Linkdown: 8/2/23 – The Fat-Washed Bourbon Edition

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Monk: Daniel Vaughn, BBQ Editor of Texas Monthly, made an epic barbecue road trip through South Carolina and Georgia for the past two weeks. Here are some highlights:

First off, Daniel doesn’t appear to be a huge fan of mustard sauce

City Limits in West Columbia was a favorite. He even posted about it twice!

In addition to City Limits, he also enjoyed Fork Grove Barbecue in Anderson and Slow Fire in Savannah

A couple of Charleston recommendations

Besides Slow Fire in Savannah, here are the other places he hit in Georgia:

And finally, in case you had any illusions to the glamorous realities of being a BBQ editor:

Native News

Wyatt Dickson has sold Picnic to Chris Holloway, recent partner and former bassist of the band Collapsis

The 39th Lexington Barbecue Festival will be on Saturday, October 28, 2023

As of early July, Hickory has a new wood-smoked barbecue joint named Hughes Q

Prime Barbecue is in the middle of taking a well deserved week off

Speedy’s also has some planned vacation coming up

A re-introduction to Kelly and Garren from Jon G’s

Bunn’s Barbecue in Windsor has closed, but the owner’s hope is that it will be temporary

Non-Native News

Eater Carolinas goes looking for pulled pork sandwiches in Charleston

Fat-washed bourbon?

The Best Barbecue Shows on Streaming – July 2023

Monk: Earlier this month I power ranked the new barbecue shows this summer but with the ever changing streaming landscape I wanted to revisit the older shows that are currently available on streaming, which I somehow haven’t done since late 2020. Starting with a few of my favorites:

Previously:

The New Barbecue TV Power Rankings of Summer 2023
The Best Barbecue Shows on Streaming (December 2020)

BBQ Pitmasters – Season 1 (Max)

For me and likely many others, this is the show that got me into barbecue on television. It’s first season (the only one currently available on Max) was filmed documentary style, following several competitors over the course of a barbecue competition season across the country. Myron Mixon and Tuffy Stone were two of the competitors followed during the course of this format and would go on to be full-time judges starting in season 3. Noted competition pitmasters Danielle Bennett (aka Diva Q), Johnny Trig, and Harry Soo are also featured in season 1.

Previously: Barbecue on Netflix Streaming (March 2016)

BBQuest (Hulu)

Across three seasons of the travel show co-produced by the Texas Beef Council, host and native Texan Kelsey Pribilski (along with Austrialian-turned-Texas Jess Pryles in season 3) criss-crosses Texas to meet with some of the best pitmasters in the state. She’s in search of the state’s best barbecue as well as secret barbecue menu items. The first season gets the large cities (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth) out of the way, while season two and three are able to tackle more remote locales. Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn even makes an appearance as Kelsey’s guide for the Big Bend episode (S2E1).

Previously: Season 3

BBQ with Franklin (PBS, Prime Video)

This series was originally made for PBS Austin but is available on both the free PBS streaming app as well as Prime Video. This is very much a process-oriented series about brisket, sausage, whole hog, and other aspects of a barbecue smoke, but Franklin’s such an easygoing on-screen presence that its definitely worth a watch.

Chef’s Table: BBQ (Netflix)

This barbecue and live-fire cooking edition of the Chef’s Table series profiles 4 pitmasters or live-fire cooking chefs, with the Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s Barbecue and Rodney Scott episodes being the highlight for American barbecue fans.

Previously: The Best Barbecue Shows on Streaming (December 2020)

Other options:

Netflix

  • Barbecue Showdown – 2 Seasons
  • The Chef Show – S1 V1 E7 “Aaron Franklin” & S1V1E8 “Hot Luck”
  • Cooked – S1 E1 “Fire”
  • High on the Hog – S1 E2 “The Rice Kingdom” & S1 E4 “Freedom”
  • Queer Eye – S3 E3 – “Jones Bar-B-Q”
  • Somebody Feed Phil – S6 E4 “Austin”
  • Street Food: Asia – S1 E9 “Cebu, Philippines”
  • Taco Chronicles – S1 E5 “Barbacoa”
  • Taco Chronicles: Cross the Border – S1 E6 “Dallas”
  • Ugly Delicious – S1 E5 “BBQ”

Hulu

  • The World Food Championship – S1E5 “BBQ”
  • Worth It – S3 E2 “$7 BBQ Ribs Vs. $68 BBQ Ribs” & S2 E10 “$13 BBQ Ribs Vs. $256 BBQ Ribs”

Max

  • BBQ Brawl – 4 Seasons
  • BBQ USA – 2 Seasons

PBS

  • Planet Barbecue with Steven Raichlen
  • Steven Raichlen’s Project Fire
  • Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke

Prime Video

  • Food Safari – Fire
  • Smoke And Ribbons: A DocQmentary

The Roku Channel

  • Mind of a Chef – S1 E15 “BBQ” & S2 E7 “Lowcountry BBQ”

Barbecue is Truly a North Carolina Icon

Monk: Dr. Dana Hanson of NC State’s Meat Science Department breaks down east versus west barbecue in North Carolina in this video from Our State Magazine.

Description: ’Cue is our state’s signature sustenance, but with two distinct styles — eastern and Lexington — that’s typically where our agreement ends. Luckily, no matter which side of this delicious rivalry you fall on, barbecue is a food that brings people together.

Linkdown: 7/26/23 – The Barbycu Edition

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Monk: Congrats to Joseph Haynes on the release of his latest barbecue history book
“From Barbycu to Barbecue,” now available from the University of South Carolina Press.

The central premise of Haynes’ book is that the barbecue methods were not imported from the Caribbean but instead were a collaboration “between Native Americans, Europeans, and free and enslaved people of African descent during the seventeenth century.”

While I’m somewhat familiar with Haynes’ work online, I have not ready any of his books to date. The release of his latest book is reason enough to check him out.

Native News

Digging this new Sam Jones BBQ tee

This week Jon G’s will be at Super Abari Game Bar on Wednesday, 7/26

Noble Smoke has a “Two Napkin BLT” on the menu for the summer

A belated happy birthday to “Papaw Keith” Smith of Bar-B-Q King

Non-Native News

Agreed – this is too pretty not to share

John Tanner welcomes the sight of direct heat true ‘cue in Virginia at Two Drummers Smokehouse in Toano (whole hog coming?!)

A photo of City Limits Barbeque’s sides

Any suggestions?

ICYMI, Franklin Barbecue is taking a well-earned vacation