Going Whole Hog by James A. Roller

Jim Roller has a book out, and you should go buy it.

James A. Roller — since this is about barbecue let’s get right to Jim — set off with his family on a tour of South Carolina barbecue places in 2012. He wrote about it and has never stopped. Jim is the genius behind Destination:BBQ, the online doorway to all things South Carolina, and the moderator of I Love SC BBQ on Facebook, the best barbecue discussion group on the internet. (Show me a better one.)

Going Whole Hog is encyclopedic in its scope, with details of the history of barbecue, including its darker days, over 200 recipes for sauces, sides, and desserts, and tips and instructions on cooking the meat — various cuts and kinds of meat. Want to cook a whole hog? Jim shows you how to build a pit, offers detailed advice on cooking a hog and its nuances, and QR codes linking to videos of cooking the hogs at Rodney Scott’s, Sam Jones, and Dr. Howard Conyers‘ charity events.

But Going Whole Hog is about other meats, cuts, sauces, and sides from all over the country. The book celebrates all manner of regional variations, including from Texas, and even that rival state to the north. One of the joys of the book is the ease with which you can compare the various recipes, which include dishes from restaurants you’ve tried, or should try, and see how you can combine your favorite elements of each, then design your own. You can have a lot of fun with Going Whole Hog.

There is a good bit of focus on South Carolina, including on local specialties like hash and rice. I’ve been eating hash every time I get to South Carolina lately, and it’s been a joy to try the different approaches to this dish of slow-cooked “liquid sausage.” Hash started from a “use everything but the squeal” policy rooted in poverty, and was based on the “head, liver, and lights” of a pig. From that humble beginning, hash morphed into meat-centric products so that some variations don’t have any head or liver, and none have lights (lungs). I’ve enjoyed just about every version I’ve tried, and some knocked my socks off. Jim offers 34 different hash recipes. Other local foods largely unknown outside the state include chicken bog, perloo, and mull, as well as onion sausage. I’ve never come across onion sausage and I’m eager to try some.

Going Whole Hog is written from a heart full of love for barbecue. Jim first fell for whole hog in his Cub Scout days. He was playing hide and seek at a church camp and benign Providence steered him to an unsupervised dish of the whole hog barbecue the men had been cooking the night before. He looked around to make sure he was alone, then put just a pinch of whole hog in his mouth. “Light shined brighter … and I found heaven in a church kitchen.”

That story is one of the many that grace the recipe sidebars. It reminded me of my first glorious trip to Ollie’s barbecue in Birmingham. And Going Whole Hog is liberally sprinkled with stories that will evoke your memories. The book draws you in. It was written not only with real expertise, but also with a love of food and people and culture that shines through on every page. And Jim generously acknowledges people from whom he learned and who helped in the book on just about every page. He credits and thanks so many people that he had to add a QR to the acknowledgements! Reading the book makes me want to meet Jim, and to share some barbecue — and a side of hash — with him.

There is one problem with Going Whole Hog. It’s big and beautifully photographed, gorgeous enough to have you licking your lips and planning a trip to South Carolina, as I am, once again. It’s a coffee table book. So how am I to keep it from getting spattered with porky fingerprints, mustard, Hatch green chiles, pot likker, and bits of rice and cornmeal, and things I can’t identify? This is a book that’s not just going to sit there and look pretty. It’ll be put to work, again and again, for a long, long time. Do you think I need to get another copy so I’ll have a show copy and a work copy?

Like I said, you need to go buy this book, maybe two. You’ll want to thank me, but thank Jim instead.

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