Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country - Hardcover

Elie, Lolis Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374266468 ISBN 13: 9780374266462

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1996

Synopsis

A humorous cultural study of the art of the barbecue brings readers from the cow heads of south Texas and the pig snouts of East St. Louis to the competition circuit events of Memphis and the Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia.

About this title

Reviews

While traveling with the Wynton Marsalis Band, Elie as road manager, Stewart as the photographer for Marsalis's book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, the authors consumed so much barbecue, they decided to go off on their own and write a historical, cultural and culinary study of this type of cooking. Driving through the Midwest and the South in their 1981 Volvo, with a tape of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lighting" for company, they visited nearly 50 barbecue restaurants, talking to cooks, taking pictures and evaluating the food, most of which was undistinguished. The book abounds in local color and graphic details of barbecue preparations; the description of how cows' heads are cleaned at one place in Brownsville, Texas, is particularly grisly. Stewart's photographs include shots of many of the people they interviewed as well as studies of severed hogs' heads and intestines. Some of this is interesting, but a little barbecue research, like barbecue itself, goes a long way. Recipes, a barbecue bibliography and the addresses and phone numbers of the restaurants they visited are included. (May) FYI: Elie is now a columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Can a country controlled by convenience foods still care about real food? This is one of the questions the author and photographer of this work ponder as they set off in search of the best barbecue in America. Traveling from Texas to the Carolinas and points in between, the authors present such passionate and vivid profiles of individual restaurants and barbecue joints that, after reading the descriptions of barbecuing cows' faces and pigs' snouts, some readers may consider becoming vegetarians. While other recent barbecue books such as John Willingham's Real Bar-B-Q (LJ 5/15/96) focus more on recipes and cooking techniques, Smokestack Lightning includes bits and pieces of barbecue history, legends, and lore as Elie attempts to determine barbecue's role in American culture. Libraries with large cooking collections or a special interest in this subject, or those in the barbecue belt, should consider this title.?John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0374266468
• ISBN 13: 9780374266462
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224