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| Here I am, before dinner |
When I was growing up, my
mother tended to shy away from the more processed meats for dinner, such as
Manwich sloppy joes, canned chili and spam. Of course, like all kids I did eat my share of
hotdogs.
With those memories in
mind, we recently decided to try barbecue in a jar.
While passing through Evansville,
Ind., we were intrigued by Big “B” Pit Cooked Pork with Barbecue Sauce, a popular
local staple found in area Schnucks, Wesselmans and Beuhlers grocery stores.
You’ll find it in the same aisle as the barbecue sauces. It also has been sold
on the QVC home shopping network.
Big “B” Pit Cooked Pork has been
made in Evansville since 1962, the same year John Bonenberger bought Baugh’s
Barbecue restaurant, a family-owned diner since the 1920s. He renamed the place
Big “B” Barbecue.
While the restaurant is
now a memory, the family business continues to produce its jarred meats and
sauce. The Bonenberger family also bottles its tomato-based sauce as well as
sauces for other private labels across the country through their company, FarmBoy Food Services.
In 1965, Bonenberger became
the sole owner of Farm Boy Food Services, but a year later he passed away suddenly.
His two sons, Robert and Richard, run the business today. Today, Farm Boy is
part of UniPro, the largest food distribution cooperative in the world.
According to a company
profile in Evansville Business, the pork for Big “B” barbecue arrives in 2,000-pound
bins and is cooked separately from the sauce, which is prepared in 500-gallon
kettles in about 20 minutes. Afterwards, the meat and sauce are combined and
packaged for distribution in two-pound, 32-ounce jars.
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| Big "B" Barbecue on a bun. |
