Off the beaten path, down country roads, in the inner city…there exists a community of artists that form a loose nit ‘barbecue society’ made up of shacks, pits, joints and storefronts. These cultural ‘jewels’ help to maintain a tradition of cooking barbecue. Several generations of families have passed on family recipes and cooking techniques to keep this community alive. Sadly, many of these sacred places are disappearing.
The tools and techniques used by the great barbecue artisans of West Tennessee are being slowly replaced by an industrialized society of electric smokers and the latest technological gadgets. Those few remaining artisans who work the traditional pits utilize the bare essentials…meat, fire and wood.
