Outdoor, live-fire cooking played an outsized role in Rev. Andrew McLarty’s childhood.
He was a Boy Scout. He and his father restored old cast iron skillets together. As an Espicopal youth, he watched in amazement as the “gray-bearded” men of his church in Jackson sagely prepared the meat for parish pig roasts.
“These guys would bring these big barbecue pits on trailers and smoke all these chickens and pork butts and things, or a whole pig,” McLarty said. “… I just always thought that was cool.”
He didn’t really try his own hand at barbecue until one Thanksgiving when his wife, Emily, challenged him to smoke a turkey on the only outdoor grill he had at the time — a small Weber Kettle.
Unbeknownst to Emily, that challenge gave rise to what would become the “Pit Pastor,” a moniker Andrew bears on his vehicle’s license plate and a lifestyle supported by the 250-gallon smoker he uses at home and on the road. Andrew even owns the pitpastor.org domain, though he hasn’t done anything with it yet.
“I think it’s hilarious,” he said of the nickname, noting it started as a hashtag he included with social media photos of his cooking.
Emily isn’t the least bit sorry about what she started.
“I get to eat delicious meats all the time,” she said. “The man’s got a gift.”
Andrew became rector in November at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, something of a homecoming for Emily, a Mississippi University for Women alumna. By then, “Melissa” — the large custom-built smoker Andrew named after a dear friend from seminary who passed away shortly after graduation — was already part of the family.
It featured prominently at the church’s May luncheon, where Andrew smoked extra pork butts for the annual fundraiser. He cooks for sick and bereaved parishioners, for church camp and pastors’ events, and sometimes just because.
“Fridays are usually my day off, so that’s how I kind of recharge,” Andrew said. “I go to the butcher, find something I want to do … fire up the smoker and just spend the day poking a fire. … You’re taking this tough piece of meat that’s usually a hardworking part of the animal … and you’re creating something beautiful.”
Andrew also cooks a lot on request, be it for church functions or other things, something he found came with the territory of having a big rig.
“It’s like a friend with a truck that you ask, ‘Hey, can you help me move this couch?’” he said. “(When I’m asked to cook) it’s ‘How many people and what do you want?’”
The whole pig
Andrew spent some time as a part-time youth minister in Jackson before teaching 11 years in Epsicopal schools, including two years on the Gulf Coast and nine at his alma mater St. Andrew’s in Jackson. He went to seminary from 2017 to 2020, where he was first asked to cook a whole pig on the facility’s 72-inch barbecue. Up until that point, the most he had cooked were smaller cuts in an offset smoker.
“This was like going from driving a little Tonka toy to operating heavy equipment,” Andrew said. “… I just did my research, watched some YouTube videos to make sure I could make the leap from a pork butt to a whole running pig. I was flashing back to all those men at the church on the pig roasts growing up like, ‘Oh, this is it.’”
Again, at Emily’s encouragement, he bought his custom smoker in 2021. It can handle a whole pig or as many as 20 pork butts at a time.
“They’re foolproof … really hard to mess up,” Andrew said of pork butts. “But it’s so good. Anybody can do it. It’s the ‘Live. Laugh. Love.’ sign of barbecue.”
His favorites to cook are beef tri-tips and cornish hens. His least favorite, believe it or not, is brisket, often considered “the end-all and be-all of barbecue,” he said.
“They’re finicky and they take minimum 12 hours,” he said. “So, it’s a long-haul cook, and it’s easy to overcook or dry out $75 to $90 worth of meat.”
When the mood strikes him, he smokes cheeses or grinds meat trim into sausage. That’s Emily’s favorite.
“He makes a mean boudin,” she said.
Settling in
Andrew spent 3 1/2 years as priest and rector in Brookhaven before coming to Columbus. The transition, he said, couldn’t have gone much better.
He and Emily found immediate support from within the church, Andrew said, and connection in the community and at Columbus Air Force Base quickly followed.
“It really is the Friendly City,” he said. “It’s been really easy to link in to people in town … and not just be like, ‘Hey, I’m this new, random isolated person in town.’”
He described the church as a “busy beehive.”
“I’m overwhelmed with the culture of volunteerism at St. Paul’s,” he said. “… There always seems to be a ‘Yes.’”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
