Editor's note: All summer long, the Southern Foodways Alliance will be delving deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of barbecue across the United States. Dig in.

Will you just look at these pork skins for a second? Most people's inclination would be to call them "pork rinds," but pitmaster Rodney Scott - a man at the vanguard of the current puffed pork reclamation movement - goes out of his way to inform his customers that pigs are not, last he checked, a kind of fruit. So skin, not rind. At least not while Rodney's around.
FULL POST

Editor's note: All summer long, the Southern Foodways Alliance will be delving deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of barbecue across the United States. Dig in.

The SFA is on a barbecue field trip right now, but this picture might tide you over. The all-you-can-eat buffet at Brown's Bar-B-Que in Kingstree, South Carolina, includes everything from barbecue and hash to sweet corn and squash. The vegetables come straight from the Brown family's farm.
FULL POST

Barbecue means a lot of things to a lot of people. It brings together folks of all faiths, ethnicities, backgrounds and economic strata. It's steeped in history, legend, tall tales, competition and regional identity.

It's also incredibly delicious.
FULL POST

This is a dish of boiled peanuts. You love them, you hate them, or you just haven't had them; they are not a foodstuff about which there is much neutrality.

It's quite likely the texture. Perhaps the smell. Maybe the mess.

This probably seems self-explanatory from the name, but the popular roadside snack is made by boiling raw or "green" peanuts (or "p-nuts" as they're often touted) in heavily salted water until the shells soften and the nutmeat loses any snap. Devotees pop 'em open and slurp them out of the shells like edamame with a Southern accent, but again - there are issues.
FULL POST