Brown's Barbecue and the Confederate Yankee

The Confederate Yankee

I'm told that Brown's Barbecue in Kingstree, SC, is another must-try.  I can't say I've tried it myself, but it comes highly recommended by my brother, who once had it at a funeral down there. 

Interestingly, Kingstree is also home to the Confederate Yankee Soldier.  It appears that about a hundred years ago,  Civil War monuments were erected at about the same time in Kingstree and in York, Maine.  Close observers have since noticed that the Kingstree monument seems to bear a few key markers for a Union soldier, while the Maine soldier looks suspiciously Confederate.  Suspicion has persisted ever since that the two were monuments were switched by mistake.

Piedmont Blues: Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson

Most people have heard of Delta and Chicago blues, but there's another form specific to the Carolinas and Virginia, known as the Piedmont style. Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson, both coincidentally from Laurens, SC, great examples of this ragtime-like style of finger picking. Davis sang mostly religious songs, and was a huge influence on the folk revival of the 1960s. You'll still hear that style from guitarists like Taj Mahal. Pink Anderson did a lot of bawdy, medicine show-type stuff, and is probably best known for inspiring the name for Pink Floyd (the band took the names of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council).

The Mustard Belt

Serious Eats reviews three SC barbecue establishments:  Shealy's, Hite's and Sweatman's

SC Barbecue Sauce Map

Here, courtesy of Strange Maps, is a map of regions of South Carolina according to barbecue style. The blogger seems genuinely bemused that anyone would actually go to the trouble to map this out, but John Shelton Reed sets him straight, explaining that these distinctions also tell you a little something about the history of each region -- most notably the uniquely South Carolinian mustard-based sauce of the midlands, which dates back to German migration to the area in the 18th century.

North Carolina Barbecue Trail

Two short videos on barbecue in North Carolina. When you hear people discuss North Carolina, they'll inevitably refer to the ongoing "feud" between Eastern and Piedmont styles. Eastern barbecue is old-school: Whole hogs cooked over wood coals, with nothing but pepper and vinegar in the sauce. Piedmont barbecue is done with individual cuts of meat, usually shoulders, and perhaps most controversially, includes a bit if ketchup in the pepper-vinegar sauce. The sides also differ: Eastern places usually serve the meat with a slab of flat cornbread, whereas Piedmont barbecue often includes hushpuppies and some variations on slaw. Famous "Eastern style" establishments include the Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC, and Wilber's in Goldsboro. The most celebrated Piedmont version is done by Wayne "Honey" Monk at Lexington Barbecue #1, Lexington, SC.

And how did the distinction come about? John and Dale Reed note that the Eastern style goes back centuries, and owes elements to English, native and African traditions. The Piedmont style is a 20th century phenomenon. The Reeds actually draw a connection with German cuisine, noting the German migration to that region in the 19th century, as well as the remarkable number of Piedmont pitmasters with German surnames.

This distinction is the basis of the so-called "feud" you'll hear about in the media. It's served the state well. As columnist Jerry Bledsoe says, "The fight's as good as the food".

More Unknown Hinson Awesomeness

Charlotte-area singer Unknown Hinson is the chart-topping King of Country Western Troubadours, "Every woman's dream and every jealous woman's nightmare." Here, he pitches for Liquid Chicken.

Fish Camp Woman

Unknown Hinson pays tribute to the Gaston County NC tradition (close to where I grew up) known as the fish camp.

Fish camp womern
I like the way you smell
Fish camp womern
Lord, I like the way you smell
Whether it's hushpuppies, flounder or slaw, baby
I'll be damned if I can tell.

More on fish camps here and here. More on the incomparable, chart-topping Unknown Hinson here.

Holy Smoke

An excerpt from John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed's book,Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue:

"The North Carolina Museum of History's online 'History Highlights' has two entries for 1924:  The founding of Duke University and the opening of Bob Melton's Barbecue in Rocky Mount.  It is not clear why Duke gets equal billing.  North Carolina already had a university, after all, while Melton's . . . seems to have been the state's very first sit-down barbecue restaurant."

John Shelton Reed is a retired professor of sociology at UNC.  His essays on the South are terrific and hilarious.  This book may be the best thing I've read on the subject, covering all the history and sociology, and throwing in some recipes and instructions on cooking your own.  There are even instructions on contructing a backyard pit with cinder blocks.

Pork. The One You Love.

Just a word about the domain name I chose for the blog. It was available at blogspot, and I thought it would serve to highlight the Canadian-Southern connection, seeing as the slogan originated from  the Saskatchewan Pork Industry.

Of course, there's always the chance that your kids will memorize the name and repeat it to their grandparents at an inappropriate time, in which case I apologize.  Blame it on the pervs at SaskPork.

Strom Thurmond

Pig Meat is What I Crave

Piedmont bluesman Blind Boy Fuller, born in Wadesboro, NC, sings:

Now, pigmeat is kicking today, today, something I do crave
Now, pigmeat is kicking today, today, something I do crave
Had a little gal, she was little and low
She used to shake it but she won't no more
Now pigmeat is kicking today, something I do crave,
Something I do crave

(To make an obvious point, "pigmeat" did not always strictly mean food)

Cut/Chop/Cook

Rodney Scott of Scott's Barbecue, Hemingway, SC, walks you through the whole process, from cutting down the tree to serving the meat.

CUT/CHOP/COOK from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.

More Sweatman's

Anthony Bourdain visits Sweatman's

Carolina Hash

Southern barbeque is the closet thing we have in the U.S. to Europe's wines and cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbeque changes.
John Shelton Reed 

Hash is a side dish typically served in certain South Carolina barbecue restaurants.  North Carolinians claim it is for toothless people who can't chew their pork.  This film covers the history, and shows you the (rather unappealing) way the dish is traditionally made.  Still, don't be turned away by the sight of hog's heads in giant cast iron cauldrons; it is damn fine, and if you don't believe me, you'll need to try it at Sweatman's.

View the entire film here, or check out this clip

Colbert Interviews Maurice Bessinger

From 2002: SC native Stephen Colbert interviews Maurice Bessinger, owner of Maurice's Piggy Park, and SC State Senator Glenn McConnell about the Confederate flag and mustard barbecue.

Starting off

Ok, with the trip only two months away, I thought I'd start posting some background reading.  Let's begin with this terrific 2001 piece by Jack Hitt, a Charlestonian, on the Bessinger family, mustard barbecue, and the Confederate flag:

". . . But my nephew warned me that lately there had been a feud. Barbecue had somehow gotten mixed up with issues of race and heritage. Ugly fighting words had been exchanged, leaving a residue of aggrieved feelings. The quarrel had finally touched the third rail of contemporary Carolina anger, the only topic more sensitive than sauce recipes, Strom Thurmond jokes and Charleston genealogy combined: the meaning of the Civil War. And once again, the war had re-enacted its old bitterness, setting brother against brother. Only not at Gettysburg this time, but in a hickory pit redolent with crackling."

Read the rest here.