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A Saucy Start: Uncle Joe's Sauces popping up on shelves throughout region

By Dixie Terry, For the Southern

Saturday, July 26, 2008 10:32 PM CDT

Walk into Borowiak IGA stores all across Southern Illinois and you can buy locally made "Uncle Joe's All-Purpose Sauces."

But the exposure doesn't stop there. Tom's Mad Pricer, Farm Fresh and several other retail establishments - including WalMart stores in Marion, Carbondale, Benton and Mount Vernon - also carry "Uncle Joe's" products. Customers will be seeing the sauces on Kroger's shelves soon, said the sauce's creator, Joe Wilkerson.

Wilkerson and his wife, Brenda, who is his business partner, also sell the sauces and Joe's smoked meats at their own deli called Uncle Joe's Deli. It is located just off I57 at the Ina exit, just across the street from McDonald's.

The combination of deli and gas station has grown in recent years, but these days, Wilkerson would prefer to limit operations to food.

"Actually, I would sell the gas portion tomorrow," he said with a smile.

He said they have many repeat customers, including numerous truck drivers who stop by to take a supply home or to devour while driving.

A number of deli delights are offered to customers who take out or eat in; the dining area offers limited seating, but a spacious outside dining porch. Although the Wilkersons don't offer a catering service, they can provide quantity amounts of food items and smoked meats for gatherings.

Brenda can often be found at retail outlets, offering samples and making presentations of their chipotle or extra hot sauce or the rub that adds so much flavor to grilled cuts.

"Brenda is out beatin' the bushes; she could sell ice to an Eskimo," Joe says. "Our products are easy to sell the first time. The key component to success is repeat business."

Wilkerson spoke of the diversity of customers who sample his wares, at both the deli and the retail outlets where the products are sold.

"They are a crosssection of the area," he said.

Wilkerson said sales are brisk, with more than 3,000 cases sold this year through mid-July.

"I'm predicting 5,000 cases or more for next year," he said.

The sauces now are in 70 retail stores throughout Southern Illinois, including 12 Wal-Marts. Joe said he began having his product commercially produced in April 2007.

Brenda said she had no training in sales, but her enthusiasm for the products and her natural ease in talking to people are a plus. She enjoys scheduling demonstrations at retail outlets, food shows and other public events.

"The very best advertising is wordofmouth," she said.

On a recent Friday, Brenda was heading to Tom's Mad Pricer in Murphysboro to offer samples to customers. The Wilkersons have four sauces and a rub on the market, and Joe is working on developing a steak sauce.

Several other businesses have had Joe's attention through the years, as he smoked meats in his spare time, and he said he saw a market for his own signature sauce.

Through trial and error, he went through a lot of recipes before settling on his current mixes.

They include 14 to 16 ingredients, "including a couple of unusual ones" which he says will remain his secret.

Wilkerson said his mom and grandmother taught him to cook when he was growing up in "the Diggins," a rural area not far from his present location. A large garden plus peaches and strawberries were grown there, along with raising chickens, hogs and cattle.

Experimenting with a wide variety of seasoning combinations was a favorite pastime for Wilkerson, who sought to add flavor to the simple country fare. Developing the recipes, as well as the entire process of manufacturing the sauces, "was quite a challenge," Wilkerson said. "We made a couple of mistakes along the way, but the procedure is working quite well these days."

Wilkerson has taken on yet another culinary challenge, that of competing in cookoffs. During his first, the "King City Barbecue Showdown" in Mount Vernon, Wilkerson placed second for his ribs and sixth for his beef brisket. His next cookoffs are set for Salem and Carbondale in September.

The Wilkersons will have a booth set up at the Du Quoin State Fair starting Aug. 22, where they will feature a deepfried bologna sandwich and smoked pork barbecue, along with Uncle Tom's sauces.

His products also will be a part of the Illinois Home Expo, sponsored by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, during the state fair in Springfield next month.