A barbecue enthusiast I know describes a ritual she practices at Freeman’s BBQ. She exits her car, stands quiet in the parking lot, and inhales the scent of smoldered hickory coals and the hogs they’ve cooked. She calls this pre-meal moment her “amuse nez.”
Smell is a fundamental cooking tool for pitmaster James Freeman. He uses no timer or thermometer, and he doesn’t poke at the pig to see if it’s done. Instead, he sniffs; and because he’s been doing it for over half a century, his nose tells him when the meat is cooked just right. He learned what he knows from his grandfather and father, who both raised hogs and started serving barbecue in the Aiken County community of Beech Island in the 1950s.
