feature story "It's What I Can Do" Friday, Sept. 5, 12 08 p.m.
Two local artists give back to their community and its people by using art to fuel life. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments
feature Story The Imaginary World of Highlands Friday, Sept. 5, 12 06 p.m.
Best-selling novelist Cassandra King lets us a peek into her next book, Bridal Falls. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights True Southern Spirit Friday, Sept. 5, 12 05 p.m.
We have enjoyed exploring, tasting, and celebrating with you and sincerely thank our loyal readers. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life A Different Kind of Animal Friday, Sept. 5, 12 02 p.m.
Local vet Dr. Michael Forcier trades records and microphones for dogs and cats to live out a dream. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Just dogs Bonkers for Bassets Friday, Sept. 5, 12 01 p.m.
These floppy-eared hounds are stealing hearts all over the Lowcountry. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Essay Discovering the Sounds of the Lowcountry Friday, Sept. 5, 12 00 p.m.
Musician and professor Trevor Weston searches for "exotic" sounds and gets a lesson in Gershwin and Gullah culture. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Feature Story Sustainable Seafood: On The Bubble Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Efforts to make sustainable food more visible and available are increasing. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Kendall Lukas has stars in her eyes and history under her feet as she explores the neighboring port city of Wilmington, N.C. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life From Ballet Shoes To Bikinis Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Poland native Maria Dobrzanska Reeves uses her dance discipline to achieve success in Charleston. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments essay Splashing Through Childhood Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Author Ron Daise looks for joy and finds it in remembering his children in their youth. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Cooking in the Great Outdoors Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
More on Megan Westmeyer and Jennifer Smith’s visit to Swimming Rock Fish Farm Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Water World Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
I love being in water. I love that clear, cool swishing feeling around my ears. In fact, on a warm, sunny day, I like to go outside and get as hot as possible and then dive into a cool pool. For me, it’s refreshment at its finest. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Beach Music Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
You can see the shrimp boats from your restaurant table, so that shrimp pasta on the menu has to be fresh and local. Right? Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Water Babies Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
We celebrate what we treasure in the Lowcountry and beyond that gives us an interior smile. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Maxximum Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
My 14-year-old niece visited Charleston with her parents in March. She’s from Moscow, Russia, and I had not seen her in more than 10 years. There’s a big difference between 4 and 14! Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments feature story Holy City Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
When Nancye Starnes decided to move out of Memphis, she drew up a list of “must haves” for her new hometown: it had to be a walkable city, located on the water, and sizeable enough to support a vibrant performing arts community. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Citadel Charmers Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Move aside – bulldog coming through. In January, the American Kennel Club announced that the Bulldog, one of the most recognizable and iconic purebred dogs, has muscled its way into the 10th spot on the organization’s annual list of the most popular breeds in America. Read More 2 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights Beyond Cookie Cutter Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Prime ingredients, Nostalgic tastes and creative bakers transform Lowcountry cookies into high-style confections. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life Working for Peanuts Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Anthony Wright, the man known throughout the Lowcountry and across the nation as Tony the Peanut Man, never intended to make his living selling boiled goobers. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Charlotte, NC Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
I had never been to Charlotte … not really. Well, I’ve gotten my kicks at Carowinds because that was part of being a kid in the Carolinas, and I’ve been to concerts at the open-air Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre because it’s a large complex for big-time acts. I’ve visited my sister at UNC Charlotte and have flown through the city’s major transit airport many times. But as for the metropolis of Charlotte, I’d only ever viewed its high-rises from afar. This time I took an up-close look at the interior and found a lot of reasons to relish in North Carolina’s top travel destination. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Turning Heads Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Bessie is almost 50 and looks as good today as she did in her youth – maybe even better. After all, back then she was hanging from a pole. Now she runs circles around the rest of us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Café Comfort Thursday, May 1, 03 46 p.m.
Banquettes are big. Heidi Walker, Allied ASID, of Walker Design Group, is currently working on three different kitchens that have banquettes. For this kitchen in a young couple’s home on Sullivan’s Island, Walker created a café atmosphere by building on the existing element of the laminated floor. “This promotes a casual impromptu gathering space,” she says. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments ESSAY Lowcountry Style Thursday, May 1, 12 00 a.m.
If you want to experience real Lowcountry style, you need to come to the Hebron Saint Francis Senior Center. Its members are long time Johns Island residents, a hardscrabble group of African-American women who meet every Wednesday for devotion and quilt making. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Jewel Box Saturday, March 1, 12 00 a.m.
Although one of the smallest rooms in a house, a powder room is nonetheless important since most of your guests will pay it a visit. Jennifer Rhodes, ASID, principal designer of J. Rhodes Design, took the popular concept of making this room a “jewel box” and ran with it, creating a luxurious surprise in this 3-foot by 7-foot Daniel Island room. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments
Recipe box On the table or on the rocks, Firefly Vodka is HOT, HOT, HOT!
Videos
Check out the smart car, a match from last year's Family Circle Cup, and a classroom project from an exceptional educator. Photo Galleries
More is better when it comes to photos. Check out these bonus images from our photo shoots. Watermarks
What’s happening in the Lowcountry and seasonal spotlight tidbits about local traditions, trends and events. products
We make some recommedations to add to your music collection.
Comment: Click here to share one of your favorite cookie recipes
A Lowcountry Life
Jimmy Hagood: Barbecue lover finds his calling in search of the perfect pig
Written by Stephanie Burt Williams
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Photo by John D. Smoak III
Jimmy cooks up some of his specialty Tidewater shrimp, inspired by his favorite meal from Pascal's Manale in New Orleans.
It is the smoke, the scent of burning hickory wafting on the cool air that calls us down backroads and into church parking lots and small unassuming storefronts, only to emerge with containers full of the treasure we seek – the perfect marriage of sauce, smoke, and sow: barbecue. And for those of us who seek the perfect bite, it can be an obsession.
That’s how it all started for Jimmy Hagood, pit master and owner of Food for the Southern Soul (which encompasses a products line, Tidewater Catering, and his barbecue competition team, Blackjack Barbecue). He went out in search of good barbecue and ended up finding his calling.
Q: I’m going to start with the barbecue question: What sauce do you prefer?
Hagood: The sauce is like religion and politics, I’ve always said. It can get you into trouble. But I do have a position on this that is professional. We prepare whole pork shoulders, smoked with pecan wood. We don’t heavily sauce the meat at all. When we put it on a buffet line, we have three sauces for people to enjoy, and all those sauces are laced with vinegar, pretty thin. We want the flavor of the meat and the smokiness of the meat to really shine.
Q: Did you have barbecue growing up?
Hagood: Well, not much. When we did, it was Piggy Park. But eating in Charleston, for most of my growing up, took place out of doors (except for home meals). Entertaining, dining and experiencing the outdoors, that’s what Charleston, what the Lowcountry is about. Only a handful of times I remember ever being interrupted by the weather.
Q: Did you cook much before you started with barbecue?
Hagood: Not really. I never really saw my dad grill anything, and the baking and inside cooking seemed like more of an exact science. Barbecue showed me that men could cook. It’s always crossed racial lines, too. Pit masters were often second and third generation black men, going back 50 to 60 years. And being a pit master was pure art and science – really a secret and really “a master of the pit.”
Photo by John D. Smoak III
Black Jack Barbeque
Q: What was the first barbecue that said to you, “I need to do this”?
Hagood: Back in the mid-’80s, I used to go to the ACC [basketball] tournament, and I ate some good barbecue in Greensboro or places like that. But we started driving to Sewanee to eat at Duke’s BBQ. Barbecue was, for me, a mecca experience. It was a long drive – it was a destination, places like Rast Barbecue on Johns Island, Sweatman’s Bar-b-que outside of Holly Hill and Brown’s BBQ in Kingstree.Once I started cooking in the early ’90s, I tried to figure out what Brown’s BBQ did to make what they called their “gravy,” which was on the buffet line there. It was a quest.
Q: What’s your favorite meal?
Hagood: I also spent two years of my life in New Orleans and discovered New Orleans BBQ shrimp at Pascal's Manale. It was heads on, tails on, cooked in a sauce. You put a bib on and they give you wet towels, big loaves of French bread, and you eat the shrimp and dip the bread in that sauce. I love that so much, I dream about it. It has olive oil, rosemary … [trails off]. That shrimp is why I have the Tidewater Shrimp Sauce now. I had to try to recreate it.
So a Caesar salad, this shrimp, fresh sweet corn, and the French bread. For dessert a lemon cake or something like that to cut the spiciness.
Q: So food is more than just a meal for you, right?
Hagood: Yes, and I think the business side of it for me is driven by my inner need of being appreciated by people. It always drives me to do the best I can. I wasn’t the teacher’s pet or the coach’s star in school, but when I got in the business world, from that point on I wanted to do a good job for people – a work ethic thing with me.
For me, seeing people enjoy a meal I’ve prepared is instant gratification, like doing a job and seeing the results immediately. I get handwritten notes, have people come up to me at events, and that’s why I’m doing all this. That’s Southern hospitality – having good manners. Food is important, and if it’s a wedding weekend that we’re doing, we’re usually the first interaction as the rehearsal dinner. You’re only as good as that last meal you served.
Lowcountry Living is a bi-monthly magazine of The Post and Courier, 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C. 29403-4800. Copyright 2007 by The Post and Courier.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without express written permission from The Post and Courier. Printed by R.L. Bryan, Columbia, S.C. Click here to email the editor
Comments
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)