Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Learning from Mom: Levern Darby

Levern Darby at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)
Women remain a rarity in professional barbecuedom, especially in the realm of whole-hog cookery. But Levern Darby learned from his mother, Naomi, who slaughtered hogs and sold the oak-smoked barbecue from the trunk of her car, outside of what would later be named Cooper's Country Store in Salters, SC. Darby has now worked at the Store going on 36 years. There he watches that the hogs are cooked right, the way Mom taught him.

Audio and Text by Rien Fertel
Click the play button below to listen to Levern. 



Levern Darby works in the kitchen at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)
Barbecue cooked by Levern Darby at Cooper's Country Store, Salters, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Cracklin' Sound: 'Little Joe' Brunson

Little Joe Brunson removes a piece of crispy pork skin from the pit at Sweatman's Bar-B-Que. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Little Joe Brunson at Sweatman's Bar-B-Que. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)
After taking the whole hogs off the pits at Sweatman's Bar-B-Que in Holly Hill, South Carolina, Jonathan 'Little Joe' Brunson smokes the remaining pork skins over oak and hickory coals to make what may be the South's most perfect cracklin'. Working at this barbecue institution for over thirty years, Little Joe can determine when the cracklins are done just by their sizzle.

Click the SoundCloud box below to hear Little Joe.

Audio editing and text by Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus
 
Little Joe Brunson gathers a shovelful of wood coals for the pit. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Put Temmerath: Midway BBQ's Secret Weapon

Put Temmerath at Midway BBQ in Buffalo, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Put Temmerath, originally from Laos, has worked at Midway BBQ in Buffalo, SC for nearly sixteen years. His old friend, Midway manager Jay Allen, hired him to be the kitchen's jack of all trades. Put oversees the making of 100-gallon pots of hash, the prepping of smoked barbecue shoulders, and many of the restaurant's vegetable sides. Allen brags, "There's no eighteen or twenty-year-old here that can keep up with him." 

Click below to listen to Rien Fertel's interview with Put.


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Daily Specials as Community Service

Jay Allen on the phone with radio personality Mike Stevens, Tuesday at Midway BBQ. Photo by Denny Culbert
Each morning at 11:05, "Barbecue Science Engineer" Jay Allen of Midway BBQ in Buffalo, SC reads the daily specials to radio personality Mike Stevens of WBCU 1460 AM and 103.5 FM. Union County citizens tune in to hear about the restaurant meets butcher's meat-and-three and cuts of the day. Listen to a warmup clip from June 12, 2002.

Click the Broadcastr link below to listen to the daily specials.
Audio recording and editing by Rien Fertel

Monday, June 11, 2012

On the Road Again: The South Carolina BBQ Trail.

Bum's Restaurant, Ayden, NC. Photo by Denny Culbert.


On Sunday, The Barbecue Bus (Denny Culbert and Rien Fertel) hit the road again to gather oral histories and photos for the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) and the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. This trip: We document the pitmasters and barbecue institutions that are historically and socially significant to South Carolina’s culinary culture.

Our BBQ Trail itinerary will carry us through Upstate, the Lowlands, and Midlands of South Carolina. We’ll cover barbecue houses in all four of South Carolina’s sauce-varietal regions, from the mustard belt that extends through the State’s center toward Charleston, to the peppery vinegar country of the north-east coast, to the western tomato-based hinterlands. Additionally, we’ll explore the State’s diverse barbecue accoutrements, including hash, chicken stew, vegetable side-dishes, and desserts.

We’ll post interviews, photographs, and profiles here on The Barbecue Bus blog. More frequent updates from the road can be found @TheBarbecueBus. At the culmination of the trip, the oral histories will be added to the SFA’s online Southern BBQ Trail. The SFA’s oral history program, led by Amy Evans, has collected more than 600 oral histories across the South.

Since The Barbecue Bus completed the North Carolina BBQ Trail in November and December of last year, we’ve been very busy. Denny recently worked as the Official Photographer for Lafayette, Louisiana’s twenty-sixth annual Festival International de Louisiane. Rien began writing a column, Past & Repast, for the Oxford American online. Denny and Rien recently collaborated on two articles for The Local Palate magazine, one featuring the Zydeco musician Cedric Watson. And, on March 17th, Denny married his sweetheart Katie Frayard in a surprise garden ceremony, with Rien officiating.

Next week, The Barbecue Bus will assist in guiding the SFA’s (sold out!) High on the Hog Carolina Field Trip through eastern North Carolina. They’ll revisit some of their favorite personalities and pits from the area, including: James Henry Howell, pitmaster, and Samuel Jones, manager, of the Skylight Inn in Ayden; Bum and Larry Dennis of Bum’s Restaurant, also in Ayden; and the “Highly Seasoned Food” from Stephen and Gerri Grady of Grady’s Barbecue in Dudley.

Monday, June 4, 2012

"Highly Seasoned Food."



Stephen & Gerri Grady of Grady's Barbecue, Dudley, NC.

Click to see our original text and photo profile of the Gradys: http://www.thebarbecuebus.com/2011/12/gradys-barbecue-this-day-is-last-this.html

Recorded and cut by Rien Fertel. Shot and chopped by Denny Culbert.

"We Just Didn't Ever Stop."



Bum and Larry Dennis of Bum's Restaurant, Ayden, NC.

Click to see our original text and photo profile of Bum's: http://www.thebarbecuebus.com/2012/03/first-barbecue.html

Recorded and cut by Rien Fertel. Shot and chopped by Denny Culbert.

"Dad Put Barbecue Grease in My Milk Bottle."



Samuel Jones of Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC.

Click to see our original text and photo profile of Skylight Inn: http://www.thebarbecuebus.com/2012/03/standard-bearers-of-barbecue-skylight.html

Recorded and cut by Rien Fertel. Shot and chopped by Denny Culbert.

Bruce and Samuel Jones of Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC.

Friday, June 1, 2012

"It Goes Over Pretty Good."



Randy Russell of Bunn's Barbecue, Windsor, NC.

Click to see our original text and photo profile of Bunn's Barbecue: http://www.thebarbecuebus.com/2012/02/survivalist-cue-bunns-barbecue-windsor.html

Recorded and cut by Rien Fertel. Shot and chopped by Denny Culbert.