Ed Mitchell's Barbeque

By Ed Mitchell, Ryan Mitchell and Zella Palmer

James Beard Finalist

A celebration of the history and tradition of whole-hog barbeque from the “most famous” pitmaster in North Carolina

Named one of the Best Cookbooks of the Year by NPR, Publishers Weekly and The Local Palate: Food Culture of the South

Ed Mitchell’s journey in the barbeque business began in 1991 with a lunch for his mama, who was grieving the loss of Ed’s father. Ed drove to the nearby Piggly Wiggly to buy a thirty-five-pound pig—that’s a small one—and fired up the coals. As smoke filled the air and the pork skin started to crackle, the few customers at the family bodega started to inquire about lunch and what smelled so good. More than thirty years later, Ed is known simply as “The Pitmaster” in barbeque circles and is widely considered one of the best at what he does.

In his first cookbook, a collaboration with his son, Ryan, and written with Zella Palmer, Ed explores the tradition of whole-hog barbeque that has made him famous. It’s a method passed down through generations over the course of 125 years and hearkens back even further than that, to his ancestors who were plantation sharecroppers and, before that, enslaved. Ed is one of the few remaining pitmasters to keep this barbeque tradition alive, and in Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, he will share his methods for the first time and fill in the unwritten chapters of the rich and complex history of North Carolina whole-hog barbeque.

From cracklin to hush puppies, fried green tomatoes to deviled eggs, okra poppers, skillet cornbread, potato salad, and pickled pigs’ feet, Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque is filled with delicious and essential recipes honed over decades. And, of course, there is the barbeque—mouth-watering baby back ribs, smoked pork chops, backyard brisket, and barbequed chicken—all paired with lively and warmly told stories from the Mitchell family. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque is rich with the history of Wilson, North Carolina, and yet promises to bring barbeque to the next level. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9780063088399

Book preview

Introduction

I Can’t Give Up

---

LONG AFTER IT WAS NECESSARY, UNCLE VESS ATE THE LEAVINGS OFF THE HOG, DOUSED THEM WITH VINEGAR SAUCE.

—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Gospel of Barbeque

---

My journey into the barbeque business began with a lunch I made for my mama. It was 1991. I was a forty-five-year-old man grieving the loss of my hero and trying to survive without the patriarch of our family. I hadn’t realized my father was as sick as he was. He had terminal cancer, and one night he just slipped away. My mother called me and I came home quickly to be with her. He and Mama had been a team—Black entrepreneurs in a racially divided part of North Carolina. Their grocery store, Mitchell’s Supermarket, was filled with everyday goods from penny candy to cooking oil. It was a symbol of African American progress and Black-owned business.

But without my dad there, friends stopped popping by, and business slowed down.

Early that morning, I dropped by the store to check in on Mama. She wasn’t herself. Ever since my dad’s death, my mom hadn’t been as jovial as she used to be. I will never forget when she told me, I’ve been here all day and I only sold seventeen dollars in food. I knew I had to step up and take care of my mama as the eldest son in the family. I didn’t mind—I’ve always been a mama’s boy. I wanted to make my mother feel better and let her know that she could count on me. So I did what came naturally to us Mitchells: I asked her what she wanted to eat. Mama said, I have a taste for some good old-fashioned barbeque.

I knew what that meant, so I got my hands on a thirty-five-pound pig—that’s a small one. I rolled my parents’ rustic cooker into the parking lot of their grocery and fired up the coals.

While the pig cooked, Mama prepared some Eastern North Carolina coleslaw and slowly braised collards. Soon, the smoke filled the air and the pork skin started to crackle. We seasoned and chopped it up on the meat counter in the back, and the fresh barbeque smell permeated the storefront. Our customers, the few we had left, asked, Y’all selling barbeque now? Mama looked at me in silence for a moment, then said, Yes, we are selling barbeque. She fixed the customer a barbeque sandwich. They must have told a few others, because soon we had a line form and all thirty-five pounds of our hog was