The great North Carolina BBQ debate: Prologue book club welcomes 'On Barbecue' author

John Shelton Reed thinks North Carolina needs a new holiday: "Wilmington Barbecue Day."

It would mark the anniversary of the date in February 1766 when British royal governor William Tryon, to mend fences, tried to throw a barbecue in Wilmington with a roast ox and beer.

Local residents, however, were still angry over the British Stamp Act, so the New Hanover County militia marched in, poured out the beer and threw the barbecued ox in the river — six whole years, Reed notes, before the Boston Tea Party.

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Wilmington's barbecue history is just one of the topics in "On Barbecue," Reed's new book. He'll be discussing it Monday, Oct. 11, as part of Prologue, the monthly virtual book club co-sponsored by the StarNews and public radio station WHQR.

The online webinar begins at 7 p.m. Monday. To sign in for free, visit the WHQR home page at WHQR.org.

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Reed lives outside Chapel Hill, where he was a Kenan professor of sociology until his retirement. He's a familiar figure in the Port City, though, having delivered the commencement address in 2000.

"On Barbecue" is a follow-up to his 2008 book "Holy Smoke," a study of North Carolina barbecue.

Reed, who's been a judge at the World Barbecue Championship in Memphis, takes a more regional look this time, studying barbecue variations across the Southeast, from Texas (where "barbecue" means beef, not pork) to Kentucky, where the meat of choice is often lamb.

Oddly, Reed grew up in east Tennessee, a region not known for its barbecue traditions. ("On Barbecue" suggests that might be changing.) He discovered the delicacy in the early '60s in Durham, dating his future wife when she was studying at Duke. (Dale Volberg Reed was a regular collaborator until her death in 2018 and is co-author of "Holy Smoke.")

Reed professes neutrality in the great East vs. West controversy at the heart of Tar Heel barbecue. (Diplomatically, he notes that each is fine, in its place.) The Eastern variety, which emerged in the 1700s, uses the whole hog, shredded, and a simple dressing of vinegar, salt and pepper (what Reed calls "the Mother Sauce").

Western, or Lexington, barbecue came later, early in the 1900s, focusing on pork shoulder and using a tomato-based sauce. (Reed traces the approach to the Piedmont's German heritage.)

In South Carolina, however, diners favor a mustard sauce.

Reed draws the line on one point, though. He insists that true barbecue, the best barbecue, can only be slow-cooked over a wood fire. He's a co-founder of the Campaign for Real Barbecue, which highlights top restaurants and diners; the organization semi-officially declared Reed its "Eminence Grease."

A prolific author, Reed devoted his professional career to the study of Southern regionalism in such volumes as "The Enduring South." He has also ventured into church history ("Glorious Battle," a study of Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England), and has written studies of the New Orleans artistic revival of the 1920s and '30s ("Dixie Bohemia") and a study of the work of Southern artist and silversmith William Spratling.

In a lighter mood, Reed has published volumes of occasional essays, such as "Whistling Dixie" and "My Tears Spoiled My Aim."

Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-616-1788 or peacebsteelman@gmail.com.