This site shows what happens when the "Chosen People" choose pork. North Carolina pork barbecue to be specific.
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L'Chaim!
Recently a coupon caught my attention. It offered $2 off a 30 ounce package of Hormel’s Austin Blues Pulled Pork. According to the description on the Hormel website, “This succulent pork shoulder meat is naturally hardwood smoked for six hours. After smoking, it’s finished off with a clear Carolina-style sauce and lightly pulled.” Sounds pretty good actually, although it’s hard to believe that this industrial strength swine is truly hardwood smoked for 6 hours. (But since that’s what Hormel claims and they have a large legal team, I’ll take their word for it.)
More good news about the product: the Hormel website warns that their pulled pork is, brace yourself, NOT Kosher. This suggests that Hormel’s pulled pork is made from real pork and not some sort of pork-tasting mystery product (I have always been amused that bacon bits are often Kosher, which means, of course, that they contain exactly zero percent bacon). Hmm, so the Hormel Pulled Pork sounds kinda sorta okay at first, but rest assured there are some bright red warning flags. Continue reading →
With apologies to the people of Japan, and people anywhere who practice the art of haiku or any other form of poetry, I present to you my first attempts at creating a new art form called hogku. In case you don’t know, haikus (at least the Americanized version) stick to a basic 5-7-5 syllable structure. Below are my first hogkus. Readers, any hogkus or other barbecue-inspired poems to share?
__________________
Hickory smoked smell
Taste of vinegar on tongue
God must be watching
__________________
Eastern or Western
Differences disappear
Over a chopped plate
__________________
Hush puppies, slaw, bun
Everything looks good, except…
Where is the pig meat?
__________________
Pig, your sacrifice
Will be memorialized
By sacred pit smoke
__________________
Golden fried cornmeal
Your secret is safe with me
In my stomach now
Thanks to reader Burgeoningfoodie for making the BBQJew.com News Room aware of the recent story on Playboy’s website about America’s best barbecue joints. (Actually, for the record, technically Burgeoningfoodie alerted us to a post about the Playboy article that appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer’s Mouthfulblog.)
If you are reading BBQJew.com somewhere other than work, I recommend you see the full Playboy article here and the section on Wilber’s here. If you are currently at work, rest assured the article is 100% nudity-free, but it does contain some graphic depictions of near-naked barbecue covered only in slaw and a bun. Still, BBQJew.com’s Legal Department recommends you save the article for home, unless you work somewhere that considers it kosher to log onto Playboy.com (in which case, you probably work for Playboy).
On the off chance that you–a person who is voluntarily (I hope) reading a blog about barbecue–have yet to see “The BBQ Song” video, now’s your chance. Not only is the song hilarious, kinda catchy and educational (they have Mayonnaise-based sauce in Alabama?!), but it was recorded by North Carolinians. The comedy duo Rhett & Link are sort of like Flight of the Conchords for southerners. (Then again, the Flight of the Conchords guys hail from New Zealand, which is a lot further south than North Carolina… .) Watching North Carolina folks sing a funny song about ‘cue oughta make you right proud of the Tarheel state.
I truly believe North Carolina ‘cue is the finest in the country, and I know for a fact that it is the direct descendant of the original American barbecue. Still, I remain just open-minded enough to admit that I like pretty much any meat that is slow-cooked over wood coals (that is the proper definition of barbecue, of course). If you are like-mindedly open-minded, and might find yourself crossing beyond the NC border sometime this summer, then check out JJ Goode’s May 2008 article in Details magazine (once the page loads click anywhere on the image to be taken to a .pdf of the full article).
I know, I know, Details is not exactly the magazine you’d expect to be ground zero for barbecue writing. However, Goode’s article provides what appear to be solid recommendations for barbecue joints across the U.S. (Skylight Inn and Lexington #1 are called out for NC), along with some mouth-wateringly terrific photos. Bon voyage and bon appetit! But for (Texas) Pete’s sake, make sure you wipe that thick tomato-based sauce off your chin before you return to NC…
The Wild West I recently vacationed in Montana, which you may know (if you are a geography buff or completed 3rd grade) is a long way from North Carolina. Montana is a beautiful state, but it lacks in interesting culinary traditions. Beef is the name of the game in Big Sky Country, and there is plenty of steak to be had. No complaints from me on that. However, my palate was tested mightily when spending an afternoon in Butte, Montana, a tough as cow leather town notorious for having one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites. Butte is also known for a rich history as a mining town, and the miners who flocked to Butte in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought their own culinary traditions to town.
Pasty Patrol
English, Irish and other European immigrants–and their American descendants–brought the pasty (pas-tee) to Butte, and it continues to enjoy a special place in the lower intestines heart of modern day Butte residents. Pasties are sort of a chicken pot pie but the chicken is beef and the crust of the pot pie is much thicker and totally encases the beef and vegetable filling. I wouldn’t recommend you travel to Butte or other pasty-friendly locales just to eat one. Still, pasties are something I can see people being proud of–they taste okay and they have a lengthy culinary pedigree.
Happier Than a Pig in Sh… Argentina?
We’d be remiss if we didn’t seize this increasingly-not-so-rare opportunity at pig-related humor about a politician from a pig-friendly state. With Former North Carolina Senator/Failed Presidential Candidate John Edwards’ piggish behavior fading from the limelight, fresh revelations from the Land of Mustard Other Carolina have filled the void. As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Soon-to-be-Former (?) Governor and Suddenly-Less-Likely-to-be Future Presidential Candidate Mark Sanford of South Carolina (where the mustard-tinged barbecue sauce must have impaired his thinking) was caught in a web of lies last week. Sanford disappeared for several days before it was revealed that he was visiting Argentina, the country with the highest per capita beef consumption. As if visiting the beef capital of the world was not pig-headed enough, Sanford did so to visit his mistress. This presumably steak-fueled affair represents a double-affront: to Sanford’s wife and to the hog-loving populace of South Carolina.
Before Charlotte’s Web of Deception Amazingly, Sanford’s piggish behavior in Argentina was not his first pig-related scandal. Several years earlier, Sanford raised quite a stink when he brought a pair of piglets to the South Carolina State Capitol. The piglets, predictably named “Pork” and “Barrel,” Continue reading →
As you, dear readers, are well aware this website has a narrow-mindedmyopic laser-like focus on North Carolina’s pork barbecue culture. Still, we cannot refrain from putting a plug in for a documentary film on another of America’s underappreciated forms of barbecue–Kentucky mutton. Mutton is one of just a handful of distinct barbecue styles in the U.S., and without a doubt it is the most obscure of the styles. A new (to us) documentary helps bring mutton the attention it deserves. (Disclaimer: I have not actually eaten mutton, so perhaps the film is bringing mutton attention it does not deserve.)
Um, no...
According to its website, Mutton: The Movie “takes you on a magical journey to the northwestern corner of Kentucky (Owensboro to be exact) where the descendants of the Welsh who settled the banks of the Ohio River don’t count sheep, they barbecue them.” Well put. Mutton is an informative, entertaining documentary and clocks in under 20 minutes long, so you really have no excuse to not watch it. Of course, we respectfully disagree with Owensboro, Kentucky’s claim to the title of “Bar-B-Q Capital of the World.” Heck, the people of Owensboro can’t even spell barbecue right! Still, in the interest of fostering good will among the barbecue-loving people of the world, we present this in-depth analysis of the common ground between mutton and NC pork barbecue:
Both mutton and NC barbecue are traditionally cooked over Hickory wood.
Both are sources of local pride and the products of hard work, sweat and tears beers.
Mutton is often cooked by Catholic churches as a fundraiser, while NC barbecue is a common part of fire department fundraisers. Catholics and firefighters fear hellfire and fire, respectively, yet have no qualms about Continue reading →
Recently we received a message from Burgeoningfoodie, who shared this link to a short news report about a sexy mannequin helping sell barbecue in Cincinnati (rest assured, this is a CNN video so it is safe to open at work). Watching the video brought several questions to mind, none of which are particularly insightful but all of which I will share anyway:
Would any North Carolina towns abide such a brazenly bold buxom barbecue display?
Do the good people of Cincinnati have a difficult time distinguishing between mannequins and real people? The video indicates that passersby have been fooled into believing Bar-Be Q is a real woman.
Did the restaurant owner consider finding a “sexy” anthropomorphic pig-woman to advertise his restaurant? And would that be more or less disturbing than his current approach?
Are there any examples of sex being used to sell barbecue in NC?
Can we trust the people of Cincinnati–a city known for its bizarre, cinnamon-chocolate-chili–to judge good barbecue ?
Finally, why does Greensboro, NC–a City located in the heart of Lexington-style barbecue country–have a Cincinnati style chili restaurant but no barbecue joints downtown? And should we put a sexy mannequin outside as a form of retribution?
A buddy of mine, let’s call him The Jewish Gentile, sent me an email a couple of days ago that was too good not to share on this website. TJG wrote, “I’m keeping Passover this year, but I really wanted a pulled pork sandwich. So I went to Blue Ribbon BBQ in Arlington, MA and got the North Carolina Pulled Pork Platter. Then I made myself this sandwich (see attached photo). And it was delicious.”
Far be it from me, a much less observant Jew than TJG despite my bloodlines, to question whether he was abiding by the letter but not the spirit of Passover laws when he indulged in this multi-cultural treat (I’ll leave that discussion to him and his wife). And let’s leave aside that the barbecue in between the matzoh was purchased in Massachusetts (I’ll leave that discussion to him and G-d). The important thing is that TJG was inspired by the divine, acted on that inspiration, and documented his work the old fashioned way–with the digital photograph shown below.
BBQ Jew 
