South Jamesport Music Writer Serves Up 'Soul Sauce'

North Fork residents hankering for a taste of some genuine Southern barbecue sauce don't have to hop a plane.

South Jamesport resident Robert Keller, whose professional moniker, Red Kelly, is well known in the musical arena — he's a music writer who has long had the siren song of music guiding his life's mission — has created an Alabama Style Red Barbecue Sauce that has guests clamoring for more.

Keller made a batch of "Red Kelly's Soul Sauce" for a recent Save Main Road fundraiser — his wife Georgette is the president of the Jamesport-South Jamesport Civic Association and founder of the group — to introduce North Fork residents to the true taste of the South. 

"When people talk about barbecue, you hear a lot about Memphis and St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas and even the Carolinas, but very few people even mention Alabama," Keller said.

Back in the mid-70s, Keller said two of his best friends signed on with AmeriCorps VISTA, "the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps. They were sent down to Birmingham to work with underprivileged kids, and we drove down to visit them on a regular basis. It was my first real introduction to Southern home cooking, and I was particularly struck by the 'pit' barbecue, which was something that we definitely did not have up North."

According to Keller, the word "pit" refers to the method of cooking the meat low and slow over hardwood, usually outdoors, for a period of up to 14 hours.

"In Alabama, the most fabled of all the pits was 'Dreamland," a small restaurant up in the hills outside of Tuscaloosa, Keller said.

"Their ribs were simply the best I ever had. When 'Big John' decided they were ready and took them off the pit, they cut them up and served them on a slice of white bread, then poured their warm home-made barbecue sauce over the top. It just didn't get much better than that. It was the first time I had seen the sauce applied after cooking, and not slopped on the ribs while they were still on the fire, the way they serve them in most chain restaurants today."

Big John's Dreamland sauce, Keller said, "was made from a secret recipe, the ingredients of which — much like our own Elbow Room marinade — have been hotly debated for years. John has since passed on, and Dreamland has become a sort of chain itself, with several other locations in Alabama."

Fast forward to eight years ago, when Keller's brother moved back from Houston and gave Keller his cast-iron pit, which had been custom-made in Texas.

"For the first time, I had the ability to try and replicate that real Southern barbecue, and after a few years, I got pretty good at it," Keller said. "There was one thing missing, though — that sauce. I tried all of the commercially available brands, and found them too sweet and 'goopy.' There was only one answer; like ole' Big John, I'd have to make the sauce myself."

And so a new journey began, with Keller spending a few years on trial and error, and a few batches tossed into the trash.

Finally, he said, "I hit upon what I believe to be the perfect combination of ingredients, one that is as close to that original Alabama sauce as I can get. This is the second year that I've been using that exact recipe, and if the reaction of friends and family is any indication, I think I've got a hit."

Recently, Keller prepared the sauce for the Save Main Road fundraiser, held at Finnegan's wake in South Jamesport, and his wife Georgette suggested he bottle the sauce and offer it up for sale.

When thinking of a name, Keller decided on a moniker that would resonate with his musical roots.

"Back in the 60s, there was a weekly column in Billboard about Soul Music titled, aptly, 'Soul Sauce'', he said. "As Red Kelly, I had decided a couple of years back to resurrect the idea of that column, and write about the current state of that music on a new page I called the Soul Sauce Archives. It seemed only natural to extend that name to the barbecue sauce."

Keller's Soul Sauce is thinner than what many are used to, he said, "with a well-balanced combination of sweet and sour, and just a touch of heat at the end. As in Alabama, it is best served warm at the table with ribs and smoked meats, but works well as a glaze on duck or chicken when applied during the last half-hour of cooking time, as well."

Keller cooks up the sauce, which is hand-crafted at home in small batches, and "canned" in one-pint ball jars that he said will last indefinitely on shelves; it should be refrigerated after opening.

The sauce will soon be available at Helen's Farm Stand on Union Avenue, and is being sold for $10 as a 'Save Main Road' fundraiser, with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to the cause.

Every good product needs a slogan, and Keller has one: "Put some South in your mouth with Red Kelly's Soul Sauce."