Barbecue: The History of an American Institution

290 Pages·2010·3.481 MB·English

by  Robert F. Moss

RobeRt F. Moss
The University of Alabama Press M Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2010
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
The recipes in this book are intended to be followed
as written by the author. Results will vary.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeface: Adobe Caslon Pro
Designer: Michele Myatt Quinn
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moss, Robert F.
Barbecue : the history of an American institution / Robert F. Moss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8173-1718-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Barbecue
cooking—United States. 2. Barbecue cooking—History—United
States. I. Title.
TX840.B3M687 2010
′
641.76—dc22
2010005683
For my father

5
Acknowledgments ix

Introduction
1
1 MBarbecue in Colonial America
5
2 MBarbecue and the Early Republic
24
3 MThe Barbecue Comes of Age
54
4 MBarbecue and the Civil War
82
5 MBarbecue, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age
98
6 MThe Rise of Barbecue Restaurants
126
7 MBarbecue Finds the Backyard
177
8 MThe Golden Age of Barbecue
194
9 MThe Decline and Rebirth of American Barbecue
217
notes 243
RefeRences 265
Index 269

Acknowledgments
5
This project began almost ten years ago when I went to the University of South Caro-
lina library to read about the history of barbecue. I discovered, to my surprise, that not
only had no one written a full book on the subject but there really wasn’t much histori-
cal research published on barbecue at all. For several years I haphazardly collected old
newspaper stories and diary entries about barbecue and slowly began piecing together
the story. This research eventually evolved into a book. During that time, I had two
children, changed jobs three times, and moved cities and houses three times, too.
As with any project with this long a gestation, there are dozens of people who helped
along the way, and I am sure I will forget more than a few of those who deserve thanks.
John Shelton Reed shared valuable research, encouragement, and much-needed advice
as I was finishing this book and trying to figure out how to get it published. I owe him
and Dale Vosberg Reed a big blowout at Hominy Grill. Jeff Allen and John T. Edge
read chapters from the manuscript, and their comments helped make it better.
By the time I’d gotten seriously underway on this project, Robert W. Trogdon had
already been exiled to the barbecueless backwoods of Ohio, but he and I ate a lot of
mustard-sauced pork together in Columbia, South Carolina, and he helped fuel my
early passion for the subject.
The Interlibrary Loan Staff at the Charleston County Public Library were invaluable
in helping me complete my work far from the walls of a research library, and Ray Quiel
of San Bernardino, California, was very generous in providing material on the early
McDonald’s restaurants back before they gave up barbecue in favor of hamburgers.
The whole team at The University of Alabama Press has done a remarkable job of
taking an unwieldy manuscript and turning it into a finished book, and I thank them
all for their efforts.