Right on 'Q

Right on 'Q

Speed Herrig shares top barbecue tips

By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Where there’s smoke, there’s flavor, especially when Duane “Speed” Herrig is cooking. For more than 40 years, this Wall Lake native has been the face and voice of Cookies BBQ Sauce, the sweet, smoky stuff that’s appealed to barbecue lovers since 1976.

“We really get into the sauce around here,” jokes Herrig, 85, Iowa’s beloved barbecue promoter.

Thanks to decades of practice with all things food, Herrig was unfazed when Sinclair Tractor asked him to bring his crew to feed 10,000 people during a customer appreciation event at the Henry County Fairgrounds in Mt. Pleasant this summer. “We prepared about 3,000 pounds of pulled pork,” says Herrig, a 1956 Wall Lake High School graduate and U.S. Navy veteran.

Great food and fun have long been a recipe for success for Herrig, who lives on the same Wall Lake-area Century Farm where he was raised.

“I’ve always liked to mess around in the kitchen,” says Herrig, who learned a lot about cooking from his mother, Alma. “Because of food, I’ve met lots of great people and even got to cook for President George H. W. Bush during the World Pork Expo in Des Moines one year.”

A Go-Getter From the Get-Go

Herrig learned the values of discipline, a strong work ethic and entrepreneurship growing up on his family’s Sac County farm.

“We milked two or three Holstein cows by hand. I picked up about $2 a week from the cream check,” he recalls.

When Herrig was around 12 years old, he figured he could earn extra money by weaning beef calves and milking a few stock cows in addition to the Holsteins. “For a few weeks, I was earning up to $4 a check before Dad caught me,” Herrig says.

While the cream scheme didn’t last, Herrig’s ambitious spirit endured. Today, his family’s Century Farm is home to a corn and soybean operation, Speed’s Golf Carts, Speed’s Automotive Supply and Cookies Food Products’ corporate office.

Herrig purchased his family’s farm in the early 1970s from his father, Elmer. By that point, he had been running his own automotive supply business. “I wasn’t really a farmer,” says Herrig, who had returned to Wall Lake after serving in the U.S. Navy from 1958 to 1962. “I was more interested in mechanics.”

He’d started his mechanic shop while stationed in Texas during his military service. He set up shop off-base and hired fellow soldiers to work part-time. “I’d open the shop from 4 p.m. to midnight to make extra money,” he says.

When Herrig returned to northwest Iowa in 1962, he opened a repair shop in the machine shed on his family’s farm. By the late 1970s, he also started working as a commissioned salesperson for a local barbecue sauce company. By the early 1980s, he purchased the business that would expand into Cookies Food Products and make him famous as “Speed the Sauce Man.”

“There were some super lean times and a lot of long hours, but we made it,” says Herrig, who built his businesses with his family, including his late wife, Judy, and their three children.

Always Busy

In addition to growing a business and raising a family, Herrig is also a founding member of the Iowa Barbecue Society (IBS). In years past, he volunteered with Refining Individual Barbecue Skills (RIBS) for Kids. He and his fellow IBS members teamed up with the Iowa State University Meat Lab and the Des Moines Public School District to provide a day of cooking classes at Cookies Food Products in Wall Lake for underprivileged youths from Des Moines.

In recent years, he has also partnered with the Iowa Food & Family Project to provide a tour stop for Expedition Farm Country, a two-day motorcoach tour that gives Iowans a firsthand look at how food is grown and raised.

Today, Herrig is as busy as ever. From spring into fall, you might spot him serving meals from Cookies’ famous “rib wagon” at grocery stores across Iowa and beyond. He also makes time for charity events. On July 15, 2023, he taught a barbecue boot camp at BBQ & Brew at Principal Park in Des Moines. The Iowa Pork Producers Association hosted this inaugural event, which raised funds to help food pantries statewide.

Great barbecue doesn’t have to be complicated, Herrig says. “People are scared to screw up ribs and pork loins. Just give it a try. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Herrig collected more than 350 of his favorite recipes for his 2005 cookbook, “Cookie’s Best BBQ Recipes,” which has sold thousands of copies. “Nearly all of the ingredients in my recipes can be found in any small-town grocery store,” he says. “Keeping things simple is key. Don’t drive yourself nuts.”

Herrig, who has been inducted into the Iowa Barbecue Society’s Hall of Fame, still loves to cook barbecue. Don’t expect him to slow down anytime soon. He says, “I’m still having so much fun that I’m going to keep going.”

How to cook ridiculously good ribs

Love barbecue ribs? So do we! That’s why we asked Duane “Speed” Herrig of Cookies BBQ Sauce for his best cooking tips.

When it comes to pork ribs, there are three types, including back ribs, St. Louis-style ribs and spareribs. Herrig prefers back ribs because there’s less fat, and the meat is more tender than some other choices.

After selecting the ribs, you can cook them in an oven, grill or smoker. For several racks of ribs, prepare a marinade of 1 can of beer and 3 tablespoons of liquid smoke, if desired. Pour marinade over ribs. Place meat in the refrigerator overnight, or for a minimum of 4 hours.

Remove ribs from the marinade and place on individual pieces of tin foil. Season each rack of ribs with Cookies Flavor Enhancer All Purpose Seasoning & Rub.

Seal tinfoil tightly around each rack of ribs. Bake at 275 degrees F for approximately 1½-2 hours. Remove ribs from heat, open foil, and baste ribs with Cookies BBQ Sauce. Leave the foil open and cook the ribs at 250 degrees F for an additional 30-45 minutes to caramelize the sauce.

Instead of marinating the ribs in beer, you can use pineapple juice, if you like, since the juice contains an enzyme that helps tenderize meat, Herrig says. Follow the process above but marinate with pineapple juice and baste with Cookies

Herrig’s top tip? Don’t overcook pork. Remove ribs from the heat when they reach 185 degrees F. “Cooking good barbecue isn’t rocket science,” Herrig says.