San Diego Interactive City GuideAFTER MORE THAN 25 YEARS, Helen’s Bar-B-Q has a reputation that extends far beyond Brownsville, Tennessee. Six days a week, Helen Turner rises in the morning dark to tend the oak and hickory logs, which take hours to burn down to embers. Sometimes her husband, who is now retired, lends a hand, but for the most part, she is accustomed to manning the pit alone. By the time customers roll in, the hog skin has acquired a formidably blackened bark and the collagen has all but liquified, leaving meat that shreds with the lightest touch.The Southern Foodways Alliance started the Southern BBQ Trail two decades ago to document the legacy of barbecue giants like Turner. Currently, through the organization’s free app, SFA Stories, readers can search through barbecue oral histories recorded in Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Other states, including Texas, Kentucky, and South Carolina, are all in progress. The collection functions as a map for culinary roadtrips, much like the organization’s tamale trail in the Mississippi Delta or the boudin trail in Louisiana. It’s a guide for finding great food, as well as a record of America’s intangible cultural heritage for future generations.
Source: Inside the Decades-Long Effort to Build a Barbecue Trail – Gastro Obscura