MAKING WHOLE HOG BARBECUE IS not an easy undertaking. It’s time- and labor-intensive, and each step requires precision. Chop wood. Dig a pit. Build supports for the hog. Start a fire. Clean and season the hog. Roast the hog on a spit above wood coals. Then, cook low and slow for approximately nine hours.
This procedure means more than a meal to be enjoyed. It represents a long legacy of African-American pitmasters, one that is in danger of disappearing. Rocket scientist and pitmaster Dr. Howard Conyers is trying to change that.
Conyers grew up in South Carolina, five miles from where his family was enslaved prior to the Civil War. Living on land that his family had owned for generations, he enjoyed how whole hog barbecue brought his family together at occasions throughout the year. But Conyers, growing up with the custom, “took it for granted” that it would always be around. “My whole life was whole hog,” he says.
Source: Meet the Rocket Scientist Who’s Also a Whole Hog Pitmaster
