BBQ Sauce

I’m a South Dakotan even though I’ve spent nearly my entire life away from the place. I guess since there are so few of us we have to maintain an allegiance to the state. So I subscribe to my local newspaper, The Mobridge Tribune, faithfully following the sports activity, the obituaries (to see which of my classmates or acquaintances have fled northward, and I don’t mean to North Dakota), and the “Remember When” column that reprints news from each decade in the past. And there’s the “Cook of the Week” section that focuses on a Mobridgeite renowned for his or her cooking. Last week’s cook was Donna Billings, with details of her life and a number of her favorite recipes. I checked out one for BBQ Sauce and nearly broke up when I read her first ingredient: 1 gallon catsup. Just exactly how much bbq sauce would you be making, and why would anyone need that much? Barbecuing a whole pig or cow? And where would one even come by that much catsup? I can only imagine that Donna grew up on a farm where she and her mother had to feed twenty or thirty members of a thrashing crew. Only in South Dakota would one need that much bbq sauce for any one occasion.