I grew up in the woods of East Texas, in a long line of Texans, where barbeque is a family tradition.

My daddy, in my estimation, was one of the best Texas style barbeque pit masters that ever lived, although he was not recognized as such. He was just an old country preacher who on occasion would grab whatever meat he had, run it through his pit smoker with a bit of his rub and then whip up a sauce with whatever was on hand, and we would then eat ourselves sick on what came out of the smoke. He never put anything on the table that wasn’t fantastic. It was always wonderful.

As an adult, I found myself way up in the Midwest where you just couldn’t find good barbecue. At least not what I would call good barbeque. After some years went by, it hit me hard that I wasn’t enjoying that cuisine of my people so many find to be inspirational because I simply wouldn’t buy substandard product. And so it was that I found myself in a large home improvement box store standing next to a cabinet smoker, gas fired. The wheels started turning in my mind, and after an impulse buy I had a smoker on the deck.

After several conversations with my father, I was making rub and cooking meat. Initially, I wrecked a lot of meat. We’ll call that “education”. For sauces, I simply used a basic and popular sauce off the shelf of the supermarket to modify to my own taste. This isn’t particularly exotic as many people do this with great results, and that is what I began to do for my family as I began to pass on a family tradition.

We began to have problems, however, with my daughter’s dietary needs as the onset of Lyme disease, improperly diagnosed, played havoc with her body. She developed several sensitivities that basically meant she could not partake of the barbeque the rest of the family would enjoy. It occurred to me that I needed to revamp all recipes to allow her to consume them, and to be sure that the taste was not just good, but fantastic. And since it’s a family meal, we were only going to serve off one plate and out of one pot.

I had to get rid of gluten. I had to get rid of soy.  I had to get rid of high fructose corn syrup.  I needed to pack in something other than plastic.  As simple as this all sounds, it does indeed present a problem if you buy any components ready-made off the shelf. I had to reinvent virtually every stage of the sauce from scratch, which meant I was back on the phone with my dear old Dad.

One of his favorite phrases was, “Son, use what you got; don’t use what you don’t got.” After a lot of lively conversation and some research, many hours of sauce making commenced in our tiny kitchen.  Untold gallons of sauces were made. Over time, I had a method for making sauces and rubs compliant with our needs. And then it hit me: I have a niche product!

That’s why you’re reading this.  I’m bringing my sauces and rubs to market, for you.  Maybe you have a dietary need and maybe you just like a premium sauce made from all natural products.  Maybe you just like good food.  Maybe you need something that isn’t going to make you hurt when you eat it or break out in a rash or do things not suited to description in a “how we got started” article on a website.  Whatever your criteria, I will say that if you like a tasty sauce made from quality products that has a lot of flavor, then I believe that you will like the products I offer you.  The rubs are the same; if you know how to use a rub, and it isn’t hard, I believe you’ll love those as well.  Be sure to check out the tips on how to use the products if you need some help as we know full well this isn’t intuitive.

But know this: whenever you use this sauce, it’s a sauce a dad made for a sick little girl so she could share in a family tradition, it’s made with love, and it is made well.  Thanks for checking us out, and I hope you enjoy the products.  Now stoke that fire and let’s make some ‘Q!