Kentucky BBQ Sauce is a Way of Life

Well the question has been asked off and on over the years "What's Kentucky barbecue?" And the answer used to be Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro. The best I can tell we have a couple of different version of Q here in the Bluegrass.

Sure have Moonlite and the mutton machine that is Barbecue in Owensboro and a vinegary tomato sauce from what I recall.

And as you come East toward the North Central we have - or HAD in the old days 20 to 30 years ago - a cross between Texas and some of Carolina vinegar infusion.

And as you moved up further toward Cincitown there were places BOILING their butts back then. YUCK! But Barbecue has exploded in popularity and with people coming and going from the South to the North bringing with them the hunger for smoked products, the demand brought fairly rapid change to the restaurant and food industries.

And that demand and the change is still ongoing - hell look back 10 years and you only had a few people like us marketing sauces with roasted garlic AND Chipotle - now try and find casual dining house that DOESN'T boast of having some combination of smoked meats or a chipotle push on their menu or in their promotions.

But I am getting long winded.

To me the best Barbecue was cooked up by some of the churches down in Owensboro - open pit smoking and they use a soy and Worcestershire-based product similar to our funny label sauce "Not Made in China" - Thin as a Carolina or Arkansas sauce and had a little vinegar too but not overwhelming. Still my favorite sauce but I like to top it off with a little Pappy's XXX White Lightnin' when I'm doing pork shoulder, pork loins or beef brisket, I just splash it on after I finish cooking and chopping.

To me the uniqueness of the use and the popularity of mutton in the Western part of Kentucky has defined what Barbecue WAS in this area, but I don't know that with the advent of the franchises now running amok in the Barbecue industry if that'll continue to be the story. I think we'll see a homogenization in a larger way and some of that uniqueness may fade into the history pages.

I can tell you this: the church barbecues really defined it for me - made a visit to many of the "name" restaurants and was left wondering what the fuss was about - the church products were FAR superior in my humble opinion.

If your experience of BBQ sauce is limited to Hunts or Heinz, just wait till you taste what a real professional BBQ artisan can produce! Expand your horizons and develop your taste for each of the regional styles of BBQ sauce.