People come from all over the country to dine at Moonlite Bar-B-Q in Owensboro, Ky., a 325-seat restaurant that can serve up to 1,000 meals a day. And many of those customers come just for the barbecued mutton.
“We cook more mutton than anyone,” said Patrick Boswell, the third-generation co-owner of Moonlite, founded in 1963 by his grandpa. Most of the meat ends up as chopped mutton served in a “Western Kentucky barbecue sauce,” made in house and sandwiched on white buns with sauce to dip on the side. But some of it goes into burgoo, a thick soup with deep Kentucky roots. At Moonlite, burgoo is cooked with mutton, beef and/or chicken, cabbage, onions, potatoes, corn and spices.
All about mutton
“Mutton is an important part of America’s cultural heritage but it’s faded off the menu in other areas of the country,” Boswell explained. “It got a bad reputation during World War II when it was boiled for the troops overseas. It smelled awful and tasted awful.” Many postwar consumers turned up their noses at the meat, preferring younger lamb, beef and chicken.
Although mutton remains a Kentucky tradition, there are no longer many sheep ranchers in the state. Urbanization pushed out most of the small producers, said Boswell, so he sources primarily from Colorado.
Moonlite purchases 25 to 30 female sheep a week, each weighing about 100 pounds. “Ewes have more fat, so they taste better when barbecued,” Boswell said. “One ewe yields 25 pounds of meat, and the restaurant serves 6,000 to 10,000 pounds of mutton a week."
The necks and shanks go into burgoo, while the ribs and shoulders are smoked in Moonlite’s enormous smoker that’s “the size of a school bus,” he said.
Kentucky Burgoo is a thick soup with the consistency of chili. Moonlite's recipe includes mutton, beef and/or chicken, vegetables and spices.
The smoker is fueled with 100% hickory wood, all local, and the meat smokes for 15 hours. “We baste it with our Western Kentucky barbecue sauce, a combination of Worcestershire, lemon juice, vinegar, tomato paste, salt and pepper. The acid in the sauce breaks down and tenderizes the mutton,” said Boswell. The exact proportions and seasonings of the sauce are a secret; the recipe is in a locked vault on the property and only three or four people know it, he added.
A table-strength version of the sauce is served as a dip with Moonlite’s famous barbecue mutton sandwich. It features chopped mutton layered on a white hamburger bun with barbecue sauce, sliced onion and pickles. Moonlite chops smoked mutton trimmings for the sandwich, “which ends up being about 60-40 meat to sauce,” said Boswell.
A buffet built for barbecue fan
The restaurant’s lunch and dinner buffet is served every day, filled with smoked mutton and much more. There’s also barbecued pork, ribs, chicken, ham, beef, burgoo, mac and cheese, and country-style vegetables and breads. Thursday and Friday nights, customers can help themselves to farm-raised catfish as well. Separate tables are heaped with salads and desserts.
The price: $15.69 at lunch and $24.89 at dinner.
Mutton is a value cut, and although it’s still wildly popular in Western Kentucky, beef brisket is closing in at Moonlite—which gets customers from all over. “TV is driving brisket, pulled pork and ribs,” said Boswell, referring to the numerous barbecue competitions on the air.
Barbecue sauce is one of many branded products Moonlite sells online.
Catering, carryout and mail order have grown into important revenue streams for Moonlite. The restaurant sells everything from jars of burgoo to sliced or chopped barbecued mutton, pork and beef with sauce. Also available are whole smoked pork butts and beef briskets and bottles of Moonlite-branded barbecue sauce, hot sauce, salsa, cooking sauce and the signature dip.
Moonlite even has its own wine. The restaurant partners with Purple Toad, a winery in Paducah, Ky., for its “Pitmaster Reserve,” a sweet red wine that pairs especially well with mutton.