Most of us have preconceived notions about who, what, why or how. Some of us may have looked at a tall high school kid and thought, “Wow, I bet he’s good at basketball.”
And this time of year, if someone supports one political candidate over another, they must be … well, I’ll let you be the judge of what they “must be.”
If we’re talking Southern barbecue, you might have some ideas about who is doing the cooking. In the case of the label on Big Papa’s Southern Sauce barbecue sauce, you’d have a good idea.
But you’d be wrong.
The labels feature the image of Glenn Davis, a man who does go by the nickname “Big Papa,” but he’s not the one making the sauce. It’s his wife, Norka, who is the mastermind behind the recipes.
“He was a natural for the marketing for us,” Norka said, “instead of a shorter white woman.”
The husband and wife are both from the South, Glenn from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Norka from Indiana. They met while they were both in the military, serving in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the mid-1970s.
They relocated to Norfolk, Virginia, then Memphis, on to Charleston, South Carolina, and even the island of Guam for a while. They eventually made their way to Pacific Beach here in Washington, and finally Kent. Norka started working as an alcohol and drug counselor in Yakima while living on the west side and commuted for years.
Regardless of locale, Norka was always in charge of the kitchen. If there wasn’t any good barbecue around, she would buy a bottle of sauce at the store and start doctoring it up herself to give it some real flavor.
Eventually she started making her own sauce from scratch, and it became an instant hit with family and friends. Some suggested that it was good enough to sell, so the Davises decided to try marketing her product in 2009.
“I started with the Original Southern Sauce and Chow Chow (pickled green tomatoes with a blend of bell peppers and onions). That was it,” Norka said. “Then we realized Yakima wanted it hotter.” She added Hot Damn and Flaming to her Southern Sauce lineup.
Realizing her clientele wanted still more, she started to add to her pickled offerings. Around the fourth or fifth year in business, she added spicy pickled asparagus, though she confided that she doesn’t care for the vegetable at all.
Next came bread and butter pickles, dill pickles and spicy dills. Referencing the dills, Norka said, “Most store-bought pickles don’t actually have dill in them. These are the real deal.” (Or is that dill?)
Meat rubs were also added to the Big Papa’s name and cover pretty much any barbecue hot spot you’d consider. From Memphis to Texas, Kansas City to Carolina and even a spicy New Orleans rub round out Big Papa’s lineup. Additional sauces such as Bur-b-Que, which includes real Kentucky bourbon (the alcohol is boiled out of it, though), Fuzzy Apple and Reduced Sugar soon came along.
Norka then added jams to the mix. She labeled them Sweet Southern Delight Jams so she could finally include her photo on a product she sold. It didn’t make much sense to her to include Big Papa’s picture on a jam label.
Most everything she makes comes exclusively from local products. Nearly all of the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers and so on come from the Yakima Valley. She even picked her own blackberries and raspberries for jams in Terrace Heights in September.
Impressively, the recipes are all Norka’s. When she tries out a new product, she gets feedback from her family and friends. But every recipe she has put in a bottle has remained exactly as the first batch was made.
Though it’s unheard of with virtually any other product, her price has remained the same throughout her 11 years of business. Packaging and the product that goes into it might fluctuate, but in her mind, Norka can’t quite justify selling a jar of pickles with a double-digit price tag.
Finding all of the Big Papa’s lineup might be a little more difficult in 2020 than in past years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the bazaars that the company usually participates in are canceled for this fall and winter. But they’re still in all Wray’s and Rosauers grocery stores in Yakima as well as the local URM, Stein’s Hardware, Roots and the Visitor Information Center. They can also be found in Super 1 Foods in Ellensburg and Country Mercantile in the Tri Cities area.
And if you can’t find them at your favorite store, Norka said people do come out and shop at her warehouse in West Valley.
Don’t expect the current Big Papa’s offerings to remain stagnant. They have added a new product or two most years they’ve been in operation, and the past year was no different. They bottled Fire in the Hole, a hot sauce their fans had been begging for over the years. It includes jalapeño, serrano and habanero peppers to put a little sweat on your brow.
The only question you may have now is which type of food you want to make and serve with their products first. The simple answer is, you can’t go wrong with any choice you make.
For more information on Big Papa’s products, call (509) 248-3934.
"Sauce" - Google News
November 06, 2020 at 09:00PM
https://ift.tt/38hwHUv
Meet the real face of Big Papa's Southern Sauce barbecue - Yakima Herald-Republic
"Sauce" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35DSBgW
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Meet the real face of Big Papa's Southern Sauce barbecue - Yakima Herald-Republic"
Post a Comment