Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ

Rodney Scott is one of the most celebrated and well-known names in barbecue, and with good reason. Before he was featured on Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” and won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, Rodney spent decades perfecting the dying art of Eastern Carolina-style whole hog barbecue at his family’s beloved restaurant, Scott’s Bar-B-Que, in tiny Hemingway, South Carolina. When he struck out on his own and opened Rodney Scott BBQ with friend Nick Pihakis in Charleston in 2017 it was an immediate smash, earning heaps of praise and commanding lines around the block that haven’t let up since.

This truly is barbecue at its finest and most primal. To make his signature whole hog, hardwood (generally oak and hickory) is burned down to glowing coals, which are shoveled under whole pigs and carefully tended to for 12 hours, until the delicately smoked meat is pulled and mixed with a signature spicy vinegar sauce. It’s a true labor of love, and it’s not just the whole hog: spare ribs, chicken, and more get the same treatment, and the end result is quite literally some of the most delicious food on earth. Rodney Scott has been praised by everyone from Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern to Bon Appetit and Southern Living, and now it’s finally shipping nationwide!