A TASTE OF THE REGION: ORIGINAL RECIPES BRING FLAVOR, CUSTOMERS

A.D. Hoffman II, right, owner of Wib's Drive-In in Jackson, prepared barbecue sandwiches with Clara Tyler for their lunch-time customers.

John Fitzgerald prepared barbecued pork with special sauce for catering at the Pilot House, across from the Cape Girardeau Municipal Golf Course.

A.D. Hoffman II, Terry and Dotti Buchheit, Bertha Smith, Leroy McCauley and John Fitzgerald know what makes their customers' mouths water -- barbecue.

All use an original recipe. All vow their tasty sauce is the best taste of the region. But none will ever reveal the list of ingredients that give their specialties a unique flavor, mild or spicy, sweet or tangy.

But to customers, recipes don't bring them in the door. It's the taste.

"Wib's is the best barbecue in Jackson," said Jeff Baldwin of Brugger Auto Sales. Occasionally, he and several co-workers patronize Wib's Drive-In in Jackson for lunch. As far as they are concerned, no other sauce compares to the flavor of Wib's.

Hoffman, the owner, has a simple but popular menu featuring sliced barbecue pork shoulder sandwiches.

Beside his sauce, he gives credit for the sandwiches' flavor to their preparation, cooking the entire pork shoulder before slicing it for sandwiches. Cooking the meat with the bone in retains a lot of the meat's flavor, he said.

For $1.80 to $2.25, the toasted sandwiches have regular sliced pork or the sliced outside part of the shoulder. They come with or without Hoffman's pimento cheese, a mixture of American cheese, pimentos and salad dressing.

Another option is the minced barbecue sandwich, topped with a mixture of ground pork shoulder, sweet pickle relish and salad dressing.

All sandwiches can be ordered plain or with a light, regular, hot or extra hot brushing of barbecue sauce.

"The more sauce, the hotter the sandwich," Hoffman said.

(Note: For first-time customers, the right door is used for dining in and the left is take-out only.)

A farther drive north to Perryville will lead a barbecue-hungry traveler to the 1950s dining decor of Ewald's. On the inside, owner Terry Buchheit displays a portion of his Coke memorabilia collection including serving trays, commemorative bottles and clocks. On the outside, curb service is available after 4 p.m.

Started in 1946 by Ewald Buchheit, Terry's dad, Ewald's offers barbecued sliced pork and smoked beef. Unlike Wib's, however, Ewald's meat is simmered in sauce; the sauce isn't added to the meat before toasting and serving.

"The good thing about this is that the longer you cook the pork in the sauce, the better the flavor gets," Dotti said.

Buchheit uses two sauces. The milder of the two is for pork sandwiches, which run $1.40 each. Also, barbecued pork can be purchased by the pint, quart and gallon for $3.49, $6.98 and $27.75.

The second heavier sauce, spicier and sweeter than the first, is used for smoked beef sandwiches and for basting special order chickens and ribs.

But Buchheit believes his barbecue excels because of the meat's flavor obtained from hickory smoking it, not just because of the sauce.

Charlie Knote of Cape Girardeau, director of the Culinary Institute of Smoke Cooking and co-author of "Barbecuing and Sausage Making Secrets" with his wife, Ruthie, lists smoke cooking as an important step to good barbecuing.

Smoldering wood allows the smoke to land on the meat and the flavor will be picked up by the meat itself, Knote said.

At the Fruitland exit of Interstate 55, a passer-by can pull in at Bert's B-B-Q.

Bert is owner Bertha Smith. Smith started the business more than 20 years ago. She always loved cooking but waited until her six children were grown before commercializing the old family barbecue recipe.

If customers can find a table before attacking the cake and pie case sitting to the left of the register, they can try one of the top barbecue sellers: pork sandwiches, ranging from $3 to $4, pork steaks and spare ribs. Smith also barbecues turkey legs, beef briskets and chicken and offers barbecue chili for $1.95.

Whereas Hoffman adds more or less sauce to adjust the spiciness of sandwiches at Wib's, Smith adjusts the spiciness of the sauce for each order.

Hot wings are also on the menu. For these, Smith uses a separate hot sauce, and, "When you talk about hot, they're hot," she promises.

After the main course, the eye goes back to the dessert case. The top shelves feature a rainbow of frosted two-layer cakes including chocolate, lemon, red velvet, pineapple, strawberry, 7-Up, German chocolate, Sunshine and Key lime. The bottom is lined with pies: coconut cream, chocolate cream, sweet potato, egg custard, pecan, Dutch apple, cherry, lemon and banana.

For barbecue like mom would make, Leroy McCauley suggests the House of Prayer Family Place at 316 S. Sprigg St., a restaurant owned by the House of Prayer Outreach Mission devoted to serving Soul Food.

McCauley, the manager, refers to Soul Food as food that comes from the heart, not a recipe.

"When an individual is fixing their specialty, they are putting everything into it," he said. It's a creation coming from within them, not from a list of ingredients.

His father, Reece Ware's, specialty is barbecue, which he prepares in a pit at home and brings to the restaurant.

Ware barbecues pork shoulders, ribs, rib tips, beef and chicken upon request. Customers say the secret's in the sauce, but two other ingredients are more important McCauley said -- time and patience.

"You can't just swipe on the sauce and let it sit there or you will burn it" he said. "You want the meat tender and not dry."

Ware stays with the meat, layering the sauce on the meat so it seeps in, McCauley said.

Knote says the secret to good barbecue is "slow low."

Slow cooking at low temperatures between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit for a long time tenderizes the meat. A reaction among moisture, heat and meat changes the collagen, the tough, connective tissue in meat, into a tender gelatin, Knote said.

A barbecue expert after judging more than 47 barbecue contests across the nation since 1984, Knote has become familiar with good and bad barbecue. In his opinion, the two best barbecue restaurants in Cape Girardeau are the Pilot House at 3532 Perryville Road and Hamburger Express at 902 William St.

Away from the heavy city traffic, across from the Cape Girardeau Municipal Golf Course, sits the Pilot House. Ralph Brockmeyer, a riverboat captain, opened the restaurant/bar in 1956. Although Jim Byrd is the current owner, Brockmeyer's pilot wheel still hangs above the bar.

"We are straight up, flat better," manager John Fitzgerald will tell a customer sitting on a stool at the bar noted for the 8,465 pennies glued to the top.

"Otherwise, why would this little place that is never advertised -- other than by word of mouth -- always be busy with in-house customers or catering?" he asked.

On average, the Pilot House puts out more than 1,800 sliced barbecue pork sandwiches a week. Beside the $1.99 sandwiches, different barbecue specials include Monday beef brisket for $3.99, Tuesday pork steaks for $4.59, Thursday chicken for $4.59 and Friday ribs for $6.89.

Spare ribs, baby back ribs and sliced beef brisket are also available for barbecue lovers. But Fitzgerald believes the restaurant's best kept secret is the barbecue beans, a side dish.

Fitzgerald has learned customers in this area prefer a mild barbecue flavor.

"Our sauce isn't hearty. It's not spicy or hot. It's not tangy. It's not sweet," he said. "It's just nice and enjoyable, a flavor that everyone can enjoy -- like milk."