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Fiery Foods: State Companies Take Home Hot Food Honors

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Sarah K. Winn, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

Mar. 22--When Donna Miller, who operates Duck's Products in Kenna, entered her best-selling Green Tomato Pepper Butter into to a competition for hot foods, she didn't expect to bring home the top prize.

"I was surprised," she said. "I knew that people really like this stuff. It's our best seller 10 to 1."

Several West Virginia companies, including Duck's, were honored with 2006 Scovie Awards, a contest for spicy and fiery foods. Duck's Green Tomato Pepper Butter won first place in the condiments (relishes) category.

Also taking a first-place award was J&B Sauces of Weston with its Fiery Hot Pepper Jelly Spread in the sweet-heat jams and jellies division. For their Extreme Heat Lovers Hot Pepper Jelly Spread, they brought home third place.

And Uncle Bunk's of Sistersville brought home a second place award for its 14-day Hot Sweet Pickles.

The Scovie Awards were created by Dave DeWitt, publisher of Fiery-Foods & BBQ magazine and founder of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. The awards are named for Wilber Scoville, who pioneered a rating scale for spicy food, and have become the industry standard for excellence in more than 60 categories of fiery foods.

More than 600 products from around the world competed in the blind tasting competition.

J&B sauces started with a carrot-based hot sauce called Original Hillbilly "Lightnin'" Sauce. They developed their pepper jelly after eating some in February 2005 and knowing they could do better, said Bill Adler, J&B Sauces' co-owner.

"From the first batch we knew that this pepper jelly was far better than any we had ever eaten," Adler said.

By June, they had found a recipe and began producing the pepper jelly.

The recipe for the jelly came from a 150-year-old handwritten recipe from co-owner Jim Hurst's great aunt, Adler said.

The recipe is pretty simple and uses two different types of peppers for the mild jelly and three different kinds for the hotter varieties, he said.

The consistency and taste of J&B's pepper jelly sets it apart from similar products, he said. "You get great flavor first, then you get the heat and then a marvelous aftertaste."

It can be used on fish, chicken, beef and seafood. Adler said one of his favorite recipes includes mixing the jelly with a little merlot, reducing the mixture and using it as a marinade for shrimp.

The pepper jelly is available in 45 stores in four different states and will also be available online at www.jandbsauces, which should be up and running soon, Adler said. Prices vary from store to store but range between $5 and $7, he said.

Stacey Young of Uncle Bunk's said her dad learned to can when growing up in Wileyville in Wetzel County.

"My mom would give them all away," she said.

After a push from a cousin in Florida, the Youngs started Uncle Bunk's in December 2003.

Her father's nickname gave them their company's unique name, she said. "When we were deciding what to call the company, it was just obvious."

Uncle Bunk's found out about the Scovie Awards by word of mouth, she said. They entered the amateur contest with their mustard relish and brought home first place in the mustard division and overall grand prize for 2004. Their rustic pepper sauce brought home a third-place award in the hot-sauce category the same year.

The following year, their mustard brought home a first prize in the mustard category in the professional category.

"I don't even like mustard, but that's my favorite product," Young said.

And in 2006, their 14-day hot sweet pickles brought home a first-place award. "People will say, 'These taste like my great-grandmother's pickles.'"

Young concedes that West Virginia can be a hard sell for the specialty-food market.

"Would you pay $7.50 for a jar of pickles?" she said. "Those are Williams-Sonoma prices."

To expand their market, Uncle Bunk's has been distributing its products at various food shows, hoping to attract buyers.

Recently, a buyer from Hong Kong picked up its products for a high-end grocery store, she said.

Uncle Bunk's products are available at local vendors, including at Capitol Market, Tamarack and the Ashton Place Kroger. Eighty percent of the retail stores carrying their products are in West Virginia and retail prices are $5.50 to $7.50, Young said.

The busiest time of the year is from August to December, Young said. In November and December, the family-run business works 16 hours a day to keep up with the holiday orders.

Duck's Products' pepper butter uses a 100 pounds of fresh vegetables per batch, Miller said. In the summer, the produce comes from local farmers and during the winter a produce company provides the vegetables.

"It's a medium hot, with a mustard base," she said. It can be eaten straight out of the jar, used as a spread on sandwiches, blended with cream cheese or as a marinade.

Miller, along with her husband, Don, and son, Bruce, own Duck's Products, which also makes homemade salsa, barbecue sauce, hot piccalilli and marinated baby corn. They sell the products at local art and craft fairs, Tamarack, Capitol Market and various other stores throughout the state. The pepper butter is $6 a jar and can be ordered from www.ducksproducts.com.

Marinated green tomatoes was the first product of the Millers' now 5-year-old business. The Millers had been making them for family and friends and decided to start selling them.

"It started out as a hobby that turned into a job," Donna Miller said. She and her husband are retired state employees.

She said they added pepper butter to their lineup after she saw another hot-pepper product in Key West, Fla.

Initially, production was in the Millers' home kitchen. Now they have a commercial kitchen in their garage, but they still do all their own cooking.

"It's really good at Thanksgiving because we have two big kitchens to work out of," she said.

Miller said of her products the pepper butter is her favorite. "It's so versatile."

To contact staff writer Sarah K. Winn, use e-mail or call 348-5156.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

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Source: The Charleston Gazette

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