Cooking: Barbecue Sauce Experiment, First Four

I've always had a soft spot for good barbecue, and I include pretty much any meat cooked low and slow for long times when I say that. A key part of BBQ for me is the sauce, and there are many restaurants that do it really really well. In Tucson alone we have Mr. K's (easily the favorite, but quite a drive) and Brushfire BBQ, both of which have amazing sauce. I've been eating a lot of chicken over the past few years, as it's cheap, full of protein, and easy to make delicious. BBQ sauce usually finds its way into either the marinade or goes on top right before I eat it, but it's always been the store-bought stuff. After seeing fantastic results by dousing my chicken in some leftover sauce from Brushfire, it occurred to me that I should try to make my own rather than buy it pre-made. I looked around the internet for recipes and found that not only were the majority of the ingredients were already in my kitchen from making beef jerky, but every recipe (with minor variations) used the same core ingredients. I selected 11 different recipes and gathered all the ingredients necessary. For the preparation, every recipe had some variation on "mix the ingredients, bring to a boil, simmer for a while". To minimize the variance I'm applying the same preparation procedure to each run, whisk together everything on the list, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 45 minutes. I'll be recording my commentary on each batch here, along with anyone I can conscript into giving their thoughts.

Ideally, once a good number of established recipes are tested, I'll have enough information to begin manually probing the phase space. While reading I've come across variations that merit investigation, such as using coffee in place of water, or making an entirely mustard-based sauce. Whiskey and honey variations are also on the list. From all this I hope to arrive at a recipe that I like the most, though I wouldn't be disappointed to accidentally replicate Mr. K's sauce.

Batch #1: The first recipe I tried had the slightly over-the-top name, "The Best Homemade BBQ Sauce Ever". Essentially just ketchup, apple cider vinegar, water, brown sugar (I used dark, other recipes call specifically for light), worcestershire sauce and spices. The first tastes, albeit on its own and with a tortilla chip,  yielded lukewarm responses: "Very mild. Doesn't really stand out. More spices would improve it." and "Yep, that's barbecue sauce.". Over scrambled eggs it was totally usable, with just the slightest kick of heat, lots of sweetness and vinegar forming the base of the flavor. Several chicken breasts were marinated in the sauce, cooked at 350 F for 30 minutes and served with the sauce on top. On chicken (first day): It's got a good amount of sweetness, but the rest of the flavor is dominated by vinegar. On the second day I was looking forward to it, tasty, just not life-changing.

Batch #2: For the second trial I decided to go as far afield as I could. I selected this recipe, entitled simply "Absolutely Awesome BBQ Sauce". It drops the cider vinegar entirely and adds a comic amount of hot pepper sauce (I used Tabasco), which does indeed contain plenty of vinegar. In addition is uses rum (dark, I'm guessing), soy sauce, and crushed cloves of garlic, which make it rather unique among the ones I collected. My first impression while cooking it was that it smelled substantially more salty and spicy, and that definitely comes through in the taste. I first tried it over eggs. Quite spicy, especially compared to #1. Definitely more flavors running around, which gives it some depth, but the spiciness needs to come down for it to be competitive for most people. In future iterations I imagine I'll bring the Tabasco down by half and substitute additional ketchup, water, or rum. This one also came out surprisingly thin, consistency-wise.

Batch #3: The third recipe I tried involves yellow mustard, which was a first. Outside of that it held fast to the basic building blocks of ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, and a few spices. It definitely didn't have the super-spicey problem of #2. Just like the others this was tried on chicken breasts and eggs. Strong tangy vinegar and mustard flavor at the fore, with just a hint of heat. My first thought is that this could use black pepper for a little more kick. The second taster confirmed that it was his favorite so far.

Batch #4: The fourth recipe, marketing itself as Big Daddy's Carolina BBQ sauce, was a second vinegar-and-mustard based attempt. In addition, it required an extra ingredient that I don't usually keep on hand: ground white pepper. I was able to pick up a few ounces at the local spice shop for about $3. The preparation also had a minor alteration, a handful of the unique ingredients had to be added in a second heating step, namely the butter, soy sauce, and liquid smoke. I did deviate from the published recipe by reducing the liquid smoke to 1 tsp from 1 tbsp. My initial reactions while preparing this included "Wow, that's really a lot of chili powder", and "this is a lot thinner than the other sauces". There was less apparent mustard taste compared to #3, and a slow building heat as opposed to the instantaneous heat of #2.

Christmas Recipes

At my annual Christmas shindig I provided a few treats to the friends that could make it, and there was some interest in getting the recipes. I'll give a quick run-down for two of them here, namely the chocolate mousse and spiced cider. The chocolate mouse was adapted from The Joy Baking by Barbara Grunes, while the cider was modified from the food.com recipe for Marley's Mulled Cider. I know the steps outlined below might be overly specific, but this post will serve as a future reference for myself as well.

Chocolate Mousse - Makes 4 servings
Nutrition per serving

Calories Carbs (g) Fat (g) Protein (g) Sodium (mg) Sugar (g)
349 18 29 6 96 13

Ingredients

  • 4 oz (1/2 cup) of bittersweet chocolate chips (one can substitute butterscotch chips or any other candy that melts entirely)
  • 2 tbsp of butter
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 3 tbsp white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Procedure

  1. Set out three bowls. Use hot water from the sink to raise the temperature of the first bowl as much as possible, and then dry it off and quickly add the chocolate and butter. If the residual heat is not enough to melt it together, microwave for 20-30 seconds, it's very easy to burn it at this point.
  2. Once melted, thoroughly mix the chocolate and butter together with a spoon or spatula. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and let it cool.
  3. In the second bowl, crack two eggs and separate out the yolks, I use a slotted spoon. It is critical to not get yolk in the whites, as the presence of fat will entirely prevent them from being whipped up correctly by breaking the surface tension on the tiny bubbles. Keeping the whites in this second bowl, add the yolks to the first bowl containing the chocolate and butter and mix them in completely. Return that bowl to the fridge.
  4. In the bowl containing the whites add two tablespoons of sugar and mix very thoroughly, until the whites are bubbly. I use a handheld electronic mixer as it takes a lot of effort to whip them enough by hand. This step does much to determine the consistency of the final product.
  5. In the third bowl use a mixer to whip up the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and remaining one tablespoon of sugar. Again,  mix until thick. My indicator is when the cream retains wrinkles on the surface surrounding the point of mixing.
  6. Take the first bowl out of the fridge and gradually mix in the contents of the second bowl. Then fold in the whipped cream and mix until completely homogeneous.
  7. Pour into 4-5 serving glasses and place in fridge for at least an hour, but up to 24 hours. Longer setting time will produce a firmer and less 'soupy' mousse.

Spiced Cider - Makes 8 servings

Nutrition per serving

Calories Carbs (g) Fat (g) Protein (g) Sodium (mg) Sugar (g)
230 55 0 0 58 55

Ingredients

  • 3 quarts apple cider
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 sliced orange
  • 1 dash salt
  • 1 dash ground nutmeg

Procedure

  • Put everything on the list in the crockpot or slow cooker.
  • Set it to low for 6-8 hours. By the end the cinnamon sticks should have rehydrated and 'unfurled' quite a bit.
  • Serve directly into mugs. Add rum if desired (not included in the numbers above, a shot of rum adds 105 calories).