The Food ____________ Copyright © 2008. The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights of North Carolina © 2008. The University Copyright Reed, Dale Volberg. <i>Holy Smoke : The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue</i>, The University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=515673. Created from duke on 2019-11-19 15:34:43. (overleaf ) North Chapel Hill Copyright © 2008. The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights of North Carolina © 2008. The University Copyright Baptist Church, 2007 Reed, Dale Volberg. <i>Holy Smoke : The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue</i>, The University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=515673. Created from duke on 2019-11-19 15:34:43. Cooking BarBeCue aT hoMe _____________________ n The Physiology of Taste (1825), Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote the discouraging words, “On devient cuisinier mais on naît rôtisseur”—roughly, “One becomes a cook, but one is born a pitmaster.” Maybe so, but still, anyone can cook pretty good barbecue at home. And the way commercial barbecue ioperations are closing down or starting to cut corners, to get real North Carolina barbecue you may soon have to do just that. Even now, you ought to know how it’s done the old-fashioned way, just so you’ll appreciate the places that still take the trouble—and be willing to pay the higher prices that may be necessary to keep them in business. We’re going to assume that you’ve never cooked real barbecue Brillat-Savarin before. If you have, and are happy with the results, you can skip this part. In fact, please do. If you know what you’re doing, you may wind up throwing our book across the room in disgust, and “I think about barbecue like some people think about wine. The good we don’t want that. stuff? You know it when you taste it.” Although we’re going to tell you how to do it, the problem is that (Keith Allen, Allen & Son, Chapel there are reputable, sometimes renowned, pitmasters who would Hill) tell you something different at each and every step. Literally, each and every one. We know this, okay? But rather than give you all the alternatives and the arguments pro and con, we’ll usually just tell you how we do it. After you’ve got that down, there are plenty of other books and innumerable websites that will tell you why our way’s not the right way. The upside of all this disagreement is that it’s hard to go wrong. Don’t serve it raw, and don’t burn it up, but whatever else you do or fail to do, you’re likely to wind up with something that tastes pretty “Good barbecue won’t keep you awake at night. Bad barbecue will.” good. Good barbecue is hard work, but it’s not rocket science. Great (Wilber Shirley, Wilber’s, Goldsboro) barbecue may be another story, but you’ll have to work up to that. North Carolina barbecue comes in many forms. In the Piedmont it can be sliced, down east sometimes it’s minced, anywhere it can be roughly chopped or “pulled” with forks or fingers, but that’s all after it’s been cooked. You start with pork shoulders or a whole hog. Copyright © 2008. The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights of North Carolina © 2008. The University Copyright That’s the Tar Heel Way: not ribs (by themselves), not brisket or Reed, Dale Volberg. <i>Holy Smoke : The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue</i>, The University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=515673. Created from duke on 2019-11-19 15:34:43. Eat that cold chunk of corn bread You brought from the house in a greasy paper bag. When that vinegar and wood ashes smoke starts rising, And blowing in a blue wind over fi elds, It seems like even the broom straw Would get hungry. But you got to stand it At fi rst. It comes from down home, North Carolina pit barbecue, 1930s When they cured tobacco with wood, and ears of corn How to Fix a Pig Roasted in ashes in the fl ue. (As told by Dee Grimes) The pig was the last thing. The party At the looping shelter, when the crop was all in. Take a piece of tin that’s The fall was in its smell, Blowed off a barn in a storm. Like red leaves and money. Pile little limbs and good chunks So when you can’t stand it, turn up the rib side. Of hickory on top. Get the fi re going While you’re fi nishing the pit. If you didn’t get started before light, Hickory burns orange, then blue. You may be fi nishing after dark. Dig deep enough to hide a fl at-bottomed The last sparks look at you red from underneath, Creek boat. Put bars across the top Like the pig’s eyes turned into coals, but Closer together than the ones in a jail. forgiving. Flop the split pig skin side down When the whole thing’s fi nally so brown So his eyes won’t watch you. And tender it near ’bout Take a little hit from the bottle in your pocket. Falls to pieces when you move it, When you’ve got good coals, Slide it every bit into the pan. Spread ’em out under him with They’re waiting to chop it up at the house. A fl at-ended shovel. Pretty soon And they going to wonder one more time The steam starts. Douse on the vinegar Why a pig don’t have no ribs when it’s done. And pepper. First time you sniff him, —James Applewhite You start to get hungry. But you can’t rush a pig. sausage, and certainly not mahi-mahi. And why not do this right, or almost right, and cook with hardwood or at least with hardwood charcoal? Otherwise, what’s the point? In the time it takes to do it wrong, you could probably drive to Goldsboro or Lexington and pick up a few pounds of fi rst-rate ’cue to go. The Meat (1): Pork shoulder You may be from the heart of whole-hog country in eastern North Copyright © 2008. The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights of North Carolina © 2008. The University Copyright Carolina, but start by cooking a shoulder. That doesn’t make you 2 T h e f o o d Reed, Dale Volberg. <i>Holy Smoke : The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue</i>, The University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=515673. Created from duke on 2019-11-19 15:34:43. Miss White and Mr. Brown marinades, rubs, and mops have Barbecue afi cionados sometimes talk about the been applied in wedding of the rich “Mr. Brown” and the divine the cooking, but “Miss White.” Other folks think that’s just the count on him for sort of cuteness you’d expect from people who intense fl avor and call themselves afi cionados, and speak of “out- a double dose side brown” and “inside meat” instead. In either of what distin- case, they’re talking about the dark, smoky guishes barbe- “bark” of the meat, on the one hand, and the cue from pork roast. The succulent juiciness of light, moist meat underneath, on the other. Like Miss White is the perfect complement, off setting white and dark chicken meat, each has its parti- Mr. Brown’s occasional dryness. sans, and at a pig-picking you can stick to one or Apparently these labels have been around for the other, if you really want to. (Hint: Miss White a while. In 1922 Leonard Heuberger of Memphis is tastiest right next to the bone.) started serving pulled pork and coleslaw on a When pork is pulled or chopped, however, bun (very much like a North Carolina sandwich, the two get all mixed up into something that except for the sauce); his motto was “Mr. Brown combines the best features of each. Exactly what Goes to Town.” Mr. Brown brings to the party depends on what a traitor; it just means you’re a beginner. Shoulders are harder to mess up, and some people think they’re tastier. In fact, many well- known Eastern places are cooking them these days. Bob Melton’s in Rocky Mount was one of them, before Hurricane Floyd did it in. Bob Garner reports that even Wilber’s, the Goldsboro gold stan- dard, cooks some extra shoulders to chop into its whole-hog bar- becue because they provide “extra amounts of moist dark meat and additional shreds of the smoky, chewy ‘outside brown’ that add visual appeal and rich fl avor.” Even after you’ve got the hang of it, you should ask yourself if you’re really, really sure you want to cook a whole hog. If you’re into eating rather than historical reenactment, you might leave whole- hog cooking to the professionals. It can be done at home, but you need to think about it. Anyway, for Pete’s sake, don’t start with a whole hog. Warm up with a shoulder. As a matter of fact, why don’t you start with a Bos- ton butt? That’s part of a shoulder.