May 06, 2008 — See The Associated Press
When it comes to real food feuds, nothing touches the heated -- or rather, slow cooked -- debate over barbecue sauce. Simmering across regions and generations, this squabble is like vinegar and, er, ketchup. "You can carry that metaphor a little too far because it's not as important as religion, but there are these sects and cults," says John Shelton Reed, UNC sociology professor emeritus and co-author of "Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue," with his wife, Dale. "There's an awful lot of abuse back and forth across the eastern North Carolina-Piedmont line, but I think people enjoy it."
