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Sauce - The Real Story

In 1966, a young high school student took a summer job with a small barbecue establishment in Henderson, Texas, for the handsome some of $5 a day and all he could eat. I'm sure at some point, the proprietor probably wished that he had paid more and fed the young man less. The restaurant was part of a family chain primarily located in East Texas. Each store was successful, regardless of whether it was located in Commerce, Kilgore, or Palestine. The one thing that they had in common was that they all used the same sauce. Not only did they use it in the restaurants, they sold it in some of the grocery stores in East Texas. It was truly unique and almost universally pleasing. So when the young high school student grew up and decided that he wanted to try his hand in the barbecue business, it was only natural that he use the sauce he knew best---the one he and so many others loved---the one the family would not sell in bulk to a non-family member.

Flash forward to 1983. A young couple is sitting in their living room in rural Central Texas, drinking beer and trying to think of the name of their new venture. The male was what some might call "colorful" or "a character" and the female was a financial whiz that some probably mistakenly labeled as "reserved". It was "the colorful" one that after several beers yelled out "Full Of Bull". The "reserved" one concurred. After all, many times she had said that the "colorful" one was "full of it" so this all made perfect sense. With the restaurant named, they set the goal of tying or beating all of their favorite barbecue restaurants at the item for which they were best known. Ribs as good as or better than their favorite in Ft.Worth. Beef as good as or better than their favorite in Taylor, Texas. Sausage as good as or better than their favorite in Elgin, Texas. The final piece of the puzzle was the sauce. For this, they went back to their barbecue "roots"---East Texas. Even though the plan was for everything in the restaurant to be made from scratch, the couple was willing to buy their sauce if they could get the right one---the one from East Texas. Unfortunately, the family was not in a position to sell the sauce in bulk and they had no intention of selling the recipe. It was time to break out all of the cookbooks. With the taste, that unusual taste, firmly implanted in their minds, the couple began to scour through page after page of their regional cookbooks. Finally, after an exhaustive search, one was found that had some of the same ingredients but more importantly, the portions. Using their memories as a guide and the proportions from the cookbook recipe, "Full Of Bull BBQ Sauce" was born.

For the last twenty-five years, the sauce has survived on a sheet of lined paper stashed in the front of my old Houston Jr. League cookbook. Over the years, it has been shared with many friends and co-workers. One version even won a ribbon at the State Fair of Texas. Some of the crucial ingredients have changed but one thing remains the same---the flavor. Whether we make it mild or turn up the heat, the unusual flavor still comes through. It is that unusual flavor that we want to share with our customers. It truly is like no other.