Carolina Classic Recipes in a Low Country BBQ | Anthony Bourdain's The Mind of a Chef | Full Episode

Viewers like you make this program possible. Support your local PBS station. In this episode, Sean Brock invites his friends to a barbecue on Wadmalaw Island in Charleston, South Carolina. Wow. Pit master, Rodney Scott, roasts a whole Asawah hog. Ah, perfect. Sometimes it rains in your parade, huh? At this point, you don't consider it rain, you consider it liquid sunshine. Chef Steven Satterfield cooks Savannah red rice. The dish is like 300 years old. Oh, that's perfect. And chef Mike Lotta makes a South Carolina classic, Frogmore stew. These are so fresh and so tender, I think that- Eat them raw, man. Yeah. Holy cow, it looks incredible. Enter the mind of a chef. God, I love cooking food. It's the coolest thing. Man, that's good. My favorite thing about Charleston is the barrier islands. The people who are living a very rural lifestyle, the way that I grew up. Wadmalaw Island is a barrier island that was formed in the middle of the 17th century. It's certainly one of my favorite places in the entire world. There's just something about the air out there, the silence out there. There's no buildings or construction or stores or gas stations. It's farmland. Makes me just wanna cook. Just going out there, period, is the most calming and relaxing thing I can do. But going out there and throwing a party, I mean, those are like the moments you never forget. In the low country, any excuse we can find to throw an outdoor party, we're gonna do it. When I first came to Charleston, I started hearing all these stories about this lady named Celeste Albers. Everything that she does is the best. Whether it's a pig, an onion, an egg, it doesn't matter. There we go. She puts so much care and effort into it that it's gonna be the best thing you've ever had. Hey, Sean. The unveiling. Beautiful. Look at that fat little thing. Yeah. This is Penelope's daughter, the granddaughter of our first Sal. Petunia's granddaughter. These days, Celeste is trying to restore this breed called Ossobal. There really aren't that many Ossobal in the area. They're hard to find. When I met one, I just fell in love with them. I love the way they look. I love their personality. Hi, sweetie. They are happy when they're allowed to do their own thing. They get so much enjoyment out of life. Come on, Tuny. Come on, Penelope. Come on out here. We wanna help keep them going. So this is really one of the most important pig breeds in America. Yeah, they are descended from pigs left by the Spanish on Ossobal Island off of Georgia. In the 1500s, right? They are descendants of Iberian pigs, and they went from being a really big domesticated pig to a small feral pig, and they still have all their instincts. That's what I love about them. They act like a pig. They're very fast. People throughout time would go to the island and catch them and bring them home to raise. Just the redneck country folks did that, you know? And then the chef started to find out that, wait a minute, these pigs are really good. The Ossobal pig is just amazing by itself as a breed. What she does is she takes all of the leftover milk and eggs from her other operations, and that's what she feeds the animals. And so you get this flavor in the meat, and the fat is just so sweet and unbelievably delicious. Hi, kids. Anybody hungry? You're hungry, aren't you, girly? Come on, lunchtime. We feed them as much high-quality protein as we can. Look at Atkins' diet for pigs. Our pigs are very attractive. We lucked out and got a really pretty boar. When you speak to her about animals and pigs, it's like a family member. Come on, y'all. See, this is Petunia. I think she's getting a little stiff, aren't you, girl? Goodness sake. Yeah, she's gonna have piglets probably tonight. When you name them and you care for them from birth, you care about their day-to-day experience. When someone says to me, oh, I don't want to know the name, I say, that's wrong. You really should know the name. Hey, big guy. And this is Bogey. He's the big boar. We know when an animal is born that that animal is gonna feed us. You don't really appreciate life when you're so removed from death. Bogart's the dad of all the babies. And he weighs a ton, don't you, big guy? He's solid, solid, solid. I think it brings a whole different perspective and a deeper appreciation. I have so much respect for her. She works harder than anybody I've ever met and cares more than anybody I've ever met. And you taste that in the food. Every time you cook something from her, it's such an honor and privilege. All the chefs in town fight over her products. Man, I can't wait to eat this. Thank you so much for bringing this. I'm here with one of my best buds and heroes and certainly one of the most respected and well-known pitmasters in the South, Rodney Scott. Scott's barbecue. You're making me turn pink. My favorite barbecue. The fat on these pigs has so much sugar in it. We call this pork cotton candy because when you eat it, it just melts instantly. Fat is just so special. It's like no other pig, really. You wanna take some of this off or leave it? Take some of the sugar out of here. Wow, that's crazy. Some articles were popping up about this guy in South Carolina that was cooking barbecue that was gonna save the world of barbecue. I literally got in the car, drove an hour and a half from Charleston, and about half a mile out, you start to smell it. And you walk in and you've got one choice, barbecue. I could not believe how amazing it was. Today's gonna be a good day. Yes, sir, it's gonna be a great day. Rodney, you've been cooking pigs since you were? 11. 11 years old? Yes. Man, I don't even wanna tell you what I was doing when I was 11. Wow. Look at that. I'm gonna have to cook up a little something with this later. Fried chicken on this way. Look, it just melts. That doesn't happen with any other pig. Just a little split to let some heat penetrate down in the bottom of the hams. You probably haven't changed the way you cook a pig your whole life. Never. Same way. Well, it was the only way I knew. It works, it works. Hey, it ain't broke. He does one thing every single day, and he does it better than anybody else in the world. And your pops taught you how to do it, huh? My pops taught me how to do it, his uncle taught him. It's like the river we've been running ever since, man. Ha ha. I love it. Can't get enough of it. So, you probably aren't used to such an amazing contraption as this one. This is kinda like old-fashioned South Cross with what they call the La Hachina box. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful setup. Let's put it on. Belly side down. Ah, perfect fit. Booyah. Look at the fat on this thing, man. Yeah. Honey, that's not quite what you're used to. Not quite. She works, though. Yeah, that's what counts. There's a very particular smell that comes from cooking wood down into embers and making your own charcoal, and slow cooking whole hogs, not shoulder. What he does is go out in the forest and choose trees, cut them down himself, split them. That's a ton of work. I heard you say once, it's like the chef going to the garden to pick out his tomatoes. Yeah, exactly. This is one of the major, major components. I like white oak, hickory, pecan. One of my favorites is the live oak. Something about that taste. How are we going to light this thing? A little paper. Yep. Rodney, how about this? Wow. That'll get us started. I forgot I had it in my truck. Is that legal? Oh, it's so dangerous. That'll work, huh? Now that's a fire. So once we let it burn down and the wood coals fall, we take that, scoop it under the pig. Everything is low. Smoke is low. The heat is a little lower and everything goes slow. Nice and subtle. Because if you're cooking a pig for eight hours, you don't want to blast it with smoke. I love that you can smell that those coals put off a totally different flavor. Starting to feel good in there. So it's like a hundred pound dress. We put it in at noon. What's your guess? We're looking at about seven before we actually sit down and eat. It's a long time to wait. Yeah, you know, we'll drink a few beers, tell a few lies. It's the life of a pit master. Getting ready to throw a big old party, Low Country style. And Steven Satterfield was nice enough to join us from Atlanta. I'm excited because I'm going to see your version of Savannah red rice. Yeah, it's almost like the paella of the Southeast of the Low Country. Well, the dish is like 300 years old. Yeah. And this is one of those black skillet dishes that's passed down from generation to generation. I love it. We're going to do a fancier version with some andouille sausage and shrimp and okra. I always start the pan with a little bacon fat and a little butter. So we're going to saute the rice in some fat. That's a new technique to me. I like that. It coats the grains and helps keep them individual. This is the Carolina gold. So the pan's nice and hot, and I'm just going to stir this around until the grains turn to more of an opaque color. Just releases that aroma. Yeah, this toasting of the rice really adds a layer of flavor on its own. Not to mention the delicious smokiness and saltiness from the bacon fat. This technique is awesome. I'm stealing this for sure. Okay, so we're going to add the broth now. So this broth is made up of onion and celery, tomato. Wow. Some dried thyme. I put a little bit of hot pepper vinegar in there because I like the acidity. It's got a little bit of chili flake. What we're going to do is probably play with the heat a little off, a little on, because we want to get that nice crust on the bottom like paella. But if you take it too far and it gets a little too burned and then it messes up the whole thing. Let me just fashion a lid. This is actually a true paella pan, and we're going to use that as a lid. The reverse. Yeah. It's a perfect lid. So they always tell you in the old recipes that you never lift the lid. Yeah, no peek. You got to trust your senses and kind of- Listen, you got to smell. I'm not good at that though. What are you talking about? I'm just paranoid. I have to. So this is the part where we sit and wait. Yep. Where's that beer? So what I do with this version is I cook the shrimp and smoked sausage, usually andouille, a little sliced okra in some of the broth. This is actually roe shrimp that is only in season for a couple of weeks, right? Yeah, it's a very short season. It's extremely sought after and all the chefs in town fight over it. And basically the shrimp are carrying the roe. Like you can actually see it when you hold up the shrimp. Yeah, yeah. It's right there. When you open it up here, you can see that roe. Yeah, yeah. This is like redneck uni. Yeah, it is. I'm going to eat it raw. Do it. You gotta try it. It has the same texture of uni. Wow, it's really sweet. Okay, we're going to lift. Are you ready? I'm nervous. Don't be nervous. Dude, you have done this before, my friend. And then we're just going to stir it up together. Going to kind of like fluff the rice a little bit. There's some nice sticky things on the top. You nailed it, man. That's perfect. Holy cow. And I like to garnish this with a little celery leaf and a little chives and scallions. Doesn't that look amazing? Look at that. Oh yeah, that's the best part. Perfectly crispy. And this is the way I like go-gurts. Yeah. Just cooked. I see a little bit of cooked roe right there. You see that? Oh my God. You got the magic bite right there. The rice krispies. Still steaming. God bless you. It's fantastic. All the nets are in the water and the plows are in the field. May the ocean give her bounty and the crops bring heavy yield. Where the roots are always centered and the mouths are always filled. On down through generations, brought up on Jimmy Ray. Oh yeah. Some people check for temperature around 200, 300. I feel it. So it's the rate that you want to hear that sizzle, right? Yes. Kind of like a rhythm. Yeah. You just get that constant drip and sizzle like that. Yeah. That's my new cologne right there. This pig was raised right. We'll shut her down. Yeah. Trap the heat back in. Had the shrimp boats in the harbor and the tractors in the barn. And they brought in Neptune's harvest and it's quiet on the farm. And on Wadden Malaw Island, going out to Thackery where the feast that's on the table is always sure to play. Sometimes it rains in your parade, huh? Yeah. Ready? Yeah. All right. Yeah. Oh my God. Look at that. That's awesome, man. It's awesome bar. Look at that fat in there. Look at that color. Oh, dude, it's perfect. Yes. It's not always sunshine and perfect weather in Charleston. You know, living on the coast, we have lots of hurricanes and lots of storms and they come out of nowhere and shock everybody. You're starting to get excited about the low country boil and all these other things and everybody's showing up and all of a sudden just, it breaks loose. It happens sometimes and what are you gonna do? Tell everybody to go home and go home hungry? No way. You figure it out. You put a raincoat on, you get an umbrella, cook that pig, you find some shelter. You're gonna have to do more than that to keep us from having a party. You're gonna have to do more than rain on us. Right here is where I like to break everything down a little bit. Break them up. Dang. Oh man. Been cooking six, seven hours, nice and slow. Take a little bit of salt, have to go down the middle. You wanna go heavy in the spine, hams and shoulders. Dust the rib area, simply because it's thinner. This right here is a family blend. Seasonings, some red pepper, black pepper and some love. Light coating of that. Man, the fat on this pig is so delicious, so sweet. This pig had a lot of love in his life. Oh my God. We can cook some coals under there. We definitely wanna get a little hotter. Best done in a highly flammable rain suit. Yes. This is my favorite part right here. Oh, I love this part. Like to start the thicker areas first, kinda work our way back. There's that sizzling sound, you wanna hear it? You still got some warriors over there. Those people are smart. Waiting on this pig all day. Definitely gonna eat it. Something romantic about eating in the rain. Yeah. See, at this point, you don't consider it rain, you consider it liquid sunshine, natural flavor. Oh my God, that looks good. You gotta be careful not to puncture that skin. Yeah, you don't wanna do that. You got a grease fire going in. Yeah, spreading the love, spreading the love. Spread that. Let's close it up. We're here on a beautiful sunny day with my buddy Mike Lotta of Fig and the Ordinary here in Charleston. Appreciate your weather in the store. This makes it fun though, man. Makes me hungry. Yes. So Mike's gonna make a very classic dish called Frogmore Stew. Yeah, we're gonna keep it pretty simple. That's the beauty of this kind of cooking, I think, right? More complicated you make it, the less beer you can drink and the more you stress out. So I'm not diverting too far from the real version, which, as I understand it, has to have shrimp, sausage, and corn. We add potatoes to it semi-traditionally. You see that quite often. We put some zucchini in there just to give you a little variety. The beauty of this dish, you put it all in one pot, lift it out, dump it on the table. It's go time. I love it. Well, first we're gonna make the broth and we're gonna start by adding a good dose of Old Bay. Probably got four gallons of water in here and I'm gonna put the better part of three cups of Old Bay in. So do you wanna kick that flame up real quick? Yep. Ready? Yeah. Afterburners, Top Gun style. This would not have been as much fun if it was beautiful outside. You gotta keep telling yourself these things. How many lemons you want? I got four right here, maybe five. First in are the potatoes. We'll let those simmer for 20 or 30 minutes until they're pierced with a fork tender. As each ingredient takes a different amount of time to cook, we just keep adding it at the appropriate amount of time. So that's why the potatoes are so important. That's kind of the secret. Awesome. All right, so let's check the potatoes. These new crop potatoes cook pretty quick. I'm thinking 10, 12 minutes. Let's go ahead and add the sausage. Andouille is traditional. And I'm gonna add the corn too. I think the corn might be my favorite thing. Yeah. Dip it in that butter. Wow. You got it. All right, so the only thing left is the shrimp. The roe shrimp season here is very, very short. Down here, the shrimp, you know, that's our religion. So the timing couldn't be better. I think it's one of the things that comes out of the Lowcountry that's probably top of my favorite list. The texture is so perfect. I think they're the best tasting shrimp in the world. Yeah, so good. All right, so we're getting close. I would trade that for any white tablecloth experience, huh? Exactly, man. Okay, so let's go with the zucchini. And then all the shrimp. So now these shrimp, we put all this stuff in. You're looking at cooling the water down a little bit, but let's just stand over it and make sure that we don't overcook them. This is the critical point. Oh my Lord. These are so fresh and so tender, I think that... Eat them raw, man. Yeah. That looks incredible, doesn't it? Holy cow, that looks incredible. All right, buddy, it's go time. Let's do it. Let's do this. Need a hand? All right, maybe, I don't know. This could be like 60 pounds. Hey, look at you grabbing the backside. That's the easy part. Okay. All right. Holy cow. So we do this at the end, too. We just take some fresh lemon juice, go over the top. Jeez, smells so good. And then just a little bit more. Hold that. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Give them that mop. We can hit it again. Awesome, man. So what's next? We can bone them out. Gonna make some happy dogs right here. Oh, yeah. See how easy that came out? Oh, yeah. Love it. That's when you know it's done. You just pull the bone right out. Clean pull. Oh, man. Irresistible, huh? Oh my God. So if someone said to you, you're only allowed to grab for one spot, what's it gonna be? The rib area right here. Just below the shoulder is my spot. Oh, man, look at that piece right there. Oh, wow. Look how moist the loin is. Never see that on a loin. Never. It's so cool to be able to serve it to the people that raise it. Yes. It's more than just food at that point. It has more meaning. A lot of meaning. Let's eat. Don't be shy. I'm not gonna be. Look how juicy that is. Cooking outdoors, it's just the coolest thing ever. Just throw everything out on tables. Everybody lets their guard down. You've got a beer and a koozie in your hands. Oh my God. These are beautiful, aren't they? And you're just eating like crazy. To me, that's my favorite kind of party. Ronnie, you did it perfect. People that came to that party will never forget that. They'll talk about it forever. And that's what's so cool about it. That's how memories are formed. That's how relationships are formed. And that's how communities stay together. On the South, we certainly have a celebratory way about life. You know, it's embedded in you. You have to have parties and share food. You just have to. You'll go crazy if you don't. That's beautiful.