PORK

I love pork. I love bacon, and prosciutto, and ribs, and chops.… Did I mention I love pork? It’s hard to go wrong with this tasty meat, so I set out to find the very best of all.

My search for the perfect pig landed me in Dixie, Georgia, with farmers Andrew and Jennifer Thompson. It just doesn’t get any more southern than Dixie, my friends, and pig farming is truly something else. Sure, the piglets are cute, but then there’s the boars and the sows. Not so cute, and mean too. But to-beat-the-band delicious.

If there’s any one thing to remember when you’re cooking pork, especially good quality pork and a good cut, it’s to leave it alone. You don’t need to mess with it! No brining, no marinating, no messing about. Make a simple plan and let the pork shine on its own.

They say barbecue sauce runs in a Southerner’s blood. And so we can’t talk about pork and the South and not mention barbecue. Right? I mean, come on! Down in Dixie, I had the honour of meeting Jimmy Vicker, a South Georgia barbecue legend. When I asked Jimmy how he did what he did, because it was just so perfect, I learned that, like any of us with a deep passion, Jimmy was born with his love of barbecue. As he said, “This is it. This is what I do.”

Amen, brother Jimmy! Let’s bring our passion to pork.