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Gone with the Wind Barbecues

The old-time pit barbecues of Southern plantations, which in slave days were a weekly feature from Spring till late Fall, such as the lively one where Scarlett O'Hara. wrought her feminine havoc-those were even more work than the Texan type, so they died down naturally as soon as the slaves who did all the dirty work were freed. But Southern barbecues are still celebrated in shady groves. equipped with picnic tables on wooden trestles covered with linen and set out with pickles, fresh biscuits, watermelon and cake besides the pigs, lambs and chickens cooked in place of the Texas steer, and with plenty of punch instead of red eye. In fact you won't go far after crossing the Mason and Dixon line near Washington without bumping into a barbecue. It may be merely the roadside stand kind with anything grilled that runs on four hoofs and by the time you reach the Gulf of Mexico you are likely to have seen political barbecues, gentlemen's picnic barbecues, Daughters as well as Sons of the Confederacy cues, wedding barbecues, and cues celebrating any local or national holiday in season. Every locality has its peculiarities and is a stickler for its own traditions.

The real barbecue in Carolina, or Georgia, known as "cue" whether referring to the occasion or the food, is a pig roast. Baby porkers are fattened for the feast on corn meal and hard corn for 6 or 7 weeks. Then they are killed, sawed open down the backbone, and cooled for a day. Fire is then made in a 6-foot shallow trench, using hickory or oak wood, until the pit is well heated. The fire is raked out, but kept going near by, so that hot embers can be put back occasionally as needed. The pigs are laid out on stout bars, flesh side down, tended and cooked for hours. During which the impatient guests take turns at pulling bits of the crackling crisp skin off the sizzling pigs, while waiting for them to get done.