Robert Moss

Linkdown: 12/30/15

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– Robert Moss finishes up 2015 with two posts: Barbecue is Celebration Food and 2015 in Review

As is often the case with food origin myths, these tales get things exactly backwards. Barbecue did not originate as a way to transform cheap cuts of meat into something palatable. Instead, it started as a way to cook all of the cuts of meat at one time, for barbecue originally was a form of whole animal cookery.

In the 19th century, barbecues were large-scale outdoor events, and local farmers donated valuable livestock for the occasion—pigs, cows, sheep, goats, or whatever else they had on hand. On the Fourth of July in the antebellum South, long before refrigeration and reliable supplies of ice, fresh meat didn’t stay fresh for very long. The animals were typically taken to the site of the barbecue and slaughtered right there by the pits.

– Marie, Let’s Eat! spends some time in Kentucky: Thomason’s Barbecue in Henderson and Ole South Bar-B-Q in Owensboro

– Steve Raichlen recaps his 2015 in barbecue

– Congratulations to Midwood Smokehouse, who comes in at #32 in Charlotte Magazine’s Top 50 Restaurants in Charlotte

The Barbecue Bros Holiday 2015 Gift Guide

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Here’s some gift ideas for the barbecue lover in your life. The bolded items are the ones I can personally recommend. Feel free to add or suggest any other gift ideas in the comments below and I’ll update the post through the holidays.

–Monk

Books


Apparel

Other

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See our 2014 gift guide here
See our 2013 gift guide here

Linkdown: 12/9/15

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– Robert Moss follows the mustard line from SC down through Georgia and into Florida

– If you are looking for a gift for the NC barbecue or beer lover in your life:

– Daniel Vaughn explores the greaseballs of Southwest Texas at Patillo’s Bar-B-Q

-Johnny Fugitt profiles Smokee Mo’s BBQ for St. Louis Magazine

– Marie, Let’s Eat! revisits the 50 year old Hickory Hut BBQ in Dallas, GA

– NPR’s The Salt food blog profiles Sam Jones’ new barbecue joint, Sam Jones BBQ

To understand the significance of Sam Jones BBQ, you have to understand the place in the barbecue firmament. And you have to start with barbecue’s place in the Tar Heel state. Aficionados regard North Carolina not only as a capital of barbecue, but a cradle of the cuisine. It is as central as basketball to the state’s identity.

But so many barbecue joints have replaced wood with gas that some folks feared the impending death of all-wood pit cooking. The North Carolina Barbecue Society estimated a few years ago that only 30 wood-pit barbecue restaurants were left in the state. To diehards, the demise of traditional wood-smoked barbecue in North Carolina would be tantamount to a death in the family. Maybe worse.

Linkdown: 11/18/15

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– Congrats to Sam Jones on the opening of his new barbecue joint in Greenville, NC last week and continuing the tradition of wood-cooked barbecue

A decade back, those of us who make a living writing about and documenting barbecue were worried. Honest, wood-cooked barbecue was imperiled, we said. Pitmasters who dedicated their lives to firing pits and flipping hogs were atavistic, we worried, wheezing their way toward foregone retirement.

I’m pleased to report that we seers of ‘cue were wrong. We lacked vision. We lacked heart. Evidence of our errors of belief is seemingly everywhere. Traditional barbecue is now in renaissance.

– More on Sam Jones and his role as fire chief in Ayden from the Southern Foodways Alliance and Chicago Tribune writer Kevin Pang

– Food Republic has a guide on where to eat in Columbia, SC that includes a couple of barbecue joints including Hite’s BBQ, True BBQ, and Big Boy’s Original Smokehouse

– Pork ribs in Mississippi changed Adam Perry Lang’s life

– Charlotte Agenda thinks Midwood Smokehouse has one of the best non-traditional tacos in the city

– On so-called “nouveau ‘cue” and the supersizing of barbecue

– Thanksgiving is coming, so here’s a homemade mac and cheese recipe from Midwood Smokehouse