Black Smoke , livre ebook

BLACK SMOKE
BLACK SMOKE
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE UNITED STATES OF BARBECUE
ADRIAN MILLER

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
Chapel Hill
This book was published under the MARCIE COHEN FERRIS AND WILLIAM R. FERRIS IMPRINT of the University of North Carolina Press.
2021 Adrian Miller
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Richard Hendel
Set in Chaparral and Publicity Gothic by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover photograph courtesy of Andrew Thomas Lee, www.andrewthomaslee.com .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Miller, Adrian, author.
Title: Black smoke : African Americans and the United States of barbecue / Adrian Miller.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2021] | A Ferris and Ferris book. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020051252 | ISBN 9781469662800 (cloth) | ISBN 9781469662817 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH : Barbecuing-United States. | African American cooking. | African American cooks.
Classification: LCC TX 840. B 3 M 529 2021 | DDC 641.7/60973-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051252
The recipe for Spicy Grilled Kebabs (Dibi Hausa) Pierre Thiam. Reprinted by permission from YOLELE! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam 2008 Lake Isle Press, Inc.
For celebrated, underappreciated, and undiscovered Black barbecuers everywhere.
CONTENTS
Introduction: Kindling My Barbecue Passion
1 Pit Smoked: Barbecue s Native American Foundation
2 How Did Barbeque Get So Black?
3 Burnt Offerings: Barbecue in African American Church Culture
4 Rising Smoke: The Ascendancy of the African American Barbecue Specialist
5 Barbecue Is My Business: The Emergence of African American Barbecue Entrepreneurs
6 Black Barbeque Is Beautiful: Toward an African American Barbeque Aesthetic
7 Liquid Black Smoke: The Primacy of Sauce
8 Short-Circuited: African Americans and Competition Barbecue
9 Blowing Smoke: The Fading Media Representation of African American Barbecuers
10 Glowing Embers: The Future of African American Barbecue
Tending the Fire
My Favorite African American Barbecue Restaurants
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES
Piercing sticks
Rotating spit
Raised platform
Vertical hole
Shallow pit
Henry Poppa Miller, Leavenworth, Kansas
Arkansas Post map, circa 1820
Old Arthur Watts as a young man
Georgia Barbecue Sauce Company newspaper advertisement
Charles W. Allen, Lexington, Virginia
Daddy Bruce Randolph Sr., Denver, Colorado
African American barbecuers in action
Columbus B. Hill, Denver, Colorado
Woody Smith, Arlington, Kentucky
Henry Perry newspaper advertisement, Kansas City, Missouri
John Henry Doc Hamilton, Seattle, Washington
Ernestine VanDuvall, Nicodemus, Kansas
Man slicing barbecue, Gonzales, Texas
Arthur Bryant and St. Peter at the Pearly Gates
Argia B. Collins, Chicago, Illinois
Deborah and Mary Jones, Jones Bar-B-Q, Kansas City, Kansas
Sylvie Curry, Los Angeles, California
Moe Cason, Des Moines, Iowa
Rodney Scott, Charleston, South Carolina
Chef Kenny Gilbert, Jacksonville, Florida
Ed and Ryan Mitchell, Raleigh, North Carolina
COLOR PLATES
Who s Who in American Barbecue
Sylvie Curry s Lady of Q logo
Helen Turner tending the fire pit, Brownsville, Tennessee
Chopped pork sandwich with mustard slaw, Payne s Bar-B-Q, Memphis, Tennessee
Ed Mitchell s ball cap displaying an enduring message, Raleigh, North Carolina
Outdoor menu sign, Backyard BBQ, Durham, North Carolina
Steve Grady by the pit, Grady s Bar-B-Q, Dudley, North Carolina
Savoring the moment at Bon Gout BBQ, Miami, Florida
RECIPES
Dave Anderson s Legendary Pit Barbecue Ribs
The Sioux Chef s Grilled Bison Skewers with Wojape
Freddie Wheeler s Hot Honey Sauce
Chef Pierre Thiam s Spicy Grilled Kebabs (Dibi Hausa)
Old Arthur s Pork Belly Burnt Ends
Mashed Potato Salad
Jason Pough s Smoked Cabbage
Henrietta Dull s Whole Hog Barbecue
Butter Sauce
Chef Michelle Wallace s Pork Belly, Fried Egg, and Sweet Potato Biscuit Sandwiches
C. B. Stubb s Bar-B-Q Brisket
Otis P. Boyd s Famous Hot Link Sausage
Chef Ricky Moore s Smoked Mullet with Cider-Sorghum Syrup Glaze
MUMBO -Glazed Shrimp Salad
Daddy Bruce s Barbecue Sauce
Sylvie Curry s Grilled Rack of Lamb Marinated in Rosemary-Garlic Infused Olive Oil with Mint-Parsley Chimichurri Sauce
Big Moe s Memphis-Style Chicken
Johnetta Miller s Banana Pudding
Vallery Lomas s Peach Cobbler
Chef Kenny Gilbert s Alligator Ribs
Ed Mitchell s Mother s Whole Turkey Barbecue-Eastern North Carolina Style
SIDEBARS
In the Smoke with Henry Poppa Miller
In the Smoke with Marie Jean: A Barbecue Woman Who Built a Freedom Fund
In the Smoke with Old Arthur Watts: Showing that Barbecuing Never Gets Old
In the Smoke with Charles W. Allen: The Barbecue Missionary
In the Smoke with Daddy Bruce Randolph Sr. (1900-1994): A Gracious Plenty of Barbecue
In the Smoke with Columbus B. Hill: Legendary Barbecue Man in the West
In the Smoke with Woody Smith and His Barbecue Tree
In the Smoke with John Henry Doc Hamilton: Black Barbecue s Bad Boy
In the Smoke with Ernestine VanDuvall: An Exoduster Legacy in Barbecue (February 16, 1921-May 25, 2004)
In the Sauce with Argia B. Collins: Mumbo s the Word
In the Sauce with Deborah and Mary Jones: Keeping Up with the Jones Barbecue Sisters
In the Smoke with Sylvie Curry, the Barbecue Competition Circuit s Lady of Q
In the Smoke with Moe Cason: Brand Barbecue!
In the Smoke with Rodney Scott: Changing the Barbecue Game
In the Smoke with Chef Kenny Gilbert: Barbecue Innovator
In the Smoke with Ed and Ryan Mitchell: North Carolina Barbecue s Dynamic Duo
BLACK SMOKE
INTRODUCTION
KINDLING MY BARBECUE PASSION

If Black people ever had a national flag, it would be the Black Power fist holding a rib!-As told to the late Barbecue Poet Jake Adam York by an anonymous African American man, circa 2012
Luke, you re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.-As told to Luke Skywalker by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master, in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, 1983
Dude! You smell like bacon. I mean, like, reeeeaallly bad. Those words greeted me when I returned from lunch to the oppressively small office in the Colorado State Capitol that I shared with Leslie Herod, a fellow policy staffer for Governor Bill Ritter Jr. Herod s rebuke dry-rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons. First, she was horribly imprecise. My perfumed state wasn t caused by bacon. It was from a barbecue meal that I had recently consumed at Boney s Smokehouse (known simply as Boney s)-a Black-owned barbecue restaurant in downtown Denver. Second, I figured, that particular smell should be welcome in most social situations. Why call me out so vociferously? Third, I had to admit that she had a point. Unbeknown to Leslie, within precisely three hours from her olfactory observation, I desperately needed to smell clean. Why? I had a blind date with Barbara. At least, I ll call her Barbara because I like how it sounds like barbecue and I want to protect her privacy.
I m not going to lie. I panicked. All week long, I had anticipated my date with Barbara, and I felt that I was about to seriously mess things up. Given the nature of my job as a senior policy analyst for Governor Ritter, I didn t have enough time to go home, bathe, change clothes, return, and still get all of my work done. I also tried, to no avail, to find some Febreze or a similar deodorizer. All of those people in that big, old building, and I couldn t find one bottle. I felt that had no other choice. I called Barbara, made up an excuse, and asked if we could reschedule. I just didn t want her thinking that I had a hygiene problem. After all, it wasn t like we had been connected through www.bbqpeoplemeet.com . If, by chance, you think I should have gone ahead with the date, I m guessing that you ve been either married, or single, for a very long time .
Though I was looking for Barbara s love, my love for barbecue was responsible for the fateful chain of events that began to unwind that very day. That morning, a longtime friend visiting from Washington, D.C., had called me and asked if I was free for lunch. I immediately thought about taking him to Boney s. It was close to the state capitol, and they serve a nice spread of Memphis-style barbecue. Two years earlier, Boney s enjoyed a fleeting moment of international attention when then vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden stopped by its small kiosk on Denver s 16th Street Mall. Biden was in town for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and with about a hundred admirers and press corps in tow, he ordered five pulled pork sandwiches and some lemonade. Presumably, the generous order was for his family back at the hotel.
In addition to the kiosk, Boney s owners ran a restaurant located several blocks south on the same pedestrian mall. That s where my friend and I chatted and blissfully munched on the Smokehouse Sampler-a quarter pound each of beef brisket, pulled pork, spicy beef hot link sausage, slic