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TENNESSEE |
“Most people request whole hog. They don't like just shoulders and hams. And the reason we got into it is, one holiday weekend everything was out or didn’t have nothing or closed and my son said, ‘mama, it’s time you start doing barbecue.’ … We went and rented the building and opened.” – Liz Kinchen
Liz’s Bar-B-Q
311 S. Church Ave.
Henderson, TN 38340
(731) 983-0400
Whole hog barbecue is disappearing in Western Tennessee because people “got lazy” according to Liz and Ike Kinchen. Both past the traditional retirement age, the Kinchen couple continue to cook four to seven hogs six days a week. These two are as loyal to the whole hog, as their customers are to them.
Liz’s Bar-B-Q is the type of place where customers often request not only a certain cut of meat (shoulder, ham, middlin’), but where the truly faithful specify the exact ribs and attached flesh: “third rib on the right” or “fourth rib on the left.”
After Liz and Ike were forced to close the restaurant back in 2003 because of Ike’s poor health, her customers would not leave her in peace. She could not shop for groceries without hearing, “There’s no barbecue in town Liz. Get back over here and cook it for us.” She obliged them just one year later.
We first visited this location in 2003, when it was known as My Three Sons Bar-B-Q as part of our initial foray into documenting rural Tennessee ‘cue. Visit the original My Three Sons Bar-B-Q page.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
Subject: Liz & Ike Kinchen, Troy Smith
Date: July 9, 2008
Location: Liz’s Bar-B-Q – Henderson, TN
Interviewer & Photographer: Rien T. Fertel
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Rien T. Fertel: Okay; this is Rien Fertel for the Southern Foodways Alliance. It is July 9, 2008, just about 3:30 this afternoon. I’m at Liz’s Barbecue in Henderson, Tennessee, 311 South Church Avenue right in the middle of Henderson. I’m here with the owners, Liz and Ike Kinchen, and the cook Troy Smith—if each of you could introduce yourself and say your birth-date please?
Liz Kinchen: Elizabeth Kinchen, May 30, 1939.
Ike Kinchen: WC Kinchen, February in ’37—February in ’37.
Troy Smith: Troy Smith, February 24, 1953.
And sir, you were born here in Henderson?
IK: I sure was at Sweet Lips. … I was born at Jack’s Creek and raised at Sweet Lips. … It’s just about five miles south of Jack’s Creek up there.
And was your father a farmer?
IK: Yeah; my mother—all of us were farmers. … We raised cotton, corn, along to make a living. Raised hogs, cattle, and plowed and worked mules.
Were the hogs and cattle mainly for the family or were they to sell also?
IK: Well, they just were for barbecuing for the family and eating—pork year-round. We had meat on the table and I barbecued—we barbecued for special occasions—stuff and had big cookouts. That’s the only thing we had to do.
Was it for holidays only or special occasions?
IK: No just a special occasion if it come up—or anybody wanted to get together they’d cook a hog and up there at Jack’s Creek we cooked—they cooked every weekend. And I was—from the time I was real little I follered [Note: followed] behind them and started—learnt what I know now about cooking hogs. … The whole country—the neighborhood and all us would gang up and have big cookouts. … Well we had pits—just get out and build a little ole pit and lay the hog up on it, put a stick through it; we didn’t have pits like I got in there now. … We’d lay it up on some [stacks of sticks] and then take and put some more sticks, strap it together and turn it over. Take four men to turn it over.
And in what year did ya’ll meet, Miss Liz?
LK: Oh Lord, ’70? … Yeah; we knew each other before that but in ’70.
And what were you doing when you met your wife?
IK: I worked construction work for about 50 years off and on and cooked a little along—back in ’70—no; it wasn’t—’97 we started in—in the barbecue place, cooked, and about what—three months in ’98 we started here and five years we’ve been—except what—what about a year, I was out sick. The rest of the time we’ve been in the barbecue business.
So you started the barbecue in 1997? And what was the name of it then?
LK: Friendship’s Barbecue. … There was a community [Friendship, TN] and that’s where we were at. … It’s about five miles northeast of Henderson.
And so why cook whole hog? Let’s get in the whole hog; I believe it’s traditional here?
LK: Everybody loves it ‘cause it’s moist(er).
IK: Have you ever eat any barbecue that this one cooked and the other one cooked and everything else, you can find meat that you like the best and the whole hog you can get any part of the meat you want.
LK: Most people request whole hog. They don't like just shoulders and hams. And the reason we got into it is, one holiday weekend everything was out or didn’t have nothing or closed and my son said, “mama, it’s time you start doing barbecue.” … We went and rented the building and opened.
So how long was the restaurant in Friendship?
LK: We were out there about six months and the guy wouldn’t fix the building and keep it from leaking when it rained and everything and we left there. And then I kept hunting me a place and found the building that we’re in now from Miss Gertrude and we fixed it, opened it up, and ran it for five years to the day.
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So let’s talk about cooking; do you spice the whole hogs before you put them on the pit?
IK: No, put him on there just like he comes from the slaughterhouse.
And how much do these pigs weigh?
IK: Well they weigh from 200 to 350—400 pounds.
Do you put the pigs on in the morning, each morning?
IK: That’s right; you put them—put them on in the morning and it normally takes about 18 to 24 hours to cook.
Eighteen to twenty-four hours, and are they fed fuel that whole time or is there a rest period?
IK: There ain't no rest to it; they just cook.
Let’s talk about the different parts of a pig. I hear that different customers will—will specifically order parts of the pig.
LK: They order shoulder; they want ham; they want tenderloin or they want the middlin’ out from under the ribs and they’ll tell you which rib to pull it under.
Really? How do they specify which rib?
LK: They just got this habit of saying third rib on the right side or the fourth rib on the left side.
Do you think it matters—third rib on the right, fourth rib on the left?
LK: No; it doesn’t matter. It’s just all under the ribs. … They’re just full of it.
What about some other parts of the anatomy of the pig?
IK: Tenderloin it’s a white meat, coarse—coarser meat and it’s not as—it’s got the fat on it, like—like your middlin’ or your shoulder has got fat on it and your ham is drier. It ain't got fat on it like the other has but it’s white meat too. There’s two—white meat and dark meat and all of your dark meat comes out of your shoulders. And your white meat all comes from your shoulder back. Part of your middlin’ it’s got a lot of fat on it but it’s a white stringy meat. Ham it’s a coarser grain and it’s white.
Do you make your own sauces here?
LK: I make my own sauces; I make my own slaw and I do my own potato salad and I do my own baked beans. Nothing is store bought. … Well there’s people all over town that can distinguish where the beans come from. They know my beans. They know my potato salad and they know my slaw.
[How long has it been] since you started barbecuing [here]?
TS: Started down here when they had Friendship Barbecue. Eight years—eight years—been doing it for eight years.
And what do you think about whole hog barbecue? Is it hard work?
TS: It’s not too hard; just hot.
Can you describe a day cooking whole hog barbecue here?
TS: Well we usually start getting prepared about 7 o'clock, getting the fire and everything started. Then whatever time he gets back with the hogs we prepare it and put them on. Most of the time it will be around about 8:30 or 9:00 and we’ll cook them ‘til—‘til about 8:00 and then we’ll turn them and then we’ll let them cook all night. That’s basically about it.
I hear that whole hog cooking can be dangerous at times for fire and other things. Would you like to talk about that?
IK: It’s about like setting kerosene or gas on fire. It—it’s three things that will put it out and I ain't going to say what they are but they’ll—it’ll put—put it out if you catch it in time. And you can beat yourself to death and still not get it out.
I’ve traveled a bit in this region over the past two weeks and I’ve noticed that there is less restaurants doing whole hog, less barbecue restaurants than there were five and ten years ago. Do you know why?
IK: There are people that got lazy. It’s work to cooking the whole hog and the other you can just put it in the electric cooker and cook it overnight and don't have to smell all the smoke or breathe it and everything else.
LK: The people have gotten lazier and they’d rather put a shoulder or the hams in an electric cooker, close the cap on it, and cook it and go on about their business. Anybody can cook a shoulder or a ham or a tenderloin in the oven at home; it would be no different.
What do you think, you know, gives the pig its flavor?
LK: The hickory wood—the smoke from the hickory wood. That makes it taste good. You can tell the difference.
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Do you think there’s less farmers growing and selling pigs to a slaughterhouse?
IK: Oh yeah you—you used to everybody had a hog you might say. Now then you might go 100 miles and not even find one. It’s that way now days. … Well the onliest way I can figure it out is they got lazier. And they don't want to fool with them. There’s work to raising hogs too. You got to feed them, see after them, fix fences, keep them out of everything and they’re going to get into everything. But you see a hog he’s got it on his mind; they’re rooting and getting into something.
Do you think in 10—20 years that we’ll have more whole hog barbecue, less, the same? There’s only a few places around now and ya’ll are one of them.
LK: Probably none. … Because there’s not anybody going to get out and—and hunt it up and cook it.
Do you think people will go back to cooking pigs at home?
LK: Yeah; I really do because people doesn’t like this electric and gas cooked meat. People drive all the way here from Milan, Tennessee way north of Jackson on a regular basis to get it because it’s cooked over hickory wood. They can't get it nowhere else up in there, nowhere else around here; and I’ve got regular customers. I know when they walk in that door where they came from. And I know what they want when they walk in that door. … I know exactly what they want. I can look at them and tell how many buns they’re going to buy. I’m not kidding you. I know my customers. And I know where they come from and I know what they want.
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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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