Uncle Al’s Story

More than 20 years ago, for a 4th of July barbecue, my father cooked the first fried turkey I had ever eaten. Sometime later, he gave me his turkey fryer for no reason at all, and I didn't know the first thing about how to use it. I eventually learned, and since then, I haven’t prepared a baked turkey. I've always enjoyed cooking, and I guess I have a pretty good nose for which spices go well together. When I was first experimenting with learning to season a fried turkey, I would grab some spices out of my cupboard and add a little bit of this and a pinch of that, but I never measured anything. After a while, I remembered the seasonings I used, but I still never measured anything.

Very quickly, my friends and family tasted my fried turkey, and they all loved it. Before long, the news spread to my family, friends, and church community, so I began frying turkeys for Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, the 4th of July, celebrations for friends of friends I didn't even know, and many other special events. On one occasion, for a Mother's Day brunch at church, I was asked to fry 14 turkeys. I knew then that I really had something worth exploring further.

To date, with my recipes, I've probably fried somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 turkeys in addition to grilling or baking chickens, beef ribs, and fish. I decided that one sure way I could let people get the same good taste every time and free myself from frying so many turkeys was to share the seasonings with them. So I decided to measure each ingredient for the dry rub and the liquid marinade and use those recipes to launch this seasoning company. The earthy, slightly sweet, woody taste of my seasonings go well on a variety of dishes.

I thank God for this recipe, and I’m thankful that I am able to share these all-purpose seasonings with you.