Burnt Ends: The Barbecue Scraps That Became a Kansas City Staple
Diana Lambdin Meyer
Apr 5, 2023
I’ve traveled around Texas and Alabama and Memphis plenty, and each time I make it a point to stop for local barbecue. As a Kansas Citian, it’s my duty to try out the competition. But it’s also my duty any time that burnt ends show up on the menu (and they show up a lot) to set the record straight: Burnt ends are pure Kansas City.
“In the past 10 years, burnt ends have grown far beyond Kansas City, and that’s because it’s such a great thing,” Rod Gray, CEO of the Kansas City Barbeque Society, tells me.
The two-state metropolitan area is home to the Barbecue Hall of Fame, the American Royal (known informally as the World Series of Barbecue), and the Kansas City Barbeque Society, which literally wrote the rules for barbecue competitions in North America.
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