Rodney Scott’s Barbecue is a legendary “whole hog” style. Its popularity is fueled by his Best Chef Southeast James Beard Award and the thousands of satisfied guests. Count me as another.
He learned the pit-master trade under his father in Hemingway, South Carolina, opened his own restaurant and has rapidly expanded to Charleston, Birmingham, Atlanta and recently Homewood Alabama. The title best chef from James Beard is remarkable because historically, barbecuers or pit-masters have never been recognized as chef. It’s well past time to bestow the title on them.
Whole Hog Barbecue
As the name implies this style uses an entire hog carcass, splayed and cooked over a live wood fire. Most other barbecue is smoked after separation into various cuts of meat. Whole hog barbecue originated on plantations, and handed down through generations as a distinctly Southern cuisine. Unfortunately it was rapidly dying out.
Where there were once hundreds of whole-hog restaurants, now there are only dozens. Reasons are many, but it is expensive to make yielding only 35-55% sellable meat compared to starting weight. It is also time-consuming and requires constant attention managing the fire from beginning to end.
The good news is there is a resurgence in this traditional style as a new generation discovers how delicious it is. A whole-hog outpost recently opened in New York City and that’s encouraging, but we can’t yet remove it from the endangered species list.
Rodney Scott’s Barbecue
Rodney cooks his for about 12 hours over a live fire, basting continuously with a vinegar based proprietary sauce. The skill is in managing the fire, not too hot, not too cold until you have the perfect, juiciest meat imaginable. When ready he serves the shoulder, belly and neck meats separately. It’s good enough to eat by itself, but if you prefer sauced barbecue, hot, mild or anywhere in between, that’s o.k..
Lunch In Charleston, South Carolina
We ordered the three meat combo and a pork shoulder loaded baked potato with sides on the advice of our host.
This is the juiciest brisket – ever!
Collard greens to die for!
Ribs with a beautiful caramelization on top.
Hand-battered onion rings go perfectly with barbecue.
The “loaded tater truck”, a baked potato with pork shoulder, cheese, scallions, butter, sour cream and bacon. This was amazing, but left no room for dessert!