Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® English Faculty Book Gallery English 3-2013 The Kentucky Barbecue Book Wes Berry Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/english_book Part of the Nonfiction Commons Recommended Citation Berry, Wes, "The Kentucky Barbecue Book" (2013). English Faculty Book Gallery. Book 14. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/english_book/14 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Book Gallery by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Introduction I am large, I contain multitudes of barbecue. —Walt Whitman, speaking in a western Kentucky drawl, overheard in a vision I had on May 27, 2012, while strolling near the confl uence of the Green and Barren rivers. ’ve recently been diagnosed with Hyper Enthusiastic Barbecue Disorder I(HEBD). I’m supposed to drink eight ounces of KC Masterpiece daily to make the cravings go away. Th e prescription isn’t working very well. I still get the nervous trembles when I think about deliciously smoked meats. But I do know this: I’m not fond of KC Masterpiece and many other major-brand sauces—thick concoctions sweetened with corn syrup and sometimes tainted by unnatural-tasting liquid smoke. My students sometimes tell me that their lives are so busy it’s diffi cult for them to turn in work on time. Th ey ask for extended deadlines. I say, “You think you’ve got it bad? I got HEBD. I can’t even concentrate on what you’re saying to me right now.