The Sauce Wars
October 3, 2007
By Maggie Heyn Richardson
Woo-wee! Was I impressed by everyone's mojito thoughts last week. Now, if we're still lucid after a week of muddling, blending and tasting, let's move on to something else: barbecue sauce.
Mustard-based? Vinegar-based? Ketchup-based? Everybody's got an opinion. A strong one.
Having grown up on chopped pork sandwiches slathered in screaming-spicy, mustard-based sauce (my mouth waters even when I type the words), I've been let down more than once by the predominance of thick, sugar-packed red sauces in our parts. Sometime back, I started casting about for a go-to recipe and found one I liked (posted below). It deviates from my roots in that it's ketchup-based, but it's wonderfully tangy from lemon and vinegar, and slightly spicy from chili powder. Best of all, I've found that the red sauce fans at my table like it, too. Could it be the great barbecue sauce olive branch?
Bar-B-Q Red
Makes about 2-3 cups
1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
1 medium Spanish onion, coarsely chopped (I prefer finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic, minced
half cup cider vinegar
one and a half cups ketchup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
quarter cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons chili powder
Heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and stir occasionally until they are soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer 5-10 minutes.
From Chic Simple's Cooking, Knopf, 1995.
Note from MHR: I've played around with the proportions in this recipe when I haven't had the recipe handy, and it always turns out nicely. I just taste until it seems right. The combination of these ingredients really works well.
Let's hear it: What gets your motor running, sauce-wise?
Comments
Posted by sherishiqua on October 3 at 11:30 a.m.
I lean towards the vinegary side, but like the acidity to have a subtle sweetness, equally balanced by heat. Fruit adds a nice sweet, as does cane syrup. Acid wise, depends upon the day, the mood. I usually start with Lemon juice or cane vinegar, but have recently gotten excited about cognac and banyul vinegars. It is cheating in a way, but its hard not to use a bit of ketchup.
Carmelized onions add a bit of depth and sweetness. Star anise is another good addition, for me anyway, but I love Anise flavored anything. It really works well with heat, almost countering it, leaving it still hot, but if the anise and heat are balanced right, you can eat something God aweful hot, and not be in too much pain, but then, thats what whole milk is for.
Turbo dog can make a good base for a sauce, reduce it down a little, and add the other goods, puree. It has a not really smoky, but smoky flavor, if that makes any sense. Turbodog is good for a marinade for braising, which makes me think about lamb shanks braised in turbo dog. Sorry, whole other topic....
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