Post #12: David Brown's Hickory House

 This isn't as much about barbecue as it is about my dad, David Brown. Back in his early 30's, Dad decided he was going into the barbecue business. He learned the tricks of the trade from an elderly black man in eastern North Carolina, and used it to become one of the best barbecue "pitmasters" in the South.

In this 1981 article, The New York Times ran a story on his barbecue, and business boomed. It was hard work, lugging around dead pigs and cutting wood, and he kept awful hours, smoking pigs through the night, but it was rewarding.

A lot has changed in the barbecue business since, and now you see full-size restaurants instead of pits. But this article from the Times illustrates just what being in the barbecue business was all about three decades ago:

IN THE SOUTH, BARBECUE IS THE SPECIALTY

By PATRICIA WELLS

Published: March 25, 1981

"WINNSBORO, S.C. A YEAR and a half ago, David Brown quit his job as a sand salesman, bought an abandoned drive— in movie projection shack just off Highway 321 and opened David Brown's Hickory House Pit Bar-B-Q. Building his business by word of mouth, Mr. Brown now sells more than 1,000 pounds of hickory-smoked, vinegar- and pepper-spiced pork each week. When the restaurant is closed, he caters wedding dinners and banquets.

''People over 25 are fed up with hamburger, they want flavor, they want a change,'' said the 31-year-old South Carolinian, as he loaded a Chinette plate with cole slaw, french fries and pork barbecue slathered with sauce and warmed in a microwave oven.

David Brown's place is typical of the 100 or more pork barbecue houses that have been popular around the state since the 1940's, when ''eating out'' first became fashionable in rural areas.

Like most pork houses, Brown's is family-run, serves no liquor and offers a limited menu that includes pork barbecue sandwiches, Brunswick stew and pies baked each day by Mr. Brown's 81-year-old grandmother.

The pork houses - usually no more than cement block structures set off seldom-traveled roads - are an outgrowth of the traditional Southern family barbecue. As small farms died out and families scattered, these barbecue restaurants have served to keep a tradition alive and to satisfy the South Carolina appetite for this spicy, filling ritual.

Now, on a given weekend, more than 80,000 pounds of smoked pork is sold in places like Fat Willy's Hawg House in Fort Mill, or Maurice's Piggy Park in West Columbia. Over Pepsi-Cola and Mello Yello and healthy doses of Texas Pete hot sauce, barbecue fanciers fill the sparsely appointed houses arguing the merits of hickory vs. oaksmoked pork, chopped vs. sliced, the flavor of hams vs. shoulders.

Yet most connoisseurs agree that there's only one authentic way to smoke a pig: whole, in an outdoor pit, over snow-white hardwood coals. Ideally, the pork should cook a full 16 hours, first fat side, or back side up to keep the meat moist, then turned fat side down halfway through, to insure even cooking. However it's done, the pork must be cooked until the meat falls off the bone, then it's chopped or sliced and seasoned with a variety of sauces.

Mr. Brown cooks whole carcasses over hickory wood coals, burning up some four cords of wood each week. He chops the lean, moist pork finely, then sauces it with a low country-style sauce, a simple mixture of apple cider vinegar and red pepper.

''I don't believe in covering up my barbecue with ketchup or mustard; I want people to taste the meat,'' Mr. Brown said. Some sauces are tart and mustard-based, others sweet and tomatobased and still others are a combination of the two. Most South Carolinian barbecue lovers agree that the low country, or coast plains area of the state, produces the authentic sauce. When prepared in proper fiery proportions, it can make the eyes water.

At its best, pork barbecue is crusty on the outside, lean, chewy and finely chopped, and lightly dosed with an assertive vinegar and pepper sauce that brings out the sweet, smoked flavor of the meat.

As with many traditional foods, pork barbecue has come to represent more than just a dish. It is a folk ceremony, really, full of history, ritual and an etiquette all its own. When eating barbecue, there are a number of ''rules'' to follow:

- With pork barbecue, you drink Pepsi-Cola or Pabst Blue Ribbon, no other brands. Ladies drink iced tea, with plenty of sugar.

- The barbecue is eaten with lots of bland, starchy foods, such as white buns, white rice and candied sweet potatoes, to take the heat off the spicy pork.

- Chinette plates, not simple paper plates, are essential, for they absorb moisture better.

As if the stomach needed a space filler after this, one must have dessert, the sweeter the better. When barbecue is served at home, as it is traditionally in the low country on Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is followed by such typically American fare as red velvet cake or coconut cake.

After spending a long day sampling the fare at half a dozen barbecue houses around the state, it is safe to say that good barbecue is hard to find. But as a culinary exercise, it's worth the effort. It's authentically American, and inexpensive. A high-priced all-you-can-eat meal won't cost more than $4. (Be forewarned, however, that many of the family-run houses are really run for the extended family and friends, and if you're not known, you may just be turned away.)

Besides David Brown's (at the southern edge of Winnsboro, where Highway 321 Business and Highway 321 Bypass split), excellent authentic barbecue can be found at Country Cousin Bar-B-Que on Highway 52 South in Scranton, in northeastern South Carolina. (Most barbecue houses are open Thursday through Saturday.)

A book, ''Hog Heaven,'' a thorough and amusing guide to South Carolina barbecue houses, has recently been published. Written by two young South Carolinians, Allie Patricia Wall and Ron L. Layne, the book is available for $3.95, plus 75 cents for postage and handling, from the Sandlapper Store Inc., P.O. Box 841, Lexington, S.C. 29072.

As the authors say, it is the love of cooking, not the money, that keeps most barbecue houses going. And as they point out, the quality of the food can't always be gauged by the quality of the building - some of the most delectable barbecue in South Carolina can be found in the seediest surroundings."