Barbecue spaghetti
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{short description|American pasta dish}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Barbecue spaghetti
| image = File:Barbecue spaghetti.jpg
| image_upright=1.2
| image_alt = plate of spaghetti with red-brown sauce
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| country = Memphis, Tennessee, US
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| creator = Brady Vincent
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| main_ingredient = Spaghetti, barbecue sauce, pulled or smoked pork
| minor_ingredient = green peppers, onions
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| similar_dish = Cincinnati chili, Filipino spaghetti
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Barbecue spaghetti is a dish from Memphis, Tennessee, that combines spaghetti with a sauce made from shredded smoked pork or pulled pork, vegetables, and barbecue sauce.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxJ3CQAAQBAJ&q=spaghetti|title=Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul|last=Meek|first=Craig David|date=June 10, 2014|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781625850669|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-qnAgAAQBAJ&dq=barbecue+spaghetti&pg=PA26|title=The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 7: Foodways|last=Edge|first=John T.|publisher=UNC Press Books|year=2014|isbn=9781469616520|language=en}} It is served as a side dish in some Memphis barbecue restaurants.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uha0mHZ-N8oC&dq=barbecue+spaghetti&pg=PA132|title=500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: And the Very Best Places to Eat Them|last1=Stern|first1=Jane|last2=Stern|first2=Michael|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2009|isbn=9780547059075|language=en}} Southern Living called the dish iconic and "perhaps the city's most unusual creation".{{Cite web|url=https://www.southernliving.com/bbq/barbecue-spaghetti-a-memphis-icon|title=Barbecue Spaghetti: A Memphis Icon|last=Moss|first=Robert|date=March 20, 2015|website=Southern Living|language=en|access-date=September 10, 2019}} HuffPost called it "a Memphis staple".{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/should-you-try-barbecue-spagetti_n_594d491ae4b0da2c731b40e4|title=Barbecue Spaghetti, The Memphis Specialty You Need To Try|date=June 23, 2017|website=HuffPost|access-date=September 10, 2019}}
Preparation and serving
Barbecue spaghetti can be made with pulled pork{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/memphis-barbecue-spaghetti/14099/|title=Memphis Barbecue Spaghetti|last=Lindsey|first=Deb|date=June 25, 2014|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=September 10, 2019}} or shredded smoked pork. The sauce is "half marinara and half barbecue sauce", sometimes with onions and peppers included, and is simmered before adding the pork; the consistency is close to that of barbecue sauce. The spaghetti is cooked until soft, then tossed in the hot sauce.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nCFBAAAQBAJ&dq=barbecue+spaghetti&pg=PT20|title=Lexicon of Real American Food|last1=Stern|first1=Jane|last2=Stern|first2=Michael|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2011|isbn=9780762768301|language=en}} This dish is served as a side and sometimes as a main course.{{Cn|date=February 2025}}
History
The dish was invented by former railroad cook Brady Vincent, who opened a barbecue restaurant called Brady and Lil's. In 1980 Frank and Hazel Vernon bought the restaurant and renamed it The Bar-B-Q Shop. Vincent also taught the recipe for barbecue spaghetti to Jim Neely, who opened Interstate Bar-B-Q in the late 1970s; Interstate modified the sauce recipe adding the "extra back flap meat" from a rack of ribs and cooking it in a pot with peppers and onions.
State Park restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, serves a "Memphis BBQ spaghetti" that uses pulled pork in a marinara that uses a barbecue sauce as its base.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/memphis-bbq-spaghetti-0235252|title=Memphis Barbecue Spaghetti|last1=Shapiro|first1=Steak|last2=Allen|first2=Ted|website=Food Network|access-date=September 10, 2019}}
Similar dishes
According to John Shelton Reed, "Barbecue spaghetti is to spaghetti Bolognese as Cincinnati chili is to the Tex-Mex variety".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ck3CwAAQBAJ&dq=barbecue+spaghetti&pg=PT34|title=Barbecue: a Savor the South® cookbook|last=Reed|first=John Shelton|publisher=UNC Press Books|year=2016|isbn=9781469626710|language=en}}
Filipino spaghetti is spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce mixed with banana ketchup or other sweetener, and topped with hot dogs and cheese.{{Cite web|url=https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/local/bayanihan/2017/04/01/sweet-and-tangy-filipino-spaghetti/99440394/|title=Sweet and tangy Filipino spaghetti|last=Lee|first=Sue|date=April 1, 2017|website=Pacific Daily News|language=en|access-date=September 21, 2019}}
See also
{{Portal|Food|United States}}
- List of foods of the Southern United States
- List of pasta dishes
- List of pork dishes
- List of regional dishes of the United States
- Culture of Memphis, Tennessee
- Cincinnati chili, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish
- Filipino spaghetti, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish
- Haitian spaghetti, another example of a fusion-cuisine spaghetti dish