lecture. Probably the one place in the area that actually works sauce into the meat after it comes out of the smoke house.

I see, that makes sense since, but the girls at harneds do ask if you want hot, mild or medium right off the bat now. May be something they started recently.
 
While I don't think Harned's BBQ measures up to others in the Paducah area, their BBQ ham(with hot sauce) is the best I've ever had.
 
Skinheads closed down a few years ago.
While I don't think Harned's BBQ measures up to others in the Paducah area, their BBQ ham(with hot sauce) is the best I've ever had.

I've eaten BBQ at about every joint or stand in this area, and in my opinion Harneds large BBQ sandwich is my favorite. Not that I've ever had a bad BBQ sandwich anywhere else around Paducah.
There was a guy named Cecil that had a small restaurant and then a pull around cooker in Paducah in the 90's. He had some damn good BBQ too.
 
I'm from Owensboro and spent most my adult life travelling around the Eastern United States. I won't brag on Owensboro about much---- but anybody that has tasted the Bar-B-Q their Bar-B-Q festival and witnessed the amount of food that is sold in about 90 minutes cannot say with a straight face it is not some of the best there is. Heck there was even a restaurant opened in New York featuring Daviess County Bar-B-Q! Those Catholic parishes have been perfecting their style for 150 years and they know what they are doing.

I like most Bar-B-Q from all over although I was not fond of Starnes or cole slaw on my sandwich, but for people to try and dismiss Daviess County Bar-B-Q...well that just comes off as a little jealous to me. That's like the Texan who claims beef from Kansas and Nebraska is not very good. LOL

I'm not alone in my opinion.

https://www.yahoo.com/food/the-11-best-bbq-cities-in-america-111309523816.html
 
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