Nothing screams summer quite like a good ol' barbecue. Memorial Day kicks off this weekend, so in anticipation of this three day vacation, we, at Good Bite, scooped up a copy of James Villas' new cookbook Pig: King of the Southern Table for a little bit of pork-inspired barbecue inspiration. 

First off, Villas is a true Southerner, hailing from North Carolina, and has penned 15 books/cookbooks over this 27-year journalist career, two of which have received James Beard Award nominations. Nicely done. 

For anyone with a passion for pig, this book is a must and covers everything from cooking with ham, pork loin, and bacon, to recipes for the more adventurous which utilize pigs' ears and feet. Yum. 

Of course there is the requisite addition of homegrown recipes like Aunt Bunny's Bacon and Sausage Souffle and Maw Maw's Mustard Pork Choops and Dumplings in Cider, plus recipes from famed local haunts such as Louis Osteen's On Pawley's Island. 

So, fire up the barbecues this weekend and take a trip down south with this recipe classic.

North Carolina Eastern-Style Chopped or Pulled Cue

Serves 10

This is the relatively dry, spicy style of pork barbecue (with a little skin crackling) for which eastern North Carolina is so renowned and that is featured at hundreds of barbecue joints and social pig picks throughout the region. Traditionally, whole hogs are slowly smoked on huge grates over hickory and/or oak fires; the cooked meat is either chopped or pulled; and, unlike the sweeter, tomatoey sauces used for Lexington-style barbecue in the western part of the state, the vinegar sauce here is not unlike the simple hot pepper sauces of Thomas Jefferson's day. Given the impracticality of digging a large pit in the ground (or acquiring an enormous metal smoker) and roasting a whole pig, a very good approximation of eastern-style Carolina cue can be accomplished with pork shoulder and an ordinary kettle grill. Typically, this barbecue is served with coleslaw, Brunswick stew, maybe baked beans, hush puppies, and either beer or iced tea. Since the chopped barbecue freezes well in airtight bags or containers, you really should consider roasting two shoulders.

One small (1½- to 2-pound) bag hickory wood chips

One 10-pound bag charcoal briquets

2 cups white vinegar

1 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

One 9- to 10-pound pork shoulder butt (all skin and fat left on)

In a pan of water, soak 6 handfuls of the chips for 45 minutes.

Open one bottom and one top vent on a kettle grill, place an aluminum drip pan in the bottom of the grill, stack charcoal briquets evenly around the pan (not in the center), and ignite the coals. When the coals are ashen (30 to 45 minutes), sprinkle 2 handfuls of the soaked chips evenly over the hot coals. Place the grate on the grill about 6 inches over the coals.

In a nonreactive bowl, combine the vinegars, sugar, red pepper, Tabasco, salt, and pepper and stir till the sugar is dissolved and the sauce well blended. When the coals are ready on the grill, position the butt fat side up on the grate over indirect heat, mop it with the sauce, close the lid, and cook for 3 hours, mopping the meat every hour and replenishing the coals and chips as they burn up. Turn the butt over, close the lid, and cook till the meat is very tender, 2 to 3 hours longer, mopping every hour and replenishing the coals and chips as needed.

Transfer the butt to a chopping board, remove and discard excess fat, and either chop the meat and crisp skin coarsely or pull into shreds. Transfer the meat to a roasting pan, drizzle about 1 cup of the sauce over the top, toss well, cover with foil, and keep warm.

To serve, mound the barbecue on plates or hamburger buns and serve with the remaining sauce on the side.