Goodman Ken - Praise the lard: recipes and revelations from a legendary life in barbecue

Copyright 2017 by Mike Mills and Amy Mills
Photographs 2017 by Ken Goodman
Photographs pages by David Grunfeld
Brown wood image: Sutichak Yachiangkham/123RF
White wood image: Algirdas Urbonavicius/123RF

All rights reserved

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mills, Mike, date, author. | Tunnicliffe, Amy Mills, author. | Goodman, Ken (Photographer), photographer. Title: Praise the lard : recipes and revelations from a legendary life in barbecue / Mike Mills and Amy Mills ; photographs by Ken Goodman. Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. | A Rux Martin Book. Identifiers: LCCN 2016051671 (print) | LCCN 2016054384 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544702493 (paper over board) | ISBN 9780544702509 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Barbecuing. | LCGFT: Cookbooks. Classification: LCC TX840.B3 M545 2017 (print) | LCC TX840.B3 (ebook) | DDC 641.7/6dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016051671

Book design by Toni Tajima
Food styling by Amy Mills and Lisa Donovan
Cocktail styling by RH Weaver
Prop styling by Amy Mills and Lisa Donovan

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Theres something like a line of gold thread running through a mans words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

John Gregory Brown

B arbecue has been important to our family, but I never dreamed it would consume my life. And I certainly never set out to get the kind of attention and acclaim that our food has received the world over. Every day for the past thirty-some years, Ive focused on three things: cooking consistently good barbecue, helping the people who work for me have a better life, and providing for my own family.

In the beginning, all I wanted was to create the kind of gathering place where Id want to hang out, a place where people would feel good and warm, as if they were in my home, and where they could talk over a couple of cold beers and maybe enjoy a decent mealthe kind of comforting dishes my family loved, with smoked meats and ribs as a special one or two days a week. I called the place 17th Street Bar & Grill, and before long, it became the spot to be in our tiny city of Murphysboro, Illinois.

I had no idea how much 17th Street would mean to people, or how much hometown pride we would eventually inspire. Two years after opening the restaurant, some friends and I founded Murphysboros own barbecue cook-off to bring some commerce and attention to our town. Now known as Praise the Lard, the cook-off is in its third decade. We formed our own teamApple City Barbecue, named after our towns CB radio handle and the areas abundant apple orchards. We quickly became the winningest team on the national barbecue circuit, and the pride of Murphysboro. Parades were thrown to celebrate our victories, and friends and neighbors lined the streets to cheer us on. Regional media covered our comings and goings. Then there was the time President Bill Clinton came to Southern Illinois to give a speech and the Secret Service gave me top security clearance so I could board Air Force One to bring the president some of our ribs and other barbecue fixins.

In 1990, we won our first World Champion and Grand World Champion titles at Memphis in May, the Super Bowl of barbecue competitions, and a Home of the Apple City Barbecue Team sign went up at the Murphysboro city limits. To this day, people flock from all over to compete in our cook-off, serve as judges and volunteers, and, of course, eat our food at 17th Street. Barbecue put Murphysboro (population 7,894) on the map.

And that was all in the first decade. In 2002, I helped Danny Meyer open his barbecue restaurant, Blue Smoke, in New York City, and the year after, I helped him and the Blue Smoke team found the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, Manhattans very own barbecue festival. In 2005, Amy and I published our first book, and we were showered with all kinds of attention. We appeared on Regis and Kelly. Bon Apptit anointed our ribs Best in America, and the Food Network came calling. I remember thinking to myself, This is it, right here. Barbecue has hit its peak in popularity.

Boy, was I wrong. Interest in barbecue has soared even higher since then and has yet to taper off, because barbecue is about so much more than just the food. Barbecue is Americas original comfort food: It feeds the soul. Magic happens around the fire. Time stands still. People talk and share stories, ideas, hopes, dreams. Tending a pit is intentional and methodical, slow and steady, stoked by conversation or contemplation. You can taste that in the meat.

Every year at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, I watch these New Yorkers, racing up and down the sidewalks, with their high heels clacking, walking their dogsit seems like everybody has a dog, and those dogs, they have outfits and little shoes, too. These people are always on the go, focused on moving straight aheadthey dont speak, dont smile. But once they get down to the Block Party, they slow way down. No ones in a hurry; although they have to line up and wait to buy their barbecue, theres no pushing or shoving. They start smiling at one another, making actual eye contact, engaging in conversation. They relax and enjoy the moment.

Heres my theoryand Ive studied this out: For years, I kept bees in our backyard and theres an art to it. To harvest the honey without getting stung all over, you have to puff smoke into the hive to settle the bees. Well, thats exactly what we do to those New Yorkers in Madison Square Parkwe smoke em. That aroma coming off the pits isnt just the smell of whats for dinner. Its a reminder: Take a moment, breathe a little deeper, worry a little less, and laugh a little more.