BBQ
May 19, 2021
North Carolina Pitmasters Are Spreading the Gospel of Texas Brisket, With Mixed Results
Our barbecue editor went looking for brisket in a state that’s downright hogmatic about its pork-centric barbecue traditions.
North Carolina
BBQ
November 16, 2016
Governor Tryon’s Barbecue
Protest season seems to be upon us after the recent election. Citizens are taking to the streets to show their displeasure with a new leader, which isn’t anything new in the United States. Before the original Brexit united us, we were anything but polite. Of course you remember the Boston Tea
BBQ
August 23, 2016
The New Carolina Barbecue
Barbecue in the Carolinas means pork, but it’s not just any pile of pulled pig that’s revered in eastern North Carolina. Whole hogs cooked over wood fill the legendary pit houses in this part of the state. It’s the traditional route, but it’s harder to execute than pork shoulders, which are
BBQ
September 30, 2015
Barbecue Uniformity
“Barbecue is the closest thing we have in the United States to Europe’s wines or cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes.”Barbecue historian John Shelton Reed wrote the above line just over a decade ago for an essay printed in the food writing collection Cornbread Nation 2, and in the
BBQ
September 22, 2015
Smoke Gets in Your Food
Just when it appeared we had hit peak bacon—last week’s introduction of Sizzl, Oscar Meyer’s dating app for bacon lovers, could be pinpointed as the moment things jumped the shark—Chris Shepherd, the chef at Underbelly in Houston, found a way to improve the most popular ingredient of the past five
BBQ
May 4, 2015
Eastern North Carolina BBQ at Skylight Inn
Skylight Inn cooks whole hogs over wood coals in Ayden, North Carolina just like they did when they first opened in 1947. This past weekend I embedded myself with Samuel Jones, the third generation of the Skylight Inn family, at BBQ on the Neuse. The event
BBQ
October 29, 2014
Interview: Samuel Jones of Skylight Inn
Samuel Jones (right) with NC BBQ legend Ed Mitchell (left)Co-Owner/Pitmaster: Skylight Inn; Opened 1947 in Ayden, North CarolinaAge: 33Cooker: Direct heat brick pitWood: Oak and HickorySamuel Jones is part of a North Carolina family that was cooking barbecue back in the nineteenth century. He’s been at the restaurant since birth, and surmises
BBQ
October 27, 2014
Dia De Los Puercos
Legendary whole hog cooker Samuel Jones is bringing a special taste of North Carolina barbecue to Dallas this Sunday (tickets here). The Jones family has been cooking whole hogs in eastern North Carolina since 1830.In 1947, Samuel’s grandfather, Pete Jones, opened the Skylight Inn restaurant in
BBQ
October 18, 2013
Finding Common Ground
Texas is a beef barbecue state; in North Carolina they prefer pork. This isn’t news to most of you, but it may surprise some Texans to hear that people outside of the state our signature smoked brisket doesn’t meet the very definition of barbecue.A plate of North
BBQ
May 15, 2013
The Barbecue Editor Disputes a Tar Heel
The following is a correspondence between Daniel Vaughn and John Shelton Reed. Reed lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is the co-author, with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed, of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue. Vaughn is the barbecue editor of Texas Monthly and the author of Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through