BUCYRUS, Ohio – Apple butter and barbecue sauce may not seem like a traditional pair, but Cooper’s Mill & Market makes it work with a new sweet and tangy homemade product, Apple Butter BBQ sauce.
The newest addition to Cooper’s Mill debuted in the Bucyrus store on Friday after almost a year of development. Justin McMullen, vice president of Cooper’s Mill, said the idea for apple butter barbecue sauce actually came at the request of customers from both wholesale and retail.
“Apple butter is our signature product that Dave and Miriam Cooper started the business with, and it’s what we’ve been known for because of the uniqueness of the product and the process we use to cook it,” said McMullen. “Being able to incorporate apple butter into the barbecue sauce is something that was pretty cool and exciting for us.”
Dan Cooper, son of founders Dave and Miriam Cooper, was tasked with the challenge of creating a recipe that incorporated both distinct ingredients. Instead of a traditional ketchup and brown sugar barbecue recipe, Cooper took the entire recipe back to the drawing board and started from scratch.
“We’ve got a lot of things that taste good on toast and biscuits, but we need something that’s going to taste good on meat,” said Cooper. “It’s got tomato and a little tang of vinegar, it’s spicy but not overly spicy like hot sauce, it’s a sweeter barbecue sauce so it’s meant to go on near the end of a grilling process, and it’s a little bit smoky.”
The apple butter barbecue is just the latest in a host of new and exciting developments at Cooper’s Mill. Under the new ownership of brothers Justin and Jason McMullen, the production facility and the market retail space have undergone an extreme makeover. However, while the business received a facelift the quality and cooking methods of Cooper’s Mill have remained the same.
“One of the cool things about the business is the process we use to cook the products, primarily the apple butter, is very unique and very different,” said Justin McMullen. “From what we know, there isn’t anybody in the state or in the area that uses our production methods.
“We cook the apple butter in a copper kettle over a wood-burning hearth,” he continued. “We’ve got a nice balance of maintaining the history and tradition, all the recipes and the processes, but bring the equipment into the 21st century.”
The apple butter barbecue was first put to a taste test in early April, where a few thousand people attended an open house at McMullen’s second business, Crossroads Original Designs. McMullen said the recipe they ultimately chose received more than 50 percent of votes from the public.
“We can like something as much as we think we like it, but at the end of the day it needs to be what our customers are looking for and that was overwhelmingly the most popular choice,” said McMullen.
Most importantly, the apple butter barbecue received a stamp of approval from Dave Cooper himself.
“I like many different types of sauce, so coming up with the right ratio of apple butter to other components, it all tasted good and some were vastly different,” said Dan Cooper. “It’s a thick, sweet barbecue sauce.”
McMullen said the apple butter barbecue sauce is the first in its category made by Cooper’s Mill, but the success of the sauce could lead to similar sauces within that product group. He added he’s also been in talks with local restaurants and similar stores to sell the barbecue sauce wholesale in addition to retail.
“Cooper’s Mill is a staple in the community, it’s such a well-known and well-respected business and customers do have that trust factor associated with the Cooper name,” said McMullen. “That’s probably how we will introduce products in the future, by listening to the customers and what they are looking for.”
- Bratworks Bratwurst
- Roots Shredded Chicken
- Willas Shortbread
- Verdant Kitchen Ginger Honey
- Sheila’s Brownie Brittle
- Sandwich wraps for box lunches
- Pizza patties
- Chocolate/natural ground peanut butter
- Troyers Cinnamon Twist
- Troyers Onyums
- Troyers Veggie Chips
- Cooper’s peach habanero jam
- Homer vintage soda
- Jody’s Popcorn
- Progressive Kitchenery
- Burpee seeds
Coming Soon:
- Toft’s ice cream
- Troyers pickled mushrooms
- Troyers golden roasted turkey – in deli
- Parmesan cheese shakers
