Sauce

Barbado is Spanish for goat, but don’t be misled by the name; Barbado Baste is an all-purpose baste that is especially good on poultry, pork, beef and, of course, goat. Barbado Baste works on three fronts: as a flavorizer, moisturizer, and tenderizer. The flavors are intense but give the meat a deep caramelized and slightly tangy taste. Goat meat is especially lean and the liquid baste provides moisture while the butter helps protect the exposed meat from drying out. Vinegar and lemon juice add just enough acid to the mixture to help break down the tough muscles and tenderize the meat.

Mojo is a name that originally branded several varieties of hot sauce from the Canary Islands. Now recipes and uses of mojo are spread throughout the tropical regions of northern South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The place of origin of a particular mojo recipe defines both its ingredients and its uses. Ingredients in mojo sauce can include olive oil, garlic, citrus juice (sour orange, lemon, lime), paprika, chili powder, oregano, and cumin. This flavorful sauce can be used on breads, potatoes, salads, and as a seasoning for meats and vegetables. This recipe was made as a condiment for whole roasted pig. The flavors are a complement to the sour-orange marinade used in Cuban Pig (page 163). The flavor emphasis in this recipe is placed on the acidity of the lime juice, the garlic, and oregano. Mixed with butter, this sauce can be turned into a great topper for sweet potatoes and bread.

In the South, you usually find pepper sauce in the middle of the dinner table beside the salt and black pepper. Don’t confuse this pepper sauce with a Tabasco-type sauce; this simple seasoning is made from vinegar and whole peppers. Over time the peppers will flavor the vinegar, and the longer it sits, the better it gets! Pepper sauce is used as a seasoning and an ornamental decoration. A few dashes will heighten the flavor of black-eyed peas, all types of greens, barbecue, and many other traditional Southern dishes. Pack your pepper sauce in glass containers of any size and shape. The aesthetic value of the glass combined with the color and variety of peppers creates a beautiful conversation piece.

Few culinary terms are as open to interpretation as “chili sauce,” and when a recipe calls for chili sauce, there is sometimes a huge lot of confusion about what should be added. Chili sauces can be used as a condiment or an ingredient. They can be hot or mild relative to how much chili pepper goes into the sauce. Chili sauce can be categorized as a hot sauce or a tomato-based condiment similar to ketchup or cocktail sauce. Do you see the confusion? The best way to describe Big Mama’s Chili Sauce is as a cross between a tomato-based condiment and a sweet chow-chow. This chunky sauce has a good mix of sweet and spicy, with the heat determined by the type of pepper used. This particular sauce has always been used as a condiment or topping, but I have found it works well as a finishing sauce for ribs, too. Try it in the morning on scrambled eggs or in a breakfast burrito. Use it instead of relish on hot dogs. Add a dose to beans or peas to heighten their flavor.

The passion fruit is native to Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. It is grown throughout the tropic and near-tropic regions around the world and the pulp, juice, and seeds are used in a variety of ways. The juice is highly concentrated and is used as an additive to other fruit juices. The juice and pulp are used to make pie filling and jellies. The seeds are often used as a topping for salads and other dishes that benefit from an acidic punch. Passion Fruit Butter Sauce was an inspiration I had when barbecuing in Jamaica. I enjoyed the way the passion fruit was used with seafood there, and I thought it would also complement the flavors of grilled chicken and pork. Use this as a dipping sauce, or better yet as a baste or as a finishing glaze.

Horseradish is a member of the mustard family, and grating or grinding this edible root releases the volatile oils that produce its signature bite. Mixing the ground horseradish with vinegar tames the spicy heat. German immigrants began growing horseradish in the Mississippi Basin in the late 1800s; today, six million gallons of prepared horseradish are produced there each year, which is 60 percent of the world’s supply. A traditional horseradish sauce is always a great partner with beef and can be as simple as a combination of whipping cream and prepared horseradish. As with any sauce based on whipping cream, the viscosity of the sauce is dependent on how much whipping you do. Here lemon juice and Dijon mustard add a bit of flair to the sauce, while mayonnaise adds a creaminess you can’t get from the cream alone.

On a recent trip to one of my favorite vineyards in California, Seghesio, I stopped by a restaurant in downtown Healdsburg. The sign promising sushi (yes, pitmasters do occasionally enjoy a plate of sushi) drew me to a seat overlooking a fresh seafood bar, where in addition to sushi a wide variety of fried and grilled appetizers was available. The food was great, but what caught my eye and taste buds was the variety of sauces that accompanied their fresh fare, especially their caramelized soy sauce. This deep black sauce had the consistency of molasses but with a rich chocolate flavor. Surprisingly, it worked very well with the seafood. In my mind I was envisioning chocolate shrimp, chocolate chicken, and chocolate ribs! Well, maybe I got a little carried away, but it did inspire this glaze.

In my years of cooking at barbecue competitions, I’ve noticed that judges’ barbecue taste preferences follow trends. In the 1990s, barbecue coated with semisweet tomato-based sauce or even a vinegar sop mop appealed to the average judge. As the years passed the consistent winners on the circuit were using a very sweet tomato-based sauce. These rich glazes started a new trend in competition, whereby most all competitors started sweetening their sauce. The following recipe is one of my favorite sauces, which I still use in competition as a sweet glaze for pork ribs. This glaze falls in line with the “sweet” trend but still delivers a flavor that doesn’t overpower the pork.

This recipe was developed specifically for this book, as a match for the Country-Style Ribs on page 198. Because country-style ribs are bulky and not uniform in appearance, a chunky sauce draws attention to the elements of the sauce and away from the clunky appearance of the ribs themselves. If impressing your guest with fancy plating is not your bag, this sauce is “good eatin’” on just about anything. Besides adding distinct flavor, the bits of apple and sweet onion will add a complementary texture to your barbecue.

Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, serves as the state’s east-west dividing point in Carolina barbecue. To the east of the city, whole hog is the meat of choice and simple Eastern Carolina–style vinegar sauce is the preferred slather. West of Raleigh is the land of the pork shoulder, and the “sauce” is referred to as a “dip.” Most Western Carolina dips can be characterized as a vinegar/ketchup–based sauce. Dips can be used as a baste mop, a finishing slather, or a post-cooking soak for the meat.

This is an all-purpose barbecue sauce, with a distinct garlic and tomato flavor. We have used this recipe to rave reviews at the James Beard Foundation and the American Institute of Wine and Food’s “Best Ribs in America” competition. Use it as a finishing glaze or serve it on the side as a dip for any type of barbecue.

I think it’s safe to assume that the history of barbecue in North Carolina traveled from east to west. If you have any doubt, you only need to look at the ingredient difference between the two styles of sauce. In the East a barbecue sauce can be as simple as vinegar, salt, and pepper. Western North Carolina compounds the East’s flavors with a variety of extra ingredients including ketchup, a generous amount of brown sugar, and sometimes Worcestershire sauce (See page 224). Eastern Carolina barbecue has generally consisted of cooking whole hogs, but it is the vinegar sauce that adds an element of uniqueness to its barbecue. The sauce will add an increased level of moisture to the chopped meat while enhancing its flavor with a distinct cider-vinegar tang.

To barbecue aficionados it is clear that Big Bob Gibson was directly influenced by the conventions of Eastern North Carolina–style barbecue. The connection can’t be made through the family tree, but the ingredients in his vinegar-based sop make it obvious. The only difference is that Big Bob didn’t share North Carolinians’ affinity for apple cider vinegar, preferring distilled colored vinegar instead. This straightforward concoction has been mopped onto the restaurant’s pork shoulders since the very beginning. I am pleased to reveal that this four-ingredient “secret sauce” is Big Bob’s original recipe; maybe now the sauce bottles on the restaurant tables will stop disappearing.

Memphis-Style Championship Red Sauce is very similar to our award-winning Big Bob Gibson Championship Red Sauce, which is available at retail outlets, with one key difference: In competition I often add extra sweetener to the sauce to give our barbecue a glossy, sweet glaze. If you prefer a less sweet sauce, reduce the honey and molasses by two tablespoons each.

These two sauces are useful whenever you need to make a dessert in a hurry. Made in minutes, they can turn plain ice cream or store-bought poundcake into something special.

This twilight-blue sweet-tart sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week. Made in a food processor, it’s thicker than when made in the blender.

You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, reheat, stirring frequently, until melted.