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.