It started
under a pecan tree.
A pot of sauce. A rack of ribs. A Sunday table with room for one more.
Our dad Otis never called himself a pitmaster. He called himself hungry. Every Sunday in Pine Bluff, he’d get the smoker going before the rest of us got up. By lunch, the neighbors had found an excuse to stop by. We started bottling his sauce in 2015.
Same recipe.
A bigger pot.
I’m Lena. I cook the sauce, Will packs the boxes, and Dad tells us when something needs another pinch of pepper. We simmer tomato, molasses, cider vinegar and spices until a spoon leaves a trail. Then we taste it on food, not just on a spoon.
We bottle in a licensed shared kitchen in Pine Bluff. We keep batches small enough to taste every pot. No liquid smoke in the Original. That part is your smoker’s job.
Lena Freeman