Page FOURTEEN THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Czurolina THURSDAY. OCTOBER 18. 1956 Barbecue: What It Is And What It Isn’t ■^Call it barbecue if you want to, but it doesn't rate that name in our book.” And with that statement, Billy Arthur, Chapel HiU. columjaist, editor, researcher emd prolific writer on thin^ “Tariieelia,” re cently took out after the slick magazines and ccmkbooks that have the “inside know” of mak ing barbecue. His story, appropriate now that the political season, incom plete without numerous rallies at which barbecue is the main dish (next to the speaker), is re printed here. People who have never eaten Kasfern-North Caro lina barbecue, but thought they knew, nevertheless, how re^ barbecue was made, have a lot to learn, Billy says. - Although the magazines and the cook books and the grocery displays would have one believe eveiy day is barbecue day, ac tually the season is just now un derway in North Carolina. Sbmehow North Carolinians reserve the late summer and early fall for the big barbecues artown festivals, {(4>acco market festivals, tobacco market open ings, and camp meetfngs. Yet, smaller affairs run through the winter and until the late spring. But, what is a barbecue? What It Isn't The m^agazine advertisements and stories would lead one to be lieve that a barbecue is a cook ing device, something built in the wall, or some little shaky metal contraption you fold up i when finished, or a more modern j affair with telescoping legs and generous beverage coolers that can be rolled in and out of the house. The same magazines, newspa pers, and grocery shelves would have you believe that barbecue is a sauce. Nothing more. The popular Southern Cook Book, under the heading of bar becue, lists principally sauces of salt, pepper, brown sugar, cat sup, mustard, Worchestershire sauce, chili, vinegar, melted but ter or oU, sometimes celery. What else does the book say? It adds that these sauces may be used “to barbecue.” Our dictionary defines barbe cue thusly; “Noun—a hog, ox, or other large animal roasted or broiled whole for a feast; also, a feast at which barbecue is serv ed. Verb transitive—To roast or broil whole, to cook meat or fish in thin slices in a highly season ed vinegar sauce.” Therefore the way we read it, barbecue is neither a cooking de vice nor a sauce. Too, the cook book has a reci pe from Gleorgia recommending “baking” a chicken in a 300 de gree oven to barbecue it. An Ala bama recipe teaches one to brown the meat under a broiler on all sides in a roaster, then, cook it in a 350 degree oven in a sauce. That’s barbecue? Getting Close A Kentucky recipe is one of only two in the book that come close ^o barbecue as we know it. It is the only recipe that says one ought to have a firebed, to use oak, hickory or beech wood. The basting sauce recommended tobasco, minced onion, garlic and lemon added to the aforemen tioned basic ingredients. And, the cook book author says she has used this sauce “to barbecue.” Doesn’t she mean to baste? Be it said for the cook book, however, that it does contain a recipe about as close to real bar becue as one can get. It was sup plied by Mrs. Henry Clark Sr., mother of Dr. Henry T. Clark Of Chapel Hill. But for her recipe, we’d have to grade the book zero as to barbecue. Origin The word “barbecue” hails from “barbacoa” and is an at- 1 —AT- Jones Dept. Store CARTHAGE. N. C. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 T\' GIVEN FREE RCA VICTOR PORTABLE 1957 MODEL NOTHING TO BUY. JUST COME IN AND REGISTER Drawing for TV Portable Saturday, Nov. 3 — 5 p.m. You do not have to be present to win. Children under 14 not eligible to win SELECT YOUR FALL NEEDS NOW AND USE OUR LAY-AWAY PLAN DURING THIS FALL OPENING SALE 90 PROOF PINT 4/5 QUART m HILL 4 hill company, division of national distillers products corporation, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. tempt to transliterate a native Haytien term for a ^^ooden framework to support meat or fish to be dried over a flame. As a noun It has come to mean in its most modern significance a large social or political gath ering in the open air at which pigs, sheep or oxen are roasted whole and the feasting is in Gargantuan style. Many a tobacco market has flourished, a cause espoused, a politician elected, and a church fund raised with a berbecue. Washington Irving considered the barbecue a “festivity or car ouse” and reported that at one he attended the “hog (was) split to the backbone and filled with wine and stuffing, cooked on a huge gridiron and basted with wine.” But North Carolinians regard barbecue as one of the necessitie'" of life. And Tar Heels know how it should be done. Although Georgia may com plain, it is not a bold assertion to state that the barbecue in its true sense is a North Carolina insti tution and that . the Brunswick stew, its concomitant, is confined to even narrower limits. Now's The Season ’The summer or the early au tumn before the cotton ripens or fall’s first chill is the time and the season for the barbecue. Nea’- some spring, a shallow pit is dug, say three feet wide and 18 inches deep, and of length pro portioned to the animals to be barbecued. Generally, the animals are young pigs, known popularly as “shoats,” lambs, chickens, and sometimes coon. Beef is not so popular in these parts. Well-seasoned hickory branch es are gathered and a fire made in the pit and one on the outside. Both are allowed to bum only until the coals remain, and these are covered with the white and almost impalpable powder which forms the ashes of a hickory log. From the fire near the pit the dying embers in the pit are re newed when necessary. But the trench fire must be glowing, yet not fervent, and absolutely smokeless. 'The animals to be barbecued are carefully dressed and split wide open, then spread-eagled by hickory sticks, reaching from foot to foot so they will lie flat. The basting or the sop, to use a technical phrase, is made in a pot, and its component parts are of special importance, because much depends upon their propor tions. Vinegar is, of course, the base, and butter, red bell pepper, black pepper and salt ai;g added The animals are placed over the pit, the projecting ends of the sticks not only supporting them but also providing an easy means of turning them over. Some people spread wire over the pit and support the pigs, but they should still be trussed so they’ll lie flat. The genius of the occasion is the barbecuer, be he professional or amateur. He addresses himself to the task and the obligations of his great function with as much gravity and dignity as a Presi dent addressing a joint session of Congress. The meat cooks very slowly; its turns are frequent; and its bastings incesant. Five hours or more are required to make it perfect. It is cooked much as primitive man must have pre pared it. The people who are to eat it are, for the time being, primitive men. They walk about in their shirt sleeves—oftimes the barbe cuer is minus shirt—and take many an anxious look at the bar becuing. Savory odors fill the air, and no palate, however jaded, can be indifferent to them, Brunswick Stew TVith equal deliberation and care, the preparation of the Brunswick stew has gone ahead. In this most divine of stews, which would make $64,000 cham pion Marine Capt. McCutcheon and Oscar of the Waldorf envi ous, are many ingredients. 'The tender meat of the young squir rel or rabbit, chicken, boned and chopped fine, butter beans, ten der green com, tomatoes, finely choped cabbage, red and black pepper, Irish potatoes, butter, salt and a das^ of brandy or wine. The proportions, like those of the sop for the barbecue, are secrets to the mixmaster, either evolved in the brain or palate of the maker or handed down as a tradition. Many people who are so lucky to be at this kind of a barbecue take, more or less, a few prelim inary nips duirng the waiting. 'The beverages ranging all the way from Coke and coffee to beer and bourbon. Now—^To Eat And as the sun westerns a lit tle, appetites become sharper. The quantities eaten are unu- ally so great as to be nearly fab ulous. There is always a rattl ing fife of conversation. All the rural and city wits are active. Wide is the range of talk from] politics to cotton, and all differ-' ences of opinion are made noth ing by the benign influence of the barbecue. All men become equal. The rich, the poor, the farmer, the city dweller. The reputation, and fame, of a good barbecuer goes near and far, nor does it end even with death. His name is mentioned with tenderness at many a feast after his mission on earth is end ed. He ranks very far above the common cooks. The fame of the Carolina bar becue has been cairied far and wide by lucky individuals from other ^ates who were lucky enough to attend a Carolina bar becue; but they can only tell of their delights. They cannot and do not spread the cult of the bar becue. It’s votaries are many, its priests but few. That’s the kind o fbarbecue we like—^not the ones in the magazines and the cookbooks. By winding a piece of cello phane tape around four fingers, sticky side out, you can easily pick up lint from wool garments, say clothing specialists at State College. YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO SEE THE BEAUTY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE ALL NEW 1957 Chevrolet CARS and TRUCKS ON DISPLAY OCTOBER 19, 1956 / —at— Sales Service PINEHURST GARAGE CO., INC. Phone 4951 Pinehurst, N. C. WHAT . V communities, in their own way, have attractions for some kind of industry. When a new industry employing 135 people begins operating in a community, according to The United States Chamber of Commerce, it can mean: $787,000 more personal income per year, $480,0(X) more retail sales, $360,000 more bank deposits, 395 more people, 232 more workers employed, 146 more households, 68 more school children. It can also mean job opportunities at home for graduates of our colleges and high schools who arc now leaving the State. What kind of industry is best suited to your own community at this time? It might be a large, highly technical operation. It might be a supplier to other industry. It could be a handicraft operation, or tourist attraction. Ask for the free booklet on Community Organization for Industrial Development. It lists scores of ideas for products which may be manufactured to advantage in various communities of the State. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT Tikis is another in the series of advertisements published bjr this newspaper, a member of the North Carolina Press Association, as a public service in the interest of the State’s industrial deveh^t- ment program.