The recipe
A Barbecue Recipe Preserved in the Cookbook’s Memorial Pages
Art's Barbeque comes from the In Memory pages of the Centennial Cookbook 1893–1993 from Farmersville, Illinois, where it is credited to Mickey (McAnarney) Murphy. Its placement matters: this was not simply another recipe filed into a section, but a dish preserved alongside the people and stories the community chose to remember.
The recipe itself is a straightforward, old-fashioned barbecue built from boiled pork butt that is shredded by hand and mixed with ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and Sexton Barbeque Spice. The source leaves two details deliberately loose—“1 cap vinegar” and spice “to own taste”—so those historical measurements are kept visible rather than converted into invented modern equivalents.
Why it matters
Why This One Is Worth Bringing Back
Art’s Barbeque is unusual before you even reach the ingredient list. Rather than appearing in one of the regular recipe sections, it is preserved in the In Memory front matter of the Centennial Cookbook 1893–1993. The printed recipe closes with the line that it “was always a favorite at Art’s,” turning what could have been an anonymous barbecue formula into a small piece of community memory.
The method is equally revealing. A roughly four-pound pork butt is boiled until well done, shredded by hand into small bite-size pieces, then mixed with ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and Sexton Barbeque Spice. There is no smoker, grill or bottled barbecue sauce in the source. It is a practical, family-scale preparation built around tender cooked pork and a simple pantry sauce.
Two details are especially worth preserving exactly as printed: the vinegar is measured only as “1 cap,” and the barbecue spice is added “to own taste.” Those imprecise measurements are not mistakes for the archive to quietly correct; they show how experienced community cooks often wrote recipes for readers who were expected to know the household measure or adjust by feel.
For a natural potluck companion from the same memorial pages, see Lloyd Potato Salad. You can also explore the Centennial Cookbook Archive File for the cookbook’s broader source context.
Modern kitchen notes
If You're Making It Today
These are modern editorial suggestions, not changes to the archived recipe. When a variation comes directly from the original source, we will say so.
Do not turn it into smoked barbecue
The source specifically boils the pork until done and then shreds it by hand. Smoking, roasting or adding char may make a good barbecue, but it would create a different dish from the one preserved here.
“1 cap vinegar” is intentionally unresolved
The cookbook does not define the size of the cap. Rather than inventing a tablespoon or ounce conversion, the archive keeps the original wording visible so readers can see exactly where the historical source is ambiguous.
The sauce should coat the pork, not bury it
With ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and spice added to already-cooked shredded pork, the useful visual cue is a glossy coating with the irregular hand-shredded texture still visible.
Recipe card
The Preserved Recipe
Art’s Barbeque
Ingredients
- 1 Pork Butt about 4 lbs.
- ¾ C. brown sugar
- 1 cap vinegar
- 1½ C. ketchup
- Sexton Barbeque Spice to own taste
Instructions
- Boil pork until well done. Shred the meat by hand into small bite size pieces. Add the ketchup and vinegar. Mix well. Add enough Sexton Barbeque Spice to own taste. This is for a small batch. It can easily be doubled or more. This was always a favorite at Art’s!
Notes
From the archive
More From This Cookbook
Explore more recipes preserved from Centennial Cookbook 1893–1993.
