- [Jason] With the sun just coming up.

- [Dan] I call this a Carolina Gold Day.

- [Jason] Somewhere in York County.

- [Dan] The smell on a fall day, it hypnotizes you.

- [Jason] Lives a unique individual.

- [Dan] This guy was in the field on Wednesday, today's Friday.

- [Jason] Some call him Dan the Pig Man.

- This pig was raised in Union County, North Carolina.

- [Jason] Others know him as Dan Huntley, former writer for "The Charlotte Observer" turned barbecue pit master.

- You can get around the back.

- [Jason] With the help this morning from his partner Kay.

- Just grab him by the feet.

- [Jason] Dan's right in his element.

- To me, on a misty morning, you know, with some split oak and hickory and a pig, it's primal.

- [Jason] Primal and simplistic.

- I've done it a lot of different ways and tried to not modernize it, but kind of goose it up a little bit, and I've come full circle.

I'm back to where I started.

Salt and smoke.

- [Jason] With a tailgate doubling as a countertop, they're prepping the essential ingredient.

- He's a little over 50 pounds.

- [Jason] For a Carolina tradition centuries in the making, a Carolina pig pickin'.

- [Dan] Drop him off there.

- [Jason] And this freshly slaughtered hog will be the star of the show.

- [Dan] Just drop him.

- Just drop him?

- [Dan] Yeah, yeah.

(chuckles) - [Jason] Huntley's personal philosophy for making great barbecue.

- You don't want to get between the low smoky fire and the salt and the pork that they were doing 200 years ago.

- [Jason] Throughout the Carolinas, you'll find very distinctive styles of barbecue.

- The barbecue you typically get in Eastern Carolinas is a whole hog that's slow smoked like this.

And then you get the tenderloin, you get the ribs, you get the dark meat, you get all of that mixed together.

Barbecue in Piedmont, for the most part, are more shoulders and Boston butts, or the hams.

- [Jason] Perhaps the main difference from eastern to western North Carolina and into South Carolina, the type of sauce.

- Particularly eastern North Carolina, and to a lesser degree, the Lowcountry of South Carolina, it's more of a vinegar-based, pepper, red pepper flakes.

mm, a little bit of sugar, but not much.

As you get into the Piedmont in North Carolina, it's more of a tomato-based and sugar sauce.

You know, Lexington, down around Charlotte, and up into the mountains around Boone.

And it's a thicker, sweeter sauce with little vinegar.

- [Jason] Before the advent of supermarkets and large scale industrial agriculture, farmers in the Carolinas were mostly self-sufficient, raising much of what they would eat right on the farm, including pigs.

So when the fall rolled around and the crops were out of the fields, farmers often saw the harvest as a reason for celebration.

- You know, farmers have a gathering out around the tobacco sheds or something like that, you know, like a early Thanksgiving.

- [Jason] While it may look like an old tobacco shed, Huntley's old barn is now a cooking shed and serves much the same purpose as a gathering place for friends and family.

- I'm from Charleston, South Carolina.

We are very much into our pigs and barbecue.

I can't wait to eat and just to have the conversation, the music, and the laughter and everything that comes with that.

It's just a good time.

- [Jason] As more guests arrive.

Craig Morrow, a skilled pit master himself, lends a hand with the final details.

- Like this right now is the best part where you're cutting all the stuff and getting everything in place, and you're trying to anticipate what everyone's gonna want.

And we've got some kettle beans, we got some mac and cheese, we got some slaw, we got some good Hawaiian buns, and we got a pickle board, which I'm excited about.

I didn't even know what that was.

But I mean, I'll tell you, I know now, and I'm gonna apply it into my repertoire.

A pig pickin', everyone can kind of let their guard down and be who they actually are.

You can admit almost anything during a pig pickin'.

It's almost like a confessional, but it's a lot less pressure.

- [Jason] Much like a chuck wagon cook in the Old West, Morrow signals the hungry crowd that it's time to eat.

Or I guess you could say pig out.

(metal ringing) - Come and get it!

- [Jason] As humans, we are naturally drawn to find our own community or tribe.

- So it's a way to celebrate life and to appreciate what you have and the people that are in it.

- You gotta come to one, you gotta see one.

My words fail in response to what it actually is.

(folk music) - As the night concludes with an impromptu folk music jam, Huntley sums it all up.

- [Dan] You can't fake barbecue.

- For "Carolina Impact," I'm Jason Terzis reporting.