Barbecue Bros Book Club

“Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook” is Kevin Bludso’s Big Personality in Book Form

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Note: this article originally appeared last year in The Smoke Sheet, a fantastic national barbecue newsletter that I regularly contribute to. For more information on how to subscribe, visit bbqnewsletter.com.

Monk: You may know Pitmaster Kevin Bludso as a judge on two seasons of Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown,” competing in season 1 of “BBQ Brawl,”or perhaps from his 10 appearances as a consulting chef on “Bar Rescue.” Before that, he made his name smoking barbecue in his hometown of Compton, CA at Bludso’s BBQ where the restaurant grew to as many as four locations in and around the Los Angeles area.

But as readers of “Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook” will find out, this California boy is just as much influenced by the town of Corsicana, TX where he spent summers working with and watching his “Granny” (technically his aunt) Willie Mae Fields operate an illegal BBQ restaurant and juke joint out of her house with his Aunt Jean and Aunt Alice. In addition to teaching Bludso how to cook barbecue “from the heart,” she also helped feed and take care of the community. Bludso still cooks briskets the same way his Granny taught him to this day 

Bludso begins his book by spending the first 30 or so pages telling that story as well as the story of his upbringing in the Watts neighborhood of Compton. From his Black Panther mother and LAPD father to his Uncle Kaiser who was an early barbecue teacher for his family to his Aunt Beulah who stepped in to raise his mom’s family when his grandmother was killed, Bludso came from a big family that influenced his barbecue journey.

Bludso then divides the rest of the book into the chapters by category. Some of them are the typical barbecue chapters on rubs, pits, meats, sides, and desserts but where Bludso differentiates his cookbook are the chapters that are curveballs. He spends nearly as much time on chapters for fusion barbecue, soul food, seafood, sides, breakfast, and holidays. This is truly his cooking style in cookbook form.

Bludso’s big personality is evident throughout the book, and he is not shy about using profanity so readers be warned if that’s something that might bother you. That being said, you can tell his voice has been captured unfiltered in these pages and credit for that is surely due Bludso as well as his co-author Noah Galuten. I would imagine the end result is the book he wanted to write in the way he wanted to write it.

“Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook” joins other notable books from black voices that have been released in recent years: “Black Smoke” by Adrian Miller in 2021, “Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ” by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie also in 2021, and most recently “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” by Ed and Ryan Mitchell with Zella Palmer in 2023. These four books help to fill out the black experience in barbecue and while all are worthy additions, there is still a lot more to be learned.

An Appalachian Barbecue Story in the “The Proffitts of Ridgewood”

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Note: this article originally appeared earlier this year in The Smoke Sheet, a great national barbecue newsletter that I regularly contribute to. For more information on how to subscribe, visit bbqnewsletter.com.

Monk: The Original Ridgewood Barbecue is an east Tennessee institution, founded 75 years ago by the Proffitt family in the shadows of the famed Bristol Motor Speedway. The Proffitts still own and run the restaurant that was carved into the side of a mountain in Bullock’s hollow, with a third generation of family working there now. In “The Proffitts of Ridgewood: An Appalachian Family’s History of Barbecue,” author Fred W. Sauceman (now there’s a name for a barbecue writer) tells its history as well as the stories of not only the Proffitts but many of the longtime staff many of whom have worked there for decades.

Ridgewood’s barbecue is different from what you’ll find in North Carolina or even a few hours away in Memphis. They smoke just the hams of the hog and then thinly slice them before dressing it with their famous barbecue sauce and a mayo-based slaw. It’s like nothing you’ll likely have ever tasted but it has its fans, many of whom travel from hours away. Even North Carolinians like the late NASCAR driver Junior Johnson or author John Shelton Reed (who is originally from Tennessee and is a friend of Sauceman) sing praises of its barbecue; Ridgewood is the only barbecue restaurant outside of NC mentioned in Shelton’s seminal book “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue.”

Another NC note: in the preface, Sauceman compares Ridgewood to Red Bridges Barbecue in Shelby not because of similar barbecue styles but because they are roughly the same age and have been traditionally run by strong women: Grace Proffitt at Ridgewood and Lyttle Bridges, Debbie Webb, and Natalie Webb Ramsey at Red Bridges.

In the book, Sauceman chronologically tells the story of the family’s roots in the area – the farm down the road dates back to 1856 – and how the restaurant evolved through the decades, from the building itself to what it served. As the story goes, Ridgewood originally started as a roadhouse bar before being forced to pivot when the county went dry in the 50s to a full service restaurant that served steak and eventually barbecue .

Along the way, we learn the story of how the building was physically expanded using wood from the Proffitt family farm (which also supplies the hickory for the wood-fired pits to this day), how the barbecue came to be hams instead of shoulders or whole hogs (to them, shoulders from hogs were for sausage), and how the famous secret barbecue sauce and its 20 ingredients (which only two people know how to make) was developed over time and through rigorous testing.

For the Proffitts, Ridgewood Barbecue is their legacy, and they are proud of it. And in “The Proffitts of Ridgewood,” Sauceman (who is originally from the area and teaches at East Tennessee University in nearby Johnson City) crafts a love letter to Ridgewood, which he has been visiting for decades. It is a concise but well-written book of 91 pages with plenty of full color photographs from over the decades of the family and restaurant. It makes for a quick but worthy read for any serious barbecue fan wanting to learn about an underrated barbecue joint.

For more information and ordering, visit Mercer University Press

“Going Whole Hog” is a Celebration of South Carolina BBQ

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Monk: “Let’s be clear from the start: I did not write this book; I assembled it” states author James A. Roller at the beginning of “Going Whole Hog.” And that’s definitely the right way of approaching this book of all things South Carolina Barbecue, subtitled “Mustard, Vinegar, Hash, and Smoke: Celebrating SC BBQ History Traditions, and Flavors.” In it, Roller collects recipes from a variety of sources and intersperses them with interviews and South Carolina barbecue history where he cites sources including Lake High, Robert F. Moss, Adrian Miller, Michael Twitty, and Howard Conyers among several others.

The recipes in “Going Whole Hog” more or less follow what you’d expect from a barbecue recipe book, starting with sauces and rubs before getting into the meats, sides, and ending with desserts. Where it differs from the normal book is there is a full chapter dedicated to over 20 recipes of hash, which is of course South Carolina’s definitive contribution to the barbecue world.

The recipes themselves come from a variety of sources; historic recipes, reader-submitted recipes, and some from pitmasters of current SC barbecue joints including Home Team BBQ, Swig & Swine, Lewis Barbecue, Melvin’s, and Bessinger’s. Each has a story behind it, and this comprises the bulk of the book.

The extensive recipe list in “Going Whole Hog”

The book does start off with a concise history of barbecue in the United States and repeats the claim of fellow South Carolinian Lake High that South Carolina was the birthplace of the foodway (I’ll let others debate whether that is indeed true). It then goes into the role of the black pitmaster during slavery through antebellum times, which Roller states he included at the urging of Howard Conyers among others. I applaud Roller for including this and not avoiding what can oftentimes be an uncomfortable conversation about the historic role of black pitmasters.

In addition to barbecue’s origin story, the book does include sections detailing the history behind two of South Carolina’s founding barbecue families: the Bessingers and the Dukes, who between them formed what many consider the backbone of SC BBQ restaurants. Rounding out the book, it also contains interviews with current pitmasters Rodney Scott, Jackie Hite, John Lewis, Aaron Siegel, and David Bessinger.

James A. Roller, who also runs destination-bbq.com, self-published the book and it truly is a labor of love. He began his site around the same time as us in 2012 and we have traded some messages over the years; he was gracious enough to send me a copy to help spread the word of this book which he is rightly so proud of. Its a hefty tome at nearly 300 pages and contains full color photographs, which I love to see in a barbecue book but must have come at a great initial expense to the author. Nevertheless, “Going Whole Hog” spotlights and helps cement South Carolina’s place in the modern barbecue world, and you should check it out.

For more information and ordering, visit destination-bbq.com.

“Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” Tells the Story of the Man as well as the Black Experience in the South

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Monk: While Ed Mitchell’s The Preserve barbecue restaurant is still yet to announce its long-awaited opening in Raleigh, Ed and his son Ryan have stayed busy writing and releasing a barbecue cookbook co-written by them with author, filmmaker, and scholar (among many other things) Zella Palmer. But the book is so much more than your standard barbecue cookbook with recipes. Interwoven throughout is the history of Ed “The Pitmaster” Mitchell and his family in eastern NC as well as stories from the past to illustrate the black experience in the South, whether its the barbecue, tobacco, farming, or fishing.

The hardcover book is a gorgeously assembled book with Baxter Miller’s beautiful color photography of the Mitchells and the food for each recipe. Speaking of the food, in addition to the standard barbecue recipes you would expect – whole hog, brisket, ribs, chicken, etc – Ed really explores eastern NC recipes of dishes and sides through his family history and his experiences. Touchingly, many of the dishes are named for prominent black figures in his life.

From a storytelling angle, Ed tells his side of a couple of notable stories throughout chapters in the book – the time he went to prison for 30 days for not paying sales tax for his Wilson family restaurant (it should be noted that he later successfully sued the bank for racial discrimination and wrongful foreclosure), meeting Anthony Bourdain early in his fledgling media career, beating Bobby Flay at ribs, going to Oxford, MS to meet John T. Edge and the Southern Foodways Alliance, and his many years attending the Big Apple Block Party while only receiving on a small stipend for his efforts.

But Ed’s isn’t the only voice you read throughout the book. Other members of the Mitchell family get a chance to tell their story, including his son Ryan as well as his younger brothers Aubrey and Stevie. His mom Doretha in particular is a trip and essentially takes over the dessert chapter in the back of the book with her tales. And outside of the Mitchell family, the prologue features notable contributions in the form of introductory chapters by co-author Zella Palmer (whose family’s roots are in Eastern NC), Wilson, NC historian Lisa Y. Henderson, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance John T. Edge, and barbecuer/rocket scientists Dr. Howard Conyers.

Unfortunately, as of the writing of this post Ed Mitchell’s The Preserve still doesn’t have an opening date in Raleigh but the website still indicates a 2023 opening. I hope Ed Mitchell is able to soon open his restaurant and that it is successful, because the barbecue world is better when he’s actively cooking in it. Until then, “Ed Mitchell’s Barbecue” is a worthy read and deserving of shelf space in your bookcase.