Burgoo: The Fellowship of Meat

Public radio listener Nancy Penrod called the Hidden Kitchens hotline to tell us about the 150-year-old burgoo tradition in her hometown of Owensboro, Ky. There, men gather all night to grill on an epic level — mutton, chicken and a cut of pork they call Boston butt — to prepare for parish picnics that serve thousands and raise funds for their church communities.

The Kitchen Sisters traveled to the fire pits, churchyards, cake stands and bingo games of St. Pius X, St. Lawrence, St. Williams and Blessed Mother Church to investigate the ritual of communal roasting.

Story Notes

"We called Nancy Penrod to thank her for the tip she left with the Hidden Kitchens hotline. She offered to pick us up at the airport, drive us two hours to Kentucky and take us to the fire pits and churchyards of her hometown. We spent the weekend together hitting every parish picnic we could find. Nancy is a grandmother, a public health nurse, a cattle woman and a devoted public radio listener. She had never thought about how stories were gathered and put together. By the end of the weekend, she was helping us produce this story, setting up interviews for us, introducing us to all the key burgoo men and women and telling us she would drive and co-produce any story within an eight-mile radius of her home in Nashville, Tenn. The city of Owensboro couldn't have found a better ambassador of burgoo.

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Burgoo is not confined to Kentucky. Cynthia Becker, from Indiana, called with stories of her community's burgoo festivals and of burgoo's role in her family. Cynthia, an equal rights officer with FEMA, teaches a diversity workshop for FEMA workers from all over the United States. At the beginning of each workshop, people introduce themselves and tell each other about a food unique to their family when they were growing up.

"Food helps people make a connection. Sharing their stories of food reveals their varied family traditions and their differences. It's a way to introduce talking about the differences we all have — and the unique skills we each bring to the workplace," Becker says.

Kavitha Cardoza, our collaborator in Illinois, traveled to the burgoo festival in Arenzville, and documented the 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. burgoo shift of 30 or more men working the fires, not a woman in sight.

-- The Kitchen Sisters

Special thanks to: Ken Bosley & the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn; L.K. Bircham & the Burgoo Team at St. Pius the Tenth; Martin Higdin & the Burgoo Barn Gang, Darrell Cecil and the Dip Makers at St. Lawrence Parish; Father Freddy, Dan Stalling & the Mutton Men at Blessed Mother Catholic Church; Burley Phelan and the Owensboro Chamber of Commerce; Walter Estes, Fenton Johnson, Peter Thompson & Kathy Kallick of KALW's Bluegrass Signal; and radio producer Kavitha Cardoza.

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