It's hard to get good Barbecue now, even in Alabama

From James Edmonds Saunders, EARLY SETTLERS OF ALABAMA (1899).

Hubbard, a red headed man of Courtland, had charge of the cooking department, and had wonderful skill in barbecuing. It is now a lost art. All other industries except this have improved. For the benefit of posterity I will explain Hubbard‘s method. When he once put down his pigs and buffalo fishes, flesh side down, over the pit of coals, they were never turned until the drying of the skin showed that they were nearly done, and then when turned the flesh was nicely browned and cracked open in deep fissures, so that when the hot gravy of sweet butter, vinegar and black pepper, was poured on, it penetrated to the bone—a far superior mode to frequently turning and basting. It was to such a luscious feast that the editor of the Herald [Willie Connor] sat down, with the hindquarter of a pig on his right, a half of a stout buffalo fish on his left, and a bottle of whiskey in front. He moved steadily to the attack, frequently washing down the viands with grog. Orrin Davis, always full of fun, watched his eye glisten with pleasure; but at last perceiving that he was wavering in the attack, he rigged a lever in the fork of a sapling, which happened to stand just behind his seat, and passing a cord under his arms, he would raise him and then let him fall suddenly in his seat, so as to settle his food. This was equal to a cotton com press, and the editor, in the best humor, would renew the attack, until all had vanished, except the bones. This was not at all wonderful, for he was the author of the saying that “a turkey was of a very inconvenient size, for it was rather too much for one man, and not quite enough for two.”