BBQ, Jews and the Law

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

According to a January 10th article in the International Business Times, “A company suing Cisco systems for patent infringement got a new trial because Cisco’s attorney made remarks about a plaintiff’s religion, drawing attention to the fact that he is Jewish.”

What does this story have to do with BBQ you ask (no, really, you do)? The IBT article continues: “The remarks, by one of Cisco’s attorneys, Otis Carroll, were in a cross examination of Jonathan David, one of [the plaintiff’s] principals. According to the filing, Carroll said, ‘Well, did you eat dinner with him? Did you talk to him? Did you say hi to him?’ David answered yes, they had had dinner at Bodacious Barbeque and Carroll said, ‘I bet not pork.'”

The moral of this story? Never make not-so-veiled references to other people’s religious beliefs. Also, never assume a Jew doesn’t like pork barbecue. Or else we may just sue you.

Filed under: Barbejews, BBQ in the News | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Shylock’s Simple Collard Greens

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

Collard greens are a common side dish at barbecue joints in Eastern North Carolina, and winter is prime collard green season.  Cooking collards is surprisingly easy so stay away from the nasty canned stuff at the grocery store and cook ’em up yourself. It takes a little more than an hour start to finish, but most of that time is spent waiting while the greens cook–in that time, you should make some cornbread and drink a beer.  Here’s my collards recipe, but please feel free to submit your own in the comments section or just tell me why my recipe is inferior to your’s.

2 pounds collard greens (about 2 bunches)
3 cups of warm/hot water
1 cup of chopped/diced pork of some sort (anything from leftover cooked ham to a pork chop to raw bacon will work)
2 tablespoons basic oil (no EVOO, for god’s sake) unless you are using uncooked bacon or other pork that provides its own fat
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Vinegar for seasoning at table

Thoroughly clean collards and remove stems, then chop into roughly 1″ pieces or smaller. Heat oil in large stock pot and cook the pork for 5 minutes if cooked already or until cooked if raw. Add warm/hot water (cold water and a hot pan gets a bit dicey and takes longer to heat to a simmer) and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pork and set aside. Add collards, salt and optional Worcestershire sauce. Bring to boil, then turn to low and cook for 60 minutes or so (depending how tender you like the greens, you may want to taste at 45 mins).  Add the pork back in a few minutes before you finish cooking. Add water to keep the collards moist during cooking if needed, but it shouldn’t be if you cook at a low temperature.

Be sure to make use of the soupy liquid in the pot, aka “pot likker” or “pot liquor”, either to serve with the greens or dip cornbread in.  Also, add some vinegar to the collards at the table if you are into such things; hot pepper vinegar is best but plain old cider vinegar or Texas Pete will suffice.  Recipe makes ~ 6 servings.

Filed under: Cooking | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

BBQ Jew’s View: Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

 3883 South Main Street, Farmville, NC
252.753.5128
No website
Hours: Wed, Fri & Sat 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
BBQ Jew’s Grade: A
Porky Says: “Whole hog on the Cobb.” 

A Rich Tradition

The pit at Cobb & Son's by Conor "Swinefactor" Keeney

Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place in Farmville is listed on the prestigious NC BBQ Society Trail map but it is well off the beaten path for most barbetourists. Despite offering barbecue that rivals or surpasses that of its geographic peers, Cobb & Son’s remains a quiet respite from the barbecue crowds that descend on places like the famous B’s Barbecue in nearby Greenville.

Cobb & Son’s history as a restaurant is rich with themes that echo the history of barbecue in North Carolina. In particular, barbecue’s history is closely tied to the state’s tobacco heritage; traditionally pig pickin’s coincided with the tobacco harvest, for instance.  According to Jim Early’s The Best Tar Heel Barbecue: Manteo to Murphy, Cobb & Son’s founder Jack Cobb, an African-American, worked for a Farmville tobacco company in the 1940s and had a side business of cooking and selling barbecue to his black co-workers.   Before long, “word spread around the community about Jack’s good ‘cue and white citizens wanted to buy Jack’s barbecue but would not come to Jack’s place to get it. Ever the entrepreneur Jack took his ‘cue to a white friend’s home and this man sold Jack’s barbecue for him.”  Cobb & Son’s continued working to build an integrated customer base throughout decades of difficult race relations and at times encountering opposition from blacks and whites alike. 

Any business from the 1940s that still exists is impressive, and one that has had to overcome hurdles like racism is even more so.  The secret to Cobb & Son’s success all these years? My guess is because they are just plain good at what they do, and the barbecue is delicious regardless of one’s race, politics or preferred brand of cigarettes.  

 
 

 

The grand dining room at Chez Cobb

 

Jack Cobb’s son Rudy, now in his 70s, runs the restaurant today, as he has since his dad passed away in 1989 (Rudy has worked at the restaurant almost his whole life).   When arriving at Cobb & Son on the edge of downtown Farmville, one gets the sense that little has changed at the place since its founding.  It is a classic barbecue joint if ever there was one.  And, luckily, that classic feeling extends to the simple, delicious food Cobb & Son’s offers up the three days a week it is open for business.  

Cobb & Son’s occupies a fairly large building but there is no seating inside.  The “dining room” at Cobb & Son’s is what can only be described as a mosquito-friendly screened porch, Continue reading →

Filed under: Restaurants & Reviews | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

Happy Birthday, Mrs. LeSwine

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

My wife of eight years, Mrs. Prosciutto LeSwine, is turning ever so slightly older today. Needless to say, I have a big day planned for her, and also needless to say it will be 100% barbecue-free. (Our prenuptial agreement requires that I celebrate Mrs. LeSwine’s birthday “with neither barbecue nor swine of any form.”) At any rate, if you see Mrs. LeSwine  today tell her happy birthday and that her husband loves her even if she rarely ever reads his barbecue blog.

Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Porky’s Pulpit: There Oughta Be a Law

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

I will vote for any candidate for national office who proposes a law banning use of the word “barbecue” in contexts like this:

Filed under: Porky's Pulpit | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

Porky’s Pulpit: Pignorance is Bliss

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Porky LeSwine

It’s a new year and the perfect time for a little bit of reflection on 2010.  Without a doubt, my favorite new dining experiences over the past year had one thing in common: I had to drive an extra mile (or 50) to seek out traditional, wood-cooked barbecue at places like Grady’s in Dudley, Wink’s in Salisbury and The Skylight Inn in Ayden.  Unfortunately, I also ate a lot of mediocre ‘cue, and almost all of it was made in electric or gas-fired cookers. 

There was a time when mediocre barbecue was good enough for me; I suppose that pignorance is bliss. But the more barbecue I eat the less tolerant I am for so-so swine. Unless it is doused with a terrific sauce and served with outstanding sides, in my experience electric/gas-cooked pork is rarely better than okay.  After a year of eating more than my share of forgettable barbecue, I am looking forward to focusing on eating at the traditional pit-cooked ‘cue joints as time allows, while passing over most of the faux ‘cue. Consider that my first BBQ Jew Year’s resolution. My other resolutions include:

-Finally write reviews of several restaurants that I dined at awhile back and still haven’t reviewed, in large part because I really don’t enjoy writing negatives things about someone’s livelihood.

-Continue to interview interesting folks for the BBQ&A section of this site, as that has been my favorite part of running this site for the past two years.  Look for a BBQ&A with NC barbecue legend Bob Garner, as well as others, soon. If you have any suggestions for BBQ&A interviewees, let me know.

-Convince some friends and strangers to contribute guest posts to mix things up. After all, it’s hard work reading your own words three times a week.

-Most of all, enjoy another year of rambling on about the incredible, edible world of North Carolina barbecue.

Best wishes for the year ahead,

Porky LeSwine

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Happy New Year (and some old news)

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

Egads, the new year is nearly upon us! Thanks for reading this blog in 2010 and I hope to see your smiling face IP address back here again in 2011.

As my year end gift to you, instead of rambling on about who knows what I am simply going to link to someone else’s writing. A few months ago the Chicago Tribune’s food blog featured a great series of posts on barbecue, including several stories set in North Carolina, so check out the summary of the NC portion of the trip here.

Have a terrific New Year’s Eve and a prosperous and healthy 2011. In other words, may the new year be filled with as many plates of barbecue as your heart desires and as few trips to the cardiologist as your heart allows.

Filed under: BBQ in the News | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Pork at Your Door: The Battle Box

Posted on December 29, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

“We’d like to send you our Battle Box.  Up for it?”  That was the opening line of an email I received recently from Ryan Pitz of the fledgling North Carolina Barbecue Company (NCBC), a mail order barbecue business that debuted a couple of months ago.  Given my selfless commitment to conducting research that benefits all of humanity, I had no qualms about accepting Pitz’s offer.*

Longtime readers may recall my first foray into mail order pork, when a friend of mine named Governor Schwarzenoinker taste tested some of King’s Oink Express menu items shipped from Kinston to San Francisco.  Prior to NCBC’s debut, the Oink Express had few rivals in terms of a well-oiled mail order barbecue machine (though Brookwood Farms now sells its pork online). If the Oink Express is well-oiled, then the North Carolina Barbecue Company is downright slick. They have a smooth looking and informative website, a Facebook page, a very cool logo that is a play on the state seal, and even a Twitter feed. In short, they don’t seem to be bound by the unofficial NC barbecue business creed: it’s better if nobody knows your company exists. As a mail order business with no retail presence NCBC is wise to ignore this tradition and market themselves anyway they can. (And if that means sending free pork to the likes of me, so be it!)

The NC Barbecue Company is the brainchild of two people. According to his online bio, Pitz, a Virginia native, “became a true NC BBQ convert after having lived in Greensboro, NC for nearly a decade.”  His business partner Rick Scott hails from High Point and “was raised on the piedmont style and exposed to the eastern style while in school down east.”  Pitz and Scott recognized a Continue reading →

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Pork Alchemy: Transforming Christmas Ham into Barbecue

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

As much as I enjoy a good spiral cut Christmas ham, it’s not as good as barbecue.  I decided to perform a little pork alchemy and attempt to turn my leftover ham into barbecue. My secret recipe follows:

1. Dice the ham to make it somewhat resemble barbecue.

2. Sauce the ham liberally with barbecue sauce (in this case from the North Carolina Barbecue Company).

3. Eat.

Although the end product bears little resemblance to NC barbecue in appearance, taste or texture, it does taste pretty decent in its own right. Gratuitous before, during and after pictures follow.

Filed under: Cooking | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Merry Christmas to All and to All Some Good Meat

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Porky LeSwine

I have no idea where this photo originated, but it is certainly impressive. Merry Christmas everyone, including those of you who have way too much time on your hands (meat nativity scene creators and barbecue bloggers, for instance).

Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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