And guess what? That’s what barbecues were in the beginning – laid-back affairs. One of the earliest barbecue fans were George Washington, who actually wrote about it in his diary: “Went into Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night.” As decades passed, barbecues became grander and grander affairs and grew in massive popularity in the 1950s after World War 2.

The South was hard hit during the Great Depression, but then, as now, barbecue was a go-to inexpensive way to flavor even inexpensive cuts of meat. You may feel like you have traveled back in time to that era now if you have tried to search out your favorite meat at your local market. Here’s a tip from us: Consider what you may want to cook out for Memorial Day, and purchase your meat as soon as possible.

Barbecue restaurants became a huge hit in the 1930s as BBQ shacks and stands popped up around the country. Even gas station managers got in on the BBQ business and opened up side gigs selling barbecue and creating pits behind their stations. Many of these stands operated like modern-day food trucks, selling meat on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays or until the meat ran out.

Because meat was often scarce, pit masters barbecued whatever meat they could find and choose simple recipes because they didn’t want to waste any food. Another throwback that is now very stylish: Shopping local. In the 1930s, barbecue gurus had no choice but buy meat from local farmers. Available meats varied thoughout the country. For example, Alabama had more pork and chicken, North Carolina, chicken, and Texas, beef. Even hot dogs and bologna, which were often easier to find, was barbecued!

Our spices and sauces aren’t just for eating high on the hog during the good times. Our entire line also adds zing to vegetables, salads, and any kind of meat. We’ve taken a couple of classic recipes and transformed them by adding Bootsies magic!

Potato Salad

5 potatoes
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup sweet pickle relish
½ teaspoon Bootsies All Purpose Spice and Rub
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Bootsies High-Tone White BBQ sauce
Ground pepper to taste
Garnish with hard boiled eggs

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Add peeled potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes.

Drain, cool, and chop.

Combine potatoes, celery, onion, relish, Bootsies All Purpose Spice and Rub, mustard, pepper and mayonnaise, and Bootsies High-Tone White BBQ sauce.

Mix together well and refrigerate until chilled.

Alabama BBQ Ribs

3 pounds country style boneless pork ribs
½ cup Bootsies Sweet N’ Smoky BBQ sauce
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Bootsies Whiskey Fusion Funk spice
1 can Coke


Place ribs in a shallow pan.
Mix Bootsies Sweet N’ Smoky BBQ sauce and Worcestershire in a bowl. Set aside.
Pour Coke over ribs.
Cover ribs with Bootsies Sweet N’ Smoky BBQ and Worcestershire sauces
Sprinkle Bootsies Whiskey Fusion Funk spice over ribs.
Marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Bake for 1 hour at 350° in an oven.

* This can also be cooked on a grill.

This week, Elvis would have turned 85 years old. Some of us can still remember when the news broke of his death on August 16, 1977, in Memphis at the young age of 42. In some parts of Arkansas, phone lines even jammed because everyone was calling their friends and relatives to tell them the beloved and worshiped King had died.

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis knew every back road and bar in the 1950s South because he traveled them and wowed the crowds in them. His deep musical influences came from the heart of the Mississippi Delta especially Southern gospel music.

Of course, Elvis loved music, but he had another passion: food. He was the original Southern foodie. It didn’t have to be fancy, but it had to be good and greasy. Healthy? Of course not. Finger lickin’ good? You betcha.
Some of Elvis’ favorite foods included fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. (Most Southerners don’t necessarily fry their peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but Elvis was, well, Elvis.) He also loved meatloaf, baked squash, and “Just Pretend” Harvard Texas caviar. This all according to the official Elvis cookbook, Graceland’s Table: Recipes Fit for the King of Rock and Roll.

Elvis also indulged in BBQ Bologna. At Bootsies, in honor of the King’s birthday, we decided to add some Bootsies love to one of his favorites.

BBQ Bologna

Ingredients:

½ stick of bologna (A roll of bologna, not deli sliced for sandwiches)
½ cup vinegar
½ lemon juice
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 tablespoon salt
Bootsies Sweet n’ Smoky BBQ Sauce

Directions:

Punch holes in the bologna with a fork
Place bologna on a grill or in a 250 degrees F oven
Mix vinegar, lemon juice, red pepper and salt in a bowl
Baste the roll with vinegar mixture every 15 minutes while cooking for an hour
Remove from oven and baste with Bootsies Sweet n’ Smoky BBQ Sauce
Cook for 30 more minutes
Serve sliced with greens and black eye peas.

Yes, the Southern and Memphis soul band recorded “In the Christmas Spirit” in 1966, but it took the music magazine five years to catch up with the brilliance of this instrumental album on the Stax/Atlantic label.

Rolling Stone wrote: “This record seems to prophesy their recent tendency to play roller-rink music, yet perhaps because the songs themselves lend well to such a style, the group is able to retain much of the dynamics and musicianship that made Stax (and the MG’s) synonymous with the finest in soul music during the middle years of the Sixties. Beginning with “Jingle Bells” and ending with a down-home version of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.”

Booker T. & The M.G.’s were the house band for Stax, and any Southern soul music lover can tell you that without that band Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding would not have created some of their most famous, and timeless, songs.

“In the Christmas Spirit” should be an essential part of any holiday record collection. From the slow groove of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” to the hypnotic funk of “Silver Bells” and the super-sexy “Merry Christmas Baby,” Booker T. & The M.G.’s created a holiday masterpiece that should not be forgotten. The band’s organ-heavy “Blue Christmas” makes you forget that Elvis made the song famous because Booker T. & The M.G.’s put their own spin on the song.

You should make this album your soundtrack for any party or family gathering. We highly recommend you cue it up on Spotify when you are cooking with Bootsie’s famous Hot As Funk barbecue sauce on your turkey.

In fact, this album is so superb, you don’t have to listen to it only at Christmas. It’s perfect for any time you want to chillax with a martini by the fire and regenerate your soul with some funky, slow grooves on a cold winter night.

Listen to the album here: 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6MGY4N1Fr3xhYGhD0S4...

• Olive Oil enough to brush on steaks
• Steak, cut of your choosing
• Bottle of Bootsie’s Whiskey Lemon Fusion Funk Seasoning Salt
• ½ Tbs of Bootsie’s Blue Cheese Butter FunkUp per steak
• Meat Thermometer

Directions:

1. Prep Steak. Brush light coat of Olive oil on both sides of steak, then coat Bootsie’s Whiskey Lemon Fusion Funk. (You can do this day before)
2. Heat grill or iron skillet to medium-high heat.
3. Place steak on for 5-7 minutes then flip. For last 2 minutes add pat of Blue Cheese Butter. Insert thermometer, temp should be minimum of 130 degrees F. “medium rare”. 145 F medium.
4. Rest steak for 5 minutes after removing from heat. Then serve.

• 5 Tbs Olive oil
• 2 Pork Tenderloins appox 2-2 ½ lbs
• ⅓ Cup of Bootsie’s Hi-Tone White BBQ (plus more for dipping)
• 4 slices of bacon chopped
• 1 8oz can of mushrooms Stems and Caps
• 1 Tbs Bootsie’s Sweet Heat Funk
• 1 Tbs Bread Crumbs
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• Toothpicks

Directions:

1. Heat 2 Tbs of oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, about 8 minutes. Place mushrooms into a food processor, after a light chop add to skillet. 1/2 teaspoon Bootsie’s Sweet Heat Funk to taste; cook until the mushrooms are soft, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs and all but 2 tablespoons parsley. Let cool.
2. Soak 10 to 12 toothpicks in water to prevent them from burning. Rinse the pork and pat dry. Butterfly the pork: Make a 1-inch-deep incision down the length of each tenderloin; do not cut all the way through. Open the meat like a book so the tenderloins lie flat.
3. Cover the pork with plastic wrap; pound with the flat side of a meat mallet until about 1/2 inch thick, starting from the middle and working outward. Spread the mushroom mixture over the 2 tenderloins. Starting with a long side, tightly roll up each tenderloin. Secure the seams with the toothpicks.
4. Preheat a grill to medium high. Brush the pork rolls with Hi-Tone White BBQ and season with Sweet Heat Funk. Grill, turning, until a thermometer inserted into the center of the pork registers 140 degrees F, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board to rest, about 10 minutes.
5. Mix the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons parsley, and Bootsie’s Sweet Heat Funk to taste in a bowl. Remove the toothpicks and slice the pork rolls. Top with oil.
6. Serve with side of Hi-Tone BBQ for dipping.

• 2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
• ¼ pound (1 cup) Blue Cheese
• 1 Tbs fresh minced parsley
• 1 Tbs fresh minced chives
• 1 tsp Bootsie’s All Purpose Spice N Rub

Directions:

Combine all ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Form into long cylinder on a piece of wax paper, foil or plastic wrap and roll up. Make sure to cover ends or place in a bowl and cover.

Keep refrigerated for 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months.

• Lobster tail
• 2 tsps Bootsie's Smoked Whiskey Fusion Funk
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• Prep grill for medium-high heat

Directions:

1. Take defrosted lobster tail and split lengthwise.
2. Sprinkle tsp of Bootsie's Smoked Whiskey Fusion Funk on split lobster.
3. Make Clarified Butter. Mix 1 tsp of Bootsie’s Whiskey Lemon Fusion Funk.
4. Set lobster on grill, meat side down, for 5 mins.
5. Flip over shell side down, Brush Bootsie's Smoked Whiskey Fusion Funk Clarified butter onto lobster meat. Cook for 5 mins.
6. Remove from grill and enjoy with remaining Clarified Butter to dip