Barbecue Served with Recipes That Grandma Hill Created

Pork shoulders cook slowly over hardwood coals in the kitchen of Hill's Lexington Barbecue.

A trip to Hill’s Lexington Barbecue in Winston-Salem, NC, is a trip back to the 1950s. The food, hospitality, and atmosphere harken back to an earlier time and a slower pace. Drive-ins were family-owned. Another decade would be needed before McDonalds, Hardees, and similar places would open.

A traditional wood burner, this stack at Hill's was brought in from Asheboro, NC.

Imagine Winston-Salem, NC, in 1951, when Hill’s opened as a drive-in on Patterson Avenue, then U.S. 52 heading north to Mt. Airy and south to the Twin City. At that time the restaurant was outside city limits – a time and place I remember as a child because my dad was its mail carrier on his motor route and let me join him delivering the mail on summer days in the mid-1950s (without U.S. Postal Service approval or knowledge, of course). Today, although within city limits, Hill’s is now bypassed by the limited-access U.S. 52 that rises high above on an elevated road soon to be Interstate 74. 

Hardwood is burned until coals are ready for the smoker.

In 1951, the city population was around 90,000, and the dedicated customer enjoyed a scenic drive to Hill’s on a curvy, two-lane U.S. 52 at slow speeds. Today, U.S. 52 is the fast road north in a city of almost 250,000. Many wonderful places with cultural and historic connections are now missed by some travelers who are totally unaware they exist simply because highways have been redesigned and “improved” to move us at faster speeds. Although a new customer has to look for the overhead billboard to know which exit to take, long-term customers know exactly where on Patterson Avenue Hill’s is located.

Long-term customers arrive early for favorite seating in the dining areas,

The dining areas are typically filled with repeat customers who also know that the menu still reflects good value and a cooking method known as Lexington style.  The pork is prepared from only hog shoulders and cooked slowly over hardwood coals. Although it’s served in one of four ways -- chopped, pulled, sliced, and blocked -- it comes with only one kind of slaw – red – the only kind served with Lexington-style barbecue.

Lexington-style barbecue is always served with "red" slaw.

When I ordered a pulled pork tray for lunch, the server was careful to explain that it came with red slaw just in case I was not familiar with it. Unlike traditional coleslaw, no mayonnaise is in the vinegary red slaw, which gets its characteristic color from ketchup. The pulled pork with a thin but peppery sauce I enjoyed was tender and full of smoky flavor. With the red slaw, it’s a perfect lunch – with hushpuppies, of course.

The server brings more than enough hushpuppies to a table while the orders are being prepared.

The original small drive-in has been gone a long time. Although a larger building replaced it more than 40 years ago, the best recipes – banana pudding, slaw, hushpuppies, and sauce – are still the original family ones. The Hill family, with the third generation now operating the restaurant, has been wise in not modernizing or updating them.

A portrait of Edna Hill, wife of the founder, guards the entrance -- a good reason not to change a recipe, particularly the one for banana pudding.

The sign in front proclaims Hill’s to be “The Original Lexington Barbecue” for two good reasons. Founder Joe Allen Hill came to Winston-Salem from Lexington with the dream of cooking pork “Lexington-style” here and opened the first restaurant in the city to have “Lexington barbecue” in its name. More importantly, although other establishments in Lexington, NC, were in business when Hill opened this restaurant, he’s the first to name his “Lexington barbecue.”

Hill's is the original Lexington Barbecue for two good reasons.

Take a journey back to the 1950s – only the prices have changed (and modestly at that). The hospitality, atmosphere, recipes, and food at Hill’s remain the same. Even the mail boxes on the side of the road look like they are just as original.

The best finish for a meal at Hill's is its famous banana pudding, always served warm.

Notes: 

1. An earlier post, prepared for the N.C. Folklife Institute that focuses on memory and changing cultural experiences and also discusses the traditions of Hill’s, is online at the Institute’s NCFood blog.
2. The restaurant was permanent closed in January 2020 after being in business 68 years.

Mapping a Barbecue Trail

Imagine a state preparing a map of all its barbecue restaurants and making it available at welcome centers and through visitor programs. When I stopped at South Carolina’s welcome center on Interstate 95 after entering from Georgia, I was interested in getting only a few simple brochures and a state highway map.

Which South Carolina map connects to culture and history?

A mouth-watering
sandwich graces 
cover of trail map.

When I arrived at a stack of highway maps, my eyes were immediately attracted to a picture of a mouth-watering barbecue sandwich on the front panel of different map. About the same size as the highway map and folded into similar sections, this one is labeled “South Carolina BBQ Trail Map.” It also proclaims that it is “official” (which is missing from the front of the highway map that indicates “free distribution only”). 

Although the state highway map is a great resource to navigate through South Carolina and includes useful travel information such as road classifications, symbols, distances, and hurricane evaluation routes, it lacks a cultural connection. On the other hand, the BBQ Trail Map highlights the culture of the state as it brags that South Carolina invented barbecue and is the only state to offer the fourofficial sauces – vinegar-pepper, mustard, light tomato, and heavy tomato.

South Carolina offers four different barbecue sauces.

As the trail map describes the state’s sauces, it connects them to cultural history. For example, German immigrants with a taste for mustard who settled in the 1700s are credited with popularizing mustard-style barbecue in the middle of the state. (In fact, South Carolina is the only state where this sauce is found.)

Mustard sauce is popular in the midlands of South Carolina.

The trail map also explains how the roots of barbecue run “five centuries deep” in the state and date to the time when Spanish explorers observed “open pit cooking” by Native Americans on the coast of South Carolina. According to the map, the first pit-cooked barbecue in America was created when the Spanish, who brought hogs on their long voyages for food and even left some on coastal islands of the Southeast, cooked in the style of the American Indians. 

Which sauce would be your favorite?

Although BBQ trail maps of other states are available, in both online and printed versions, South Carolina is the first and only state to prepare a trail map and make it available at its welcome centers. Consider how much its trail map advances its reputation and credibility as a tourist destination, particularly for culinary travelers. Maps of other states, such as North Carolina, have been prepared by associations (trail by NC Barbecue Society) or by entrepreneurs (Great NC BBQ Map by Amanda Fisher and Paul Bright). However, the map of South Carolina includes all establishments and their sauces. It divides the state into three regions – mountains, midlands, and coastal – and lists all barbecue establishments, marks their locations on the map, and identifies which sauces they serve. The S.C. Department of Tourism deserves a round of applause for its initiative.

Finding barbecue in South Carolina is easy with the trail map.

When you travel, don’t travel with only a highway map – also take a map that includes cultural and culinary connections. If you are searching for barbecue, include South Carolina in your journey because it knows how to map a trail.

Pick up a trail map at a S.C. welcome center.

A Place Called Swine

If a restaurant has the name of Swine, would you visit? Imagine standing at the entrance of an upscale eatery and seeing firewood ready for a smoker stacked against the front window. 

Stacks of firewood greet customers at the entrance.

That’s the scene on Ponce de Leon Boulevard, the main thoroughfare that bisects the fashionable business district of Coral Gables, Florida, where Swine entices crowds daily for food and drink. Although the restaurant is decorated creatively with photos and other art (as well as stacks of firewood) and softly lit with amber lighting, the huge lightbulb sign “Run Pig Run” is what captures the attention of new patrons. (Appropriately the website address for Swine is runpigrun.com.)

Run Pig Run says it all for Swine.

The place called Swine has the feel that it was just moved from a farm. Its exposed brick walls and wood structures deconstructed from barns create a comfortable feel that fits well with its comfortable food. The vintage-style bulbs with exposed filaments add to the restaurant’s relaxing atmosphere.

Customers enjoy Swine's relaxing atmosphere.

Officially known as Swine Southern Table & Bar, the restaurant has risen fast to the top of places to dine in South Florida. The Swine burger tops the list of best burgers in Miami by Miami New Times (which has also anointed Swine as the best restaurant in stylish Coral Gables), perhaps because it includes short rib, brisket and smoked pork with double hamburger patties.

The pork shoulder is ready for serving after twelve hours in the smoker.

However, the twelve-hour slow-smoked pork shoulder on the menu under the category “From the Smoker” is the entrée that caught my attention. Adorned with tomato-peanut relish and spiced honey glaze, the pork had been prepared superbly by Chef Cristian Cuevas, whom I sought out in the kitchen so that I could see Swine’s smoker. The smoker is impressive with layers of shelves for smoking beef brisket, pork ribs, and chicken, the other smoked entrees with pork shoulder: All four categories of an event sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society are on the menu.

Every chef, like Chef Cristian at Swine, needs a good smoker.

The sides -- or fixins as Swine describes them -- can delight any follower of Southern food. The roasted chilled beets that I ordered came with pickled red onion, cumin seed olive oil, and blue cheese; thy were a creative complement for the pork shoulder. Because I hadn’t ordered charred okra at Yardbird (a sister restaurant in Miami Beach that I had visited earlier in the week), I had to try the skillet charred okra. Coated in anchovy bread crumbs and charred with brown butter and lemon, the okra was another tasty dish. Because I saw it on several nearby tables, it must be more than an initial fascination but a delight enjoyed by customers more familiar with the menu.

Charred orka may be the most popular fixin at Swine.

Because I had visited Sunburst Trout Farm in North Carolina last year, I appreciated seeing it listed on the menu as the source of mountain trout for Swine, which also serves Florida shrimp, Atlantic swordfish, and Atlantic salmon as fish plates. The sides that accompany these plates (which I’ll have to try on my next visit) are also intriguing. Creamy Carolina gold rice is served with the mountain trout. Sea Island red peas come with the swordfish. Zucchini and red bell pepper succotash complement the salmon plate.

Florida berry cobbler ended my visit to Swine and was as noteworthy as the smoked pork.

Would a name other than Swine fit this restaurant? Because it is distinctly Southern, Swine is definitely the place to enjoy smoked pork and ribs. The customers come initially to taste something from the smoker and keep returning to enjoy the creative fixins -- if only every Southern restaurant that serves pork and ribs could be as imaginative and innovative.

No name other than Swine would be appropriate for this restaurant.

Heading to Florida for Barbecue

Trophies await the successful cooking teams.

Where in a new year should the first barbecue contest be? Why not Florida? When I was considering the early contests of the year, the idea of being in Florida seemed like a winner. Regardless of the temperatures elsewhere, the climate in January in Florida usually is better. Although great-tasting barbecue is the best reason to be a judge in a contest, I confess that temperatures in January are a major consideration.

The best vehicle belongs to Swinos Competition BBQ Team, which also shows off its trophies.

For Christmas, I wrapped my wife a map of Florida. “What does this mean?” she asked as she opened it. “Barbecue, of course,” was my answer. The location was Lakeland, home of a barbecue competition since 1997. The Lakeland Pigfest is unusual in many respects – long-standing tradition of the event, the high number of cooking teams that compete (which also requires a lot of judges), and the organizers’ ability to raise money for charity.

Tigertown in Lakeland is the home of the Pigfest.

What began as a small festival has grown into a major regional event attended by more than 30,000. The crowd keeps growing each year in part because the pigfest has no admission charge (only a parking fee) and cooking teams are encouraged to sell their barbecue at the event. However, cash sales are not permitted. Instead Pig Bucks are the tender for the day. When the festival ends, the organizers keep 20 percent for charities and return the other 80 percent to the cooking teams.

Pig Bucks are the currency to buy anything at the festival,

So many cooking teams apply, the festival now has two divisions: “pro” for very competitive teams and early registrants, and “backyard” for all others. Because the number of teams in the pro division is limited, the backyard contest includes many excellent teams as well as local teams who are improving their competitive skills. Because both divisions follow the rules of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, each one is a sanctioned event.

More than 30,000 attend the Lakeland Pigfest.

At the 19th annual pigfest that I attended, more than 170 cooking teams turned in their best barbecue in the four KCBS-sanctioned categories: chicken, pork ribs, pork, and beef brisket. I was one of the judges for the backyard contest. At the table where I was assigned, other judges have been organizers of events in other states, long-term master judges who have been at more than 100 events, and novices who were judging for the first time.

Judges relax in Hanger #2 of Tigertown before cooking teams turn in their first entries.

Being at the Lakeland Pigfest showed me how a community can successfully use a barbecue contest to benefit its area. The festival has given more than $1 million to local charities, and its “pro” winner is the Florida state champion. In addition to the contests for adult cooking teams, a special competition for only children has been held since 2004 to nurture their interests in preparing barbecue.

The kids competition, a popular part of the Pigfest, guarantees young winners.

Being in Lakeland was a great way to enjoy barbecue festivities, participate as a judge, and appreciate the warm temperatures of Florida in January. It’s a plan that needs to be repeated.

The Swine Dynasty cooking team displays trophies won at past events.

Another Throwdown on the Charleston Harbor

Charleston is such a favorite place that I returned for another Smoke on the Harbor BBQ Throwdown. My experience in 2013 created many fond memories, and last year’s event continued to be unsurpassed throughout 2014 as I participated as a judge at other events.

Perfect weather drew a large crowd again to the Throwdown.

The competition this year was again a great event: superior location, large crowd, perfect weather, excellent organization, superior cooking teams and tasty meat. The only surprise: No team could surpass Killer B’s again this year. The winner of the 2013 contest repeated as grand champion, and its score this year was even higher than in 2013.

Cooking teams certainly know how to travel in style.

The public again showed up in droves and lingered for hours. A huge crowd enjoyed the music, food, and sampling. In addition to admission fee (which was cut in half with a donation to the local food bank), sampling tickets sold for $1. Sampling of pork butts cooked by teams was available after 1 p.m. However, for hours well before the public began arriving at 11 a.m., spirals of smoke rose from the cooking area.

No Throwdown can be planned without signs pointing to BBQ.

Although each team had received eight butts to prepare barbecue for the public, several teams ran out of samples by mid-afternoon – an indication of everyone’s interest in evaluating the skills of the cooking teams and voting for a favorite in the People’s Choice Award.

Samples of cooked pork are served to the public who vote for the People's Choice Award.

After all the votes were counted, the favorite barbecue team and the winner of the People’s Choice Award was Swig & Swine, a team from Charleston. Because it’s a full-service catering company as well as a restaurant, name recognition may have helped it in garnering the most votes.

Winner of the People's Choice was the appropriately named Swig & Swine team.

Dates for the fourth annual throwdown, which again will be sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, have already been set for 2015 (the weekend of Nov. 12-14), and several cooking teams were discussing plans to return. With a total cash prize purse of $6,150, this event will continue to be popular in the Southeast. I hope to be with them again as a judge.

I hope to see this sign again next year.

In the Tradition Appreciated by a Community and Beyond

A trip to Hemingway, SC, has been a goal of mine for some time. The destination is Scott’s Variety Store and Bar-B-Que. This business has been a local community favorite for more than four decades because the barbecue that the Scott family serves has no equal. More recently, it has won national acclaim for the “cut, chop, cook” style — cut the wood, chop it up, and slow-smoke whole hogs all night — embraced by Rodney Scott, pitmaster for the family’s business.

The Scott family opened its business in 1972; the weathered church pew out front is used frequently by customers.

The tin-roofed store, which opened in 1972, once focused on dry goods and included a pool hall before the business swung decidedly to barbecue. Initially, whole hogs were smoked on only Thursdays. My, how times have changed. Selling the area’s best barbecue is now the goal, although the variety store still has a few items on its shelves. Some shelves are empty, but customers rarely notice because they are here for barbecue.

The menu board lists barbecue from a sandwich to a whole hog.

Scott is admired for his skills in the pits. However, before cooking the hogs, he also cuts all the wood himself with a chainsaw. With smoldering oak and hickory coals burning brightly in each pit, Scott monitors hogs weighing up to 150 pounds as they are smoked and mops them with peppery vinegar. The master of the pits has been cooking whole hogs since he was 11.

The cut hardwood behind the store is ready to be chopped; the telltale sign of smoke lets you know that the burn barrels are active.

Lots of customers take orders to go by the half pound and more. The to-go business is easy to understand. There’s no place inside to sit and eat. A weathered church pew on the front porch is about the only place someone can sit and eat on the premises. That’s where I sat and enjoyed pulled pork served with two slices of bread in a Styrofoam clamshell. The simplicity of the container matches the simplicity of the pulled pork barbecue prepared so deliciously.

Hardwood breaks down into coals as it's burned in five-foot barrels.

While I was there, I was able to visit the pits, which consist of two long concrete bunkers. Each one is fed hot coals from the burn barrels to cook hogs suspended above the heat by chicken wire. No other customers seemed interested in checking out the pits, a sign that they were locals and considered the pit area so functional with nothing to admire. However, the salvaged industrial piping and junked truck axles in the burn barrels seemed to me as artistic as any treasured folk art.

The pit area constantly stays busy.

The customers also seemed unimpressed to be ordering barbecue prepared by someone who has received so much attention. In July 2011, Time magazine heralded Scott for personifying “everything people admire about barbecue.”

Grocery items are still on the shelves for sale but more space is being taken over to document the recognition of Rodney Scott's pitmaster skills.

Two year earlier, on June 9, 2009, The New York Times exposed Scott, then 37, to the world in an article by John T. Edge, a food writer and director of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In the following year, SFA produced the documentary “Chop/Cut/Smoke” about Scott’s approach to whole hog cooking. Edge also extended the recognition of Scott in an article for Saveur on how barbecue is being preserved as an art form.

A plaque commemorates the initial showing of the "Cut/Chop/Cook" documentary by the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Rumors that Scott is planning a “city” restaurant in Charleston with his barbecue have started to circulate. I can’t imagine it would ever compete with the charm of the family’s variety store in Hemingway. Let’s hope that the barbecue and the approach for preparing it don’t change either.

Hot coals are added to the pits regularly as hogs are smoked.

Returning to Fiddle-N-Pig Shindig

When I had judged at several events after my first one in Fort Mill, SC, I realized that Fiddle-N-Pig Shindig was a festival that I wanted to return to as a judge. The venue was fantastic, the contest was well run, a large crowd was entertained with music and food, and the judges were treated especially nice.

Contest organizers set up one of their festival tents.

When publicity for the Fiddle-N-Pig Shindig in 2014 began, I immediately sent a request to be a judge and hoped that sending in an application early as well as being a returning judge would bring positive news. I soon received notice that I could be a judge again and began looking forward to making a return visit to Fort Mill and seeing if my initial favorable impressions were still valid after having been a judge at five other events in the interim. They were.

Teams come with their favorite woods for cooking and smoking their meats.

The number of cooking teams that entered the Shindig for 2014 almost doubled. In 2013, only 21 teams had entered. This year the number was 35, which means that more judges would also be needed than last year. In addition, the prize money was increased from $5,370 to $11,500 – a great enticement for cooking teams to sign up.

Cookers of every variety can be seen in use by the cooking teams.

Otherwise, the event had a lot of similarities to the 2013 contest. Because the KCBS representative and the organizer were the same, much of the event was conducted as it had been last year. The judges again convened in the quaint Dairy Barn, and perfect weather was in store for another year that guaranteed a good crowd for the barbecue and music.

Judges again meet in the Dairy Barn to evaluate entries.

Being at Fiddle-N-Pig again showed me how much I had learned about judging barbecue since last year. In 2013, I was somewhat apprehensive in scoring entries, and this year I was much more confident. The experiences of the past contests also gave me a useful baseline to evaluate entries and to appreciate well-prepared barbecue.

One team begins to prepare the garnish early to earn high scores for appearance.

Should I apply to be a judge at Fiddle-N-Pig Shindig in 2015? Why not? It has been a great experience so far.

Teams display past trophies, such as the Blowin' Smoke team that won the people's choice contest in 2013.