Linkdown: 7/16/14

– Our State’s latest in the barbecue profile series Carolina ‘Cue is Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington (our review here)

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington has a tale like this to tell. In the mid-’40s, patriarch Sylvester Hursey and a good friend were engaged in a night of bacchanalian revelry — they had a little party that got out of hand — and at some point it seemed like a good idea to find a pig and cook it, so that’s what they did. I imagine them in the still heat of a Carolina summer’s night, climbing over a splintered wooden fence and into the pigpen. The moonlight broke through the limbs of the giant oak and shone on the chosen pig, as big as any pig there ever was, and the two of them wrestled with it into the night, coming this close to losing their own lives in the process, but finally emerging victorious. They had their pig, and then they dragged it halfway across Alamance County and fired up the pit and cooked it.

– Indy Week reviews Ed Mitchell’s Que, saying it “lives up to the hype”

– Durham restaurant Piedmont is hosting a whole hog barbecue dinner next Thursday (h/t bbqboard)

– Eater guide to where to eat barbecue around Atlanta

– Also, some Eater photos from Heirloom Market on a Wednesday at 11:35am

– The latest update on The Great NC BBQ Map states that the maps will mail out the week of 7/28-8/1 to all Kickstarter backers; also, they have a new logo

– Really hate that I missed the first SC-TX BBQ Invitational because it sounds like it was legendary; no seriously it looked epic

Rodney Scott we love you and your pulled pork, but we must concede the star of yesterday’s SC-TX BBQ Invitational was clearly John Lewis of Austin, Texas’ La Barbecue. The man’s beef brisket was O-face-inducingly good (I saw more than one pair of eyes roll back into eaters’ heads). And the pit master’s presence was all thanks to the members of Charleston Brown Water Society (CBWS), whose Holy City Brewing hoedown came off smokingly well, despite intermittent rain threats.

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“American Barbecue Styles Explained in Two Minutes” from Eater

This video and its accompanying post is part of Eater’s Five Days of Meat coverage and actually does a pretty decent job explaining the major barbecue styles compared to other attempts I’ve seen – particularly, they get the difference between eastern (whole hog and vinegar sauce) and Lexington (shoulders and tomato/vinegar sauce served with slaw and hush puppies) right. Or maybe the narrator just seems smarter because of his British accent.

-Monk

Linkdown: 7/9/14

How well do you know southern barbecue? Take this ten question Garden & Gun Magazine quiz to find out.

– This weekend’s Carolina West RibFest (formerly the Carolina Mountain RibFest) in Asheville will feature Mexican wrestlers and fire breathers in addition to ribs

barbecuerankings hits up Skylight Inn and B’s, Wilber’s, and Grady’s this week

la Barbecue is moving to the GoodLife Food Park in early August and will add a third pit

– Gear Patrol hits up 6 “must-eat” BBQ stops inTexas (via bbqboard)

– A Thrillist list of “6 most important barbecue sauce styles in the country” includes both eastern and western NC (via)

– Despite all its delicious barbecue, NC only managed 11th in this Thrillist list of the 50 states ranked by their food and drink; hey, at least we weren’t Virginia (#32)

“Virginia is for lovers, country ham aficionados and wishing that BBQ you’re eating had come from North Carolina.”

– Kevin Gillespie (of Top Chef fame) borrowed a burn barrel from Rodney Scott and cooked whole hog barbecue this past weekend; he will be opening a barbecue restaurant called Terminus City in Atlanta next Spring

Wilber Shirley quote slaw

I won’t even sell someone a barbecue unless they get coleslaw. If they want a barbecue and they don’t want coleslaw, there’s something wrong with that person. It all goes together.

Wilber Shirley, owner of Wilber’s Barbecue in Goldsboro (source)

In honor of Barbecue Rankings stop by Wilber’s, I figured this was as good a time for this quote as any.