whole hog

What are my barbecue New Year’s resolutions in 2026?

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Monk: Last week I took inventory of how I did on my 2025 barbecue resolutions. If you need a refresher or missed that, check out the post here:

How did I do on my 2025 barbecue New Year’s resolutions?

Even though results were mixed for my 2025 resolutions, I’m moving forward with (slightly) new and different resolutions for 2026.

What are my barbecue new year’s resolutions for 2026?

Courtesy of Good Q and Eats

#1 Visit the joints I’ve been putting off (evergreen)

Gymnastics travels (for the eldest Monkette, not me) take us to Greenville, NC this spring so this will be a good way to plug in some of my eastern North Carolina holes. I’m planning for some combination of Bum’s, Grady’s, Wilber’s, and Stephenson’s to be in the cards.

I also want to revisit some more classic NC joints closer to home in the piedmont, specifically in the Lexington area. It may be time to refresh my Lexington-area rankings, which I first published in 2022:

Lexington Rankings

Then of course there’s still the SC joints on my list: Elliott’s BBQ Lounge in Florence, Fork Grove BBQ in Anderson, King BBQ in North Charleston, and perhaps a revisit to Palmira Barbecue in Charleston.

Ribs from Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA

#2 Getting back into cooking ribs

Now that I’ve conquered whole hog (kidding), I want to get back into regularly smoking ribs and trying to dial in my process. Way back in the dark days of early COVID I pulled out the old Weber kettle from the crawl space underneath my house that I hadn’t touched in about 5 years and haven’t put it back since.

In 2026, maybe I’ll now pull out the Oklahoma Joe’s offset from the garage and between the two figure it all out when it comes to ribs.

#3 Take a barbecue trip

This one may be a little aspirational with all of my other personal travel, but I’d love to figure out a barbecue-specific trip to take in 2026. What does that look like, exactly? Maybe that’s to an out-of-state barbecue festival, something that was on my list last year but not accomplished. Or maybe its a barbecue road trip by car somewhere in the Southeast? Or perhaps its a flight to to another state to explore their barbecue. I’m leaving it open-ended on purpose.

What’s your barbecue resolutions in 2026?

How did I do on my 2025 barbecue New Year’s resolutions?

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Monk: I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions in my personal life, but for the first time last year I put forth some barbecue-related ones. The thing with resolutions is that some may be kept but some are also forgotten almost the instant they are said out loud (or typed in this case).

With that said, let’s see how I did utilizing our patented 5 hogs scale:

Image via Our State Magazine

Resolution #1: Visit the joints I’ve been putting off
Verdict: 3 hogs

Going into 2025: In addition to Grady’s there are a few other newer joints that I want to check out (funnily enough, all in South Carolina): the James Beard-nominated City Limits Q in West Columbia, Fork Grove BBQ in Anderson, and the soon-to-open Elliott’s Barbecue in Florence from Elliott Moss formerly of Buxton Hall Barbecue. I hope to hit those this year for the first time and maybe revisit a classic NC joint or two in addition.

The verdict on this one is mixed. In 2025 I did finally visit the twice-James Beard nominated City Limits Barbeque in West Columbia plus a couple of NC joints I didn’t identify going into the year (Dampf Good BBQ in Cary and a classic NC barbecue joint in Real Q in Winston-Salem.

But the others I identified in my resolution but did not make it to were Fork Grove BBQ, Elliott’s Barbecue, and Grady’s.

Resolution #2: Attend an Out-of-State Barbecue Festival
Verdict: 0 hogs

Going into 2025: This year, its time to try an out-of-state barbecue festival, perhaps something like the Memphis in May Festival or Holy Smokes in North Charleston, both of which I’ve done in the past and would happily revisit. Or perhaps attend one that haven’t been to such as the Windy City Smokeout in Chicago, Jack Daniel’s World Championship in Lynchburg, TN or one of the many festivals in Texas like the Texas Monthly BBQ Fest in Grand Prairie or Houston, the Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival in Tyler, or Aaron Franklin’s Hot Luck Festival in Austin.

I did not make it to a single out-of-state barbecue festival this year, and only attended the Carolina BBQ Festival’s Fall Pig Pick’n, which was a great event but decidedly in-town and not out-of-state.

Resolution #3: Smoke my own whole hog
Verdict: 5 hogs

Going into 2025: I’ve thought over the years about doing another one but just haven’t made it happen. Well, that needs to change and this fall I plan to do just that.

I did it! My second ever whole hog was a rousing success last fall, feeding about 350 people and I’m going to run it back this coming October. Ideally, with a little more help. Recap here:

What I Did (or Didn’t Do) Differently For Whole Hog #2

Total: 8 out of 15 hogs

What about my 2026 resolutions, you ask? Check back next week.

What I Did (or Didn’t Do) Differently For Whole Hog #2

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Monk: Last month, I cooked my second whole hog for my neighborhood swim club event to close out the season. In case you missed my post leading up to it, here’s a link to refresh your memory on what I thought I would do differently for this hog cook:

Seven Things I’m Going to Do Differently when I Smoke My Second Whole Hog This Fall

Utilizing our patented 5 hogs scale, I’ll rate how well I changed up each thing for hog #2 and total it up at the end. Let’s see how I did:

Thing #1: I’m going to use a pig cooker (a BQ Grill, specifically)
Verdict: 5 hogs

I’m fortunate that a neighbor 1) owned a BQ Grill pig cooker and 2) let me borrow it for free. And boy, was I glad that I had that instead of having to haul the cinder blocks to and from the swim club parking lot. There isn’t a super steep learning curve to the BQ coming from a cinder block pit and the BQ drew a lot of positive attention from the crowd. I can’t wait to borrow it again.

Thing #2: I will get a bunch of wood coals going before I start the cook
Verdict: 3 hogs

That same neighbor who let me borrow the pig cooker is the one who I bought a burn barrel from several years back. I finally got a chance to use that burn barrel and built up a good base of coals for about an hour plus starting at 10pm that Friday night before I finally put them into the cooker. I did a decent job with this part but found myself without coals at times and having to play catch up. Once again, I went through a half cord of wood and then some.

Thing #3: I’m going to crisp up the skin and chop it into the pork
Verdict: 0 hogs

I said earlier there wasn’t a steep learning curve to the BQ Grill but I really should have said “other than the deflector plate.” I had a vague understanding of how removing it would crisp up the skin at the end but no real sense of how mechanically to do that considering how heavy and hot it was. I will have to do more research ahead of time next time but for this time around I made a business decision not to mess with it in case I messed up the pig right before the party start time.

Thing #4: I’ll probably throw some pork butts on (just in case)
Verdict: 4 hogs

I got a little bit bigger pig this time around – 157 pounds vs 126 pounds – but was also feeding a much larger crowd (~350 vs 100). I ended up only grabbing two extra pork butts but the crowd ate every last bit of the pork that was available, with only a half full gallon Ziploc bag remaining after the party.

Thing #5: I will try the head this time
Verdict: 5 hogs

I most certainly tried (and started) the cheeks from the head and absolutely found them to be extremely tender and flavorful. From this point on, I will definitely not be wasting the head.

Thing #6: I will not waste any pig this time around
Verdict: 5 hogs

As a reminder, last time close to a quarter of the pig fell onto the ground of the cinder block pit due to carelessness on my part, although I was able to salvage most of what fell. Thankfully, that did not happen this time around but next time I will use the grated screen next time so I could cook the pork butts on that instead of resting in the cavity of the pig. The consistency of the butts didn’t quite come out the way I wanted.

Thing #7: I’m going to recruit a crew to not only help out but enjoy the cook
Verdict: 4 hogs

I had a crew of folks hanging out for the start of the pig cook with a couple of guys even making it until about 3am and helping me flip the pig before they went to their respective homes. And not only did they help flip the pig but they came through in the clutch with a late night McDonald’s order of cheeseburgers. Then, in the morning, my neighbor came back out for an hour or two to see where he could be of help. And then, of course, I have to mention the guys helping me serve the crowd.

Final Tally: 26 hogs (out of a possibly 35)

The main thing for next time is figuring out the best way to crisp up the pork skin. The pig turned out amazing but that will be next level for me. Until next time!

A Thousand Words: Whole Hog, Take Two

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Monk: Last weekend, I cooked my second whole hog. I’ll be following up on my “Seven Things I’m Going to Do Differently” post in due time to update on how I did on each one, but in the meantime, here are some photos from the weekend.

I got the fire started shortly after 10 on Friday night and got the hog on about an hour later.

The Jon G’s Beer from Town Brewing was a good call for the cook on Friday night.

After an all night cook, the hog finished up early afternoon and I got ready to feed the 350 or so people who had RSVP’d to the event, which was officially the Second Annual Pig Roast for my neighborhood swim club. Last year, I had it catered but wanted to take on the official pig duties this year.

What a fun, tiring experience. I don’t know when my next hog will be, but I had a blast for this one.