When I use the word "losers", I don't mean people who are losers in life, but rather people who lose things. For example, many years ago, I decided to make home-made barbecue sauce. I looked at the ingredients on the label of a bottle and thought that I could handle making the stuff on my own. Following a simple concept, I put together a truly knockout barbecue sauce. Thinking that it was so easy I'd never have problems making it again, I never wrote down my method. A few weeks later, I tried to make the sauce again, but it tasted like sick, and not in the way the kids these days think "sick" means "good".
After losing the recipe, I tried several variations, and came upon a sauce I liked. I did write this recipe down, but not on paper. I kept it on a computer and on a website. The computer died and the website got taken down. I lost the recipe again.
So here's the third finalist in my barbecue sauce challenge. I feel that I have learned a lot about barbecue sauce since then, even if I have yet to re-create the best recipe. Like the others, it's a Kansas City style sauce. Barbecue sauces vary from region to region, but the ketchup-based KC sauce is what I consider the most popular and versatile.
DRY INGREDIENTS:
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp instant coffee grounds
WET INGREDIENTS:
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
4 tb Worcestershire Sauce
4 tb lemon juice
4 tb steak sauce (HP, A-1)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tb bacon drippings
2 tb Pad Thai Sauce
1 shot whiskey
1 drop fish sauce
1 drop liquid smoke
1 tb hot chili sauce
SUBSTITUTIONS:
You can use 1 tsp cheap yellow mustard (French's) instead of the mustard powder. You can use real garlic and/or onion. Fry them chopped into tiny bits in a medium hot pan with a tablespoon of oil or bacon drippings until lightly cooked. You can try lime or orange juice instead of lemon for creative flavours. You can use canola oil instead of bacon drippings. You use bottled Pad Thai sauce for its tamarind content. If you have tamarind paste in your kitchen, just use 2 tb of that. Whiskey, coffee, turmeric, celery salt, fish sauce, and liquid smoke are optional. Ketchup is essential, do not substitute tomato sauce or paste for ketchup. We need the sugar and vinegar content in the ketchup, so the cheaper the ketchup the better.
DRY PREP:
In a medium-hot dry pan (no oil! no water!), pour all of the dry ingredients except for onion and garlic powders. These tend to clump, so we will put them aside for a moment. Stir and heat the spices until they begin to smoke a little and smell very fragrant. Pour all of the spices from the pan into a small bowl and add the garlic and onion powders.
WET PREP:
Next, in the same medium-hot pan, pour in all of the wet ingredients except for the ketchup and the hot sauce. If ketchup is overcooked, it takes on a sickly-sweet taste. Stir the ingredients to a low simmer. Add the dry ingredients and stir. The sauce should thicken slightly. Turn down the heat to low and add the ketchup. Stir some more, the sauce should thicken again. When it does, remove from heat and store in a glass jar. If the sauce is lumpy, you may run it through a food processor.
TASTE PREP:
KC Barbecue Sauce is not subtle. Taste the mixture. It should be rather powerful: sweet, vinegary, and slightly bitter. Add more molasses for a sweeter mix, more vinegar for a tart sauce, more steak sauce if need needs to be bolder. Always add a small amount at a time, stir it in and taste before you try another adjustment. At the end, add the heat in the form of hot sauce. I start with 1 tb, but the amount will vary based on the quality of the chili. Cooking the sauce will dilute the heat, so try to add the hot stuff at the very end. Again, taste and make adjustments.
This recipe yields 1 to 2 cups of sauce depending on the ingredients. If stored in a glass jar in the fridge, I estimate the sauce should keep for about a month or so.
4 tb lemon juice
4 tb steak sauce (HP, A-1)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tb bacon drippings
2 tb Pad Thai Sauce
1 shot whiskey
1 drop fish sauce
1 drop liquid smoke
1 tb hot chili sauce
SUBSTITUTIONS:
You can use 1 tsp cheap yellow mustard (French's) instead of the mustard powder. You can use real garlic and/or onion. Fry them chopped into tiny bits in a medium hot pan with a tablespoon of oil or bacon drippings until lightly cooked. You can try lime or orange juice instead of lemon for creative flavours. You can use canola oil instead of bacon drippings. You use bottled Pad Thai sauce for its tamarind content. If you have tamarind paste in your kitchen, just use 2 tb of that. Whiskey, coffee, turmeric, celery salt, fish sauce, and liquid smoke are optional. Ketchup is essential, do not substitute tomato sauce or paste for ketchup. We need the sugar and vinegar content in the ketchup, so the cheaper the ketchup the better.
DRY PREP:
In a medium-hot dry pan (no oil! no water!), pour all of the dry ingredients except for onion and garlic powders. These tend to clump, so we will put them aside for a moment. Stir and heat the spices until they begin to smoke a little and smell very fragrant. Pour all of the spices from the pan into a small bowl and add the garlic and onion powders.
WET PREP:
Next, in the same medium-hot pan, pour in all of the wet ingredients except for the ketchup and the hot sauce. If ketchup is overcooked, it takes on a sickly-sweet taste. Stir the ingredients to a low simmer. Add the dry ingredients and stir. The sauce should thicken slightly. Turn down the heat to low and add the ketchup. Stir some more, the sauce should thicken again. When it does, remove from heat and store in a glass jar. If the sauce is lumpy, you may run it through a food processor.
TASTE PREP:
KC Barbecue Sauce is not subtle. Taste the mixture. It should be rather powerful: sweet, vinegary, and slightly bitter. Add more molasses for a sweeter mix, more vinegar for a tart sauce, more steak sauce if need needs to be bolder. Always add a small amount at a time, stir it in and taste before you try another adjustment. At the end, add the heat in the form of hot sauce. I start with 1 tb, but the amount will vary based on the quality of the chili. Cooking the sauce will dilute the heat, so try to add the hot stuff at the very end. Again, taste and make adjustments.
This recipe yields 1 to 2 cups of sauce depending on the ingredients. If stored in a glass jar in the fridge, I estimate the sauce should keep for about a month or so.
Posts
