Western Kentucky Barbecue is Better Than Your Barbecue
For fans of Western Kentucky-style barbecue, only the original will suffice!
I may just be the world's biggest barbecue snob.
I'll eat your smoked pork shoulder or your crockpot pulled pork or the ribs in store-bought barbecue sauce that you think are so legendary. Every once in a while, I'll order a plate of barbecue just to see if someone can do it right. I'll eat them all and I may even enjoy some of it. To me, though? That's not barbecue. That's as different from barbecue as hamburgers are from salmon filets. It might still taste good, and I'll still congratulate you for slaving over your hot grill, but inside, I'll be reminiscing about real barbecue and feeling sorry that you've missed out on it.
See? I told you that I was a barbecue snob.
I'm from Western Kentucky. Owensboro, specifically, which calls itself the barbecue capital of the world. I can accept that. The region is renowned for its International Barbecue Festival and the famous Moonlite Barbecue restaurant. Here's a barbecue snob inside tip - that's not real barbecue either. Oh, it's good food. I won't deny that. Eating at Moonlite is an experience not to be missed when in Owensboro. It is a buffet of southern culinary delight of epic proportions. The pies alone are worth the trip. So, yes. Go eat there. Enjoy!
If you ever find yourself in Owensboro during the summer, though, try your hardest to find a local Catholic parish's annual picnic. This is where the real barbecue is.
Photo by E. Gish. ca. 1985
When I was a child, my grandparents lived on the church grounds of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Reed, Kentucky where my grandfather was the caretaker. Never heard of it? You aren't alone. A few years ago, the Transportation Cabinet re-routed about a two-mile portion of Highway 60 in Henderson County. Before that, you could tell you were in Reed because of the small green sign that told you so. I'm not even sure that they installed a new sign when the new road was built.
We celebrated the Fourth of July with the church's annual picnic. It was a key fundraiser for the parish and featured barbecue, burgoo, a Bingo stand, games like ring toss and cake walk and the best stand ever (if you asked my cousins and I) - the Toy Store stand. The toy store had grab bags for sale for $1. We'd hit up each of our grandparents, aunts and uncles for contributions to feed our grab bag addictions. As a kid, the toy store definitely trumped the food.
As an adult, knowing that the picnic no longer is an annual occurrence (dwindling volunteer efforts, increased gaming and food regulations caused the event to end), I find myself reminiscing more and more about the food.
During the week leading up to the picnic, the church grounds were a bustle of activity. The men busied themselves cleaning out the barbecue pits - long, concrete block-laid structures that would be filled with wood for the barbecue fire and covered with wire mesh and laid with chicken, pork and mutton. The men would also be cleaning out and seasoning the giant burgoo kettles (imagine a HUGE witches cauldron). The women of the parish would be in the basement of the old school house, peeling, slicing and dicing all of the burgoo's vegetable ingredients. They would fill huge washtubs with cabbage, corn, tomatoes, and onions - all while socializing and constantly telling the kids to get out from under their feet and go outside to play.
(A quick note about burgoo. The word is just about like "Louisville" with all of its various pronunciations. A lot of Central Kentucky folks pronounce it with a sound at the end that makes it rhyme with "bamboo." In my family, it's got a long "u" sound. I contend that we're right simply because I like to be right. Also? It's Louh - vul. Two syllables.)
Back to the food. Our variety of Western Kentucky barbecue centers mainly around barbecue chicken. Chicken halves and quarters are laid flat on the barbecue pits and then a barbecue dip (featuring lots of oil, vinegar, black pepper, lemons, and pickling spice) is applied with a mop at regular intervals. You eat it with your hands and it's very messy but very tasty. I'm a weirdo who has issues with eating meat with the bones still in it, so barbecue chicken was never my favorite.
Mutton was always where it was for me. Lots of WKy barbecue restaurants feature chopped mutton sandwiches, but I prefer it just coarsely diced. Big hunks of meat that have been boiled, then barbecued with dip. It is fan-freaking-tastic and definitely in my top three favorite foods.
Burgoo is a family favorite, but I always found it off-putting to eat boiling hot soup in the heat of summer. I loved watching the men work the burgoo kettles, though. You want to talk about hot? Try nine enormous kettles of boiling stew with wood fires below. Each kettle had to be constantly stirred. The men had long paddle-like stirrers that allowed them at least a few feet of distance from the heat of the kettles. The best thing was always to buy a few gallons of burgoo to put in the freezer. It's a perfect, hearty winter meal.
Now that the St. Augustine picnic no longer happens every July 4th, I've not had good picnic barbecue in quite a while. You can still find church picnics in the area. Each one has its own special method of cooking and its own special recipe. None of it quite replicates the barbecue and burgoo I remember from my youth.
However, my family regularly gets together to replicate the food on a smaller scale. My aunts are pros at making the barbecue dip ahead of time. My uncles perform a well-choreographed dance around the grills to mop, dip, flip the meat (the secret is having a good hose-man to put out the flare ups of fire). My uncles also bought a smaller burgoo kettle for special occasions. My dad constructed a paddle to stir it. Family events aren't complete without centering around barbecue. Family friends ask when our next party will be so they can come have some. Family weddings aren't complete without it as our main course.
Barbecue is a personal thing for a lot of people. Across the country, you'll find a different variety for every state or city you go to. I can understand that you think your particular favorite is the best. You probably think it's the best for the same reasons I think Western Kentucky Catholic Church barbecue is the best. In the South, barbecue is a constant in our lives. The tastes and smells can take us back to the lazy summers of our youth. We can remember just what Grandpa looked like as the King of the Grill long after an uncle or your dad has taken over those duties. Barbecue is a special tradition. In my family, it's nearly a sacred one.
If you're interested, check out this recipe for Crockpot Burgoo , submitted by my Aunt Jan to the St. Augustine Parish Centennial Cookbook.
The HerKentucky Guide to Horse Race Betting
With Keeneland's Spring Meet in session and Derby just around the corner, it's time to talk betting, y'all!
There are as many ways to choose a winning horse as there are horses in the world. Do you favor the "pick a horse by his name" tactic? How about the "my favorite color is the color of the silks!" tactic? What about the old tried and true, "Always bet on the grey!" route?
Whatever way you choose the horse to cheer for, you're never wrong. Horse racing is fun to watch and is fun to wager on if you do so responsibly and in the spirit of fun.
A lot of people, though, are mystified by all the jargon surrounding wagers and intimidated by the betting window. What's an exacta? Are they in some sort of box? Handicap? Is that bad for the horse? By no means am I an expert, but I hope I can shed a little bit of light on the subject.
I grew up in a family of horse racing enthusiasts. I remember going to Ellis Park as a child with my dad and loving it - the excitement, the pretty horses, the treat my dad would buy me when his horse won the race. My 88 year old grandmother still goes to the track, regularly, both as a social outlet and as a way to earn a little "fun money" as she calls it.
With that little bit of background, let me start with the basics. The first order of business is to buy a program when you get to the track. You can tell the serious-types by the copy of The Daily Racing Form; they have tucked under their arm. They probably bought it the night before at Kroger and have been studying. However, the Keeneland program is a great source of information. It can give you a lot of information for each race, but I generally look at the following:
- the type of race - turf or track?
- the length of the race
- the purse (prize money) for the race
The program will also tell you the following about the horse:
- the horse's name
- the jockey's name
- the trainer's name
- the owner/farm
- the color of the horse, the color of the silks and the number in the race
- past performances of the horse
There is a lot of information and knowledge to be gleaned from the program, and it can be confusing to read. If you'd like to learn more about how to read it, there's a fantastic guide at the very beginning of the program. It will explain what each little number and symbol mean. Look over it a few times and take it in.
As I said earlier, there is no wrong way to pick a horse. There are no rules. My dad would tell you he likes to study the past performances. My uncle would tell you he likes to take a look at the horses in the paddock and see who has their game face on.
For me, wagering is a mix between sentiment and educated guessing.
Just like in other sports, I have sometimes irrational likes and dislikes. I tend to not like teams with red school colors. In horse racing, I tend to be sentimental about horses bred and trained on Kentucky farms. I also tend to like catchy or witty names, and I do almost always try to put a little money on the grey.
When I'm making educated guesses, though, I compare the type and length of race with the horse's past performances. Is this a horse's first race on turf or is the horse pushing up in race distance? Eh, I'll probably pass. I also tend to look at the purse for the current race and see what sort of purses they've raced for in the past. It's just like people races. If you'll forgive the analogy, all future Olympians probably start out on the high school track, proceed through the NCAA ranks, the national events and on to the Olympic trials. They don't start off racing against Usain Bolt (well, if they're lucky). Horses start out in small purse races. If they win, they may move up in class to larger purse races. So, take a glance at the winnings and the race purses. Are they making the jump from a low purse to a medium purse race? Maybe it's worth betting on, but the odds probably aren't in your favor.
I also take a glance at the morning line odds (printed in the program) and the live odds scrolling across the screens at the track. The odds-makers are smarter than me. If I want to win, I bet on favorites. If I want to win big, I bet on medium- to long-shots.
The thing that can trump all of these educated guesses, though, are the conditions. Be sure to check the big board in the infield where the track conditions will be listed. Sloppy track conditions often make for big payout days! Bet on the longshot and you could win big!
So, I've narrowed down the field to a few horses that I'm interested in placing a wager on. My program looks like a first draft after the editor's gotten hold of it - notes in the margins, Xs over the horses who have scratched (dropped out of the race), etc. I know which horses I'd like to bet on. Now, what kind of bet should I place?
Betting amounts are always a personal preference, but a $2 bet is the standard and is what the payouts on the board will reflect.
A quick discussion about how to word your bet at the window. There are signs that explain this but you generally should say, "Hi! I'd like to place a bet on Race #__ at Keeneland. I'd like $__ on horse #__ to [insert type of bet]."
Your basic bet is Win, Place or Show. If you think a horse can win, you can put $2 on the horse to Win (you'd say, "$2 on horse 7 to Win"). In a Win bet, you will only win your bet if your horse does, in fact, win the race. Since "Place" is really Second Place, you're wagering that the horse will at least come in second. A "Show" bet is for the horse to come in somewhere in the top three. This is interesting when it comes to payouts. If you bet a horse to Show, but it ends up winning, you'll still win some money back. However, it will be less than if you had bet the horse to win outright. Does that make sense? In a nutshell:
- $2 on a horse to Win - pays out only if the horse wins the race
- $2 on a horse to Place - pays out if the horse wins or comes in second (less money than a win)
- $2 on a horse to Show - pays out if the horse finishes in the top three (least payout of these three types of bets)
You might hear people saying that they are betting horses "Across the Board." That sounds fancy, huh? Basically, it is an easy way of making three bets at once. If you say, "I'd like $2 on horse 5 across the board," you've actually made a $2 bet to win, a $2 bet to place and a $2 bet to show. This bet would cost you $6, but your odds of a higher payout have increased. If your chosen horse has heard you cheering hard enough and wins the race, you'll receive the money shown on the board for Win, Place and Show. It's really fun to do this!
There are many bets that are more complicated. These involve picking more than one horse and are called exotics. Basically, there are an Exacta, a Trifecta and a Superfecta. An exacta bet is when you choose two horses to finish first and second. A trifecta is when you choose three horses to finish first, second and third. A superfecta, you guessed it, is picking the top four finishing horses. One very key thing to note - in plain ol' exactas, trifectas and superfectas, your horses must finish in the order you say they'll finish or you don't win. It really stinks when your horses might all finish in the top, but not in the order you specified. To get around this, you can "box" the bet so that any combination of your horses in the right finishing places will win you some money. To box the bet is more expensive, but it could save some heartbreak!
Betting the exotics can be confusing when it comes to knowing what to say. Basically, take your time when placing a bet. To place a straight exacta bet, you would say, "$2 Exacta on horses x & y." It is similar for a Trifecta - "$2 Trifecta on horses x, y, z." For a Superfecta, you name four horses. To box it, simply say "Exacta/Trifecta/Superfect box."
Exotics can also get expensive rather quickly. You will basically have to pay your bet amount (in the case above, $2) for each combination you are betting on. So, a straight Exacta is a bet on one horse to come in first and another horse to come in second. That's one bet and will cost two dollars. What if you want to box it, though, so your horses can come in any order? Two combinations. $2 x 2 = $4 A $2 Trifecta box is really six combinations, so will cost you $12. Superfectas are even more! I would suggest betting a $1 Superfecta Box just for fun. It will cost you $24 - more than I'm willing to idly spend on one race on a fun day at the track.
Exotics can be expensive but can be lots of fun when your educated guessing happens to be right! My husband and I once placed a last-minute Trifecta bet (boxed) for $12 and walked away with nearly $600! That's fun any way you slice it. Just for fun-facts-sharing-time, the trifecta in the 2005 Kentucky Derby (Giacomo, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex) paid $133,000 on a $24 bet! I'd wager that there's someone out there who is a lawyer, a Sting fan (he owned Giacomo) and has a son named Alex who just might have hit that one!
Going to the track is fun if you're just there to people watch. If you manage to people watch, place a few bets and win a couple of dollars (or at least enough to cover your bar tab and taxi fare), then you've had a great day!
Good luck, and Go, Baby, Go!
Frankfort High School
All these years later, I still love my high school!
My husband says I'm crazy because I love my high school alma mater. It's one of those things he just doesn't get about me.
I'm proud to be a Frankfort Panther. I'm a member of "the long blue line" that also includes such notables as*:
-Mr. Elmer T. Lee, a 1936 graduate who would go on to become a Master Distiller and develop Blanton's, the 1st ever single barrel bourbon
-Marion Longmire, a 1929 graduate who invented and patented the power strip
-Glen Johnson, a 1954 graduate who was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal for his work in the field of human rights
-John Moynihan, a 1982 graduate and top bloodstock agent who recognized the talent of (and purchased) horses such as Charismatic, Curlin and Rachel Alexander
-Bob Custer, a 1917 graduate who moved to Hollywood and became a silent film cowboy star, appearing in over 50 films
-George C. Wolfe, a 1972 graduate and Tony award winning playwright
-Dudley Malone Watson, the 1936 graduate of Mayo-Underwood High School (which was in the same district and later merged with FHS) was a Tuskegee Airman and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Dear old FHS has been in the heart of Frankfort for 125 years and was recently named 12th on the US News and World Report rankings. It's long been the community school - where students living in the district are all within easy walking distance. Tradition has always been a big part of the Frankfort High culture. I remember our principal reading to us from a 1920s-era student newspaper regarding sportsmanship and school spirit. As students, we always felt a duty to uphold those traditions and enjoy them (like Senior Clap In on the first day of school and Senior Clap Out on the last day).
This year, a former teacher and her husband (an alum) are opening a "Traditions Center" where memorabilia of the past 125 years can mingle with afterschool tutoring programs for current students. News of this endeavor has been met with excitement and much reminiscing on the Center's Facebook page. I'm happy to be a small part of it, as it will be housed in my old house, just two doors away from the high school!
Yes, I can see my husband's point - it's a bit silly of me to get wrapped up in how my high school football team is doing when I have no children or even relatives in the school district, but at least I'm not still chanting all the cheers (out loud, anyway!).Once you're a part of that long blue line, you're always a part of it.
*Thanks to the Frankfort High Traditions Center's Facebook page for providing some of the trivia regarding alumni.
Happy Farmers Market Week!
image from Franklin County Farmers Market
This week is National Farmers Market Week, and I wanted to spread some love for my local market (the Franklin County Farmers Market). They aren’t the biggest in the state, nor do they offer the variety of value-added products you might see in Lexington and Louisville, but the farmers are my neighbors, my friends, and I trust them with my food supply. I’m not biased, either! They were voted the #2 favorite farmers market in Kentucky in an American Farmland Trust contest and 46th in the nation!
My farmers market sits on the banks of the Kentucky River. Stalls line both sides of an open-air covered pavilion. The bounty of fruits and vegetables, locally raised meats, honey, eggs, soaps and beauty products, jams, jellies and breads astounds me every single week. The savvy consumer gets there early for the best selection. During certain special harvest times (like asparagus season), a farmer might run out of that offering before 9am! Strawberry season might be my favorite because there’s always one stall with a freezer full of fresh strawberry ice cream.
image from Franklin County Farmers Market
Not only do we buy bags full of fresh produce every week, but the farmers market is a social and entertainment hub as well. Most Saturday mornings feature a local musician entertaining marketgoers. Fresh coffee is offered for patrons, as well. I can honestly say that I’ve never been to the market where I didn’t run into at least 20 people that I know. I love being a part of a community that bonds over local food.
Looking at the big picture, I love that my farmers market is an impactful community endeavor. The three-times-weekly market brings people into our historic downtown business sector. Not only do those people buy produce at the market (putting money directly in the pockets of their friends and neighbors), but they also venture down Broadway for shopping, coffee-drinking and book reading. Economic dollars stay close to home. I’m certain I’ve financed at least one farmer’s vacation with the number of Zucchini Blueberry Muffins I’ve bought from her over the years. It’s neighbors helping neighbors. Our farmers market participates in the EBT program, so families who qualify for SNAP benefits can purchase healthier, more flavorful fresh fruits and vegetables, too. They are also participants in Senior Nutrition and WIC programs.
With over 500 farmers markets within a 200 mile radius of Frankfort, there’s one near you. Check out the National Farmers Market Directory to find one that I know you’ll love. Talk to the farmers. Try a new vegetable (ask for a tried-and-true recipe – you’ll get a great one every time). Enjoy the deals (3 enormous cucumbers for a dollar? Heck yes!). More importantly, enjoy your community, the local flavor, and some fresh eats!
Our Night to Remember
Looking to be Inspired
The Governor's Downtown Derby Celebration
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| The Official Derby Celebration Poster |