The evolution of whole-hog barbecue in Houston
Whole hog is the little engine that could of Houston barbecue. Even though this Carolina-style dish lacks a widespread following here, area pitmasters continue to experiment with increasingly delicious results.
Whole hog is what it sounds like: entire pigs are harvested, dressed and splayed so they are flat. The hog is usually placed on a direct-heat cooker and then turned over at least once during the multihour roast for even cooking. Vinegar or mustard-based mops are applied for flavor and moisture.
When finished, meat is pulled from the various cuts and cavities of the hog and the nowcrispy skin is removed. It’s then served as-is (pulled pork) or chopped together so that the rich, tender meat combines with the crunchy, baconlike pieces of skin.
Though whole hog is a religion among barbecue fans in Tennessee and the Carolinas, it’s never quite caught on in Texas, where brisket is king. Still, Texas pitmasters have persisted in experimenting with this style of barbecue because when whole hog is good, it is very good.
Patrick Feges and Erin Smith of Feges BBQ kick-started modern whole-hog cooking in Houston and will soon offer it every day at their Spring Branch location. They became inspired and learned the technique while working with whole-hog specialist Rodney Scott when he visited Houston for the Southern Smoke festival a few years ago.
In Austin, Banger’s Sausage House & Beer Garden went all-in on whole hog, building its own custom, stand-alone pit house dedicated solely to the art of whole-pig cooking. Alas, no brisket or beef ribs are to be found here.
Russell and Misty Roegels of Roegels Barbecue also got bit by the whole-hog bug a few years ago during a tour of the Carolinas. Russell bought an uprightstyle, direct-heat trailer pit that he uses to cook 80-pound half hogs on occasional weekends (call for availability).
More recently, the Houston location of Truth BBQ is cooking and serving Carolina-style, chopped whole-hog barbecue on weekends (again, call for availability). Pitmaster Leonard Botello and team use a BQ Grills direct-heat pig cooker, famously used by Carolina pitmasters like Rodney Scott. Botello’s technique yields perfectly tender meat with crispy skin that is mixed together and served on its own or as a sandwich.
Barbecue pop-ups are also getting into the game. Nomad Barbecue, one of the Houston area’s most promising pop-up purveyors, and Piper’s BBQ & Beer in the Heights recently teamed up for a unique pastrami-style whole-hog event.
Pitmasters James McFarland of Nomad and Richard Orozco of Piper’s used a traditional pastrami-style technique in which they implemented smaller cuts of the hog that they brined in a marinade of water, curing salt and spices. The pig parts were then removed from the brine, rubbed in additional spices and cooked on an offset smoker.
Though this technique is most often associated with beef, pastrami is also famously paired with pork in the form of bacon and specifically pork belly. McFarland and Orozco’s deconstructed whole-hog treatment was a revelation: big strings of pink-red pork pulled from the shoulder and belly were infused with intense savoriness of the pastrami brine.
Slowly, inevitably, whole hog will gain traction in Houston and Texas. But it will be a top-down process, so to speak, where chefs and pitmasters of the Lone Star State continue to perfect and tinker with recipes until Texas smoked-meat aficionados finally catch on to the greatness and deliciousness of this style of barbecue.