LIBERTY &045;&045; Emanuel &uot;Yak&uot; Powell Jr. knows barbeque.

A Chicago native and longtime Liberty resident, Powell has been serving pork ribs, beef brisket, chicken and sausage along with smoked turkeys and hams from a screened grilling house on Liberty’s Main Street for the past five years.

Growing up with six brothers and a sister, Powell learned to barbecue from his father. He later picked up some tips from a family friend known as &uot;Wild Child.&uot;

&uot;A man built this grill for my father, but the fire would always flame up too much. He (&uot;Wild Child&uot;) showed me how to control the fire by putting cans in the smokestacks,&uot; Powell said.

After a family reunion a few years ago, Powell parked the huge grill next to his brother’s Chevron store in Liberty.

&uot;So many people started asking for it, we built this shed over it and stayed here. People come from as far as Baton Rouge and New Orleans. And the local customers have been really good to us, too,&uot; Powell said.

Powell grilled 45 pounds of rib racks in the huge pit for lunch customers Thursday. He also caters parties and reunions.

&uot;We got an order yesterday from a lady that want 100 slabs for the Fourth of July,&uot; he said.

Powell offered a few tips for backyard amateurs. &uot;I don’t use any gas. I use charcoal underneath and green hickory on top. My thing is, living in Mississippi we didn’t have a lot of spices. We let the wood flavor the meat,&uot; Powell said.

Powell also said he never boils his ribs before cooking. &uot;That takes the flavor out. You boil crawfish, not meat,&uot; he said.

But the married father of three stopped short of revealing the ingredients in his special sauce recipe.

&uot;If I gave you that, the FBI would have to lock you up,&uot; he joked.

Powell’s friend and helper, Ben Rodgers, said fresh hickory is where good barbeque starts.

&uot;It has more flavor, and it won’t burn as fast. That’s the secret to good barbeque,&uot; Rodgers said.

A Liberty native who lived in New Orleans and Chicago, Rodgers said he tasted some good barbeque in those cities.

&uot;But there’s no comparison. Yak is the man,&uot; Rodgers said.