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The World Jim Lived In

Johnny Surgeoner

Local Sauce Maker — Wynne, Arkansas

Wynne, Arkansas

Johnny Surgeoner was a local sauce maker in Wynne, Arkansas whose mustard-and-molasses recipe died with him — his formula never written down, never passed on. Jim Quessenberry knew Surgeoner and watched that knowledge disappear.

It was partly this loss that inspired Jim to be deliberate about recording his own recipes. The cautionary tale of Johnny Surgeoner is one reason Sauce Beautiful survived to the present day.