Renowned local pig farmer and Holy City Hogs owner Tank Jackson is the co-host of a new show called Moonshiners: Smoke Ring, which invites pitmasters from throughout the South to compete in a culinary showdown to see who can smoke the best meat. The show premiered on Tuesday, March 9, and episodes 1-4 of the six-part series are now available on discovery+.
Jackson supplies local restaurants with pork from pigs raised on his own farm, which he recently moved to Kingstree, S.C., so it’s closer to his slaughterhouse. He hosts the show with moonshiner Stephen Ray Tickle, who fans may recognize from the original Moonshiners docudrama series. Charleston’s own Emily Hahn (Tarvin Seafood) makes an appearance as a guest judge on the “surf and turf” episode.
This isn’t Jackson’s first time on the big screen — he made cameo appearances on the Sean Brock and Rodney Scott episodes of Netflix’s Chef’s Table.
“It took about four months to film. It’s totally unscripted — we were just cooking barbecue and hanging out,” Jackson said. “Being a pig farmer who cooks barbecue, I’m pretty well-versed in all things swine.”
Like he alluded to, Jackson doesn’t just raise the pigs — he also cooks them, a skill that will be on display next Sundays during his third “TNA Farmfest” at Lo-Fi Brewing. Each of the three weeks have featured special guest chefs like Frank Lee, Nick Dowling, Jeremiah Schenzel and Travis Milton, who cook barbecue using all local ingredients from Charleston-area farms. Wine is supplied by Cardel Wines, and there will of course be plenty of beers flowin’ from Lo-Fi’s lineup.
Watch Moonshiners: Smoke Ring via paid streaming service, discoveryplus.com.
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