Barbecue Crossroads: Notes & Recipes from a Southern Odyssey

Barbecue Crossroads is a journey through the rich history of Southern barbecue, taking readers on a culinary odyssey from East Texas to the Carolinas and back.

With recipes for succulent pork shoulders, whole hogs, savory beef, sausage, mutton, and even barbecued baloney, this cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes - it's a trip back to the roots of our oldest artisan food tradition.

The authors trace the lineage of Southern barbecue backwards through time as they travel across a part of the country where slow-cooked meat has long been part of everyday life, visiting legendary joints and discovering unknown places along the way.

They also expose the ways that race weaves in and out of the barbecue story, from African American cooking techniques and recipes to the tastes of migrant farmworkers who ate their barbecue in meat markets, gas stations, and convenience stores because they weren’t welcome in restaurants.

The book also explores how corporatizing of agriculture is making it difficult for pitmasters to afford hickory wood or find whole hogs that fit on a pit, and how barbecue competitions and TV shows are undermining traditional barbecue culture.

But ultimately, the authors remind us of the revival of the community barbecue tradition as its salvation.

With stunning photographs and detailed recipes, Barbecue Crossroads is a must-read for any barbecue lover looking to deepen their understanding of this beloved Southern tradition.