"Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue"

 

Adrian Miller, Black Smoke, published 2021.

Black Smoke is a book about barbecue and the role of Black barbecue cooks throughout American history. Through the topic of barbecue, author Adrian Miller encapsulates the economic history of Black Americans. He profiles many imaginative Black barbecue chefs, pitmasters, and barbecue kings, and he illustrates why White barbecuers have made more money and gained more fame -- especially on food TV. Adrian Miller's love of barbecue animates every part of the book. His goal was to restore people's consciousness of the history of Black people in creating the long and varied tradition of American barbecue.

While Miller makes clear how Black creators never had equal opportunities at fame and fortune, he gives us this history without bitterness. In fact his positive depictions of the accomplishments of Black chefs make the book a total pleasure to read. He includes detailed profiles of many Black barbecue artists, both past and present. Almost every chapter includes one of these detailed and richly researched biographies, frequently with a photo or sketch from a contemporary news story. One of the fascinating things about the book, indeed, is the quoted news items describing huge barbecues in the 19th century and neighborhood and church barbecues in the 20th century. But above all, I like the individual profiles.

For example, he describes the life of "an enslaved African American woman named Marie Jean [who] was in charge of a July Fourth, 1840, barbecue in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, when the town was a little more than a year old." (p. 46).  Or Columbus B. Hill of Denver, Colorado, who cooked “barbecued beef, ’possum, bread, cheese, pickles, and other tempting delicacies" for a crowd of more than 2500 diners in 1888, and presided at many large barbecue events until his death in 1923. (p. 102-105). 

Argia B. Collins, (p. 181).

Another profile presents Argia B. Collins, navy veteran of World War II, who developed a barbecue sauce called MUMBO Sauce. Collins lived in Chicago during the 1950s until his death in 2003; his relationship with the civil rights activists at the time is interesting. Collins had to struggle with resistance from mainstream (that is, White) grocery chains to succeed in having his product available for consumers of all races, but he persisted and became successful as an entrepreneur. Mumbo sauce still exists, though currently the credit for its origin is given to Washington D.C. rather than its real Chicago birthplace.

Another interesting profile describes Sylvie Curry, one of very few women who have been competition barbecuers. "Curry is a double oddity on the barbecue circuit world because she’s a Black woman who cooks by herself." (p. 209).

 
Barbecue competitions are a major element of the current life of barbecue in the US, and Miller has a lot to say about the way that Black barbecue experts are unable to compete effectively -- mainly because they lack the large amounts of money that it takes to enter a competition, where White contestants often find sponsors or donors to fund the entry fees, travel, hotel accommodations, large quantities of meat and other ingredients, elaborate equipment, and other expenses. The economic issues are important, but another major problem is a frequently hostile environment during the competitions: the most egregious example being White competitors who fly Confederate flags.

Black Smoke is realistic about the hostile environment and economic situation of Black people in the US. He calls it "ill will" -- the opposite of good will. He summarized the main factors of ill will, and then elaborated in detail of how each factor works out in the lives and careers of Black pitmasters and entrepreneurs. Here is the summary:

"Ill will . . . is the culmination of tangible and intangible race-based factors that give African American barbecue entrepreneurs businesses a competitive disadvantage. The main ingredients of ill will that I focus on are the racial attitudes of whites toward Blacks, government regulation, a lack of access to capital, and the theft of intellectual property." (p. 127).  

Miller's even-handed optimism about the history of Black people in America, combined with steely-eyed realism about injustice, also characterized his earlier books: Soul Food and The President's Kitchen Cabinet (blogged here: Two Good Books.)

It's easy to be overwhelmed by words like "Black Lives Matter" and "Critical Race Theory." Miller's books offer a nuanced and sensitive account of how American history includes racial injustice, and of the dignity and strength shown by victims -- who shouldn't be seen just as victims. "Black-run barbecue joints often find themselves located at the intersection of food, race, and absurdity," Miller writes. (p. 131). 

Black Smoke also offers a lot of enthusiastic food descriptions, as well as an exploration of what the term barbecue has meant in terms of ingredients, methods, cooking fuel and equipment, and ambience of dining places. Above all, Miller just loves barbecue, or as he puts it in the introduction:

"Shall I count the ways that my love for barbecue is the real, true thing? Whether it’s 'pork shoulder with outside brown' from the Carolinas, rib tips, hot links, and fries from the South Side of Chicago, 'burnt ends' and pork spareribs from Kansas City, pork steaks in Kentucky, coleslaw-topped pork sandwiches and barbecue spaghetti in Memphis, snoots (pig snouts) and turkey ribs in St. Louis, or brisket, boudain (a variant spelling of boudin, a Louisiana meat and rice sausage), chopped beef, and hot links in Texas, I’d eat some version of barbecue every day if weren’t for some predictable health consequences." (pp. 2-3). 

Review © 2022 mae sander at mae food dot blog spot dot com.