I could never work up a taste for brisket. When we were spending a lot of time in CO, beef BBQ was all we could get until Moe's opened up. The origin of both types of BBQ are the same. Back in pioneer days, in the southeast, they fenced the hogs out instead of in and let them in for slaughter in the fall. In fact, they still did that when my dad was a kid. You can imagine how tough and stringy hog meat was on hogs who'd been living on forage for the entire year. They'd dig a pit and burn wood down until it was coals and then toss the hog in, gutted, of course. The next day, they'd exhume the body, so to speak, and the juices had formed steam and, in effect, pressure-cooked and tenderized the meat. When southerners moved west, and tipped in the direction of cattle, rather than hogs, they were faced with the same dilemma - free range cattle are also stringy and tough, particularly the tougher cuts, like brisket. The found that the pit method perfected back in the southeast also worked for range cows. The true pit method is used now mostly as a novelty at county fairs and the like. To that extent, almost all "pit" BBQ these days is really grilled. It's probable that the settlers picked up the pit method from African Americans...
In the little community of Berlin in Cullman County, where my dad grew up, there were no blacks. However, many people had Cherokee blood...
