For far too long, the narrative around barbecue has been white. Even as it became something akin to common knowledge that African Americans played a primary role in American barbecue’s origin story, contemporary African American barbecue cooks weren’t given the same due as their white counterparts. Adrian Miller’saims to remedy this by telling the stories of the Black pitmasters and restaurateurs who developed the Southern culinary tradition.
Now that Willie’s death was imminent, the family gathered. Not solely for Willie’s final arrangements but for one last attempt to coax the complete barbecue sauce recipe out of him. Marcella was a woman who took pride in her appearance — so much so that she never, ever, let Willie see her without makeup. At the appointed time, she dressed “to the nines” and set the scene for the final ask. “Now, Willie,” she said as she stroked his hair, “We want you to be comfortable.
For many Black people, in life and death, barbecue isn’t the real deal unless it has sauce, and it’s long been that way. As historian Ophelia Pinkard quipped, “The bar-b-q sauce for the meat is a ‘work of art.’ Each Juneteenth an effort is made to foster the bar-b-q sauce as the talk of the day. When word is passed on about so-and-so’s bar-b-q sauce, people come from ‘miles around’ just to taste that sauce.
Requesting a recipe for barbecue sauce is one of the unpardonable breaches of Harlem etiquette that the uninitiated may commit. The restaurant keepers are as generous in giving information on most points of the cuisine as they are with portions of the food itself, but the secret of barbecue sauce is something else. The only certain way of obtaining such a recipe is to wheedle it from a private cook untroubled by thoughts of it reaching a competitor’s kitchen. . . .
This is one distinction of the Black barbecue tradition that has lost its punch because American palates have warmed overall. Now one can get an incendiary sauce at any restaurant. In fact, it’s quite expected. A number of barbecue sauce makers are hell-bent on creating the hottest sauce on the market. It’s an interesting trend, but I wonder how much things are out of whack when people sign a legal release, have lots of dairy products on hand , and wear gloves and goggles before eating.
soulfoodscholar It's a very fair take....
MichLovesMoney soulfoodscholar sauce or gravy - oxtail gravy on almost everything 😂
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