In 1928, a traveller couldn't pay his restaurant bill and handed over a secret barbecue sauce recipe; nearly 100 years later the recipe is still locked in a bank vault

In 1928, a traveller staying at a tourist court in Hot Springs, Arkansas, found himself unable to pay a $10 bill. Rather than leave empty-handed, he offered the owners a recipe for what he called ‘the world’s greatest hot sauce.’ Alex and Alice McClard accepted it, tested it and soon discovered that the recipe could become the foundation of something bigger. Their barbecue business outgrew the tourist court and gas station, becoming ‘McClard’s Bar-B-Q,’ a Hot Springs institution that has lasted for generations. Nearly a century later, the recipe remains a guarded piece of history. According to McClard’s history, the priceless recipe is kept in a safe deposit box in downtown Hot Springs. What began as an unpaid bill became the secret behind a barbecue legacy that survived for decades and helped turn an unexpected trade into a culinary tradition.

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