It’s December and time for my annual barbecue column. I have always thought that the date of the first pork barbecue in Mississippi was a date that should be celebrated. This year marks the 474th anniversary of the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto entering what is now Mississippi in mid-December of 1540, driving with him a herd of hogs as supplemental food.

That first barbecue probably occurred west of the Tombigbee and with in a 25-mile radius of Columbus. From that time until today this area has had a love affair with pork roasted over an open fire. Today, the pork itself is not the only tradition. There is the sauce. Different regions prefer different sauces. There is the Carolina mustard base, the mid-western sweet and southern tomato or vinegar base.

In looking at the history of barbecue in the Columbus area, the best early references appear in old local cookbooks. The earliest barbecue sauce recipe I have found is in an 1825 cookbook from the Billups family who moved from Georgia to the Columbus area in the mid 1830s. It is more of a baste than a sauce and calls for, “a pint of water, two cloves of garlic, pepper, salt, two gills of red wine, and two gills of mushroom catsup. It may be thickened with butter and brown flour.”

A cookbook dated Sept. 16th 1867, that belonged to Sally Govan Billups has a recipe that says when barbecuing a pig to “make a very strong seasoning of vinegar, salt, red and black pepper, and three quarters of a pound of lard or butter. Baste the pig using a mop.”

In east Mississippi barbecue has probably reached its zenith at Magowah Gun and Country Club which is located about 12 miles south of Columbus and evolved out of a 1906 birthday party for Collier Hardy that grew into a monthly barbecue with skeet and trap shooting. It is a real country club whose only sports are shooting, fishing and eating some of the South’s best barbecue.

In 1914 a Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper referred to the club as a “famous shooting organization” and a club team once won the Canadian-American trap shooting championship. One club member was a big game hunter in Africa whose exploits were written about in Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and the New York Times. Today barbecues are held April through October and are attended by 300 to 400 hundred people. It is said to be the oldest skeet and trap club in Mississippi and its barbecue, still cooked in a brick pit, remains without equal.

There for 108 years master barbecue chefs such as Sam Harris, “June” Brown, Walter, and today Jack Henry Junior have cooked both lamb and pork to perfection. Almost as famous as the barbecue is the Magowah sauce. A review of cookbooks of long time Magowah families shows the evolution of the Magowah barbecue sauce.

Lenore Hardy Billups father T.W. Hardy was one of the original members of Magowah. In her 1840 cookbook was the Hardy recipe for barbecue sauce for a gathering of 100.

‘Barbecue Sauce serves 100’

1 pound of chopped onion;

4 pounds of fat,bacon or ham, melted;

2 quarts of vinegar;

1 quart of water;

1 pint of mustard, prepared;

1 1/2 quarts catsup;

4 ounces sugar, brown;

salt;

red pepper;

chili powder (optional)

Worcestershire sauce, (optional) 2 ounces.

Fry onions in melted fat until tender and slightly brown. Add remaining ingredients; mix thoroughly.

John Carson has the Magowah sauce recipe used by long time Magowah cook Joe Buchanan. It is typed with hand written notes on “Sykes Plantation & Store” stationary dated August 8, 1968.

‘Barbecue Sauce for 550 Lbs Meat’

2 gallons Vinegar

1 gallon catsup

6 large cans tomato paste

1 medium size box black pepper

2 # salt 1 # brown sugar

1 bottle Tobasco sauce Small red pepper

Large bottle Worcestershire sauce Bay leaves

1 garlic button 4 # oleo

2 # butter 12 lemons

Some horse radish some mustard

The salt and oleo is enough for basting all meat while cooking – use the butter for making sauce to mop the cut up meat.

In the 1970s and 1980s Walter was chief cook at Magowah and had been cooking there for about 40 years. While serving on committee around 1978 I sat down with Walter and as he was making the barbecue sauce I wrote down the ingredients that he used. I well remember him dumping each into the cast iron pot that sat over an open fire behind the pit. The sauce he made was the 1968 recipe with some additions. He would squeeze fresh lemons in it and then drop the lemon into the sauce to cook with it. He also added to the recipe white pepper, tomato juice, oregano, chili powder, two additional garlic buttons, parsley, cloves, onion, celery seed, seasoned pepper and some water. It was simmered in a cast iron kettle over an open fire for three or four hours. The barbecue pork and lamb cooked for 12 hours.

Today Jack Henry Junior is the barbecue master. He first started barbecuing as a teenager in the 1960s. He carries on the Magowah tradition of the finest barbecued lamb and pork to be found anywhere. His sauce contains vinegar, black pepper, hot sauce, catchup, tomato paste, garlic, cayenne pepper and butter.

It’s a 474-year-old tradition that doesn’t get any better.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

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