Every Saturday is barbecue day at Buck’s Store Museum in Bena. The museum is open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. with lunch being served from 11 to 1:30. During the summer hot dogs and often desserts are available.

The museum and meals are sponsored by the Guinea Heritage Association which took over the responsibility for operation in 2016. The funds received from lunch sales keep the lights, water, sewage and everything else operating.

Grilling is normally done on Friday twice a month. Enough is chopped and frozen until the next grilling. However, when sales are great, such as it has been recently, grilling is done week after week.

According to Ginny Snowden, a prominent member of the GHA, “Guinea Heritage would probably never have begun its efforts with BBQ without William Ellis Hicks, “Bill,” as our grill master. His skills are well known in the community.”

Bill, a retired deputy from the York County Sheriff’s Office, is a Guinea resident “all my life.” He shares his cooking knowledge and talent with many other events, organizations, churches, wedding parties, graduations and the fire department, mentioning a few. He does all the cooking at home “except on Thanksgiving. That’s my wife Peggy’s day.”
Bill says, “I learned from my dad cooking Brunswick stew and clam chowder.” He says it was L.T. Wells who asked him to do the BBQ at Buck’s and “I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Buck Rowe once sold BBQ sandwiches in his store. He used a commercial sauce but added his own special seasonings. Today the same practice is carried on. The GHA volunteers use a commercial sauce and add their special seasonings. Bill has a special seasoning for the pork, but it’s secret.

Buck’s Store was featured in this newspaper in 1979 when Buck Rowe was still on hand to serve his neighbors.
The first story featured the fact that at 4 a.m., from fall to spring, Buck served sausage and toast to early risers. Since 1976 he had been operating the store on his own, opening every day—except Sunday—at 4 a.m. and closing at 6 p.m. He was introduced lovingly as the mayor of Guinea, a title that sticks to his memory today.

Just as her mother believed you had to cook with love for things to turn out, Ginny adds, “We have become a chosen family that enjoys our time together no matter the chore. Making BBQ has become one of our core groups of Buckettes favorites.”

CHICKEN BREAST
IN HORSERADISH SAUCE
William Ellis Hicks

8 slices dried beef (in jar)
8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
4 slices bacon, cut in half
2 10¾-oz. cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 onion, minced
2 c. sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. minced garlic

Preheat oven to 300°F. Lay one piece of dried beef on each chicken breast and wrap with one half slice of bacon. Place in a 13×9-inch casserole dish seam side down. Mix mushroom soup, mushrooms, onion and garlic together. Pour over chicken breast. Cover and bake 1½ hours. Serve with rice.

CLAM CHOWDER

3 large onions, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 pkg. fat back, diced
10 lb. potatoes, diced
1 gal. chopped clams
1 gal. clam juice/add chicken broth to cover potatoes

In a large pot place potatoes, onions, celery and fat back. Cover potatoes with clam juice and chicken broth. Cook until potatoes are tender.

Add clams. Bring to light boil and cut off heat, and serve.

COUNTRY SAUSAGE
C.B. ‘Buck’ Rowe Jr.
“Recipe is over 150 years old.”

This recipe was passed on to the Rowes by Doris Rowe’s mother who in turn got it from Molly Hogge and Betsy Hogge.
20 lb. pork (70% lean / 30% fat)

4 oz. salt
3 Tbs. black pepper
7 Tbs. sage

Divide meat in half. Lay half on a flat table. Mix pepper, salt and sage together. Sprinkle half of the mixture over meat on the table. Lay the other half of meat on top of first half and sprinkle with balance of salt mixture. Let it set for a while. Mix it well with hands and then put through a grinder. Only once.