Possumblog

Alabama doesn't have whole hogs?

Are we talking some kind mutant animals or genetically modified porkers that only have hams, ribs and shoulders.

I suppose the former since a backward state such as ours probably couldn't pull off the GM thing.

I'm not sure, but I think the Tarheels put the whole pig up there on the smoker, rather than just the butts and shoulders and ribs, then after it's done cooking, THEN they yank it asunder into its various components. Or at least that's what I'm hoping, because I'd hate to see a mutant pig that was nothing but four trotters and a rib cage.

Hey now, while it's all nice of you to send some BBQ love our way, we've got plenty of the stuff here and don't need no "fer'n" meat clogging up our arteries. The native stuff does just fine.

I believe our next project is to build an ice factory in Antarctica.

Ummm - pig roast! While there is no comparison to what y'all have (and I've had North Carolinian BBQ during a trip to my cousin's place in Greensboro - YUM!) a friend made himself a pig-roaster. He's used it for church picnics, family reunions and the occassional wedding. You should see his eyes light up when you mention "pig".

A technical question - does it really taste different depending on what er..."parts" of the pig are used? I thought the taste was mostly in the sauce?

Here in the eastern part of the state most BBQ places chop up all the meat after the whole hog has been cooked. This adds to different textures and some difference in taste.
What happens at parties and get togethers is the whole pig will be cooked and you take off which part you want. That is called a pig picking.

BTW the idea that all the taste is in the sauce is a story started by the folks in Kansas City, apparently because their BBQ did taste like anything.

Do I sense a repeat of "The Great BBQ War" of 2002. Kansas City and BBQ? That's much like saying Texas has BBQ because they roast beef briskets.

What is this "pig" of which you speak?

Infidels.

That Texas stuff is really tasty and almost good enough to be called BBQ.

I love a BBQ war.

For the record:

--BARBECUE--

Animal = pig

Part = butt, shoulder, rib (in order of preference)

Method = hickory smoked

Sauce = thin, white or red (although I prefer red), applied after cooking

Cut = chopped, mixed inside and outside

Side items = slaw, french fries, tea

Place served = charitably described as a dive, waitresses must either be drop-dead gorgeous or aged women with number of teeth equal to the total number of employees, cook must be large sweaty man with a toothpick and bad attitude.

That is all.

Oh, and kosherists may substitute beeves.

I'm not a big fan of BBQ but Gibson's is really good. I don't care how it is cooked if it is good.

Ya'll D*** Yankees (note to D*** Yankess, anyone above Red Stick is one. Goux Tigers!) keep yourn lil BBQ spats to yourn selfs, alimagator is the only proper meat ... umm maybe cept for garfish.

Prawns.

Reba tried gator once. Said it tasted like dirt.

And Kitchen Hand, I know you folks invented that whole "throw another shrimp on the barbie" deal, but around here. there's the stuff you cook on a barbecue grill such as shrimp or prawns or hot dogs or hamburgers or vegetables, where you have a hot bed of coals close to the meat--it cooks quickly, and it can sear on the outside.

But to the True Believers, there is barbecue, which is meat slowly smoked with indirect heat from a wood fire. Not the same as a roast, either, where you have a whole animal cooking on a spit.

Hickory-smoked hog barbecue, smoked until tender with a slightly crisp and dark outer layer of meat, which is taken from the pit and chopped up while still hot and delicately anointed with sauce--that is what people fight about here.

And it is worth fighting for. It the most important thing that Prometheus stole from the gods, you know. He only needed the fire to get the wood going.

There are variations of the sauce and various condiments that people insist must go with it, and there is eternal struggle betwixt the beefeaters and the piggers, but no matter, because now I'm so hungry I can't stand myself.

That sounds great. The Australian aboriginals had a similar technique of semi-burying food with a slow-burning fire in sand. Then Europeans came along and just stuck road-kill in the engine bay. Sand-free barbecue.

Ahhh--the manifold pleasures of manifold cookery! For those who dare, here's you a cookbook with the particulars.