The award-winning pitmaster and restaurateur continues to “share the love” of barbecue, cooking, and family in his new cookbook, out this month
Once you’ve feasted on the culinary bounty, you can sit back and treat yourself to Scott’s life story.
What do people think about when they consider purchasing a favorite restaurant’s cookbook? In the case of Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Every Day’s a Good Day (Clarkson Potter, March 2021), the question is probably twofold. For the outdoor cooking enthusiast: will I learn how to build a pit and cook a whole hog? For everyone who has eaten Scott’s food: will all of his recipes be in there? The answer to both is a resounding yes.
Dig In: The pitmaster shares recipes beyond the smokehouse, from “snacks” such as his pimento cheese to grilled honey-butter fish (above), as well as cocktails, pantry staples, and desserts.
Yes, Scott takes the reader through whole hog cookery step by step. Yes, his rib rub is in there, and his sauce, and “the other sauce,” as well. Be amazed at the secret of his macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and collards. Dwell on the long list of recipes to cook on a grill: barbecue bacon burgers, pork T-bones, and smoked turkey breast among them. Drool over his prime rib sandwich, hush puppies, wings, and banana pudding.
Once you’ve feasted on the culinary bounty, you can sit back and treat yourself to Scott’s life story. He shares his childhood, the history of the family barbecue biz in tiny Hemingway, South Carolina, and its discovery by Charleston architect Reggie Gibson that led to a partnership with Nick Pihakis of Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q and the birth of the King Street shop. Scott’s is a feel-good success story: Being awarded the prestigious James Beard Best Chef Southeast title in 2018. Opening a second location in Birmingham, Alabama, with an Atlanta one in the headlights. Traveling all the way to Australia as an ambassador of barbecued pork. “My customers in Hemingway,” he writes, “taught me to cook for the world.”
