barbecue

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q – Graham, NC

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Name: Hursey’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 2/14/15
Address: 1234 S Main St, Graham, NC 27253
Order: Two barbecue sandwiches (one slow, one without), large fries, two soft drinks (link to menu)
Price: $11

The newest (and I believe largest) location of Hursey’s Bar-B-Q replaced the previous Graham location, which was located in an old Hardee’s just off I-85/I-40 (if I am remembering that correctly). Many years ago (well before the blog), Mrs. Monk and I stopped there and this past Valentine’s Day we found ourselves stopping by this newer location for a quick bite on our way to Raleigh.

We didn’t get a chance to really check out much of the large barn-shaped establishment due to the fact that we had to get to Raleigh. But from what I could tell it did seem similar to the original location, with the order counter at the front and the dining room off to the side. This one does serve breakfast from 6-11am, as opposed to the other locations that open for lunch starting at 11.

Seeing as we were going to be eating in the car, we went for barbecue sandwiches – mine with slaw, hers without. Unfortunately, hush puppies would have been a 5-10 minute wait (since it was still technically breakfast time when we went) so we had to go with fries instead. The pork in the sandwich was moist and tangy and the crunchy white slaw complemented it nicely. I gobbled it up in just a couple of bites, seeing as I hadn’t eaten much of a breakfast that day. The fries were standard, but we found the large portion to be a bit small for two people to share seeing as how we asked the girl at the counter if they would be enough for two and she said that it would have.

I actually enjoyed this barbecue more than I remembered liking it at the original location. From what I understand, the barbecue is smoked at the original location daily and then shipped out to all of the other locations so there’s a chance the fried chicken and lackluster brunswick stew colored that previous visit. In any case, this was well worth the short jaunt off the highway.

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs
Hursey's Bar-B-Q on Urbanspoon

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Linkdown: 2/11/15

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– Our State ruminates on the barbecue sandwich, deconstructed

– In this week’s blog for The Daily South, Robert Moss profiles a NASA scientist by day, and whole hog barbecue pitmaster by night

A career in engineering took Howard Conyers a long way from Paxville: to an undergraduate degree at North Carolina A&T followed by a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science from Duke, and then to Louisiana. “I finished my Ph.D. and took my first job at Stennis,” Conyers says. “I lived in Slidell for a year and then moved to New Orleans.” Somewhere along the way, he started to miss his family’s style of whole hog barbecue. “I realized I had left something back home that is unique and special,” he says.

– Tyson Ho writes about the importance of mentors – barbecue and otherwise – in his latest blog for Serious Eats; he also spills the beans on the origins of the name Arrogant Swine

(If you’re wondering, the name came about when we were trying to find a pig-based url for my website. A whole hog joint needs a pig name, and url squatters had most of them. I tried every color pig.com, every variant spelling of hog, all to no luck. Then one day I walked past a poster for a beer called the “Arrogant Bastard Ale.” I wondered if Arrogant Swine was available, and it was, so that became my name.)

– Smoke Modern Barbeque is a new barbecue restaurant in Huntersville from Charlotte restaurateur Dennis Thompson, who is involved in Firebirds Wood Fire Grill and Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar; it opened on Monday

– …aaaand they already have a second location planned, slated to open in July in Ballantyne

– In more expansion news, Queen City Q is opening a second location in Matthews

– Sad news out of DC, as barbecue legend Mr. P (originally from NC) was taken off of life support earlier this week

– TMBBQ goes deep on best naner pudding in Texas, though I disagree with their assertion on NC naner pudding – its been served cold everywhere I’ve ever been

First, though, let’s talk about what unifies banana pudding in Texas. That’s temperature. If you venture over to North Carolina, it’ll come piping hot and covered in meringue, but in Texas it’s served straight from the fridge.

– JC Reid from the Houston Chronicle talks about the importance of wood and smoke (via TMBBQ)

– In other Texas barbecue news, The Dallas Observer is looking for a barbecue writer

– Smoky Oak Taproom, a Charleston barbecue restaurant with an impressive tap list, to open a location in Florence, SC

– Want to win a $100 gift card to The Pit Durham?

Recap: 2015 Super Bowl Smoke

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If you are a longtime reader of our blog (do those exist?) then you will recall that for the past two Super Bowls, Speedy and I have taken the opportunity to step out from behind our blogger notepads and laptops for the Monk family annual Super Bowl party. Two years ago, Speedy and I competed head to head in a smoke off of pork butts and wings (in which I edged him out just slightly). Last year, we tackled our first brisket. This year, turns out Speedy was going to be out of town for the Super Bowl so I would have to go my own way (go my own way).

I started the night before by rubbing the meat with the “Luv Rub” that I picked up from Boone’s Bar-B-Que Kitchen. In year’s past I had mixed my own rub but decided to go the easy way this year. Besides the ease of simply sprinkling from the bottle, the rub itself enhanced the meat nicely.

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In terms of prep, that was basically it until my alarm woke me up at 5am to start the fire. In the smoke off two years ago, I didn’t get the fire going and get the meat on until close to 9am and felt like the pork butt could have used another hour or two so I wasn’t going to make that mistake this year. By 5:45 I had the meat indirectly set over the coals and had a pretty good smoke going. This time I decided to smoke it fat side up just to see if I noticed a difference.

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Outside of a brief nap around 6:30am, I stayed up and checked the temperature every 20-30 minutes for the next 11 or so hours. At around 4:30 the meat temperature had reached 190 degrees and it had a good bark, so I pulled the meat off the grill and let it sit for about an hour before chopping.

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After I chopped the butt I added some homemade Lexington dip to the pan and served to the party. I was really happy with how it came out and thought the rub from Boone’s worked out really well. I’m not sure that I noticed a huge difference smoking the butt with the fat side up, but it didn’t screw anything up so I would do it that way again. I also got some really good feedback from the crowd at the party.

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Once again, I was really happy with how it turned out and besides that, it was a lot of fun to smoke it on my own. I can’t wait until the next opportunity to try it again.

–Monk