Dec 15 2007
What About Kentucky Barbecue
We are always hearing about North Carolina BBQ, Texas BBQ, St Louis BBQ and Memphis BBQ. Granted they are all good but what about Kentucky BBQ?? Kentucky has a long tradition of barbecue and without a doubt some of the best bbq in to be found anywhere. Kentucky’s specialty is mutton and nowhere else makes barbecued mutton like the bluegrass state.
What is barbecue mutton you ask? Female sheep cooked low and slow
An older female sheep to be more exact. You see back in the 1800’s part of Kentucky had a large population of sheep, almost twice as much as cattle. I am not a history expert but something about a tariff in the early 1800’s led sheep herders to settle this area and wool production was a profitable business. But what happened when all these sheep got old? Well, people started eating them. Aged sheep was tough to eat though and a soon it was discovered that a low heat and a long cook time made the sheep very tender. A dip was made of vinegar and hot peppers and over time it evolved into a specialty “sauce.” As time progressed selection of meat become more pronounced and the shoulder roasts emerged as the best part.
How is mutton served? There are actually two ways to serve mutton. First once it has been thoroughly cooked and is nice and tender it is shredded and placed on a piece of white bread and covered in “dip” and eaten like a sandwich. The other method is to pull the shoulder roast off the cooker and slice it and serve with a bowl of dip. The mutton is perfectly cooked when you stick your fork into it to lift off the grill and it starts to tear apart from it’s own weight. A slight carmeling of the ends makes for perfect mutton.
And if you want mutton where do you go? Some say Owensboro, Kentucky is the mecca of mutton. A place called Moonlite Bar-B-Que Inn has been serving mutton for as long as many can remember. Owensboro is also the home of the International BBQ Festival in May and mutton is king with 20,000 pounds of female mutton being cooked. You can smell it miles away and the smoke haze can be seen for at least 10 miles.
So…. in my opinion and the opinion of others Kentucky needs to be added to the big four and make it the big five. Oh yeah……Kentucky has great pulled pork too. Better than than that N.C. stuff……………
