New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Rugby club cleans up around Shelton Dog Park
Pitmaster Rodney Scott pens cookbook for barbecue fans to burn through
Some area rugby players got down and dirty Saturday cleaning up the area around the city’s dog park.
Two dozen members of the Aspetuck Valley Rugby Club spent a portion of the day gathering more than 30 bags of trash from the trails and surrounding lands around the Shelton Dog Park — a tradition started in 2018.
The club, with a high school-aged squad ranked No. 15 nationally, recruits players from throughout the state — many from Shelton. The high school head coach, Ray Weiner, also lives in Shelton, so holding this trash-a-thon in the city was a perfect fit, he said.
According to team manager Talia Burress, the players get sponsors who agree to pay a certain
amount for each hour worked. On Saturday, the crew raised more than $2,400. The money goes to the club, which uses it to help cover costs for trips and equipment for those families that need assistance.
“As a nationally ranked club, we do a lot of traveling. It gets expensive and events like this help offset the cost,” Burress said. “Coach Weiner feels the boys need to earn their sponsorships, not just have money handed to them, and that’s where the trasha-thon came in.
“This is a way for the players to bond,” Kinney added, “while raising money all while also giving back to the community.”
Founded in 2012, Aspetuck Valley Rugby Club offers programs for players ages 8 through high school. The club has expanded in recent years, Kinney said, with more than 100 players
across all ages with youth teams at U10, U12 and U14 and three high school teams: freshman, D1 and D2.
Kinney said the trash-athon remained in Shelton over the years since "so many players (are) living in the surrounding area and Shelton. We may branch out next season.”
Players are from Shelton, Monroe, Newtown, Middlebury, Wilton, New Canaan, Stamford, West Haven, Milford, Redding, New Haven, Fairfield, Darien, Bridgeport and Stratford. The squad’s home field is listed in Newtown, but Kinney said the team also holds contests at Shelton High and Perry Hill schools.
For more information on the club, visit https:// www.aspetuck rugby.org/
The vinegar-saucemopped pork of South Carolina couldn’t be more different from the beef-proud traditions of Texas barbecue.
But they share a common DNA found in smoked-meat foodways anywhere you go in barbecue-obsessed America: fire, burnt-wood vapors, patience and passion. Pitmasters, no matter what state, are part of a unique family — thick as thieves and with a sense of community tighter than the silverskin clinging to the bone-side of a rack of ribs.
That’s why Rodney Scott, considered the king of South Carolina whole-hog cooking, is giving shout-outs to Houston in the middle of talking about his new cookbook, “Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Recipes & Perspectives From the Legendary Pitmaster.”
The James Beard Award-winning owner of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ in Charleston, S.C., name-checks Feges BBQ and Blood Bros. BBQ, and wonders when his buddy Chris Shepherd’s Southern Smoke — the Houston fundraiser where Scott cooked hogs in 2015, 2016 and 2017 — will fire up again so he can visit.
“I would love to get back to Houston,” Scott said. “There have been several nights during the pandemic when I went to bed and woke up thinking, ‘Is this over? Are we back to normal?’ ”
Not yet. Like all restaurateurs who have struggled to remain solvent amid a coronavirus landscape, Scott had to learn a whole new game. But he’s kept his namesake restaurants in Charleston and Birmingham, Ala., busy while also planning for expansion into Atlanta, due this summer. His cookbook, publishing next week, arrives a year after the country was plunged into COVID-19 chaos. His story is a gutsy, visceral tale that will no doubt endear him even more to those who can appreciate the often lonely, bruising and single-minded focus the barbecue craft demands.
While Scott recounts an often difficult relationship with his late father, whose Hemingway, S.C., variety store/barbecue joint birthed Scott’s smokedmeat passion, the cookbook rings with the joys of triumph — for the Scotts whose hard work put their tiny joint on the world’s map and for Rodney, who set out on his own in 2017 and a year later won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast, the country’s first Black pitmaster to be honored with the culinary world’s highest commendation.
The book, co-authored with Lolis Eric Ellie, can be compared to Scott’s famous barbecue: Details crackle like crispy skin and are as rich as fatty, slow-cooked pig meat. It’s the story of a boy who cooked his first hog at 11 and never looked back. Scott invests memoirlike chapters with poignant recollections of small-town life, onlychild responsibilities, farming, school, music and cars, and lessons of determination from teachers, friends and parents who shaped the pitmaster prodigy into a man of distinction.
“The reason I shared all those things was because I associate food with memories. All those memories built me to where I am now,” he said. “I wanted this book to be different by telling my story. It still felt like I needed to say more.”
Barbecue fans got to know Scott better thanks to last year’s “Chef’s Table” season on barbecue — one of the four episodes was dedicated to Scott, another to Texas’ legendary Tootsie Tomanetz, pitmaster of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington. They get to know him even better in the book, which segues from life working for his family’s barbecue business to a new one working on his own brand.
In 2017, he partnered with veteran Birmingham restaurateur Nick Pihakis to open Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ in Charleston, the historic port city about two hours southwest of Hemingway. The new restaurant brought him fame he couldn’t imagine.
Though he’s among the nation’s most celebrated pitmasters, the 49-year-old Scott retains the humble demeanor of a barbecue novice. “The very second you think you know everything is the second you fall short,” Scott said. “I’m still learning.”
Scott’s sharing, too. His cookbook bulks with instructions on wood knowledge, fire starting, pit building and, yes, a step-bystep on how to cook whole hogs that typically weigh in at 150 pounds. There are recipes galore: smoked and grilled meats, pork skins and cracklins, traditional barbecue side dishes (coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni and cheese), sandwiches, stews, fried chicken and catfish, seasonings and sauces, desserts and cocktails.
Even though there are many barbecue books on the market and barbecue fanaticism has reached fever pitch, Scott said a new wave of barbecue appreciation is on the horizon. “There’s a never-ending road to barbecue. People can’t get enough of it.”
He predicts that post-pandemic, barbecue appreciation will only grow stronger.
“You’re going to see barbecue everywhere. It’s going to be one of the top restaurant concepts,” he said. “It’s going to be recognized throughout the world. Barbecue is key to world peace.”
Smoked chicken
2 whole chickens (3 to 4 pounds each), spatchcocked and halved through the breastbone (a total of 4 halves)
3 tablespoons Rib Rub (recipe
follows)
4 cups Rodney’s Sauce (recipe
follows)
Instructions:
Fire up your grill to between 225 and 250 degrees.
Sprinkle the chickens on all sides with the rib rub. Place the chicken onto the hot grill, boneside down. Close and cook until the bone sides are nicely browned, about 1 hour and 30 minutes, being careful to maintain a steady grilling temperature between 225 and 250 degrees.
Mop the skin side with the sauce, then flip the chickens and mop the bone side with sauce as well. Close and cook until the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 degrees, about 1 hour.
Mop the chickens once more. Take them off the grill and allow them to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
From “Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ” by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie
RIB RUB
½ cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt ¼ cup MSG
¼ cup freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup paprika
¼ cup chili powder
¼ cup packed light-brown sugar 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2 tablespoons onion powder 1 teaspoon cayenne
Instructions:
Mix all of the ingredients and place them in an airtight container. Cover and store in a cool dry place until ready to use.
Makes 2 cups
RODNEY’S SAUCE
1 gallon distilled white vinegar 1 lemon, thinly sliced
½ cup ground black pepper
½ cup cayenne pepper
1 ¼ tablespoons red-pepper flakes 2 cups sugar
Instructions:
In a small stockpot, warm the vinegar over medium-high heat. After about 5 minutes, when the vinegar reaches 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, just before it starts to simmer, add the lemon slices and continue to cook until the lemon peel begins to soften and wilt, about 10 minutes.
Whisk in the black pepper, cayenne, red-pepper flakes and sugar. Continue to cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the sauce reaches 190 degrees, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before using. Once the lemon is removed, the sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks.
Makes 1 gallon.
MINNEAPOLIS — The long process of jury selection for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death began Tuesday with two jurors picked and five dismissed, including some who said they would not be able to set aside their views on what happened.
One woman who was dismissed said: “I definitely have strong opinions about the case. I think I can try to be impartial — I don’t know that I can promise impartiality.”
Another woman said she saw bystander video showing Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, and didn’t understand why the officer didn’t get up when Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.
“That’s not fair because we are humans, you know?” she said. She too was dismissed.
The exchanges between potential jurors, attorneys and the judge illustrate the challenges in seating a jury in such a well-known case. Cahill set aside three weeks for a process that could run longer; Opening statements are scheduled no sooner than March 29.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death, and jury selection is proceeding despite uncertainty over whether a third-degree murder charge will be added. The state has asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to stop proceedings until that’s resolved, which could mean a delay of weeks or months.
Floyd was declared dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the Black man’s neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, leading to a nationwide reckoning on race.
Chauvin and three other officers were fired; the others face an August trial on aiding and abetting charges.
A man who was selected to serve on the jury, a chemist who says he comes to conclusions based on analysis and facts, said
he has never watched the video of Floyd’s arrest but that he has seen a still image from the video. When asked if he could decide the case based on the evidence, he said, “I’d rely on what I hear in court.”
The man, whom prosecutors said identifies as white, said he supports the Black Lives Matter movement, but views the organization itself unfavorably. He also has an unfavorable view of the Blue Lives Matter movement. He said everyone should matter the same.
“The whole point of that is
that all lives should matter equally, and that should include police,“he said.
A woman who was selected described herself as a “go-withthe-flow” person who could talk with anyone about anything. The woman, who is related to a police officer near Minneapolis, said she initially had a negative perception of Chauvin because of what she saw in the bystander video.
“That video just makes you sad.” she said. “Nobody wants to see somebody die, whether it was his fault or not.”