/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Burgoo is one of the reasons Kentucky isn't entirely shit. It's slightly spicy, meaty, savory, thick, and just all around delicious.

Burgoo.

I live in western Kentucky. Barbecue is popular here. I live a very short distance from Owensboro, which is Kentucky's go-to barbecue capital. There are also tons of Churches and a lot of them are way into barbecue. When you go to the Owensboro Barbecue Festival, the majority of stands are run by local Churches, all making chopped mutton, barbecue chicken, ribs, pork, and burgoo.

If you're not familiar, burgoo is basically a spicy stew that was originally made with whatever meat and veggies were available, but nowadays it almost always has pork and/or mutton in it. Making burgoo is usually a social event. Local Churches will host big picnics or fund-raisers and whip up gigantic batches of it in huge drums.

There's a local Catholic Church that does it the best. I go to every one of their burgoo events to help out. At the end of the day there's always a lot left over so they fill up empty milk jugs with the burgoo and send it home with whoever wants it. I walked away with two gallons last time.

Heat that stuff up and serve it with homemade cornbread. Best thing ever on a cold day.