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BrooklynQ
10-28-2006, 10:55 AM
Wood-cooked barbecue fights faster, cheaper cooking




By JAMIE SCHUMAN : The Herald-Sun

CHAPEL HILL -- Keith Allen's daily routine of cutting, cooking, chopping and seasoning begins at 2:30 a.m.

That's when he cuts the hickory logs used to cook the pork at Allen & Son Barbecue, one of the area's last pit-style barbecue restaurants.

Once the meat is done, Allen chops it with two cleavers and seasons it with buckets of sauce.

The resulting 'cue smacks of hickory smoke and avoids the uniformity of some machine-processed meat.

Although pit restaurants such as Allen & Son attract scores of barbecue purists, the preparation style is becoming less common.

More restaurants are using gas or electric ovens, a faster, cheaper method, barbecue experts say. And when the meat is sauced up, it can be hard to tell how it was cooked.

Still, some say the state is losing a link to its past as pit-style restaurants close or modernize.

"That's the type of barbecue cooking that is our history, our heritage, our culture," said Jim Early, founder of the North Carolina Barbecue Society, which promotes the state's barbecue tradition. "We don't want it to disappear."

When Allen bought his restaurant in 1970, pit cooking was common. But as the years passed, more people realized it is quicker and less labor intensive to cook with indoor equipment, said Allen, the owner and only cook at Allen & Son.

Allen's job is nothing short of labor intensive.

He starts the process before some college students go to bed, and sometimes doesn't finish until around 9 at night.

First comes the cutting. By a woodpile behind the restaurant, which is off of N.C. 86 on the way to Hillsborough, he uses simple tools, such as an ax, to cut the hickory. No electricity here.

Then he cooks. The fire pit and two ovens are in a small room so hot and smoky that Allen's doctor has to give him tips on reducing smoke inhalation.

Allen tends the fire with a large shovel every 30 minutes for the nine hours it burns. He must be careful about how much coal he moves into the ovens or the meat could burn or undercook.

After the cooking comes the chopping, about 180 pounds of meat at a time on an industrial-sized table. Cleavers in each in hand, Allen pounds with the rhythm and dexterity of a concert percussionist.

The seasoning is more like a dousing. A tub of salt, then two 40-quart buckets of homemade, vinegar-based sauce. (The other ingredients are secret. Allen wouldn't even tell celebrity chef Rachel Ray when she visited.)

He does that routine of cutting, cooking, chopping and seasoning every day the restaurant is open. Allen is the only employee who cooks. When he's on vacation, the place shuts down.

"It's hard to find somebody that's capable, somebody that takes it to heart, somebody who really wants to do it that way," he said.

Pit-style restaurants are dying in part because it's getting harder to find people to do the manual labor the job entails, said Early, who wrote "The Best Tar Heel Barbecue: Manteo to Murphy."

Restaurants with electric ovens don't need people to stand guard over the fire or skilled pitmasters.

The pit method also is pricier than the alternative, said Early, who lives in Winston-Salem. The cost of insurance tends to be higher and wood can be expensive.

Pressure from environmentalists and zoning laws also make it tough on new pit places, Early said.

For Bob McConnell, a Raleigh resident who calls barbecue sandwiches "one of the great truths of life," the change is a shame.

Though he admits to liking all barbecue and sometimes has trouble distinguishing preparation styles, he said he likes the ambiance of pit places, such as Allen & Son.

"Something about the whole thing, it suits me," McConnell said from the restaurant's simple, wood-paneled dining room.

Through a cracked windowpane, he could see woodpiles and the pit smoke drifting to the sky.

Early doesn't want restaurants such as Allen & Son to go away.

He's working with politicians in Raleigh to get laws that enable wood cooking, and he's trying to tie the method to the international Slow Food movement.

He's also designing a historic barbecue trail, which will use road signs to mark about 25 highly regarded pit restaurants from across the state. Allen & Son is to be a stop on that trail.

"It's part of our cultural heritage in North Carolina," Early said of pit cooking. "We've been quick to tout we are the First in Flight. We have been remiss in touting we are the cradle of 'cue."

Meanwhile, Allen does his cutting, cooking, chopping and seasoning day in and day out in the back of the small roadside restaurant that smells like a giant campfire.

And people such as McConnell keep coming for the food.

"I keep doing it because the customer seems to be pleased," said Allen, who calls himself a "vegetable person."

bbqjoe
10-28-2006, 12:32 PM
Long live true barbecue with real wood!!!

Rockaway BeachBQ
10-28-2006, 01:52 PM
Maybe on day Barbecue restaraunts will be able to get certified as true wood smoked establishments. That way you won't have to sort through all of the crap.

Kevin
10-28-2006, 01:59 PM
Maybe on day Barbecue restaraunts will be able to get certified as true wood smoked establishments. That way you won't have to sort through all of the crap.

You may be onto something there. Certified Angus Beef (CAB) was just some beef marketer's idea one day. Look at it now.

tumpedover
10-28-2006, 02:02 PM
That's the way you do it. I just don't know what were coming too ....... Ain't no love in gas and electricity.
Juanito

Sawdustguy
10-28-2006, 02:06 PM
I wouldn't eat Que unless it was cooked with wood. Up here on LI most joints cook with wood. Of course I always cook with wood. Ah hell, I think I will just cook myself.

Sledneck
10-28-2006, 03:29 PM
Thats it im boycotting willie b

Sawdustguy
10-28-2006, 05:13 PM
Why Steve? Willie cooks with Cherry instead of Hickory.

Sledneck
10-28-2006, 05:17 PM
according \to keith allen willie is not a purist by using a gas assisited cooker, i feel ashamed that i want to purchase a pellet cooker