A sign at the old Shady Rest in Owensboro, Kentucky, used to read, IF IT FITS THE PIT, WE WILL BARBECUE IT. Almost anything tastes good after a long day enveloped in hickory smoke. But salad? No, the lettuce and tomatoes are not pit cooked. Barbecue salad, as found in and around Memphis and especially into Arkansas, is a pretty regular array of cool greens, tomatoes, maybe radishes, onions, and cucumbers that are served with a crown of room-temperature pulled pork. Most restaurants offer an eater’s choice of salad dressing or barbecue sauce, the former creating a piggy chef’s salad and the latter demoting traditional salad fixin’s to glorfied garnishes for pit-cooked meat. A small barbecue salad may be an hors d’oeuvre; a large one will have enough substance to be a main course.
Barbecue salad, pre-sauce, at Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, Memphis, Tennessee.
Barbecue Salad
Think of barbecue salad as a chef’s salad, but in this case the chef is a pitmaster. Pulled pork is the most common meat, but shreds of beef or chicken also work. The recipe is totally forgiving in all respects except one: Iceberg lettuce is essential. It is the only variety crisp enough to hold up under the weight of meat and sauce.
½ head iceberg lettuce, washed and torn into pieces
1 large tomato, cut into eighths
½ red onion, sliced thin
½ green pepper, diced
10 slices cucumber
Radish slices to taste
¼ pound barbecued pork—preferably pulled, although chopped is OK—at room temperature
Tomato-based barbecue sauce at room temperature and/or gloppy salad dressing to taste
Arrange lettuce on two broad plates with the other vegetables on top. Add the barbecued meat, then top with sauce and/or dressing.
2 SALADS