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Barbecue Belt. Alabama is known for its distinctive white sauce. And Mississippi boasts more competi tion-winning pitmasters than any other state. At the 46th Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest recently, teams from around the world gathered to compete for the title of Best Barbecue. The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint out of Ocean Springs, Missis sippi, was named Grand Champion for their Whole Hog entry. This marks their third Grand Champion win at the event, standing out among 129 top competition teams. My wife and I stop at The Shed every time we drive back and forth to the beach — I guess that makes us Shedheads. smoked turkey or pulled pork at Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse in Thibodaux, the pit plate always includes a few slices of white bread, which I eagerly eat. White bread comes standard at most barbecue places, a barbecue tradition that likely goes back to the meat markets of the 19th century. The butchers would throw in white bread to sop up the sauce. We sell Big Mike’s sauces in our stores, and I always get extra sauce at the restaurant. But when I barbecue at home, I don’t like to use barbecue sauce or anything like that. For my 3-2-1 ribs (see page…) I use our Rouses Honey in that last hour of cooking; the honey forms a glaze on top of the ribs. There’s no sauce, just glaze, so there’s nothing to sop up. So instead of white bread, I serve them with garlic bread. Honestly, I prefer the taste of garlic bread with barbecue. And, clearly, I’m not alone. Texas toast, barbecue’s version of garlic bread, is OTHER LOCAL BARBECUE TRADITIONS W hen I order baby back ribs,

one of the most popular frozen food items we sell. Texas toast has its origins at the Pig Stand in Beaumont, Texas (no relation to the Pig Stand in Ville Platte, Louisiana; see page …). The owner of the chain wanted heartier bread slices, which didn’t fit in the toaster, so the cooks impro vised by brushing thicks slices of bread with butter and grilling them. Garlic bread with barbecue is a long-standing tradition here on the Gulf Coast — about as much as white bread is. At Rouses Markets, our garlic bread — made from our French bread — comes pre-wrapped in an aluminum package perfect for throwing on the grill. The garlic spread melts through the bread as it cooks, creating a crispy exterior with a buttery, garlicky inside. This gives it a fantastic crust while keeping the inside soft. Garlic bread is one of the top five breads sold from our Bakery depart ment during barbecue and grilling season. We also offer the same garlic spread on our garlic bread in tubs, so you can make your own garlic bread with ciabatta, artisan bread or our French bread. You can find the bread and the spread in both the Bakery and the Meat departments, right by our barbecue meats.

Cookin’ on Hwy. 1 by Tim Acosta, Rouses Markets Advertising & Marketing Director

The area of the United States known as the “Barbecue Belt” features five distinct barbecue styles: Texas, Memphis, Carolina, Kansas City and Kentucky. At Rouses Markets, we have our own line of gourmet barbecue sauces named after and developed with flavors from each of these regions. I use the Carolina version in my baked beans. Here on the Gulf Coast, we have a unique barbecue tradition that focuses not on beef, pork or chicken, but on shrimp, using butter instead of barbecue sauce. The “barbecue” refers to the rich and flavorful sauce the shrimp are cooked in; the spike of Worcester shire sauce in the recipe gives them a brown, “barbecued” appearance. We have several recipes for barbecue shrimp on our website, including a version based on the dish served at Pascal’s Manale in New Orleans; that’s where most people agree barbecued shrimp was invented. If you don’t like fooling with the shrimp heads and tails, I make an easy-to-peel barbecue shrimp; that recipe is also on our website. And maybe it’s time that the Gulf Coast gets added to the

LOUISIANA BBQ ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT If you can’t make it to Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse in Houma or Thibodaux for their prime brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey and sausage, you can still enjoy the flavors at home. Mike Lewis’s barbecue sauces and sausages are available for purchase at Rouses Markets.

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