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Slingin’ Hash

SC BBQ Newsletter from Destination BBQ

07/04/22

Kindling

Hey <<First Name>>

Happy Independence Day to you and yours.

It’s interesting that this newsletter, which typically comes out on Mondays, happened to coincide with both Memorial Day and the 4th of July, both big days in the BBQ world. (Next up, Labor Day.)

While this is not the “Recipe Issue” for the month, I couldn’t send you an email on a day like today without sharing a few. Here are a variety of sauce recipes to consider for whatever you might have on the grill:

• Maurice’s Southern Gold Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe (Copycat)

• Rodney Scott’s “Rodney’s Sauce” Recipe

• Gates and Son’s BBQ Sauce Recipe

• Salsa Verde Recipe for Pulled Pork

• Brisket Mojo Sauce Recipe

John Shelton Reed, renowned author, professor, and the founder of The Campaign for Real BBQ, shared a recipe with me after the previous newsletter “Hittin’ the Sauce” went out.

The recipe was for a red sauce. Being a NC BBQ guy, John shares my opinion regarding tomato-based sauces. That is, they’re okay, but further down the list of options.

However, there is one that made him re-think his position:

“I’m with you on sweet red sauces, but here’s one that almost makes me change my mind. If you’ve got a friend who wants to make it and enter the contest I guarantee that he’ll do well.”

(The contest he mentions is the Gettin’ Saucy BBQ Sauce Competition coming to N. Charleston this September.)

The recipe is a copycat of one made by a BBQ joint in Bluff City, TN, known as “The Ridgewood.”

“Like most mountain sauces,” John wrote, “the Ridgewood's is sweet, thick, and red. But the flavor is marvelously complex -- what catsup will taste like in heaven. As Mrs. Grace Profitt, the Ridgewood’s founder, used to say, “It’s got a whang to it.”

Here’s the recipe:

• 24 oz. (weight) catsup

• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

• 1 Tbsp good prepared mustard

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar

• 1/2 cup oil

• 5 Tbsp white sugar

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped

• 1 large garlic clove, minced

• 3 Tbsp molasses

• 1 Tbsp Kitchen Bouquet

• 1 Tbsp Tabasco sauce

• salt and pepper to taste (start with 1/4 tsp)

Mix these ingredients in a bowl, then blend the mix in a blender. Put the goop in a pot and heat it to the boiling point, then simmer it for 15-20 minutes.

In this issue, I’ve shared a video you just have to watch, a resurrection of sorts. Also, we remember a place long closed but not forgotten, take a look at a couple of predictable national pieces that feature SC BBQ, dust the ashes off an old Q&A with a now-former restaurant owner from Kershaw County, and take you to school for a classic SCBBQ buffet.

Enjoy,

Jim

PS: Note: all recipes on the site are currently locked as “exclusive content” and require a free Grow sign-up to access. Sorry.

Lookin’ Good

Time to feature a “scroll-stopping” image. How about this one from Bobby’s BBQ in Fountain Inn?

Smoke Signals

—Resurrection

“We had some unexpected circumstances in our lives in October, November, and December of last year. And that was a game-changer for us on top of the pandemic and the way things were happening in the country.

“In life, you never know what’s going to happen until it happens.”

So said Milton Zanders of True BBQ in West Columbia in a powerful interview with WLTX in which, among other things, he explains the story behind their 8-month closure.

If you have a few minutes, you should stop reading and watch it now:

Truly, a moving story of perseverance and faith through a challenging three-month period of unexpected death, unavoidable accident, and unfortunate stroke.

"It's been a journey... but life is a journey," Zanders told WLTX. "I'm reminded in scripture, Ecclesiastes 3, it says in everything there is a season... And with that being said, we are just walking in faith knowing that everything is going to be okay."

On Friday, June 24, True BBQ reopened its doors for takeout with a modified menu. They will be open Fridays and Saturdays from 11-8.

—Remembrances

“It was just a Darlington County landmark — Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night everybody came out to this place, it was packed.”

This is what Darlington County Coroner J. Todd Hardee told SCNow about the demolition of Skeets BBQ in Mechanicsville.

Opening in 1969, Skeets was around for 41 years, but it closed over a decade ago. The humble restaurant operated by Skeets and Libby Gardner left a legacy that has been remembered fondly ever since.

“This place was very much a part of my childhood as many of us in the area growing up. I miss going to Skeet’s,” wrote Chuck DeWitt when he shared news of the fact at Skeets was to be razed on the I Love SC BBQ Facebook group.

“Sad to see it go,” commented Jason Eric Francis on the post. “I took my son out there not long ago because he heard me talking about it and was asking where it was. When I got there, he was like, ‘Wow!! This is literally in the middle of nowhere!’ I told him the best bbq comes from the middle of nowhere!”

No truer words…

Hot ‘n Fast

— Regionally — South Carolina barbecue gets a mention in this article by Delish. Honestly, there’s not much to it, but in the paragraph or two reserved for the Palmetto State, they focus on the various sauce regions in the state. At least, we get a mention and aren’t lumped in with that state above us in a general “Carolina” category.

— At the Table — Tasting Table goes a bit more in-depth than did Delish in a piece on “The Tangy Ingredient That Makes South Carolina BBQ Sauce Unique.”

Probably doesn’t take you a click to figure out where this is heading, but in case you had doubts or were hoping for a plot twist, here’s the gist of it:

‘And, the most famous of all the South Carolina sauces features mustard, giving the sauce a bright yellow color and tangy flavor. Sometimes tempered with brown sugar or honey for sweetness and usually kicked up with cider vinegar and black pepper, South Carolina BBQ sauce is the perfect savory-sweet foil for unctuous, smoky pork.”

From the Ashes

In this issue, we dust the ashes off this Q&A with the Smokemaster himself, Rodney Coplin.

Coplin was not always working the pits. Before he started Smokemaster BBQ, he used to work behind a screen. Serving as a web designer and social media consultant, Coplin built a life in the IT business. However, life behind the screen was not what he wanted.

Combining a love of making real food from scratch and a lifelong passion for Texas-style BBQ led him in a different direction. But what did this Texan think of SC BBQ and how does his style of BBQ work here in SC?

Let’s find out.

Check out Rodney’s Q&A

The Smoke Ring

In each edition, we’ll metaphorically spin the SCBBQ globe and randomly select an SC BBQ joint to spotlight.

This time, the globe stopped spinning on Schoolhouse Bar-B-Que in Scranton.

Schoolhouse BBQ offers traditional Southern cooking at its best in a nostalgic, laid-back atmosphere. The country buffet is housed in a 1930's era schoolhouse that served the black community for 30 years.

After that, it was purchased by Myers Furniture Company and used as a storage warehouse. The Schoolhouse underwent restoration beginning in 1982 and opened its doors as a restaurant on May 26, 1994.

Schoolhouse BBQ features a reasonably priced all-you-can-eat buffet with sweet tea or soda and all the desserts and soft-serve ice cream you can eat. They specialize in delicious vinegar-based BBQ. The buffet also includes their famous Southern fried chicken and a wide variety of other meats and vegetables cooked fresh daily.

Check out Schoolhouse Bar-B-Que

We’d love to hear your opinion of this stop on the SC BBQ Trail in our

I Love SC BBQ Facebook Group