In North Carolina, pork barbeque is the one food that has become the object of regional rivalries, and many a family has handed down unique recipes for sauces for generations.
Cultural Geography is the study of the distribution and diffusion of social values, traditions, home-grown technologies, and regional particulars such as food. In North Carolina, pork barbeque is the one food that has become the object of regional rivalries, and many a family has handed down unique recipes for sauces for generations. Some variants include clam juice, ice tea, orange juice, honey, and crushed apples. However, there are two broad categories that represent regional preferences, eastern and western styles. The base of the eastern sauce is vinegar, black and red pepper, and something sweet such as sugar or molasses, whereas the western sauce includes catsup. As stated above, many ingredients can be added to these bases; however, adding mustard makes it a South Carolina sauce. This short narrative describes the making of barbeque in the context of an ordinary day in rural North Carolina.
The Johnson family farm is located in Bladen County, North Carolina, about three miles from the Northeast Cape Fear River. It is a place where you can see the stars without interference from streetlights on a clear winter night. Sounds ordinarily unheard over the din of traffic in urban areas can carry for miles in the country. Here, the mind is unmolested by petty intrusions, and any work you might do yields results that you can see.
Cynthia took a shovel load of coals from the fire and spread it evenly on the top of a small mound set to the side of the burning logs. In a small pit under the mound is a pork shoulder wrapped in layers of aluminum foil. Her brother J.J. and his friends had just returned from the fields and were unhooking the planter from the tractor. You could see them from the hill parking their tractors in the barn. The pork had been cooking for about nine hours as she tended a fire on hill leading down to the branch. A much larger pile of logs burned in a depression near the water. When seen from the hill, the onset of night made the fire below appear like a lava flow. It would be smoldering for days. Cynthia pushed her shovel into the ashes and removed several sweet potatoes wrapped in foil. She tosses the potatoes on the ground beside the fire. Carefully, she separates the glowing embers from the sweet potatoes with the tip of the shovel. One at a time, she places each on a log away from the fire. When these sweet potatoes were cut open, she added butter and cinnamon. She scooped the foil-wrapped bundle from the ashes and tosses it into the grass. After rolling it around in the grass to remove any remaining ash, she pushed it onto a platter with a stick. The pork shoulder sizzled, and a plume of steam hot enough to burn rose from the bundle when she cut open the foil. After a few minutes, she opens the bundle and started removing huge chunks of meat with a fork. The meat is so tender that it falls from the bone, moist and delicious! Katie, a farm dog, waited longingly for her share.