Here's a guide to barbecuing Kentucky-style, describing the history and culture of barbecue in the state and profiling more than 100 of the state's restaurants, shacks, joints, festivals and even church picnics that are known for barbecue.
An English professor at Western Kentucky University as well as a small scale farmer, Wes Berry gave himself a sweet assignment: travel throughout the state of Kentucky, eat at every barbecue, talk to all the pitmasters, and write a book about what you see, learn and taste.
"I'm here to tell you that Kentucky has some really fine barbecue, and that my home state's rich traditions of barbecue have been pretty much overlooked by food writers and the Travel Channel," Berry writes.
"When hitting the roads of Kentucky in search of fabulous barbecue, I've discovered that many establishments, especially in the western part of the state, still cook old style, shoveling hot hardwood coals under meats elevated on grates inside cinderblock pits."
Berry's guide not only puts Kentucky barbecue on the map for foodies, but it also recognizes and describes a folk culture unique to the state's borders.