BBQ & Gumbo: A Match Made in Heaven

When I saw “gumbo sauce” in the recipe index I knew I had to buy the cookbook. Of course, it helped that the Southern Foodie’s Guide to the Pig was a 99-cent Kindle special that featured hundreds of recipes and a how-to on hog slaughtering. To me, the silhouette of a pig, like the one on the book cover, is the universal icon for “barbecue.” Gumbo and barbecue – a match made in Heaven!

So with one click I bought the cookbook. Upon closer look, I realize the pig on the cover doesn’t symbolize barbecue – it’s just means pork. But I’m going to try this gumbo sauce.

Covers can be deceiving. It’s not barbecue, but it’s a great cookbook.

The author of The Southern Foodie’s Guide to the Pig: A Culinary Tour of the South’s BestRestaurants and the Recipes That Made Them Famous credits Ivy Wild for the gumbo sauce recipe. That’s a place – not a person. Ivy Wild has the longest description of any restaurant I’ve ever read about. It’s a fine-dining, new American, progressive Southern restaurant in Sewanee, Tennessee, on the edge of the campus of the University of the South. (Most folks just call the school Sewanee, too). Ivy Wild prides itself on using fresh, local, seasonal products and humane methods. (I wonder how you humanely raise a hog before slaughtering it).

If you don’t have the book, Ivy Wild Chef Keri Moser shared a variation of the recipe online in the August 2014 Local Palate magazine. Now the entire world can read how to make Sous Vide Pork with Smoked Gouda Grits and Gumbo Sauce. She probably figured few readers would want to spend 18-hours cooking the pork after 2-3 days of chilling it. But who’s after the pork recipe? Anyone who’s seen Fried Green Tomatoes knows the secret’s in the sauce. Here’s the recipe for Ivy Wild’s gumbo sauce.

Southern Foodie author Chris Chamberlain included Ivy Wild’s gumbo sauce with pork  shoulder instead of Sous Vide, but it’s no time saver. The Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder takes about 24-48 hours to marinate, then five hours to cook, then a night in the refrigerator before slicing and searing as steaks.

But my 99 cents was spent wisely. The cookbook includes interesting recipes, restaurant features and clever little “pig tales” trivia — including the derivation of “pig in a poke.” Some recipes in the index really piqued my interest like Sweet Tea Pie, Fried Deviled Eggs, and Peaches and Cream Corn Salad.

With two pits and two smokers at his disposal, Son #3 has all the equipment it takes to grill up some of the best pork in the Florida Panhandle.

I’d never have time to cook all the bacon recipes – from ice cream to brownies.

On second thought, I don’t even have time to make slow-roasted pork shoulder. Maybe I’ll just make the gumbo sauce and ask son #3, the pit master, to barbecue one of his famous pork butts to go with Ivy Wild’s gumbo sauce. Hog Heaven!