Looking for great barbecue? Tastes and traditions are expanding.
BY KURT DUSTERBERG
Christopher Prieto is acquainted with all the finer points of the barbecue game. The owner of Prime Barbecue in Knightdale is a champion pitmaster, an author and a celebrity chef who has appeared on the Food Network.
So whenever the topic turns to his lifelong culinary passion, he is well aware that strong opinions will follow.
“Anytime you’re in a barbecue state and talk about barbecue, it’s always an introduction to an argument,” Prieto says. “There’s a lot of history when it comes to North Carolina barbecue, and you have to give reverence to that.”
While states like North Carolina and Texas have long been at the forefront of the cuisine, barbecue has its own traditions in towns across the country. In the Tar Heel State, the conversation often comes down to eastern style (whole hog, with a vinegar and pepper base) versus Lexington or western style (pork shoulder, with a red sauce made from tomatoes).
But today, those general differences give way to endless variations of tasty pork dishes. Sam Jones, who owns Sam Jones BBQ in Raleigh and Winterville (near Greenville), puts it a different way. “There ain’t a nickel’s worth of difference between two pigs,” he says. “Barbecue is defined by geography. What you call barbecue is defined by what piece of dirt you are standing on.”
Prieto started his first barbecue pit as a 13-year-old in Richmond, Texas. His dad loved pork, and Christopher wanted to cook it for him. “Right then and there,” he says, “I knew I wanted to be a barbecue man.”
That was 1995, and in the years that followed, traditions began to blur.
“People are now seeing this on their [social media] feeds, they’re traveling a lot more, people are experiencing a lot more,” says Prieto, who often cooks with Puerto Rican seasonings to honor his family’s heritage. “When I got into the competition circuit, I realized how vast people’s palates are and how beautiful it is to cultivate the different tastes and flavor profiles. The same North Carolina traditions are also carried in other states, and there’s a lot to be looked at there. It’s something to be admired.”
Jones has seen similar trends in barbecue. His grandfather, Pete Jones, opened the renowned Skylight Inn in Ayden in 1947. Sam got his first taste of the barbecue business while wiping down tables at age 9. Today he owns the landmark restaurant, which made its reputation in the whole-hog tradition. “In eastern North Carolina, everybody raised hogs,” Jones says. “That was the most economical way to feed a large number of people.”
But like other pitmasters, he saw that the barbecue game was changing. “Those lines get blurry because barbecue got a renaissance about 10 or 12 years ago, where it wasn’t peasant food anymore,” he says. “About 20 years ago, Southern food became part of a cuisine that wealthy people appreciated. That’s when barbecue came out of the culinary armpit.”
Prieto’s answer to the wide variety of pork traditions is to embrace all of it. “If I want a traditional Carolina whole hog, I’m going straight to Ayden,” he says. “I’m going to eat some chopped whole hog at one of Sam’s places with the cornbread and hushpuppies and that slaw.” And what about South Carolina, with its peculiar tradition? “Even mustard on chopped pork. It’s something to be admired.”
Prieto travels the country, sharing his cooking skills at private and corporate events. But locals can take part in his Ultimate School of Barbecue, held four times a year at his Knightdale restaurant. The events are suited for beginners and seasoned pitmasters alike. Guests learn to make brisket, whole hog barbecue, pork belly bacon and more. The class also covers meat selection, seasoning profiles, preparation and cooking details.
“It takes reps. You cannot be great out of the gate,” Prieto says. “No one is. I don’t just teach you how to cook a brisket, I teach you the psychology of what I went through to get to this point.”
Of course, cooking a whole hog is not an enterprise to be taken lightly. The process involves cooking with combustible coal or wood at low temperatures to ensure the correct tenderness. And the entire preparation process involves more than a day. Prieto says it typically takes nine hours to cook a pig, while a brisket needs 19 hours on a smoker, “with a real wood fire and a real human being here 24 hours a day, tending that fire every 45 minutes.”
Jones offers a pretty good start-to-finish explanation of the process. “You take a whole hog, split that backbone, put it on a pit and you start burning your wood down. And you start shoveling coals under it. When that thing starts rendering, it’s dripping fat onto the coals. Plumes of smoke rise up from the coal bed and interact with that meat. Smoke only interacts with meat until it gets to a certain temperature. During that time frame, there is something that transpires that you cannot replace with anything else.”
By the time your favorite pork dish reaches the table at a local barbecue joint, a lot of work has gone into your meal. That’s why Jones offers a friendly reminder. “I hear people say, ‘I can’t believe my barbecue sandwich costs $8.50.’ I’m thinking, do you realize that that comes from a whole animal that someone started interacting with 24 hours ago?”
Once you settle on a pork option, there’s also the issue of side dishes. And again, how you round out the plate depends on where you are served. At Sam Jones BBQ you can choose from the classics, including sweet slaw, baked beans, mac and cheese and cornbread. But in a nod to the modern-day barbecue world, Prieto suggests that classic sides belong with classic barbecue dinners. “Baked beans, mac and cheese, coleslaw … those things have to be excellent,” he says. “They have to complement the meat you’re serving. I can’t make a Skylight Inn coleslaw and make it complement my shoulder or my whole hog. It’s just not going to make sense. It’s two different flavor profiles.”
If all of the choices seem like too much, Jones says the best option is to go old school.
“My style is a barbecue sandwich, chopped, no sides,” he says. “A barbecue sandwich with extra coleslaw. The sweetness of the coleslaw balances out the acidity of the pork and the vinegar.”
And for those who see themselves as a potential pitmaster, Prieto offers some encouragement.
“I am a dyslexic ‘C’ student who just happened to really like barbecue. If I can come to a point of mastery, anyone can.”
A key ingredient for Christopher Prieto’s barbecue is hospitality. He spoke with us in-depth about his approach to barbecue, his restaurant in Knightdale and what serving others means to him. Read our story BEYOND THE FLAME here, which includes grilling tips and a recipe for Texas Twinkies from this James Beard semifinalist.
