July 2023 issue of the Farmworx Magazine

Right on Q:
Speed Herrig Shares Top BBQ 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 sauce that has appealed to
barbecue lovers since 1976.
“We really get into the sauce
around here,” joked 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. “We
prepared about 3,000 pounds of
pulled pork,” said 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,” said
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.”
Food wasn’t always Herrig’s focus,
however. In 1962, he opened
an auto repair shop on his family’s
farm in the machine shed. By the
late 1970s, he also started working
as a commissioned salesman for a
local company that made barbecue
sauce. By the early 1980s, he purchased
the business that would expand
into Cookies Food Products
and make him famous as “Speed
the Sauce Man.”
Herrig grew the businesses with
his late wife, Judy, and their three
children. “There were some super
lean times and a lot of long hours,
but we made it,” noted Herrig, who
Page 12 July 2023
is also a founding member of the
Iowa Barbecue Society.
Today, Herrig is as busy as ever.
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. From
spring into fall, you might spot Herrig
serving meals from Cookies’ famous
“rib wagon” at grocery stores
across Iowa and beyond. He also
makes time for charity events. On
July 15, he taught a BBQ bootcamp
at BBQ & Brew at Principal Park in
Des Moines. The Iowa Pork Producers
Association hosted this fun
event, which raised funds to help
food pantries statewide.
Great BBQ doesn’t have to be
complicated, said Herrig, who
shared his tips for prepping, seasoning
and cooking perfect pork
BBQ. “People are scared to screw
up ribs and pork loins,” he noted.
“Just give it a try if you want to bar-
continue on pg. 14