Well not just BBQ Sauce, we'll have a rack of pork ribs, smoked over Hickory, and beans and slaw too. But I'll be making my own sauce. Why make your own sauce ? For one thing you can control the ingredients. Store-bought BBQ sauces invariably contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. In the cheaper brands it will often be the very first ingredient.
It can also be an outlet for creativity. After you've read this diary you'll have a clear understanding of the basic elements of a good BBQ sauce. Once you know the basics, the possible variations are infinite.
So join me as we explore the traditional regional variants and learn how to make BBQ Sauce. It's really easy, and besides, you can't just drink beer for the whole three hours it takes to smoke the ribs. Well, actually, you can, but that's a different diary.
We'll start in North Carolina, Eastern North Carolina, the birthplace American Barbecue and the home of the famous Carolina Pulled Pork. There is an Ur-sauce from this region that I call Carolina Purist. It consists of cider vinegar, a shot of Wooster, a shot of Tabasco® and S&P. Most people put some sugar in to get something like this:
Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork Sauce
3/4 c. white vinegar
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Louisiana hot sauce
1 T. Wooster
S&P, cayenne pepper to taste
This is what I call a "no-cook" sauce, for obvious reason. It has three of the essential ingredients of BBQ Sauce. The vinegar and sugar provide the basic sweet and sour found in every cuisine, and it has Wooster. Wooster is the ingredient that makes a sauce taste like BBQ sauce. Note that Eastern NC sauce has no tomato element, that will be introduced as we move west.
Western Carolina Pig Dip
1c. white vinegar
1/2c. ketchup
2T. brown sugar
2t. Wooster
1t. paprika
salt, fresh-cracked pepper, a shot of Tabasco®
Now we have all of the most common BBQ sauce ingredients: sweet & sour, a tomato element, Wooster and some heat.
Ingredient note:The tomato element can be tomato paste or tomato sauce, but nearly all recipes call for ketchup. I don't use the stuff. Most brands are more orange than red and they all have lots of HFCS. Instead, I routinely substitute Heinz® Chili Sauce for ketchup in all recipes. It cost a little more but it has a good , deep, red color, is a bit spicier and has less HFCS.
We can't leave Carolina without one of these:
Carolina Mustard Sauce
1/2c. prepared mustard
1/2c. honey
1/4c. light brown sugar
1/4c. white vinegar
Whisk ingredients together, heat gently for 5 min.
The mustard sauce requires cooking, or heating anyway. Many "cooked" sauces require only that the mixture be heated, as above, or brought to a boil and then simmered to the desired thickness. Others call for aromatics, usually just onions and garlic, to be sweated in a fat or oil before the other ingredients are added.
Moving west, we come to Kansas City. The thick, sweet and smoky KC sauce is what most of the commercial sauces are aiming for. Here's a typical KC sauce, this one from TeeVee pit-master Steven Raichlen.
Raichlen's Sweet & Smoky KC Sauce
2c. ketchup
1/4c. molasses
1/4c.cider vinegar
1/4c. Wooster
3T. brown sugar
2T. prepared mustard
1T. dry mustard
2t. liquid smoke
1t. garlic powder
1t. onion powder
salt, fresh-cracked pepper.
Combine ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer 10 min., whisking occasionally.
Ingredient note: Liquid smoke is not some scary chemical concoction. It's a natural preparation made by bubbling Hickory smoke through water. Here's another KC sauce, this one from Better Homes & Gardens magazine.
Better Homes & Gardens KC Sauce
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
3/4c. apple juice
1/2 small can tomato paste
1/4c. cider vinegar
2T. brown sugar
2T. molasses
1T. paprika
1T. prepared horseradish
1T. Wooster
S&P
Sweat onion and garlic in oil, add the other ingredients, reduce heat, simmer 30 min.
As we continue moving west, beef replaces pork as the meat of choice and Mexican ingredients start showing up, with chile powder replacing paprika. What could be more Western than:
Cowboy BBQ Sauce
Sweat 1/2 onion in bacon grease or lard
Add 2 cloves minced garlic, cook briefly
Add 1 small can tomato paste
Add 1/4c. vinegar and 1/4c. strong coffee
Stir in 2T. molasses
Add chili powder, Wooster and hot sauce to taste
Simmer a while
Ingredient note: Most sauces have a heat component. How much you use is a matter of taste. Eastern recipes usually call for a Louisiana-style hot sauce, like Tabasco®, while Western ones use a Mexican hot sauce. My favorite is Bufalo® chipotle sauce. Chipotles are trendy right now and for good reason. Chipoltes are smoked jalapeños, this makes them ideal for BBQ sauces since they already have a smoky flavor. You can get them in adobo in little cans or you can get them dried and grind them up.
Here's an old-timey sauce I dug out of one of those fund-raiser cookbooks, from Knoxville, Iowa, 1954.
"Doc" Mowrey's BBQ Sauce
1/2c. vinegar
1 1/2c. cold water
1t. prepared mustard
1/2 red pepper
2t. salt
2T. sugar
1c. tomato paste
1T. Tabasco®
1T. chili powder
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 medium onion, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
2T. butter
Boil everything together for 20 min.
So, there you have a fair sampling of different sauces in different styles. Make a few of these and you're ready to improvise. The basic elements are vinegar, a sweetener, a tomato element, Wooster and some heat. You can make a passable emergency BBQ sauce with pickle juice, ketchup, sugar and Wooster. There are numerous choices for each of the fundamental components. Sweeten with white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey or Karo® syrup. There are sauces that use Coke®, Root Beer or Dr. Pepper® for sweetener. For the tomato component you can use ketchup, chili sauce, tomato sauce or tomato paste. Make a mustard sauce with dijon, German stone-ground, Bavarian sweet or Chinese-style hot mustard. Go gourmet and sweat down a classical mirepoix in extra-virgin olive oil and use Italian tomato paste from a tube and aged balsamic vinegar. Go Asian; use hoisin sauce instead of tomato paste, use rice vinegar and add ginger and 5-spice powder. Do whatever you feel like and have fun, it's your sauce.
That's my contribution to WFD, a primer on BBQ Sauce. What's for dinner at your place ?