Three Takes On: Barbecue

Culinary regionality is perhaps nowhere better seen than in barbecue. This month we look at DoMundo’s Piggyback Rub Pulled Pork with Domundo’s Original Recipe BBQ Sauce, Baby Back Rib Roast with Creole BBQ Sauce and Donnie Farrington’s Dry-rubbed Pork Shoulder with Sweet & Smoky Sauce to see how operators localize this regional favorite.

DoMundo’s Piggyback Rub Pulled Pork with Domundo’s Original Recipe BBQ Sauce

University of Missouri (Columbia) 

Barbecue is very popular at DoMundo’s, a churrascaria restaurant on the campus of this 33,000-student university. Executive Chef Eric Cartright says many of the recipes, including these, have been developed by Chef Jeremy Elmore, and DoMundo’s Original Recipe BBQ Sauce is now bottled and sold for retail by Dining Services. One application of the pulled pork recipe, Cartright says, is a pizza, using the sauce as the base and the pork as the meat component, along with red onion and mozzarella, provolone and pepper jack cheeses.

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Baby Back Rib Roast with Creole BBQ Sauce

Highmark Inc. (Pittsburgh) 

Cameron Clegg, executive chef for Parkhurst Dining Services, says his barbecue recipes often come about through trial and error. A Carolina native, Clegg often slow roasts for up to 10 hours as much as 72 pounds of ribs at a time to serve his employee customers. This recipe is designed for a much smaller rack. Clegg adds that it will work for chicken and other cuts of pork as well.

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Donnie Farrington’s Dry-rubbed Pork Shoulder with Sweet & Smoky Sauce

Indian River Estates East (Vero Beach, Fla.) 

Donnie Farrington, sous chef at this ACTS Retirement-Life Community, says that barbecue is really popular among Indian River residents, but many of them are not fans of really spicy foods. So the culinary team refers to food items like sauces as zesty, rather than spicy, and goes easy on the pepper, although Farrington notes that users can alter the flavor of his dry rub by adding cayenne pepper. Farrington usually uses his dry rub on pork shoulder and baby back ribs, but a recent foray into dry-rubbed chicken legs drew rave reviews from diners.

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